New Year's Intentions 2014...

'Tis the season to recap where I ended with last year's intentions and what my new ones are for this year.  It wasn't a fully successful year with my 2013 intentions, but I made a decent go of it...not too shabby in a year full of major life changes, including an out-of-state move and a change in jobs!

2013 Recap

1) Learn stuff - take 3-4 classes for fun.  Did it!  I took a cooking class, a doodling class, and several online classes including (but not limited to) a photoshop class, a journaling class, and hand-lettering class. 

2) Take the vacation I earn.  Meh.  That's sort of a big ouch on that one, although it's mostly not my fault.  I had a week and change of vacation ready to go for a summer trip when I was at Archivers' and unfortunately when I left, not only did I not get to take that vacation, they also never paid out the time due to their Chapter 11 filing (argh).  Then when I got to World Market, I've been earning time, but for most of the time I've been there I either was in my probationary period and ineligible to take it, or in black out period for holiday time.  I did manage to sneak a couple of days in between those two.  So, mostly, I'm considering this a success (even if it is sort of a sad and depressing one).

3) At least 2 days a week, use my break at work to actually take a break and not do work!  Just so-so.  I was pretty good about this at Archiver's, and the last couple of months at World Market I've been better.  The first few months here, I absolutely was not though.   At least I'm getting back on track!

4) Make cards for every major holiday.  Did it!  Made it through even though I was pretty sure I wasn't going to make it for more than a few holidays!  May have cheated a tiny bit with the copy machine at Archiver's, but alas...they got done!

5) Make sure moving to Iowa doesn't prevent me from seeing friends & family.  Solid performance!  Since I moved here, I made a trip to Michigan, Cassy, Josh, Heather and Ashley have all been out to visit me, I've been back home a lot and even got Mom out here once.  I think this one is a pretty decent success. 

6) Read 52 books.  Close enough, considering.  I made it to 30 books, which considering the insanity I dealt with after the job change, I'm considering to be a fair accomplishment anyway. 



2014 Intentions

1) Keep up with my blog.  At least 4 posts a month. 
2) Keep up with my crafty plans...Project Life and cards for every major holiday.
3) Read 52 books.  I know it's probably a stretch, but I'm feeling unreasonable today.
4) Take at least 5 classes of some kind for fun (i.e. NOT work-related).
5) Take every opportunity to stay on track with my career goals...including getting transferred back to Chicago and talking to the right people about a position in HR.
6) Maintain a better work-life balance.  Take my days off, take my breaks, take my vacation, and don't bring too much crap home to do!

That's all for now!  :)

A Year of Cards...

Well, I've been utterly atrocious about updating my blog for a quite a while now.  I have every hope that I can get back on track in the new year, but that remains to be seen.  It's been so crazy at work, I just haven't had the time or energy to keep it current.  On the other hand, I recognize more daily that I need to figure out a way to MAKE time for it...for my sanity's sake.  So that'll probably be in my New Years' Intentions list for 2014 when I make one.  Anyway, I DID do some crafty stuff this year...I got my project life done up through the middle of October...and I completed all my cards for all the major holidays!  I didn't want to post the cards before people received them, so I decided to wait till the end of the year and post them all...here we go!

New Year's Card

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

Easter

4th of July

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Excuse the photography...it's all on my phone, and I just didn't have the heart to run them all through photoshop!  lol :)  Anyway...Merry Christmas all...more blogging again soon...hopefully :)