I swear to expand my wardrobe (and other New Year Resolutions)

Hi everyone! I can't believe it's the last year of 2010 already. I'm here to do some much needed reflection of both myself and of this baby blog, it's my tradition to do so every year. We need to anticipate the future, learn from the past and live in the present!


First, the easy bit: reflecting about my blog (questions from FBFF)


1. What's the one thing you vow to learn or do in 2011 to improve your blog? 
I vow to think up of more original ideas and content on my blog, to challenge myself and my creativity, and also to educate readers (however small that number is right now). I also hope to be able to cover more fashion events such as the Audi Fashion Festival 2011, Mens Fashion Week in Singapore and Valentino's Retrospective Exhibition. 
Do look out for a series of exclusive posts on Beijing as I venture back to my hometown to marvel at the numerous architectural and cultural changes currently taking place. I will be visiting vintage shops, sourcing around for flea markets and also covering Prada's fashion show on 22Jan. I will also be trying my best to find people (designers, editors, shop owners etc) in China to interview and photograph, to find out more about China's economic and fashion (cultural) development! Meanwhile, a question to ponder about: will Beijing become the next fashion capital and join the ranks of Paris, New York, London and Milan?


2. What did you learn about blogging in 2010 that you plan to put into practice 
next year? 
To interact with other bloggers more, as part of a INTERNATIONAL community!


3. Do you have any high-level goals for your blog in the coming
year?Monetization? More comments? More connections with other bloggers? A
new template? 
A new template is definitely gonna be up in the works, because as much as I like the current minimalistic theme, there are certain changes such as the size of the sidebar, main post column, fonts, links, linkedwithin, icons blahblahblah that I want to change to reflect more of myself!
More connections with other bloggers is a definite YES. I enjoy leaving genuine comments on other people's blogs and interacting with fellow bloggers! It's exciting to find people all over parts of the world reading my blog, from USA to Sweden to Indonesia...even though currently the number of international readers is still really really small. But yes - definitely greater international readership and connections with other bloggers!
I don't monetization coming into play as of now, because I want to keep this blog as an outlet for my personal musings about fashion as of now...and also because of the fact that I don't really have that much readership compared to some other bloggers. But even if I do run ads on my blog, I promise to keep them fashion related! For example, I wouldn't mind running ads for NastyGal, GaryPepperVintage or TheScarletRoom etc.


4. If you could collaborate with one other blogger within your sphere of 
influence in 2011, who would you like to collaborate with, and whatwould you 
like to collaborate on? 
This question asked for "sphere of influence" so I would say Rumi Neely of fashiontoast.com definitely, as she is my biggest style icon and the one who led me into this whole game of fashion entirely. I still remembered the first time I visited her blog and I thought that "Wow! This girl dresses amazing!" and I proceeded to devour her entire archive of outfits. I would love to collaborate with her on a styling project for a certain brand, maybe! Locally, I would wanna collaborate with my fav local blogger Bobobaroque on a style zine! I've always found zines very interesting since I read one in secondary school. I think that was when I was 14 and knew nothing about fashion.
Thinking back now, I think my life can be separated to pre-fashion and post-fashion. In the pre-fashion phase, I was a nerdy girl in Nanyang Girls' High who only knew how to study, I didn't go out during weekends and I was bullied in my class. Post-fashion days happened around Sec 4, and that was when I started to read Rumi's blog, which then snowballed into this huge interest in fashion as more than clothes, but as a lifestyle and an art. 


5. What do you plan to do to support other bloggers next year? 
Considering that I'm a fairly young blogger myself, I think I would need more help from established bloggers, not the other way round! Haha. But upcoming plans in the pipes would be to have a fortnightly link post, where I post my favourite bloggers or other sites relating to fashion. And once my blog is more established, I would like to introduce guest blogging to get more interesting voices in my blog, and give Nakedglory a more international perspective (:


Second, reflecting about myself in 2010 personally:

I am glad that this year is finally coming to an end, because I think this is the hardest year in my entire 18 years on earth. A Levels was the hardest exam I took --- the tears, the drama, the beatings I had to take, the scoldings, the stress, the binge eating of food to calm myself down...FINALLY I CAN SAY GOODBYE TO ALL THAT SHIT. GOOD RIDDANCE.

Looking back on all that, I'd say:

• I'm guilty of slacking. A lot. I'm always slacking when I can't focus and I even spent precious time (close to the prelims) watching Korean dramas, Kanye West's 40min music video, reading about fashion, watching movies online... Even until now, I still get waves of Guilt or a nagging feeling in my heart for doing all these and then I'll start imagining a horrendous A Level cert that will not admit me to any local unis. 
• I'm glad I managed to accomplish Flea-lanthropy, a charity flea market to raise funds for CARE. I think that project is the only project I'm very very proud of in my 2 years in Hwa Chong.
• I should've been even more pro-active to get myself in leadership positions. In a way, I've failed myself because I've promised myself as my new year resolutions in 2008 that I'll stop being shy and stooping in the background and take up lots of leadership positions. But my bid for YAP exco failed, fac comm failed, interact ex comm failed, cip exco also failed. In a way I've tried...but maybe I'm just not good enough? As usual.
• Regretful of my poor results in SAT. I should've been smarter and studied individual books from Barron's instead of using Collegeboard's book.
• I want to give a big hug to all my friends who have helped me throughout this period. Special shoutout to 2 very special people: Addie and Emma! Addie for always being there for me in everything I do, and teaching me when I'm so slow, and just for everything. Emma for staying back late into the night studying in school with me. Without you, there'll be no one else with me, especially when I went home and always got scolded or yelled at for no reason by my mum. Staying back with me really helped me a lot.
• I am a strong girl to have survived all these crap. I would like to think I've been through much more than other people, because of my shit parents who didn't understand and frequently scolded me and gave me a lot of stress. Not that I'm a perfect child with perfect grades...but that's the way I am. Take it or leave it.
• I am far from perfect to be honest. I'm always procrastinating studying and doing the things I know I should. I know that maybe if I had put in more heart into studying, my grades may have been better. But I don't know how to change that.

So here's my 2011 New Year Resolutions:

To love like I've never been hurt (to actually fall in love and have someone love me back!)

To sing like no one's listening.
To dance like no one's looking.
To be more humble.
To treat my family and friends better, and not snap at my parents.
To expand my wardrobe.
To grow my fashion blog.
To learn how to play guitar and post up youtube videos for fun.
To record my own music.
To find a job as a marketing/pr intern.
To live life to the fullest before I enter uni!