Category: memories

January 2018 Review

skyhighaffirmations2 Comments

The first month of 2018 is complete, and I thought I would look back on some of the accomplishments and things to be grateful for!

walk_for_a_dog2

Steps for Pet Health Challenge

I love using Walk for a Dog, an app that lets you log your walks to help animal charities. They had a special challenge in Dec-Jan, where you needed to complete 10 walks to qualify your favorite charity for a $1000 prize. Normally 10 walks would be super easy, but in the middle of winter it’s super cold and windy outside! But I made sure to watch the weather and take a walk on the tolerable days, and my dog Chester and I completed the challenge. 🙂

When the challenge was done, WoofTrax reported that “In 60 days, challenge participants walked 176,000 times, totaling 1/4 million miles. That is equivalent to walking around the earth 10 times!” Wow! Next up is the Walk and Win Spring challenge.

Online Sales

My online store was booming in January! The Christmas rush is extended for me because of the upcoming Valentine’s Day and St Patrick’s Day holidays, so I was spending a lot of time sewing. In total, I completed 52 orders this month, with about 15% of them having multiple items! I’m so grateful for the wonderful customers who support my small business. 🙂

bigorder

Trying New Things

I want to get in the habit of trying new things in life. In January, I tried 2 new foods – almond milk and dried seaweed snacks (thumbs up on the milk, thumbs down on the seaweed). I purchased some stainless steel straws, which I’ll be using from now on to save waste. I also tried a local restaurant in my city for the first time.

Recycling

One of my Resolutions for 2018 is to get serious with recycling. I saved up all of the family’s recyclables in January, and made a trip to the drop-off center an the end of the month. We managed to fill up 3 totes with recyclables, and sent them off to a new life! I plan to do this for the rest of 2018 and beyond. 🙂

 

Youtube

Youtubers got some big news in January: they’re upping the requirements to be a “real” youtuber to 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of watch time. If you’re not in the know, those are pretty harsh requirements for us little folks! But instead of letting it get me down, it’s lit a fire under my butt. 😉 During January I got 5 videos done: Productivity, Sleep, Small Business, Youtube, and Self Esteem, which the the most content I’ve made in a single month so far!

I’m going to continue to build my channel and fill it with lots of uplifting videos. 🙂

 

That’s my list for January. Hopefully February will be just as busy!

——

Check out my Youtube channel for positive videos!

Follow me @SkyHighAffirm on Twitter

 

 

A Look Back on 2017

skyhighaffirmations2 Comments

2017 is gone, and a new year is upon us. The last year has given us a lot of change and disruption as a world and a species, and I’ve experienced a lot of change in my personal life as well. 2017 was a year of intense experiences, good and bad. Instead of making a list of specific events, I’m going to discuss some overall lessons I’ve learned over the previous 12 months.

Change the World

Our world and our society is currently in a state of dynamic change. Without discussing specific politics or scandals, it’s clear that a lot of negativity and darkness has come out of the woodwork and onto the main stage, and in many ways we are teetering precariously between success and failure. While this can be scary and/or depressing, it’s also clear that a powerful positive energy is rapidly gaining power as well. As darkness asserts itself, goodness is standing up stronger than ever to wash it in light.

tina-2091806_960_720

I’ve learned that each of us has power to increase this good. While I can’t change the world all at once, every moment of every day provides opportunities to do good things, help people, and increase the amount of positivity in the world. I believe that good energy is stronger than bad, and it’s my responsibility to send out as much of that good energy as possible. Each of us contributes to the world consciousness, and our contribution needs to be full of light and love now more than ever. We have the power to make our world a beautiful place, but we have to stand up and do it! As Michael Jackson said, we have to look at the man in the mirror, and MAKE THAT CHANGE! 🙂

Personal Spiritual Growth

I’ve done a lot of spiritual pondering and growth through the past year. I’d prefer not to go into specific details, as many of them are intensely personal, but I will say that my mind has been opened up a lot about the possibilities beyond our physical world.

angel-2448323_960_720

Things that I’ve had trouble accepting before, like consciousness, vibrational energy, the law of attraction, and even the possibility of life after death have become more understandable and believable to me. The power of thought has become a big part of my life and my personal philosophy. I’ve also done a lot of work in determining my own value and my place in the world and what I’m here to accomplish.

I’m definitely not done growing…not even close! But 2017 was a huge learning experience for me that will influence the rest of my life.

Circle of Friends

I’ve always been incredibly shy, and I was officially diagnosed a few years ago with Social Phobia. Because of this, I haven’t had a lot of social interaction outside of my family for most of my life. My family is awesome and I adore them, but 2017 taught me that I really need to develop a strong circle of friends outside of my relatives. There are some important topics that I really need to talk about, but have no one in my family who can listen or help me. Holding it inside is suffocating.

I’ve learned that I should make it a priority to get out more, share my true self, and develop meaningful relationships with other people. I dream of having a close, supportive, loving group of friends who take care of each other and help each other become our best selves. I know they’re out there, I just have to get out of the house and find them! 🙂

people-2569234_960_720

 

So those are my lessons learned. I can’t say I *enjoyed* 2017, but it was a very important year for me. Here’s hoping 2018 will be the best one yet! 🙂

——

Check out my Youtube channel for positive videos!

Follow me @SkyHighAffirm on Twitter

Handmade Christmas!

skyhighaffirmations2 Comments

My family has recently started a tradition where we draw names for Christmas presents. We agree on a price point, then draw names from a hat and give a gift or two to the person we receive. This year, we decided to try a handmade Christmas – everyone’s gift must be made from scratch with their own hands! We agreed that it could be anything, as long as it was handmade.

I was really curious to see what the gifts would be, because most of my family members aren’t super crafty and I didn’t know what they would come up with. The results were way better than I ever expected!

My gift was an egg holder from my father. I keep chickens as a hobby, so I always have a supply of fresh eggs in the kitchen. He found some old weathered barn wood and turned it into a cool rustic egg display! 😀

egg_shelf2

My gift to Brother #2 were these felt ornaments; one has Mercy’s rez symbol from Overwatch, with her motto “Heroes Never Die” hand-stitched on the back. The other is the Rebellion symbol from Star Wars, with “May the Force Be With You” on the back. I was glad I pulled his name, so I could make something fun and geeky. 😉

geek_ornies_both

One of my sisters was just married over the summer, and she gave her bouquet to my other sister to keep. Sister #2 surprised her by making this awesome picture box display  in celebration of their wedding.

heather_box

Brother #1’s gift to sister #2 was this adorable bird house made from a coconut, complete with “Welcome to the Nut House” sign. XD I’m really proud of my brother, because despite being the least crafty out of everyone, he pulled off a very cute and creative gift!

nuthouse

My brother-in-law blew everyone away with his gift to my stepmother – this amazing handmade cedar box! The whole thing is done by hand, including the detailed lid. That’s some real woodworking talent there!

wood_chest1

My stepmother made this cool Scrabble memento for my sister-in-law. It has their names, and words like “husband”, “wife”, “forever”, and “family”. Very clever!

scrabble

Sister #1 and her husband have recently started watching Game of Thrones, so my sister-in-law made this paper cut-out family crest for them. They also have chickens and love to give away the eggs, so she made the family symbol a hen. I think this is so cool! XD *starts humming GoT theme*

 

burrell

Sister #2 made Brother #1 this cool wooden tool caddy. He’s always working on stuff and has a ton of tools, so this is perfect for him! It has jelly jars filled with nails and screws and other small findings.

toolkit

And finally, Brother #2’s gift to our dad, also made with paper cut outs! Our father loves Star Trek, so he made a framed picture of the Enterprise zooming past Earth. So cool!

enterprise

We had a great time opening our gifts! Sister #1 started crying when she saw her wedding memento box, which started everyone else getting teary-eyed, lol.

I’m glad we decided to make handmade gifts this year, and I recommend the idea to anyone who wants to try a unique spin on Christmas! 😀

——-

Check out my Youtube channel for positive videos!

Follow me @SkyHighAffirm on Twitter

Fun Christmas Traditions

skyhighaffirmations7 Comments

I recently saw the animated movie Coco, with a (long) Frozen short in front of it, and both of them focused on the importance of family and family traditions. Since it’s Christmas time, I thought I would take that inspiration and share some of my family’s unique holiday traditions! 🙂

mistletoe-disco-band-A

Christmas Disco

Groovy, man! This record (yes, an actual vinyl record, an archaeological artifact from the prehistoric past) was purchased by someone in my extended family, and ended up in a stack of albums at my grandparent’s house in the 80s. My grandpa made a cassette recording of it, and we’ve been listening ever since. 😀 Some people hate disco, but this album takes Christmas songs and gives them an energetic, upbeat, happy sound that I love. It’s not outdated, it’s RETRO! /hipsterglasses

Part of my family used to live in a town about fifty miles away, and every year my mother, brother and I would drive up to visit on Christmas Eve. We would play these songs in the car on the ride up, while we looked forward to holiday dinner and visiting with our cousins. My favorite trip was the time we were so behind on wrapping gifts that my brother and I were trying to do it in the car as my mother drove on the way up. Ever wrestled with rolls of wrapping paper in a compact car at 55 mph? XD

I don’t own a turntable, but I actually kept an old-timey cassette player for a long time just to play this tape during the holidays. PS, I listened to this album on Youtube as I was writing this post. 🙂

—

whitmans

Whitman’s Sampler

The gifts we got were different each year as we grew up, but there was always one gift that we were 100% guaranteed to get no matter what — a Whitman’s Sampler. This box of chocolates comes in a distinctively shaped box with old fashioned cross-stitch graphics, and has two levels of candy inside. It was always easy to identify even when wrapped, because of the specific size and shape of the package and the grooves around the top and bottom of the box that could be felt through the paper. Even better…my uncle would always cut the cling wrap on top and slip in a $20 bill! We would open the Sampler first, and snack on the chocolates as we opened the rest of our gifts.

At some point the rights were purchased by another company, and the chocolates inside changed. So the family has mainly switched over to the Russell Stover gift box in modern times. But I’ll always remember the joy of finding the Sampler with my name on it under the tree. And I actually get reminded throughout the year; we saved a bunch of the boxes because they make excellent storage containers!

—

stockings

Handmade Stockings

When I was in middle school or so, my grandmother began teaching me how to sew. I was really into it, so when December came around I decided to make us some fancy stockings. My mom, brother and I each designed our own stockings, and I cut the felt and sewed them together. I had recently found a bag of assorted sequins at Big Lots, so I blinged them up as only a pre-teen can do! 😉

I still have these stockings, and I display them every year as part of the living room Christmas decorations.

—

This has been a little peek into my family’s personal holiday traditions, that have brought us lots of joy through the years. What are some of your special traditions? (And have you seen Coco yet…because you really should!)

——-

Check out my Youtube channel for positive videos!

Follow me @SkyHighAffirm on Twitter

<a href=”https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/19202119/?claim=s2v7s6m7h8h”>Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>