This year I’m going to…

Shining like a newly minted penny, a fresh January start is upon us and for a while - maybe a week, a month, or even the rest of the season - the world seems to spring to life with possibility and a desire to embrace change, start afresh, and set to work on bettering ourselves.
 
I'm not a New Years resolution maker. Never have been, doubt I ever will be. If I want to change something about my life or myself, I just do it. Right then, right there, or at the very least, as soon as possible. I don't procrastinate, I don't typically fear change, and I'm not afraid to roll up my sleeves and do some (proverbial) heavy lifting, when life calls for it.

That said, it can be both beneficial and enjoyable to kick off a new year with certain areas of your life, plans and goals at the forefront of your mind. Last year, I launched 2013 with a list of adjectives that I hoped I would embody more than ever in the twelve months that followed.

It wasn't that I hadn't been those things before, but rather that I wanted to live them to an even greater degree. Though some took a while to really hit their stride, and I'm still working to bolster others to a greater degree, I'm genuinely happy to say that I feel, a year onward, that I really did embody each of them to a greater degree. During, and in the months after, our trip to Calgary, for example, I found myself being braver, more confident and adventurous than I'd felt in many years, and I absolutely love this!

I, like each of us, have very little clue what this year will ultimately hold in store, but I'm really hoping it puts 2013 to shame. Was last year all bad? Thankfully, goodness, no, but it wasn't always the bee's knees by any means either, and as (call it coincidence, if you like) I tend to have better years when they fall on even numbered dates (as in 2014 this year), I'm really hoping that the year that sees me turn thirty in July, will be an incredible one.

Along the way, there are certainly things that I plan to do more, or less, as the case maybe and today, for my first post of this great new chapter in our lives, I wanted to share some of them with all of you. So without further ado, may I present a quick overview of some of what I hope, I will, and will not, be up to as we embrace and celebrate each day of the coming year.


1. Sweat the small stuff less!: Yes, we've all heard, and likely said a time or two, that we're going to do this, but last year I made a conscious effort to really live that mantra, and and it helped to noticeably reduce my personal stress levels (I'm a natural worrier/prone to really internalizing stress), so I'm going to try and sweat even less of the things, that in the grander scheme of life, don't matter much, if at all, throughout 2014.


2. Spend less time online: I absolutely flat out love, and could scarcely picture my life without the internet (a point I discussed last fall in this post), especially because I'm so frequently bedridden/housebound, but it's neither healthy (fresh air does the body wonders!) nor getting the most out of one's existence to spend a massive amount of time online every single day, and so this year, I'm going to make a conscious effort to purposely set aside a day or two every now and then when I don't even so much as flick on my computer, and may even take the occasional blogcation entirely. The web rocks, but so does the real world, and that's something that's become all too easy to forget at times in today's world, where it seems like we're connected to the internet 24/7.

3. Buy more items in person: Now granted, I doubt I'll ever stop shopping online entirely and have zero desire for such to be the case, but getting the chance to shop for vintage in person in Alberta, as well as a few locations (chiefly the city of Vernon) locally last year, really drove home how nice it can be to hold, inspect, and if applicable, try on an item before I buy it. My town doesn't have any vintage clothing stores, so I'll always do some of my wardrobe shopping online, but I'm also going to try to simply tuck more of my personal budget aside to spend when I get the chance to travel again and/or attend some of the antique and collectible fairs that happen each year throughout the Okanagan Valley.

4. Take care of the mending pile that built up in 2013: I do try to stay abreast of my mending, but it seems like a fair number of garments have developed minor issues that need attending in the past few months, and whether I take care of them myself or have them fixed by a professional, by the time spring returns, I want my mending basket to be a ghost town again.


5. See more of the world: I'm a realist. I know that my chronic medical problems will always severely limit the amount (and duration) of traveling that I can do, where I can go, and what I'll fill my time with once I get there, but last year's week in Calgary reawakened a sense of wanderlust in me that I'd nearly forgotten I had, and and which now wants to try, circumstances permitting, to take at least one trip each year. It might not be to the furthest reaches of the earth, but that's a-okay, just as long as it's something that strikes me as fun and exciting, and which, hopefully, holds the promise of at least a little vintage shopping! :)


6. Try new things and push myself outside of my comfort zone: I like to think of myself as a fairly brave person - I've certainly stared my own personal Goliaths in the eyes and knocked them out on many occasions, but sometimes it's great to throw yourself headfirst into something totally new, wholly different, and which even scares you silly. A few months ago I read a quote (I wish I'd bookmarked it at the time) that said something to the effect of that "Nothing is never as frightening as the first time you do it", and that sentiment has lingered with me powerfully ever since.


7. Not let other people's problems, which I have no actual firsthand roll in, stress me out so much (or take up so much of my time): Every day I receive dozens of different emails (and Facebook messages) from people, most of whom I've never had contact with me before, or whom I know only in vague passing, asking me about different things - be it relating to medical topics, vintage, or simply life in general. Often, I find, complete strangers eagerly share a good chunk of their life story with, and pour out their problems, to me. I realized, like a bolt of lightning from the heavens one day last September, that, while I am usually genuinely glad to help anyone I can out, at times it can greatly bring down my own (naturally upbeat, happy mood) to constantly be brought in on strangers problems.


I'm not a professional shrink, a priest, or a bartender, but I need to learn to think and react more like these folks, and not internalize and stress so much over issues that, heartbreaking or worrisome as they be, are not my own. I'm happy to listen and provide advice when asked, but I can't do that to the best of my ability if my mood has turned grey because of problems that aren't mine to begin with.


8. Keeping hunting for more of the items on my vintage list: Last year I put down on virtual paper twelve of the things that were, at the time, topping my vintage wish list. More than half a year on, I've crossed two off so far. There's no time frame on this list (which included many more items in addition to those twelve), and the hunt is certainly part of the fun, but I would like to tick at least another one or two off throughout 2014.


9. Cancel magazine subscriptions I don't get a great deal out of any more: I absolutely love reading magazines on a wide range of topics, and subscribe to a few different publications. Some knock my socks off month after month, but last year a couple took a real nose dive in terms of both page count (they slashed their number of pages in half) and content that felt relevant to me any more. Though I do love supporting paper magazines, for the sake of my budget, I'm going to bid farewell to those that no longer make my eyes light up when I spy them in the mailbox.


10. Take more naps outside: I know, that's a somewhat unique sounding one, but as I mentioned in this post last fall, I've always been wild about sleeping outside. We don't have a yard or a deck of our own, but my parents have both, so pillow in hand, I'm going to headed that way come the warmer months for some much needed outdoor zzz's.


11. Look for even more ways to stretch a dollar. be financially savvy, and bolster our income: Like most people, I've made some mistakes in my life when it comes to handling my finances, but overall, I like to think that I'm good with money and that I can be resourceful, diligent, and wise when it comes to financial matters.

As many couples do, my husband and I have certain long term goals, and some shorter term ones that require budgeting (like traveling) that I truly want to see happen in time, and I'm going to try even harder this year to focus on turning those dreams in reality. It might mean making more sacrifices, forgoing momentary wants for longstanding desires, and being ruthless with our budgeting, but I don't mind at all. In fact, I'm happy to do it, because I know what I want to see our life blossom into later down the road.


12. Ask people for things: As someone is who is, typically, astronomically shy, scared to the point of losing the ability to speak by confrontation, and incredibly self-conscious, I've never been good at asking for what I want in life, even we're taking about something ludicrously simple like having the string beans passed down my way at the dinner table. Bigger things? Geeeshhh, you might as well forget about it, unless I give myself an Any Given Sunday worthy pep talk in advance.

Enough of this! I'm a grown woman who has forged her own way in the world, (humbly) accomplished a great deal in my 29.5 years of life, is bright, insightful and and able to speak up when she wants something. The worst thing you can hear usually, really is, "no", and you know what, that usually isn't the end of the world, and more often then not, I'm starting to learn, you'll be surprised by how often you get what you ask for it.



{Hello, 2104! I'm ready for you and have plans, both big and small, to fill each of your awesome new days with. Vintage photo of actress Barbara Stanwyck via Joan de Beauvoir on Tumblr.}

♥  ♥  ♥

Though I could keep going, and certainly will in my daily life, I'll cap today's list at twelve entries, one to represent each month of the coming year. Every one of these things matters to me, they wouldn't be here if they didn't. Some are more pressing or important than others, and will, naturally enough, see my focus turned to them more frequently, but I do truly plan to work on every last one as often as possible.

In addition to these things, something that is deeply important and which I make a conscious effort to do every day of my life is to take stock of my blessings. Be they big or small, new or as old gifts, I find my life is enriched and made more joyful by the simple act of being appreciative of all the good, the love, and positivity that flows through my world.

I have high hopes for, and great feelings about this year. A voice deep inside says that it's going to turn out well. Maybe that's just the perpetual optimistic in me, perhaps its because a new decade (my 30s) will kick off in a few moths, or it could be because such really is going to be the case.

Whatever comes to be, through thick or thin, on awesome days and sad ones alike, this year I'm going to do all of these twelve things and think that the sheer act carrying them out will, in and of itself, help make 2014 an unforgettable year.

12 things I did in 2012 to make my life better

Some years seem to fade into the next, with little division between them. They're part of the fabric of our lives, but they're by no means the flashiest or most exciting of times, and so it can be difficult to recall with much detail years later. Others are fraught with problems, pain, worry, and perhaps even heartache, as it seems like a break can't be had, no matter how hard you try. At the risk of jinxing myself a mere four days before the ball drops and 2013 launches, this year did not fall into either of those two camps. In fact it was, over all, rather wonderful.

And busy! Wonderful and busy, yes, that sums up 2012 rather accurately, if you ask me! As I sit here at the end of December, twelve months to flip through in the pages of mind, a flood of thoughts come pouring over me and I'm reminded of some of the elements that helped to make it such a great year. There were many, and I feel exceedingly blessed that such was the case. Goodness knows I've had my fair share of years I'd love to erase from my memory forever, if such a thing were possible, but 2012 was certainly not one of them.

As there are twelve months in that year, I thought I would take the opportunity today to share, correspondingly, twelve things that I (or in many cases, we, as in Tony and I together) consciously, intentionally did to help improve and enrich my –and our- life.

It isn't every day, or should I say, every year, that I have a list like, and I don't want to forget the key highlights of 2012 that helped to make it so superb as the years roll on, so without further ado, my I present (in no particular order) a roundup of some of the reasons why this year rocked.

1.) Moved to British Columbia: The year kicked off on an exceedingly busy note, as we made the life changing (and rather sudden) discussion to leave Toronto, after six years of life on the East Coast and move for the first time together to my home province of British Columbia. There were many motivating factors behind our decision, and it was not a choice that was reached lightly by any stretch of the imagination. Fortunately this decision has proved to be one the best we've ever made, and I don't think a single week has passed without one of us saying how truly glad we were to be here, near family, with a better health care team, a nicer climate, and a home we love to pieces.


2.) Got a new house: And speaking of that house we adore so much, it ranks amongst the most important (and wonderful!) improvements in our life this year. After more than seven years (the duration of our marriage up until the point we moved provinces) of living in homes that ranged from shudder inducing to okay but chocked full of problems, we were fortunate enough to find a beautiful little condo on the most serenely lovely street anyone could ever ask for. The house, while not huge, is modern, safe, nicely laid out, and an absolute joy to live.


3.) Spent time with family: Before moving to B.C. we had always lived thousands of miles away from both of our families. Though that statement still rings true for Tony, whose relatives all reside in Italy, we now live in the same province as the bulk of my small family, some of whom even live right here in Penticton with us.

Having the ability to interact with relatives again, be it for a quick "pop in" visit or to celebrate the holidays, as well as to have extra help when I'm going through an especially rough patch health wise or need transportation and assistence to get to a medical appointment when Tony is working, has been an indescribably wonderful gift for both of us (Tony and my family hit it off famously, which sure makes life a lot easier for everyone involved).


4.) Created a craft room of my own in the basement: Though I did technically have a very small room in our last apartment that was designated as my craft space, its teeny size meant my supplies and finished projects were woefully overcrowded and it was hard to clear my mind and focus at times in such a cluttered space. It took a while to set up throughout the spring and early summer, but I'm thrilled to report that since then I've had an awesome, much (!) more spacious craft room of my own to work, play, and just kick back and relax in (this having been a dream of mine for all as long as I can recall).


5.) Got our first car: Though some people are a bit sceptical when we tell them this, it wasn't until early on last spring, just a couple of weeks after we moved to B.C., that Tony and I finally got our fist vehicle (neither of us had ever had a car before in our lives, and though my parents always did, Tony's had not, so this was really and truly his first set of wheels!).

As you can imagine, this has helped improve and enrich our lives in many ways, and is also significantly easier on me from a health standpoint than taking public transit or having to walk long distances to get anywhere. Now, several months on, it's almost mind boggling to think that we'd gotten by in large cities for all those years without a car.


6.) Finally found a feedreader that I love: This might sound like a small matter, but to me it really wasn't. For years I'd bounced around from one feedreader to another, failing to find one that I felt really worked for me and as a result over falling behind on staying abreast of my favourite sites. Last spring I tried Bloglovin and fell head-over-heels in love with after the first day. It's the only feedreader I use now and has been such an instrumental tool in my ability to better follow (and in turn comment on) some of my favourite blogs.



7.) Hammered out a blog schedule that works for me: Speaking of blogging, this year was the first in my life when I really felt like I hit a good, manageable (under the circumstances this year dished out) blogging schedule and pace that worked for me. I'm not going to delve into detail too much on this topic now though, as it's a subject I'm planning on devoting a whole post to early on in 2013. So stay tuned to hear more on this particular improvement (and how what works for me, may help you, too).



8.) Starting taking regular wardrobe snaps: While we're on the subject of things that involve the good ol' interwebz, this year marked the first one for me in which I regularly began documenting my vintage outfits through photographs (nearly all of which are taken by my highly talented hobbyist photographer husband, Tony). While that is certainly awesome unto itself, for me, an even more important element of this act (taking snaps) has been the fact that it's helped me tackle, and better handle, some of my self-esteem and body image issues, as well as to no longer be quite as painfully shy in front of the lens.


9.) Organized my wardrobe better and more efficiently: Much as with my craft supplies at our old home, there was precious little closet space or anywhere to store my wardrobe at our last place. This house however has more of both and and as a result I've (finally!) been able to better sort, organize, and display my wardrobe. A point which makes me so very, very happy - and which makes getting dressed now a snap compared to at our old apartment.


10.) Worked on making (more) peace with my body: Whether justified or not, I've struggled greatly with my body image throughout my whole life, in part because of the way I was (cruelly and completely unjustly) treated regarding my appearance by certain family members when I was growing up, as well as the fact that I was teased mercilessly as a child by my schoolmates, sometimes due to certain elements of my appearance. Battling a multitude of chronic illnesses everyday certainly doesn't help how I feel about my body either, but the older I get, the more I love my body - flaws, imperfections, shortcomings and all (a topic I discussed here last spring), and hope dearly that this positive trend will continue as the years roll on.


11.) Discovered I could wear most brooches: As you may recall from this post last May, I discovered that, if I placed at least a couple of layers of fabric between the metal and my skin, I'm often able to wear brooches. This might sound like a strange thing to mention, but for those who didn't catch my post about this point, I'm extremely allergic to nickel, a metal which is found in a large amount of jewelry (thus preventing me from wearing said jewelry), however this discovery has opened up the whole wide world of brooches to me and I've been wasting no time in building up a delightful collection of them ever since.


12.) Got outside more: Though there were numerous long stretches (the lengthiest being almost almost all of August and part of September), as there are every year, when my health wasn't doing well enough for me to leave the house, thanks to the fact that we now live in a much better situated neighbourhood in a town we love (and delight in exploring) and have a car, I've been able to get out of the house more frequently, whether for everyday tasks like running errands or setting off with Tony to neighbouring communities and towns.

Throughout 2012 we had fun doing everything from doing a photo shoot at an orchard in East Kelowna to going fishing in the dark, visiting Polson Park in Vernon to spending as many Saturdays as we could out garage saling around town. I can hardly wait to see all the awesome places we'll hopefully be able to go, and the wonderful memories we'll make while out and about, in 2013!





{My deepest thanks go out to 2012 for being such a splendid, meaningful, and highly memorable (in a good way!) year. I have my fingers firmly crossed that the coming year will be one of great happiness, success, and fun, too - not only for me and my family, but also for each and every one of you and your loved ones, too. Vintage New Year's card via Miehana on Flickr.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Peppered amongst this list there were other things, big and small, that also helped rank this year so highly for my both me and my husband, but these are the ones that jump out as me on this fine winter's morn first and foremost.

I'm not saying that 2012 was without its hiccups, worries, and rough patches, but for a very, very pleasant change of pace, I don't feel like they were the predominant factor this year. Perhaps that was part luck, maybe life gets a bit easier to tackle as you get older, or, who knows, the universe might just have wanted to smile on us throughout the course of the past dozen months.

Whatever the case, I can't begin to stress how grateful I am to have enjoyed such a terrific, productive, happy year. Only time, that great and mysterious unknown, will tell what the future has in store for us, but I can't help thinking - knock wood - that it's bound to better than many years past thanks to these twelve things and the improvements they brought into our world in 2012.