Sunday, January 1, 2017

LOOKING BACK...LOOKING AHEAD


Happy New Year! WELCOME 2017!!

I’ve never been good with making and keeping resolutions but I do love looking back over the year and deciding what I liked and want to keep doing and what are some things I want to change or improve.



I appreciate the #mybestnine2016 trend on Instagram…. I love to look back through my photos and be reminded of all that 2016 included – the good, the hard, the lessons learnt!

Some things that worked well for me in 2016 were:
-       Taking the time to read – even though I’ve only read 20 books this year – when I did find a great book to read I actually enjoyed my time with it more then watching something on TV. I also enjoyed audible books this year - thanks to the library app Hoopla and Overdrive. I have listened to several books while driving, cleaning and crafting.
-       Focusing more on taking a few good photos and editing right away – this is something I just started this month but I will keep doing it!
o    I take all my photos with my iPhone and I found that when I took them off at the end of the month, I had so many photos I didn’t know where to start (printing/editing/scrapbooking)
o   So with doing Hello December I’ve started going through my photos at the end of each day, editing them (using the PicTapGo app) and then delete the ones I don’t’ want to keep. Very freeing!
-       Starting my own business with Stampin’ Up! and getting back to my love of crafting – This was probably my best decision of the year. With our job/life situation changing, it was a great time to take my focus off of me and put it onto something creative that would allow me to use my gifting’s and share my love of crafting with others.
-       Spending more time with family – this could still improve, but with hosting classes at my parent’s house we got to spend a lot more time with them and I have also enjoyed my Face Time chats with my nephew. I was thrilled to host Thanksgiving this year and would like to host more family events at our house.
-       Sharing the meal responsibilities – ok this was such an issue for me. I do like to cook and I love to bake – but when I want to, not every.single.night! So I finally broke down and asked Fred to help out and share the cooking and I’ve loved it! I’ve noticed a huge difference even while on our holidays that I haven’t minded cooking J
-       Focusing on the present – the verse that kept coming to mind, near the end of the year, was Matthew 6:34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” It helped with my anxiety to not worry about what was to come, but to be present in the here and now.

Some things that didn’t work for me:
(this list is longer but I don’t want to spill all of the beans on here…)
-       Not drinking enough water – need to do better with this!
-       Staying up late/not getting enough sleep – since on holidays I’ve been making a point of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier…hopefully this is something I can do once we get home.
-       Over planning my weeks to the point where my schedule stresses me out. I need to find a good balance for my jobs/life right now that help me to do well and take care of me and my loved ones.
-       Wasting time on my phone/computer/internet – enough said!
-       Not going to prayer first, but instead worrying and trying to fix things on my own

….Ok I could go on but I want this to be somewhat of a positive post ;)
     So some things I am looking forward to trying out in the new year include:
-       • Creating a balance between my two jobs (I love them both!)
-       • Be more intentional with my creative time
-       • Send more cards in the mail = Happy Mail!

Have you had a chance to process 2016 and think ahead to what you want for 2017? I find there are a lot of articles out at this time of year that help me process and review so I thought I would share a few of those…


Ok if you made it this far you deserve a metal – its been a bit of a long post but I hope you have a wonderful happy new year and I look forward to creating and sharing with you…starting with my 


Occasions & Sale-A-Bration Launch Party – January 28 1-3pm and January 27-29 (online). You won’t want to miss out on picking up the new catalogues, seeing the new class examples and playing with new products. I hope to see you there!

I will be back on January 4th with more details about the new catalogue and how you can earn FREE product!!!


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3 comments:

  1. Love seeing how you have processed 2016 and looking forward to checking out those articles that you shared! I have to admit, I haven't ever really processed in this way in the past - but why not start now!

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  2. Oh! Ps - LOVE Matthew 6:34! This has always been my favourite piece of scripture!

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