I don’t know what kind of crazy people follow this blog where I do nothing but talk about myself and other random subjects, but thank you all for your support!
I love everyone and all your comments and encouraging feedback. Blogging has changed my life in so many ways: socially, professionally, personally, mentally. I couldn’t even fathom what my life would be like if I didn’t blog.
I decided to start a new 365 project this year (well technically I started a little bit before January). In addition to blogging, I will also be taking a photo a day. I’m using tookapic to keep track of it.
Tookapic is a site dedicated to 365 photo projects. It keeps track of how many days in a row you take a picture and even has a thing for tracking how may days you uploaded in a row. I personally decided that my challenge will to snap a photo a day with a professional camera (my x100 or 60D) but not necessarily upload it the same day. Tookapic’s “in a row” analytics resets itself when you don’t upload photos within a 2 day period of taking them, but they won’t mark it as a “missed” day. I don’t plan on missing any days, I just don’t think editing photos every day is a realistic for me.
Taking a photo will be an awesome challenge. It will help me to appreciate a moment of every day and I will have an archive of blog photos for the year.
I love notebooks, but I’ve always been really bad with filling them in. I found a lot of planners didn’t guide life in a valuable way. Often they were full of schedules denoting what you are doing at every hour every day. The hours where you had nothing plan would just be a waste of half a sheet of paper. I gave up on purchasing daily planners for the past couple of years until I stumbled on and Kickstarted the Spark Planner for 2016.
It begins with defining a 2016 theme and having a space to brainstorm all the things I want to achieve this year. There’s even a space to mark the dates you make those achievements on the next page. I decided that my main theme for this year is to be Brave & Creative. I’m still defining some top goals but I jotted down some weird ones.
Along with your regular monthly calendars there is what is called a “Weekly Outlook”. I love this because you can plan your days without defining every single hour (a thing which I obviously hate). This gives you a general guideline of things you want done and is actually far more motivating. Plus, if you have nothing to write they make good doodle boxes.
There’s also a weekly goals page and space to reflect and celebrate. Occasionally there are also random reflection questions that you can answer in point form or write an essay if you really wanted to.
I’m super excited for this journal and know that it will help me be the best me that I can be in 2016!
This may be a seemingly ridiculous and easy goal but my January challenge is to not buy anything online. December was an expensive month. I did a lot of Christmas, Boxing Day shopping online. I bought things I may not have needed because the holidays gave me an excuse to be impulsive. Holidays are also when online marketing for the strangest and most unnecessary stuff is at an all-time high.
This January I will keep all my shopping offline. It will allow me to save money because it’s harder to plan time to go to a store compared to clicking on a digital shopping cart. This will also encourage me to support brick and mortar local stores, which are the future of the local economy.
Stay tuned for more 2016 planning and resolutions!
Yesterday we rang in 2016 with our friends. We dressed up and had low key hangs that involved sitting on the floor and eating a box of cookies.
It was perfect.
I’m super excited for what the New Year will bring and have already begun planning a whole new set of goals and adventures.
I did it. This is my 365th post of the year- in a row. It’s a feat that in previous years I thought would be impossible. I had previously tried in other years to blog for entire months, but failed to get over that hump. 365 is an awesome personal goal and I will continue this streak. I have no intentions of stopping now!
How did I accomplishing blogging everyday? Well, there really isn’t any concrete tips on doing this besides: just do it. There were weekends where I was too busy, weeknights that I was too tired but if you really want to accomplish something, it will make it into your schedule no matter what. I blogged while I was travelling from music festivals, commuting, as dinner was cooking, any time I could find. I’ve documented so many adventures this year that I can’t wait to re-read the entries at a future date.
If you’ve been thinking of starting a blog, don’t think, just do it.
I’m one of those people who when there are too many clouds outside, I feel like I’m under an emotional cloud as well. It’s been especially bad November and December this year when I’ve been working so much I don’t see the sun shine. I decided to invest in one of those weird fancy energy lamps. I settled on the Verilux Compact Happy Light which was both inexpensive and still pretty if it didn’t do anything.
So far my experience has been positive. I feel like I have much more energy after 30 minutes sitting near the lamp. I wouldn’t recommend sitting in front of it for more than an hour as it makes you feel as if you drank like five cups of coffee (and possibly find it difficult to sleep, especially if used in the evening). Placebo or not, it’s working for me!
I’m so excited to be energized, and happy.
Last night, Dad and I drove around the neighbourhood to take some photos of crazy Christmas houses we had heard were around somewhere. These nearby houses decked their entire yards out and even were so detailed as to have stuff going on in the windows of the house. Here are some photos of our adventure:
For a better perspective I also decided to Vine both of them:
Merry Christmas! Teddy was probably the one with the most presents to unwrap on Christmas day. He has been waiting patiently for them ever since we put them under the tree. He’d stare at them every day but was nice enough not to touch them until Christmas morning. Here are some random photos of him digging into his presents.
I am currently out for Christmas Eve dinner with the fam! Here’s a photo of Teddy as Santa for your viewing pleasure.
Merry Christmas!
Tiana Feng 