Happy New Year! Reflection and New Goals

Happy New Year everyone!

Another year has come and gone. I've been thinking about things that I want to focus on and accomplish in 2014, and I thought it would be a good idea to look back at my resolutions that I made for this year.

Here were my blogging goals:

• Increase my number of readers - I did this. I have over 200 GFC followers and almost 150 on Bloglovin'. I didn't grow a ton, but that's okay. I'm not dedicating myself to growing my numbers as much as a lot of bloggers do.
• Post more consistently - I was really good about this for about the first 6 months of 2013. After that, things fell off again, and I was much more inconsistent.
• Improve the quality of my pictures and content - I feel a little more comfortable with both of these. My light box helps. I want to find different bulbs for it though. When I broke one of the original ones, I tried two different sets of bulbs. The first pulled really yellow, and the second set pulls a little blue.
• Make my posts more personal - I don't think I really did this.

I also made a few personal goals:

•  Reducing my makeup collection - I failed miserably at this, which isn't really a shock.
• Shopping my stash - I did an okay job of this. I did sort through and add a lot of items to my blog sale. (ANOTHER SHAMELESS PLUG: You can check out my blog sale here! I'm willing to negotiate, so let me know if you are interested in anything.)
• Buy less - Hmmmmm...I probably failed at this one too. I think I was a little more selective than I have been in the past, but I still bought a lot and bought some products that I shouldn't have.
• Get better organized and declutter - I made some decent strides with this. My office is still a mess more often than not, but things are starting to find homes. I also found some new pieces for other spots in the house that have made a big difference.
• Get into better routines - This didn't happen. I still don't have very good everyday/weekly routines.
• Eat better, exercise more, blah, blah, blah... - Sadly, my weight has gone up over the past year. That being said, I do feel like I'm eating a little bit better. My fiance and I started buying a community co-op produce bag every two weeks that encourages us to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.

For this year, I'm not going to group my resolutions into blogging and personal. I'm just going to list them all together.

• Be more consistent with blog posts - I'm going to try this one again. I'm going to work on scheduling posts for once a week. If I get far enough ahead, I'll try and tack on extra posts. 
• Reduce my stash of skincare, haircare, and body products - This is more realistic than trying to reduce my makeup stash. I have way too many body lotions. I picked up too many haircare/styling products throughout the year, and I don't use them enough to justify having them all. I also have a skincare routine that I'm pretty comfortable with, so I need to finish off the extras.
• Continue on my cruelty-free journey - I'm pretty happy with how far I've come with going cruelty-free, but there's always improvements to make. I want to finish off some products that I already own that aren't cruelty-free. I'm also working on replacing a lot of my home items with cruelty-free options. 
• Condense my wardrobe - I'm not quite ready to commit to a 10-item wardrobe, but I do want to limit my wardrobe. Instead of buying a ton of stuff, I want to start choosing a few nice pieces, particularly for work. 
• Keep decluttering/organizing - I go through phases with decluttering, but I do feel like I'm slowly winning the war. I want to keep making progress. 
• Try for those routines again - I've come to the conclusion that I like the idea of routines, but I need to work towards making my own. The Fly Lady ones are great, but I don't think they will work for me completely.  If I come up with something that I stick with, I'll let you know.
• Enjoy life more - There's too many days when I feel like I'm just floating through life or I'm in a funk. I'd like to work on changing that this year. 

I'm going to leave things off there. I hope all of you had a great 2013 and have an even better 2014. Let me know what your resolutions are if you are making any. I'd love to know!