little white truths

While I've done blogging resolutions posts before as part of my yearly blogversary series, this year I wanted to do something a little different.

I was thinking about it as I sat in the waiting room of my sleep doctor's surgery yesterday, and I thought it would be more helpful if I looked at 'plans' instead of 'resolutions' - although admittedly they may contain similar things so I'm not really sure that it matters what I call them ; )

Anyhoo. I guess what I want to do with this post is set out what I hope to achieve between now and 20 June 2019, when my blog's fifth birthday rolls around.

Let's have a quick look.

Get better systems in place

What I mean by this is, I want to organise myself better so that I'm not drowning in draft posts and reams of unedited photos - because all this means is that it's hard to find whatever photos I need to edit in my endless photo folders so I end up editing the ones I can find, rather than the ones that are more pressing (eg because I'm about to finish a product and need to review it).

Having too many draft posts also means that things occasionally get lost, and I also sometimes wind up with two different draft posts of the same product (each containing different photos), and it often takes me a while to realise that I can condense them because I have so many drafts that I can't keep track of them.

I mentioned in my recent resolutions post that I wanted to sort this issue out, and I'm mentioning it again so I can keep it front of mind. I think what I'll need to do is stop taking so many photos of products that I probably won't be opening for weeks anyway - at least for a while - so I can just work with what I've got, rather than adding more!

Looking forward.

Write more non-beauty posts

I've been promising myself that I'll do this for years, but I've fallen into a beauty hole and I think that's partly because I have a 1.5 and a 3.4yo, so of course we're still in the thick of things and my creative brain isn't as 'alive' as it once was.

I keep hoping for this to magically change but it hasn't yet, and of course I can't expect things to shift too much because it will be a while before I have the time and energy to write other things. Restaurant reviews, more posts related to the environment (ie, like the ones I've done on saving water and recycling etc), tips for travelling with children... 

I have ideas for all these topics and more, but I'm often tired and I don't get time to think much with all the yelling around me - plus I work, so that's often what I'm doing if both kids are off my hands for the morning - but my plan this year is to do at least a few more, then slowly build as the years pass.

Wish me luck!

Get a decent camera

While I know that many of us have reasonable cameras in our iPhones, I would still like to buy myself a good, stand-alone camera - with a tripod to boot. 

I don't know much about photography although I did do a subject on it in my writing course, and I decided that it wasn't for me (I didn't want to turn another art form into a 'science', which can happen when you study something like that).

But I do like taking photos, and while I used to hate it and thought of it as a 'necessary evil' in terms of the blogging process, it's now something that I would like to explore and get a little better at. This will be helped by a new camera, and of course I'll be able to use the camera for other things too.

What I'm thinking is that for Christmas, rather than asking for Mecca vouchers like I normally do, what I might do instead is invest in a good camera and see how I go with it. Should be fun!

Explore more budget skincare brands

So far the brand I know best from the pharmacy is Antipodes, but I'm interested in trying more from brands like Trilogy too.

Indeed, I've already got my hands on six or seven Trilogy products and I've also received some products from other Priceline brands that I'm looking forward to trying and potentially exploring if I like what I find.

My aim with this is to be able to bring you a more complete idea of what's good at the pharmacy/drugstore and what isn't. While I've explored plenty of budget makeup over the years, I haven't done this as much with skincare so I would like that to change and that's one of my big plans for the blogging year ahead.

Explore other panning challenges

While I already do Project Pan, Pan that Palette and Project Dent, other challenges are out there that I would like to explore and learn more about (eg, by seeing what others find to be easy or hard about them), before considering whether to bring them into my own routine.

One of my issues with year-long panning projects - and I have posted on this before - is that too many of my products sit around gathering dust, because even though I do reach for non-panning items on weekends, I tend to reach for my favourites every time. This means that my second and third favourites don't get enough use, and some of my newer items haven't even been used enough so I don't know yet whether or not they're in my top three.

Over the next six months I'll be looking into seasonal panning challenges and also weekly makeup baskets etc, in an attempt to work out whether doing something different would work better for me these days. Yes everything in my collection gets used via Project Dent, but I would like to find a way to use it all even more while still managing to get through the older items in my stash.

Looking forward to having a play!

In sum

Just a short post today because I don't have many plans in my head at the moment and I don't want to throw in resolutions from earlier years to pad things out: what I wanted to do was set out a few things that I would like to change over the next year, and I'm hoping that by keeping my list smaller, it will be easier for me to meet my goals.

Fingers crossed!

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x

* All images courtesy of unsplash.com