2017 Year in Review

Happy Tuesday, fam! I am kind of thinking of today’s post as my digital Christmas letter to everyone we love this year. It’s been a crazy, crazy year for my cute husband and I – and we have loved sharing it with all of you along the way. I feel beyond blessed to have such an incredible support system between my family and my husband’s family and our dear friends. Not to mention my sweet readers that take the time to keep up with what I’m doing. Let’s dive into this 2017 year in review. 🙂

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2017 Year in Review

January – 

This month was a stressful one for A & I. We moved into our new apartment after newly graduating from college in December 2016. We were both looking for jobs and stressed to the MAX about not finding them quickly. We traveled across the country from Idaho to Missouri to start our post-grad life. We found a place near my parents (which has been amazing) and settled in. We brought with us almost no furniture or belongings but we did bring our siamese cat Felix! We adopted him May 2016 as a 2 year old stray. Unfortunately, at the end of January, Felix was diagnosed with an incurable heart disease, and had to be put down to stop his immense suffering. It was a devastating time for us (as the loss of any pet is) and we miss him every day! Around this time, I started a new job in marketing and Adam continued to look for work! Our birthday’s are also both in January and I turned 22 and Adam turned 26.

February – 

This month was much less eventful than January, but Adam did find a job working as a customer service representative at a luxury bike shop in downtown St. Louis. It was a relief for us both to have found jobs fairly quickly. On Valentine’s Day, we welcomed a new little kitten into our home! Isabel is our spunky tortie and it’s safe to say we are completely obsessed with her. She was only 8 weeks old when we adopted her and while no new pets can replace the ones you’ve lost, we found it helped us heal having a new little one to love on!

March – 

March was pretty insignificant as far as life goes (which was nice for us – we enjoyed the downtime). We settled into our routines and enjoyed spending as much time with family as well could. 

April –

This month was big because it is the month I quit the job I got in January in order to pursue blogging full-time. We prayed a lot about this decision, but at the end of the day, I wasn’t in a good work environment and I felt I could make more of a difference if I put everything I had into my blog. 🙂 I am grateful every day that I was able to do that because I LOVE blogging full time. April was also important because we celebrated our 1 year anniversary of being married! I can’t believe I got lucky enough to be Adam’s wife……..he’s the bomb. Look how handsome he is!!!!!!!

May – 

This month was also fairly quiet for us. I readjusted to working full-time from home. I had to learn time management skills so that I could get everything done during the day I needed to, while still taking care of our home! I cannot work in a messy house so balancing a clean home, kitten duties, work and some self-care meant I had to learn some juggling skills. Adam continued to do well at his new job as well. We were also able to visit my in-laws for a spontaneous Memorial Day Weekend trip. We love being so much closer to them in Louisiana as well.

June – 

SUMMER VACATION. I mean – it’s kind of always summer vacation for me, but we were able to take a blog press trip to the Dominican Republic in June. We stayed at a BEAUTIFUL resort (you can read all about this trip here) for four days and had the best time relaxing by the beach. We also got INCREDIBLY sun burned but it was worth it. This is also the month we learned that Spirit Airlines probably isn’t for us ever again. 

July – 

Fourth of July – aka, Adam’s favorite holiday! We threw a fun backyard bash at my parent’s house for the fourth and celebrated being an American. It’s been a long, crazy year for the U.S.A but no matter what, we are still immensely proud to be Americans. I started getting more into makeup tutorials on YouTube and officially launched my YouTube channel. I also was landing more sponsored posts and regularly working with amazing brands. I also started my #100daysofmakeup challenge that would take me into October!

August –

While work & family stuff quieted down for us again, we also welcomed a second addition to our household: Chester! I found a male stray kitten right outside of our apartment mid-August. He was covered in fleas, worms, ear mites and more but he was SO lovely and snuggly and desperately needed a home. Adam wasn’t super excited about adopting ANOTHER kitten but Chester snuggled his way right into our hearts and our home. Once we got him all taken care of at the vet and was free of any parasites and fleas, we introduced him to Isabel. She wasn’t SUPER excited about a brother (she was and still is queen of the house), after a few days, she settled in and now they’re best buds. It warms my heart to see them snuggle and play together. Chester is only about 5 months younger than Izzy, so they’re super close in age. Adam also made me swear not to bring home any more stray pets but I made no promises.

September –

NYFW! This month was SO busy for me, work-wise. I had several blogging events to go to, New York Fashion Week and Dallas Style Con. I was hardly home this entire month, and I missed Adam like crazy. I went to NYFW with my blogging bestie, Erica from Coming Up Roses (check her out here) and we had an amazing time together. Read all about our adventures in the Big Apple here, here and here. My other blogging bff came to stay with me over Labor Day weekend, too – Amanda from Blissful Gal (check her out here). Read all about our fabulous Labor Day escapades here. It was the best month EVER for meeting my girlfriends IRL and forming lasting friendships. In addition to all of THAT – I decided to officially launch Taylor Mobley Professional Makeup Artistry. I have had steady clients since launching, and am booking weddings into 2018. I love what I do, and am so blessed the stars aligned in September to help make them happen!

October – 

This was obviously one of my all time favorite months. If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know how much I love halloween. As a makeup artist who specialized in special effects, it is one of my absolutely FAVORITE times of the year. I got to work on several clients and I did a ton of special effects makeup on my youtube channel. I finished up my #100daysofmakeup challenge and dressed up as Two Tacos Out On The Town with my husband (get a peek at those costumes here). I am pretty lucky to have a husband and goes along with most of my shenanigans. 

November –

Adam got a new and even BETTER job! Adam took a job at Electrical Components International as an account coordinator for their Mexico branches! He is fluent in Spanish, so he gets to utilize that skill and put some awesome work on his resume. He’s loving it so far and I am so happy he’s happy. We spent an entire week in Louisiana with my in-laws. I only have one little sister, so I love being around all my sibling-in-laws. It’s fun having big brothers and sisters. We got to love on our sweet nieces and nephews and there is nothing like good family time. I also launched my Whiskey Neat Collection — I collaborated with this awesome local brand and came out with the Blonde & Ambitious Blog collection in their shop! Shop it here.

December – 

Ahhhh, here we are. This month, we’ve been able to hang out with my family and some of our dear friends. We’ve been making a conscious effort to make plans with people we don’t normal see as the year is coming to a close, and trying our best to be the best version of ourselves as we can be! I am working on goals and sponsorships for next year and A & I are working together to make goals as a married couple. We have big, big plans for next year!

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I hope you enjoyed this Year In Review, especially if you are friends of ours and don’t get to see us often. I tried not to post too much on my personal social media accounts this year because it’s already crazy keeping up with my blog accounts!! Think of this as our digital letter to you. We did send out Christmas Cards (check those out here if you want to see them).

Thank you EVERYONE for an incredible year. I can’t wait to see what 2018 brings our little family.