2013 Goal Wrap Up

2013 was my second year of setting long-term goals for myself, and I'm excited to share how things have gone this past year.

1. Work out twice a week. I met this goal for all but a few months of the year. Many of you already know that I had to let a lot of things slide this fall to keep up with a demanding freelance writing load, wedding happenings, and craft fairs. Working out was one of those things that just didn't happen sometimes. However, overall, I'm still pretty happy about my progress with this area of my life. Also, Jake and I finally got an exercise bike in December, which is something that we've been talking about doing ever since we bought a house (two and a half years ago). It is already completely revolutionizing indoor workouts around here.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I have done a good job sticking to a weekly schedule for cat chores and daily tasks. I've followed more of an every other week schedule for the other cleaning that has to get done around the house at least a few times per month. While it would be amazing to fit everything into a weekly schedule, I'm not sure that it's feasible for a house of this size with three cats and me and Jake both working full-time. That's okay. I've still made a lot of progress in this area of my life.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. This just doesn't happen this year. It was a letdown after making so much growth in my earnings during 2012, but it's simply the nature of passive income earning. I also didn't have the time to devote to building and maintaining passive earnings in 2013 that I did in 2012 due to expanding my freelance client load so much and the time that I had to spend elsewhere (again, wedding). I think I could have had higher numbers in the fall if I'd been able to write new seasonal articles and do more promotion...but I didn't. My numbers were still solid, and I'm confident that I can maintain, if not continue to increase, my earnings in 2014.

4. Maintain a minimum of 2,000-3,000 words per day on weekdays. I've already discussed at some length this year that I solidly met this goal, which was a huge accomplishment. No matter what type of writing you do, if you're serious about doing it full-time, this should be your minimum. The bottom line is that you simply won't pull substantial earnings and won't improve your craft if you aren't maintaining this level. No, it certainly wasn't always easy, and there have been times this year that I seriously burned out. But I kept with it and am stronger for it.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I ended up with 9 craft fairs for 2013. I'm glad that I stuck with 9 solid shows and didn't take a chance on a new one just to hit that number. I recently figured out my total for the year so I could file my state sales tax and was shocked to learn that I earned more at shows in 2013 than 2012. It didn't always feel like I was achieving that. There are still changes that I want to make for 2014, but I have a lot more confidence going into the next year of shows than I did when I wrapped up my 2013 shows a month ago.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. If you've been keeping up with my goal updates, you already know that I changed the focus of this goal during the summer when I purchased Lightroom. Shooting in RAW and using Lightroom almost exclusively for my photo editing has taken my photography to a whole new level. I do still continue to learn new Elements skills as needed, and I continue to open Picasa (my old default) to do simple editing (largely adding borders and text to photos for articles, taking screen captures, and making collages) pretty regularly as well. I've found a mix that works for my photo editing and am excited to keep learning new Elements and Lightroom skills as I further my photography.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I have Zazzle, deviantART, and SmugMug accounts going, and I launched my Etsy photography shop in September. Getting all of these accounts / shops going was something of an accomplishment in and of itself. I have had a couple sales. It would have been nice to push new products and do more holiday promotions in the fall, but again, that just didn't happen this year. As I have so much in place now, it won't be hard to further it in 2014.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. I had reached 4 challenges by my third quarter check in during September. Not long after that, our team decided to drop the challenge requirement to 4 challenges per year. With everything else going on this fall, I was happy to keep my total of 4 and not push a couple more of them. I found plenty of other ways to challenge myself in 2013 and don't feel like I'm lacking in any way.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling lines/items. This concept remains something of a struggle for me. I am so happy to have items and lines that do well, but I also want to keep trying new ideas. It's tough to find a balance to keep my creative side happy and still keep my shop going. I know that many of you face similar challenges. While it's nice not to get crazy stressed out during these holiday rushes, it's also nice not to stress about creating loads of inventory all year long. Overall I did a good job meeting this goal, particularly during the times that it mattered the most, namely the fall / holiday show season and the height of holiday sales on Etsy. There were times that I had to keep items off of Etsy so I could have them in stock for shows, but that's okay.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. I am very happy with the new branding that I created for 2013 and am sticking with it for 2014. I have a very good idea what is and isn't working about my business and am ready to make some changes for 2014 that will hopefully be for the better and that will build on my branding and the other good things that I do have in place for my business.

How did your 2013 goals go? I have been reading a lot of great goal wrap up posts the past couple weeks. If you wrote one, feel free to leave a link the comments!

Stay tuned tomorrow for my 2014 goals!

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Memories, Dreams, and Reflections 2013

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm participating in this fun meme for the third year in a row. Enjoy!

1) Me

 My friend Steve took this picture in April.

2) I Love You

 I love this picture of Jake because he's really in his element.

3) Still Laughing

 I could fill several posts for this prompt alone with pictures of the little guys, but these were two pictures that came to mind right away.

4) Winter Wonderland

 We had our first winter 13-14 snow in November...not cool. (And we had...a lot of snow in December. Still not cool.) Good thing it's pretty.

5) Birthday

 Jake and I went to Lake Geneva for my 30th birthday in March. We enjoyed dinner and dessert at one of our favorite restaurants in Milwaukee, The Pasta Tree, the night of my birthday.

6) Friends

Jake and I are blessed to have a lot of great friends in Milwaukee.

7) I Was Inspired...

 Milwaukee continues to inspire me every single week.

8) Spring Fever

 This picture is from the first truly warm day that I got to take pictures this spring. It was also the day that my friend Jen was blessed to have her wedding.

9) Travel or Vacation

 The furthest that Jake and I traveled this year was Chicago. That's kind of hard to believe. As I've either lived in Chicago or been visiting it every few months my entire life, it doesn't feel like a big excursion. Hopefully our travels will take us a little further in 2014.

10) Summer Days

 I'm blessed to have so many amazing memories of picture taking excursions and other happenings around Milwaukee this summer with family and friends.

11) A Day In My Life

 It is extremely rare that this does not happen at least once a day. You can read more about a day in my life right here.

12) All Smiles

 Happy Bethany getting ready for the posed church pictures after the ceremony.

13) Autumn Harvest

14) Family or Home

15) Celebrate

16) Let's Do It Again

I'm looking forward to having some non-wedding related fun with my brother and sister-in-law now that they are married and done with crazy wedding planning.

17) I Miss You

 I'm cheating and going way back in the archives for this one. I've been very fortunate to see a lot of my immediate and extended family multiple times and spend a lot of time with my Milwaukee friends this year. So I was at a bit of a loss. That's a good thing. These are two of my best friends from undergrad, and I would give a lot to get to hang out with them once in a while.

18) Beautiful

19) Dress Up

20) Macro

21) Holidays

22) My Favorite

Surprise, right?

23) Don't Ever Change

 I hope that these guys keep their kitten spirit for many years to come.

24) Just Because

It's become something of a tradition to post a duck photo for this prompt, so I'm going with it again this year.

25) Hopes and Dreams

This is the last picture that I took with my kit lens. That was in May. I can't wait to see where I am with my photography at this point next year.

I hope that you enjoyed reading about my memories, dreams, and reflections for 2013. Stop by Ashley Sisk's blog to check out other submissions for the meme.

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some 2013 highlights

Happy Christmas Eve!

I wanted to take a little time today to highlight just a few of the notable things that happened in 2013.

 In December 2012, I got my first SLR, and Jake and I adopted two kittens, Apollo and Ares. I was beyond excited about both of these happenings, but I had no idea how much they would change my life in 2013. Getting an SLR is has empowered me in a way that I never would have anticipated, and our little guys have amazing personalities that keep us smiling and laughing every day. If you're on the fence about either of these decisions in your life, I highly recommend taking the plunge.

I'll write more about my 2013 goals during the first week of January, but this one deserves special mention here. I achieved my goal of writing a minimum of 2,000-3,000 words per weekday. All year. This was another extremely empowering thing in my life this year. I had some of the busiest months of my entire life this fall (which says a lot because I worked full-time, went to grad school part-time, and started my Etsy jewelry shop while my husband was in med school). These fall months taught me how to be efficient in pretty much everything that I do in a whole new way and that includes my writing.

 

In 2013, I saw I'm Not a Pilot seven times and saw my brother perform with 3 different groups in 2 different cities on more than half a dozen different occasions. I saw two musicals: The Book of Mormon in Chicago and Wicked in Milwaukee. I got to see the MSO perform twice, including a performance at the Basilica in Milwaukee. I also saw Mumford and Sons and David Cook, and I got to see a live comedy show with the cast of Archer. Will 2014 top this staggering list? Only time will tell.

 I feel like I talk a lot about how blessed Jake and I are to have so many friends in Milwaukee. We had a hard time finding people to relate to and socialize with during the four years that we lived in Iowa City. Four years is a long time, especially when you live in a place with very little close family and no old friends. Milwaukee has been a completely different experience. We are constantly out and about here with a wide variety of different people doing everything from eating out to going to concerts to taking brewery tours.

My brother got married to an amazing woman who I'm honored to call my sister-in-law. I was blessed to see a lot of my immediate and extended family multiple times in 2013 for the wedding and wedding-related events in the fall as well as my dad's 60th birthday party over the summer.

I took...a lot of pictures. I don't have a total count, but it's somewhere in the range of 15,000-16,000 shots. I get a lot of questions about photography, particularly on the topic of improvement. The bottom line is that if you want to improve in something, you have to get out there and work on it. Every single week.

The path to a career as a physician is a long uphill road. While a lot of aspects of it have gotten better each year, 2013 wasn't just a couple more baby steps. It was a huge leap. It's hard to believe that Jake and I are finally nearing the end of this very long road. 2013 has not been an easy year, but it is one of the best that I've had in a long time.

What are some of your 2013 highlights? If you wrote a post about this topic, please feel free to leave a link!

2013 craft fair update

Three shows down, two shows to go. As far as sales go, the first show wasn't great, the second show was solid but not amazing, and the third show was good. All of the shows have been well run and generally enjoyable, which is refreshing, because we all know what it's like to do shows that aren't a lot of fun for any number of reasons.

I get pictures like this when I vend next to people that I know.

And then I get to take pictures like this when things slow down in the afternoon. If you vend shows, you know how there is almost always a slower period later in the day.

I made a few minor changes to my display this year, but it is largely the same as what I did last year.

As I mentioned previously, I did decide to add a little tree and button music ornaments. You see the flowers in the above booth shot (front left)? I swapped them out for this display. I'll switch it up again for the spring shows.

Usually I take show pictures with my cell phone or point and shoot, but I've been bringing the SLR with me so I can get some more professional shots.

Right now I have my button magnets on a single display where people can pick and choose. I've been thinking about creating a similar display to this one with large packaged sets and a handful of smaller two or three button sets so people can still mix and match a little if they like. Any thoughts?

When you stare at your display for hours and hours, it's really funny what you end up noticing.

Sometimes you resort to things like browsing Instagram when you don't really know your neighbors and things are slow. You also get to see how I cover my dollar store storage bins to create raised platforms.

For the Sunday show this past weekend, I had to create a long display instead of an open square display for the first time in more than a year. It wasn't nearly as much of a challenge as I feared.

It's interesting taking pictures of other people's displays for a change.

That pile of F-bombs sold in less than an hour on Sunday. Crazy, right?

How are your holiday craft shows going?