Before I jump into this post – check out my new blog theme!! I decided the start of the new year was as good of an excuse as any to spruce things up around here. The sizing and details on some stuff is still a little wonky while I work everything out but go ahead and have a look around – I hope you like it!
I figured with the new year it was time for me to write a “end of 2017” post or something, but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to do it. I want to include all the great things that happened in 2017 – my favorite memories, items, and everything else. So I figured…why not just do a big year in review post? I meant to do a favs post from December anyway so two birds, one stone ya know? So here you go – consider this a “best of” for 2017 🙂
As usual, let’s start out with some beauty favorites! Beauty Bakerie Lip Whips take the cake (no pun intended) for me in 2017. I’ve written about them a lot already, so this is probably no surprise. I completely fell in love with the long lasting formula and I now own 6 shades. I’m also officially using the shade Versailles as my wedding day lip color!! I ended up getting some for friends as Christmas gifts too…spreading the gospel of Beauty Bakerie 🙌🏼
For eye products – first of all, my Kat Von D Shade + Light Eye palette. I bought this almost a year ago now and I’ve used it pretty much every day since then. It’s amazing quality and does exactly what I need it to do. It’s quickly become a holy grail item!!
My other favorite is a recent acquisition but I love it just the same – for Christmas I got a set of the Stila Glitter & Glow liquid eyeshadows and they are BEAUTIFUL. Seriously some of the most stunning products I’ve owned. I wore them when we went to see Gaga and I also plan to wear them with my wedding makeup. They’re so sparkly and beautiful!! The pic below doesn’t even do them justice – they are seriously SO gorgeously glittery in person.
My absolute favorite face product of the year has been the Fenty Beauty Match Stix in the contour shade Amber. It’s an amazing product – I wrote about it in a post of its own as well as a few favorites I think, and I’ve only grown to love it more the more I use it. It’s a perfect contour for me and I don’t see myself using anything else any time soon! I’m wearing it in the above pic as well, and in pretty much all pics of me from the last 3 ish months haha
In 2017 I got really into skin care as well. If you’ve read my blog for a while you know what’s coming: this year I became completely obsessed with the Mizon Snail Recovery Gel Cream. Holy grail alert!!! This is a miracle worker, honestly. It works so quickly to help clear up blemishes and red spots and I always have at least 2 tubes on hand!
The clothing item of the YEAR has been leggings. I love a good comfy, cute-patterned legging. My new favorites this year have been from Aerie. I got two BEAUTIFUL pairs for Christmas including one that is glittery??? and one that has POCKETS???? Leggings with pockets is truly a life we deserve.
Finally I had to mention the MVP candles of the year, the Signature Soy collection from Target. They had a BOGO on these for Black Friday and I got some more for Christmas too, so we are stocked up to smell good for most of 2018. I’m excited to see their spring scents next 🌸
I had a lot of really fun moviegoing experiences this year – all in the past 3 months! Of COURSE The Last Jedi was an instant favorite and I’ve seen it twice now! I also loved Thor: Ragnarok, especially since I got to watch it with my two best friends on vacation. Finally, I got to see Titanic at the Dolby theatre in November and I cried just as much as I always do when I watch at home. Obviously since it’s pretty much my favorite movie I’ve seen it a million times, but seeing it on the big screen was really special and I’m glad I got to do it this year!
A lifelong fav but my queen of music in 2017 and also life in general was Lady Gaga. We saw her in concert in November and it was the most fun I’ve had in my life! She was amazing in person and sounds better live than on her albums, even. Leading up to the concert of course we were listening to Joanne non-stop to get ready, but afterwards I found myself listening to her old stuff just as much, and I really fell back in love with some of it again. ARTPOP remains criminally underrated!!
We cut the cord in 2017 and got rid of cable! I pretty much only watch things that are available on Netflix or Hulu now. That being said my favorite show of the year was without a doubt Black Mirror. It may have the slightest bit of recency bias because of the new season that just came out but STILL I became obsessed with it in 2017. It’s like Twilight Zone of the future and also on crack. I live for weird creepy stuff like this!!! Might have to revise that list I wrote of my top 5 episodes…
In a similar vein – I cannot BELIEVE that I didn’t find out about this until late 2017, but one of my favorite things of the year (and also ever) is the podcast My Favorite Murder. I discovered this podcast in the past few months and it’s quickly become a favorite. You may or may not know about my deep dark obsession with true crime but this podcast is literally like…made for me. I love Karen & Georgia as hosts and I love feeling like I am not a freak for being interested in weird stuff like this haha. I’m disowning anybody who knew about this and didn’t tell me!!!
And then to wrap up this category I figured I should throw in a shoutout to Buzzfeed Unsolved, one of my favorite time-wasters of 2017. I prefer the true crime videos to the paranormal ones but I love all of them!!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U_avfWqwf4?rel=0]
This probably goes without saying, but by far my biggest accomplishment in the last year has been my new job in Guest Relations!
It’s been a long road to get to where I am now – and I wrote all about it along the way – but it’s been absolutely worth it. I truly LOVE my job – I learn new things EVERY DAY and I always feel like I am being pushed to my fullest potential. It is definitely challenging at times but I get to help so many people and make magic every day. It’s a dream!!
Something very different but not insignificant that I’m proud of last year is planning our wedding! It’s been a very stressful time but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and I’m truly, honestly more excited than stressed at this point. I feel like for so long we’ve been planning and planning with no end in sight and it’s nice to be able to look back and see it all coming together. Hopefully it all goes off without a hitch next month! 🙂
I had so many great moments in 2017!! Some highlights:
In January I was starting my real most important job of the year: being an amazing dog mom to Teddy 😉
In February Chris and I celebrated our “-1st anniversary” aka one year before our wedding!
In March I started my Guest Relations training and worked towards earning my D pin.
In April, I celebrated my 24th birthday!!
In May, I had a springtime WDW adventure with my best friends!
In June we took engagement photos at Epcot:
In July we visited Chris’s family in Pittsburgh!
In August we played tourists and had a staycation at the Wilderness Lodge:
In September I got a new car (because the hurricane killed Fifi but we are focusing on the positives…….):
In October I got statused permanently at Epcot Guest Relations!!
In November I saw Lady Gaga and enjoyed a cute girls’ weekend in DC!
And in December I celebrated my favorite time of year!!!!
Keeping it short and sweet this year:
- Get trained in more things in Guest Relations!
- Not get behind on my blog!
- Spend less money on makeup!
- Spend less money on everything!
- Go back to school!
- Cook more meals at home!
- Work on my posture!
- Tell my family and friends I appreciate them!
- Be the best dog mom ever!
- Have an amazing wedding and honeymoon!!!
That’s enough for now! To wrap up I’ll throw in some cute photos of Teddy:
Thank you SO much for reading my blog, I hope you had a great New Years’ celebration and that 2018 is great to you! <3
xo,
