It’s easy to forget how far you’ve come, what you’ve achieved and how you’ve changed – until you look at where it all began. As I spend the last few days of 2015 reminiscing about the year, there’s one thing I know for certain – 2015 was a year of milestones.
It was a big year of weddings, of major changes, of our engagement, of relief, of tears and excitement. My partner got a permanent job at a great company, after a year of uncertainty. I attended four weddings where my best friends got married, and friends had babies, filling me of joy and happiness. We started looking for a house, finally being in a stable position to do so. And finally, after 10 years of being together, we got engaged.
Great Ocean Road – Twelve Apostles (Yes there’s not actually 12)
We travelled a lot this year, with lots of weekend getaways. We spent Easter in Sydney, watching a family member’s netball championship, meeting other bloggers and basically eating and shopping. I went to Townsville in July for work, to check out the triathlon there. In October, we spent a long weekend at Gold Coast with family, and went paddle boarding.
In November, we attended our 3rd PAX Australia in Melbourne and had lots of geeky gaming times checking out Fallout 4 and playing tabletop games with friends. We visited the Great Ocean Road in Melbourne, where we drove over 800 kilometres but it never felt too long. The twelve apostles were one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen.
December, we went to Daydream Island to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and got engaged there. We also went snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef, where we swam amongst coral reefs and tropical fish.
The mermaids at Daydream Island
With so many highlights this year, I think it’s appropriate to pay homage to the lowlights. There were times when I let the pressure, stress and anxiety get to me, but I never look back at these moments with regret. I look back at these moments thinking, these are the moments that shape who I am. I will never be ashamed of what I feel, because to appreciate the good, you have to experience the bad. And only after experiencing that, will you become stronger.
My biggest lesson of the year is to look after myself. It’s okay to have a demanding schedule, it’s okay to be doing things every hour of the day, but if I don’t set myself some time to rest and relax, then I’m not going to be able to recharge the batteries. There were so many times during the year where I ran myself to the ground, that I became so worked up and anxious about all the things “I needed to do” that I forgot to look after the most important thing – my health.
Thank you so much to my amazing friends, family, people and readers for your ongoing love and support!
- My biggest highlight of the year is welcoming my lovely co-bloggers, Jenna and Aila to Happy Indulgence! We’ve had so much fun together already, chatting, fangirling and blogging together. I couldn’t have asked for better co-bloggers.
- I also started a Youtube channel for Happy Indulgence, which currently has 144 subscribers! It’s been so much fun sharing my opinion with you all on books and movies through a different channel.
- I met some amazing authors this year – my favourite author, Sarah J Maas who recognised me from Twitter! I also got the opportunity to interview Cassandra Clare and Holly Black one-on-one which was an amazing (and nerve wracking experience).
- It was another fantastic year of bookish events, attending Supanova, PTALive, BTCYA night with HarperCollins, and Brisbane Writers Festival where I met so many fellow YA lovers, readers and book bloggers!
- Reaching 2200+ followers on Twitter, 1793 bloglovin/email subscribers, 1500+ on Instagram, 600+ on Facebook, 180+ on Tumblr and 1780+ on Goodreads.
And because I’m a big fan of photos, here’s some spam of some great times during the year:
Meeting Sydney Bloggers
Sarah J Maas Signing at Supanova
Blogges at Brisbane Writer’s Festival
For the year coming, I want to shift the focus away from ARCs and stats just focus on reading and blogging for enjoyment.
- read more backlist books
- take the time to appreciate books for what they are, without reviewing everything I read
- read more books outside of my comfort zone
- finish and pick up series I’ve been meaning to for ages, like The Raven Cycle, Mara Dyer, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Chaos Walking, Mistborn
- less hoarding and requesting books
- discover new blogs
- more fun collaborations and discussions with Aila and Jenna
- improve my basic design skills
- think of more fun things for Aussie YA Bloggers Group on Facebook and Goodreads.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2016 is the year where all your dreams will come true!
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Happy New Year Jeann! And once again congratulations to you both on the engagement!
I really want to focus more on reading from my TBR pile too, because I have so many books pending to read! And I need to also focus on finishing series!
My recent post Friday Reads: The Rose Society & The Iron Warrior!!
Happy 2016!! I hope this year is full of fun and excitement as 2015!
Congrats again, Jeann! I love the photos of The Great Ocean Road! Must get my butt back to Australia sometime, haha.
My recent post Review: Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
Happy 2016!!!! 🙂 You had a wonderful year in 2015 and I hope 2016 is even better. Congrats again on your engagement. Me and my fiancé are finally starting to save more seriously for a house. They are just so expensive near us and having to have a £60,000+ deposit is a big ask, but we will get there…. I HOPE >.<
Thanks for sharing your year, Jeann! Congratulations with your engagement again! There is so much truth in your words about looking after yourself, don’t let real life’s stress get to you next year! Good luck with your 2016 goals!
Super huge congrats on your anniversary and engagement Jeann! My bf and I have been together 15 years, have a house, two cars, two kids, two dogs and no plans of getting married anytime soon. It kind of feels pointless now but will most likely end up doing it when our kids start bugging again 🙂
Coblogging with Nick was my blog highlight too so I know how you feel about that choice.
In 2016, I don't want to give a crap about ARC's and hyped books or being friends with authors or publicists and I just want to read and blog about whatever I want. 🙂
My recent post Monthly Recap: December 2015
Sounds like you had a great year and congrats to you and your fiancé. I agree that we often forget what a great year it was until we're looking back and then realize what all happened in a year. It's awesome you got to travel so much and your pictures are great! I hope 2016 will be an awesome year for you!
My recent post Sunday Post #159
Thank you so much Lola! Looking back definitely gives us more perspective. Happy New Year lovely and I hope 2016 is a great year for you.
Happy New Year, Jeann! You have had a very exciting year, and I hope 2016 will be amazing 🙂
Stressing out is the worst… to me, it makes me spiral into thinking about all the things I'm not doing right, or at all, and it makes me sad 🙁 Thankfully, it doesn't happen too often that I feel stressed out, because I'm getting quite good at putting distance between all the 'have to do' stuff and what I actually need to do – both for myself, my family and work 🙂
Have a fantastic week ahead and happy reading.
My recent post Review and Giveaway : Anything For You – Kristan Higgins
Thank you Lexxie, it was definitely an amazing year! I'm the same, as soon as I stress out I spiral into a negative thinking pattern and it just affects my health and it's not good. But I'm glad you've worked it out too. Happy reading too hun!
Congrats on the engagement!! It sounds like you had a very memorable year.☺ Those group photos look amazing. I've never been to any book events and I absolutely need to. They look like so much fun!
Good luck on your goals! I'm hoping to read more backlist books as well. 🙂
My recent post A Tough, Incredible Read | Addicted to You by Krista & Becca Ritchie
Happy new year Jeann and boy, what an awesome year you've had. I'm glad there were so many more highlights than the low points though and that you were able to pick yourself back up. Here's to an incredible 2016 filled with books, blogging and bloody awesomeness <3
Thank you so much Kelly! Thank you for being a big part of my 2015 and here's to hoping both of our 2016s are awesome!
It looks like you have had a fabulous year, Jeann! I know that you went through a few rough patches, but you've certainly come out the other side better off. Again, congrats on your engagement! I'm so excited for the both of you – you have to keep us updated on the wedding dets. And I understand you're goals of trying to turn back to reading non-review copies. I made that decision too, a little while ago, and I already feel better for it. All the best in 2016. Happy New Years! And a quick thanks for the support you have when switching to co-blogger. I may seem trivial to you, but it meant a lot. <3
My recent post {Blog Tour} What’s Broken Between Us by Alexis Bass
It was a wonderful year definitely Rachel! Thank you so much, I will keep you guys up to date when we start doing something about it hehehe. Yesss, I'm so glad to hear that it's been working well for you! Happy New Year lovely! No problems, I will always be here for you <3
I'm so glad for you! We'll be eagerly awaiting… Hopefully it will work for you too, and thank you – means a lot! <3
My recent post {Blog Tour} What’s Broken Between Us by Alexis Bass
You really have had an amazing year! I am just so excited for you, you deserve absolutely every happiness in the world! I love seeing your pictures (never spammy, I promise!) and the fabulous progress you have made. And your goals for 2016 are great too- definitely get started on Chaos Walking 😉 And I don't review everything I read, and it makes me SO happy to not even think about remembering details- so definitely give it a try! Hope you have a wonderful 2016!!
My recent post A Look Back, a Look Ahead: 2016
Thank you so much Shannon, you are the loveliest <3 I've heard so much hype about chaos walking lately and it's on my shelf, waiting to be read! Yesss I can't help myself to mentally note things to mention but it's so much more relaxing when I'm not pressuring myself to read things. You too <3
Sounds like you had a pretty great year! I'm with you on a lot of your blogging goals. One of mine for 2016 is focus on some backlist books that have been sitting on my TBR for months/years. I'm hoping to cut down on that stack, even though it's going to be hard since so many great titles are coming out this year!
Good luck with all your goals! I hope 2016 is a great year for you.
My recent post Film Friday: The Gay Divorcee
Definitely has been a great one! The backlist books should be enjoyable without that need to review them. Thank you, I hope you have a great year ahead too!
THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A GREAT YEAR OMG those pictures look AMAZING and I'm so jealous of your blogger meet-ups – if only I were able to do so over here in Florida!
Look at all those stats too woo-wee girl 2015 has been a busy busy year for you. (ALSO YOUTUBE CHANNEL YAAS)
I can't wait for 2016 and more fun at Happy Indulgence with you and Jenna. <3
It has been such an amazing year Aila, especially having you and Jenna now as part of HI too. I hope you'll be able to attend some meetups soon – omg you and Jenna! It definitely has been a busy year as usual. Happy New Year lovely <3 Thanks for being a part of it.
AHHHHHHHHH I'M SO GLAD 2015 WAS SUCH A SUCCESSFUL YEAR FOR YOU even if there were some downsides 🙁 CONGRATS ON YOUR ENGAGEMENT and here's to hoping 2016 is just as, if not more, amazing <3
It was such an amazing year Nikki! Definitely worth adjusting my mentality <3 Happy new year and I hope you have an amazing one ahead!
I'm so glad 2015 was a very memorable and happy year for you and your friends. Congratulations again on the engagement! And happy new year, Jeann!
My recent post Happy New Year + 2016 Resolutions Book Tag
It was such a wonderful year Xing Sing! Thank you so much, happy new year <3
Happy New Year! It sounds like you had a great year overall (I couldn't help but think it's lucky you drove the Great Ocean Road pre-bushfires, what a disaster that has been :/)
I hope your 2016 is a great one!
My recent post End of Year Book Survey – 2015
It was a wonderful year Wattle! Yeah, those would have been scary. I hope you have a wonderful 2016 too!
Damn girl, you totally owned 2015! Now onto even greater and more wonderous things in 2016 :D! I am so happy you found your lovely cobloggers, I can really see the change it's made in your mentality about blogging. Yay for finding joy in sharing the love of books again. And I am so envious of all your adventures this year haha, I hope you have many more with Romeo in 2016 <3 Happy New Year my lovely!
It was an awesome 2015! I'm so glad I've come so far during the year! Thank you so much for the recommendation for both, it's been so wonderful hehe. Yesss just having so much fun lately! Thank you, HAppy New Year too Aentee <3
Sounds like it was a huge year, Jeann! Hopefully 2016 will have lots of good things as well. And looking after yourself is a fantastic resolution, I think <3
My recent post Snazzy Snippets – the One Where It’s 2016
It definitely was Emily! I'm looking forward to sticking to it in 2016 lol.
Congrats on getting engaged!!
And it looks like you had a lot of great travels last year.
Good Luck with your goals!
My recent post Stacking the Shelves: The Yearly Edition 2015
Thank you so much Cassie! It was a busy year, definitely a wonderful one. HNY!
Jeann, it sounds like 2015 has been a great year for you. <3 So glad to hear it! Here's to a fabulous 2016! xx
It was definitely a great and memorable year Zoe! HNY to you!
Aw, looks like SUCH a fabulous year for your, Jeann! I'm glad it was so happy. 😀 And congrats on the amazingness of your youtube channel and how your blog has grown (and your fabulous co-bloggers!) and aaaall the things. 🙂
YAY FOR STARTING THE RAVEN CYCLE. Obviously my full vote and approval goes there. 😉
Thank you so much Cait! It was such a fantastic year. Let's be awesome together as usual in 2016 😉
Glad you had a great year, and congratulations on the good stuff. Love that pic of the great Ocean Road- and the 12 Apostles look awesome!
Happy new Year!
My recent post A Dance with Dragons
Thank you so much Greg! It was such a sight to see!
Amazing things! OMG WEDDINGS. I LOVE THEM THEY'RE SO HAPPY!!! And you met SJM? I WISH. Her books are awesome, which I'm sure is the popular opinion.
I started booktube this year too! It's so much fun and even though it's a completely different experience to blogging, it's equally fun (: and yaaas, you are SLAYING your booktube.
My recent post Dear 2015 [An Open Letter]
Thank you so much Nova! it was a memorable year for weddings! SJM was so amazingly nice, my heart was so full hehe. I love your booktube channel! It's so much fun, thank you <3
Congrats on all of the wonderful things that happened in 2015 (especially your engagement)! Seems like you had an absolutely wonderful year!
My recent post Bookish Overview 2015
Thanks so much Aubrey! it has been a wonderful year, definitely memorable.
Congratulations on your engagement and a fantastic year. I hope 2016 is everything you hope for. 🙂
My recent post End of Year Survey -2015
Thank you so much Megan! Happy New Year!
You had an amazing year, Jeann. Blog-wise and in your personal life. You know how much I love coming to your blog to read your reviews and opinions on things, so it's not even a surprise to hear you accomplish so much.
I wish you all the best of 2016, and keep being awesome. <3
Thank you so much Joy, it was definitely a memorable year for me! Thank you so much for being one of my most loyal followers <3 have the best year ahead Joy!
Sounds like an awesome year for you, Jeann:-) I have to agree with your goals, especially focusing less on review books and finding the pleasure in reading again. I tell myself I'm going to do that every year, but hopefully this year I really will stick to it. Happy New Year!
It was a great new year Tammy! Let's hope we can both stick to our goals when it comes to reading and enjoyment! Happy New Year!
You've had a great year and a lot thoughts mirror mine. I'm gonna take better care of myself next year and stop breaking my back for any and everything. Less stress and more reading the books I love and a few more that I never knew existed. Congrats again on your engagement and have a Happy New Year!
My recent post Top Reads of 2015
Absolutely, we have to remember that we have to look after ourselves first and foremost! Definitely what you said too about reading. Thank you, happy new year Lekeisha!
Ahh you had such an amazing and eventful year, Jeann! 🙂 I'm really happy for all the good things that happened to you and I'm crossing all my fingers and toes that 2016 will be even better!
Can't wait to see what you and the lovely ladies come up with for the blog. I'm sure it will be amazing!
Happy New Year, Jeann! <3
My recent post Top 10 of 2015 : Romance Edition
It was definitely an amazing and eventful year Nick! It's been great having Jenna and Aila, they are awesome. Happy new year lovely, thanks for being a part of my 2015!
You definately had a great year Jeann! And congratulations on your engagement once again! I hope you have a great year ahead. Advanced Happy New Year! 😀
My recent post Best Reads of 2015!
Thank you, it was a fantastic year! Happy New Year to you, too.
Sounds like a great year overall! Traveling is the best so awesome you got to do some this year. Also lots of great blogging highlights. Hope you have a great 2016!!
My recent post 2016 Reading Challenge Sign Ups
It was fantastic Grace! I know we won't get to travel so much in the future when we get the house! You too, happy new year.
Congratulations again to you and your fiancé Jeann! Happy New Year! 🙂
Hope to meet you soon when you visit the Philippines! 😀
My recent post My 2015 Favorites
Thank you so much Ella! Happy New Year! Hopefully sometime!