Last year, while it sped by I kept slowing tracking all my goals for the year. Now, my goals these days, are never about saving or losing weight. I gave up on those goals awhile ago and focused instead on fun goals. I mean, saving and health should always be happening, so why put it as a goal?
I have three areas that I was "tracking" last year; reading, cooking and scrapping. Let's take a look.
Reading
For several years I had a goal to read 50 books. I rarely hit that goal. No matter how hard I tried I just couldn't get in 50 books a year. If I turned the boob tube off more I may get it, but that's not likely to happen. So, I changed my goal to 45 books.
I hit it this year! 46 books. Some good, some bad. Here were my favorites (these are based on reviewing my books in good reads and these are the ones I didn't have to open to remember the story. That tells me I liked the book. Some of the others I had really no idea until I read the short description).
Favorites - in no particular order
- The Women - Kristin Hannah - What's not to love about this book? It was everyone's favorite this year and Kristin Hannah does such an exceptional job of telling the story of a female nurse in the Vietnam war.
- The Paper Bracelet - Rachael English - Fascinating of a nurse's life in a Ireland Mother and Baby home. Unwed women who were pregnant were sent here to have babies, and then those babies were sent off for adoption. This woman saved the little bracelets from many and with the help of her granddaughter track down some of those babies. Such an incredible story.
- The Guest List - Lucy Foley - My new favorite author this year. This book blew me away. It's a mystery and up until the "whodunit" was revealed I had no idea. I immediately read The Paris Apartment right after this book. And while that was a decent book, I was aware of her recipe for writing and I was a bit more a ware of whodunit. Still good, but not as good.
- The Tattoo Artist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris - wow. This one was heavy. Like most WWII stories it has some serious stuff that as a human you just don't want to read about. It's brilliantly written and such a beautiful story of survival, but the going's ons in this camp was heartbreaking. I cried and cried reading this one.
- The Lost Letters of Aisling - Cynthia Ellingsen - A grandmother requests to return to her home in Ireland before she dies. Letters are found and the granddaughter helps uncoil some tragic events in her grandmother's past. Gorgeous story of love. And I loved the setting in Ireland.
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows - Another WWII era book, this one post war. A writer looking for her next book topic. She receives a letter from a guy in Guernsey and it starts a correspondence with the writer and people from Guernsey. The literary club was set up as an alibi when members were breaking curfew. As the writer corresponds with residents she starts to understand and learn what they dealt with during the war.
There you have it. My favorite books.
Cooking
Now, let's talk food.
In 2023 I made 166 new recipes. I thought that was pretty close to 170 so why not make 170 my goal for 2024. When I say that out loud I'm a bit shocked. That's a lot of new recipes. I've shared this with a with friends and family and I am surprised how many of them said this inspires them to cook more.
I keep it pretty consistent throughout the year with the number of recipes. May was travel month and so you see only 3 recipes. I suspect there could have been more, but prior to travel I hate cooking for some reason.
This next year I haven't officially decided to make it a goal, but I'll be reaching for 170 again.
Scrapbooking
And lastly the scrapbooking goal. This one I tried something new this year and wanted to focus on using some of my stash I hardly used, but had a ton of.
I wanted to do at least 500 pages. Completely doable when this is your creative outlit and it's how you spend a lot of your after work hours. There's something about scrapping that resets me at night after work. I tried to spend at least an hour in the scrapbook room each night. Sometimes I'd scrap, sometimes I'd just go through my stash. That seems to trigger page ideas and starts the cycle of scrapping again.
Four elements I have a ton of and wanted to use was enamel dots, washi tape, frames and stamping. I got into stamping and had a bunch of stamps, but rarely used them. I figured having it as a goal would help and it kinda did.
Enamel dots
These little guys are added to pages as enhancements. They're usually small and are usually tucked in and around embellishments. I had a TON of these.
My goal was to use them on at least 20% of my pages (I could get into how I track these, but suffice it to say, I'm a data nerd and I just do). I ended up at 16%. I'm going to keep this goal again this year and really focus on using those up and, preferably, not buying any new ones (its so hard).
Washi Tape
Washi tape is just decorative tape that can be added to pages as borders, setting a platform for your photo etc. I have a drawer full and really wanted to use some of it up. My goal was to use this 15% of time. My end result was 8%. Clearly need to focus more on this one.
Frames
How I ended up with so many frames is beyond me. I mean, I know I bought them, but not until I put them all in the same drawer did I realize what a stash I had. My goal was to use them at least 5% of the time. My end result was 6%. The ONLY goal I made. I'm going to continue with this goal as well.
Stamping
I have a ton of stamps. I took a class in stamping early in the year and that motivated me to start using them more. I learned about inks and techniques and that made it less daunting. My goal was to use stamps 25% of the time. My end result was 18%. Not great, but not horrible either.
So that's it! Let's see what 2025 has to offer
