Showing posts with label hello 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hello 2016. Show all posts

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Hello 2016


Did you all have a good New Years? I hope so! I've been doing the goodbye/hello New Years posts since I started blogging. I would do a two in one post but they both always end up being too long for that. 

Tons of people are doing their 'New Years resolution' posts, and I'm here today to not call them resolutions, but rather share some goal and things I'd like to do this year. These goal are also not just for this year, but they will always be life long ones to. This post might get rather personal, but I consider all of you my friends so I don't mine sharing!

2016 goals and accomplishments

Books
I'm going to start this off on a more simple note and talk about books. I already mentioned in my goodbye 2015 post that each year I set a reading goal of how many books I want to read. These goal are usually a little high and I know I probably won't accomplish them, but it helps motivate me to read more! I read 20 books in 2015. This year I want to read 30 books and 15 mangas. Last year (that seems so weird to say lol!) I started watching some anime shows so it's making me want to read mangas too! I bought a box set of the Legend Of Zelda mangas last year and I read a few of them. I chose to start with those ones because Zelda has always been my favorite video game. Also- I already have one manga read this year! After I read some of those, Full Metal Alchemist and Attack on Titans are top on my list. I have tons of books on my list too, along with some favorites I want to re read.  

Travel
Who doesnt love vacations? I try to at least go some where each year. My husband and I at least go to northern Michigan during the spring/summer time usually on a long weekend. We try to go to difference cities each time. We've only been on two out of state vacations together which were Florida in 2013 for our honeymoon, and South Carolina in 2014. Last year we weren't able to go out of state so instead we traveled around Michigan for a week. This year id like to go out of state or even to an all inclusive resort somewhere in the Caribbean. I have a major fear of flying and my anxiety sky rockets when I'm on a plane. Even thinking about this, or typing it out gives me anxiety. I hope I can work on that this year too. 

Health & Fitness
I know everyone and their mother has health and fitness goals during the new year. I also know that you don't need a new year to start being healthy. However, it is a new year so I'm going to try my hardest. I've gotten into fitness and clean eating in the past but I've always been such a yoyo. Even though I do want to eat healthy, and I know I don't eat the heathliest it doesn't bother me much. I'm a believer that you shouldn't deprive yourself, and if I want to eat a donut you better bet your ass I'll eat that donut. However I'm going to try to make some healthier choices while still having a balanced diet. As far as fitness goes, I want to do more yoga and be more consistent with cardio and weightlifting. When it's nice out I want to go for walks outside and be in nature. Just be more active in general.

Being more present
How many times are we on our phones and social media when we are hanging out with loved ones? I try hard not to do this but sometimes it just happens. This is something I want to work on this year. I'll always be so thankful that I grew up without cell phones and social media even though it's something I love now. There were no such things as smart phones and Facebook when I had my first phone, and if I wanted to use the Internet (AOL anyone??) I was limited to 2 hours a day. I find it so sad that kids and teenagers now a days don't know what life was like before all of the tech craze. 

Blogging and YouTube 
I hate to say this but I've been super uninspired lately. I sometimes feel that my posts or videos feel half hearted and I don't want that. I don't like to post things when I feel like they are because that makes me unhappy. I think most of this is due to laziness. This year I really want to work on my YouTube channel and learning how to edit better and film different types of videos. And as for blogging, I want my posts to be more creative, and I want to learn how to take better photos for my blog. My friend Becky takes the most beautiful picture for her blog so that is what kind of inspired me to take better pictures. I'm trying to be more conscious of how my pictures look. I'm trying out different angles and settings so they don't just look so blah and standard.  

Journaling 
The last thing I'm going to talk about is journaling. I've been wanting to start a journal for some time now. I haven't started because I've just always felt like I wouldn't know what to write and I didnt want to feel pressured into writing if I didn't want to. I was inspired by one of my best friends Pilar because she wanted to start one this year too. I told her my thoughts of what I just said above, she told me a journal is what I make of it. There's no guidelines to it. That really made me realize how true that is and now I feel less pressured about it. I'm not good at writing out my feelings, unless I'm actually taking to some one so I'm not going to use my journal for that. My goal is to possibly write a little something each day that was good or made me happy!  Plus journal are cute and buying a new one always makes me excited, even though I hardly use them when I do. I'd also like to start drawing again. I'm definitely not an artist at all but I was hoping having a journal would help with that too! 

So I'm going to end this post by saying these are my goals for this year and my current thoughts about life. I know this was super long but it felt really nice to write this all out and talk about things! I'll be back soon with some beauty posts!  I also wanted to thank you all so so much for your love and support. I've made so many amazing friends through blogging and I can never be grateful enough!!

Do you have any goals for this year? If so, let me know what they are in he comments!

Thursday, December 31, 2015

Good Bye 2015

Hello! Happy New Years Eve! I hope everyone had a great 2015, and I think we can all agree that it went by too quickly. All of us have our ups and downs throughout the year- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Today I'm here to focus on the good that happened for me in 2015. 



I shared a lot of photos in my monthly updates, so I might pick a few things to share and try to focus on somethings I didn't share in those updates that are more towards myself and personal goals. I had a good year but I don't feel like it was very eventful to be honest. Which is totally fine because I'm a laid back homebody anyways!

Events

Last January I went to Snow Fest, which is a festival in Frankenmuth, MI, about 30 minutes away from me. They have this every year but this was my first time going. The whole down town is filled with snow and ice sculptures. It was super fun and it's hard for me to believe this was already almost a year ago. This is where I started filming for my 'document your life' videos and my monthly update posts too. 

Over Memorial Day weekend I went kayaking for the first time. It was super fun but I definitely felt like I got hit by a bus afterwards. The trip was very long and it took us I think 6 hours. It was a little much for my first time!

In July my husband and I traveled around Michigan in the Upper Pennsula. We saw the pictures rocks and tahquamenon falls. We also visited 3 out of 5 of the Great Lakes. Northern Michigan is one of my all time favorite places to visit. 

Fall was filled with a trip to the Renissance Festival and Cider Mills. 

We had a nice Christmas and got tons of nice and generous gifts. I really love seeing my niece and nephew open their presents. It's so magical for them and makes me so happy. I was going to do a Christmas haul post or video but I didn't have time before new years. If anyone is interested then I will still do one!

Exciting news 
Back in September we found out that our best friends are going to have a baby! On Christmas they announced that they are having a girl! I'm so so excited for them and their little family!!

Health & Fitness
I always make a goal every year to get into fitness. I usually fail but I did start doing some yoga this year. These pictures a from the summer time because I haven't been doing it a much as I'd like to lately. 

I also stopped eating meat this year. This has been something I've wanted to do since I was 14 years old. 12 years later I'm happy to say that I've stopped. I tried out a plant based/vegan diet and it was hard. I've never been a huge drinker of milk and I've never liked eggs (but gimme alllll the egg soufflés). I gave up yogurt and I haven't really ate dairy things like sour cream in a long times because it's unhealthy anyways. I haven't stopped eating cheese but that's not something I eat everyday so I can live with eat it occasionally. Trying out the vegan diet is what got me to stop eating meat though, so I'm happy I tried it out. I would eventually like to fully go vegan, but one step at a time. I'm not very conscious about buying breads with milk and eggs in it, but again that's not something I eat everyday, and things can't be perfect.  I do still eat pizza with pepperoni on it but that's as far as I go with meat. I get a lot of funny looks when I say I don't eat meat and some are un supportive but it's a matter that I've never really cared about what people think. I know I'm doing good for my body, the environment, and the animals on this earth. I've grown very, very passionate about animal cruelty and I'm not afraid to tell anyone my thoughts on it. This has been a a huge thing for me this year so even though I've just wrote a whole freaking book on it, I wanted to share.


Books
I made a goal to read 50 books this year. The goal was set a little high and I knew that, but I read 20. In 2014 I said I wanted to read 100, and then lowered it to 75- I read about 30. I set these goals high because in 2013 I read 67. I was happy with reading 20 this year and I might do a video or a post on which books I read! I've always wanted to make book related videos! I also read a few mangas this year which is a first for me! 

I think this post was a little bit longer than I intended it to be, so if you made it this far then thank you for reading! I hope you all have a great and safe New Years!