New Years Eve: Recap!

So it's finally New Years Eve and a time to look back on the good things that have happened in the past year. I'm definitely ready to start a new year and hope you guys all are too! One of my new years goals for this year (and hopefully life..eventually) is definitely to stop procrastinating things and just getting them done right away. It's been on the of the things that I've struggled for a while and yup, time to get it under control! I also want to start getting more organized with everything and keeping things nice and neat instead of just placing things wherever there's room for it. Of course I would also like to expand my book collection (I now have itches to go to Barnes & Noble) and to keep up my gym schedule along with getting my diet back on track. Just some personal goals that I have for myself and could probably sit here listing 10 more but I'll just stop with those! Now onto a list of the good things that have happened in the past year. I want to make sure I say this and it's that I am NOT, in any way, shape, or form, trying to brag about things that have become good memories to me. They're just things that make me feel good and I want to share those with you; I'll try to keep the list to a limit of about 30 things (if I can get there!).

1. I became a redhead!
    
   
2. Bought a new cell phone
3. Went to the Chicago Vampire Diaries Convention
4. Met Nathaniel Buzolic & Candice Accola at the convention as well as Paul Wesley & Ian Somerhalder again (first time was Labor Day 2012)
   
5. Got my braces back on (it's a love/hate relationship ha)
6. Had my 1 year anniversary with my hedgehog (LOL)
7. My birthday happened (though nobody likes you when you're 23!)
8. Started going to the gym
9. One of my best friends got married!
10. Went to the Renaissance Faire (a couple times)
11. I finished my Bachelor's Degree
12. I started my Master's Degree program at a new school
13. I started a Substance Abuse Counseling certificate at a new but different school
14. I met new friends at my school orientation
15. Have taken the train downtown to the city more than I have in my life
16. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones finally came out on movie in the theaters
    
17. Joined the huge book fandom that I never knew existed
18. Got a cab by myself downtown for the first time (which also took FOREVER)
19. Got some extensions from Intense Extensions
20. Read a 4 book series in 1.5-2 weeks (Fallen series)
21. I met Sasha Alsberg in real life who is Lily Collins' 90% twin (I swear!) and owner of @theshadowhunters and @abookutopia on Instagram. I definitely recommend you check her out! Especially if you love The Mortal Instruments (like my obsessive self) and reading books in general. She also started following me on Twitter (@sashaalsberg); I feel the Sasha love! (& fan-girling)
22. Steve Gonsalves (@stevegonsalves1) from Ghost Hunters (@ghosthunters) started following me on Twitter (which I'm still fan-girling about)
23. Jay Verburg (@Jay_Verburg) from Ghost Mine (@ghostmine) started to follow me on Twitter & Patrick Doyle (@phtdoyle) followed me on Instagram (also still fan-girling about)
24. Carmen Seda started to follow me on Twitter (@CarmenSeda) and on Instagram (@homeofnephilim fandom account; personal @carmensedda) which I'm also fan-girling about, which has been a really common happening this semester!
25. Nadia Luna started following me on Instagram (personal: @@nadclubfan ; fandom: @clubfandemonium) and on Twitter (@0h_na_na) so many fan-girling moments!
26. Visited family in Florida for a week
27. Won a giveaway from Grown Up Fangirl (@grownupfangirl Instagram and Twitter @grownupfangal)
28. Made plans to visited my friend in St. Louis, in 10 days now, for a weekend
29. Expanded, and still expanding, my book collection
30. Got a new tattoo!

Well I made it to 30! And I'm sure I could gather up some more memories but I'll just leave it at this for now :). I'd love hear some of the good memories that you guys have had the past year! Leave a comment below or if you make up your own post, let me know and I'll check it out! Have a safe New Years Eve, don't drink and drink, have fun, and bring in the new year right! 

Semi-Early New Years Post

I've had it planned for a couple of months now of two different things to start doing for the New Year. No it's not "let's go get a gym membership and go for 3 weeks!" because I already have a membership and have been going (more lately than during the semester shhh). I like to go explore on Pinterest every now and then, because let's face it, who doesn't, and I discovered/found the 52 Week Money Challenge! The pin that I found came from Life As You Live It's blog and I found it to be an absolutely fantastic idea! Especially for the New Year coming up and everybody likes to do new things, you know how it goes. The second thing that I'm going to start doing is a good memory jar which I also found on Pinterest though it was just a photograph and not linked to a blog post.

We'll start off with the 52 week challenge first! Basically what you do is get a jar, or I got a tall plastic storage container from Walmart for around $2-$3, put the 52 weeks on the outside of the jar, and put money in every week! You can get the spreadsheet that I used from Life As You Live It since she has attached to her post. Each week has it's own number so the first week in January, which is the 1st through the 7th, is Week 1; the second week, the 8th through the 14th, is Week 2. Whatever number the week is, you put that amount of money into your jar. So since January 1st starts this upcoming Wednesday, I'll put $1 into my jar sometime between Wednesday the 1st and Tuesday the 7th. When the second week of January comes on Wednesday the 8th, I'll put $2 into my jar between then and Tuesday the 14th. Make sense? By the time you reach this time next year, you'll have almost $1,400 saved up! You are always welcome to put more money in for a certain week than just the week number. For example, I've already added $5 in change to my jar because I had that much money in dimes and nickels and it doesn't hurt to put a little extra in right?! It also took me a whole maybe 5 minutes to create my jar between printing, cutting, taping, and writing! My jar is pretty plain but it'll do the job.

 This is what the top looks like. SO fancy right?

 I took pictures of the left side of the jar containing half of the first part of the year, the middle where both sides meet and my Sharpie "52 Week Challenge Jar" mark is, and then the other side of the jar containing the second half of the year. 

Now onto the good memory jar! This is one that I really wanted to do because I tend to veer towards to negative side of things. The good memory jar works like this: every time something good happens, you write it down on a piece of paper, you can date it if you want, and you throw it into your jar and one New Years Eve, you go back through the jar to remember all the good things that happened that year! I think it's a really good way at the end of the year to look back and see how many good things really did happen. I also love reading books and on Instagram saw my book fandom post about doing pretty much the same thing as the memory jar but instead writing all the books you read throughout the year and then see how many you had been able to read! The jar that I ended up getting was from Joanne Fabrics, it's actually a paint tin apparently, and it was about $4!

This is how my jar looked before I partially decorated it.

This is my lovely end result! Had some funny using Sharpie markers.

And since I had some extra change to spare, I decided to throw it in there!

Hope that you guys give these two/three things a try in the new year and please do let me know how it goes! I'll have a post on New Years Eve of a list of good memories that I have from this year. It won't be as long as it would if I had started last year but it'll be a decent size. Hope you guys have a good New Year!