Revisiting my FOCUS

Way, way (way, way, waaaayyy) back toward the beginning of 2014 I decided to do this thing called One Little Word.  And by do this thing I mean take something I saw on the internet and run with it only having a small understanding of it - you take one little word and live it for a year.  I am so, so, so very bad with goals, I've spoken about it before, and about mid year I realized I'd completely given up on this One Little Word thing.  Or had I?

My word for 2014 is FOCUS, my first (maybe only real post on it) is here.  I talked a lot about refocusing - the blog, the shops, etc.  I talked about expanding the Zazzle store, I talked about doing YouTube videos.  About mid year I realized I hadn't mentioned my word nearly at all since that post.  But in reflection, I'd found that I had be focusing on things....just not in the way I intended.  This is what always happens to me with goals.  I set them and then forget about them but in a round about way get back to them and feel accomplished in the end.  That is how I feel about this little word here.  I did end up focusing on a lot of different things in my life.

I started off by doing the Four Simple Goals posts each month with the goal in mind to focus on our relationship (between Zach & I and us as a family), focus on the house, and focus on a 516 endeavor.  While I started out different than where I ended.  I'm glad I'm ending where I am.  It's weird how things have worked out...you know?

Focus on Us
We started doing more things together with intention and we are growing together everyday.  I try to make it a point every now & then to just sit down and be together.  We play games, we watch shows, we just hang out where it's just us....and the dog!  We've also started going to SCA events where we learn a lot about different, historical things and just have fun socializing together.  I think that Project Life has helped me focus on us because I'm documenting our lives and reliving memories.  I especially want to point out this post on how we just decided to move 800 miles away together.  It is so funny to look back on things and be surprised.  I've also focused a lot on me and who I am (this post and this post and this post reflect that).  This has helped me identify what I bring to the table as being one part of the us I'm talking about!

Focus on the House

A lot of small projects got done this year.  A lot of organizing and consistency happened this year.  I worked on a cleaning schedule and we finished some of the odds and ends that needed to be done and we started some new ones.  This year was about appreciating the space we have and making the most of it.  We have a long way to go and I'd like to continue focusing on the house in 2015 because theres a lot to do.  I feel like it's a constant struggle for me with upkeep!  Who really wants to rake leaves and mow the grass? Not me!

Focus on 516 

This was a big one.  While I didn't expand in the areas I initially mentioned I branched out and tried new things.  I also went back to blogging just for me.  I am keeping my sidebar ads down because I want to promote things I love.  I'm keeping my shops down because I don't want the pressure and it's not always about $$.  It's about creating!  Offering freebies on the blog was another big step.  I always tend to want to sell what I've created but freely sharing has made me happier.  I feel like with Project Life I've renewed my love of design, but in a new light.  My YouTube channel and my love of make up has really been a way to be creative as well and show my artistic side.

So there's just a little update here before the end of the year.  I might take this little project further next year.  I'm already thinking about what my word will be next year.....what is a good, over arching word that I can apply to my life?  I like focus because it has an action so I want to choose a strong word next year as well!

Did you choose a word to live by this year?  Will you choose one next year?

xoxo, Moe

Let's Talk about the F Word // Focus

That darn F word keeps popping up for me everywhere - and I need to pay attention to it.  The word is focus.  I touched on somethings that will be refocused this year in this post, but I wanted to go a little bit further & give some full on plans for all of 516 this year and let you know why focus is going to be my word for the year:

Get this poster from the Five Sixteenths Stationery shop here

First off, I'm bad with setting goals.  Secondly, I like to set them because I feel like the act gives me a little bit of a guideline throughout the year.  This is where the word focus comes in.  Instead of just setting a long goal for the entire year - that I would inevitably forget in the next two weeks - I decided that one word might be able to sum it up for me this year.  (You can read more about my one word inspiration from Cam on Campfire Chic here & learn more about the original project here.)  A lot changed through 2013 mainly because the thing called life gets in the way of lots of plans.  At first I knew that in order to make this self-employed thing work I needed to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket.  So as soon as I moved up north with Zach we opened up the 516VINTAGE shop.  It was something we totally talked about for a while & decided why not?  We made our first sale in a week & I was excited to have it go on into 2013.  Then I worked to expand the Five Sixteenths Blog Design shop & offer custom work.  I found that this took off too!  After teaching myself how to work with the blogger platform in 2012, I was excited to offer more & learn more in 2013.  It worked because soon I was coding the Five One Six storefront on Storenvy and doing custom design work here & there.  I was seeing all my hard work pay off, hooray!  I opened the Five One Six handmade shop & started work on a stationery shop through Zazzle.  It was becoming real.  But the pressure got too much for me & I started looking for a real job.  I found one & that's when  everything changed.  

I could no longer keep up with design or the vintage shop.  The design shop got ignored, slowly I took down my custom offerings, & soon no more new stuff was added.  Finally I put it on vacation - it's still on vacation, a permanent vacation.  Then I tried to get into the vintage shop again, but that headed south too.  516VINTAGE has now closed it's online doors.  I wallowed for a while sad that all that I'd worked for went down the drain all because I wanted something called stability & to be a 100% able to be a part of the team called Zach & I.  At first (and sometimes still) I felt like I gave up.  I felt like I just quit because it got too hard.  But I think it was more complicated than that. I think the first realization I had was that I was lacking the time to do all these things & that's why they were headed no where.  It was time to just let the end of the year take it's course.  It was time to step back & figure out what wasn't working.  I needed to figure out how to channel my energy into something I would love.  It's time to start a new chapter, turn a new leaf, etc, etc.

Get this print from the Society6 shop here!

So now I'm back at it, hopefully with a level head & and idea to refocus in the new year.  So, I have this full time job & I have this desire to create.  It's time to figure out balance between life, work, & creativity - a struggle I've had for quite a while.  So this year I'm going to focus on improving my life & relationship with Zach, focus on keeping work at work & making time for all the things I need to do (like focus on our relationship & focus on creativity - pretty much stop making the excuse of 'work is exhausting' and just freaking do what I want!), and focus on dedicating time to being creative on the blog, the shop, & with Zach.  I've touched on the Four Simple Goals project to get this focusing done in this blog post but I plan on setting four goals a month - two for the home (we've got a lot to work on still!), one for our relationship, and one blog/shop goal.  My main reasoning behind four goals is that there are four weekends in a month (five if I'm lucky) so that's the time I can focus on it!

As for the shop refocusing - 516VINTAGE is closed (I don't know if it's permanent, but it's definitely gone, for now), custom blog design work is on the back burner (maybe a blog button here if anyone asks, but seriously nothing major),  the blog design shop may reopen but blogger has made some changes & I don't have time to troubleshoot old templates, so that's done for now.  What will I be focusing on for 2014?  The Stationery Shop through Zazzle.  Zazzle has added a lot of new options & I'm excited to try them out!  For custom stationery to leggings, Zazzle offers a fun way for me to design with no pressure.  I feel like if sales are trickling in with no effort that means what I'm designing is (maybe) timeless - it applies across the years/trends/etc.  My most popular item is the hilarious poster used in the beginning of this post! Zazzle has been giving me consistent - all be it small - sales with literally no effort.  So imagine what I could do with actual effort.  I like that I can design & you can customize.  It's fun to try out new things so I hope to see that develop more through 2014.  

Some of my Four Simple Goals will touch on the Zazzle shop this year as well.  The blog is also going to feature more beauty related posts & I'm going to try to get back into fashion posts.  I'm also going to refocus on sharing more of life realness & less filler.  Some fun stuff though, some wish list posts, & also working with brands/affiliate links.  I want to blog in a real way about things I love but also want to pull in a little bit of something here & there as well.  Speaking of that, I want to avoid what I did earlier this month & later in December of pulling out a lot of posts where I received something to review.  Influesnter can be fun to work with but the challenges can really sneak up on you - I'm not going to blog/tweet/instagram so much sponsored stuff in that short amount of time!  Hey, I'm all for honesty.

Another endeavor is focusing on YouTube videos.  Not too frequent but enough to do something fun.  This will be a lot of beauty/skincare/hair/fashion as well as some home & cooking videos.  Zach really wants to get into doing cooking videos!  So be on the look out for those.  I think that would be a fun way to spend creative time together!

So there you have it, my word for 2014 is focus and I plan on putting it to work!

What word will you focus on this year? Any specific goals?

xoxo, Moe

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