Happy New Year World!!!

I've been away from this blog for a long time. I've thought about coming back to it countless times but just haven't. But it is on my New Year's Resolution to write more and I'd like to revive this blog as an outlet to that endeavour.

My New Year's Resolutions for 2011 are:

1) To write more :)
I used to do this all the time, with words flowing out of my mind faster that I could type. But as I've stopped, its become harder and harder and more often than not, I'm staring at a blank Word document trying to put words down and there is just nothing coming out. It's been a life-long dream of mine to become a published author but at the rate I'm going, its not going to happen if I continue this way. So, to re-ignite my creativity, I'm hoping to write more this year. About anything and everything and I guess the easiest way to start would just be to write about my life and daily shenanigans.

2) To write monthly articles about weddings/wedding planning.
This is a recent passion of mine and something I want to build a portfolio of. I'm not sure exactly where I plan to take my portfolio but I do think it'd be mad cool to get a job writing for a bridal magazine/website. So hence, must build portfolio. The goal is to write one article every month, by the end of the month, of about 500 - 1000 words on some aspect of weddings/wedding planning. The articles will be published on my other blog Sweet Pea Soirees.

3) To get out of debt!
Last year I was unemployed for about six months in the early half of the year while I tried to launch my own wedding planning business. While I did get to work on some weddings last year, unfortunately, I didn't make enough money to support myself and ended up making a horrible mess of my finances. NG too was between jobs and I eventually had to bite the bullet and get a proper job. I tried looking for things that were wedding planning related but without much experience in the field, no one was looking to hire to me and I was over qualified for shop jobs. In desperation, I joined a law firm. The pay has been pretty decent and I've been incredibly lucky to find a boss and colleagues that I get along well with. Unfortunately, that debt I'd accumulated during my unemployed state still looms over my head, even though things are much better now and I've been trying to pay off my debts since I started working again. This year's goal involves saving a bit more money to put towards getting out of debt and never being as broke and miserable as we were in the first half of 2010.

4) To be a good mom
Lol, yes, I am preggers and about 6 months along now. NG and I certainly hadn't planned to have kids so soon and I'm thankful that I got pregnant after things started to look better for us finance-wise. But money aside, I really hope to be a good parent from the outset. Growing up, I had a lot of issues with my mother and to a large extent, I still do. I think I've come to terms that she just is the way she is but in so many ways, I have promised myself that I will be different when it comes to raising my own kids. I just hope I put into practice all that I had promised myself.

And finally, my perenial favourite:

5) To get back into shape.
With the madness that was 2010, I really let myself go in terms of taking care of my body. I've eaten a lot of junk and put on weight and have all but stopped exercising regularly. I hope to change that this year, especially after the baby is born in April.