Showing posts with label new year's resolutions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new year's resolutions. Show all posts

Making Resolutions and keeping them - post first appeared on the AWSN blog

This post in its entirety was first published on the Australian Women in Security Network blog, to see the whole post please go to this link.

As a year ends and another starts it is quite common for people to make resolutions. Sometimes they resolve to lose weight, get fit, stop smoking, pay off debt... endless lists!

According to Statistic Brain however only 9.2% of people succeed in their resolutions and, Business Insider stated that 80% of new year resolutions fail by February of that year!

So how do we make positive improvement resolutions  that we can keep?

Targets are more likely to be achieved if the steps towards them are both realistic and feasible.

When making your plans for 2018, reconsider the standard resolutions that are often made while in party mode and are so vague they never stand a chance of being achieved, and think of two to three main things you wish to do or achieve in the year and make reachable plans on how to bring these into fruition. There is no guarantee that your goals will be achieved in the year, but at least this way you are working towards actual realistic outcomes with tangible steps.

What are your reflections of your resolutions or goals you made in January 2017? Have you achieved these goals/stuck to these resolutions? If yes, what did you do to ensure success? If not, what can you improve on next year to help your success?

Making Resolutions and Keeping them




This post first appeared in full on the Australian Women in Security Network Blog, the following is an excerpt.

I am stunned that we are already at the end of 2017! I know this will echo what many of you are already thinking but where did the year go?

As a year ends and another starts it is quite common for people to make resolutions. Sometimes they resolve to lose weight, get fit, stop smoking, pay off debt... endless lists!

According to Statistic Brain however only 9.2% of people succeed in their resolutions and, Business Insider stated that 80% of new year resolutions fail by February of that year!

So how do we make positive improvement resolutions  that we can keep?

Towards the end of the year I like reflect to on the year that was as I prepare for the year to be. So tonight, I am sitting in our lounge room with a cup of tea, thinking of the year and my goals and what I have achieved and learned. 

Targets are more likely to be achieved if the steps towards them are both realistic and feasible.

When making your plans for 2018, reconsider the standard resolutions that are often made while in party mode and are so vague they never stand a chance of being achieved, and think of two to three main things you wish to do or achieve in the year and make reachable plans on how to bring these into fruition. There is no guarantee that your goals will be achieved in the year, but at least this way you are working towards actual realistic outcomes with tangible steps.

What are your reflections of your resolutions or goals you made in January 2017? Have you achieved these goals/stuck to these resolutions? If yes, what did you do to ensure success? If not, what can you improve on next year to help your success?





Happy new (financial) year: what are your goals?

We are half way through the year! I am reflecting on my goals, and some are not being met, this means I need to re-assess which are worth keeping and how to work on them.

In January of 2015 I publicly shared my macro-goals:

MY GOALS FOR 2015


  • Write
  • Organise
  • Create
  • Positive
  • Improve
The goals were not broken down into the elements of each, as I prefer to give myself an easy to remember list of the major items I am striving for, and work on the micro elements as I go.

Where am I at with these goals?

Write: I am blogging but not as much as I would like too, I have a lot on with fulltime work, fulltime study, volunteer work, hobby business, and the BAU of homelife! I am pleased however that I am still finding time to blog, and to journal and even if this is not as much as I would like to do, I have not given up!

Organise: This is still difficult for me, I have a clutter habit so my study is always a mess, but in terms of oranising my time I am much better I use a diary and a notepad as my scheduling system and these work well for me. I need to work on the de-clutter aspect of organising however so this needs some development!

Create: I have a new sewing machine and I have been making all sorts of things, I also have been making things from crochet. I have not been painting or drawing however I need to make time for that. I have been playing my flute and guitar to make music and that is a good thing!

Positive: There are always challenges to face in life, health, family, work, study, there is always an element of life that can make even the most cheerful person become negative. The year has had challenges with my parents' ill health, but I am constantly reminding myself to look for the positive and block the negative! This in itself is a challenge.

Improve: This year I have completed a Diploma in Naturopathic Nutrition, still working n a Diploma of German, and have just started a Degree in Dementia Care. These things help to improve my mind. As mentioned before I need to improve my organisation skills in regards to physical organising, and also I need to keep improving n keeping a positive outlook.

How are you all going with your goals this year?

............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Welcome 2015!

Hello Batlings, and welcome to 2015!


bats flying near the moon at night


ANNOUNCEMENTS

(1) This year I am very excited to announce that Empress Bat's Journal has a wonderful  guest blogger on board who will be sharing her wit and wisdom with you all as the muse takes her! You may know her from the Madam Monstrous blog, she also blogs on Zentangle Creations; she is a great person and I am really happy that she has accepted my invitation to be a guest blogger for Empress Bat's Journal.  

(2) Last year I participated in the Documented Life Project  (DLP) 2014; this year I have decided to double the creative projects I am participating in, so I shall be actively involved in creating pages in the Documented Life Project 2015, PLUS the Creative Every Day challenge! My DLP pages will be shared on this page and my Pinterest Board for DLP as usual, and the Creative Every Day challenge will be in a blog post each month or so with the subject line: CREATIVE EVERY DAY: <Month>: <Theme>.

(3) As promised in my December 2014 blog post I will share with you all my resolutions/goals for 2015 and I will monitor and review them through-out the year to see how I am proceeding with them. Feel free to share your resolutions in the comments of this post too! Publicly     promising to achieve a goal and reviewing your progress is a handy tool to keep you on track!

MY GOALS FOR 2015


  • Write
  • Organise
  • Create
  • Positive
  • Improve

Write: 

I will blog on here and/or my Alternative Therapies Blog and/or my Herbalism website at least once a week. 
I will actively keep a journal where I write at least a paragraph of either fact or fiction every day!


Organise:

I will organise my time effectively to be able to fit in all my projects and volunteer activities, and my hobby business, and my studies, and my fulltime job without exhausting myself and ensuring I have time to relax and ..just be!
I will organise my stuff: I will stop hoarding and cluttering!


Create:

I will actively participate in creative projects 
I will design and create items to sell in my etsy store and  via my Facebook Page
I will play music (whichever instrument I feel like playing at the time)
I will draw, just for fun


Positive:

I will keep supporting small home, family run, and hobby business to be a positive force in keeping cottage industry alive!
I will continue Project Funmail to bring some happiness, smiles, and positivity to the days of others.
I will do things for myself and be mindful that I am a worthwhile part of the universe and deserve good things too


Improve:

I will take steps to improve my hobby business
I will complete at least two tertiary qualifications this year
I will exercise more and look after myself
I will be organised
I will stay free of clutter
(clutter is a common theme here.. i have OCD and tend to hoard...)


Having said all that...all that is left for me to say in today's blog post is: may your year be full of wonder, happiness, and imagination!




............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

So long (2014) and thanks for all the fish

This is the last blog post on Empress Bat's Journal for 2014! I would normally make reference to the year flying by, but it has been a long year full of challenges and frankly I am looking forward to the holidays where our office is shut and I can relax!

As it is near the end of the year I would like to spend a moment to reflect on my goals this year, and see how I went with them.

My goals for 2014 were:

  1. blog at least once a week: keep writing, creating, reviewing, and sharing
  2. schedule/organise my time efficiently so I can fit in designing, making, blogging, writing, housework; with my day job!
  3. keep new designs ready to sell in my Facebook store page as well as my etsy store
  4. stay positive, keep positive energy and help others to do the same, support small businesses, promote happiness, fight against negative thoughts
1. Blog at least once a week: In 2014 as well as blogging 56 posts on this blog, I created a new blog about Herbalism and alternative therapies, which has 23 posts, and a website on Herbalism called Apothecary Greens, which has 6 posts in the Apothecary Recipes section. So all up that is 85 blog posts for the year!! That equates to blogging 'at least once a week' , (in fact that is blogging 1.6 times a week, but who is counting... oh yes I am..)...as per goal number one! YAY I can tick that one off as successful!

2. Organise my time: I am still perfecting this, but I think I have done pretty well, because as well as working full time outside the home and running my hobby business, cooking, cleaning, and other household errands, I have completed 2 Diplomas and started another! 

I am giving myself another tick on this, however organising my space.. needs work!

3. Keep designing and creating and stocking my hobby store: I have made a number of sales this year, plus created many items for charities to use. Although I have not been as productive with my hobby store as I would like to be, I feel I have certainly worked in the right direction!. Additionally I have created a new range of one of a kind brooches that will be for sale in the new year! 


4. Stay positive and support others: This year I created a Facebook Page to support other small hobby and family run businesses; I have also been involved with  the Documented Life Project to ensure I spend time for myself being creative to help me feel happier. Additionally I have created a project called  Project Funmail where I send cards or small gifts to people at random throughout the year to spread some happiness, I am still doing this. It has not been easy all the time to stay positive or to help others to be positive but I have put a lot of effort in!


WOW!!! How many of you can say they actually STUCK to there new year goals / resolutions all year ?? Feel free to let me know in the comments section how you went with your goals for the year!

I am so pleased that I achieved my goals this year and am currently patting myself (figuratively speaking) on the back!

I have already worked out my goals for 2015, but dear batlings you will have to see what they are in the new year! 

In 2015 I hope to introduce you to a guest blogger or two, as well as bring you more reviews, some fun, and more free printables.

As this year ends, I am reflecting on the challenges in the year, as well as the high points and successes of the year. I wish you all a safe and happy end of year holiday time, and look forward to blogging more for you in 2015!

So long 2014, and to quote the late great Douglas Adams 'Thanks for all the fish'




............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Goals Check in: half way through the year am I on track?

At the start of the year, i made some goals for myself, you can see them here , and in summary they are

  1. Actively blog
  2. Be organised
  3. Keep designing and making things to sell
  4. Stay positive, promote happiness and support others
Goals need to be monitored, assessed, revised, to ensure you actually keep reaching your targets. To that end, I did a goal check in April, which you can see in this post, here.

So we are half way through the year, how am I tracking with my goals?

Actively blogging: 
I initially aimed to blog at least once a week, I have two different blogs, and this aim although something I still feel is what I need to aim for, has to be flexible, as I do not always have the time after working all day to sit and blog when i finally get home in the afternoon. So although I may not always get to blog once a week, I do maintain a regular blogging schedule and every month so far this year has at least two posts in this blog, and there is a post every month in my other blog, Apothecary Greens.

Be Organised:
I want to be so super organised that I can fit in a day everything I want to achieve and still have time for..well sleep... I am still working on the ultimate schedule, but I am improving my organisation skills, and the Filofax is helping with that! 

Keep Designing and making things to sell:
My creative Muse left me for a bit over May and June, so I took a short break from my online shops to recoup my creative thoughts. This has resulted in a whole new design theme in the jewellery I am making and selling! I have been creating Steampunk-Goth inspired pieces and I love them!

Stay positive and Support Others:
This has been hard, life throws mud at me (as I am sure it does at all of you), at times, and I fall... into a muddy self pitying heap for a bit. Then i manage to crawl myself upright, wash myself off and start again!

My Support Cottage Industry Facebook page still promotes small hobby businesses and charities in my effort to support the small hobbyists, and I have recently instigated Project Fun Mail as a random act of kindness to bring fun and joy to others. I am really happy to see relatives and friends taking to this project too! 

I recently received a lovely Project Fun Mail from my Aunty Verna, as well as one from a talented lady, Sarah, who I met on Facebook, she runs the Rainbow Gecko Gallery Facebook Page.

So although my goals aren't being reached 100% all the time, I have not lost sight of them, and am still working towards them.
How are you going with your goals?

Fun Mail from my Aunty Verna
______________________________________________________________________________ 

About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers 
............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

GOALS check in: My goals for the year, am I on track?

There is no point in making goals if you have no intention to aim for them; or resolutions you know you will break in a month. So if you have made resolutions in the new year, or at any time and want to maintain your resoluions or make progress to your goals, a review every few months is needed. This way you can see how you are going with your resolutions, look at what you need to work on, and congratulate yourself for the targets you have met, are meeting, have kept to.

How am I going with my goals? Time to check in and find out!

Background

If you have read my blog posts before, you may recall my January post outlining my goals for the year, my Goals page where I wrote them to keep myself honest, and my February post where I was monitoring my progress.

We are now in April 2014, the fourth month of the year, time for me to reflect on my progress towards my goals, and to see where I need some motivation, or a kick, to get myself back on track!

My goals this year  in summary are:

  1. blog at least once a week
  2. schedule/organise my time efficiently so I can fit in designing, making, blogging, writing, housework; with my day job!
  3. keep new designs ready to sell in my Facebook store page as well as my etsy store
  4. stay positive, keep positive energy and help others to do the same

How am I tracking?

Blogging: I am blogging at least once a week and sometimes more, I have also started a new blog about alternative medicine and green living, called Apothecary Greens  which I regularly post to.

Organise my time: this is at times hit and miss, my time may be organised, but I have trouble countering fatigue, so instead of doing the activity I should be doing with the allotted time, I may be too tired to do anything, and will instead go to bed early! As I work full time this is probably the right thing to do as I need to have energy for work!  I will need to keep monitoring my organising of time goal until I have it working right for me and getting the results I want.

New designs to sell: I have been making things to: donate to different charities, give away in competitions; stock my Facebook store, my etsy store, and to be sold at auctions. I have not made as much as I would like for all these things, but I am managing to keep up with it all, which is important.

Stay Positive: I admit I am struggling with this goal, but I will not give up. I have experienced the good, happy, strong feeling that thinking positively gives me, so I will keep working on this. I notice I struggle a lot with low self esteem, and any small set back can make me revert to old learned behaviours of self hatred, so by recognising this challenge to staying positive I can work on ways to overcome it.

this printable can be downloaded from my Positive Energy section in this blog

Summary
According to an article in Forbes, only 8% of people keep their resolutions. I am still keeping/working towards mine so I think I am doing okay. In fact just writing this post allows me to see that I do have reasons to be positive as I really am doing okay here at keeping my resolutions.

I think one way to keep your resolutions is to keep doing a goal check in. I am doing that and so far so good! How are your resolutions/goals tracking for you? Let me know in the comments!

______________________________________________________________________________ 

About Me: I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers 
............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Challenges and Obstacles to organisation: Part Three of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

I really want to get the house decluttered, organised, beautiful and peaceful. I have been reading a lot of blogs by proud 'stay at home' people who spend a lot of time organising and making things white and shiny. (Their blog photos also show them beaming with fresh shiny faces and not one hair out of place and not a pimple in sight..yeh bitter i may be...)  From what I can tell, as they do not have 'day jobs' outside of the home they can spend a lot of time in this domestic pursuit of organising and beautifying their homes. 

Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying these people are NOT working, I am just saying that as their WORKplace IS the HOME and FAMILY fulltime, they can spend the time WORKING on making the house organised and pretty. I acknowledge that they are working and working very hard.

Additionally the How to Organise your house bloggers all seem to have large houses. One blog I read about making the laundry organised and a happy environment, had a laundry bigger than our loungeroom/dining/kitchen/bathroom combined.  Not to mention a blog I read last week about how to organise a loungeroom;  their loungeroom was as big as our house.

These blogs however are inspiring and motivate me to work out how to make our house an organised, pretty and decluttered peaceful home with what we have; and make me think of ways to overcome the challenges of making the place peaceful and organised, while facing obstacles of:

  • not a lot of 'spare' cash, 
  • a very small house, 
  • a house that was a 'flood victim ' in 2011 with no insurance paid out, still trying to replace furniture
  • working full time outside of the home with long commutes (equating to only having weekends to actually do anything in the house).

So let me look at these challenges and think of ways to work with them to success in my declutter/organisation goal.


Not a lot of cash

This means I need to be even more creative by working with things I already own as well as keep an eye out at second hand shops and ebay auctions to purchase things we need at a low cost.

I have been decorating and repurposing old cupboard boxes as storage boxes and I use them for stashing craft supplies, fabric, and stationery. You can read about  my 'upcycling' of old cardboard storage boxes here

We recently purchased second hand solid pine shelving unit from ebay, for $40. New it would have been well over $200. We keep an eye out for good quality storage bargains and sometimes we find great things at a low cost.


A very small house

A small house means, keep the clutter at a minimum, THINK before we buy anything (do we need it, where is it going to be stored, what gets donated/discarded to make room for it).

It also means we need to think of storing UP: taking advantage of walls and putting floor to ceiling shelves in for example, and hanging things up on hooks on the walls to clear floor space.


Lost our furniture in the flood

Okay yep I know, the flood was three years ago, but as the insurance refused to pay anything, we have got by with the generous donations from friends, family, and total strangers. We have re-stained, varnished and repurposed the donated shelves, tables, and chairs, and are doing a lot to make the items we were given look refreshed as well as useful. (it is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do)


No time

We have almost a four hour round trip each day to and from work, and then an eight hour day in our workplaces, this means that we are exhausted by the time we get home. In order to get us some time, we cook on the weekends and freeze meals to reheat on week nights. That way husband, his son, and I have nutritious meals to choose form and with the flick of the microwave are eating in less than ten minutes.

I utilise my filofax to keep me organised and allot certain tasks to certain days. I do not put times on the tasks, just assign them to block days so i know that sometime that day this needs to be done.

On the weekends we get the washing done, cook meals for the week, and do the basic housework that needs to be done. We need to be organised with our time so that we can manage to find a few hours to relax in a week.

We also assign small ad hoc tasks to ourselves: for example today I am sorting through my clothes, discarding the torn, faded clothes that are beyond repair (assigning them to car rags), and repairing the ones that need and can be fixed; adding any good clothes that i no longer want to a charity bag, and then neatly placing my To Keep clothes on the hanging device i have for them ( i do not have a wardrobe).

To conquer the 'we have no time' to declutter and organise the house obstacle we need to be in control of our time.


Storage boxes i 'prepared earlier' organised in a shelf
I would be very interested in ideas on how others conquer challenges to keeping the house organised and beautiful. Particularly if you, like us, have a small house and need to be inventive on how to organise the things you need or want to keep.

Please feel free to comment.


______________________________________________________________________________

About Me:
I work full time, I am also studying for a therapist qualification in Naturopathy specialising in Herbalism, I have a small craft 'business', I am co-admin of an auction page on facebook to help other small hobby businesses, i maintain my own 'store' facebook page, I blog at least once a week and I maintain a facebook page created to support small home businesses and hobby sellers
............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

DIY decorative storage box: Part Two of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

In 2012 I sorted and stashed my craft supplies oh so neatly after my husband bought me an awesome shelving unit from Ikea...... however, with working fulltime, studying, trying to maintain the usual household chores, designing and creating jewellery and other things to sell on etsy, and all the other things I do, my craftroom/study/office/hang out has become sadly neglected.

I decided that if the room looked nice and welcoming, and had plenty of storage containers and shelving,  it would be easier for me to keep it decluttered and organised.

Step one for me then, is to get some nice storage containers..

I looked at the boxes I use to stash craft supplies and magazines in, they are functional, strong, and..oh so drab!


I don't know about you dear Batling readers, but I cannot afford to buy the latest and greatest in new trendy storage crates. So I had a look around my chaotic craft room, and found I have quite a stash of previously used and kept wrapping paper, as well as glue, tape, all sorts of things that I could use to make my ho hum storage boxes look less utility and more..well..me.

I gathered my supplies, scissors, glue, tape, old strong box (the one I complained about being drab), old wrapping paper, and ooooh some Martha Stewart/Avery bookplates I forgot I had!!!(see what happens when you start decluttering? you find cool things!)




I went over the box and its lid to ensure they were intact, and used some thick masking tape on areas of the box that looked like they needed reinforcement. I then painted the box with a very thing coat of Modge Podge that had been diluted in water, to prime the cardboard.

After the coat of diluted Modge Pode (it is basically a very thick PVA glue) had dried, I sprayed the box with spray adhesive and wrapped it in the re-used wrapping paper. (just like wrapping a pressy!)

I used an Exacto knife to cut out where the hand hold holes are in the box, and then wrapped these with clear tape to reinforce them.

Starting to look rather nice.. if I say so myself.



I didn't want the box lid to have the same paper on it, I felt that made it a wee bit too twee, so I hunted around some more in the chaos of my craft room, and found some old wrapping paper in almost the same design but in opposite colours!!

I then prepared and covered the box lid the same as I had for the box.

After it all dried I sprayed a thin coat of semi gloss varnish over it all to help strengthen and preserve the new look box, and stuck the Martha Stewart/Avery bookplate on it.

I am very happy with this box!!! It has the Gothic/Baroque look that I really love.  




Now to do more sorting out of my room!

For inspiration I visit I heart Organizing, a very motivating and informative blog!

If you have any great storage ideas, DIY boxes or anything else that may help me in my goal to declutter and get organised I would LOVE to hear your ideas! Please feel free to let me know about them in the comments section below!


............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Organised chaos? Part one of the 'Organise and Beautify' saga

Looking at blogposts and Pinterest images of super organised rooms, amazingly organised handbags, shelves with everything labelled... makes me sigh!  I would love to be so organised that I knew where everything was, and everything was labelled, and it all looked artistically pleasing. I have read books on how to declutter, I have bought filing systems, I have bought well crafted organisation boxes. All to no avail.

What am I missing here? Am i destined to always be a person whose creativity outweighs my ability to actually keep things organised?

I look around my study/computer room/craft room/hang out and am so depressed by the clutter and chaos around me.

The only thing that is organised is my filofax!! Why can't everything else be as under control?

I have had enough of the mess in this room!
I have had enough of the disarray in the pantry!
My clothes (I don't even have many!) are stowed away untidily.



Time to start operation 'Organise and Beautify'

Stay tuned for the next episode in my aim to organise myself! (I manage to keep my filofax organised, functional and pretty... so hey i can do this!)

In the meantime please view these blogs from very organised people:


  • Label me organised: blog by a lady who is studying, working, and blogging, and is also extremely organised.
  • I heart organising : blog by a stay at home parent who manages to create beautiful and organised rooms, shelves, things .. while maintaining a home and being a good spouse and parent.. please check her blog out!
Feel free to post a comment: hints , laughter...anything


............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

GOALS check in: Did you make resolutions and did you keep them?

Hi everyone out in the Blogosphere.

We are already in mid February of 2014, and I was wondering, of the people who made 'New Year's Resolutions', or goals for the year, how many are still actively pursuing these?

My goals this year involve being more active in supporting home businesses by promoting helping cottage industry owners stay positive and motivated,  blogging at least once a week, organising my time so I had capacity and energy to study, work full time, and continue making items to sell, and to keep a positive outlook.

In fact I listed my goals for all of you to see in my first post of the year, recapped here for you:


My goals this year are:


  1. blog at least once a week
  2. schedule/organise my time efficiently so I can fit in designing, making, blogging, writing, housework; with my day job!
  3. keep new designs ready to sell in my Facebook store page as well as my etsy store
  4. stay positive, keep positive energy and help others to do the same
As we are well into the second month of the year, I am taking a moment to reflect on what I have done thus far in the year to stay on track with my 'resolutions'.

I have started a page on facebook aimed at promoting and supporting small home businesses, each week night I do a feature news post on that page promoting specials that small home businesses are having, or sharing their websites or pages.

I have blogged at least once a week and sometimes more.

I am organising my time more efficiently and effectively, and am fitting in my full-time job, my hobby craft business, my study, normal household chores, and time to relax.

I am creating new designs to sell on my facebook page or in my etsy store.

I am continually keeping a gauge on my mental health, and continue to fight negative thought processes.

So far so good.

How are you all doing with your resolutions or goals?
I would really love to hear from you! you can tell me about your resolutions whether you have kept them or not, here.


............................................................................................................... Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat ...Please visit me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat handcrafted gothic goodies at bargain prices. see me on etsy! www.etsy.com/shop/empressbat

Tales of a slack blogger

2013 leaped away from me like a horse with thorns under its saddle. My last blog post was in April 2013 , and I am feeling quite depressed about that.




However 2014 is a new year, and I have goals, and I WILL keep them!!


Blogging at least once a week is one of my goals, so please help me get some views...please...otherwise I feel like i am talking to myself..well I am aren't I?


This year I have started a new facebook page where i will put 'pocket' reviews of products I have bought from cottage industry stores, as well as promote and advertise fellow crafty people and artisans.  I will then write larger reviews in my blog..here... of the products I have bought, used, and pocket reviewed on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/supportcottageindustry





My goals this year are:

  1. blog at least once a week
  2. schedule/organise my time efficiently so I can fit in designing, making, blogging, writing, housework; with my day job!
  3. keep new designs ready to sell in my Facebook store page as well as my etsy store
  4. stay positive, keep positive energy and help others to do the same


What are your goals for 2014?


Please feel free to comment !!!