I’ve been compiling this list of goals for the last few weeks - since most people set New Year’s Resolutions, I wanted to set some goals for myself for the next year. Today is my first day being 23, so I came up of a list:

1. Get rid of everything I no longer need or love. Everything. I’ve already begun this process by moving to a new place, but it looks like I brought over more stuff than what I need. Time to purge!

2. Re-evaluate my wardrobe. Go through every article of clothing I own. If I doesn’t serve me, it gets donated, given away, whatever - it’s gone.

3. Wardrobe Inventory: Look for gaps in my wardrobe and buy what I need. Look for quality staples. Build a wardrobe that speaks to my style & personality.

4. Go through my old makeup and accessories. Get rid of what’s old/not needed. Invest in quality makeup.

5. Start making smarter eating decisions. Not dieting - when I think of dieting I see that as “going without”. I need to just start paying more attention to my eating habits and choosing healthy items when I can!

6. Create monthly budgets. Get my financial situation in order. Budget and monitor my spending.

7. Start putting money in my retirement fund - I put it off all 2008 and now it’s time to do it.

8. Buy myself a digital SLR - my poor point-and-shoot doesn’t cut it for high quality images.

9. Buy a car! Save up for it & use my tax return to put down a substantial down payment.

10. Enroll back in college. Work with advisers to get me ready for a return to college to get my BA in Graphic Design.

11. Be a better friend. Call. Communicate.

12. Be a better daughter. Call. Communicate.

13. MAKE ART. Work up collections of pieces, refining technique and exploring subjects, trying different methods and mediums.

14. Keep teaching myself art and graphic design techniques. Read. Learn. Do. Experiment.

15. Plant a garden! Turn our nasty backyard into a little sacred garden of herbs & vegetables! I have a notoriously bad record with growing things but I really want to try and learn how to take care of plants. Plus our backyard is pretty bare….

16. Kitchen audit! We have more crazy dishes and appliances than we even know. Go through stuff and get rid of what’s not needed!

17. Make my own soy candles. I used to make candles but I’ve never tried soy. Also I dislike making molded candles (not that good at it) so I’d like to make container candles in cool glass containers. Plus, I can give them as gifts!

18. Help my bf start his t-shirt printing business. Our goal is to manually screen-print his designs on shirts and sell them locally & online. Details to come!

19. Invest in decorating our house. In our ongoing efforts to make our house look less like a youth hostel, I’d like to decorate the living room, dining room, kitchen & especially my bedroom.

20. Work on digital illustrating. I’m most comfortable making traditional art but I’d really like to improve my computer drawing skills - particularly coloring.

21. Create my professional portfolio site. I own megangarza.com but I haven’t done anything with it yet. I’d like to turn it into a nice portfolio site but I don’t want to get started on it until I get going with school again.

22. Photos, photos, photos. I take my little point-and-shoot camera everywhere but I don’t take pictures as much as I should. I’m looking to attach myself to my camera this coming year, especially when I get my dSLR.

23. Learn more intermediate/advanced web programming. This is part personal, part professional development. Students are asking more advanced questions so I need to stay up on the web designer industry.

24. Keep on blogging!