2016 | Looking Back

For the past couple of year's I've made it a tradition to put my goals in writing, review them at the end of each year and set goals for the future. For me, it's a great exercise. I love being able to look back at what I've accomplished and look forward to what I hope to achieve.

2016 Resolutions: 

• Blog about recipes. Okay, so this isn't one that I was completely successful at. My goal was to put a new recipe on the blog once every month. To say I fell short is an understatement. I've always admired kitchen and recipe bloggers because of the amount of work it takes to have them -- but now I have a whole new appreciation for how tedious and time consuming this kind of work is! First you have to decide what you're going to make, then you have to photograph the ingredients, the process and the final product. Then comes post processing of images, blogging and listing the recipe. It's a full-time job! I'm hoping to eventually put more recipes on my blog, but this time, I'm not going to try to hold myself to a set schedule. If you're interested in the recipes I did publish, you can find them here and here.

• Meet and make new friends.​ The older I get, the more I've learned how important making friends is to me. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that I'm not from the DMV area. I moved here from Nebraska eight years ago, and that means I don't have a well-established network of high school and college buddies to rely on. That said, I continue to expand my friend network, and I'm so grateful for the relationships I've made with so many people. To help foster those relationships, Cliff and I held a Thanksgiving-esque feast our home. It was our first time entertaining a group of people and it seemed to go well! If you're new to entertaining just like we are, check out these tips for 5 ways we stayed on budget!

• A road trip with girlfriends. I set this goal because I'd never been on a road trip with just friends before. I grew up in a strict household, so taking off for a few days without an adult was out of the question. By the time I made it to my early 20s, my career was my focus, which didn't leave much time for hitting the open road. Because I'd never had this experience, accomplishing this goal was really important to me and guess what?? I did it! My good friend Larysa and I drove to New Jersey to see a Dixie Chicks concert. I LOVED IT! We ate super unhealthy food, blasted music, splurged on alcohol and snacks at the concert venue, and -- of course -- sang at the top of our lungs to some of our favorite songs. It was awesome!

• Make it to more community events. I was hoping to make it to a PechaKucha event and Unofficial Handlettering Society of Silver Spring meeting. PechaKucha didn't happen -- but Handlettering did! I never realized how relaxing it could be to create fun, whimsical letters with a group of artists while sipping wine, but this might be one of my new favorite things. Of course, my favorite meeting was the one where we lettered curse words. I can't wait to go back for more!