30 Before 30 Goals Recap

Well, as of around 5:30am this morning, Mississippi time*, I am officially 30 years old. Yup. The big 3-0. Three whole decades of life. Honestly, it doesn’t feel like that long, or that big of a deal (though that won’t stop me from milking this milestone birthday for all that it’s worth – hence 2-week staycation 😀 ). A birthday means lots of things, but here on the blog it means looking over the goals I set last year for things I wanted to accomplish before I turned 30. So here we go:

1. Host 6 brunch gatherings. I hosted 5 of these, which is pretty good. I also hosted some movie nights, so I’m going to count this as complete.
2. Make jam and/or flavored butter and/or applesauce from scratch. Yes! This happened, too. I made strawberry jam with Ian’s mom, and crockpot applesauce from scratch on my own. The jam was better.
3. Pay off debt! I have made progress on this, but it isn’t complete. Still work to do.
4. Paint at least 2 rooms in the house. Yes! I did 3, technically – master bedroom, master bathroom, and the loft. Still have to paint my office.
5. Reach 100 sales in my shop. Nope. Still inching up there. I’m VERY close, if you count in-person/show sales.
6. Be completely moved to made-to-order items in the shop, rather than one-offs. Nope, still working on this, too. I’m hoping to move some of my OOAK shirts at November’s craft shows.
7. Start saving for a deposit on a new car. I have a savings account, and there is an amount in it. But it’s already earmarked for something else, not a car, so nope on that.
8. Take a garment sewing class. I took several, in fact!
9. Complete alterations on 12 items of clothing. Yeha, nope. I did make a few pieces of completely new clothing (2 skirts and a pair of leggings) and hemmed a pair of jeans. So sort of?
10. Do a photo shoot with models for shop items. Partially done. My model for the small sizes had to reschedule to next Monday, so that didn’t happen yet. But the mediums are all done!
11. Compete in the NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge again. I competed, so yes. But I wasn’t happy with my story, and unsurprisingly didn’t make it past the first round.
12. Consistently work out twice a week minimum. Ooh. Consistently? Why did I have to put that word in there? When I do work out, it is usually twice a week… but that hasn’t been happening consistently.
13. Find the perfect recipe for empanada dough and master it. Nope. Kind of forgot about this one, to be honest.
14. Go on a vacation with just Ian. Yes! Our little trip to San Antonio this weekend.
15. Get a 50mm/1.4f lens for my camera. Ian actually got me that for Christmas.
16. Try out Supper Friends, Eden East or Restaurant Jezebel for a unique dining experience. Nope. I’ve wanted to, but haven’t quite talked Ian into it yet.
17. Launch a digital prints section in my shop. Yes, I did this in the digital shop.
18. Launch a blog templates section in my shop. Nope. This got put on hold once I decided to embark on craft show madness.
19. Open a retirement account. I did start an investment account, though it’s not specifically a retirement one.
20. Learn to drive stick shift. Nope. The boy still needs to teach me.
21. Create 1 new screen design per month. I got 4 completed, and have two more sketched out but not finalized/made into screens.
22. Try out other methods of screen-making. Yes! I did this. I’ve been doing photo emulsion and stencils.
23. Get 5 new freelance clients on retainer. Nope.
24. Design a freebie to go out with shop orders. Yes! Did this. All orders from the screen printing shop now ship with a free bookmark.
25. Do a cool mailer promo for my freelance business. Nope. But I did just revive my business blog, so… ?
26. Go to 6 networking events. Yes. More than 6, even. This introvert has been stretching her networking muscles, you guys.
27. Visit a foreign country. Nope, didn’t happen this year.
28. Volunteer at the library. Yup! Still doing it, in fact, every Monday.
29. Figure out how to do hair stuff (braid my own hair, curl my own hair). Braids are still a no-go (my fingers just canNOT figure that out when it’s my own head) but I can sorta do flat iron curls successfully.
30. Find & learn some contemporary classical piano music. I found some and played some, but it’s not really memorized. But I know it well enough to play easily with the sheet music, so I’m counting that.

That’s 13 completed, 6 partially completed, and 11 incomplete. That’s success or at least progress on two thirds of the goals list, which is not too shabby, and better than last year’s results. Being more specific in my goal setting definitely helped. Stay tuned tomorrow for my new list of goals

Do you do an annual goals list? What’s something you want to accomplish before your next birthday?

*I was born in Mississippi, for those curious.