Five Goals for 2016

Hello, fellow book lovers, and happy 2016! The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday topic this week is all about resolutions, both bookish and personal. Are you a resolution-maker? I like to set a few goals for each new year, but I don't beat myself up if I don't fulfill them. 

First, let's look back at my goals from last year and see how I did.

1. Read these (12) books. You can see the list here.

Fail. I only read 2 of them, "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and "The Thirteenth Tale." I'll just tack the rest of them on to the list below of 25 more books I hope to read this year. That's realistic, right? ;)

2. Learn to pipe frosting and get better at cake decorating.

Fail-ish. I did a decent amount of baking this year, but my decorating skills only improved slightly. But my parents got me a frosting kit for Christmas and I think that'll help a lot. (I was using Ziploc bags and some thrift store tips... yeah, that may have been part of the problem.)

3. Get better at working with yeast.

Fail. I don't think I made a single thing with yeast last year.

4. Visit two new states.

Success! I actually visited four: New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland. And I went to both New York City and Buffalo/Niagara Falls, and those places are so different they really should count as two states. (Only 18 states plus Washington, D.C., left to go!)

5. Splurge on some nice yarn and knit myself a sweater that I'll really love.

Success! I finished my BlueSand Cardigan in November.

And now, without further ado... here are my goals for 2016!

1. Try really, really hard to read some/most/ALL of these 25 popular books. Here they are in alphabetical order:

2. Start using my calcium bentonite clay face mask regularly! Way back in August a friend posted a funny picture of her and her boys with green goop on their faces, and reading the comments I learned that it was a bentonite clay mask she has used every week since high school. She has flawless skin, so I immediately ordered a jar... and proceeded to use it all of three times. My goal is to use it once a week. Here's a mildly terrifying picture of me the first time I applied the mask. It starts to harden up and pull on your skin, and suddenly you look like a deer in the headlights!

3. Buy a swimsuit I actually like and feel good in. We're moving back to Hawaii for another three years in 2016 and it's definitely time for a new suit. I hate wearing swimsuits even more than I hate shopping for them, but they're kind of a necessity when you're living at the beach. Any and all suggestions on flattering swimsuits (for non-skinny-minnies) would be appreciated!

4. Finally learn the long-tail cast-on for knitting. It seems impossible that I've been knitting for seven years without figuring this out. It sorta intimidates me, which is weird because it's the cast-on that probably 90% of knitters use.

5. Get better about posting travel pictures to the blog. We had a pretty fun year full of adventures and I hardly posted any photos of our trips here! To make up for it, here are two pictures from the New York Public Library on our trip to NYC this summer. The first photo is me with Fortitude, one of the two lions guarding the library's entrance, and the bottom picture is of the stuffed animals that inspired A.A. Milne to write the Winnie-the-Pooh stories! They now live happily in the children's library.