Thanks to Bobbi for hosting this link-up!
I was much better at keeping up with the photos for this post last year. At least Dropbox organizes my photos by date so it makes it pretty easy. Also like Bobbi says cheating is allowed…so I also have a collage template in Canva that I copy and change out the photos each month.
This year was a pretty busy and eventful year! I can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store for us.
JANUARY
January was a boring month because I couldn’t find any interesting photos from my phone.
- I did find a lot of funny memes.
- My husband surprised me with flowers one day.
- I tried a Julia Child’s Chicken Coq Au Vin – Chicken Wine Recipe that came out really good. It was a Red Wine Recipe I want to try the White Wine version eventually.
- I had an issue with mold in my Instant Pot insert and someone told me to get Bar Keepers Friend to clean it and i is AWESOME! I even use it to clean the stove top and it works great!
FEBRUARY
February was another boring month of not that many interesting photos. For Christmas I got a Cricut cutting machine and the first thing I learned how to make was cards. I made my husband that cute card for Valentine’s Day. I am now slowly branching out and learning how to make stickers and other fun items (check out July’s photos for that).
I found a new Office Podcast that is really fun to listen to called Somehow I Manage. It is awesome!
February was 1 year since I started learning Brush Lettering and I’m still really enjoying it and doing good at practicing.
MARCH
In March I turned 33!! EEK I’m getting old! My birthday landed on Ash Wednesday…UGH…we went to dinner at an Italian Restaurant which is our go to “Ash Wednesday Restaurant” I think I have eaten there every Ash Wednesday for probably close to 5 years or so….on and off.
We went to Disney for my birthday the weekend before and I got the new Purple Ears! I love them! And my sister made a cool watermelon into Mickey for my Birthday.
APRIL
In April we celebrated Easter with Easter Baskets and I made an Italian Easter Pie as usual. Easter was actually the day before our Wedding Anniversary which was cute because we got married the weekend after Easter. Yay for 2 years of marriage!
It was funny because the weekend after Easter which is Divine Mercy Weekend which we consider our “Liturgical Anniversary” we were at a family wedding and my Aunt wished us a Happy Liturgical Anniversary! She says he has no idea what the actual date in April is that we got married but she just remembers that we got married on Divine Mercy Saturday.
My cousin got married and it was a lot of fun to see family that we hadn’t seen in a long time and my husband got to meet several people for the first time.
The first weekend of April my mom and I went to Camp Covecrest for the Lifeteen Women’s Retreat! It was so wonderful and so much fun! I had been trying to get on this retreat for like 5 years and it would always sell out super early. So I got up early and set my alarm and was able to snag 2 spots! It was my moms Christmas gift. And no joke the first night we were there we met a mother daughter there and the girl found out about the retreat because I posted about it in a facebook group and she then bought the retreat for her mom as a Christmas gift! #SmallWorld
MAY
In May I did a lot of Bible Journaling from an online class I was taking. The image above is done glueing napkins into your bible using Gesso but you can also just use glue-stick as well.
We went out for dinner for Ramen. This place down the street from my sisters house is so yummy! My husband had never been and he really enjoyed it as well.
I attempted to make a holder for all my Mickey ears. It was really cute temporarily but alas the weight of the ears made them all fall apart. Back to the drawing board on how to display my ears nicely.
JUNE
June was a bittersweet month. My mom received a new DRE job at a church in Wisconsin. I hate having her so far away but that is what God is calling her to do. I got to drive with her from Florida to Wisconsin which was fun and then I flew home.
On our way to Wisconsin we stopped in Indianapolis and had dinner with my moms friend. Then we went to mass with my friend in Fort Wayne that got married on the same day as my husband and I! We met through a Catholic Facebook Group for women that were getting married in 2017. This was the first time we met in real life. It was really cool to finally meet her in person. Such a small world and she goes to such a beautiful church!
We then took a small detour to The University of Notre Dame. I had always wanted to visit the school and we were so close so we went. It was a beautiful church and I saw the famous Mary’s Grotto. I was sad I couldn’t go in as it was under construction but still very beautiful.
JULY
July is always a crazy busy month because between my husband and I’s families we have 7 Birthdays! There’s barely a free weekend. For this introvert it’s so intense.
This year my husband celebrated his 40th Birthday. We had a Star Wars Themed party for him entitled, “May the 40th Be With You” I put my Cricut to work making lots of stickers and labels and other decorations. It was a lot of fun to put all the details together.
AUGUST
In August I went on a family vacation to Myrtle Beach, SC. We met up with my aunt and cousins. It was a lot of fun to have a relaxing vacation with not a lot of running around everywhere.
A watercolor artist that needed some flowers to practice on painted my wedding bouquet. That was really cool to see.
SEPTEMBER
In September I got a sketch book for bible journaling. I sometimes want to practice but I don’t have a lot of space in my actual bible. I also joined the Watercolor Box Subscription program with Lets Make Art. I’m really enjoying following the youtube tutorials for the different paintings and learning more about how watercoloring works.
We also went to Disney for the weekend and got to check out the new Star Wars Ride/Land. That was really cool.
And sadly the man that brought the carousel to my town passed away and they moved the carousel to south Florida. I got to ride it the last day it was open which was fun.
OCTOBER
In October I finally got on the DevaCurl wagon and got the Wave Maker cream you put in your hair after you shower. It works really well on my hair. I like it so far.
I painted some pretty water color paintings from the Lets Make Art box. January will be my 4th box (I skipped November because I was out of town).
I also figured out how vinyl works with my Cricut. I Brush Lettered the words in procreate on my ipad and exported the photo to the Cricut software. I feel super fancy that I figured all that out.
October 1 was St. Therese of Lisieux’s Feast Day and I made my husband buy me Roses. I also made us try on my flower crown.
NOVEMBER
In November I finally made the trip out to San Jose, CA for the Quickbooks Connect Conference! I have been wanting to go to this conference for about 4 years and every year I chickened out and didn’t go. What is worse is every year I bought a cheap ticket and ended up selling it. But thanks to my Southwest Points I didn’t have to pay for airfare and I found a cheap AirBNB a mile away so it made the trip affordable.
This conference was unlike any conference I have ever been to. There were vendors, swag, and parties galore. Many of the vendors would host an after party at night. Ashton Kutcher was one of the keynote speakers. He actually has invested in a lot of startups including Skype.
There were fun little stand up motorized scooters around town that I used to get around you paid by the minute. They were fun to ride and were cheaper than Uber.
I also visited the Catholic Cathedral. It was a beautiful church. I had some yummy dim sum, and clam chowder in a bread bowl. All in all it was a great trip and I’m so glad I went and am still implementing everything I learned into my business.
DECEMBER
And last but not least we come to December. The busiest month of the year! We took a weekend trip to Disney to see all the Christmas decor. It’s so pretty this time of year.
I had to get this Cookie Factory sign from Michaels for when I bake. I made a lot of Spritz Cookies this year. Chocolate and Butter. They all came out really good! We had a really fun Christmas season celebrating with friends and family.
My mom was able to visit for Thanksgiving and Christmas which was nice and for Christmas she bought my sister and I airline tickets to visit her for Mothers Day 🙂
What a fun, full year!
Happy 2020!