This year...

As an etsy seller I often buy from other etsy sellers and I met a woman who has truly inspired me this year. I bought some clip art from her and she sent me probably one of the nicest emails I have ever received.  It was about my art, she went on to say how much she loved it, how it should be in stores.  Her email sent me over the moon during a time when there was a lot of stress around me.  It came right before Christmas, and was truly the best Christmas gift I could have received, well that and the fact that my father's surgery was successful, two fantastic gifts I will never forget.

Since then she and I have become friends.  We chat on the phone, we email, and she has given me a ton of great advice.  One of the things she advised me was to write a letter to  myself or a friend and put down what I wanted to achieve during the year.  She said she wrote one last year and amazingly a lot of what she wrote down happened.  I thought I should write it on my blog and then I could check on it a year from now and see how I did.

So here goes.  Some things I want to do, change, add, delete from my life.

I want to continue to enjoy watching my son excel in sports.  This past year was a fabulous year for us to watch our child grow and change and play football like it was nobody's business.  Gary and I really felt proud watching him take his team to victory.  It's an amazing feeling to have and honestly I never ever imagined I would be a Mom to a little sports fanatic, but I am, and I'm thrilled.  He just started basketball and football will follow...lots of practices and games in my future.

I want to get back on the work out track.  I HATE working out.  I know there are some people that love it I am not one of them.  I do love how it makes me feel and the energy I get from it.  it is truly amazing.  So I plan to exercise regular and keep my weight where it needs to be.  In 2011 I lost 13 pounds.  I have managed to keep it off and I plan on keeping it off by watching my portions and exercising!

I really want to research how to market my etsy business better.  I have had 158 sales and that makes me proud but I want to do better.  I'd like to get 100 sales this year in my etsy shop.  I'm hoping that with the economic recovery and some focus on marketing myself that  I will succeed.   It is an amazing feeling when I sell something it makes me really happy.  And I need to be happy because well it feels so much better than being sad or stressed and because I'm going to be 50 this year!!!

I need to read more, pack my lunch more often (so I can read at work), save money.  I want to get my kitchen redone this year and need to start socking a lot of money aside.

I'd like to take a Kelly Rae Roberts class.  She has some classes that will help me meet my above etsy goal but I need to save for them.

I'd like to be more passionate about my day job.  I have been struggling with feeling good about my job, perhaps because of all the stress in my personal life in 2011 carried over into my work life, but I need to get that love that I once had for my corporate job back.  I'm really working on that hard.

I want to read to my son every night, inspire him to read, give him the love and encouragement he needs to be a happy boy.  Tonight he's a little crabby (lack of sleep) so we are going to read and then off to bed he goes.  I love that little guy more than anything even when he has his crabby pants on ;o)

So we'll see how I do with all my goals.  And I'll be posting updates on them throughout the year.  So if you see this blog, do me a favor, check out my etsy website, make suggestions of something maybe you'd like to see created there.  Like my Facebook page, and follow me on twitter (SingleLMichele).  If you think your friends may like my art...send them my link and who knows maybe I will make that 100 sales target I have set for myself.  But if I don't I'm not going to punish myself.  It's a target, it's not a matter of life and death...I'm actually proud that I met one of my goals...writing this blog.

Thanks to my new friend Beth at GreatGraphics for she has truly been an inspiration (she is on etsy and creates some awesome clipart!).

MicheleWithASingleL