My Month in Film | December 2017

December was quite a month. The lead up to Christmas always seems to be both incredibly exciting and incredibly busy. I have been super busy at work and I spent a lot of my days off planning out the general content calendar for 2018, which was both overwhelming and exciting! While it was a very full month, there were also some incredibly relaxing moments, which I definitely needed to keep me from feeling completely burnt out by New Year’s Eve. Luckily I also had more weekends free and was able to be out and about more in the city, which is definitely reflective in the photos I was able to take this month! 

Looking Forward To The New Year

I want to start out by saying I hope you all had a wonderful and restful holiday season! I’ve never been one for setting New Year’s resolutions, mainly because I don’t put that much stock in the new year as a concept. I prefer to set goals for myself during the year and if anything I’m more motivated by turning one year older on my birthday than I am when it comes time to January 1st. However, my mentality has changed a bit in regards to the shift from 2017 to 2018. 

2017 was a big year in every aspect of my life. I had some tremendous highs and some tremendous lows, and the main constant through the past year, ironically, was change. I'm not someone who is terrified of change, it's nice to have things shaken up a bit every once and a while. However, so much change in a relatively short span of time can feel overwhelming, even when it is good. 2017 saw finishing a thesis, travel, graduating from college, a blog overhaul, moving, friendships growing, friendships waning, and starting a career. It's been a lot to take on in twelve months, but I could not be more proud of everything I've accomplished this last year. Even though I felt completely burnt out by the end of December, resting over the holidays and spending time with loved ones has made me feel more refreshed and motivated to really get back into the swing of things. 

I know I say this all of the time but I am so incredibly excited to work on this blog, and now that I've established a more effective way to manage my time with having a full-time job, I feel like I can really go full steam ahead with creating content and growing my reach. While I do have specific goals for my blog in terms of the frequency of posting, stats, etc. I am the most motivated by sharing more of my life with you and really honing in my voice and my perspective on fashion, beauty, lifestyle, or really whatever is interesting to me at the moment. I think a lot of this newfound motivation comes down to feeling more settled than I have in over six months. The fact that I'm no longer on the hunt for a job, I'm generally settled back at home, my relationship is going well, means that I can start to take risks and put more energy in my blog and hopefully my freelancing career in general. 

Here's to a wonderful 2018!

Christmas

Just thought I’d pop in quickly today to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. I hope all of you are spending time with people you love, eating good food, and relaxing. I am currently curled up in front of the fire, about to read my book after I finish writing this post. I’d also like to take a quick moment to thank all of you who read my blog for your continuing support even after I switched gears this year. I am looking forward to next year so much and have a lot of ideas for content for the New Year that I will be working on over the coming weeks. You can expect a very festive month in film post later on this week! Again, wishing you all the best holiday and a happy New Year!

A Relaxing Winter Evening Routine

With the holidays fast approaching and work being as busy as ever, it is so easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed during this time of year. End of the year work deadlines, holiday shopping, and end of the year parties often mean that “me time” gets taken off the agenda almost completely. While I find myself negatively affected by the shorter days of winter, it can also offer a good reason to have a cozy night in. Whenever I have a relaxing evening in I normally gravitate towards these three things to really get my mind off of the craziness of everyday life. 

Go Without Screens  ~ One of the things that really gets me to unwind is not being bogged down by screens, whether it be my phone or my laptop. I find that I am able to relax so much better when I’m not constantly being reminded of the outside world. There is also a lot to be said for sleeping better when you don’t look at screens before you go to bed, a habit which I am working to adopt more and more into my usual evening routine. Reading a book or a magazine is a guaranteed way for me to stop thinking about all of the things on my to-do lists for the days ahead. I’ve also been getting into doing adult coloring books, which I find helps me relax because I still feel like I’m doing productive (can you tell I don’t like to sit still?) without using the part of my brain I use for work or other everyday tasks. 

Get Cooking  ~ Spending the evening baking or even just cooking myself a simple dinner is another thing I love to do when I need to just switch off for the night. I find the precision of baking and the linear-ness of following a recipe oddly therapeutic. It also can’t hurt to have extra homemade baked goods lying around the house during the holidays. Cooking or baking also really helps me to switch my mind off everything else that is going on around me, since I’m focusing on something that needs my full attention and is completely disparate from all my other tasks at hand. I tend to peruse my Pinterest board for recipes the day before (so I’m not glued to a screen all night when I’m trying to relax) and pick out one or two recipes for the night. One of the best one’s I have tried lately is the classic mince pie recipe from BBC Good Food, because I can never go a Christmas season without making mince pies at least twice. 

 Pamper Yourself  ~ There’s simply nothing better than having a good ol’ pamper night when you’re trying to relax from the busy holiday season. And there is nothing that typifies a pamper night quite so much as taking a long bath. Especially in the wintertime when it’s so cold, it feels so much more relaxing to take a bath rather than a shower. Because the wintertime also coincides with the busiest season work-wise, I tend to gravitate towards bath products like Epsom salts that help me to relax and de-stress. Doing a facemask is always part and parcel of a relaxing night for me as well, especially since  stressful moments often coincide with stressed out skin. My favorite face mask of the moment has hands down been the Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Enzyme Mask. Along with a face mask I always like to give myself a fresh manicure since my hands and nails always look worse for wear during the winter months. 

My Month in Film | November

I’m really excited for November’s month in film post because of two reasons: November is one of my favorite months and I got an iPad pro (as an early Christmas present) so I now have the ability to annotate my photos instead of just writing captions for each one. I have to make the disclaimer of course that this idea of annotating my photos is not mine. I have to give credit to Lizzy from Shot From the Street for this idea, who annotates almost all of her photos in her weekly film posts. Lizzy and Claire Marshall’s content have absolutely inspired me to incorporate my own writing and doodles into my content to make it that much more personal and creative. With all that said, November was a great month with brainstorming content for the new year, some nice leisurely days off, catching up with friends, and of course Thanksgiving!