Happy New Year!

{Ratty and I at The Esplanade Associations 10th Anniversary Gala at the beginning of December.  I really like this picture!}

Happy 2012!  I have a feeling that 2012 is going to be the best year yet, but I might be totally partial to my wedding and all the awesome things that accompany it.  Like parties, for me.  And presents, for me.  All my family and friends coming together, for me.  Er, us.  US!  Yes, us! Me and Ratty!  2012 will be good to US.

With a new year comes a new list of ways I want to better myself AND my life.  I don't know why people only do this once a year, I feel like we should always be thinking of things like this, but....we don't.  I think people tend to make resolutions because we all get to start the new year on a positive note, leaving negative things in the past and getting a jump on an awesome year.  So, without further adieu, here's my list! 

Resolutions:

1.  BLOG MORE!  I know, I know.  I've been slacking.  I used to post at least twice a day, making up ground and inching closer to the present day.  Then the holidays came and I got swamped, in both work and life.  Things got super busy and I just didn't have the time or energy to sit down and bang out a few posts almost daily.  When I did have a few minutes to relax, I wanted to zone out to mindless TV or read a book.  YES!  READING!  I became obsessed with the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series, like, abnormally obsessed, and spent the past 2 months consuming lots of books.  

Blogging is a balance, balancing all the things in my life and making a concious effort to carve out time write.  It used to make me happy, excited and productive.  Around the holidays it started to feel like a chore.  My pictures of the day suffered [you'll see eventually] and I just couldn't get motivated.  I think I really need to push myself to write a post a day, and then I'll get back into the groove.  It's like working out, once you do it for a while you feel like you NEED to do it.  At least that's what people tell me.

I need to write more, plain and simple.  I loved checking my blog, reading comments from readers, engaging and reading other blogs - I need to get back there.  I need to write and have fun!  My readers NEED me!  And I need them, I like the attention.

2.  Decorate our apartment.  We've been here for 6 months and we still have boxes to unpack!  I really want to make our house homey, cozy, personal.  There are bare spots on our wall, bags and boxes in a corner, and kitchen cabinets completely unorganized.  For someone who loves reading decorating magazines, watching HGTV and pinning things on Pinterest, you'd think I'd be better at decorating!  I have great ideas in my head, but am discouraged at the money that it takes to do what I'd like.  With Thanksgiving, Christmas and saving for our wedding, money makes me anxious, and I have trouble spending it - at least right now.  I don't normally have any difficulty blowing through funds, but I am trying to be a little smarter about it.  Which means, more boring, at least to me.  

My favorite store is West Elm, and Ratty and I have decided to ask for West Elm gift cards [in addition to our 2 registry lists at Crate and Barrel and Macy's] for our shower and wedding, so I am hoping that once those babies start rolling in I'll be able to go absolutely insane like I want to.  It'll be like the home edition of Super Market Sweep.  I'll take 18 multicolor pillows please!  Yes, and that porcelain owl too.  Wrap it up!  Chop chop!

3.  Declutter.  We've talked about this.  I am an emotional hoarder.  Like, oh my niece wrote the address on this otherwise useless used envelope!  I MUST KEEP IT FOREVER!  Look!  My mom put a really adorable snowman sticker on this post-it, I must put it in a really great, safe place!  I don't need this stuff and it's really starting to drive Ratty insane, so I need to be better about throwing things away.  I need to sort through my various junk drawers, organize them and keep them that way [let's be real, that's the hardest part!].  This will make room for things that actually BELONG in drawers and not on every surface of our bedroom.  Up until 2 days ago all my work pants might have been stacked on our windowsill.  MAYBE.  But I cleaned out a shelf in my closet for them.  SO EASY yet it took 6 months to do it.  I have a lot of stuff, and it's probably stuff that I don't necessarily need.  Now that I live in an apartment with Ratty, and we have one, albeit kinda big closet, I have to learn to keep only things I need and to keep them in their designated space, otherwise we are going to drown in piles of Gap cardigans.

4.  Cook more.  When we first moved into the apartment, it was the height of the summer, which meant the farmers market outside our door was awesome.  Every week I would stock up on yummy veggies and cook with them all week long.  I started stocking up on cook books, receiving them as gifts and buying them on my own.  Ratty gave me two spectacular ones for my birthday, Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and The Soup Factory Cookbook, but I've yet to make anything from them!  I love looking through cookbooks, thinking of all the awesome things I could make, and now that I have my very own kitchen [which was always my excuse when I lived with roommates], I should really do it more.  I tend to make the same tried and true recipes, and I really need to start trying new and different things.  I should really sit down at the beginning of the week, plan out our meals, make a shopping list AND clip coupons, but let's take it one step at a time, shall we?

5.  Check more things for my 101 list.  Let's face it, I hit a funk.  I stopped blogging and really stopped feeling all that interesting.  I am going to blame it on the fact that it gets dark at 2:15pm and that by the time I get out of work the darkness immediately zaps my energy and I am exiled to the couch to watch Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy.  In sweatpants.  I KNOW!  I hang my head in shame.  In the summer time I feel like I am flitting from one awesome thing to another, basking in the sunshine and instantly feeling more alive and determined.  I go go go every night of the week, overbooking myself with plans and loving every second of it.  Every weekend is spent doing something outdoors, feeding into my awesome tan and therefore increasing my confidence and self worth [hi, I look 1000x better with a tan, everyone knows it].  Then the cold comes and it takes all my energy just to take the bus home and make it into my apartment without collapsing from sheer boredom/exhaustion.  I barely had the will to put a pair of socks in my drawer yesterday.  A PAIR OF SOCKS.  JUST ONE!  God Amy, get it together!

So yea, when that happens it's really hard for me to stay focused on anything but the TV.  I've already explained how I've slightly lost my way with my blog, but it's a new year which means that I can forget my past slacker mentality and really break myself out of this mild seasonal depression I'm facing.  Maybe it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be, but I will admit that the thought of stopping at the grocery store the other night after work had me literally almost in tears.  I DON'T NEED MILK!  Wait, yes I really do.

I am happiest when I am over-scheduled and super busy.  I thrive on having too much to do and not enough time to do it.  When faced with a small task and a limitless deadline, you better believe I am going to wait until I am on my death bed to complete it.  It's just how I am, I thrive under pressure and completely give up when given space.  I mean, that's why I picked a challenge with an end date.  A definitive amount of time to check everything off my list, 1001 days!  Honestly, I knew that I'd get like this someplace in the middle, but I am right now, right HERE AND NOW getting back on track.  You watch, it's gonna be awesome.

6.  Work out more.  Be healthy.  I talk A LOT about food.  I'm along the mindset that we are slowly killing ourselves with all the nasty and disgusting, yet probably really yummy, things that we all eat.  I stopped drinking soda and Chrystal Light because of Aspartame, though I'll be the first to admit, every once in a while I just really need a diet coke or ginger ale.  I've taken classes on detoxing and nutritional health and watched the documentary 'Forks Over Knives' which made me immediately run out and buy almond milk and vegetable bouillon and throw all the meat away in my fridge.  I check labels to make sure that the dairy I eat doesn't come from cow's fed hormones and quit eating Kashi when I read that all their soy is treated with gross pesticides.  So yea, I am one of those.  

BUT I still eat mozzarella sticks, nachos and fries, I mean HI THEY ARE AWESOME, but also not totally healthy.  I need to get with the program, eat like I preach and really attempt to do more yoga and pilates.  Plus maybe Zumba, I did it once and it was a TON of fun.  My class was filled with these awesome gays and I just spent the entire hour watching them perform like they were back up dancers for Lady Gaga.  So fab.

7.  Save! I need a budget.  I need to clip coupons.  I need to stop spending so much money on non-necessities.  We have a wedding coming up and well, that thing is not going to pay for itself, though I really wish it would.  I've been buying scratch tickets in hopes of hitting the lottery, which probably goes against this whole SAVE! thing, but THEY'RE NECESSITIES!  Momma needs fruitwood chivari chairs!

8.  Try to dress cuter.  This one is totally narcissistic but I'm cool with it if you are.  I tend to wear the same things all the time, pairing my Gap navy pants with every Gap cardigan I own, sometimes mixed with a scarf and sometimes just cinched with a belt.  I am better than this.  My clothes are better than this.  I need to take a cue from all the adorable outfits pinned on Pinterest and step up my game.  I need to live my life according to this quote [also found on Pinterest] Always Dress Like You're Going To Meet Your Worst Enemy.  There is no greater revenge then looking awesome.  You can quote me on that.

I am thinking of trying a 30 day challenge where I can't repeat outfits.  I know, it seems intense and maybe even a little drastic, but this is what I need!  I need a hardcore challenge.  Seriously Amy?  It sounds like you just committed to climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or quitting your job it go build schools in Honduras.  But no, you're talking about clothes, the epitome of a first world problem.  Whatever.  Back to clothes.  Yes, I am going to do this.  I am going to look adorable ALL THE TIME.  

So, there you have it, the 8 things that I feel like I need to work on and improve in the new year.  I'm actually really looking forward to doing/accomplishing all these things.  Sometimes it just takes thinking them through and writing them down to get your butt in gear