2014 Reflections & 2015 Resolutions

January 23, 2015 Life / Baby 0 Comments »

Happy New Year!

I’m a little late to the party here. You’ve already gone and had your fun, spreading confetti and good cheer everywhere, and drinking premium champagne like a rock star. I hope you haven’t trashed hotel rooms and spread greasy pizza fingers everywhere, that is not cool. (I’m still jealous.) I rang in the new year in the car, driving home after a steak dinner at a premium restaurant that I couldn’t even enjoy because I had the flu. We ooh-ed and aah-ed over fireworks on either side of us and were happy to be some of the only people on the road (because drunk drivers are not my cuppa tea, mmkay?). When we got home, I grabbed my box of Kleenex and snuggled with my dog in bed while my husband enjoyed TV far away from my sick self and my quarantine room.

I’m begging for a redo.

With that being said, 2014 was busy. It was the busiest, most stressful year of my life, and it was all self-induced. I completed the food holiday challenge and I’m still reeling from the excitement and stress of it all, and still feel very lost as to what to do with my time on the weekend that I normally had reserved for 8-hour cooking marathons (don’t worry – I’ve filled it with watching The Bachelor). I read tons of food blogs, connected with a lot of people, had a hard time keeping up with my own blog promotion, but overall, got tons of ideas and inspirations from those who love to eat, cook, and blog as much as I do.

I also signed up for a custom blog design from Purr Design, a web design company operated by the founders of Love & Olive Oil. I believe it’s time to have something customized and beautiful that also has all the elements I’ve been wanting in my blog layout. We should start the design sometimes in the spring/early summer.

With all of this being said, let’s talk about what’s next.

MY BLOGGING RESOLUTIONS FOR 2015:

1. Teach and learn.
Hopefully within the first half of the year my husband and I will be settled into a new home. I’m looking for a nice kitchen with lots of natural light and the room to set up a camera so I can start recording videos. YouTube is a market every blogger should tap into, in my opinion. I’ve been wanting to for a while, but my kitchen, you guys, is not cute. It’s in desperate need of major renovations and it’s crowded and lame and not at all ideal.

Also, I’m really into watching YouTube videos of the cooking variety. So fun, like a personal demonstration!

2. Step outside the box.
I want to cook food I’m not used to cooking. I cook many varieties of the typical: pasta, chicken, pork, beef, breakfast. I’m not very versed in some cuisines, and I would like to not have to plan all the time, but instead just feel more confident in the kitchen and pair food that I might not normally thought of as belonging together. And a lot more soup. Because I’m awesome at soup and you can get away with a lot.

3. Improve photography and design.
I want to learn PhotoShop so I can make pretty, pretty pictures for you all and also design labels for fun stuff like jams and brownies. So you can totally make my recipe and then pack some up for friends and family! Also, I’m going to learn more about my camera and about food styling in particular. Just wait ’til you see the improvement from the beginning of the year to the end. I’m really looking forward to it.