Happy 2015, my sweet followers! I don’t think I’ve said this recently (or enough), so I now want to thank you so much for reading Snapshots & My Thoughts. The past six months have been rather exciting, not just because Isla has come into our lives and made us happier than ever before, but also because my little labor of love has had some fun partnerships (BABYBJORN, Rifle Paper Co., Carter’s, Honest Co., Dr. Browns, amongst others!) and more than doubled in readership. In addition, I recently created a Facebook page and a blog-dedicated Instagram account (are you following along?), and I have more exciting content for you in the near future.
In the spirit of New Years resolutions, I’m sharing seven of my own today (but have many more!): [1] Get more personal, [2] Improve my skills, [3] Prioritize my family, [4] Read more books, [5] Be more present, [6] Give up control and [7] Practice being content. I’ve explained all of these in detail below. What are some of your resolutions? I’d love to read about them in the comments below.
One quick favor to ask of you! Would you mind filling out this anonymous survey with a few quick questions (five, to be exact) about the blog content? I want to make sure that I’m giving my readers content they enjoy, and this survey will definitely help me do that.
This summer, I started my ‘Week in Review‘ posts, which honestly felt like an ‘easy out’ for a post. There was no research involved, no scouring the internet for photos, no design decisions to be made… it was just me (well, us). I simply recapped my previous 7 days, and I started to see a trend – these posts get higher views and comments than any other post in the week.
When I filled out the ‘Tour Through Blogland,’ one of the questions asked ‘what makes your blog unique?,’ and I struggled with answering that. I want to make Snapshots & My Thoughts unique in that it’s about me and my life, not in a narcissistic way, but I want to get more personal with my readers. Life is not always rainbows and butterflies, and I think it’s important to be transparent and more real. This is partly inspired by Brighton Keller (of Brighton the Day) – the other day she posted this on Instagram and started the hashtag #beBRIGHTbeREAL, and I love it.
Last summer, I was on a major reading kick given that I spent many, many hours a day breastfeeding Isla. Instead of wasting time on social media, I was determined to be glued to my iBooks app, and I finished a lot of interesting books. I published two posts – 2014 Summer Reading List Part 1 and Part 2, with detailed book descriptions and my recommendation to read or skip on the books. My reading dwindled in the fall and winter, but one of my 2015 Resolutions was to read more and I’ve stuck to it! I recently finished six novels, which I’m sharing brief synopses about below and also my opinion as to whether or not you should immediately buy the book and start reading!
