Simplify

Lately, I've really been feeling the urge to simplify.  I want to purge the things in my life that I don't need.  This includes all aspects of my life- what I eat, my closet, our home, and how I spend my time.  After Christmas, I felt like there was so much clutter in my life.  We live in a small house with very limited storage, so there always seems to be too much stuff and not enough room.  R has a "we might need it in the future" mentality, which has rubbed off on me a bit.  I would love to go through every item in our home and only keep the things we need or love.

I also want to clean out my closet.  I am making an effort to dress in a more mature and sophisticated way.  No more jeans and fitted tees!  That will start with a good closet de-clutter.  My drawers are stuffed to the brim with clothes, but I feel like I rotate the same basic pieces every few weeks.  That means I need to git rid of a lot of clothes.  My search for a new wardrobe was inspired by this photo found on Pinterest (I can't find the original source):

When I stumbled across this picture, I was amazed that so many great outfits could be created using just a few simple basics.  So begins my search to build a minimalist wardrobe.  To start with, I bought a super cute pair of leopard print ballet flats.  I need some flats in my life.

There are many areas in my life that need a good cleansing.  I'm hoping 2013 will be there year that I have less and appreciate it more.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Campbells!

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration at the Inn where I work.  Because I was working our event, I got to invite R and spend New Year's with him.  We had a fantastic dinner and drank champagne at midnight.  Definitely better than last year which ended in a trip to the hospital after getting sick at the Avett Brother's concert.  But, I digress...

This post is all about resolutions.  I've never been very good at keeping my New Year's resolutions (let's face it, who is?), mostly because I forget what they even are.  This year, I'm hoping that documenting them on this blog will help remind me.  I also feel that these are measurable, while my past resolutions have been pretty vague.  So, without further adeiu...

2013 New Year's Resolutions

1. Sit down for a quiet time with the Lord three times a week.  I was SO bad at this last year.  I'm not sure if it was all the changes, being busy, moving, etc. but it felt like I was never able to catch up.  So I often felt I was "too busy" for a quiet time.  However, I was not too busy to watch all 8 seasons of The Office on Netflix, so that shows you where my priorities are.  I would also love to do a weekly devotion with R, but I feel that I should make it a habit to incorporate the three quiet times on my own first.

2.  Blog three times a week.  I would love to blog more than three times a week, but that just doesn't always happen.  So, three times a week it is!

3. Complete one DIY project a month.  'Nuff said.

4.  Be more productive with my time.  This is primarily in reference to the time spent between getting off of work and R getting home.  I normally use this time to catch up on some Netflix, take a nap, etc.  I would really like to use that time to be productive (clean the house, run errands, make dinner, exercise, etc.) so that I can spend quality time with R while he is home.

5.  Set monthly goals.  The girls over at A Beautiful Mess did a series of 4 monthly goals that they wished to accomplish.  They were sometimes bigger things like completely redo a room in their house, and they were sometimes little like bake a loaf of bread.  I would like to do this as well, mostly to be more productive with my time, but also so that I can look back and see what I've accomplished this year.

So, that is my list of New Year's Resolutions.  I'm looking forward to beginning!  What are your resolutions for 2013?

PS- Here are a couple pictures from the New Year's Eve Murder Mystery party.  Please ignore R's slightly drunken smile in the second pic, he had been awake since 6AM.