Happy New Year folks! This year is already filled with lots of uncertainty and excitement for me. Many of our friends have/are moving away for exciting opportunities, I'm about to have a major shift in my workload, and Eric and I will be new parents in just four short months!
With so much change ahead I've been soaking up these last few moments with friends over the holidays and of course jumping into decluttering/nesting mode. You know I also love me some resolutions, so I've been taking some time to reflect and of course set a few goals for the new year!
First off, I wanted to do a quick look back at my 2017 resolutions, since I NEVER even checked on these bad boys (something I typically always do in the summer every year):
- Focus on the home. Thanks to flooding our downstairs and an impending baby we've definitely put A LOT more focus here than we have in the past. What I've learned though is that Eric and I just love to travel, and get antsy after being in one place for too long - so we still ended up taking a lot of trips! We definitely took a pause on international travel though, and will probably keep traveling semi-close to home for the next couple years!
- Focus on my own work more. This didn't happen as much as I would have liked, though I did get several personal projects out the door - including my "Here for You Patch", and Villa Heights Marshmallows shirt for 704 Shop! Overall I still need to cut back on outside work if I really want to focus more on my own stuff.
- Get back into a healthy routine. The first half of the year I was pretty active, running another half marathon in Nashville in April. After that I kind of fell off the wagon, but hoping I can get back into an easy flow before baby!
- Handle stress better. This one's a hard one to gauge! Sometimes I think I handled it well, but I think I still let side and house projects get the best of me a lot. And now with a baby on the way, I'm pretty much a constant stress ball!
- Continue to simplify. I did TERRIBLY with the zero waste thing this year. The house remodel meant buying a lot of new stuff with lots of boxes and a lot of takeout for many months. Thanks to baby though we are forced to downsize our belongings a lot - so I should see a much bigger improvement here this year!
And here are my resolutions for 2018:
Work less, and focus on being a mom
This is my top priority this year (and probably for the rest of my life haha). I'm used to doing A LOT, but not having to consider another person in my day to day. I really want my sole focus to be on raising this awesome little girl! This means I have to cut a lot out from my current routine. I'll still be working full-time for NMC of course, but I have already said goodbye to the last of my freelance clients (that only took me several years...), and I'll likely be teaching and planning events less often. This is going to be quite the challenge for me, but I'm excited about it!
Develop my brand
I did a big rebranding of myself last year, but never really took it any farther. I've been working on this a ton lately, and 2018 is going to be the year I finally start to develop my personal brand. I've got big plans to up my blogging and focus in a little bit more on my illustration and photography.
Create stuff "just because"
Ask me to design a website for a large non-profit or a logo for a law firm and I gotchu in no time. Ask me to design something small just for fun or draw something just for fun and I want to run and hide and just stare at pinterest for hours. This year I want to start making a habit to design and illustrate more things without an intended purpose. Wish me luck!
So here's to a new year of trying new things and kicking ass! Do you have any resolutions for 2018?