Resolutions

I never used to be one for making New Year's Resolutions, but I'm coming to quite like giving myself a little list of things to do (or try to do) so that I can check them off as I do them.

Last year I made Knitting New Year Resolutions. This year I have a mix of general and blog resolutions that I'm setting myself.

I'll kick off with the blog ones:

1. Stay on top of my Master Book List
About a year ago I set up a page up there for keeping track of all the books I've read and reviewed. The idea was that I would update it each time I finished and/or reviewed a book so it would always be relatively up to date. As you can probably guess, what I planned and what actually happened didn't really work out that well and now it's going to be a big job to get it all updated.

I did contemplate doing it over the Christmas holidays, but soon realised that I didn't want to spend all of a day off doing that, especially as it would eat into my blogging time. I'm going to dedicate a couple of days to updating it all and then going through putting in all the links in.

2. Spend more time taking photos
I feel like a blog post isn't a proper blog post without a photo. I like to have a pretty picture that is somewhat relevant to the post that I've written. But I'm guilty of not always taking be best of photos. Usually this is because I've written a post, got it all formatted and then realised that I've not got a photo to go with it so inevitably take a quick snap on my phone or on my Samsung camera, then upload it without any editing.

I want to make sure that I spend more time taking photos in the coming year and also getting them edited so they look pretty and attractive.

3. Explore what I can do with my blog
I've signed up with Bzz Agent in the hopes that I can get some freebies to test and review. I also used to use Amazon Affiliate links in the past and I've toyed with putting adverts on my blog as well. I'm not sure if this is something I want to do (except the reviews, I like reviewing things and I definitely want to do more of that). But I'm going to look into it and decide.

The first step for this will be writing up a disclosure statement to add to a page up there, just to let people know that my reviews are written for my own pleasure. I've been meaning to do it for ages and I found a handy template to use.

As for non-bloggy stuff.

1. Keep using my savings account
Towards the end of the year, when I had a trip away to save for, I started using my savings account again. I have no idea why I stopped doing it, but it's such a great incentive to save. Each time I log into my online banking I can see how much I've saved and it encourages me to transfer a little extra in whenever I can.

I also want to put some more money in Premium Bonds, because that's a little bit less accessible than my savings account (especially as each time I need to get access to it I need to reset my password because I never remember it)!

2. Keep on crafting
Last year I relearnt how to cross stitch and I'm wanting to continue to do that because it can be a lot more portable than knitting. Also, I want to keep on knitting. I had a long break from it this year and it wasn't really until I started again that I realised how much I missed it.

I don't want to set a target for how many things I want to make otherwise that might suck all the fun out of it, but I'll be happy to just have something on the go at all times. And if one isn't giving me much pleasure, than to switch to something else that does. Oh, and I need to buy some more needle tips and cables for my Knit Pro supplies in order to work on this resolution.

Also reorganise my stash. It was on my list last year and I never did it. Now everything is worse than ever, and I'm adding cross stitch supplies to the mess. I need to get a handle on it before it gets completely out of control.

Are you setting yourself any resolutions, challenges or plans for the coming year?