2016 so far so excellent, yes? Thanks so much for the positive response to the post from earlier this week about goal setting. Really good to hear you guys confirm that we have similar goals and struggles. 2015 across the board seemed to especially be the year of being overworked (I suspect each year feels like that in some way).
It’s going to be a quiet weekend for me, other than perhaps getting lost at IKEA and another visit to this waffle joint that recently opened up walking distance from us. Is that not a sign to eat more waffles? I did mention that I want to do that.
Still love this song, still my fav music video from 2015, still have dreams of being a video girl, still forgive him, still dance listen to it while I’m working on the blog.
On that previous note, an insightful comic about a habit I think most of us have.
I have big dreams for where I want to go this year, hoping I’m prepared to make real plans and take action to get there, but this post is not really about that. This one is about my high and low of last year, and how I want those to shape my 2016. Warning: I’m not going to be afraid of going text-heavy on you guys!
This January feels different than the rest. I’m much much more excited and hopeful, not because I know every move I’m going to be making this year (I don’t!), but because I’m just so happy about the general direction I’m headed, which is a feeling completely new to me not too long ago.
The monster milestone of last year was quitting my job to go full-time with the blog. It was a decision so right that I almost believed I was experiencing happiness for the first time in my life. That sense of purpose and identity I only read about in books was now mine whaaaaat.
While I regard that as my biggest achievement of 2015, it was also the source of my biggest shortcoming. Being free to focus all of my attention on the blog consumed me. With zero boundaries on work hours and not knowing when to take a break, I kind of stopped taking care of myself. My favorite thing to say towards anything that would take me away from the blog became, “I don’t have time.”
Simple basics, like getting dressed, doing the dishes, or eating, became cumbersome tasks that I’d always reason could wait until later, and then suddenly it’s 4PM and I’m clawing at a Costco rotisserie chicken and eating it over the sink because I forgot to eat lunch. How can I forget to eat?! I LOVE EATING.
I just shared that I eat Costco chickens over the sink…
There are a lot of things like that, things I love and want/need to do that I just didn’t because I believed that “I don’t have time.” While I thought spending every moment possible on the blog was sure to be best for it, it crossed over the edge into burnout territory and finding my focus became a huge challenge. We’ve all lived or heard this story before, right?
So, like last year, I’m setting an intention with my goals for this year, focusing on taking care of myself and remembering that there IS time to do those things that will ultimately make me better and more productive at doing the work that I so love doing.
Sleep Schedule
I discovered last year that waking up early is awesome, who knew? I’ve always considered myself a proud night owl but I can no longer deny the productivity that comes with waking up early AND going to bed on time. The goal is bed by 10PM and up by 5AM on work days, which is purposely the same as my boyfriend’s schedule so he can help me HA. The other benefit to this is going to bed together, which is much nicer than falling asleep on the sofa while working on a blog post then waking up at 3am to zombie-walk over to the bedroom (happened often).
Workout
This is actually a huge achievement of mine last year that I’m bringing into 2016. I never, ever, ever, ever liked working out until I signed up for Class Pass last fall because it completely changed my perspective about working out. Instead of seeing it as losing weight, I see it now as gaining strength, both physical and mental, which is infinitely more motivational. I’m going to continue scheduling my workouts first thing in the morning, 5 days a week, to help with the previous goal of waking up early and to also get my days started on a positive high. I’ve noticed I’m now significantly more happy when I get to workout that day. This is seriously unheard of for me. Who am I???
Read
This was a goal from last year that failed, and I think it’s one of those cases where getting specific might help because last time all I said was that I want to read “more.” I’m setting a goal to read one book per month. Typically my reading occurs before I go to bed, which from experience has brought me better sleep, so that’s cool! I’m also hoping this will reduce the time spent on my phone scrolling through social media since it’s become a habit of mine to do this right before I go to bed. Replacing that with reading will be a much more productive activity. Lots of good to come from this.
Work at My Desk
I stopped working at my desk once I felt like my needs outgrew the space, and instead of taking action to improve the function of the area, I started working from my sofa. This is something I can confidently point to as negatively affecting my productivity, so first things first- a workspace redo is in progress (will share that when it’s done!) and I’m determined to exclusively keep work to this area. I’ve found that the challenges of working from home absolutely require setting boundaries on where work happens.
Travel
Who doesn’t have this on their list… I had it on my list last year, and I’d say we did pretty good on that in terms of taking smaller trips. I think what’s different this time is that I see it as leaving room for spontaneity, and also allowing myself to take a break and not feel bad about it. If I schedule ahead for all the work to be done, why shouldn’t I also schedule ahead for the trips I want to go on? Up till now I had this notion that there will be moments I feel like the work is done and at a place where I can leave it for a bit, and THEN I’ll take a break. But you already know- the work is never done, it only grows. So, I’m not putting off our Euro trip any longer, and I’m going to ask you guys for recommendations on that as we draw closer to that trip, ok?
Weekly Gratitude
I’m going to take space in my planner to write down awesome things that happen, however small they might be. Whether that occurs on a daily or weekly basis, I want to be able to review them weekly and reflect on successes/generally positive things from a place of gratitude. I’ve known for a long time that this would be good for me, especially since I’m the type of person who gets asked “How as your week” and then is unable to remember a single thing about it. Good stuff happens all the time and I want to remember it!! In general I see this as a good way to check in with myself, something I never do at all ever.
On that previous note, I think it’s easy to forget that goals can change and that we can revisit them after we’ve tried them out, then adjust if they turn out to be completely unreasonable. I also think in that sense we can be a lot kinder to ourselves if we slip. Is it likely we might not hit our 10PM bedtime tonight because we’re trying to finish Making a Murderer? Yes. But have we been really good about that all other days? Hell yea. It’s not for perfection, it’s striving for better, and already I feel I’m doing a lot better (yea it’s only been a few days of the new year but c’mon, let’s be proud).
Aside from these personal goals, I want to mention a few other things about the blog and what to expect this year.
Diversify Content
The DIY content will remain, and as much as I love it and know that it’s your favorite, my conflict with increasing the frequency of them comes from a couple of reasons: 1) I really want to keep DIYs to ideas I truly believe are worthwhile, and not make things only for the sake of making (sometimes! I do get the itch to just make, but I wan’t to be highly mindful of intention.) 2) My goals to continue decluttering and thoroughly editing our home have me personally thinking most about how to live with less, not with more.
It’s of course very important to me to serve you the inspiration you loyally come here for (thank you so so much), but I wanted to share a bit about where my heart is and be open with the idea of changes in blog content reflecting that. In any case, good design is what I intend to be the foundation for everything, and I’m not going in any drastic opposite direction. In fact, the biggest thing on my editorial agenda is to focus even more on home, and my hope is that we’re cool to also try some new things.
Maybe you hate this? Leave me your thoughts if you have any.
Home Tour
This has been highly requested forever, and I really want to do it. I haven’t done it yet because I simply haven’t been happy with our space, but I started taking big strides last year towards those changes I always said I was going to make. We all know that making a home is a long process and I’ve tried my hardest to be patient with this. I certainly can do a better job of sharing progress and decision-making points if you’d like, but that home tour is coming I promise.
Redesign
I love the blog design now and a lot of you thankfully expressed the same, but it’s time for something even more streamlined to really solidify HOM as a brand. This has been on my mind for a long time and it would be ideal to accomplish this year. I’m very, very excited about this one!
Always and forever, thank you for continually coming back and giving me the push to strive for more. I’d love to hear about any of your goals, if you have the same ones, or if you have any thoughts on goal setting in general. Happy New Year! <3
HI! I’m back from holiday break and so so pumped to get to blogging again because I missed you. Hoping you’re all caught up on rest and ready to get to work on this thing we know is going to be the hot topic of January always.
I get into hyper mode with organizing right after the holidays because the clutter seems to be the most out of control during that time. Once I take the Christmas tree and decorations down, I feel so freed by the empty space and want to make the whole apartment feel that way and get rid of everything. Ok so I’m still bad at getting rid of things, but organizing I can do.
One dilemma I always have after every Christmas is the growth of my gift wrapping supplies, which previously made their home at the bottom of my bedroom closet, which was messy and not a long term solution. Knowing that I wanted to focus on this issue for this month’s Michaels Makers challenge to organize a space, I looked for a way I could take this clutter out of the bedroom closet and into our living room storage closet in a way that wouldn’t drive me crazy.
Of course I’d love to have a craft room, or an office, or a dedicated storage unit for supplies, but the challenge of our small space and ridiculous lack of storage options made this over-the-door organizing unit from Michaels most ideal.
I originally intended for this to be a dedicated wrapping station, but then I was like wait I have 562 bottles of paint that would fit perfectly into the baskets why not? They were previously stored in our linen/toiletry cabinet (I wasn’t kidding about storage being scarce around here) and moving all of them over here has increased happiness levels by 1000%. I also discovered that I kept buying the same bottle of black paint over and over because I previously couldn’t tell that I already had it. I look forward to no longer doing that because now I can SEE everything.
Other than now having a place to hang up my Washi tape (previously found all over the apartment on any open surface) I’m most satisfied with this ribbon rack because ribbon is SO annoying to store, but not anymore!
I’m at peace with this, guys. It feels good, and it feels even better knowing that this is something I can keep up with and maintain.
Are you facing some of the same or similar issues? Already have a plan of what you’ll start organizing first this year?
Lots more organizing tips and inspo from the other Michaels Makers here! There will also be more on the subject the rest of this month, so definitely let me know what your organizing goals are.
Hi, guys. It’s my last post for 2015 before I leave for Christmas break, and before the year ends I’m making it a tradition to pause and look back on projects from the year before heading lightning speed into the new year. This is also, for some friends and family that I know of because they told me, the only post a few people will come to see to get a good summary of the best stuff from the year. I can’t let them down and not do this post, you know?
So maybe you’ll find this fun, catch a project you might’ve missed the first time around, or have an idea click for some last minute handmade gift giving (you like that attempt at seasonal relevance?) If you’d like, I’d love to hear about any of your favorites, if it made the list or not, or just say hi :)
Before I go, I need to get a little corny and say thanks. Knowing that you feel any fraction of the enjoyment that I get from this blog has helped me get through this year and more. I cannot do any of this without you, and I’m so deeply grateful for your enthusiasm and support that grows my confidence to do what I love. Thank you thank you from every single part of me <3
Have a very merry holiday and enjoy spending as much time as you can with your favorite people. I’ll see you back here on January 4th!
11. Multi-strand bracelet Ok, I know it’s supposed to be top 10, but I wanted to include this one because I distinctly remember the relief I felt from your positive response after feeling nervous about it since it was out of my comfort zone. It’s the only jewelry I’ve ever made for the blog!
One last gift wrap idea before Christmas is here (with free downloadable files whaaat), because I know the majority of us will be doing some last minute gift wrapping. Every year I try to do better at getting ahead and not having to scramble down to the wire to prep gift giving and wrapping, but somehow a few always slip through and keep me busy right until the very end. I’m finally thinking maybe that’s just my style and how I do things. You, too?
SO, this is a really easy and fun way to wrap gifts that’s completely customizable to any message OR photos you want that will make it look like you spent weeks on wrapping when you only spent less than three seconds or something like that. In partnership with Snapbox, I used their fabric posters to make these gift tag alternatives for some cute and unique gift wrapping.
All I did was type out little messages in square format in Photoshop and upload my designs to Snapbox. I ordered the 4×4 peel and stick posters, which are basically like very durable and affordable custom stickers.
Just peel and stick on to the gift, add some string or ribbon, and tie in a little holiday greens. Tying the greens off-center towards the bottom corner bumps up the cute factor a million times for me. I’m a big fan of it.
Did I mention these work with photos, too?
Yup, they do, and it’s terribly adorable as well. It’s perfect for more personalized gift wrapping AND the recipient can keep the photo sticker. It peels off better from paper with a glossy finish as opposed to a finish like kraft paper, but regardless the photo can at least be cut out from the paper because who wouldn’t want to save that??
You can upload your own designs/photos to Snapbox, or if you want to use the ones I made, you can download six different ones here (for personal use only and may not be reproduced or sold, ok? <3) Some of these can be used for any occasion, so keep them in mind anytime you need to wrap a gift!
This post is sponsored by Snapbox, my favorite place to print custom photo products. Thank you for supporting brands that keep the fun projects coming, where I can do things like reference a current favorite song.
Guys, I like garlands a lot. Greenery garlands in particular seem to be the thing I can’t get sick of this season, so I’ve got one more very simple one to share with you for your holiday merriment. The plus with all this garland making is that I had most all of the supplies on hand already (few things feel better than using up supplies) but even if this is your first time making one, the materials list is not at all extensive and you should try this, ok?
Bend the wire into letters and cut, referencing the previous letter to make sure they’re all about the same size and height. My letters are about 6.5 inches in height.
I get asked a lot where I source florals from, and 99% of the time it’s Whole Foods. I don’t even regularly shop there for food, but I will frequently browse their florals for inspiration because they do an excellent job of stocking all the good seasonal stuff. That’s how I found this Australian pine. Initially I thought it would be cool to utilize that ombre thing happening at some of the tips but there weren’t enough of them in my bunch, so I ditched that idea and only used the all green ones.
Wrap pieces of the pine around the wire letters using the floral wire. Overlap the pieces at the corners as best as possible.
Tie the letters to the string, making sure each letter has two attachment points at the top or else they’ll hang funny.
I contemplated hanging other things off the string, but simplicity tends to always win that decision for me. Still, I think combining this with something like a pom pom or star garland would look very cute, and even adding those things on to the ends of this garland would work well, too!
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Bend the wire into letters and cut, referencing the previous letter to make sure they’re all about the same size and height. My letters are about 6.5 inches in height.
I get asked a lot where I source florals from, and 99% of the time it’s Whole Foods. I don’t even regularly shop there for food, but I will frequently browse their florals for inspiration because they do an excellent job of stocking all the good seasonal stuff. That’s how I found this Australian pine. Initially I thought it would be cool to utilize that ombre thing happening at some of the tips but there weren’t enough of them in my bunch, so I ditched that idea and only used the all green ones.
Wrap pieces of the pine around the wire letters using the floral wire. Overlap the pieces at the corners as best as possible.
