Year I Make It Happen 2014

Before the New Year started, you might have already set yourself a new goal for the year or perhaps people asked you what is your goal. Having a goal in life is a great way to make it happen and fulfill them. Setting yourself realistic goals and working towards achieving them will make this year a great one.This year I set myself several goals to achieve. I am very passionate about cooking Asian food like Tom Yum soup, Laska, Mee Siam, Singapore chicken curry etc. Besides cooking, I would also like to improve my food photography. Even if the food looks and tastes great, if the photo does not do it justice, it won't look good on my blog. So I set myself a goal to learn and improve my food photography. I bought a book called "Focus on Food Photography for Bloggers" by Matt Armendaruz. So wish me luck and by end of the year, I hope you will notice an improvement on my photography.Besides improving food photography on my blog, I also want to do set myself a new project for my kitchen! Lloyds Bank have created a Facebook Make It Happen app for the public. Simply follow the steps to create your personal goals for 2014 and they will give you a toolbox of helpful tips and ideas to inspire you to achieve it. The app gives people the chance to share their goal ideas within three categories - home, life and money.

In order to use this app, you must be a Facebook user. I went to select home and there were ideas like 'move in to the house I want', transform the loft', 'redesign the bathroom', 'treat myself to new furniture', 'do up the house' etc. I selected 'This is the year I fix up the kitchen' as my goal. I have had this kitchen for 6 years now and I am tired of the color and fixtures. Of course, having to raise money to change the whole kitchen is not easy.The app gave me eight different tools to give me inspiration! I can reassure you that the tools are not all based on the bank trying to sell you their products! In fact, there are very interesting tools out there! I love watching Sarah Beeny's home shows but I had never visited her site. It is great to have the tool to click and find out some handy hints for home improvements from Sarah Beeny's Scrapbook. There is also a tool that links to Pinterest where there is large selection of DIY Kitchen Decor. I love Pinterest as there are so many great ideas pinned in there for me to discover and make my life easier! There is also a Money Advice Service which give you clear and constructive action plans to help you along. There are so many great tips in the app.

Now I need to sit down with Mr C and discuss it in detail! I can't wait to show you what we are going to do about it. We will probably plan on painting our kitchen first before seeing if it is financial viable for us to change the color of the kitchen doors or ways to improve the storage!So what is your goal? Why not try the app and let me know how you getting on! The app not only advises for home, there is also life and money! If you want to learn 'driving' for example, do take a look at the tools! Hope this helps you with your goals for the year!
Disclosure: This is a PR collaboration and this really is our goal for this year!