2020 – Year in Review

Wow, this year was one for the books, right?  It’s funny because I feel like so many years blur together, only to be defined by one single event, but I have a feeling that 2020 will be a year that none of us will forget any time soon.

2020 – Year in Review

I know that the joke is that 2020 was such a dumpster fire–and it WAS, on a macro level.  But on a micro level, for me personally, the second half of 2019 was top two hardest times of my life (the other one being my father passing away).  Losing our daughter and loving pet within a span of a few months of each other was terrible, awful, no adjective worthy of describing such events.  I knew 2020 had to be better–some way, some how.  

Well, good things happened, of course, but it was also such a traumatic year for us all.  For me, the defining word of 2020 was: anxious.  I do not have anxiety diagnosed by a medical professional, but I have been incredibly anxious this entire year.  Pandemic, US election, civil unrest–a lot has happened!  Can you relate?

After having a lovely weekend visiting a friend in NYC this past February, I came home and took a pregnancy test as I’d felt a little off. 

It was positive.  After dealing with the loss of two babies (one in 2018, one in 2019), I was freaking out from that moment on; I held my breath until Bennett arrived safely in my arms.  That’s basically 10 months of pure anxiety.  But having a healthy baby was truly the pinnacle of my year.

Before the pandemic truly hit America, the supply chain of my jacket company, One/Third, was very affected–that is, it totally stopped.  Our agent is in Greece and he is a liaison between us and  a small, family-owned factory in Guangzhou, China (very far away from Wuhan) that produces our jackets.  We got word in January that after Chinese New Year, the factory wouldn’t be reopening due to something called the coronavirus.  Our timelines were pushed several months behind.  And on top of that, once the pandemic went worldwide and the world stood still, who was buying jackets?  (Hint: not many) Anxiety about my brand new business ensued. (Read more about how the pandemic affected it here)

When the pandemic came stateside, it got pretty scary. 

Hell, it still IS scary, although now it feels  like we’re much more accustomed to living during a pandemic.  But my blog emails truly ceased for a few months there.  Most of my income on the blog comes through partnerships; when the world stops, marketing budgets are the first to go and my partnerships dried up. 

I knew I could continue to write and get page views to my blog and instagram stories, which is what I truly enjoy when it comes to creating content–however, partnerships keep my lights on.  Now, the ending of this story is a lot happier–partnerships have picked back up, but many of my goals for the year really had to go out the window and my anxiousness was quite high from about March – August.  I think this year made me grateful for having IG stories and a blog as a way to communicate with you all; they’re my favorite mediums.

And of course, the general scariness of living through a once in a lifetime event such as a global pandemic adds a whole new level of anxiety into the equation.  It’s crazy to go from a seemingly normal life to wearing masks and sanitizing everything (just for the record, I’m NOT a germaphobe–never have been so this was a 180 for me). 

Like everyone else, I so desperately would like life to get back to normal.  I can’t wait to hop on a plane without a care in the world.  I’d love to go into a store without a mask on.  Life will feel normal again when I no longer worry about everyone I love catching Covid and ending up in the hospital.   Sigh.  Fingers crossed for some normalcy soon!

So, let’s highlight the most popular posts of 2020 (and why I think they were popular):

Pregnancy After Loss(es)

So many of you have followed my journey and I’m so appreciative of you rooting me along the way.  I didn’t reveal my pregnancy until I was 25 weeks along and it was tough to hide.  I did not hide it to create a big reveal; rather, I was paranoid of something going terribly wrong.  Keeping it quiet was a way to protect all my emotions around being pregnant so soon after losing our baby in 2019.

The Dazzle Dry Manicure

The dazzle dry system changed my life.  You *can* buy it online and do your nails yourself, but I am terrible at home manicures.  It’s non-toxic and cheaper than a gel manicure–and no UV lights!  Read all about why I made the switch.

Living in Midi Dresses

I’m glad a fashion post made the top!  It was a weird year for fashion, right?  But we still got dressed (well, sort of).  This past summer I LIVED in dresses because I was in the third trimester.  I predict another summer of dresses, but hopefully we’ll be a little more dressed up.

Recipes to Try During Quarantine

I loved this post because it was recommendations from YOU all.  Since we all spent a chunk of quarantine brushing up on our cooking skills, I wanted to know the best thing you had made and boy, did you guys deliver.  I definitely need to revisit this list!

Dime Beauty Review

This post is so popular because it has ranked so high on Google. I guess a lot of people are curious about Dime!  I actually was served an ad for their eyelash serum and bought it during the summer because it was pregnancy safe (I still use it).  All in all, I am still using the products and I even turned them onto my sister-in-law, who is obsessed.  They’re clean products at a great price point!

C-Section Recovery Tips

A more recent most but it had a big impact (I’m glad it did–I hope it helped someone!).  C-sections are common but I hadn’t know anyone who had one before I had my first baby, so I wanted to give a little perspective into how I went about having three of them.

Different Ways to Wear Leggings

I made this post about a month into my pregnancy and a couple weeks into quarantine (little did we know, right?).   Who knew leggings and sweats would dominate so much of the year?  This post is still a great resource as we head into a winter. We’ll probably won’t be doing too much.

That’s a wrap!  Any other favorite posts you read?