Two Thousand & Nineteen.

Happy New Year!

I hope you are all well and had a lovely Christmas/New Year. I had a nice Christmas/New Year but if I’m honest it’s probably been the time around it that I have been enjoying most. I’m officially back to work today and it feels good to be back after having some down-time. My boyfriend even called me from work this morning to say how much he has enjoyed the last two week, we didn’t do much but it was throughly enjoyable and has shown me that maybe I should be taking some more time off this year.

I was watching everyone’s yearly recaps on Instastories, the ones that literally went on forever- which had me thinking about the last year and going through my own camera roll. It’s hard to not compare yourself to others and although I didn’t have a baby, get married, buy a house or do any of the other monumental things,  I had a pretty good year. It was nice but I’m very much looking forward to the new year.

I don’t really set strict resolutions but here are a few things I want to achieve/do this year:

1.Read more

As I child I use to read loads. I spent endless Saturdays in the local library and was at Waterstones on the day of any Jacqueline Wilson release but since then it’s been a bit of a struggle to read much. Last year I started to read again, with a little help from Audible along the way (let me know if you’d like me to share some tips about getting back to reading) but this year I’d like to read a little more. I have a GoodReads account and I’ve set my target at 16- wish me luck and leave me book recommendations in the comments. In particular I need to make a real effort to read fiction!

2. Mask weekly

I think masks can make a huge difference to my skin but for some reason I still don’t use them quite as much as I should which has to change. I have a few I like but I haven’t found one I can’t live without so if anyone has any recommendations then please leave them in the comments.

3. New York

I know this is crazy but I’ve never left Europe. I’ve travel loads in Europe but never outside it, which is why I felt this had to change. Traveling further really fills me with anxiety but it’s something I want to overcome. I have booked a trip to New York as I felt this was a nice middle ground, okay- it’s not in Europe but culture wise it’s still very similar. Don’t get me wrong I really want to explore other cultures and I think once I’m there I’d love it but for now New York is my stepping stone. I’ve never been excited about New York but now that it’s booked I can not wait. Just another 90 days to go. I’m already getting impatient.

4. Say yes more and say no more

I often say no to things that are out of my comfort zone but I want to start saying yes to those things and start making an effort to do more. At the same time I want to say no to things that I’m not keen on doing instead of simply saying yes because I feel I should.

5. Be more eco-friendly

Honestly it’s unlikely I’ll be perfect at this but I really want to make an effort and move in the right direction with this. I want to buy less bottled water, less one use coffee cups, eat less meat and buy less stuff that I don’t need.

6. Buy a house

Writing this one down scares me. I’ve been putting this off for ages despite my boyfriend wanting to buy one for a while but I finally feel ready and I think we’ll start looking next month. This is something I’ll start talking about a little more in here once we have the ball rolling but honestly, I’m terrified (& excited).

7. Exercise more

I’m not going to go too much into this because I haven’t been to the gym in about 6 weeks. I want to just be more active. I have a pilates class I want to go to and I’m looking for a few more classes. I do enjoy the gym but I think I want to try more classes instead as although I enjoy the gym my motivation to get there is low.

8. Have less

I will never be a minimalist. It’s not really in my nature and I’m usually a more-is-more kind of person. However, more isn’t more and I really want to down size the amount of belongings I have, in particular beauty products but everything else too. I want to buy less things and honestly if I wasn’t a blogger I think I’d to a no-buy first half of the year but I can’t see that as being possible with my Joh but I’ll definitely be buying less.

What are your goals for the year?