Making New Year’s resolutions is right up my alley. I mean it’s a list of things you want to accomplish. And I am all about lists. However, the point of writing a list is also checking things off said list and I’m not always so great at the follow-through. So let’s check up on 2012. I created a “Twelve for 2012” list of things I wanted for last year.
Blog Related:
1. Write an average (minimum) of 2 posts per week. One caveat though — I only want to post (what I think) is interesting and relevant stuff. So if there isn’t anything interesting to blog about, no blog post.
So close! We had 102 new posts last year, which if you divide by 52 weeks in a year comes out to about 1.96 blog posts per week. Two more posts and I would have hit it. Although this was a minimum so . . . I’ll let you guys be the judge of that.
2. Grow the blog. I’d like to get Living Analog recognized on a larger scale and maybe get a project featured on Apartment Therapy or Design*Sponge. This goes back to #1. If it’s not interesting, the big dogs aren’t going to be interested.
I count this as a sort of. The kitchen project was on The Kitchn, a division of Apartment Therapy for the Small Cool Contest. The sort of caveat is that I entered it in . . .
3. Fine tune the blog to make it user-friendly and rocking. (Any suggestions on what this means to anyone who reads this is greatly and humbly appreciated.)
Not really much work has been done here except to continue posting as much unique content as we can produce.
4. Tempt JT into doing guest blogs once a month. If anyone has good suggestions on how to induce one’s husband to blog, I’m all ears.
JT has started to rack up some blog entries with all his guitar buying shenanigans. I think we’ve seen that this can oftentimes drive interested parties to his eBay store and that’s always a good thing.
Project Related:
5. The Kitchen. ’Nuff said.
Yes!!! I love that little kitchen. There’s some TLC/TCB things that need to happen in here in 2013 but it is still working great.
6. The Bedroom.
Fail. All that got done in 2012 is some partial painting. 2013!
6. The basement closet — this project has been waiting in the wings for about a year. It’s now or never.
Done. I never posted an “after” after because it wasn’t really so pretty once I filled it up with clothes. But I’ve been loving having a place to put everything, and to be able to hang it up in color order! (Yes I’m a freak like that!)
7. Living Room – besides the new daybed/sofas I blogged about earlier (Note: starting in December 2011!) there are some other furniture and miscellaneous fine tunings I’d like to accomplish in there.
Started . . . this will continue into 2013!
Life/Self Related: 8. Read one book a month. I love to read but I will stay up for three days straight and not pay attention to anything else around me when I start a new book. So as a result, I tend to re-read old classics so I can get to bed at a normal time. I am currently on my 4th or so perusal of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” and have read “Pride and Prejudice” at least 15 times. “Persuasion” is my favorite Austen novel which I have probably only read 4 or 5 times. So. New books. January will be “Like Water for Chocolate”.
Another sort of. To be continued in my 2013 resolutions. . .
9. Guitar chords. I’m hoping that 2012 will bring me the JT-made Explorer I’ve been waiting so patiently for. In order to be at all deserving I need to practice. A lot. I’m shooting for once a week.
Nope. Fail. It’s now or never baby!
10. Dinner Parties. JT and I are homebodys and we don’t get out much. A lot of my close friends live out-of-state sadly enough (for me). I’d like to try to host at least three dinner parties and two brunches this year (St. Louisans do not value brunch like they should, it’s the most awesomest meal ever). I’m hoping once the kitchen is “done”, I’ll be more apt to invite people around.
We did really good on brunches in 2012 and a few casual meals at the end of the year. Having a completed kitchen has helped (I noticed the light fixture was still all wonky on my brunch picture below). Now on to the dinner parties. And I need to prepare a little earlier so I can really photograph and document these things.
11. Participate in a outside-of-work money-making opportunity like the Rock and Roll Craft Show or a Flea Market to whittle down all the furniture/crafts I have stashed in the basement and maybe pave the way for the future “Thompson Guitar and Thrift” store that husband and I will run someday.
Yes! We did the Green Shag Market Parking Lot sale in October. I cleared a lot of stuff out of the basement and it felt so good.
12. Attempt to upholster a piece of furniture. Attempt.
Yes, I did attempt an upholstery job on a crazy chair I found clawed up in the alley. It did not go so great (some visible upholstery nails on the backside) so I sold that puppy at the Green Shag sale for $7 with a full disclosure of its sordid past. But I’m glad I tried it out on something I wasn’t so emotionally attached to. I want to try a few more in 2013. . .
So that’s the resolution recap. I’m not a math genius but I’m giving myself a 7.5 out of 12. And that’s pretty good for me. Also 2012 saw a Phase I Bathroom project that wasn’t on the original list along with so many other adventures.
See what I’ve got cooking for 2013 . . . resolutions to follow. What are your resolutions? Some of my favorite I have seen so far around the interwebs are from AB Chao, creator of Design Camp and Dewit. (Check out her resolutions here.) They are so simple and to the point. My list is already much longer . . . maybe I need to pare down! Off to edit. Cheers – CT
Living Analog 
I think you did amazingly well. I’m usually doing well if I even write down any resolutions to begin with, much less accomplish them. 🙂