Happy 2018! & 2017 in Review

HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS!!! 

I completely sidelined this blog for the last couple months, continuing to build memories without documenting any of them. I'd look at all the things I wanted to write about and begin to get overwhelmed. And with the holidays and all the other things going on, it just wasn't my primary focus. So when I started stressing about it, I'd just remind myself that this project is mine, and I get to decide how I feel about it. Stressing about something that I was the only one putting pressure on didn't make a whole lot of sense.

So here I am. Back again. Ready to take on a portion of those memories. Maybe by 2019 I'll have 2017 recorded? ;) 

2017 in Review

2017 was an interesting year. Full of change, full of endings and beginnings. Here's an overview in full (including posts that haven't been written yet!):

maddily january

January

I went into 2017 living in Nashville, engaged, with a full-time graphic design job in downtown.

During the first month of the new year I...

maddily february

February

was filled with a whole lot of love...

maddily march

March

brought new life...

maddily april

April

I was only a couple months from being married, but still found some time to travel and work on personal projects...

maddily may

May

ONE MONTH before the wedding! Lots of craziness and things to do...

maddily june

June

WE GOT MARRIED! And also took a road trip and spent a lot of time with friends & family...

maddily july

July

This month was all about trying to do everything on our Tennessee bucket list before we left...

maddily august

August

We began our move to Utah! Plus an open house in Los Angeles, and our official honeymoon in Italy...

maddily september

September

Felt nice to be able to settle in and stay awhile...

maddily october

October

Tried our best to do every Halloween thing we could...

maddily november

November

Thankful for family and being able to go home this month...

maddily december

December

Rounding out the last month of the year with a bang...

So there you go! Those are all the documented highlights of 2017. What's not shown are the in-between moments. Between the captured smiles and happy faces were more memories of laughter and excitement: the night Matt and I camped out on an air mattress in the living room, late nights talking to my roommates at the Hamilton house.... And those other not-as-seemingly-beautiful moments going to my great Uncle Leon's funeral, overwhelmed by all the life changes, questioning what I'm doing, a crying mess at saying goodbye. There were a lot of adjustments in 2017. And in 2018, I finally feel a little more settled in.

I even started a photo project! I resolved to watch and document the sunrise each day of 2018. It will ideally 1) get me to go to bed earlier, 2) find places in Utah I wouldn't have otherwise known about, 3) get me to use my camera every day, and 4) give me my morning back (work used to start at 11am, and now it starts at 9am (at the latest) and is an hour's drive from Provo so my mornings in Utah have been a little different than before). I was about 90% sure (which ranged + or - 10% based on my mood) about actually following through with this, but on new year's day, I woke up alert and ready to go. It's felt SO GOOD to be doing this that I've kept it up each day! (First sunrise of the new year in Rexburg, ID shown below.) 

Cheers to an amazing 2018! 

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