A look back at 2012

Here we are, the last day of the year. Really? I cannot really believe it! And what a year it has been! 

In July, I watched Basketball, Badminton, Diving and Athletics at the London 2012 Olympics. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Olympic park and soaking up the great spirit that was abound in Britain at the time.

 In August, my Mum and I spent a fantastic 4 days in New York, seeing the sights and going shopping. Going to New York has been a dream of mine for ages, and I did not expect it to happen in 2012 but I am so pleased it lived up to all my expectations. 

In September, we visited The Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London - The Making of Harry Potter - This was EPIC and encouraged me to reread all of the books (which I finished at 1am yesterday morning!)

In November, I turned 21 and my parents took my to Hartlepool and Durham for a relaxing weekend on the coast and visiting Durham Cathedral where some of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was filmed.

And finally, in December I found out that I had received a place at Warwick University to complete my PGCE - starting September 2013,

I have knitted, sewn, cooked and crafted more this year than possibly any year in my life!

On the first of January 2012, I set myself 6 goals and I am delighted to say that I have done pretty well!

1. Learn to crochet and crochet some Christmas Decorations for next year

Ok, So this was probably my weakest progress. I can crochet, as in I can do the stitches I just cannot start anything off - I don't know why but I just couldn't get my head round it! So, when December rolled round and I still didn't have a decoration, I had to improvise slightly! I crocheted a rectangle and then sewed into a snowman shape and sewed on features to complete it...It looks OK but I know that I didn't do it exactly properly! Crochet isn't something I really took to so I will be concentrating on challenging myself in my knitting instead.

2. Run 6 miles (my furthest at the moment is 3.94)

YES! Success here! I completed this aim in June! I am really pleased, although my running tapered off slightly in the second half of the year - getting up at 6am and not leaving the library until 5pm, I have struggled to fit in runs! Here's hoping Uni work calms down a bit this term!

3. Read 25 books

I adjusted this aim to 50 books and am DELIGHTED to say that I have just finished book number 51! That is nearly a book a week! I am officially back in love with books and would much rather curl up with a book than flick around on the TV. I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night....I turned my light off at 11pm with 20% of the book left to read but couldn't sleep, so I turned it back on and read until I had finished at 1am! It was such a great feeling - I love it when you cannot put a book down and have to keep reading it! I have read so many different types of books this year and have a nice stash on my Kindle to keep me going for the start of 2013

4. Cook a new recipe every week (52 in the year) including at least 25 from different countries (we had a delicious Chinese meal to celebrate New Years Eve and I'm feeling inspired!)

Yes! I also managed to succeed here which is great! I will be updating my recipe page over the next few weeks so you can see all the recipes I made! Here is one of my favourites...

Chimichangas

5. Continue to develop this blog - more posts, series and ideas!

This my 209th post of the year! I have posted several recipes, projects and bits of my life with you all and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I love blogging, I think without it, I would slip out of sewing and cooking and challenging myself creatively and there are things that I absolutely love doing so I am really glad to have this motivator here!

I launched three series over the year...

Wrote my first guest post over at Craftbotic

And branched out to Facebook and Twitter!

But more than all those I have actually made some great friends through blogging and hope that those friendships will continue!

Wow, when you put it all down like that, I have had a very busy year! I can hope that 2013 is as good!

I will be posting my aims for 2013 tomorrow!

Hope you all have a great night, make the most of your last day in 2012!

Love Rebecca