Not Another LA Blonde

Tag: new year

GOODBYE 2018…

Wow what a year! Can you believe that another year has come and gone and now we are looking at 2019. I’ve done this for the last couple of years and I find that it helps me to reflect on the past year. This past year held BIG changes and plenty of UPS and DOWNS.

Let’s recap 2018:

2018 was a HUGE year for Robert and I. We finalized wedding plans and found a place to live after we got married. There were so many firsts for us and I loved getting to spend them with Robert as my husband for the last 6 months of the year.

JANUARY:

I kicked off the new year with a trip to the Malibu Wine Safari with my bff/adventure buddy! This little day trip was a lot of fun and I even got to feed some animals.

FEBRUARY:

Robert and I had our cake tasting and picked out the type of cake we wanted for our wedding day.

We also found a place to live and Robert moved in!

MARCH:

We celebrated Robert’s birthday by going to a Ducks hockey game.

APRIL:

My bridal shower month! I loved everything about my bridal shower and thought my mom did a fantastic job with everything. You can see more pictures from the day here.

MAY:

My BACHELORETTE PARTY. We went to Vegas and partied it up!

JUNE:

BEST month yet! This was my wedding month! Everything was a dream come true and all the ups and downs and tears that went into planing paid off.

We celebrated our honeymoon in Aruba!

AND we got private access to California Adventures Pixar Pier before it opened to the public (this was part of Robert’s wedding gift from me).

JULY:

We celebrated my birthday in Palm Springs and got to see Dylan Scott in concert.

AUGUST:

Went to the OC Fair!

SEPTEMBER:

Ran a 5k marathon on Labor Day over the bridge.

OCTOBER:

Went to the pumpkin patch! You can read all about it here.

And went to Santa Ynez for a wine birthday party! You can read all about my wine tasting weekend here.

NOVEMBER:

Robert and I went to Nashville and crossed another place off our destination bucket list!

DECEMBER:

I was in a wedding (for the first time ever in my life)!

I also experienced my first Christmas as a married gal!

As you can see from the little bit I’ve shown, 2018 was a wild and crazy ride, from the wedding to moving to experiencing life as it gets thrown at us. There were so many AMAZING times and there were some lows that I have chosen not to share at this time. 2018 was a year I will never forget and will always remember it as the year I made the best decision of my life, marrying my soul mate.

2019 will continue to be a year of firsts for us, but I’m hoping it will be a less hectic year. I’m still hoping to expand on my blogging and become more consistent with posting and engaging with all of you! I also am trying to plan our 1 year anniversary trip and am so close to booking!

I hope y’all had an amazing year and I can’t wait to grow and shine with y’all in 2019!

XOXO

January 1, 2019
Goodbye 2017…

Happy New Year’s Eve y’all! Can you believe that 2018 is only a few hours away! At the end of every year I feel like each of us takes a moment to sit and reflect on the highs and lows of the past year. So as I sit here (not getting ready to leave, aka late as always) and reflect on my past year, I can’t help but think about how there were so many good things to look back on from this past year, but there are so many things to look forward to for 2018.

Let’s recap 2017:

2017 was a BIG planning year for Rob and I. We booked and planned most of our wedding and surprisingly didn’t get into any big arguments about details or anything! Rob got a huge promotion at work which is a great thing for the two of us! AND I also got a little more comfortable with blogging and posting on social media more. I learned how important it is to be engaging with my readers and look forward to learning a lot more this next year.

JANUARY:

I kicked off the new year with a trip to New York with one of my bffs. I absolutely love visiting New York and you can read all about this trip here.

FEBRUARY:

We picked out and reserved our wedding venue!

We also celebrated Valentine’s Day at Skyspace in LA.

MARCH:

We kicked the month off by celebrating Rob’s 27th birthday

And took our engagement photos!

APRIL:

This month always signifies the start of BASEBALL season, so we went to OPENING DAY for the Angels!

We ended the month with our annual trip to STAGECOACH! This year

JUNE:

I bought myself a “happy one year until the wedding” gift and got a new car. I paid for it entirely on my own with just a little bit of negotiating help from Rob.

JULY:

I found my dream wedding dress! i can’t wait to show y’all what it looks like after the big day, but if you’re really curious, you can read all about my experience here.

I also celebrated my 25th birthday in Palm Springs!

AUGUST:

We kicked off the wedding festivities with an Engagement Party!

SEPTEMBER:

We had our official food tasting at our wedding venue (I promise to post about this in the new year!).

NOVEMBER:

With Rob’s promotion at work, came a business trip to LONDON

and then we took a little detour to PARIS before coming home (I will def be posting about these two amazing trips within the first week of the new year).

So as you can see from above, 2017 was quite the year for us. There were so many good things to happen, I would say, I don’t know how 2018 can top it, but I have a good idea of how it will be the best year yet!

To start, 2018 will be a year of big change! I’m hoping to grow my blogging business and become more successful with it. I’m looking to rebrand a little bit and makes a few changes while still keeping true to who I am.

Another big thing will be finding a place for us to live. Since housing in Los Angeles is pretty pricey right now, we’ll be looking at places that we can rent and bring our little pup with us. I can’t wait to find that new home for us and start decorating and putting our own style into it. We’ll be starting from complete scratch, so it’s going to be an expensive start for us, but so worth it in the end.

And the final thing that is most important to me is my wedding in June! I will finally be marrying the man of my dreams and I can not wait to become a wife to this amazing man.

I can already see that 2018 will truly be my year to shine and I can’t wait to grow and share it all with y’all! Thank you for your continued support of me and this crazy life I live!

XOXO

December 31, 2017
Happy Birthday to ME!!
Alright y’all I went to bed last night thinking that I would talk about the newest BARKBOX I received over the weekend, but when I woke up this morning I decided to talk about myself a little bit on the blog today...

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Katie

Well here we are, another year, another birthday. Yesterday I turned 25. I’m half way to 50. I’m a quarter of a century old. I don’t know how many other ways to say it…I’m getting old.

Last year I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish in my 24^th year of life. Here’s the list I prepared a year ago from my “Nobody Likes You When You’re 23” post:

Things to do before I turn 25:
1. Get engaged (I know this one isn’t up to me, but I can hope right?)
2. Buy a new car – I have wanted a new one for a while as my current car is 10 years old
3. Save enough money to move out of my parents’ house – this one is a little unrealistic at my current pay scale but I’ll still put aside money
4. Travel to at least 5 places big or small – I can’t currently take time off with my new job because of a probationary period
1. Follow through on plans I make with friends (It’s always the same…”omg, let’s hang out” and then it never happens)
Here’s the FINAL verdict on my 24th year of life:

Get engaged: Ok, so for those of you who may not know, or just started following me…as of November 2016, I AM ENGAGED. After 5 years of dating and talking about marriage together, the big day finally happened! The proposal was absolutely amazing and everything I could have wanted! You can read all about my AMAZING proposal here.

Buy a new car: As of June 2017, I became a new car owner! This is something that I have been saving for with my own money for about 6 years now. I was previously driving a 2005 Ford Focus (which I loved, btw, but it was time for an upgrade) I had been looking at more luxury brand vehicles and decided (after much research) that I was between the Mercedes C300 and the Audi A4. I actually know a few people who drive Mercedes, but I wasn’t really impressed after sitting inside of it. The fiancé and I went to the Audi dealership and looked at the A4, but he was a little too tall and didn’t fit comfortably inside it. We then went and looked at the new 4-door A5. They are brand new to the US this year as they’ve only ever had the 2-doors here. Since I loved the idea of having something that no one else did, I was very intrigued by this particular model. I think it was fate because the fiancé did in fact fit into the A5 and we happened to get a once in a life time deal on the car. It was too good of a deal to pass up so a few days later (I had to wait for them to get the white exterior with black leather in) we went and picked up my NEW 2018 Audi A5!!! I absolutely love my car and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Move out of the house: HAHAHAHA ok I’m done laughing now, I did NOT move out of my house this past year. In fact after getting engaged, I realized it was for the best if I stayed home and saved money for the next year and then move out as it gets closer to the wedding. While the fiancé still lives at home as well, we can both save as much as we can plus we’re not in any hurry to pay rent every month so why waste money right now when we can both stay home for about 10 more months? This is also hugely in part with the cost of living in wonderful Southern California (where 1 bedroom rent can be almost 2 grand a month and tear down houses in bad areas are selling for $800k).

Travel: I did in fact make it to 5 different places even though some were on the smaller side.
1. Boise, Idaho – September 2016 – My brother goes to school in Idaho, so my mom and I went for parents weekend and I got to check out all the cool scenery Boise has to offer. Boise was really cool because there were a lot of up and coming spots near Downtown. It was also really cool to watch football being played on the blue field.
2. Palm Springs, California – September 2016 – The fiancé (he was still my BF at this point) and I went to Palm Springs for a little weekend getaway. We just went for the night, but it was still nice to get out of our small town, plus we got a great deal at the JW Marriott. The weather was still hot and there are a ton of great places to eat.
3. Seattle, Washington – November 2016 – This was right after we got engaged. I have friends from college that live in the Seattle area, so Robert and I decided it would be cool to go and visit. We stayed with one of my friends and got to go to the Space Needle and have lunch at the top. We went to Pike Place Market, the gum wall and even went to a University of Washington football game (I enjoy a good PAC 12 game!). While we just went for the weekend, we had tons of fun and got to catch up with some of my friends.
4. Manhattan, New York – January 2017 – This was my weekend getaway to The City with one of my BFFs that I wrote about back in January; you can check it out here. I absolutely LOVE New York and if I could go once or twice a year, I would be a happy camper. I’ve been 3 times in the last 2 years (once in September and twice in the winter).
5. Avalon, Catalina Island, California – June 2017 – This is a small island about an hour away from the Port of LA (where the cruise ships leave out of). My family owns property over on the island so we try and go over at least once during the summer. This was just a little one night trip for my mom and I while my dad and brothers stayed longer. I’ve been going over since I was about 6 weeks old, so there’s nothing super new or exciting now. On this trip though I saw Bobby the Deckhand from Below Deck Mediterranean. He was very friendly and chitchatted with us for a few minutes.
Follow through on plans I make: Hmmm…this one is a little hit or miss. While I did follow through on a lot of my plans I made with people, I just can’t bring myself to go out every single weekend and some of my friends want to do exactly that! I like to go out, but after a long day at work, sometimes it’s nice to curl up with my fur baby and fiancé and watch our shows. So maybe this is one that I can continue to work on some more.

All in all, I think that I met my goals that I made for myself last year on my birthday. I’m proud of the accomplishments that I have made (p.s. I’ve officially been at my job for a full year) and the things that I have done this past year. I know that 25 will bring a lot of change to my life, but it’s all good and exciting change. This will be a whirlwind year with planning the wedding, booking a honeymoon, and finding a place for us to live. I look forward to this coming year and know that I will continue to be blessed in every aspect of my life.

I’m grateful for the opportunities that have not only been given to me, but for the ones that I have worked hard for. I honestly couldn’t be where I am today without the support of my parents and my loving fiancé who continues to amaze me every day.

So CHEERS to 25, let’s make it the best year yet!

XOXO
July 17, 2017