Onward to 2015!

While I thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, I am actually really excited for them to be over! It’s such a hectic time, and it is a blast while it’s happening, but at the end of it I am so ready to get back to our regular life schedule. I always feel like it takes me a week or so to fully recover from the craziness that is the Christmas season  and it is really nice to have an entirely fresh new year beckoning, ready to be filled with ideas and plans!

That being said, I actually don’t have too many massive plans for 2015. When I was sitting down making my list, I was scribbling down all these ideas and thoughts and had the realization that I needed to take a step back. I don’t want to start my new year off overburdening myself with ideas, as I know it will lead me to get disheartened. So I’m taking a simpler approach. I focused on major goals, that I can make sure I get done for the year! I will still also be making monthly goals, which is where the little things will come into play.

Life Goals for 2015:

• Get my anxiety under control. I’ve touched on this a bit here on my blog, but lately I’ve been having a serious battle with anxiety, and in way more cases than I’d like – it’s winning. I’m ready to write about it, and there will be a post on it in January, but this is pretty much my top goal of 2015. Find a way to deal with my anxiety so I can start feeling like myself again.
• Start reading and buying zines. This was a goal I made for 2014 and failed utterly at. I didn’t buy or read a single one! Luckily, I follow the ever awesome blog of Sonya Cheney, and not only does she write zines she has some amazing resources for them too. In fact, stay tuned for a post from me about one in January – I backed my first zine thanks to a post she had!
• Pay off our credit card balance. It’s not actually that big, but we’ve kind of been dragging it out and the interest is killer. We need to just suck it up, and start paying it off in big chunks to get it done.
• Keep the 1AM Promise for the entire year. I’m pretty sure I did this for 2014, but I’m not entirely sure as (for some reason) I didn’t write down my purchases each month! So in 2015 I’ll actually keep a record so I’m accountable each month. The best part is, this will tie right into zine buying!
• Give my art a direction. I put a huge focus on my art in 2014, and it was amazing. It felt wonderful, it’s a big confidence booster, and I am so glad I chose to dedicate the majority of my free time to art. But in 2015, I’d like to give it a bit more focus in terms of what I’m doing with it. I’d like to open an online shop, push commissions a bit more, and really promote my art more in general.
• Begin playing piano again. It is a point of personal shame that I haven’t really touched my piano in close to two years. That NEEDS to change. Even if it’s just for ten minutes a day, I need to be making time for it. Music is so incredibly therapeutic, and I need piano playing back in my life.
• Read 35 books. This is just my new minimum. I had a goal of 30 books for this year, and I killed it – reading a total of 49 books (though that includes graphic novels). I actually just looked it up and that’s WAY more than I thought I read so yay!! Anywho, 35 will be my minimum for next year.

Blog Goals for 2015:

• Move my blog over to being self-hosted. I’ll still use the WordPress features, but being self-hosted gives me way more customization options. I’m actually not too thrilled with what I’m paying for using WP Custom Design.
• Redesign my blog. Nothing major, I’m just ready for a change again. I do like my little header images, so those will probably stick around (in some form), but overall I’d ready for a bit of a new layout. The question is, do I attempt to do it all myself knowing I suck at design, or do I save some money and pay someone who has a clue what they’re doing to do it for me?
• Start artist interviews on my blog! This is something I’ve had planned for ages, and then finally decided to hold off until the new year before I started them. But throughout the year (I’m thinking twice a month?) I’d love to be interviewing artists for my blog.
• Promote a bit more. Whether it’s via button swaps or social media, I need to be a bit more active about sharing my blog work, and ideally garner a few more readers. 2014 was a really big year for me and my blog – I finally feel really comfortable writing posts, and publishing content. I’ve got some awesome readers, and I follow some amazing blogs that have led me to fantastic internet groups and friends! I really hope to continue that trend in 2015!

I hope you have a wonderful (and safe!) New Years! As for us, we’ll be ringing it in at a friends house with some board games, in true geek style. See you all in 2015!