When it comes to resolutions I find that by mid February I've pretty much forgotten all about them, but I always make them none-the-less, hoping that this year will be the year they stick.

Last year I tried to do different things to the normal eat better / move more type of thing. I think they were more successful but this could have everything to do with the fact that they were about enjoying things rather than eating celery.

Do something cultural once a month
I was inspired by Harriet for this resolution and I think I did pretty well, although I didn't manage it every month. My most memorable are as follows...

In February I spent an age gazing at a photographic exhibition 1,000 Faces and went with a car full of bloggers to the Harry Potter Studio Tour. I think this could've been my favourite trip of them all, I'm hoping to go back very soon!

I had a very enjoyable time at The Eden Project in September (my friends got married there but we did have some time to explore the next day) and took to the skies on the SkyWire.

In October saw two exhibitions at the V&A - Horst: Photographer of Style and Wedding Dress 1775 - 2014. Photography wasn't permitted in the wedding dress exhibition and I was too much of a chicken to try and take a sneaky one but it was really lovely. Horst was great too - proof that it's possible to take a stunning photograph without all the retouching!

In early November Andy and I hopped on a train for a flying visit to see the poppies. It was beautiful and thought provoking and very humbling.

My last cultural excursion was to see The Play That Goes Wrong with Andy at The Duchess Theatre, London. Very funny, especially when you run out of time for food and go straight to the bar instead!

Make more of an effort
This idea came from Jenny (I had no original resolution ideas of my own last year). I'd like to say that I did this everyday but sometimes I just wanted to pull on a pair of jeans, pop my hair in a ponytail and go bare faced. So that's exactly what I did. However, thanks to a mild beauty obsession over the summer I found that I was trying more products and wearing make up more often, which I kinda liked, I feel so much better when I don't look in the mirror and think 'urgh!'.

Do nice things
This was about doing something once a month that took me away from everyday stuff, if only for a few hours.

First up I decided to take myself off to the cinema one afternoon to see Philomena. I also spent a morning painting pots, spent a number of afternoons crafting with Mum and we went on a little girlie road trip to the NEC to go to the Craft Show.

I've found this one a little hard to record as anything from lunch and a movie with a friend to spending an afternoon pottering I see as a 'nice thing'.

Don't just pin, do
This was to put to good use some of the hundreds of pins I've amassed on Pinterest. I think I did pretty well.




Learn a new skill
Early on in the year I took a short course in patchwork quilting and I'm still working on a king size quilt.

And what of 2015?
I already have my Wonderful Winter list of things to do and a list of things I want to do before my next birthday so I'm not going to make many new resolutions. I would like to get fit (and there's nothing like an upcoming wedding to get you motivated!), see more of my friends and family and do something every month to improve the house, even if it's just something simple like hang a mirror.

I'd like to learn a new skill, try something I've never done before and cook from scratch more often. And I'm going to try not to become a wedding bore, but I do spend an awful lot of time thinking about it, doing research and just generally day dreaming... slap me if it all gets a bit much.