Ten Intentions for 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! I had a great 2013 (I hope to recap soon!) and I wanted to share my intentions for 2014. I find it’s best to set intentions instead of resolutions. It seems a little bit easier for me to lay a foundation of how I want the year to look instead of expectations and resolutions I’m pressured into keeping. Turns out I have 10 of them. An even number for an even year. I love those even numbers. Cheers to that!

  1. Challenge myself photographically. I’d like to use my DSLR more this year. I got into the habit of leaving it at home when I go out (it’s heavy!) so I’ve been researching a good point & shoot camera to keep in my purse. Hopefully I’ll make a decision on that soon. In 2013 I used my iPhone more than I’d hoped for My Everyday Life series. I think it’s been great for spur of the moment shots and the quality is pretty good but there are definite limitations. The biggest problem is that I’m not very good at deleting photos on my phone so it gets cluttered easily and that stresses me out. 
  2. Work harder at organizing my technology. This is somewhat related to #1. I have so many dang photos to delete from my hard drive and phone. I need to back things up and start fresh!  Also….ahem my EMAIL and my Aperture library both need some serious sorting. I hope to make more time for this in 2014 before it REALLY overwhelms me.
  3. Write more in my journal. I don’t even know what my handwriting looks like anymore. It was sad how much my hand was cramping when I wrote out our holiday cards. I’d like to take more time to gather my thoughts on paper this year. I completed an entire journal in 2013 and I’m hoping to do that again in 2014. It feels so satisfying!
  4. Incorporate meditation into my everyday life. Meditation has always intrigued me, mostly because I have a hard time stopping my brain. I don’t allow my head to clear enough and get into trouble as a result. I’d like to carve out a small chunk of the day or a little part of the week to do so. In a way, my walks have been my own form of meditation but I’m hoping to delve a little further into this in 2014. Maybe a retreat would do this brain some good?
  5. Write a book proposal. I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a cookbook for a few years now. I think I finally figured out what my focus could be and I’m nervous/excited to get started on it. I hope this will be the year when I start living out my dreams and putting all this hard work to good use. Onward march!
  6. Update my website. There are things I’d like to do around here. Maintenance!  I hope to tidy things up and make it easier to search for recipes/posts in the archives. Shutterbean will get some minor work done. We’re not talking a major facelift…probably the blog equivalent to Botox & fillers 😉
  7. Less structure, more play. I’d like to shake things up around here and not be so rigid with my posting. I’m not sure what that will look like, but I hope to do more personal posts related to travel, dining out, organizing, around the house, etc. I haven’t shared as much as I could have because my work schedule hasn’t permitted me to. Hopefully a little bit of wiggle room will help.
  8. Read more books. I say this every year and I really hope that it sticks this year! I’m a person who devours self help books and really enjoys learning new things but I think a little fiction would do me some good. I also want to finish a WHOLE book instead of reading 4 books (and never finishing them) at once.
  9. More family dinners.  I think we’d all benefit from that. I need to make more of an effort this year in the kitchen during dinner time. I’d also like to get together with family more; even if it’s just casual/simple eating!
  10. Build the momentum on projects around the house- After living in this house for over a year, I think we’re ready to start making some changes around here. But in the process, we’re going to have to simplify and save!  I’m excited to pull the trigger on some painting projects and I’d love to get a vegetable garden going this year. I hope to share that in this space soon.

That’s it for now. 2014, BRING IT ON! 

  • dana

    Great “intentions”! Happy New Year!

  • Tami-TeacherGoesBackToSchool

    Have you tried Headspace? It’s an online meditation program and I was sold after the first 10 (free) days. It has made a HUGE difference in my commitment to practice and since it is guided it totally helps keep me grounded. Plus there are email reminders and stats – practically gold stars for sitting!

    Happy New Year!

  • Sara

    A cookbook would be fantastic!

  • Julie

    great intentions! #5 excites me; i’m a huge fan of both your recipes and your writing – i’d love to see both in book-form one day.

    whenever you settle on a point-and-shoot style camera, i’d love to know what you go with. i’ve been debating the same ordeal for awhile (iphone vs bulky dslr when out and about).

    happy new year to you and your family, tracy shutterbean!

  • Sera

    Sounds exciting! Best wishes for the new year.

    Sera

  • Rose

    Okay, I love all your intentions here but for #5 I say, why limit yourself to a cookbook? Your blog is such a demonstration of mindfulness and beauty, of which food just happens to be one part. You’ve got all those gorgeous pics of light and shadow, you’ve got joy in the prosaic, the simple fact of pink shoes for example, and you’ve got the whole mothering meditation lighting up the pages too. I say you could even make this entire past year of your blog into a book and I bet a ton of your readers would buy it. I know I would!

    Thank you so much for sharing your poetic-prosaic-epicurean-beauty*in* the*every*day perspective with us. I’m inspired again and again.

    Blessings on 2014, Tracy.

  • Jenny

    I would buy your cookbook! I like your easy dinner ideas.

  • Ashley

    Love this list, Tracy. Writing mine as we speak. (I love the idea of a proposal!! Happy to help or at least give an encouraging nudge). Happy 2014!

  • maija

    I use Goodreads for tracking my yearly reading. I don’t know if you’ve tried it, but it’s awesome as it lets you set a yearly reading goal, track/review books you read, track books you want to read, and see what your friends are reading. I find it super motivating to finish books, as once I posted what I’m currently reading, I feel obligated to finish it! Plus you get email updates when your friends finish books, etc, so it fires up the competitive part of me. I spent an evening reading this past week to hit my goal for the year rather than cruising the internet/watching TV! It really holds me accountable to reading. Also my book club does too. I’m excited to see how some of your other intentions shake out!

  • Averie @ Averie Cooks

    Such great intentions and I wish you luck on your proposal. I know that getting started can be really daunting but I’m sure you’re going at it from a place of really thinking so long and hard about your topic and really mulling it over as you said for years! So the words will probably just fly right onto the page for you. Congrats, Tracy!

  • Lia : Dizzy Loves Icy

    I don’t know why, but this year for me feels like a era;l year for change! It’s so EXCITING! Your aspirations for 2014 sound great!
    I have only 3 main aims: healthier, happier and more yoga!

    Here’s to 2014 🙂

  • nazareno

    i’ve never done an todolist, but intentions sounds good. i love the idea of a cooking book from you, it’s amazing. and playing with a DSLR in the everyday it’s grate too. i find the size and weight a little uncomfortable, but you can get used to, i think.
    best wishes for this new year, health, good ideas, and happiness…!

  • Sini│my blue&white kitchen

    Great intentions for 2014, Tracy! Especially intention no. 5 is beyond exciting! Thumbs up!

  • Claire @Lemon Jelly Cake

    A Shutterbean cookbook would unquestionably go on my bookshelf! I love your recipes, but I also love your organizing/house posts, so I’m excited to see more of them in 2014. 🙂

  • Ellen

    Vegetable garden, eh? I can totally help you out with that. And it’s so funny that the more I read others’ resolutions/intentions, so many of them are to write more and read more. Even me, and I write for a living! But real writing, from the heart and scratch on paper – something meaningful. And ditto with the camera. Anyway, best wishes for the new year.

  • Ellen

    *scratched on paper

  • Jane M

    Happy and Healthy 2014 to you too! Dedicating this morning to my goals as I like to call them. I have a file on my computer ready to add my 2014 list. Yours sound very exciting and attainable. After watching many YouTube women their #1 goal is to drink more water. Maybe because I’m older/how am I called-mature- I giggle at that “goal”.

    Yeah 2014!!!!!! BRING IT ON!

  • Gray

    Love these–all good things. My husband and I cleaned out/organized our entire house over New Year’s (it’s small) and I thought of you almost the whole time! WWTSD? What Would Tracy Shutterbean Do? Especially while tackling the insanity that was my closet.

    We even attacked the computer–I’m TRYING to sort through photos…it is hard….but I too get stressed when the folders are all random and crazy.

    Thanks so much for your blog and the podcast–I look forward to reading and listening in 2014!

    Gray

  • Kim

    Your cookbook will be my FAVORITE!!!!!!! Write it! I adore your food.

  • Cindy

    I like this intentions idea…I’m not a resolutions girl, myself and this sort of thing feels totally doable. I have some big intentions (some little too) that pertain to huge life changes, and have been thinking of sharing them on my own blog in a few weeks after we move and the dust settles. PS, I am so excited by the idea of a Shutterbean book!!

  • Tamara

    I love this! I especially like that you have intentions and not resolutions. The word intention has been coming up a lot for me lately. I need to take heed of it.:-) Happy New Year! Can’t wait to hear more about your cookbook!! Very exciting!!

  • Josie

    Like the word intentions rather than resolutions. They seem less doomed to fail which resolutions always feel like. And great list, good luck with it all.

    p.s mindfulness meditation is a good one to incorporate into every day living. I do 5 minutes a day and even that helps me loads.

  • Aimee @ Simple Bites

    Yay for them all, but especially #5 and #9. WOOT!

    Happy New Year, friend. xoxo

  • Leslie

    As a photographer who drags my heavy DSLR everywhere, I feel your pain. I invested in this bag for 2014 to make it a bit easier (and more fashionable) to carry with me. Good luck with the intentions!

  • Clara

    I would absolutely LOVE if you wrote a cookbook!!!

  • Marcella @ broadappetite.com

    This is almost identical to my 2014 list :-).

  • Dixya @ Food, Pleasure, and Health

    love your intentions! Yay to cookbook, meditation 🙂 Happy New Years.

  • Elaine @JoinMeForDinner

    Happy New Year! Scanning through the previous comments seems to indicate that a cookbook would be a hit, but have you ever considered selling your photographs? I’ve noticed other food bloggers sell theirs on sites like smugmug.com You have an obvious talent, so you might be able to turn that into cash. Just a thought.

  • fusilliamy

    This is a great list and I’m excited for the changes that we get to see! 🙂 Technology organization is always on my list. I’ve caught myself calling my phone my “camera” on a regular basis. Sheesh.

    I’ve been using Headspace since I saw it on whoorl and it’s really great. And helloooo, he has a British accent – yum!

    Also, just know I’m sending happy, supportive, awesome typography wishes, and encouraging vibes as you work on a book proposal! EEEE! Exciting!

  • Jordan Lynn // Life Between Lattes

    I love the idea of intentions rather that resolutions. Happy 2014!

  • katie

    This is a great list – good luck on the cookbook! I would totally buy it!

  • Erica

    I have a suggestion for a point and shoot. I LOVE my Sony DSC-RX100M II. It is the one with the one inch sensor. It takes amazing photos for its size.

  • Tess

    Cookbook cookbook cookbook!!

  • Gaby

    I love that you call them intentions. My aunt this year is calling them possibilities- it’s a possibility, and you have to make it happen! I’m excited to see more glimpses of your house- your new house seems so lived-in and personal. Happy New Year!

  • Mira C

    Aaaaaah #5#5#5#5!!!!

    Oh my gosh, that is so exciting! I know I (and many, many other readers) would buy your cookbook in a second!

  • lynn @ the actor's diet

    I’ve had a lot of issues w meditation – the only thing that “works” for me is attending “crystal sound baths” regularly – the sound forces me to be outa my head and enter a meditative state. Not sure if they have them in your area but in LA we’ve got a few.

  • Eva

    Love your blog and love the idea of intentions versus resolutions — I think I want to make some too! As to reading, I write a book blog so I thought I would share my Top 10 Adult/NA Books and YA Books of 2013

    I am also giving away any of my 2013 favorites here! Please enter!

  • Jenna

    I would also be in the line to buy your cookbook, go Tracy! But no pressure, haha. Good luck with the rest of your intentions, I found many of mine are similar to last year’s, oops. Although some are more “continue on last year’s progress..”

  • Jillian

    I think you could write a killer cocktail recipe/food recipe book. Pairings??

  • Alisha B

    All of these are great, attainable goals. I have also made a goal for writing, more to show my oldest why keeping up writing and learning cursive are important, (Some school boards up here have stopped teach cursive!). I always use Evernote while I’m in the store, easier to keep track of what I’ve gotten, I write out the list first along with the meal plan.
    I find seeing my own writing is very calming.

  • Sara

    My intention for 2014 is to introduce myself after following you for so long! I really don’t read blogs, but I never miss yours. It’s always felt stalkerish that I haven’t said hello. I love your recipes, photos, lists… all of it.
    So, intention #1 COMPLETE!
    I can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us in 2014!

  • Aubrey @ Lady Aubs

    If you wrote a cookbook….I would be first online to preorder! It would of course go next to my Joy the Baker cookbook because what pairing could be more perfect 😉

  • Sam

    Funny, I have been having the exact thoughts as #1 recently. My DSLR seems to drag me down too much to carry around with me always and I’d like to get some better quality photos than what I get with my iPhone. I’d love to hear what cameras you come up with after your research!

  • Heidi

    Huge fan of yours and I’m so excited for you to write a cookbook. I love making your recipes (I made the peppermint crunch bark this year, and was that ever a hit as gifts!) I know your book will be beautifully photographed and well written. I can’t wait. Count me in for a pre order!

  • Abby @ The Frosted Vegan

    I know everyone else has voiced this, but I am SO excited for the book intention!! Eeek! Best of luck Tracy, keep us updated on your journey : )

  • anne

    Sounds like great intentions! Happy New Year!

  • Patri

    Great intentions!
    Also, a cookbook?!?!?!? I would buy it right now!!! 🙂 Yay! So excited!!!!

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  • Jamie

    Whaaaat? Most of these were iPhotos? Honestly, I thought they were shot with a professional/DSLR. And I think you’ll be able to finish more books as soon as you get the right recommendations. The best books can’t be put down. Happy New Year! Love your blog btw!

  • Jennifer

    When and if you find anything that helps you organize your photos better and your new camera let me know.

    I have the SAME PROBLEM. Startup disk almost full warnings constantly. I cannot delete photos to save my life. Like losing a part of my soul.

    gah.

    jen

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