Blogging and Beauty New Years Resolutions

A little late but I thought it'd be interesting to share with you my New Years resolutions with regards to what matters the most here: blogging and beauty, so that you can hold me accountable :) I'm usually not great at making and keeping resolutions and reminiscing about the past; however, these past couple of months I've been thinking a lot more about my personal growth and what I could realistically try to improve - and here's what I came up with for 2013. Let's start with blogging goals, shall we?

1. Blogging more regularly.
Blogging often takes a back seat for me when life is feeling hectic or inspirations are running low. I will make a concentrated effort to post 2 to 3 times a week, including preplanning posts for busy times of the year like holidays and family visits.
2. Enhancing my creativity.
I believe most consistent bloggers tend to settle into a bit of a routine and forget about the creative aspect of their writing. I will harbor my creativity more by experimenting with different types of posts, e.g. more color-way or trend inspired articles. I will try to draw ideas from more aspects of my life, like literature and art.
3. Improving my photography.
I am always striving to get better at taking good photos for the blog and have a big backlog of photography books I would like to read in an attempt to work on my technical skills. In addition to that, I would like to experiment with lighting, prompts and backgrounds a lot more this year.

This was my husband's Christmas present to me: constant studio lights (what you're seeing are mostly the folded umbrella part with the tripods). They'll be so much fun playing around with!

4. No longer 'saving' blog post ideas for indefinite later.
I tend to mentally stash some of my better post ideas to use at a 'better' time, either because of laziness or the existing schedule. I think in order to cultivate my creativity, I would fare much better if I just used them right away - this also includes reviewing more products that I get to try and use, even if it's just a short and sweet summary of my thoughts. I tend to overcomplicate things - not every post needs to be a lenghty essay.
5. Starting a notebook dedicated to my blog.
Contrary to what you might think, I'm not glued to my PC 24/7, so if an idea pops up in the middle of the night, I need a little notebook to jot down my thoughts. Keeping a journal like that would not only help with organizing ideas so that I have plenty to choose from if I'm lacking inspiration but also help with my writing and project management skills.

This is the notebook I've bought for my blogging ideas - pretty cute, right?

6. Being more active in the community.
I love the social aspect of beauty blogging and all of my wonderful friends I've made by being a part of it, and I would like to give more by being more present on Twitter and also commenting more on my favorite blogs - it's so important to keep the discussion going!
7. Including you more in my personal life.
I appreciate you so much, my lovely readers, and you're already such a big part of my life that I think it's only fair to take you along with me in my day-to-day life. I've decided to start posting 'A Week in Photos' type of series so that you can see what I'm up to, it being beauty bits, food, books or anything fun or interesting that's worth sharing.

Phew, that was quite intense! Now for more superficial resolutions - beauty resolutions!
1. Focusing more on skincare than make-up in my everyday routine.
I tend to invest a lot more time and money in make-up rather than skincare and I want to change it around in 2013 to improve the health of my skin and my time management in the mornings. I've already revamped a lot of my skincare routine but I still need to work on perfecting a quick, everyday make-up look. I also need to pay a lot more attention to the skin on my body, including regular exfoliation and moisturizing.
2. Treating my skin in a more gentle and loving way.
To go along with my first beauty resolution, I really need to learn to love my skin more. This includes no picking and prodding, substituting harsh, stripping products with more hydrating products geared towards sensitive skin, removing my make-up as soon as I get home and finally being more consistent with my beauty routine.

A French pharmacie skincare haul is coming next!

3. Paying more attention to internal beauty.
I make this resolution every year but I really want to drink A LOT MORE water (I'm so bad at this, I just never get thirsty!), eat more veg and take my supplements more consistently; gotta love your fish oil!
4. Reducing my beauty stash.
For 2013, I've decided to do a no-buy for certain categories of products. I have so many back-ups of some skincare and make-up bits that I really shouldn't be buying any more of until they run out; but I think I will devote a separate post to that if you're interested. I also need to shop my stash more by rotating the products I own and I will also continue to focus on using up what I have with a special attention to samples and writing regular empties posts for the blog.

Well, I think that's it for now! I've already started implementing most of these resolutions and I feel a lot better by committing to do what I was planning on for a long time now. I think I may write a '2013 in review' type of thing at the end of December to see how I will have been keeping my blogging and beauty resolutions but I'm feeling very optimistic right now! Have you made any resolutions for 2013? What are they key things you'd like to focus on?