Hey everyone!

For years I wouldn't make any goals. This year I decided to do things a bit differently, what with all of the personal, business, and social media plans I have for myself for 2019 (It still counts if it's a month in, right?). I came up with a list of almost 20 but I'll let you guys in on 5 of them (partially so you guys can hold me accountable for them). Ready? Here we go!

1. Start a Blog (Personal)

Well this one seems to be going pretty well already! I've always loved writing but I was also one who would consistently abandon my writing if it was just for my own purposes. With this, I hope that I can provide a space of inspiration and positivity for those who are interested in or love sewing or plus size fashion. I'm also really going to try and post at least once a week. While I still might be speaking to dust bunnies out there, I'm really hoping that won't be the case and I'd love to hear from you!

2. #MakeNine2019 (Personal)

Making nine pieces in a year may not seem like a lot but let me tell you: When you're running all aspects of a business (including the physical labor my alterations and custom business entails, adding new aspects and ventures, and all of the marketing behind it) taking care of a family, and volunteering it can get a little crazy. A third of the way through last year I found the Instagram sewing community and my life is forever changed. The women I've met truly inspired me to start making for myself again (which I did) for the first time in over 4 years. MakeNine2019 is going to push me to take the time to make things for myself and step outside of my comfort zone with some of the makes (which are also some sub-goals for myself) and force me to get even more involved with the Instagram sewing community, adding my own work into the mix of different monthly goals.

3. Start an Etsy shop (Business)

This was one of my "side hustle" goals for last year that I had to abandon after life kicked me in the face. I started with a plan to make tie headbands based off of all of the positive feedback I had received when I wore ones I made for myself out but after thinking about it and seeing how everyone was embracing the scrunchie culture, I decided to switch gears and start making those featuring holiday and seasonal prints (in addition to the normal "everyday" prints) instead. Even if they don't work out as successfully as I hope at least I tried!

4. Start and Finish 3 Courses (Business and Personal)

I'm always finding new methods of learning something new and I've recently discovered a few online courses that I signed up for (or am planning to sign up for) and plan to finish by the end of 2019. I've always been interested in marketing and business so seeing the plethora of available courses has me extremely excited that I can dive into and learn so much more, especially when I can apply all of this knowledge to my business and business practices.

And finally

5. BATCH. WORK. (Business)

Oh my gosh every. single. podcast. I listen to tells me to batch work. I've struggled with my attempts because I never saw how I could exactly "batch work" designing and working on all of my client work. For those of you who don't know what batch working is: you divvy up your work over the days of the week you plan on working and stick with one type of activity a day for better productivity and results. For instance, my work is filled with sewing, patterning, cutting, photography, and computer work (so website updates, post writing, etc.). After sitting down to write out all of my plans and goals I quickly realized that it's honestly the only way I'll be able to pull all of these plans off and pull them off successfully. I noticed just last week that I had all of these plans to do things and instead of doing them all, I spent almost all of my time just working on my computer with website and photo editing and content creating. Thankfully that gave me the little leg up on all of the computer work I need so I hopefully won't have to come back to it for a bit (other than working on my blog posts of course!) but now I'll have to plan out an actual schedule for myself and actually stick to it. Fingers crossed I get the hang of it quickly and that it works out!

Well there you have it - 5 of my biggest goals for 2019. Keep in mind this is in no way all of the ones I have for myself - especially since I see some of my unwritten "goals” that are really more lifestyle changes. I'd love to hear from you guys! Do you have any big goals for 2019? Send me a message - I want to support you!

All My Love,

Stephanie