aims old and new!

At the end of last year I set myself some aims which I wanted to achieve through this year. 

I haven't looked back at the list for a while so thought I would revisit today and see how I am getting on. next to each aim I have added in red where I am at with the aims today.

 The aims set were

to finish decorating/ making our home our own Finished! well the painting side. I just have a curtain to hang at the front door and some pictures to put up and then it is done. Those are things I just need to do and stop putting off. By the end of this month I WILL do them!

to save for the future I did begin to do this, but then I needed to buy a new car, this has been readjusted to be to pay off the finance on the car!

to enjoy more family fitness We are more active than we were although always improvements available on this

frugal- I want to make what we have go further We are achieving this, I have only been shopping when we truly need something and where possible I have sourced items to be as low cost as possible, buying reduced/in the sales etc. I have also been selling things we no longer used to make more money for new things/experiences.

to fix things- I have lots of things around the house that need mending/ altering that I haven't got around to doing. I have fixed all that needed fixing in the house, and have up cycled quite a few things. I will continue with this aim as and when required.

to finish things, I have several craft projects started 2013 is the year to finish things I have finished all projects except my cross stitch project, I find this one hard to get into but I will do it.

These aims have become as I hoped that they would, part of everyday life, I look to see what I can fix, or if there is another way to do things before shopping to buy new. I have recently decorated the bathroom and my bedroom using just the paint I had in the shed, I made curtains using material from the stash, I am using yarn from the stash to knit Stephanie and me cardigans. I have a home full of things, things that with a little thought and imagination can be made into the things which we need. I am pleased with the aims for the year and how they are going, they are beginning to become the norm around here.

I keep seeing inspiring posts and lists about life aims/bucket list etc. I have decided I am going to make one there are lots of things I would like to do. If I make a list I might be inspired into achieving them, it will also serve as a reminder to me about what I can and have achieved. I am going to start a new page for the list to belong on here
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Last years successes

OK so on the 3rd January last year I blogged about my New year resolutions for 2011. I set myself 5 targets to achieve over the year, here's how I got on with them;

1. to be more organised, I set this target with the intention of following an American site called FLY. I decided FLY was not for me somewhere around March, I just don't have the time at home daily to follow it. However from trying I have fallen into a sort of routine. I definitely have become more organised over the year, however there is still room for improvement during 2012.
2. To spend more time with the children, again I feel I am getting better at spending quality time with the children. By organising my routines I am able to focus on the children when I am with them and do my paperwork etc outside of our family time, I also do not spend as much time worrying about when I will get my work done as I am focused on the designated task of the allotted time.
3. I have so far redecorated the living room, the downstairs bathroom and both children's bedrooms. I have some work to do on each of these rooms still but they are definitely beginning to show our personalities more. I am planning on beginning the kitchen next.
4. I made several outfits for Stephanie last year, I also managed to make myself 2 dresses, this is an improvement on previous years, I am aiming to continue this in 2011. I have already bought a length of material with the intention of turning it into a dress/skirt for me. Lets see if I can manage 3 items for me this year!
5. Debt reduction. Definitely getting there, I have reduced a large debt by 1/2 and am working towards clearing it hopefully by the end of this year. I have cleared one smaller debt. Also in the transitions from student to unemployed to employed, there have been confusions over household bills such as rent and council tax due to ever changing then disappearing (thankfully!) benefit needs. I have cleared the back log from these. Also the confusion over the water bills from when we moved in to this house- I didn't receive a bill for over a year of living here, Thankfully this was a difficulty at the water company not mine as I had informed them when I moved in. So in getting the complications with the muddled water meter serial numbers unmuddled I had a large water bill in August, which I managed to clear by Christmas. In short I reduced my debt in 2011 considerably, however am not debt free yet I will continue working towards this through 2012.

In short I did not complete any of the resolutions from 2011, however I am pleased with the progress I am making towards them. I am aspiring to continue working towards them over the next year. Did you spot that I have changed from resolution to aspiration? It is part of my new positive look on what I am achieving. I am trying out a new positive mental attitude which I am hoping will carry me through 2012  and help me continue to work towards becoming debt free and having a degree of self-sufficientness. Expect to hear more about these aspirations over the coming year.

Want to see what I have achieved so far in 2012?

Well I hope so cos it's coming next in this post;

I have completed my repair pile, in it was a school shirt needing a button, a cushion with a split seam and Hello kitty with a slit throat! All now fixed and ready for use again. A monkey ear headband  from school which was broken in half, I made a small slit pulled out the broken headband and inserted one of Stephanie's unwanted ones before stitching the hole back up.

I also made these two bags for the children in my class using some of my stashed fabric. They are destined for use as rhyme bags. One will have transport in it, you can see some of the modes of transport thrifted from one of Dylan's old toy boxes. The other will have animals in, I have lots of these in the classroom already so will be able to easily acquire some of these tomorrow morning. We do have lots of transport items but I wanted some that are different from the everyday ones the children have so that they are easily recognised as mine when put in the wrong place.

This is my new note book. In it I am planning on keeping any project notes for things I make throughout the year. Details of things I read and find interesting, mostly things I find from various sources on the Internet as I see things I would like to do/ind more out about but then can't remember where I originally got the idea from in order to see it through effectively. These 2 pages are detailing tonight's thoughts. They include information on the bags I made. The roman blind I am planning to make (I'll tell you more of this at a later date.) As well as thoughts around veg growing and foraging plans for the year, again I will write  a separate post full of these ideas later in the week. Now though I need to go and make the lunches as it is back to school for all members of the littlefamilyof3 in the morning and getting up is unlikely to be a fun experience as we have all got used to our lay ins!