I had my best reading year so far since I started using Goodreads to track my books in 2016. I’m so glad I have this tool to keep my accountable to myself for my reading goals. I have always been a bookworm, but lost track of my love of reading for a few years because of my focus on so many online activities. Now I’m careful to keep this part of my life a bigger priority.

Have you ever heard of the term onboarding? It’s a word that has popped into my mind recently because I feel like I’m still in the onboarding stage of 2020.

One of the things I most look forward to about a new calendar year is choosing a new word to focus on. I’ve been following Ali Edwards’ inspiration of choosing one word to guide my year since 2008.

A new year means a clean slate and a fresh outlook. This is true for me personally, and also for my blog. I love the time of year when one calendar closes and the next one begins. So much to recap and savor. Even more to look forward to!

It’s been at least a month since I’ve created any sort of scrapbook page and I felt a bit rusty when I first opened up Photoshop Elements. It only took a few minutes to get back in the groove though and I just added and subtracted layers until I ended up with this fun spread.

I've published gift guides in the past and those posts are always among my most popular. I've felt discouraged though when later on some of the products get discontinued or are hard to find from the original links I've included. That's why I'm really excited about my new approach to sharing my favorites using Amazon Idea Lists. All the links are included and you can see the price immediately and also see what I suggest to go along with the general theme. I already have 8 great lists in place and I'm working on a few more.

I had some fun playing around with digital mixed media to create another 2 page spread for my in-progress art journaling photobook. I love the sewing theme of this one as I used to do quite a bit of sewing in my early motherhood days.

I think it’s generally understood around here that I’m an app and technology junkie. I especially love the combination of tech + creativity and Adobe Spark is a great way to enjoy those two interests together. I’ve honestly been meaning to try Spark for ages and finally got around to it this week. It’s so easy to use and I can see many possibilities for future projects.

I set a goal for myself to create at least a few art journaling pieces each quarter and I’m so glad I made this a priority. This is a creative activity that I truly love and I enjoy every part of the process. I put it together as a 2 page spread for my in-progress art journaling photobook.