On the final day of this year, I thought it might be pertinent to take a look over my shoulder and evaluate my progress.  Before I reveal my resolutions for 2017, I wanted to talk about how I fared with my 2016 resolutions.

Get my reading list down to 7 pages.

Oh how I chuckle when I read this resolution.  I have a running list of books I want to read on my computer, and when the year began it was sitting at eight pages long.  I thought that I would easily be able to shave off a page with a year of dedicated reading.  And this would be true, except of course that I forgot to factor in that I regularly add more books to the list.  And so now, despite a valiant effort and lots of books ticked off, the list has now grown to nine pages.  Ah well.

Finish off a few niggling spring cleaning jobs

This one is a bit of a mixed bag.  I had wanted to pick up some prints that I had framed, which I still haven’t done, because a) when I called the shop to check in on them they hadn’t been completed yet and b) I still haven’t heard back about them.

I had also planned to fix a lamp that had been broken for a year.  Really all the lamp needed was a new bulb and a few screws tightened. But after so many months of thinking about this job, I realised that the lamp had been broken for a year and I didn’t miss it one bit.  So instead of fixing the lamp, I threw it away and I haven’t looked back.

The final task was finally taking all the bags of items I had earmarked for donation to the donation bin.  I absolutely killed this one.  One at a time, every lunch break for nearly a month, I would take one bag to the op shop on my way back to work. And eventually the pile of bags shrank to nothing.

Visit a teppanyaki restaurant

No reasons or excuses. I just didn’t do this one.

Make at least three vlogs

I managed to make two vlogs: one about my trip to Oz Kink Fest and my Disney Tag vlog.  I just ran out of time to make any more.  Filming videos takes time, and time is something I didn’t have a lot of this year.  So only two videos got made in the end.

Buy less

I think I did an excellent job of buying fewer unnecessary items in 2016.  I went a bit nuts in the middle of the year, splashing out on new hoodies that I didn’t truly need.  There was also a number of ill-fated Daiso sprees.  But in general, I really cracked down on my discretionary spending and bought fewer impulse items.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNJcvy0Dk-v/?taken-by=nessbow64

Review some products for my blog

I knocked this one out of the ballpark.  I reviewed a whole mess of sex toys this year as well as the Thinx underwear. I absolutely loved doing these reviews, and I got so much fantastic feedback from them that I can’t wait to get into some more in 2017.

 

Try one new recipe a week

I didn’t exactly make one new thing a week, but I think I made roughly 52 new recipes this year.  I tried loads of new vegan recipes and made lots of meals I hadn’t tried before. I think my favourite recipe of the year was the oven-baked risotto.  It was a million times easier than stovetop risotto and infinitely more delicious.

 

Get my eyes tested and possibly get some new glasses.

I had an eye exam in April and it turned out I didn’t need new glasses.  Huzzah!

 

Start planning an overseas trip

Does “occasionally dream about going overseas and drool over friend’s holiday snaps” count as planning?  No?  Ok, in that case, this one is still yet to be accomplished.

Celebrate my birthday in style

My thirtieth birthday was fantastic.  I went with my parents to the Marilyn Monroe exhibit in Bendigo and geeked out hard.  I spent a night at The Windsor Hotel with my boyfriend and was absolutely pampered.  I had a Japanese meal with my closest friends.  It was epic and perfect and amazing.

 

Overall, I think I did a pretty darn good job.  Not everything went according to plan, but for the most part I made a decent effort at most of my goals.  I’m proud of how I managed in 2016.

 

How did you do with your resolutions?