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!