New Year's resolutions :: 2012

I'm not late for this, am I? Well, this is my blog, so I guess I get to decide what is right or wrong here! Anyways... It's never late to make commitments, right?

New Year's resolutions. One way or another, I think everybody makes them. Even if just for a second when raising the glass, watching the fireworks or kissing the ones we love. There's a flip of a moment when thoughts flow over our head and we make plans and wishes.

Some take them more serious and wright them down. I never did such thing. Maybe that's the reason why I never seem to remember all of them at the end, and maybe that's why some important ones end up undone. So, this time I'm writing them all here for the whole world to see, and beside you I commit. I wonder were this will go, but will be fun to look back in the end and I'm hoping to be proud of myself.

I've been thinking of them for a while (18 days, to be more precise...) and been elaborating a sort of a mental plan on how to get them done. As usual, many things crossed my mind, but I decided to stick with a shorter list of what I believe is doable. Keep your feet on the ground, girl! So, here they are:

1. Get our Etsy shop open and running
I started this blog with this goal in mind (hence the "made with love" name) and then, somehow, things turned, and when I noticed this place had grown into a photography based blog. How do these things happen, really? Well, I'm not complaining, it's actually kind of fun to realize how things find it's own path. And, i'm enjoying plenty of it. I would not have improved my skills, like I feel I have, without this place, that challenges me every day to get better and learn more. But we (me and the hub, of course) want to take that next step we've been pursuing. (don't worry, there won't be less photography here, I can't go back now) We're working on it. It will be done, this is the year!

2. Start a new sport practice on a regular basis
I told you before that I play football (soccer), but that only happens every other sunday, so I don't think that counts as a regular practice. I really N E E D  to start doing anything else.

3. Declutter and organize my closet (get those outfits in order!)
Meaning... get rid of everything I don't use (and also those things I use but probably shouldn't), and make it a practical space, so that I won't ever leave the house again feeling uncomfortable, or should I say lacking self-confidence, with what I'm wearing. No more excuses, like not having the time nor the will to find the pieces for a proper outfit. As a mental push to it, I will start sharing here two outfit photos per week (let's see how long this will go!). Not those kind of outfit posts with me-me-me-pictures overload and all the discription of what I're wearing and where I got it. No. Just pictures. And hopefully I will learn to control the fear of being in front of the camera, and get my way into the self-portrait technique (I will try that whenever possible).

4. Relearn how to paint in watercolors, and practice it
I've always loved watercolor. I started to learn it in high school, but then had to move on to oil painting and never went back at it. Honestly, I'm right in square one. I plan to buy a proper book and tools to start and also learn something with Jane Davenport. In the way, maybe I'll find time to make my own Peerless watercolor pallet to add to my travel journal.

5. Get a tattoo
This is also an old project of both of us that never came through. Let's make it happen!

6. Go back at shooting with analogue cameras
It's been ages since I've done it and, though I want (and seriously need) to improve my digital shooting skills, I really miss it. I feel like all those different approaches on light capturing take our photos, and the way we capture moments to another level. I bought a new camera several weeks ago and I can't get over that I haven't tried it yet!

7. Create more, and share
I have a million diy projects in my head and just as many others on my Pinterest board. The plan is... get them done! So, in order to make that happen I'm committing to a monthly post of a "Pinterest inspired DIY". Just 12 a year, can't be that hard to pull up!

8. Travel to a different country
I dig travelling! I dream of it pretty much every single day. We started our marriage with a (slightly crazy) 15 days trip that begun on a cruise ship and continued by train and bus, taking us through six different countries. (In fact, let's reduce it down to five, because crossing France over night on a train and spending two hours in Nice doesn't count to scratch that country.) We made plans to continue this journey and it was supposed to happen last year, but then all sort of things happen and we messed up the preparation and the ahead reservations needed, in result we skipped to plan B, which meant new city, no new country.


So... What do you think? Will I make it?

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all photos by me