looking back, looking ahead

2013 has been a transitional year for me.  I feel like I’ve grown up a great deal, and have a better idea of what I really enjoy doing.  I started blogging properly, which is probably the most important change to me!  Since only August I’ve got to know so many new people online and feel like we’re virtual friends already, and coming up with new ideas sartorially and in my writing has been a really enjoyable challenge.  Everyone knows how great the internet is for learning, and I genuinely do feel like I learn something new every day!  Here’s to blogging throughout 2014 ;D More on my blog goals later, now for the personal stuff!

For probably the first time in my life I feel like I have a great circle of friends (circle being the key word here, I’ve always had an individual best friend at least) and I know that I will always have a group of girls to have a laugh with, and friends who I can really talk to.  We’ll all be spending New Year’s Eve together tonight, which I’m really looking forward to!  Some of these lovely girls have been on this blog already, and I’m sure their faces will be popping up more in future.  ‘Tis the price to pay for hanging out with me 😉

I met my boyfriend Dan in November 2012, and since then we’ve gotten to know each other so well and had so much fun.  We’ve been to loads of places, had so many laughs and generally just chilled and been idiots together.  I’ve told him he’s guest posting on here sometime, so watch this space!

My Duke Of Edinburgh Bronze award was one of my main time sucks this year, as an evening each of voluntary work, skill (photography in my case) horse riding and dancing every week quickly ate into my time at home.  I’m always one to sign up for all sorts, and I definitely don’t regret doing my DofE at all!  Despite the blizzard conditions in March and the exhausting, stress-intensifying heat in July, both of our expeditions were so much fun and we all enjoyed resting our achy legs around the campfire at night.  I’m pretty sure memories of those weekends will stay with me forever!

I haven’t released as many knitwear designs in 2013 as in previous years, as I’ve had so much less free time.  Why did I think that 2 versions of a 4ply fine gauge top would be a quick little project? ;D This does mean, however, that I have a couple of designs in waiting, and I hope to work on much more manageable, time efficient projects in 2014 so that I can publish more designs to share with you knitters out there.   Everyone loves quick projects, so accessories and little pieces seem like a good idea all round!

As I mentioned before, (if you’ve made it to reading this point) I have a few blogging related goals for 2014.

• Attend blogger events/meetups.  If it feels like a community online, then I’m sure we’d all be bezzos immediately in real life!
• Collaborate with a small company.
• Get to know more of you guys, and better.  Blogger chats on twitter seem to be the best way of going about this, so I hope to find even more blogs to read and comment on.
• Vary my blog content more.  In addition to OOTDs and ‘what I’ve been up to lately’, I’d like to write about my thoughts on more random things, and maybe share tutorials on things I like to do. It’d be nice to post more about food/fitness too, as it’s something I’ve become really interested in and it can’t do any harm to share!
• Gain bloglovin followers.  We all want that number to increase, no two ways about it!

As for other goals, I haven’t made ‘resolutions’ as such but there are a few things I’d like to do/continue in 2014.

• Run a 10K.  During this past year I’ve become more and more interested in fitness and exercise, and I usually workout 4 – 6 times a week.  I’ve really surprised myself with how I’ve managed to become one of the ‘sporty girls’, and was selected to represent school in a cross country comp for the first time this year!  10K is a distance that I can already run without too much struggle, but I’d just like to run a proper, official race, just because.  A half marathon would be the next step up but 21km is maybe a bit ambitious for now! We’ll see, wish me luck!
• On a similar note, I’d like to continue improving my fitness in general.  No particular goal in mind for this one, just keep toning those abs and shaping those arms, see how far I can get!
• Manage money better.  Is it really necessary to go for lunch and a froyo when nipping into town?  I’d like to save more this year so I’m going to be a bit stricter with myself, and try to be a savvy shopper using discount codes and shopping at the right places.  I fully anticipate there being many a detour from this idea, but I’ll definitely try my best. Willpower, I can do it!
• Organisation.  This really shouldn’t be difficult for a list writing fanatic like me, but just pulling myself together a little and using my time more efficiently would be good.
• And if I’ve got a spare minute in May or June, I’ve got a few GCSEs to fit in there too!

Earlier today I read a post from one of my favourite bloggers, Emily, about how she just wants to ‘do more’ in the new year.  The girl summed it up perfectly!  (Go read her blog btw, she’s superwoman no joke).  I want to blog more, go more places, work more, see more, and have lots of fun.

Wishing everybody a happy new year, and I hope you all achieve your goals and enjoy doing so!

lily x

p.s. Now I see why everyone’s writing such long posts today.  It’s somehow impossible not to!

p.p.s. all photos are from my instagram – @lilykatefrance if you fancy following for more random snapshots!