In 2011 and 2012, I created a “Year in Review” infographic newsletter to fill in my family on the happenings in Mark’s and my life (pictured above). These letters were such a fun project for me, as I love reflecting on good times and laying it all out.
Side note: I had intended to blog the cards both years, but in the time I spent waiting for my family to get the cards in the mail before posting photos, I promptly forgot that I’d wanted to blog them at all. You’d think I’d learn to schedule posts in advance... but NOPE.
This year, however, “good times” have been on short supply. Even in a so-called normal year, it would have been hard to top 2012’s European travels and living in Ireland, but 2013 was more sadness and struggle than anything else. My family dealt with three deaths, my brother was hit by a truck on his motorcycle (he’s now post-surgery and recovering), I had a fallout with an immediate family member that ended with us cutting contact for the present time, my cat was diagnosed with the early stages of liver disease requiring constant nursing and syringe-feeding, plus more than a handful of other smaller challenges. Those kinds of things don’t really make for good Christmas newsletter content, no? At least not one that doesn't make people depressed or require a two-drink minimum to read.
I think it’s still important for me to dig down and look for the little bits of good in the past year, even if I don’t think I need to share with my family the mundanities like my love for Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Triple Ginger Cookies and the joy of re-reading Harry Potter for the first time since the late '90s. But my blog has always been about cherishing the small moments, so I felt like it is a natural place for me to find the joy, and maybe do a little bit of humblebragging, if I can muster it :)
Without further ado, these are my Best Bits and Favorite Things from 2013:
1. Organizing the shit out of my house.
Lame but true. You guys can't imagine the joy I get from taking something disorganized and figuring out a system to make it work. This year, we got rid of a lot of stuff we didn’t need anymore, and then I organized everything left over, since I was feeling constantly annoyed at the messy cabinets and closets. It was as simple as getting some trays, dividers, and storage boxes, but it has made my life so much easier now that everything has its own place. My personal favorite is the magazine file that I’ve repurposed as a hairdryer/hair straighter/hairbrush holder that slides right under my bathroom sink for storage (kind of like
this).
2. Papa’s memorial service with my family.
It's probably strange to put a memorial service on a "best bits" list, but it ended up being a really good day. When my grandpa died on my birthday in January, I wasn't really sure how to process my intense feelings of grief nor how to give myself some closure, which was only compounded by the fact that he opted not to have a funeral. In September, my family decided to hold a family-only memorial for my grandpa in the Northwoods, a place he loved. We dressed up in flannel shirts, fleece jackets, and trucker hats and spent the afternoon sharing stories of Papa-- fishing adventures, numerous stories of accidents and injuries, his personal dictionary of made-up words, his stubbornness (which runs in the family), and other hilarious memories. I felt more full of laughter and love than tears after that point, which is more than I could have asked for from the day. It was really great to have everyone from my family in one place for a weekend (minus one cousin who is away at college), and it'll be one of those family memories that I'll always cherish.
3. Visiting the Oregon coast by myself and spending lots of time at Powell’s.
I went out to Oregon for the Story Excavation retreat, and while the retreat didn’t turn out quite the way I’d hoped, I had a really nice time on my own in the days before and after the retreat. I rented a car by myself for the very first time (a tiny little Fiat 500), and explored Portland and the Oregon coastal towns for two days. One of the highlights was obviously the many hours I spent in Powell's bookstore. For souvenirs, I bought myself a book of poetry and a
"Le Petit Prince" t-shirt from Out of Print Clothing. Post-retreat, after four days of quick camp showers with bad water pressure, I had THE BEST shower of my life in a hotel room near the airport, as well as the most wonderful night's sleep in probably six months. It was a tiny little taste of what a solo-vacation would be like (which I've never done before), and I'm dreaming about taking a trip on my own at some point in the future (my fantasy is some sort of resort spa, if only they weren't so bloody expensive).
4. Meeting two internet friends and turning them into real life friends.
Hi, Jill! Hi, Renee!
*Waves* Over the summer, I got to meet two lovely ladies I'd gotten to know through blogging and Twitter. And I'm lucky enough to have one of them as a next door neighbor! I only wish Jill lived closer too because I had such a great time over brunch in Chicago and then showing her around Oak Park when she came in from Minneapolis for a visit. I'm sure we'd have lots of fun thrifting together if we lived closer. Internet to IRL pals are wonderful.
5. Getting to spend a few days with my adorable nephews.
In May, Mark and I took a roadtrip between Arizona, where Mark's sister lives, and Southern California, to see Mark's dad. Phoenix has exactly zero appeal to me aside from my sister-in-law and her family, but I will gladly put up with Arizona for a visit to spend time with them. Our nephews, who are currently 4 and 6 years old, are such adorable, wonderful boys. We're making plans to take a yearly trip out there each March to make sure we get to spend time with them while they're young.
6. Reading a ton of books.
I've talked about this a lot already-- I mentioned
achieving my reading goal already, and I wrote about my
favorite books of the year here. When I was bogged down with shitty circumstances, it was a wonderful outlet to bury myself in someone else's world.
7. Fun events:
Attending a Zoe Keating concert, seeing Susan Cain give a talk, seeing Michael Pollan speak, going to a Blackhawks game on Mark’s birthday, attending a letterpress workshop, seeing The Book of Mormon, taking a breakfast pastry class, and having a summer dinner party at our friend's condo downtown. Because I'd sort of labeled 2013 as "generally horrible" in my mind, I'd honestly forgot about most of these smaller fun events until I looked back at my Instagram.
8. Finally getting our condo completely painted in colors we won’t regret in a year.
Between moving into our condo in 2008 and the start of this year, we'd painted our living room/kitchen
four times. Granted, one of those times was because we were dumdums and bought semi-gloss paint by accident, thus requiring a re-paint in the correct finish. Nonetheless, I am clearly indecisive when it comes to paint colors. This year, we left the living room alone since we love the color (Behr Turtle Dove, a light gray-ish sage green) and tackled the bedroom (with Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter) and office (Benjamin Moore Iceberg). Now the whole condo is a lovely range of light green, blue, and greige, and I couldn't be happier. FINALLY.
9. Cutting my own hair (successfully).
Despite a traumatic DIY bangs-cutting incident in 8th grade, I somehow got it in my head that it'd be a good idea to try and cut my own very long hair. Actually, it'd be more truthful to say that I was too lazy-- and cheap-- to go to the salon (I was also sort of embarrassed that it'd been more than 600 days since my last hair cut, for shame). So I turned to the source of all DIY knowledge-- YouTube! I watched a dozen videos on how to cut long hair in layers, and after no one came to confiscate all the scissors from my house despite my pleas on Twitter, I did it! I took about 3.5-4" off. It took a super long time since I was trying to be so careful, but honestly, it was really easy. When I get a medium-to-long haircut at the salon, I never feel like I come away looking any different, so I'm pleased at having saved $70... and I'll probably do it again. (For anyone curious, I used
this video the most because her texture and thickness seemed most similar to mine, and she's a hair stylist by day, so I guess I trusted her technique more. But there's a ton of video tutorials out there.)
10. Becoming 100% student loan free.
Thanks to a giant tax return after spending most of 2012 working in Ireland, Mark was able to submit one lump payment to finish off his student loans. I paid off my loans back in July of 2010, so our education is officially 100% behind us... at least until I entertain the idea of going back to school again (a thought that often lies in the back of my mind).
11. Buying a Prius.
We traded our student loan payment for a car payment and got a pretty Prius in October, as I mentioned in my
Coffee Date post. She's beautiful!
12. Re-assessing my creative goals.
After closing my Etsy shop and scaling back on freelance graphic design work, I've had an abundance of extra time to ask, "What do I really want to pursue and accomplish?" and I can see some changes will be occurring in the new year. I can go into more detail in a future blog post.
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Even though 2013 isn't quite over yet, I'm pretty excited to look forward to 2014, a year that will hopefully be happier, healthier, and a little more joyous than this one. Onward ho!
Note: While Year in Review type cards are freakin' ALL OVER Pinterest these days (or Minted, for any of you non-DIY types) I do have to give a head-nod to designers Amanda Jane Jones and Aprile Elcich for being my original inspirations for the idea and several of the elements I ended up including on our own cards.
