The Rest Of The World Becomes A Gift Shop

I started off 2009 with high hopes and many resolutions. I may have laughed a little while re-reading my New Year's resolutions for 2009 ... and then cried a little (on the inside) because I successfully completed only one of my resolutions. Well, one and a half. My one triumph was that I ate beets once a month for all of 2009. I ate beets twelve times in 2009 (and am quite happy to never eat beets again, thank you.) My half-triumph is that Wolfie rarely pees inside anymore (I say through gritted teeth because really, he should not be peeing inside at all. Do you hear me, puppy? You are on notice! One more accident inside and we're sending you back to the farm from whence you came.)

I decided to do things a little differently in 2010. Instead of spouting off a slew of unrealistic goals at the beginning of the year, I'm going to make a new goal each month (drawing inspiration from Nilsa's Challenge series.) I want to see if holding myself accountable at the end of each month makes me more successful in completing my goals.

So, my New Year's resolution for 2010 is to come up with a monthly challenge; tell the internet about it; then post my successes and/or failures on the last day of each month. (I realize that we're already a week into January but I decided before January 1st what my January goal would be and have been sticking to it.)

My goal for January is to curtail my shopping. This extends to fun things like clothes, books, music, kitchen gadgets, and Ed Hardy air fresheners. It does not extend to groceries (including fancy cheeses and the expensive ice cream, baby steps, peeps, baby steps) or bills or items purchased with gift certificates.

Though if someone wanted to buy fun things for me (like this gorgeous bag or this gorgeous clutch ... ummm how long til the end of January?) I wouldn't object.