2017 goals Archives

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Vicki — 6 Comments

October Goals (Blogtober 4)

October Goals Goals. Goals, goals goals… Why do I set them? Do I achieve more in the months that I set proper goals than I do in the months that I don’t? Yes, yes I do. Granted, I’ve not done any empirical research to back up this assertion, so perhaps I should say “I think I do” or “I’m pretty sure I do“, but to be honest, I don’t really care. I’m a listaholic and I like little more than to tick things off lists. Goals are REALLY up my street, so let’s crack on with the goals for this month.

The Website

I really, really want to get the website finished this month, however I’ve not idea how long that’s going to take, and I want this to be a measurable goal. I need to spend some time taking some more photographs (one day I’ll get some professionally done but until then, it’s diy all the way baby…) I also need to move the blog over to the new website, but I’m hoping my other half can do that – there has to be some perks to being married to an IT professional eh? So, I’m going to commit to working on the website for at least eight hours this month – that’s a measurable goal that I think is achievable, so we’ll see how close to launch that takes us.

The Blog

It’s Blogtober don’t you know?! There will be 31 more posts on the blog at the end of the month than there was at the beginning of the month. That’s a goal and a half I reckon!!

Make a Lotion or Cream.

Back in August, I was honoured to be gifted an amazing book on making skin care – Luscious Lotions, Decadent Creams & Nourishing Conditioners: 30 Emulsified Lotion Recipes and Detailed Instructions. The giver was none other than the author herself, Lisa of Aquarian Soap, and I’ve been itching to try something out of the book since I received it. So, this month I’ll be making at least one recipe out of Lisa’s book and of course, sharing the results in a post.

So there we go. Three main goals. I also need to make more Christmas soaps, wrap and label a shed load of Christmas soaps, keep up with regular soap restocks, design and make up a selection of gift sets and make LOTS of bath bombs. Throw into the mix a Craft Show that I’m organising in my village for Saturday 21st October and it’s probably a good thing that I like being busy 😀

Oh, and one little one personal one for the road – I want, need, to get back into running. So, despite the fact that I’ve not run a single metre for a couple of months, I’m planning on running 50km this month (shoot me now).

Back tomorrow,

Vickx

Posted on March 31, 2017 by Vicki — Leave a comment

March Goals Revisited

Is anyone else incredulous that we’re a quarter of the way through 2017 already? I’m still recovering from Christmas, really should be thinking about my summer specials, and yet I’ve been so busy this last few months that I’m still playing catch up, stock-wise… March also saw the first of my monthly craft fairs, and the first of my weekly Thursday evening soaping presentations… I may be setting the scene here for what’s coming next 😀 😀

Right, so, at the beginning of the month I set out my goals for March. February wasn’t the most successful month goals wise (though rather good business-wise, so who’s complaining?) and I was convinced I could do better this month. I intended to:

Create a wholesale Line Sheet. Wholesale enquiries are increasing and this is a high priority ‘must have’. ASAP…
Make a test batch of facial soap
Post 8 times on the blog

I’ve not got round to the Line Sheet. It’s been on my mind constantly, and I’ve come up with a workaround for the time being – within the next week or so I’ll write a blog post outlining my core range. Once that’s posted I can send the link to anyone enquiring, and then when the time comes to design the Line Sheet I’ll have all the info in one place, ready to go.

Nor have I managed to make the facial soap. Oh, this one is frustrating me. I REALLY want to get down to it, but each soaping session I manage to carve out of my week is devoted to core range soap and getting stock levels up. It’s going back onto the goals list for April, and I think I have a chance of actually doing it *crosses fingers*

But the third goal? Write eight blog posts? Phew – including this one, I wrote ten – yey!!

My personal goals were to run 30km and to read. Read anything, and for any length of time. I only managed to run 24km, but considering I’ve not been for a run since the 19th of the month, I don’t think that’s too bad. I’ve spent some time this month training for (and earning) my yellow kickboxing belt, so I’ve not exactly been idle lol.

I have read. Not a lot, but on the few evenings I’ve managed to get to bed before midnight I’ve picked up a book and got through a few pages before my husband gently lifts the book away and switches of my bedsight light because I’ve fallen asleep… I’ve realised that I’m not Superwoman, I can’t do everything that I’d LOVE to do, never mind the things that I’d like to do, so if I can, I will, but reading is coming off my goals list.

Thanks for reading, April goals to follow soon.

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Vicki — 4 Comments

The Sad Story of February’s Goals…

Remember a month ago when I posted about my success regarding January’s goals? It had been a good month but, was I too full of hubris? Was I perhaps a little smug? Were February’s goals desperately ambitious and unattainable? I can only assume so because, my friends, February was a washout. Suddenly (seriously, without warning :-D) the end of the month arrived and was devoid of goal success.

So, here’s how bad it was:

Create a wholesale Line Sheet. Wholesale enquiries are increasing and this is a high priority ‘must have’. Oops Still need to do this asap
Make a test batch of facial soap Oops Still want to do this asap
Make 3 Spring Special soaps Oops Have decided against this – I’m struggling to keep up with the core range at the moment
Post 8 times on the blog Oops Only 6 posts in February 🙁

The personal goals weren’t much better. I was aiming to run 50km during February, and actually managed *ahem* 12km. I seriously lost my running mojo very early in the month. I’ve missed it though, and have arranged to go with a friend tomorrow morning, so hopefully I’ll get back into it soon enough. I also wanted to read more. Well, I have read more, but still not a whole book, so back to the drawing board with that one too. Lastly, I wanted to do some baking. Well that much I did do. I make a rather lovely Victoria sponge (but rubbish photograph) for my mum’s birthday, and a couple of batches of Welsh Cakes (which I’m going to post about very soon!)

So, a couple of small wins in a big sea of ~~fails~~ un-met challenges 😀

I’m not, however, despondent. By no means. I’ve been ridiculously busy during February. I’ve taken on two new BIG wholesale customers, and I’ve been snowed under with making, wrapping and labelling. It’s all good stuff, but it does feel like I’m running to stay still, so I firmly believe that goals are still a good and necessary thing, helping to keep me challenged and moving forward. To that end, I’m going to reset last months business goals, excluding the one about Spring specials:

Create a wholesale Line Sheet. Wholesale enquiries are increasing and this is a high priority ‘must have’. ASAP…
Make a test batch of facial soap
Post 8 times on the blog

And as far as personal goals go, I’m going back to basics – run 30km and read a book. That’s it. I’m taking part in a Library Bingo Challenge which is encouraging me to get to the library more often, and which might motivate me to find the time to read more often, but I’ll post about that another time.

Wish me luck! I’ll be back soon – I will smash that ‘8 post goal’ this month LOL

Posted on February 1, 2017 by Vicki — 1 Comment

Goals: February 2017

February will see an increase in the pace of restocking the core range of soaps and (finally) bathbombs. In addition, the plan is to:

Create a wholesale Line Sheet. Wholesale enquiries are increasing and this is a high priority ‘must have’. ASAP…
Make a test batch of facial soap
Make 3 Spring Special soaps
Post 8 times on the blog

On a personal note, I have these (particularly un-SMART goals). I’m going to run 50km this month, read something (yep, that’s deliberately vague as I have. absolutely no idea what yet – better decide soon eh?!), and do some baking. I LOVE baking but never seem to find the time. Maybe a cake or two, maybe some cookies, I don’t know, but I WILL bake two somethings 😀

A short post, but it gives February some structure. Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!

Posted on January 31, 2017 by Vicki — 1 Comment

January 2017 – Goals Roundup

So that was January! Four and a half weeks of my least favourite time of year, but you know what? It’s been pretty productive. Back on the 3rd January I posted my goals for the month, and I’m really happy with what’s been achieved since then.

I completed my tax return. Deadline was today, 31st January, but I made sure it was one of the first things I ticked off my list. Missing that deadline was not an option!

I finally got round to making some Castile soap – something that had been on my list of things to do for aaaages. I’ll be posting an update on the cure is progressing towards the end of next month:

I’ve done a fair bit of research for my facial bar. I’m planning on making two – a charcoal bar for younger / combination skin, and a bar aimed at older skin. I have a good idea of the recipes now, and hope to make some trial bars next month.

Finally I hoped to post on this blog at least 8 times. Well, this post is the eighth of the month, so a big fat tick for that one too…

I was gentle with myself as far as the personal goals went – I wanted to run 30km, and read a book, any book, just to try to get back into the habit of reading again. Well, I smashed the running – I’ve run 65.5km (!!) during January, and it would have been more had I not picked up a bug which morphed into a cold towards the end of the month which meant I only really ran for the first three weeks or so. I’ve also started kickboxing once a week, which is hard work but amazing fun.

The reading went pretty well too. I finished the book that I’d been crawling through for the last three months of 2016 – Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren It’s an extraordinarily interesting book (if you’re as fascinated by languages as I am) and a very easy read. Each stand alone chapter is only a few pages long but packed with facts that made me ooohh and aaahhh with delight as I learned about the vast similarities and differences that exist within the languages of Europe. I also got halfway through a novel – The Magicians (Book 1) by Lev Grossman. I enjoyed it enough at the beggining, but I had a nagging feeling that it was aimed at a younger readership – maybe a YA novel? Turns out it’s not, but I can’t get excited about the characters, and have decided life’s too short, and reading time too precious, to continue with something that I’m not ABSOLUTELY loving. I only found out today that it’s been made into a TV series in the US. Have you seen it? Is it any good? Anyway, I now need to find a better book to read for February, ‘cos it’s going on that goals list again 🙂

So there we go – January goals smashed… I was going to include my February goals in this post but it’s got a bit longer than planned, so I’ll leave them for tomorrow – which gives me a little longer to think about them too 😉

Don’t forget to comment below if there’s a particular novel that you would absolutely, definitely recommend I read – I’m open to all and any suggestions and genres (except horror – I don’t do horror)

Thank you if you’ve read this far – the fact that someone might actually read what I write is definitely an incentive to stick to my plans.

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Vicki — 1 Comment

The Week in Soap: 22nd Jan ’17

The holiday period is well and truly over, and things are starting to pick up again business-wise. I’ve started receiving orders for Valentine’s themed bars, and the first one was delivered to a local retailer yesterday. Here in Wales we also celebrate Dydd Santes Dwynwen (St Dwynwen’s Day, considered to be the Welsh St Valentine’s Day) on the 25th January, so there’s a double whammy of love related promotions at this time of year 😀

On the making front I’ve only made two batches this week – a restock of Welsh Rose and an as yet unnamed project for a swap I’m participating in soon. Can’t say too much about that one yet, but all will be revealed eventually 🙂

Welsh Rose & 'No Name' in the mould — Welsh Rose & ‘No Name’ in the mould

So basically I’ve only made one batch for general sale this week – I think I’m going to have to increase the production rate PDQ!

I also cut last week’s Castile soap. Having read so much about how long it can be before it’s hard enough to be unmoulded, I left it a full eight days before unmoulding and cutting, and I was really surprised at how hard it already was. I had to be very careful and cut slowly, I was so concerned that the wire on my Bud Cutter would snap, but all was well. This was the finished bar:

It’s a lot whiter than I expected it to be when it was first poured, though I’m not too happy about the streaks in it – we’ll see how it looks as it cures.

One of my goals for January was to research facial bar recipes with a view to hopefully making some in February. During my research I came across a blog/website, Lather Lass, which collects and collates soap recipes from all over the web – it’s worth having a browse if you’re looking for something in particular.

On a personal note, did I mention that I’ve started going to a kickboxing class? Every Wednesday evening, 6-7pm, and it’s amazing. Seriously hard work but I’m hoping it will do wonders for my fitness levels and be a good complement to the running (another of those goals!)

Anyway, talking of goals, it’s time to start thinking about what I want to get done in February, it’ll soon come round! Thanks for reading – back soon!