Welcome to 2013.

Happy new year, and sorry it's a few days late! I've been at home with the boyfriend for the past few days, it's lovely to see my dogs and my parents again (and to get all my food cooked for me, not going to lie). So, it's 2013. I'm not one of those people to jump straight into a green juice detox whilst treadmilling 27 times a week as soon as we hit January 1st - I still have a load of Christmas chocolate left, for a start - but at the same time I see nothing wrong with seeing the new year as a fresh new start. There's no doubting that it's easier to diet when you're surrounded by gym offers and the media bullying you into it, than when Christmas is coming up and it's practically law to overindulge. However, rather than make myself some new year's resolutions, which I'm doomed to fail at instantly, I've decided to follow suit with a load of other bloggers and make myself a list of 13 things to achieve in 2013. Some slightly silly, some deadly serious, but I'm determined to complete them all. Wish me luck ...

1) Complete the C25K running program.
Okay, so this will be my fourth attempt. Apparently I'm not very good at sticking to things. If you've not heard of it, C25K (also known as Couch to 5K) is a running program which aims to get you from absolute beginner runner status, to being able to run 5 kilometres without a break. It's bloody hard work for someone as unfit as me, but it definitely does work. I stopped last time because my gym membership ran out (I think. It was either that or I just got lazy) but I got about halfway through, and ran for 20 minutes without a break. It hurt like hell, but at the start of the program I would NEVER have been able to do that! This time I'm determined to complete it, continue running afterwards, and be able to call myself an actual runner.

2) Visit a new country.
One of my big aims in life is to travel a lot. Or, er, to go on a lot of holidays. I've been lucky enough to go on some fab holidays thanks to my parents, but now I'm a poor grown up student I don't know how much longer I can keep relying on them to drag me along too! I'm going to meet some friends in Belfast in February so that'll be this one ticked off the list- hopefully I'll get to visit somewhere else too. I'm thinking Tunisia, Greece or Italy, if I can persuade the boyfriend/fund it?

3) Go on more nights out.
Slightly controversial one here, but I want to go out more, and I want to get drunk more. I'm a student and I live 2 minutes away from one of the main clubs, yet I only go out once a month or so. I have no excuse! I enjoy it when I go - I like getting dressed up, doing my make up nicely, gossiping with my friends before we go out, then getting nicely drunk and dancing til my feet hurt and I have to stagger drunkenly home to the boyfriend who will likely come and get a burger with me. It's fun.

4) Create more baking recipes.
Three of my absolute favourite and most used recipes are ones I've created myself from scratch through an awful lot of reading and research online. And if I do say so myself, they are damn good cakes. I want to develop some more of my own recipes, so I can be extremely proud and smug when I get complimented on my baked goods.

5) Take more photos.
I have no desire at all to become a cracking photographer with a brilliant camera. I don't have the time or the patience (that's a lie, I just don't have the patience) to spend hours setting up the perfect photo, with impeccable lighting and angles and blah blah blah. Nor do I want to end up living my life through a camera lense, rather than viewing things for myself. I fully respect those that do love serious photography, but it's just not for me. I do have a pretty decent camera on my phone - a HTC One X - though, so using that I really just want to take more casual photos to document my daily life. My phone has 1256 photos on it - about 600 of them are my recent trip to Florida, and I bet another 500 are of my dogs. No joke.

6) Eat at a Michelin starred restaurant.
I like food. I like food a lot. And I like eating out - who doesn't? I've eaten at a few pretty fancy restaurants, but never one with a Michelin star. I follow a lot of food blogs, and I get so ridiculously jealous of all the yummy looking, gourmet food served so I've decided this year, it'll be me. I'll start saving up now ...

7) Learn more French.
I did French at GCSE and kind of hated it at the time. Then I completed it, ended up with a good solid A and realised it wasn't actually that bad, and really I was okay at it. I go to France a fair bit, and I'd really like to be able to speak more of the language.

8) Use my sewing machine more.
This year, I want to complete more little sewing projects. Don't get me wrong, I do use my sewing machine - last summer I made a cracking little apron for myself, and for Christmas I made some of The Londoner's Heat Up Brown Owls for a few of my family and friends. But this year I want to use it more - I plan on making myself a few pretty cotton summer dresses, and expanding my skills a bit.

9) Develop a healthier relationship with money.
This is a biggie. I need to start budgeting, and spending less of my money on Costa and cheap make up. I'm not happy with my overdraft, and I want to try and get it sorted out. I'm going to start totting up what I spend on little bits and bobs each week, and stick to a solid budget. I will hopefully get a paid placement this year, which will help me out a lot, but I don't want to fall into the trap of just spending more when I get more income.

10) Cook more healthy and exciting meals.
The past couple of months I have gotten sooooo lazy. We have been living off chicken dippers because we've been too lazy to cook - my mealtimes consist of me lusting after beautiful, healthy looking meals on Pinterest whilst I shovel crisps and Lindor truffles into my mouth. As of now, I will pick 3-4 meals a week which I definitely want to try, and the rest of the week will be decent salads, jacket potatoes, the odd Weightwatchers ready meal (they're quite nice, and I don't feel guilty about then) and maybe, maybe (definitely) a takeaway every so often.

11) Make more of an effort with my appearance.
We've all done it - we get into a rut with our hair and make up. My aim this year is to follow the advice of the countless magazines I read and try all the new beauty trends. Same goes for my clothes - I want to make more exciting choices, and have less of the typical dress-cardigan-scarf-pumps-tights combo which I seem to live in.

12) Snack less.
This was originally 'get down to 9 stone'. But to be quite honest, I'd rather not be weighing myself all the time, I don't know how I'd look at 9 stone or even if I'd be happy with it, and I just can't be bothered with all the hassle. So I've changed it to 'snack less'. Snacking is my absolute downfall - I do it when I'm bored, i.e. all the time - so I'm going to try and break the habit. Even though I'm only a size 10 so hardly obese, I've still been bothered by my weight and how I look around my stomach for years and years, and I just think 'well why should I have to get so unhappy about something I can change?' So hopefully this, combined with numbers 1 and 10 should all help me become a little bit fitter, slimmer, and all round happier with my body.

13) Continue with this little blog.
And hopefully by this time next year, it won't be such a little blog.