So. Mid-July already. 162 days until Christmas.

via GIPHY I know.

My daughter will be starting kindy in six months and I am approaching my late thirties at a rate of knots. Still, this means I draw ever closer to the planned 90s radness of my 40th birthday party which I'm excited about.

I thought I'd check in with my start-of-year goals and projects so you can see how I'm tracking.

Wardrobe Update

At the start of the year, (well, February as it turns out, close enough) I took some time-honoured wardrobe auditor advice and did the old turn-the-hangers-around trick in my wardrobe.

It was a simple but effective way to get visibility on what I was wearing - well, my hangable things anyway. Still haven't heard of a solution for folded drawer-based items. As the months progressed, I'd look at things that were still facing the wrong way and go, "Yeah, you know what? I'm actually not going to wear you again ever" and into the donations bag it would go. Or I'd think, "Obviously I haven't worn you for a while, so out you come to play."

There are still a few things turned around that aren't getting the boot though; including special-occasion dresses and things that are cool but I just haven't had the opportunity to wear them yet, usually for opportunity / seasonable reasons. Some more items have been archived to The Vault - too pretty to lose, not wearable often enough to be taking up wardrobe real estate.

I've been really happy with my approach to clothes this year, including tracking my spending with the Style Cost Project and the "love it or leave it" philosophy in store change rooms. I'm saving both bucks and space by not bringing home anything unnecessary. As a blogger, it's easy to get caught up in the idea of having something new to blog about or share on Insta. Now I just try and wear old things differently.

The one downside I've faced is that I accidentally donated a good pair of jeans that I still very much wanted instead of another pair that were meant to be donated. That hurt a bit.

The key outcome from this exercise is that I'm going to continue to turn my hangers around every six months. It's easy as, costs nothing and it really does makes a difference.

Blogging

I wrote about my blogging goals for 2016 at the start of the year too. How am I doing? Glad you asked.

1. Grow, grow, grow

Slow and steady wins the race, so they say. I would look at my Google Analytics page in extreme puzzlement, wondering how I could possibly only have 65 page views in a month and being too ashamed to share my povvo stats in my media kit. So how's this, after really working through every possibility, I recently discovered I still had THE OLD TRACKING CODE FROM MY OLD DOMAIN in Blogger. FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS. What. A. Numpty. Once that was fixed, up went my page views. It will be a while before I have accurate historical stats to go off but I feel a lot more love now. My social media outlets continue to chug along and I still get what I consider to be good engagement (thanks y'all, keep it coming).

2. Approach brands directly

This is something I still struggle with (the SHAME!) but I'm pleased to say I have had some success with this initiative so I'll continue to battle the cringe factor and keep doing that, as long as it fits in with the overall Almost Posh vibe and whatnot. I've also been more selective with what I've accepted from approaches by brands - including requests for do-follow links, and as hard as that can be, I feel good about it. Nobody wants their blog penalised by Google, after all.

3. Invest in the blog and my bloggy development

In April, I got an ABN and went legit by incorporating the blog into my small business start-up, Writemate. This has meant learning all about the ins and outs of income, expenditure, and being able to claim back blog type investments which has been different. I've haven't yet attended any formal training but I have gone to events and had some excellent networking activity which is as good, if not better, than a course if you chat to the right peeps.

4. Attend ProBlogger

This was a massive one for me, so when tickets first went on sale at 12.00pm local time, I had my ticket by about 12.04pm. Then, as I spoke to various people I was keen to meet there, I felt a growing sense of dread. Hardly anyone I "knew" (or wanted to get to know) was going. The topics didn't feel right for me. A family wedding loomed nearby. I started getting super anxious at the thought of blowing so much cash on flights, accommodation and - let's face it - outfits. A panicked advertising campaign to offload later and thankfully someone picked my ticket up for a reduced price. I only lost $20 but saved a fortune to put towards the possibility of more intimate blogger meetings and events. This is a lesson learnt in not getting caught up in the hype.


Have you checked in with any goals, aspirations or resolutions you made at the start of the year? How are you tracking? Ever turned your clothes hangers around?