It's A New Year

It's a new year and it's time to break in this blog.

I have a few goals for this new year. I haven't written them anywhere else yet, so let me see if I can put some of them down here.

Well, first of all, I've decided to join in with Cristine Kane, one of my favorite motivators (her music is pretty awesome, too), and pick a word to focus on this year. ACTION.

If you haven't picked a word to be your focus this year, I recommend reading all of the great posts at Christine's blog for inspiration.

Second, I am going to join in the 365 Project.  I actually got the idea about this from Tidymom.  She did this project last year and it was great to see her monthly collages from her daily photos.  I forgot to snap a pic yesterday, so I'm going to cheat and use the picture above (from my new handmade journal, purchased via Etsy) for my Day 1 photo.  I need to snap some more pics today to use for Day 2.

Third, daily exercise and food tracking.  You know what, in 11 more days I will turn 36 years old.  It's time to take care of myself like I deserve to be taken care of.  I've wasted too much time (ACTION) for far too long.  I've joined a group of friends on SparkPeople so we can keep each other motivated and I also started The 28-Day Bootcamp Workout Challenge today.

To wrap this up, I want to be my own boss.  I quit my job in retail over a year and a half ago and it's time for me to find my creative spark again and to be making my own money again.  It's tough on my husband to be the only one bringing in the money to support us and frankly, I want to have some of my own money again.  As much as I think thriftiness is a worthy lifestyle, I have things I like to do, like take dance classes, and I can't afford to do that without me making some extra income.

Last year, I did a small graphic design job for someone who liked my Twitter Icon and approached me about doing some ad banners for her small start-up.  That was fun and it was cool to get paid for something I already love to do.  So I may pursue more of those types of jobs.  I also love to sew and I have some ideas for things that I'd like to create and sell on Etsy.  I also found some great websites where I can use my graphic design skills and then put those pictures on T-Shirts.  I think all of these ideas are worth pursuing more.

So, Happy New Year.  Make this the year that you start creating what you want for yourself.