Knitting A Love Song

I can’t believe it’s already a new year! 2009 went by so quickly and I had so much fun. I can’t wait to make 2010 even MORE fun. I’m usually not very good at keeping my new year’s resolutions, but this year I want to try harder because I have so many really important ones.

• Quit Smoking. I know it’s not good for me. I never wanted to be a smoker and I still don’t consider myself one, but g-dang…whenever I am super stressed out, I feel like I should. I shouldn’t. EVER. It’s not healthy and it’s definitely not cool, plus who likes to be outside smoking when it’s freezing cold or during the dog days of summer? I don’t.
• Eat healthier. This covers so many things I want to do. I need to start making better choices when it comes to food. I definitely want to start paying more attention to where my food is coming from and what is going into it, because I really believe that “you are what you eat” and right now I am a big pile of junk. Yuck.
• Excersize more. I keep using the excuse that I work too much or that I don’t have the time. In reality, I definitely do have time for even a few short workouts spread out over the day. My goal by the end of the year is to workout regularly at least 3 times a week. Right now, I just need to figure out which routines I’m able to do without hurting my knee.
• Knit more! I can knit when I’m on breaks at work (not smoking). I can knit when I am watching TV in bed. I can knit when I am watching movies. I can knit when I am riding in the truck. Basically, there are a ton of opportunities for me to knit that I am not taking advantage of.
• Finish at least 10 projects (knitting) for other people and at least 10 for myself. I’m starting the year off right already with the cowl I recently finished for Meredith. All I have left to do is weave in the ends and send it off! I even ordered more yarn (the last until after April) to complete four projects for other people (which would bring me to 5 already!)
• Quit getting upset over small things. Yeah, it’s aggravating when a customer does something exceptionally rude during my shift, but I have to quit making that the reason I am cranky ALL DAMN DAY. It’s really not that big of a deal and I probably won’t even see them again. Why worry? I give other people this advice all the time and it’s time for me to do the same.
• Do not buy more yarn! I’ve recently come to the realization that I buy so much yarn because I love the colors and I love to look at it so much. And I knit so little because I am sad to use the yarn. What sense does this make?! If I knit with a yarn I think is gorgeous, odds are I will love wearing it, too. I need to get over this and use up my stash because it is (not so) slowly taking over the entire apartment.
• Be neater. It’s not a huge problem, because I live with someone who is not only borderline-OCD over cleaning, but is so accepting of the fact that I like to be “spread out” (which is really just a nice way of saying that I am messy and leave my stuff EVERYWHERE). I never had the discipline to put something away once I was done using it. I LOVE organization, folders, boxes, etc. And I LOVE organizing drawers, cabinets, cubbies, etc. at work and at other people’s houses, but for some reason, when it comes down to it I am horrible at organizing my own stuff.
• Give things away. I want to reduce the amount of things I have. Somehow, my entire room back in NY has taken over this entire apartment. I have things in every single room and it seems like I purge my things every few months, yet I never make a dent. I want to quit worrying about “what if I need it later” and decide, if I haven’t used it or thought about it in 6 months, it’s time to get rid of it. I’m sure there are boxes of clothes I will never wear again that friends would like. Everything else I will donate/sell. It’s about breathing easier and feeling better knowing I have less things cluttering up my life/apartment/brain.
• Be a wiser spender. Do I really need more bags? Probably not. Did I need to buy that five pack of mac ‘n cheese or could I have made do with 2? I need to learn to budget my money and stick to that budget. It will allow for better use of fun money and I can save a lot easier. This is my right now goal, because I want to save money to go to Columbus in April to see Meredith.
• Lose weight. Not because other people think I should. Not because I want to look like so-and-so. Because I want to feel better about myself. Because I want to be healthier. Because I want to look better in my clothes and not worry about covering up the not-so thin parts of me. I don’t want/need to be stick thin. I love my curves. I just want to feel more confident with the body I have and I want to worry less about if I am totally unhealthy or not.
• Make more. I want to make more art. This also ties in with knitting more. I want to create the way I did in 2006/2007 when Nicole and I were hanging out all the time, making cute journal pages and cards, taking pictures, thinking up awesome new ideas over coffee. I want to stop looking at other’s work and being envious and start doing my own thing and loving it.
• Bring a camera with me everywhere. This is more a preservation/memory thing than anything else. I know I am not awesome at photography and I know that I will probably never have an album of ridiculously gorgeous artsy photos, but I do want to have a ton of memories to share with others. I want to remember the way my friends faces look when they are so happy they can barely stand it. And I want to remember the way things look when I am so sad I want to curl up in a hole and sleep. I want to remember everything, or at least try to document it all. And if I do really well with my budget and saving money, maybe I will buy a new camera before I go to Columbus in April. My CyberShot has lasted a long time and I’ve had a lot of memories with it. It’s been around since high school! Maybe it’s time for a change, though.

all images via weheartit

I have a ton of other, more personal goals that I am really excited about. What are you excited for in 2010?

xoxo