January Goals & Plans + 2014 in Review!

Can you believe that we just absolutely flew through 2014. It seemed like the longest and shortest year all at the same time.  My 2014 was challenging to say the least. But I’m CRAZY optimistic for 2015! Its gonna be gooooooood. I gotta feeling.

But before I get on to my 2015 Goals ( I don’t do resolutions, I never stick to them) I’m going to fill ya in what I’ve got planned for January! I’m hoping to start the year off just right!

For the Blog! 

My sister is still working on my blog design (while you’re at it, you can check out her blog Hopeful Tides) but I’m hoping that we can get it all launched and live by January 15 😉 😉 Heather! I’m super excited about it, because she gave me a little sneak preview of what my new logo is going to look like with the AWESOME blog planner she made me for Christmas! Its perfect and just what I want.

Once it goes live, I’ll finally be able to start advertising, sponsoring ads and working with affiliates. It will also allow me to utilize some plugins that can help optimize the site and hopefully help me generate more traffic! Its been slow going over here on The O Guide!

I also got the camera I wanted for christmas! Yay me! So now I can really work on my photography! I got the tools, now I just need to beef up my skills and my styling. My styling is beyond pathetic.

So now that I have my camera, I can play around with outfit photos. I have a photoshoot scheduled on the books with Walking Dot Photography at the end of the month and I’m really looking forward to working with Giedre! I’ll have some awesome shots to share for sure! Hopefully the shoot will get me extra motivated to do some more outfit posts. For now I’ve gotta plan that outfit….decisions decisions.

Health and Home Goals

For January I’m doing my Cleaning Challenge and really going through everything. Its amazing what you find and how much you realize you’re kinda a packrat. I cleaned out my medicine cabinet on Tuesday night as part of Day 2 of my challenge and had to toss about 95% of it because it was expired. And to think…I moved that stuff with me when I moved into my place. Its refreshing to go through and toss stuff. Things you don’t need, are expired or haven’t touched in years. Really simplify things, it makes life easier for sure. I can’t wait for the Giant Purge of 2015. Coming to my Chicago Apartment soon.

Healthwise, I really want to get back into my clean eating routine that I was in before. I really did feel great when I was doing it. I’m not the “woo-woo” medicine type, but I do think that eating overly-processed foods with lots of extra stuff in them can affect your body negatively. When I stopped eating the overly processed stuff, and started making everything from scratch, I lost weight, had more energy and noticed a difference in my general health. My skin looked better and I didn’t feel sluggish. And when I did eat something processed I noticed a difference right away, mostly I felt super tired. When I’m eating clean, I don’t do a full 100% its really challenging to do so, especially if you eat out. So I aim for a 85-90% range of clean eating. So for January I really want to get back to it. See if will finally help me kick that last 10lbs out the door.

I try as much as possible to seek out alternative methods to solving health problems before I just jump to drugging myself up. Yes, when its too bad for alternative methods to help, I seek out traditional medications. But I’ve found that acupuncture, chirocpractic treatments and herbal remedies have helped me stay healthy this year, without having to go to the doctor for antibiotics. I want to try to start taking more preventative measures to avoid getting sick. My allergist has recommended that I use a sinus rinse daily, I haven’t done it at all but I want to start. Plus I still want to get those morning yoga routines in there.

Money Goals

Ooooh I’ve got them. For the whole year obviously but for January I’m really striving to cut back my shopping and eating out. I’ve made it through this week with not eating out for lunch once! New Years Eve is a different beast as you’re bound to spend a little dough. I’m really going to shoot for the 2nd week of January to be the same. And try to fit in a No-Spend week in there too. I always find no-spend weeks kind of funny, because you have to spend a little in order to have one. After cleaning out my fridge, I have to stock up on groceries before I can have a successful no-spend week. I have a bunch of produce frozen in the freezer, but I definitely want to give a little meal planning a shot for that week and see where it gets me and if I can make it work. I really suck at meal planning.

In addition to my goals on not spending money. I also plan on spending a little. I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting an Etsy shop for some jewelry. I made friends and family jewelry for christmas and I really loved doing it! So much so that I decided I really want to give it a shot. So I’m going to throw down some (more) money on jewelry making supplies and try to get my butt into gear and make some necklaces. Hopefully by the end of January I can have an Etsy shop up and running! Once I get things all situated, I’ll be reaching out to some of my fashion blogger friends out there who’d like to collaborate!

2014 in Review!

It was a odd year I feel like. So many things good and bad happened.

Great things! 

One great thing?? I made the switch to lifestyle on The O Guide, it honestly was the best thing I ever did. As much as I love sharing sexual health related topics, I enjoy blogging so much more now. My creative juices are always flowing! I do plan on incorporating more sexual health topics in the future!

I got to take an AMAZING trip to Argentina to visit my boyfriend. It was beyond amazing and so great to spend nearly a month with him. It really brought us closer, I would have been completely content with relocating to Argentina…I mean there’s so much wine! But I’m insanely excited that he decided to relocate to England instead. Its the one place in the world that I’ve always dreamed of living and next year I’ll get my chance!

Picture From British Council

Speaking of London! I got accepted into the University of Greenwich, for their Masters in Strategic Marketing program! One year of a masters program there is cheaper than going to school here. Although I have to save up lots of money for my visa, it will be well worth it in the end.  Ummm…yeah that is the campus. I could DIE!

Like I mentioned in my December Budget Recap, I paid off my car! And my credit card! I’ve really worked hard the last few months to pay down some of my debt and get money into my savings account. Paying off my car was seriously like the BEST. DAY. EVER. I can’t wait to sell it…ha.  So not only have I paid down two decent sized amounts of debt (totally about $3500) I also bought a plane ticket to Argentina and still had money left over in my savings. Overall I feel like I did great moneywise in 2014. And I know 2015 is only going to be better. Although it will hurt when all the money I saved is going to just be dropping like little $1000 flies when I start booking my move…

On the Downside 😦

Not everything was great in 2014. In September, my grandmother passed away. It was very unexpected as she went in for a routine surgery that she would have been back home shortly after it was complete. It wasn’t the case. Although its always hard to loose someone, we all knew that she ultimately was in a better place. This Christmas was a little less Christmas-y without her.

I’m still apart from my boyfriend. As much as I’d like to jump the pond right this instant and start our lives together now. Its just not possible, 2014 was up and down with his job and location and starting a long distance relationship was challenging. But we keep our eye on the prize and 2015 will hopefully be easier…just a little more waiting to do.

I still haven’t managed to accomplish my goals in regards to my weight. I know, I know, I don’t need to try so hard to loose weight, people say I’m thin as it is. But for me, its important for me to feel confident in my body. I’ve been to a point where I really was super happy with it and I haven’t been there in a few years. I’d like to get back to it!

I had to let a friend down about her wedding. I was asked to stand up in a wedding this summer of one of my closest friends, but in September, my sister got engaged and booked her wedding venue…on the same day. It put me in a difficult spot but I’m grateful that my friend was really understanding about everything. It’s not a fun situation to be in.

I realized I have a serious shopping problem. It was really getting out of control. I’m starting to reign it in, thank goodness. But I realized that a lot of it is a result of a. boredom, b. the people I’m around, and c. having new financial “freedom” (which really wasn’t freedom, because I should have been paying off my debt instead). It really made me take a hard look at my habits, myself and the people I surround myself with. This was a good and bad thing. Bad that I was shopping so much, but good that it made me kick myself in the ass.

Overall, 2014 was a true year of discovery. But 2015 is going to be an adventure.