Monthly Goals – April

I decided at the beginning of the year that I would not make any Resolutions or yearly goals but, rather, make monthly ones that were more easily obtainable, you can find all my Monthly Goal posts here.

Today I am looking at the goals I set myself last month and whether I achieved them and setting myself goals for April.

Here are last month’s goals and whether I managed them!

Blog and Social Media

• Increase my blog visibility and interaction.  I have started to interact more with other blogs by commenting on more posts.  I have also had an interview with Rory over at A Guy Called Bloke and K9 Doodlepip’s blog as part of his Truly Inspired series.  Roxy also was interviewed for the K9 Interviews for Rory’s blog!  I’d say that this was a success!
• Social media content.  I’m still working on this.  I have started to post to Instagram a bit more and am working on a social media content table that is in line with my “branding” and blog niche.  I would like to be able to post to Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn once a day at least but realise that it all needs to be in line with my blog style, and all this requires a little bit of thought and planning before I start posting things.

Home

• Create a timetable of work/home hours.  I’m now 5 weeks into my phased return and have worked out a timetable of hours and how to utilise them to get the most out of them and so far it seems to be working well.
• Pantry/Cupboard staples master list.  I created a spreadsheet of staples that I need in my food cupboards, the next step is printing them out and putting them onto the inside of the cupboard doors so that I can mark things off as I am running low or have run out of the items.  I can not decide whether to print out one sheet for each cupboard and laminate so I can mark things off with a dry-wipe marker then transfer the info to a shopping list, or print off several and mark off and then use the sheets as my shopping list….
• Start a virtual wardrobe.  This was a good idea in theory, but I realised how long it would take me and how many clothes I actually own.  It is still something that I would like to do over time but right now, it’s not really something that is high up on my list of priorities.
• Plan/Host a meal for Mum and Dad.  I’ve still not managed to do this but it is still something that I’d really like to do in the near future.
• Organise the Spare Room Cupboards.  I can finally mark this one-off as being done!  Though I’m sure it will be added to the list again in the near future as I am wanting to decorate the spare room and have a feeling that I will be storing a load of things in the cupboards while decorating!
• Make a start on the Garden.  Yeah….nope…haven’t even stepped foot into the garden this month, let alone made a start on it.  Though, I have decided that I really need to hire a lawn mower to cut town the grass to a more manageable length then I can buy my own mower to maintain it.

Art, Craft, Hobbies and Interests

• Learn a few different styles of blog and social media photography. I have been playing around with my light box and also flat lay images, and while they are not totally amazing they are better than they were before.  I have also been playing around with setting up lifestyle images which have turned out better than I expected!
• Learn about creating perfumes/scent.  I have been reading about top, middle and base perfume notes and have an idea of how to combine the scents that I would like to use in creating my own and I have really enjoyed learning about it all.  I now need to look into what type of base I want to use, whether it be oil or alcohol or another type.
• Work on book idea.  I have been working on the notes for my book idea but have realised that I am a way off of writing a first draft yet so this is a continuing goal that I will be working on.
• Finish Sorting and Organising Craft Supplies.  This is pretty much done!  I do have a few more bits to sort but they are all packed away neatly where I can access them should I need to so I’m classing this as goal achieved!

Personal

• Sort out hair/body/face care things.  This is done, and I have to admit that I have more than I even though I had…and I don’t really need to shop for any products for the next few months at least!
• Dye hair.  Yep!  I dyed my hair a few Mondays ago, it’s now a peachy pink, I would say rose gold colour but as I am using a rose shampoo and conditioner on it is becoming more and more pink with each wash!
• Sort out printer.  I managed this one!!!!  And it is all working properly and I can print stuff with ease now!  The only thing I would say is to buy proper ink for your printer as I have a “compatible” ink that I bought fairly cheaply and it doesn’t seem to last very long before the cartridges need replacing.

April Goals…

Blog and Social Media

• Update my Media Kit.  As this is a fairly new blog I am currently using month to month data for my media kit.  It was last updated in January and I would like to update it every 3 months so that the information it contains is fairly up to date.  This is a task that I would like to get done this month.
• Social media content.  This is something I know that I need to work on and having started to work on a content plan for my social media channels means that I should be starting to post content regularly this month!  Once I start posting regularly to my social media chanels I should then see an increase in my blog visibility.

Home

• Make a start on the garden, finally.  Maybe April will be the month to finally get this task started and under way?  Hopefully the weather will be better and the garden will dry out a bit and be less muddy and I can actually get it all under control….
• Decorate the Spare Room and Kitchen.  I have decided that I would like to paint and decorate the spare room and have a theme in mind, all I need to do is decide on the paint colour and make a start.  I have also decided that I would like to paint the remaining walls of my kitchen with the same green paint that I used on one of the kitchen walls.
• Buy a new bookcase for the spare room.  I am currently using one of my narrow bookcases from my living room in my spare room to house my art and craft things and some  books about computing, I would like to get a bookcase that fits in the recess properly and so that I can move the other bookcase back to its proper place in my living room.  I am thinking that this should be done after I have decorated though….

Art, Craft, Hobbies and Interests

• Make invites for my next Mind Crafternoon event.  i have signed up to host another Mind Crafternoon event which will be taking place in July.  Last year I bought invites to send out but this year I’m thinking that perhaps it would be nice to make invites instead?
• Create a few Scrapbook pages.  I have a few ideas that are knocking about in my head for pages I could create for my scrapbook and I really would like to be able to sit down and work on those at some point this month.

Personal

• I’m taking part in the Blogging fro A to Z Challenge which runs for the whole of April, there will be a post each day starting with a topic beginning with A on the 1st April, and each day thereafter, with the exception of Sundays, so this is my focus this month…getting through it without crying or falling behind!  I will also be posting my own content through the month, so that is 26 posts for the A-Z challenge and 13 posts of my own (and probably a few more…).  I have purposely kept my other goals to a minimum this month so that I can concentrate on the blog.  I have a feeling it could all get fairly hectic behind the scenes this month!