New Years resolutions

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It's coming up to that time of year again where people begin to evaluate the past year and think about how amazing or rubbish it really was. If it was rubbish for you, then most people turn to making a New Years resolution list, designed to motivate and bring change to your life for the following year. According to Wikipedia, a New Years resolution is a "commitment that a person makes to one or more personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit." 

Over the past couple of days I've been thinking about what changes I would like to make in 2013 to make me feel happier and more positive with my life which I've listed below.

• Spend more time with family and friends
• Be honest and open with the people closest to me about my hopes, dreams and plans for the future
• Stop worrying about everything
• Start thinking about the positive things
• Stop caring/worrying about what other people think or say about me
• Improve social skills
• Eat healthier
• Get a job
• Blog more often
• Keep myself busy
• Study more to achieve better grades

"Be who you want to be, not who others choose to see"

Don't let anybody else effect your goals and aims for 2013. It's your life. Only you can control it. One of the main things that I really need to do in 2013 is to stop trying to make everyone around me happy, but instead focus about my own happiness. That may sound incredibly selfish to you, but you can't make everyone happy. You've got to do what's best for you before you start thinking about other people. It's important to understand that they can look after themselves. This may be hard to accept, but otherwise you'll just end up living in constant conflict with yourself which is not healthy. Your resolutions should reflect you and nobody else. Please remember that.

I know this is quite a different post from me. I've deleted lots from it because it always seems way to personal. And I'm a little anxious to publish this, but I just thought it would be an interesting and hopefully helpful post. Please let me know what you think about it and whether or not you'd like me to do similar 'lifestyle' posts. Also, please feel free to comment on post ideas and topics we could blog about. We'd love to here your opinion on what you want, after all you're the ones who read this blog. Oh, and sorry for rambling so much! Have a lovely day.

DIY

Hey! so today i thought it would be a good idea to go out and do some shopping for jars, as you do, and i found the perfect 3. I got these from Cargo and they were reduced from £3 to £2.80. I have seen this picture on tumblr which simply says 

"Start 2013 off with an empty jar and fill it with notes about good thing that happen. On new years eve, empty it and see what awesome stuff happened that year"

I generally really want to give this a go, keeping this in mind this then gave me the idea to have 2 extra jars, one for 'savings' and one for 'charity money', this will make me happier as i feel i am always doing something productive. Anyway i will begin showing how i developed these cute looking jars.

Step 1: Find/buy a jar. Places you could purchase jars like this are:

Argos

Cargo

Robert Dyas

Amazon

Ikea
A jam jar shop

etc.

Step 2: I then went onto a editing website called: http://www.picmonkey.com/  and uploaded a white picture, you can get these by just putting into Google 'white picture'. I then added text with my favourite font and inserted 'Savings' 'Charity Money' and 'Happy moments and memories'. I then chose a little animal to go with each of them. To get this go to the sidebar and click on the icon with the heart and speech bubble, then scroll, scroll and scroll until you reach 'ordinary beasts' and choose which one. This part is optional, you don't have to add an animal, you can add any image you like, i just thought this would be cute. 

Step 3: I then Googled 'Cath kidston patterns' and picked the

 'cathkidston_provencerose.jpg' 

shown below. 

I printed 3 of these images off along with the pink Provence rose which acts like a border. behind the blue.

Step 4: I then cut these images up which were, The text, blue Provence rose and pink Provence rose.

Step 5: We are nearly done, yay. Now you need to layer all the images.

• Stick the text onto the blue Provence rose
• Stick the blue Provence rose onto the Pink Provence rose (using Prit-stick)
• Use sellotape to stick on the final layered image onto the side of the jar.

and you are DONE!

Extra: I also added a circular image to the top of the jars, this took me quite a while as i took forever trying to get the size right. Basically just print out the image you want to go in the top of the jar and trace a rough circle and keep experimenting with it until it fits. 

Why do this? 

I want to do a savings jar simply because i spend my money way too quick and once i have spent it, it makes me upset that i have no more money. This being the case i am going to start saving.  If i just put £2 in there a week just to keep it going, this will soon add it, it will also make me feel extra good knowing that i still have money saved. I recommend not to put too much in the jar at once or too little, you just want something in between, it's a personal amount to you. I chose the pig as it reminded me of the piggy banks, cute hey?

 This links to the quote i shared with you at the beginning and this honestly is such an amazing idea, trust me. I obviously haven't done it yet but just think about it, writing on a little piece of paper a word, phrase or a little story which will enlighten you when you open it back up on new years eve 2013. It will feel amazing and actually give you a reason to love your life. Yes everyday might be a bit much as something good might not happen but even the tiniest things that make you happy, just write it down and pop it in. This also gives me motivation for the year as my GCSE's are coming up and i would love to right a note saying i have passed them all.

 And last but no means least the charity savings. Doing this is going to make me feel amazing, knowing i am saving some money to help charities is an all round accomplishment. In this jar i am going to save pennies and 5p's, not much but they do add up after a while. Even though i am unsure of what charity i am going to be donating this too, i might vary it and separate it into many different ones as they are all important.

So if you are going to give this a go, just go for it, it's a new year and a new start for everyone, try something different and unique and you will feel better about yourself. Please do try and do the charity savings one as the more people get the idea and raise money the more we can help,
Good luck :-)