2024 Hopes

Happy new year, friends! Since I took the opportunity of my 31st birthday shy of a couple of months ago to reflect on 2023, I wanted to briefly share my goals in today’s post! Unlike previous years (you can read my 2022 Reflections & 2023 Intentions here), this one is pretty short and sweet.

• Prioritizing sleep – After watching a couple of doctors on TikTok talk about how getting 8 hours of sleep every night is more important than exercising (one of them specifically said it’s better for you to sleep 8 hours vs waking up early to go work out?!), getting enough sleep has been on the forefront of my mind. While my sleep schedule has been so off during the holidays. I plan to get back to waking up early to go to Barre BUT I will be better about going to bed earlier!

• Reaching out to friends – This is another thing I used to be good at and something I took pride in but I really fell out of reaching out to/staying in regular touch with my friends the last couple of years. I had been blaming my mental health which was greatly impacted my full-time job and wedding planning but now that I have a new job and I will never plan another wedding, I hope to be get my life back together and put more effort into my relationships.

• Pick up (new) hobbies – While blogging is technically a hobby of mine, I really have been wanting to do more of an activity type of hobbies. Needlepoint is something I have been considering picking up for the last few years, and I decided (for the aforementioned reasons above) I have no excuses not to do so this year! I ordered a beginner needlepoint kit from Spellbound Stitchery and plan to start it VERY SOON. Growing up in Korea, I used to do watercolor painting (competitively actually–IYKYK) and except for the art classes I took in high school, I have done zero artwork since we moved to the States. I want to get back into painting again, largely inspired by Rex’s sister-in-law Cait from the paper lily shop! I will share updates as I make progress with these two!

• Journal – Going back to something I used to regularly, I used to RELIGIOUSLY journal. I still have all of my old journals from when I was younger, and I read some of them which is one of the reasons I stopped journaling some time ago. While I share about some things on the Internet, it fills a completely different cup than journaling privately for me so I’m excited to journal regularly again. When I was in my teens, I would sort of treat my journal as part scrapbook which I think will bring me lots of joy too.

• Make our house a home – For a long time, I wanted to move out of our townhome and didn’t want to spend time and energy decorating the place but that is no longer the case. We have been making some updates to our house here and there, but we have a lot more we want to do with the space. In 2024, the focus will be on the second floor (living room, kitchen & dining room). My goal is to make good progress to be able to host around the holiday time!!

P.P.S. Since 2023 was a special year for us, we stepped up our holiday card game and ordered from Dogwood Hill for the first time. The specific design is the “En Pointe Garland Border” by Riley Sheehey, and we loved how it turned out!