Looking Back and Moving Forward...

I wasn't sure whether, as a 4-month-old blogger, I was really "entitled" to do a "year in review" post, but I've really enjoyed poring over other people's, and, if you've been with me from the beginning, you'll know that my outfit photos span 2012 (and a quarter of 2011) anyway, so I thought it would be something nice to be able to look back on in the future, as well as a place to collect some, ahem, musings (which might, hopefully, keep me on track over the course of the year). If I go on a bit, feel free to just scroll down and take a look at the pictures!

Looking Back: Goodbye 2012

2012 will be remembered for a whole host of (overwhelmingly positive) reasons in the public consciousness - the Jubilee, the Olympics, the first Christmas dinner wearing 3D glasses (I think I actually saw more of the Queen than I did of Kim Kardashian this year, which takes some doing)... but for me, it will be known as the year I started this blog (and the year I filmed my first movie scene, with possibly the hottest man on the planet, but that comes a distant second!). Scrolling idly through my Instagram feed in Caffe Nero only to find that I'd won the New Look #NLXmasHair competition had me practically jumping out of my seat, but coming across an email 2 days later, following a hard day's Christmas shop, telling me I'd been chosen as the Boohoo #PartyPose People's Choice Winner was, I think, the best moment of my year.

Over and above the competition wins, though, I've been amazed by how much I've enjoyed myself in the actual process of blogging - of course, I knew I loved clothes, but I had no idea I'd enjoy writing about them so much that I'd glance at my toolbar virtually every night to find that I'd been editing collages/trawling for the perfect new season pieces/rambling away until 2am, and even less so that I'd enjoy interacting with my readers so much - coming across so many interesting people of differing backgrounds in terms of life and/or style, and receiving so many uplifting, thoughtful and inspiring comments, many of which I would genuinely treasure.

Of course, no one said it would be simple, and it's not always easy to accept that not everyone will like your style, or everything you do, or that people close to you may find it impossible to comprehend exactly how much time, effort, emotional, and, yes, financial investment goes into a single post about, say, a specific skirt length, or even, dare I say it, the point of such a venture. As blogs are so personal, I don't feel I'd be true to myself if I wasn't trying to produce the blog I'd most like to read if I wasn't me, so I know it won't please everyone, but one thoughtful comment, or one new person who decides to follow without begging to be followed back, makes it all worthwhile. So, at the risk of coming over all Gwyneth, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank those who nudged me to finally hit the "Publish" button for the first time, and the others, new and old, who keep me doing it on a regular basis!

Aside from the blog, my moonlight flit into Hollywood (c/o a UK industrial estate), completing a health and fitness qualification and accomplishing the long-held personal goal of passing my grade 8 piano exam, self-taught following an 8 year break, I feel like 2012 was a "thinking and learning" (and accessorising) period for me. There were lows as well as highs - discovering that the life of a jobbing (a.k.a. endlessly and fruitlessly casting-attending) commercial model/dancer wasn't for me, and reconsolidating some personal lessons which I perhaps should already have learned. As 2013 dawns, I still have a hundred and one ambitions and goals, and little idea how to find enough time in the day to fulfil them... so my challenge this year is to take what I've learned and use it to find a way to make (more) things happen!

Apparently one of the biggest "New Year's Resolution" type mistakes people make is to overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but underestimate what they can achieve in 5 years - so a longer term plan which is more realistic (and preferably allows you more time than you imagine necessary) can help to stop you throwing away all your grand resolutions in March when you've made no progress with them... Easier said than done perhaps, but better to push some of your dreams back a few years than never to realise them at all...

12 Snapshots of My Year In Style

12 Trends Which Defined My Year

12 Favourites in 2012

1. Moment: Winning the Boohoo #PartyPose competition
2. Shop: The new Primark Oxford Street
3. Item of Clothing: High-waisted skirts
4. Footwear: Ankle boots
5. Make-Up Product: Rimmel Liquid Liner
6. Bargain Beauty Product: St Moriz - the Primark of fake tan
7. Lifesaving (or at least skin, figure and sanity-saving) Discovery: Agnus Castus (herbal supplement to help regulate troublesome hormones)
8. Magazine: Women's Health (the new UK edition) - inordinately useful gems on every page
9. Book: My Dear, I Wanted To Tell You, followed by the Fifty Shades trilogy (don't judge until you've read all three, and just try and block out the 301 repetitions of "Oh my")
10. Album: Born to Die - The Paradise Edition, by Lana Del Rey
11. New TV Show: Once Upon A Time, followed closely by Revenge, Homeland and Girls
12. Food: Apricot and Ginger Porridge / Ben & Jerry's Oh My Apple Pie (tough call, I know)

Moving Forward: Hello 2013

12 Things I'm Looking Forward To

1. Giving 4 of my readers the greatest gift of all - FREE CLOTHES!! (Don't forget, you only have 2 weeks left to enter my Boohoo giveaway)
2. Having perfect pearly whites (even if it means 8 weeks of no tea or red wine, starting now, eek!)
3. Having baby soft feet for the first time in 13 years when I cash in my last remaining Christmas pressie credit for a medi-pedi at Liberty
4. January TV - Dancing On Ice, Got To Dance, Revenge, Once Upon A Time, a new Gok show and more Take Me Out already... when will I ever find time to do anything else?!
5. Ri-Ri for River Island
6. Pastel wedge hi-tops
7. Tapestry/carpet print garms galore
8. Great Gatsby fever - I will find a drop waisted dress that suits me!
9. The Lindor Egg/Malteaster/Aero Bubbly Lamb SS13 drop
10. The Kimye baby (Kate who?)
11. Sunshine after 4pm
12. Seeing how my blog and life evolve over the next 12 months

12 Resolutions

1. Try out all those hair, beauty and DIY ideas I've been scrapbooking for years, and publish more hair, beauty and DIY posts
2. Figure out the inner workings of my camera's mind
3. Put clothes away straight after photoshoots, rather than wait until it takes 3 hours to clear a mountain I can no longer traverse
4. Look after my nails better
5. Start a psychology blog
6. Dig out my dancing shoes, which have been gathering dust for far too long
7. Stretch every day > Full splits in next year's Santa present drop choreo
8. Get back into my size 6 leather skinnies
9. Play the piano regularly (10 months does not qualify as a post-exam "breather")
10. Earn enough to keep me in collar tips
11. Produce a step-by-step plan in order to co-ordinate paths to achieving all of the above and actually follow it, maintaining my organisational enthusiasm throughout the year
12. Remember the lessons I learned in 2012, ensuring I don't need to re-learn them in 2013...

How will you remember 2012? Have you made any resolutions for 2013?

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