From Vision Board to Reality: Achieving My 2024 Goals

This might have been the year of the most change that I have gone through in my whole life. Last January, I was not married, lived in an apartment, and had never seen the east coast. I had several goals listed on a vision board in early January, including to exercise more, buy a bigger couch, get a second car, buy a home, as well as some specific knitting goals. I wanted to do at least one test knit, and had a few other garments I wanted to knit, like some sweaters, a cardigan and a few tops, for a total of 12 completed knits. It was the first year I actually sat down and created a physical vision board.

So how did the year go?

Knitting Goals

While I didn’t create every single garment from my vision board, I am completely happy with what I did complete.

Knitted items completed: 14/12

Test knits completed: 3/1 (plus one that is still ongoing)

Men’s rustic scarf
Fingerless gloves to match scarf (no pattern used)
Knus light tee
Corinthian sweater – TEST
Brusca pullover – TEST
Winters beach cardigan
Summer tank – TEST
Coloring book tee
Framed Rhinebeck sweater
Emotional support chicken – GIFT
Dumpling bag – GIFT
Cozy classic light tee
Sophie scarf – GIFT
Rybka pouch – GIFT

I definitely had a very productive knitting year! I was also excited to also complete all of my Christmas gifts as hand knit projects, all from stash yarn, although I was finishing the final gift on the 25th 🥴 I’m going to blame that on the life changes that were happening in the last two months however!

I’m going to add in here that one of my bucket list items has been to visit New England – see Boston, a lighthouse, the east coast, and go to Rhinebeck. I feel so fortunate to have been able to do that in 2024, and we are thinking of planning a similar (but shorter!) trip there in 2025.

Life Goals

I had some pretty lofty life goals. So how did those play out?

Exercise more – eh somewhat. Still need to keep working on this in 2025. But I did purchase a walking pad which has really come in handy for being more active!

Get a second car – nope

Buy a bigger couch – check! It’s possibly a little too large by many standards, however I had a lot of trouble finding one that I actually liked and fit the shape I had in mind. It is an L shaped couch, and I think it’s 10 feet wide at its widest 😅 it is super comfortable though and I love it! I got it in white though, and I’m sure I’ll regret that one day, but today I am enjoying how it brightens the room.

I got MARRIED on May 1. This was definitely one of the biggest life changes. It was a goal of mine, but obviously it takes two people to be on the same page, and I’m just so happy we made it happen. My husband is from the UK, so now we are waiting on immigration things and a green card.

We put an offer on a house in November and they actually accepted our offer! We got the keys mid-December, and did a lot of painting and cleaning before we moved in on December 21 – definitely the biggest reason this holiday season was stressful and why I went radio silent online for the most part.

Moving has always been an emotional event for me. My environment is really important to me. I become connected to the place that I live. Memories are tied to rooms and when moving out of an apartment, you know you will never have those views or step foot into that space quite possible ever again. The apartment that we moved out from is where my husband proposed. It’s where we got ready for our wedding. My husband reminded me it’s where he recovered from long Covid. It’s the place where I found my cat struggling to breathe and we took one of those midnight adventures to the only 24-hour emergency vet clinic in town, and discovered she has asthma. It’s where I dreamed up Tranquil Botanicals, my online plant shop, and we decided to make our dining room a dedicated plant room.

Fond memories and even traumatic memories had been made in that apartment. All reasons I will treasure our time there. And while we were in the process of moving out, and moving into our new home, a few days before Christmas, we were battling with getting rid of a terrible dog smell in our new home, discovering new ways people could be messy or lazy and trying to fix things like locks that don’t latch, and then finally on Christmas Eve, we discovered a leak in the basement that was coming from the master bathroom shower. Which in turn led us to find mice droppings in the basement ceiling.

We were in a pretty dark place by this time. However, time goes on and solutions are always there to be found. We found a plumber who actually agreed to come out on Christmas Eve and happened to have the part that we needed in his truck. The dog smell seems to have gotten better, though we will be saving up for new carpets as soon as we can.

Now that we’ve been living here for a little over a week, I’m starting to see beyond the current predicaments and getting excited about the coming year. The backyard has SO much space that I can pretty much plant anything. I have plans for some fruit trees and bushes, as well as veggies, herbs, and dye plants. I’m excited to begin looking at seed catalogs and making choices on what we’ll grow our first year here. And hopefully this time next year, I will be showing you some hand dyed yarn with plants from my garden.

The cats have settled fairly quickly, which has been a huge relief. They are enjoying the large windows and all the birds and squirrels they get to watch. We even have plans to build them a catio on the large balcony we have out back.

There is so much promise for this house and I am excited for the new memories we are fortunate enough to make here. Now to start thinking about 2025 and what goals I’d like to set for myself. Goal planning is one of my favorite things so stay tuned for my next post to see what you can expect to see here in the next year 🎉