Happy New Years, everybody!

So, I LOVE New Years Day. I love fresh starts and making goals and buying calendars and all the fun motivation and emotional cleanliness that wells up in me every time we start a new year. It’s been especially enjoyable ever since I started making public resolutions on this blog. You can read about my 2016 goals here and my 2017 goals here.

Wanna join me in grading myself on my 2017 goals???

1. Read 130 Books and Review them on Goodreads – A+

So, this one I well and truly conquered. You guys may hve noticed that I keep a little Goodreads widget on the side of my blog (look to the right of this post and scroll down) that keeps track of what I’m reading. You can go straight to my personal profile here and become my Goodreads friend! I reviewed every book I read and beat my reading goal by reading 133/130 books.

This year I did struggle a bit to meet my goal and I think I know why. For one thing, I haven’t read as many comics this year. Comics are very short and are easy ways to boost your book count, so that hurt me. I also started reading longer books (I think I read 3+ books this year over 1,000 words) AND I’ve been listening to loads more podcasts, which definitely cut into my audiobook time.

Click here for a cool infographic Goodreads made about the books I read this year!

2. Blog at Least Twice a Month – A

This one I technically did, as you can see by going back through my blog history. BUT there were a few months where a blog posts were a bit rushed and slipped in on the last day of the month about kinda flimsy topics. I wanna do better next year. Two GOOD blog posts a month that aren’t afterthoughts I tried to shove in at the last minute to meet my self-imposed deadline.

3. Finish that Purse!!! – A+

YOU GUYS I 100% DID THIS ONE. You can read about the whole embarrassing sage here. It took me from Nov 2015 to March 2017 and a failed New Years Resolution, but I finally finished that damn purse.

4. Try More New Beads – C

I think I need to quit putting this goal on my yearly list of resolutions. My design process is very… serendipitous? I just kinda sit down and start putting stuff together and setting out to make a specific pattern with a specific type of new bead just doesn’t always work for me.

I really like getting patterns out that use new beads. Since I work at an online bead shop, I get to see the new stuff in person and sometimes I feel really inspired to work with them. I like feeling like I’m on the cutting edge and, to be brutally honest, it’s easier to sell patterns when there aren’t many other patterns that use the same bead available. But I think I’m putting too much pressure on my somewhat flighty muse.

I made 6 new patterns in 2017 and only 3 of them used new beads. In 2018, I think I just wanna make good new patterns, regardless of what beads they use.

5. Get the Business Side of Wescott Jewelry Organized – B

Ok, so this one I did! You guys may remember that I actually closed my Etsy shop for the month of January so I could get all my business ducks in a row. It was mostly a period of getting organized for me (finally figuring out tax stuff and making a bunch of spreadsheet templates throughout the year) and annoying, but easy stuff like registering my business name. It was boring and a bit confusing, but I eventually got it!

I’m giving myself a B because I did make all the spreadsheets and plans and lists, but I wasn’t very good at keeping them updated, so I’m still going to be sorting through a mountain of receipts come tax time. But! I did collect them and keep them sorted, even if I didn’t actually log them yet. So, B for good prep work, if lazy data entry.

6. Experiment More with Macrame and Bead Embroidery – D

Alrighty, this one I did not do. I did not do one single piece of bead embroidery of macrame this year. Not a single stitch or not.

So, why a D instead of an F, you may ask?

Because I did try new things this year, which was the spirit of this resolution. Just last month I learned an entirely new-to-me form of loom-like leather work, which I’ve been having an absolute blast experimenting with. You can read about that here.

I also spent a lot of time this year learning how to take better care of nails and trying out different types of nail art! I wrote a post about that too and it’s been a really fun way of being creative.

Are these the things I set out to learn more about? No. But! I did try new things this year and go out on a limb spending time trying techniques that I was initially bad at, which I think was my real goal all along.

I didn’t do too badly this year, all things considered!

I also did some really cool things this year, unrelated to Wescott Jewelry. Using Blue Apron, I learned to cook! I also lost over 50 pounds since May of this year. My husband joined an encouragingly successful band. I joined a book club and made a bunch of new friends after losing some core relationships in 2016.

I’ve become more responsible, learned a lot of self-control, and have finally conquered my fear of setting up appointments over the telephone. I only sometimes panic when driving somewhere unfamiliar and I’m better at driving in the snow.  I did a lot of growing up this year.

Now, if only I could learn to keep a house clean and be better at social events…

Here are my goals for 2018:

1. Read and Review 125 Books (at least 44,000 pages) on Goodreads

2. Write 2 Quality Blog Posts Every Month

3. Learn Two New Crafts or Beading Techniques

4. Do Business Paperwork Regularly, Instead of Procrastinating

5. Do an Overhaul of My Beading Room – Declutter and Organize!

6. Reach My Goal Weight (whatever that ends up being…)

I am ready for the new year and very excited to keep up the good things that started in 2017 and start a whole bunch of new good things. It’s going to be a good year.

Do you guys have any goals or resolutions? Anything you did this year you wanna brag about? Any suggestions of things I should try to do in 2018? Leave me comment and tell me all your 2018 dreams!