Goodbye 2009

I can't believe that this year is almost over. I feel like so much has happened in my life this year. I thought I'd take a look back on the 2009 Goals I wrote last January to see how I did...

1. PORTFOLIO SITE: I relaunched rachelbeyer.com last February. Now of course, it needs some major updating for 2010...

2. CAMP SMARTYPANTS: Quitting my fulltime job and moving to Portland to focus on my own business really helped me come a long way with Camp Smartypants! I went way beyond opening my shop on Etsy. I developed tons of new products, worked at craft shows in both Portland and Seattle, and managed to get a few blog features!

3. PORTLAND: After living in Seattle for 5 years, I moved back home to Portland last June. I have to say I absolutely love it here. There are certain things I definitely miss about Seattle, but my heart has always stayed in Portland. And it feels so good to finally be home.

4. GYM: This I have to say feels like my biggest accomplishment. I know everyone has "Lose Weight" on their New Year's Resolution lists, but this year I actually did it! I totally bit the bullet, hired a personal trainer and hit the gym 3x per week (no excuses). And after 6 months of working out and relentless calorie counting I lost 30 lbs!! I am truly amazed with myself because I've tried doing this in the past and had always failed. I found out the key to making it to the gym is routine (going the same 3 days at the same time every week). Moving to Portland pretty much changed my whole life and I totally lost the routine I had when I lived in Seattle. I still make it to the gym but not as regularly and I stopped calorie-counting for a while... which resulted in gaining 6 lbs back.. ugh! So my new goal for 2010- find my new routine and stick with it.

5-6. WATER & COOKING: Drinking 8 glasses of water every day is SO HARD! I did really try, but felt like I was constantly running to the bathroom to pee! I swear it goes right through me. As for cooking, the calorie-counting really helped with that. I completely changed my eating habits (which in 2008 tended to be a lot of eating out and a lot of alcohol). I definitely decreased my alcohol consumption and increased my cooking-at-home nights as well as packing my own lunches to take to work. Again, my eating habits have changed since moving to Portland. Now that I live with my family its way harder to control what I eat and who could resist mom's amazing cooking!

7. TAKE AN ART CLASS: I took a drawing workshop last June with Jill Bliss. It was a lot of fun and really great to meet a local artist I truly admire.

8. START & FINISH A PAINTING: This is the only thing on my list that I didn't get to. BUT- I did do a bunch of other creative things this year like:
Make a set of embroidered skull pillows for my friends Cari and Nick:


Let's not forget my amazing Lion costume I made for Halloween:

And I did some art journaling/collage work in an old book called, Just Be Yourself. The perfect book for defacing, in my opinion:






Overall I have to say that I'm pretty proud of my 2009. Not everything about this year was painless or easy, but I was able to overcome obstacles, grow/change as a person, succeed in my goals, and be happy. What else could you ask for really?

Thanks to everyone who has supported and encouraged me this year, I couldn't have done it without you!