2021 Aspirations

 

Goodbye and good riddance to 2020 and Happy New Year 2021

It is 2021 and it is the perfect time to look at my aspirations for the coming year.

Health and Self Care

In 2020, I managed to loose a little weight.  I hope to continue on the path by continuing to look at my diet and eating  and also to do some more exercise.  I know I will never be the gym type, but I like walking and I want to up the walking I do this year.  Plus its good to get out in nature.

I want to look after my skin more.  I suffer from acne and bad skin so I want to address this in 2021.  I want to get into the habit of a simple skin routine.  Cleanse, tone  moisturise  and spf factor, plus weekly face masks.  I also want to moisturise my body more as I have found the older I get the more my skin dries out now.

I want to sleep better.  I am generally a good sleeper, but I do find I now need more sleep that is restful.  I want to try going to bed earlier and getting up earlier, plus I want to try and get out of the habit of having afternoon naps of a weekend.  I need to use nap time for better pursuits.  See below

Look after my mental health.  I have a depressive nature and some times I can feel really low and get really down.  I am becoming better at speaking to people when I am starting to feel down, but I still need to be more open.  2020 has shown me the people I can rely on and also that in dark times there is always light.  

Hobbies and Interests

I have a large amount of craft and art materials  and this year I want to get back into scrapbooking, card making and art.  I joined up as a Stampin Up demonstrator in July last year as a hobbyist but I have been thinking of how I can share my interest more.  I would like to utilise this little blog more and spread the word out on social media more that I actually do have a blog.  I have been formulating in my mind a schedule of blog posts and share my projects on Facebook and Instagram too.  

I want to showcase card making and paper projects using all my lovely Stampin Up goodies as well as well as get back into scrapbooking.  I have years worth of photos I want to scrapbook including Disney trips, other holidays, weddings, Christmas, food, day trips and of course my cats.

I also want to get more into art work, cross stitch and diamond painting this year as these are all interests that have gone on the back burner of late

Last year I wanted to read 60 books.  I was good but I only managed to read 31 books overall.  I think largely it is to do with not being in such a reading mood like I was in 2019.  I have been very tired after work, especially between March and June  when I was only one of four people in my team and also I have had other things take up my time, especially when Adam had his operation in October.  I haven't been able to utilise my local library due to Covid and I also stopped being part of Lauren and the Books Patreon book club as I did find I was buying the books but not actually getting round to reading them.  

I hope to read abit more in 2021 and I want to realistically read a book every week on average.  I want to continue with the Harry Potter series this year.  I managed the third three book this year. I did complete the His Dark Materials trilogy which I thoroughly enjoyed and I now have the Book of Commonwealth to read.  I want to read a few more classics this year and also abit more non fiction books.  

A couple of weeks ago I started to learn German again after many years.  I am learning on Duolingo.  I want to make sure that each day I practice for at least 15 minutes and by the end of the year I hope to at least be able to feel confident to speak a little if I ever end up gong back to Austria and Germany in the near future.  (or bump into Jurgen Klopp of course lol)

Last year I aspired to socialise more.  Unfortunately the coronovirus pandemic meant that instead of socailising, people had to social distance.  This is a phrase I have come to loath, along with the phrase The New Normal.  I do not want the new normal.  That would suggest that this is the way things will always be from now on.  I am hopeful that once the vaccinations available have been administered to the majority of people throughout the world, then my ideal of normality will return.  I want to be able to visit my friends and more importantly my family whenever and wherever I want without the worry of either catching the virus or unknowingly passing the virus on.  I want my husband to be able to go to watch his football team Aston Villa play at Villa Park and for him to meet up with his mate Brian who he hasn't  seen for nearly a year.  I want Adam to be able to play cricket when the season starts so he can be with his mates.  I want everyone to feel safe again.  The world has changed I know, but I am hopeful that things can return to normal as much as possible and the world can socialise as a whole again.

 Home and Garden

The period of furlough I had last June enabled me to make a start on organising my craft room space and reading room.  However, once back at work organising and clearing the house came to a stop again.  My plans the definitely came to a halt when Adam wasn't feeling well and his subsequent diagnosis and treatment.

All being well I want to kick start Operation House again in 2021.  This is to include the garden which we sadly neglected from September onwards.  A possible new shed is on my radar, plus a new Kallax unit  for the conservatory so I can organise my crafty stuff even more so I can be more productive.  My dream mostly is to have a clean and tidy conservatory in December 2021 so I can put up a Christmas tree and also to have a tidy and restful bedroom, newly decorated would be a bonus as I haven't decorated it since I moved in in 2004.  

General aspirations

If possible, I would like to travel again in 2021.  I still think travelling abroad will be difficult in 2021, but I am hoping that we will be able to travel within the UK once this new period of tiered lockdowns come to an end and it will be safe to do so.  My first visit will definitely be to visit by brother and sister in law in their new home in Oxfordshire.  They moved a week before Christmas and we haven't been able to visit them yet.  Also we would love to visit family in Devon and friends in Windsor.  I would also love to visit Yorkshire and Cumbria and Scotland .  We haven't been Up North since our wedding in September 2009 and I think we are long overdue a visit.

I love cooking and my book case of cookbooks is heaving with all the new books I have bought over the last couple of  years.  I want to start actually cooking from these cookbooks.  I did start a feature on this little blog of mine to highlight recipes undertaken from these books but that came to a halt .  I want to start that up again this year.  The cook books I am looking forward to cooking from in the next few months are Simply by Sabrina Ghayour (but then again, any recipes from her other four books would be great as well)   Cook, Eat and Repeat from Nigella Lawson, Pinch of Nom book three and also more vegetarian and plant based dishes using The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer , and  Deliciously Ella by Ella Mills.  

Spend less time on social media (unless it is to highlight my cardmaking/scrapbooking)

I have found that I have spent far too much time  perusing Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Youtube this year.  Time that could have been spent better on reading or actual card making, scrapbooking , cross stitching etc.  I used to follow loads of people on Instagram and Youtube, but I have actually had a major cull the last couple days as I found my feeds were getting too long and that my list of videos to watch was getting longer and longer and I know I will never have that much time to watch them all.  I have chosen my ten favorites Youtubers and unsubscribed the rest. I believe the  Ten Youtubers I have subscribed to provide enough content for me to watch each week.  My Instagram is only people I actually know, plus  few favourite people from Youtube that have instagram accounts and a couple of brands that I follow.  I am consciously restricting the amount I spend on Pinterest as I find that is a real time waster and making sure that the articles I pin are actually useful and beneficial.

Spend time doing the things I like and enjoy will definitely be good for my mental health in the coming year and that I am hoping to be in a good place in order to deal with everything that 2021 will bring.  

I felt that 2020 was a bit of a non starter year.  As if we have all been put in some sort of suspended animation.  2021 will have such high expectations for a lot of people.  I am slightly pessimistic and believe that things will not entirely go back to normal and we will have to wait for 2022 or even 2023 before thing go back to full normality.  But I am hopeful that 2021 will be a better year that 2020 has been

I wish you happiness, good health and best wishes for 2021

Love Lesley xx