MY GOALS & PLANS FOR 2020

This has been the fastest January ever for me, I can’t believe how fast it has gone by. I mean it’s still been one hell of a long month but in comparison to previous January’s I’m pretty satisfied by the speed in which it has been and almost gone. I think this has a lot to do with how I’ve dealt with things this year and how I’ve prepared for a month that in the past has left me feeling seriously, seriously low. I think I might share these little things if you’d be interested? Perhaps I can pop a little post together about how I set about beating the January blues for the first time in 4 years…

Anyway, I digress, the reason for that intro is because today’s post is about my goals for 2020, something that most people set in place at the beginning of January yet here I am on the 21st…
It’s been a faster month than usual and I’ve been putting a lot of thought into my goals for this year, particularly as this is set to be one of the biggest years of my life. It's a year that I'm super excited about, I'm excited for the planning and the plans, the achievements I'm hopeful I will achieve and the learnings I will learn along the way, it's a year I'm truly, truly ecstatic to watch roll out and as well as the excitements I'm determined to make it a productive one in all aspects of life.

In an ideal world this post would be 20 goals and plans for 2020 but I only got to 18... Not a great start hey but you can't force these things soooo here we have my 18 goals and plans for 2020... Smooth!

1.Regular collection drops for Saturday
Since October 2018 my little fashion brand Saturday By Megan Ellaby has gone from strength to strength and I am honestly so proud of where we are today after just a year and a half. However, as I mentioned in this post here, there have been some real learnings over the last year or so and it’s not always been so easy. With that I wasn’t able to release collections or pieces as regularly as I had hoped…

This year I can happily say that we appear to finally be ahead and I am hoping for 2020 that we can introduce regular collection drops as I had always envisaged for Saturday. Our first collection of 2020 is coming in just two weeks time. We shot the collection campaign yesterday and my goodness I think this could be the best one yet…

2.Read 14 books
Last year I wanted to read 12 books in 12 months and ended up reading 13. I’m quite a competitive person so having this goal at the back of my mind worked wonders to drive myself to pick up a book. This year I’d love to top 13 but with 5 weddings, including our own, George’s 30th, my father in-law’s 60th, hen do’s and of course work thrown on top, if I hit 12 I’ll be happy.

3.Plan our wedding
It’s wedding year… OH MY GOD! I had a moment last night where I realised that in a few months time I’ll be calling George my husband… I don’t feel old enough to have a husband haha!

Wedding planning is well under way and I’m absolutely loving it. George and I make the most awesome team so it’s actually been such a dream to plan. We seem to be getting there with it now so I’ll be sure to write another wedding chat blog post soon to update you on our plans ASAP. With that a huge goal of mine for 2020 is to plan our perfect day, to stay calm throughout the process and to have the best day with our friends and family.

4.Get moving!
I’ve well and truly fallen off the exercise wagon and I’m not overly chuffed about it. I’m currently in that awful space where you know you should be doing something, but the thought of actually doing it is pretty damn awful… I need to find my groove again, especially as my wedding day is coming in hot but mainly for health reasons; I really love to get fit again.
So, with that, I’ve booked in for two barre classes at Blok this weekend that I’m hoping will kick start my exercising love affair once more.

5.Have regular facials.
I’ve been struggling with my skin for the last two years after it suddenly went into turmoil for no apparent reason. With my wedding coming up and with me reaching my wits-end with it I reached out to the incredible Alumier MD team to help sort it out once and for all. After seeing Victoria’s Magrath’s incredible wedding skin I knew that I needed some Alumier MD in my life so I’ll be having regular facial peels in the lead up to our big day whilst also implementing a new at home regime too. I’m so excited to finally get on top of my skin and to understand exactly what it needs. Watch this space…
*gifted treatments*

6.Do up the basement
Moving into our new home last year was a huge highlight of the year and to be honest of my life. It’s my dream house and I feel so so proud of us that we live here. The house has found it’s groove quite quickly and I feel we’ve been able to put our stamp on it easily and with no DIY necessary.
However, we are lucky to have a basement space which has been a little neglected since we moved in. You know the kind of space that becomes the dumping ground for pieces of furniture that don’t have homes yet, for boxes that you STILL haven’t unpacked… Yeah, that kind of thing.
So this year, I’m hoping that we’ll find the time to completely transform the basement into a cosy little snug that we know that it can be.

7.Keep on top of the garden
We moved into our house back in September and as September was such a wash out weather wise we didn’t get chance to enjoy the garden for what it is.
Since then the garden has been neglected some what and George and I are both itching to get out there and give it some love.
Gee is pretty great at keeping on top of the fallen leaves situation but as soon as spring arrives I’m hoping that we can give the garden some love and keep on top of it thoughout the summer months. I’m envisaging BBQ’s, garden parties and late night gossips with a glass of red or two, now how heavenly does that sound.

8.Shoot more blog content & blog more
As you all know I’ve decided that 2020 is the year that I step back from YouTube and step back into my beloved blog. My blog is 8 years old as of next month which is truly bonkers and it’s honestly my love! I just adore what this blog started for me and I truly love you lot, my audience here on my blog. I love styling ,creating and producing photoshoots for my blog and I adore writing and chatting to you lot every week.
So this year I’m excited to shoot more and to write more and to get stuck in to blog content once again. I have so many ideas for ways I can bring the video content across to my blog in a written format so if there is anything you loved over on YouTube fear not, they could be coming to a blog near you very soon.
Thank you all so much for your feedback on my blog so far, it’s been so awesome to see you all loving the pieces I’m putting out and noticing the more regular posting too 🙂 Thank you all so much for sticking with me over the past 8 years, what a ride!

9.Create more videos for IGTV
Similarly to the previous point with giving up the Youtube dream, I’m still hoping to create video content but this time on IGTV. I really enjoy the shorter form pieces of video content that IGTV encourages along with the fact that phone quality is more than adequate and that the Instagram world isn’t quite as brutal as Youtube… at the moment.
I’ll be making more IGTV videos in the next couple of weeks so please let me know what you’d like to see from me.

10.Be proactive
I set this goal in a recent “seasonal goals” post and it’s something I’m keen to implement throughout 2020 and forever more to be honest. Whether it’s being proactive with our home and getting things done when I notice they need doing or whether it’s with work and working ahead where possible but especially with friends and family and planning fun filled weekends throughout 2020. As much as I’m loving hibernating at home right now, I want to fill our social calendar with tonnes of plans, catch up with friends old and new whether thats going out out or staying in in.

11.Source a piece of art for hallway
You know I love me some artwork; Our home is filling up nicely with the most beautiful and carefully selected pieces of art, photography and graphics and I just love the reaction our guests have when nosying around our home.
With that I’d like to source or commission a piece for our hallway which is currently a complete blank canvas. It’s quite a huge white space so I’m thinking one piece of art thats pretty large in size yet full of colour. If you have any ideas, any shops, artists or otherwise that you think will meet this criteria then please do let me know as I’m itching to fill the space.

12.Inject a little bit of colour to the walls in our home
Another home related goals is to possibly add some paint to the walls of our home. Our last house was filled with colour and I truly loved it but to be honest I learnt so much from transforming our first home into the colourful haven that it was, that I'm a little apprehensive this time around. We’re starting small, with my little office/spare room this weekend as we transform the space into something calming and cosy and perfect for early morning working and creative planning. Watch this space, I’m sure I’ll be sharing the process over on my interiors Instagram @ellabode.

13.Save for kitchen & bathroom renovation
Yep, sorry another home related goal for 2020 but this is the last one I promise…
Once the wedding has been and gone we’re going to set up a new savings pot for our big kitchen and bathroom renovation, so freaking exciting!
We don’t need to do much work to our home at all but the kitchen and bathrooms is something I’d like to make completely our own and I’d love to design it from scratch. I’m SO excited about this and to make the perfect family style kitchen and bathroom towards the end of 2020… bring it on!

14.Drive on the motorway
Yep, still not done this yet but I’m feeling ready to give it a go. I know it’s supposed to be much easier than driving on regular roads so I’m hoping I’ll have this ticked off rather soon indeed. Wish me luck.

15.Work with a charity
Since my charity clothes sale back in 2017 I’m sad to say I haven’t worked directly with a charity since. I want to change that this year if possible and I’d love to do another charity clothes sale or something of that ilk. I donate to charity regularly whether thats through the donation of clothing to my local charity shops or with monetary donations, but I’d love to work closely with a charity that means a lot to me and to do something that means I can meet with some of you lot again, the way I did with my clothes sale a few years ago, this is a big one for me.

16.Find a hobby
I say this all the damn time and it’s always the thing that falls short as the year zooms past but I would love to find myself a hobby that takes me away from the online and business world. I guess you could say that reading is my hobby and that certainly does transport me to another world away from work but I’d love to fall in love with something else, something like pottery making, floristy, a new language or some form of exercise. Perhaps my barre classes will become my hobby and I’ll become totally obsessed with it and I’ll be able to tick two goals off at once, lets hope so eh.

17.Be impulsive with travel
I’d like to say yes to more opportunities of travel this year. Whether that’s with work trips, friend trips or with the hen-do’s that are currently cropping up in my WhatsApp groups, I’d like to be impulsive and say yes to seeing more of the world in 2020.

18.Buy less, style more
It’s been a great year for me and my shopping habits, particularly as I’ve learnt and grown as a consumer and I’d love to continue with the buy less, style more attitude that 2019 brought with it.
I’m enjoying putting my wardrobe to work and creating different looks with the same pieces over and over again. I find this super inspiring when I see others doing exactly this so I hope that this will inspire you lot too.

Crikey! Now that was one almighty post and my fingers are now aching from all the planning and typing...
I really enjoyed writing this post and it feels good to have my goals clearly outlined in front of me. Whether I'll manage to tick off all 18 in just 12 months is yet to be proven but if I can make a small dent in these goals then I'll be happy. 2020 is set to be one of the craziest years of my life and I feel SO ready for it... Bring it on!

I'd love to hear about your goals and plans for 2020, let's chat in the comments.

x M

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROSIE BUTCHER