Knitting: New Year's socks.

My first socks of 2015 are complete! I'm hoping to knit six pairs this year (not counting any I might knit as gifts)...I think a pair of socks at least every other month is definitely doable. :)

I've mentioned this before, but this was my third attempt at knitting socks with this yarn. I had never before tried different things to avoid pooling, but the initial pooling on these socks was pretty awful. And with the amount of time and money that goes into a pair of socks knit from hand-dyed yarn, I want to love the result. So it was worth it!

The yarn is from Spun Right Round (one of my favorite dyers of yarn and spinning fiber): it's her SW Sock 80/20 in the nightfall colorway. I love tightly plied sock yarn like this. It has nice texture even in stockinette stitch! It also feels more durable somehow. I used the stitch pattern from Show-off Stranded Socks, but instead of doing the unusual heel, I just did my regular heel and toe. I love how the stitch pattern made the yarn knit into thin spirals that look like stripes! The colors sort of remind me of the Cheshire Cat (Disney version).

I'm linking up with Liesl's Monthly Sock Challenge. I actually started these socks on December 29th, but I made sure to finish on January 29th so I would still have completed them within the month. :)

Ravelry project page.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Last year my parents watched this movie and suggested that I should watch it, too. At first I wasn't sure...I mean, it wasn't exactly on my list of anticipated movies and I didn't even know what it was about, other than a vague idea of some guy imagining things. (I also knew that it was a loose remake of an old movie starring Danny Kaye, but I've never seen that one and Danny Kaye isn't really one of my favorites.)

So I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the movie and realized that I kind of loved it. :) It was so much better than I had expected.

I have a soft spot for movies about underdogs. Not that Walter Mitty is an underdog exactly, but he does get treated badly by the bearded jerk at his job. Walter is an ordinary, somewhat dull guy, but he's also good-hearted, which is obvious from the way he treats his mom and sister. Basically, for the first part of the movie, he's incredibly awkward, which I find really endearing.

This movie is hilarious in a subtle way. It's not goofs and pratfalls, but it makes me laugh from the opening scene (oh, how I can relate to over analyzing everything). I love the Dumbledore joke and all of the other random parts (like the somewhat creepy Benjamin Button thing and the shark attack).

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is such a visually gorgeous film! There's a big contrast between the scenes set at the magazine office where Walter works and the places where he has his adventures. The office is sleek and cold and shiny...and then there's Iceland. Green and vibrant and otherworldly. It looks like one of the most beautiful places on the planet! Apparently most of the locations in the film, even those that are meant to be Greenland and Afghanistan, are really Iceland. And now I really, really want to go there. (Also, Icelandic sheep!)

I love the end of the movie. And I love how Walter changes over the course of the story. He starts off as such an awkward, insecure guy who lets people walk all over him, and by the end he's so much stronger and more sure of himself, though still in a quiet sort of way.

If you haven't seen this movie, you should definitely check it out. It's funny and unassuming and sweet and inspiring. Also: Iceland.

Yarn Along

Reading: I've just started on a new book (from the list of travel books that I want to read): Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson. I only finished Anne of Avonlea yesterday (loved it!), so I'm not far enough into this one to say much about it yet.

Knitting: After a short break, I'm starting this cowl again. I first cast on weeks ago and I was nearly finished with it when I realized it wasn't going to be as big as I wanted and that it wasn't going to use up all of this skein. So I frogged it (goodness, how I hate ripping out any amount of knitting!) and started again, casting on more stitches. I love the color of this yarn (tosh dk in the medieval colorway)...purple is one of my favorite colors, but for some reason I rarely knit with it.

{Yarn Along is a weekly link up hosted by Ginny where you can share what you've been knitting and reading.}

Travel books I want to read.

I'm a homebody. But at the same time, I like to see new places, and there are a few places that I would love to visit at some point in my life. Mainly England. Most of my favorite books were written by British authors, most of my favorite movies were filmed in the beautiful English countryside, and most of the shows I watch are from BBC. I want to visit a castle and see the moors and go to Jane Austen's house and get my picture taken with a TARDIS.

Anyway...lately I've been craving travel books and travel shows. I don't know whether it's the time of year or the fact that we haven't really been on a vacation in about four years, but I just want to live vicariously through others' travels right now. :)

I love the idea of travel memoirs more than just straight up guidebooks (because guidebooks don't do you a lot of good if you're not actually planning a trip). And by the way, when I say travel memoirs, I'm also including books written by someone about their time living in a place. Like Julia Child's My Life in France, which is about her and her husband living in France for years, not merely passing through. (I love that book, by the way.) Basically, I include anything written by someone living in a place where they weren't born and raised.

These are some of the travel books I want to read...

How the Heather Looks, by Joan Bodger. This book sounds perfect for me. Back in the 50s or 60s, a family went on a trip to England to find places that inspired classic children's literature, like the Winnie the Pooh books or The Wind in the Willows. It sounds so sweet and right up my alley, as someone who has a particular love for English children's literature. :)

A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside, by Susan Branch. A print-up of this woman's travel journal that she created during a two-month trip to England. There are photographs and watercolors and it sounds really charming.

Londoners, by Craig Taylor. This isn't necessarily a travel book. It's just a book featuring the stories of a variety of different people who live in London.

Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland, by Sarah Moss. Ever since watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, I've become a bit obsessed with Iceland. So I want to read this one, which is about a woman who moves from England to Iceland. And speaking of books set there, I really, really want to read Burial Rites. It's a fictionalized account of the true story of a young woman who was accused of murdering two men back in 1829. It sounds a bit more morbid of a book than I would typically choose. But supposedly it's so atmospheric that it makes you feel like you're there in Iceland, and I've heard nothing but good things about it. I'm hoping to read it this year.

Bill Bryson is pretty well known for writing humorous travel books. He's also well known for being super sarcastic and negative at times. So far I've only read one of his books, the one he wrote about his experiences on the Appalachian Trail: A Walk in the Woods. Honestly, the profanity and disdain for Christianity is what turned me off from that one more so than the sarcasm. But I'm still hopeful about the rest of his books. I bought the five that I want to read from Thriftbooks for really cheap so at least if I end up not liking them, I didn't waste a lot of money. :) I want to read: Notes from a Small Island (about England), Neither Here nor There (about other European countries), The Lost Continent (about small town America), I'm a Stranger Here Myself (about returning to America after living in England for decades), and In a Sunburned Country (about Australia).

A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway. I have a love-hate relationship with Hemingway. I need to read more of his books...so far I loved one (The Old Man and the Sea) and hated the other (To Have or Have Not, though the movie with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall is good). Anyway, I'm a bit fascinated with his personal life, depressing as it is, so I'd like to read his thoughts on Paris in the 20s.

C'est La Folie and Je T'aime A La Folie, by Michael Wright. These are memoirs of a man who left London to live in rural France. They're supposed to be really charming and funny.

Paris, My Sweet, by Amy Thomas. Paris and desserts. Yes...that's all you need to know, right? :)

Paris In Love, by Eloisa James. Another memoir about a woman who moves with her family to Paris.

Writing about all of these has made me even more excited to read them! :) I own eight of these, so where to begin?

By the way, I haven't read lots of travel-ish books yet, so I can't exactly give many recommendations. My Life in France, by Julia Child, is really good. A bit slow towards the end, but I'm completely fascinated with Julia Child...it seems like she was such a lovely person. That's still one of my favorite memoirs (if you're interested: my review). A Year in Provence was pretty enjoyable. I loved The Wilder Life, which is a sort of bookish/travel memoir about the Little House on the Prairie series (review here). But, as I've mentioned, I didn't really like Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, though I did enjoy learning more about the Appalachian Trail.

Do you have any recommendations for travel books?

Knitting: Miette cardigan.

The Miette cardigan was one of the first projects I ever put in my queue on Ravelry. And I finally got around to knitting it!

I started on this cardigan back in August as part of Shannon's Summer Sweater Knit Along. Miette is a cropped cardigan in worsted weight yarn, so theoretically this sweater should have taken 2-3 weeks at the most. Ha. I had to start knitting for the festival, followed by my niece's birthday gifts, so I didn't finish this sweater until the beginning of November. And then it took me over two months to actually get photos of it!

When I started this sweater, I only planned on making one simple change: moving the bust dart decreases to the side so the shaping would be much more subtle. My gauge was a bit off, which ended up balancing out, but it caused a problem when I got to the end of the raglans and separated for the sleeves: the sweater was too tight under my arms. Because of that one little problem I had to rearrange things for the rest of the sweater, but I won't go into that here. (More details on my project page, which is linked below).

So basically, I had to do a lot of math (which I'm awful at) and figuring and frogging back one of the sleeves, just to get the sweater to fit like it should have originally. But that's okay because I took good notes (in case I knit this one again) and I'm happy with how it turned out!

I definitely don't want all of my sweaters to fit this snugly, but I'm relieved to see that I can actually knit a sweater that's not several inches too big. (My other two sweaters turned out a lot larger than I intended.)

Miette is a pretty easy sweater. It's mostly stockinette with raglan sleeves (which I love), twisted ribbing (which I don't enjoy knitting but love the end result...it looks so neat compared to regular ribbing!), and a simple lace design around the neckline, button bands, and the bottom of the sleeves and body.

Black is far from the most exciting color to knit with, but I was trying to be practical. I wanted this sweater to wear over my dresses to church, and most of my dresses have black in them. The yarn is KnitPicks' Wool of the Andes in the coal colorway.

Project page.



Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows {Book + Film}

*Note: This post may contain spoilers for the whole Harry Potter series.*

I'm going to have to get a little nostalgic with this one. :) Out of the entire Harry Potter series, the last book is the one that I remember most vividly reading for the first time. That's probably partly because it's the most recent one (I was 16 when it came out). But it's mostly because the HP series meant so much to me growing up. I grew up with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. So I realized even then that it was important, this big part of my childhood coming to an end.

I remember that weekend...the book was released at midnight Friday night. My mom was going to yard sales the next morning, and I rode along so I could run in the store and buy the book early that morning. I started reading it then and I was finished by Sunday night. I stopped reading to eat, sleep, and go to church on Sunday, but that was the first (and only) time I've ever read such a huge book in such a short amount of time. I remember wanting to read slower to absorb every little detail but still wanting to rush through because I had to know what was going to happen. We were staying up the road with my grandmother that week (it was during the time that she wasn't able to stay by herself), and I remember reading on her front porch swing. I remember every part of the story that made me cry. (And there were quite a few of those, ha.)

Okay, enough reminiscing. Here are my thoughts on the book as I reread it...

This is my favorite book of the series. It really is a perfect conclusion, and after reading so many unsatisfying "last books," I appreciate that. There's so much happening that it almost feels like a couple of different stories...so much has changed from the beginning of the book to the end! Even though a big part of the story is the "journey" with the trio, and that's the sort of thing that has the potential to drag on, it never felt that way to me. The slower times are broken up with bits of action, and even in the slower bits, the characters are still changing and interacting. (Sometimes not a good thing. I've said this before, but I hate it in any of the books when Harry and Ron or Ron and Hermione aren't speaking to each other!)

There are so many parts that still make me emotional: Dudley's goodbye to Harry, Kreacher's change of loyalties, the revelation of Snape's true character, and just a lot of little things that make me tear up. And then of course there are plenty of big sad events. Anyway, I'm just really happy with how J.K. Rowling wrapped everything up, but it feels impossible to "review" this book.

I like the epilogue less the more I read it. I used to love it, but now it feels cheesy and a bit like a happily-ever-after that you would have written as a kid...when you'd be more likely to want to name your children after every single person you ever looked up to.

And if it was hard for me to review the book, it's going to be even harder for me to review the films. Because I've already reviewed them on the blog before, years ago right after seeing them in theaters. I'll just briefly give my thoughts here, and then below I'll link to my original reviews in case you want to read more. :)

I watched both parts of the Deathly Hallows in one evening, and whew, it was quite an experience. These two films feel different from the rest, just like the book. I jotted down notes as I watched, so I'm just going to go through things in order.

Part 1 starts off with a heartbreaking montage, which includes Hermione leaving home and wiping her parents' memory of her to protect them from Voldemort. (I do wish we had been able to see Ron's ghoul, though. It would have added some humor!)

I'm really disappointed with the Dursleys' goodbye scene. I wanted Dudley and Harry to have that odd bit of resolution like they do in the book. I do love the seven Potters scene though. Those transformations are well done and it's so funny. ("We're identical!") Later, I love it when George walks in on Harry and Ginny and sticks his toothbrush in his ear (former ear?)...it's just the most random and hilarious thing. :)

The Harry/Hermione dance is a little weird, but at the same time it feels realistic somehow. I've always loved their friendship. Have you noticed that they never really fight? Usually in the books when the trio is fighting, it's Harry vs. Ron or Ron vs. Hermione.

The animation for The Tale of the Three Brothers is gorgeous! But otherwise I'm always a bit disappointed with the whole visit to the Lovegood's home. My one problem with this film is that in several instances, certain things aren't nearly as impactful as they were in the book. That might just be a personal thing, though. When I read the book, I got chills at certain parts, like Kingley's message that arrives via Patronus at the wedding and when the trio realizes that Luna's dad is hiding something. The shock of realizing something terrible was incredible in the book, but in the movie it's just sort of...meh.

(Also, Dobby's death isn't nearly as moving in the film as in the book. I tear up more in the movie when everyone welcomes Harry back to Hogwarts than I do when Dobby dies!)

The scene at Gringotts is pretty awesome. And I have to say that Helena Bonham-Carter's acting is so good there. She manages to look like Hermione and use Hermione's facial expressions and mannerisms while being Bellatrix. That blows me away. (Also, the actors and actress who play the trio at the Ministry of Magic are great. They capture the mannerisms of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, too. The one who plays Harry is especially good.)

Three more little things: Professor McGonagall is the best except for that one cheesy line ("I've always wanted to use that spell!). I think Maggie Smith might just be one of my favorite people. (I watched The Grand Exotic Marigold Hotel recently and that cemented my love for her and Judi Dench.) Fred's death is heartbreaking, maybe even more so than Lupin and Tonks, probably because their whole relationship was really glossed over in the films. And Voldemort hugging Draco Malfoy is one of the most awkward things ever.

Overall, I think these two films are good adaptations. There are several things that I wish they had done differently, but the films really capture the atmosphere and feeling of the book. (This is one book that actually needed to be broken up into more than one movie. Unlike Mockingjay, The Hobbit, etc.)

So that wraps up my reread of the Harry Potter series and my rewatching of all the films! It took me about five months, but was such a wonderful experience and I almost feel like I got to discover one of my favorite series all over again. :)

P.S. You can find all of my previous Harry Potter reviews here. And here are my original Deathly Hallows film reviews: Part 1 and Part 2.

Yarn Along

Reading: I've moved on to Anne of Avonlea now. I'm not quite 100 pages in yet but I'm really enjoying it. A couple of parts seemed vaguely familiar to me, and at first I wondered if maybe I had started this one before, too. But then I realized that I just remember them from the film. :)

Knitting: I'm still knitting on those socks from last week (I'm starting on the second). But I also started these simple striped mitts (pattern here). I meant to make these back in the fall but ran out of time. I need more lighter, fingering weight mitts...most of mine are worsted weight and they're sometimes a little too warm.

{Yarn Along is a weekly link up hosted by Ginny where you can share what you've been knitting and reading.}

Like a Flower in Bloom.

Going into Siri Mitchell's latest book, Like a Flower in Bloom, I thought that I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. I've read quite a bit of Christian historical fiction, including five of this author's previous books, and it usually follows a pattern: an interesting historical setting, a sweet romance, and a bit of drama. I honestly don't mind a bit of predictability.

But I was so pleasantly surprised with this book. It wasn't until I read it that I realized what so much historical fiction is lacking: humor! I think one of the biggest reasons why people read Jane Austen or Elizabeth Gaskell or Georgette Heyer is because their words make us laugh...so I'm not sure why historical fiction tends to be so serious!

When Like a Flower in Bloom began, I wasn't quite sure in which direction the author was going to take it. Could Charlotte really be so socially inept? Was Miss Templeton going to turn out to be someone cruelly pretending friendship just so she could ridicule Charlotte? It wasn't until after I had read about a few of Charlotte's social blunders and watched her and Miss Templeton plot their marriage scheme (while thinking: this is obviously not going to turn out well) that I realized this book was going to be amusing. I didn't have to fret about something tragic or dramatic happening...I could just relax and enjoy the story. So I did. :)

Charlotte was a likable, though naïve, character, and I liked Mr. Trimble well enough, though I feel like I didn't really get to know him. Miss Templeton was amusing, and so were Charlotte's two endearingly awkward suitors. I liked the setting and the botany aspect, though sometimes I didn't know exactly what they were talking about. :)

I really enjoyed this book. It was light-hearted and fun, and it made me smile. It definitely has a different feel than Siri Mitchell's previous novels (and most Christian historical fiction in general), but for me it was a refreshing change.

*Note: I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review.*

Knitting: Vincent and the Doctor go hitchhiking.

This is one of those projects that I'd been wanting to knit for a long time. I love my first Hitchhiker and wanted to make another. (It feels like you get so much out of one skein! And the shape of it is awesome. Whenever I make a small triangular shawl, I feel like I can't wrap it around my neck without looking like a bandit wearing a bandana, but this one hangs perfectly.)

I wanted to make it out of some of this Doctor Who inspired yarn. When she had a sale, I bought the only fingering weight that was available in the colorway I wanted, which was the silk singles (70% merino, 30% silk) in Vincent and the Doctor. (That happens to be one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.) I cast on the day that the yarn came (back in September), but between making things for the festival and for Christmas, I didn't have much time to work on it.

I finally finished it on Christmas. (Coincidentally, I also finished a DW-inspired shawl on Christmas day the year before. Maybe this is becoming a tradition?) I'm really happy with how it turned out! I went up a needle size from before (size 5 needles), and that combined with the silk in the yarn gives it a nice drape and shine.

Project page.

Yarn Along

Reading: Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. I read this book once before, about seven or eight years ago. I remember enjoying it, but for whatever reason I never continued with the series. So now in 2015, I'm finally going to read them all. :) This one is so good...Anne cracks me up. (Edit: I finished it and absolutely loved it!)

Knitting: Socks. This is my third attempt with this particular yarn, and I'm happy with it. First I tried vanilla socks, and the yarn pooled in a really hideous way. Then I tried Jaywalker, which made the yarn stripe into pretty chevrons, but the fit wasn't working. It fit loosely on my leg but I could hardly get it over my ankle. So attempt number three: the stitch pattern from Show-off Stranded Socks, but a plain heel and gusset like I usually do. (I'm in the mood for easy knitting right now and really didn't feel like deciphering the gusset instructions.) It's amazing what a difference the stitch pattern makes...instead of ugly thick pooling, it's a nice thin spiral that looks like stripes. :) I'm at the gusset on the first sock.

{Yarn Along is a weekly link up hosted by Ginny where you can share what you've been knitting and reading.}

What I Read: December

Here's the last edition of "What I Read" for 2014! :) I really enjoyed doing these monthly posts and I think I'll continue with them in the new year. If you're interested, you can find my bookish recap of 2014 here.

Anyway, here's what I read in December. As usual, the links will take you to my reviews.

All Wound Up, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. This is the second of her books that I've read, and I enjoy them. It's nice to read humorous essays about knitting. Well, if you're a knitter anyway. Otherwise you might not get much from it. :)

Make Good Art speech, by Neil Gaiman. I had watched this speech before and found it inspiring, so it's nice to have a little copy of it.

Here to Stay, by Melissa Tagg. I loved this one! It was even better than her first book. I loved the characters and the sweet romance and the Stars Hollow-ish setting. It was just lovely. One of my favorite books of the year!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling. I wrapped up my reread of the HP series, and it was awesome. I love this book...it's probably my favorite of the whole series. I still have to rewatch the last two films, and then I'll be putting up my review of the book and film.

The Magician's Elephant, by Kate DiCamillo. This author manages to write some of the charming and heartbreaking children's books I've ever read. This was a reread for me, and it was magical.

Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with this one. I think I was maybe expecting too much. This book has a sort of "legendary status" among Christian historical fiction, but I've read quite a few books in that genre that have impacted me more than this one did. The story felt repetitive at times and I never really connected to the characters. Still good, though, and worth the read, and I was impressed with how the author adapted a Bible story to a California Gold Rush setting.

Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis. I've read this one four or five times, and it was just as wonderful as it always is.

Jane Austen: Cover to Cover, by Margaret C. Sullivan. I loved this! It was so much fun.

My 2015 resolutions.

Happy New Year! :)

If you've been around here for at least a year, then you'll know that I love making new year's resolutions. I'm not always the best at keeping them, but I still love the idea of going into the new year ready to accomplish some goals and change for the better. Plus I'm definitely a list-maker. :)

Sewing:
-Sew at least five garments. And pajamas don't count.
-Use up some of my "special" fabrics. I have a few small pieces of quilters cotton (half yard pieces) that I have been saving for the perfect project because they are so darn adorable. They're not doing me any good sitting on the shelf...they deserve to be sewn into something!
-Finish my fall quilt. I'm hand-quilting it, and I'm not very far in yet.
-Make a set of knitting accessories (possibly matching?). I'd like to make another little pouch (I've used that one constantly since I finished it), a pattern holder (similar to this), a case for my DPNs, and a case for my interchangeable needle set. My knitting needles are scattered everywhere and it's driving me crazy...I want to get them organized.

Knitting:
-Learn how to knit colorwork. I experimented a little bit this past year, but I want to knit some colorwork mittens or fingerless gloves.
-Learn how to knit lace. I just want to dip my toe in...no super-difficult charts or anything. I've used some lace in patterns before in a very small way, but I'd like to knit a shawl or two involving some lace this year. (Like this one and this one. I already have the yarn for those two!)
-Knit myself two sweaters. I've already got the yarn and I know which patterns I'm leaning towards.
-Knit myself six pairs of socks. I attempted this last year but only made it to four, but I think I can do it this year. :)
-Finish the Craftsy class I'm currently watching: Drafting From Worsted to Woolen. It's covering familiar territory, but I'm only on the first real lesson and I've already learned several new things. Being a self-taught spinner, I'm finding out that there are a lot of small things that I might have overlooked at the beginning that make a big difference.
-Keep a knitting/spinning notebook. I already do this on Ravelry, but I want something tactile, a place where I can stick in yarn labels and samples and such. I used to do this with my spinning, but I didn't do it all last year so I want to start fresh with a new notebook and record every project.
-Knit mostly from my stash...no yarn purchases until at least April. In mid-April I'm going to a fiber festival and I'm definitely going to buy some stuff there, because that's a once-a-year opportunity. But otherwise, I don't need more yarn. I already have enough to keep me busy for a year or two.
-When I do buy yarn, focus on buying natural (non-superwash) U.S.-raised wool. My eyes have been opened recently about the processing that yarn goes through, especially when it's done in other countries, and I want to be more careful about what I'm buying (and wearing next to my skin).
-Focus more on quality than quantity. I'm going to hopefully talk more about this in a later post, but I'd rather take longer on projects that I love than churn out lots of things that I probably won't use.

Bookish:
-Read 75 books. My goal last year was 70 and I read 73, so I think I can do 75.
-Get my number of own-but-unread books down to 100. By either reading them or weeding out the ones I probably won't read. That number currently sits at around 160. (Ouch.)
-Read at least 5 classics. Ones that I haven't read before, and preferably not just children's books.
-Buy fewer books. We'll see how that goes.
-Keep a more detailed book journal. I've kept a book journal for the past few years, but I'm usually pretty vague and brief with my reviews. I write longer reviews on Goodreads than I do in my notebook, but I want to get better with that this year.
-Reread the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is the year, guys. (Fingers crossed.)
-Work on this book challenge. It sounds fun and I think a lot of the books I'm planning on reading will apply to some of those goals, anyway.

Miscellaneous:
-Open a new Etsy shop and update my blog branding to coordinate with it. More on this later, but here's a hint: it's going to be a woolly, yarny shop. :)
-Finish my Disney animated film series. My last entry was six months ago. Oops!
-Journal consistently. I've really failed at this over the past two years or so.
-Only buy new clothing that is made in the US. Which probably means I'll be making most of mine. I don't buy many clothes, anyway.
-Save at least $10 a week. I did this last year, so it's become a good habit.
-Give money to a charity or good cause each month.
-Walk more outside. The only form of exercise that I enjoy. :)
-Learn how to cook. I say this every year and it has yet to happen, so we'll see!

Lots of goals, I know. Some will be much easier than others. Anyway, here's to 2015 being an amazing year! :)

What are your goals for the new year?