Happy New Year!

I'm back in the blogosphere! I'm feeling refreshed and ready for 2012. This year, I'm going to really focus on living life as I want to live it. I want to be a more peaceful, patient, and happy woman. I definitely want to be more productive. So, my 2012 resolutions:

1. Meditate every day, even if it's just five minutes spent listening to myself breathing.
2. Create (finish) two things every week, one of which I'd like to be a book and the other of which will probably be something sewn or knitted for myself.
3. Start an Etsy shop (to sell those hand-bound books!).
4. Focus more on my relationships with my family and friends - be present, not thinking about the next project or the book I'm reading.
5. Participate in Sew Weekly after finishing my SWAP (and possibly during, if anything coincides).
6. Stop eating dairy! I'm severely allergic, and I really can't just pop a Benadryl every time I want to have a cookie or creamy soup. Besides, most of that stuff is bad for me anyway!
7. Exercise every day, even if it's just 15 minutes of HIIT. Or an extra walk, yoga, hula hooping, whatever. I need to get moving when I'm not trapped at my desk in the office. It'll definitely boost my mood in the dark days of January. :)
8. Take a page out of Leah Dieterich's book and write a thank-you note to someone or something every day. If you haven't seen her website, check out thxthxthx and prepare to enjoy yourself immensely.
9. Organize my creative space. It's a disaster. Maybe I'll show you sometime, or maybe I'll just continue to hide it in my complete and utter shame. It's not a creative space. It's a dumping ground for things that inspire me, but which I am unable to find in the disaster that is that room. I have got to get that room together. It's getting difficult for me to find my rotary cutter and seam ripper in the clutter!
10. Go on a spending fast for a year. This is going to be the hardest one, but it's really necessary at this point in my debt. :( Here are my rules: I can spend money on needs (gas, groceries, phone, bills, etc), things I've already committed to (SWAP and Stagecoach), and a certain weekly amount ($40 I think) on trips to see A, dates when I do see her, and outings with friends. Anything more I want to spend, I'll have to earn in addition to my income (like selling those books in my Etsy shop that doesn't yet exist!).

Other things I want to do/try this year:

• Complete SWAP 2012
• Make a coat
• Participate in Me-Made June
• Knit something that's not a rectangle
• Learn how to sew with knit fabric
• Make a little black dress
• Learn how to draft my own patterns
• Make an inspiration board for my sewing room
• Make at least three items inspired by Pinterest
• Plan and make handmade Christmas gifts for everyone for Christmas 2012
• Make a petticoat
• Make a pencil skirt
• Fix, replace, or dump all the clothes in my closet that I don't wear or that are stained or ripped
• Do fabric printing or painting
• Dye fabric
• Make a full slip
• Use at least 10 of the patterns already in my stash

So, what about you? Do you share any of my resolutions? Do you think making resolutions on an arbitrary day is just a silly practice? Are you excited for 2012?!