2012 - in review

I know we've still got a couple of weeks left in 2012 but they're shaping up to be rather busy - finishing off xmas presents, squeezing in a few more cheeky festive drinks with friends, sorting out the final few bits and bobs for New York and packing for the Christmas break in the New Forest. So I thought now was a good time to think about the list I wrote for 2012...

Back in January I set myself 3 very simple goals for the year:
1. SAVE!
2. Exercise
3. Be creative

So, how did they turn out....
1. Obviously I didn't want to save in order to sit on a lovely nest egg, to occasionally check my savings account and feel smug about the large figure displayed on the screen. This simple goal was actually the grown-up facade of a much more frivolous intention: to spend said saved money. This, I can happily say, was most certainly achieved. Although Mitch and I are yet to buy that new sofa, we did buy a desk for the living room and more importantly we booked a holiday. So, in theory I did save, I saved enough to buy two of the things I really wanted :)

2. This did not go quite to plan. As with most of my attempts to stick to a regular exercise routine, I was super motivated in the first couple of months and took up running. This petered out but then a new burst of enthusiasm took place around May and more convincingly throughout July, August and September. But there at the end of September it stopped completely. I can't say why I stopped (it probably rained too many nights in a row) or why I can't seem to stick to it (the longer the gap between runs the harder it was to go...), I even downloaded the nike+ app to chart my progress which was great, but obviously not great enough. I think next year I might join the gym and get Mitch to come with me. We went for a couple of runs together and I loved it. I think company whilst exercising might be the key...

3. The important part of this goal was that I not only needed to make but also finish one craft project every month. I am appalling at starting things and never finishing them (don't get me started on my writing) and this is definitely something I wanted to address, in a creative way, throughout 2012. And I did pretty well. I may be crap at exercising but by god I like to make stuff.

April and October appear to be absent in terms of projects completed but I think the extra creativity in the other months (most notably March - god know what I was on, some sort of crafter's cocaine*) more than makes up for this. I also got to try out a couple of new things - screen printing, dressmaking and knitting - as well as returning to one of my favourite creative outlets from childhood - plasticine. 

*not a real drug (as far as I know)

In conclusion, a fairly good effort was made throughout 2012 - better in some areas than others. I'd like to keep these three goals for 2013 – I clearly need to push a lot harder with the exercising and improve on this year's feeble attempts, and the sewing and saving just seem to me like good things to keep up – but I do have some other resolutions for the fast approaching new year...I'll share them soon!