It’s not too late to make a year in review photo book of everything you got up to last year. I got my butt in gear and whipped together a book at the start of the year and I’ve already started making plans for my 2018 in review to be even better. There are a ton of reasons why you should take a few hours out of your day to gather all the photos from the last year and put them together.
- The age of photo albums is dying. Some of my best memories with family are flipping through old photo albums, learning about our history, and hearing stories. Soon there won’t be a time when family gathers around albums to talk share memories. I don’t want our future kids to miss out on seeing the early years of their parents.
- It’s a great way to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. I have the hardest time celebrating the small victories, so putting them all into a book is a fantastic way to make sure to celebrate everything.
- If you tend to keep concert tickets and other memorabilia, you can add a pocket to the back of the book and stash all those little papers you’ve collected throughout the year.
- You can add in travel photos so you don’t feel like you have to have a whole separate book or scrapbook to document the adventure.
- I’m awful at scrapbooking. Plus the time commitment is just too much. This makes the whole process way easier.
I ordered my book through Shutterfly, but there are tons of options out there and coupons constantly. I’ve started a folder on my computer to pop in any photos from this year that I want to include in the next book. That way, twelve months from now I’m not trying to scrounge together photos.
I’ve already convinced my sister to make one…you should too!
I started this blog in 2013 after having various blogs for five years before that. I had these cliche dreams of making it big in the beauty world, quitting my day job, and travelling around the world taking glamour shots on amazing trips. That’s what all the big beauty bloggers were doing and I wanted to be just like them. This photo was taken a few days before I started this blog back in 2013. I had lofty dreams, ambitions, and far-fetched goals.
Fast forward five years and here I am. Not YouTube famous, not blog famous. My unrealistic dreams did not come true. And you know what? I’m still not quitting.
Sure I didn’t become a fast success and the source for all things beauty. But I did become a much better writer, photographer, and content promoter than if I had never started this blog. MicroscopeBeauty and gotten me countless “real” jobs even if it hasn’t sky-rocketed me to internet fame. It’s also taught me to fight for everything I want. Starting a blog and throwing up a few posts isn’t going to give you internet stardom. I’ve worked hard for every single like, follow, and comment I’ve gotten in the past five years.
This blog has been here for me through a lot of life changes. Starting Oh, Hello, getting married, quitting my “real” job to follow (another) silly dream. It’d be so easy to up and quit just because it didn’t give to me what I wanted it to. But it’s given me so much more instead.
Of course I’d love to get a call from some makeup brand whisking me away to Iceland or somewhere equally crazy. But I’m also happy being here, in bed, in my pajamas, doing the same thing I’ve done the past half decade. Because sometimes things don’t work out like you hope they would, but they become something else entirely.
The girl in this photo didn’t know what the next five years had in store for her, but I’m pretty sure if she did, she wouldn’t have changed a thing.
I’m notoriously hard to shop for despite feeling like I’m the exact opposite. Alex in particular goes on about wanting to give me thoughtful gifts instead of just contributing to my various collections. Yet I would be more than happy to get some shopkins, another plant or two, and a couple of new enamel pins. Enamel pins are the best. The perfect way to showcase your interests without having to tell someone, “Hey I really like cats” and small enough to be the perfect stocking stuffer. What’s not to love?
My collection has grown a lot since we last spoke about it and I thought I’d wrap up this week with a little post about some of my favorite new additions.
I add pins to my board from the top down, so all of the pins at the bottom of photos tend to be the newest ones. I picked up this
trio set from Erin Condren about a month ago and love what a quirky combination they make together. The
grateful pin is also from Erin Condren and has inspired me to make a font pin for Oh, Hello that should be arriving before December hits!
I picked up this somewhat creepy reflective pin of John Green for Pizzamas this year. I think Pizzamas is sadly over so you can no longer get yourself this awkward creation, but I love having something that’s so deep into a fandom I couldn’t possibly begin to explain it.
My favorite new additions are all of these gorgeous plant pins from Begin Industries. They came into my life right around when I seriously started getting into plants so they’re a lovely reminder of my new passion. They’re hard enamel and such great quality. Plus Begin Industries has some other pins that are seriously unique and completely unlike what I’ve seen out there.
Now to convince everyone to just buy me Shopkins, plants, and pins for the holidays and I’ll be one happy camper.
Over the weekend Alex’s parents came to visit us in Grand Rapids. It’s not often we see them, and Alex spent the majority of the long weekend trying his hardest to convince them to move closer to us. We spent evenings out on the town finding hidden gems, eating delicious food, and talking. It was a wonderful weekend that ended even better when Linda and Greg gifted me with a gorgeous orchid plant.
I may have went on a little too much about my newfound love of plants during the first days of their visit. They wanted to show their support and interest in my new love affair by giving me a plant Greg in particular loves growing. When I got this orchid from Alex’s parents it really meant something to me. It meant they cared about what I was into, that they wanted to support me, and that we had something in common. In-laws are hard no matter how good your relationship with them is and this orchid made my relationship with them just a little bit easier. It was an incredibly thoughtful gesture and although I’m terrified to kill this gorgeous, delicate beauty, I’m also proud in myself that people have confidence in me to not kill it.
Growing up and in college I was the typical plant-killing cliche. I over-watered. I under-watered. I completely forgot that I had any plants to begin with. I just wasn’t in the right mindset to be a plant mom. Plus I did understand just how important they’d become to my mental happiness.
Once we moved into our first how it became obvious that the decor was lacking. We’re trying to build up a good nest-egg of savings and rather not spend it just yet on filling the house with furniture. But something had to be done to fill up the empty shelves. Plants. I already had one that survived the move, but it looked sad and lonely, so I bought another.
After a few months of gingerly carrying for a peace lily and seeing just how well it was doing, I bought yet another plant. And then another. Then three more in one go. Now I’m constantly telling myself to give it a few more weeks before plant purchases because before I know it I’ll be living in a rain forest. At least then no one will notice our couches don’t really match the decor…
Why does this matter at all to you? Because plants are important. Plants bring a little bit of the world outside, in. And on rainy, cloudy days with no sun in sight, that’s incredibly important. Plus having something to tend to, nurture, and take care of really does lift the spirits. Something is counting on you to keep it alive and that makes you feel a little more self worth than you did without plants. Plants can also store memories. The first plant I didn’t kill came from my grandpa’s funeral. It’s still alive years later and reminds me of him whenever I see it in the kitchen every morning. Now I have an orchid plant to remind me of my growing relationship with Alex’s family.
It wasn’t until the weather turned south this year that I realized how important plants are to my mental health. It rained for nearly two weeks straight and it really started to get to me. But all of the plants in our house brightened things up, gave me a calm environment, fresh air to breathe, and some perspective that the weather would get better. I can only imagine how much I’m going to need them in the dead of winter.
Without sounding too hippie-ish, nature is a part of us. So it only makes sense that plants brighten a room and improve a mood. Now to convince myself that I don’t need five more before winter hits…
Growing up I always had a plan. I knew what I would be doing, how to get there, and what I wanted to do along the way. That all changed when I became self-employed and started working from home. I feel like I’ve skipped a few steps and am now in this no-man’s land without any clear idea of what to do next. It’s caused a lot of stress and anxiety with a dash of listlessness thrown in for good measure. I just didn’t know what I wanted anymore. Days started to blur together and I lost a lot of passion.
My brilliant husband Alex came to me one day after months of watching me just go through the motions. He asked to take me out to lunch to talk about what we wanted in life. I jumped at the chance for lunch at Panera and didn’t realize how this one lunch date would completely change my outlook on things.
We both brought our own notebook and he asked me, “What would you do if you didn’t have to work constantly and money wasn’t a concern?” At first I wasn’t sure, but soon the ideas started flowing.
I want to take more dance classes, focus on interior design, grow more plants, and take a cake decorating class. Just writing these wants down instantly changed my mood. It gave me things to focus on, goals to work towards, and things to look forward to.
Plus I got to see what he would do. It taught me so much more about him, about what he values, and how to make our relationship even stronger.
So if you’ve found yourself on the other side of college without a road map you’ve followed for so many years previously, don’t fret. Write down the things you want to do, whether it’s travelling, opening your own bakery, what have you. Just getting your dreams and goals down on paper is a huge motivation booster. Then figure out what you have to do to get to those goals.
I know it sounds simple, but why can’t it be?
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I’ve been visiting a lot of college friends lately and it has me feeling a whirlwind of emotions lately. It’s great to see them again, but a lot of them are still doing the same things they were doing five years ago. Everyone seems stuck. No one is moving on or growing up. They’re exactly the same. Just older.
Alex and I skipped a couple of steps. Oh, Hello granted us an amazing house in a neighborhood many people work their entire lives for. Our new friends all have kids and are established. We find ourselves in a limbo between our college friends and our adult friends who are so much more adult-y than we are.
It got me thinking about growing up. Who I want to be as an “adult.” And the thing is, I have no intentions of “adulting” in the traditional sense. I love toys. Shopkins make me too excited to full express and I prefer watching My Little Pony over most of the other junk on television. I can officially afford all of these things younger me would only lust after. Why deprive yourself of childish fun just because you’re stuck somewhere in adult limbo?
Then it comes to the topic of kids. We aren’t in a hurry. Children currently seem like the fastest way to leave youthville and firmly plant yourself in grown up town. I’m not ready to be responsible for someone else when I eat Panera too many ties a week to be healthy. I love kids probably because I relate to them on a spiritual level. Sometimes I want to cry for no reason. The toy aisle is still the best aisle in the store. But Alex and I are just not ready for the responsibility of our own children.
I don’t really know the point of this post. More or less to go on about how we’re stuck between two friend groups without a clear sight of where we want to go next. I don’t want to be that person who is still going to the same bar with the same people after all these years, but I’m not ready for kids just yet. So here we sit between two worlds. We’re happy, but a little lonely.
Can you relate?
