Personal: 2021 Year in Review

Our 2020 ended in some pretty hard months. My husband lost his job in September, we spent a Christmas without some family, and Christmas was really tight and we had to make our Christmas gifts by hand (which has turned into a wonderful tradition). I spent much of 2020 dedicating my time to education and building my business, so during 2021 I wanted to put everything I learned to the test. Our year was full of projects, a lot of new adventures, and getting back to nature. I have also heard it loud and clear that my readers want to see ALL the pictures, so I’ve provided galleries for each month!

January

I started a 365 photography project in January, that’s when you take one picture a day for a whole year. I followed prompts from The Wild Rose Family group. I started this project wanting to build my portfolio, create some projects of my own, and get out of my comfort zone, but I didn’t know it would bring so many clients this year! We went and walked the Detroit Zoo for their Wild Lights nights, which is a fun tradition we love to do every year. I started a habit I’m so thankful for this month: going for a daily walk. We battled with not having a nap time for a few weeks. I filmed my first birthday vlog and it was such a fun day filled with fun projects I made for myself! I also started an amazing collaboration with my friend Marcel in January! He frequently had to make dance videos for his group, so I tagged along to help him when needed and practice my photography/videography skills.

February

in February, we finally had enough snow to play in! We took our daughter, Evelyn, sledding for her first time and we kept up with weekly playdates. I was still going strong with my 365 project, too! It boosted my creativity, but also took up a lot of my time planning and scheming photography ideas. But it did lead to a lot of personal posts like: Learning To Live in the Present and A Week in My Life. I was booked for my second lifestyle newborn session, we went for winter hikes, and we even got to go see the Blue Ice in Mackinaw!

March

Charlie received a job offer in February and started in March, so we were able to take a sigh of relief! We continued to have weekly playdates, photoshoots with Marcel, and we started our seeds for the garden. Charlie’s new job allowed him to work from home for the time being, so we were able to take a spring trip out to my grandparents in Florida. We spent a week relaxing and enjoying some quality family time. We repainted and finished our back bedroom and moved into it (moving away from the front of the house that is constantly receiving road noise since we lived on the main road).

April

April was full of adventure because we bought some new-to-us bikes and started a wonderful Friday night bike ride tradition. We tested them out on Easter after having Easter lunch with family! Then we joined my parents for a long bike ride and set up a wonderful Cherry Blossom picnic with my first bottle of Dandelion wine. The Detroit Zoo usually hosts a Green Day event, but they have stopped recently. That didn’t stop us from keeping up with the tradition of celebrating Earth Day at the zoo! I also posted a series of blog posts in April to celebrate Earth Day. I hosted my first Mother’s Day Mini Sessions and I took my first work trip to Holland, MI to see the Tulips. That was the most read blog post this year and brought so many new readers to my space! We ended April with our first camping trip of the year at the Warren Sand Dunes State Park.

May

I started to fall off the 365 photo train in May… But, I had my first work collaboration! I teamed up with the Frederik Meijer Gardens to create some content of the beautiful gardens. But, they’ve also inspired me to look into horticulture & permaculture when planning out our future gardens. I had a client book a session using her 2020 Black Friday discount and she let me have full creative freedom, so that was super fun! We had a fairy garden themed picnic with our friends and harvested our first basket of the year from the garden. Then we ended the month with a backpacking trip and my first paid collaboration on Instagram! I know no one likes to see ads, but ad work and client work are how I help support our family. So anyone who ‘likes’ ‘shares’ or even uses my links are helping us and I appreciate that SO much! All thoughts are always our own.

June

We celebrate Evelyn’s birthday in June! So, I made her a felt alphabet, rainbow pancakes, bought a Bubble Guppies bubble machine and we had fun all day. I still haven’t posted her videos, but I did make her second year interview. We had a lot of rainy days in June, so we spent plenty of daily walks splashing in puddles with our ‘rainbrellas’. We picked our last harvest of mulberries from the mulberry bush, spent a lot of hot June days splashing in our splashpad, and made a cherry pie for the first time. We celebrated Evelyn’s birthday with family this year! It was Bubble Guppies themed and I wrote a blog post but I just haven’t posted it yet. We celebrated Father’s Day by visiting Mackinac Island for their lilacs. I shot my first wedding!! That was such an exciting and nerve wracking day. Then we ended June by looking (and finding) our dream house! We stayed at the Ruth Lake Cabins in Michigamme while we shopped.

July

After finding, and putting an offer on our house, we headed out to the Porcupine Mountains for a night. It was agony waiting to hear back from our realtor, but it was also relaxing taking time away from our devices. Once we came home, it was time to get to work. We harvested Charlie’s grandma’s raspberries (black, red, + gold!) and blueberries, fixed up our kitchen, refreshed some of the paint in the house, packed up a lot of our belongings, and put our house on the market. Meanwhile, my cousins visited for a few days and we were able to take a break from all of the housework! We hosted our first open house and visited Hocking Hills State Park while people were looking at our home. Sometimes we would treat ourselves to a Friday night in the park listening to the summer concerts too.

August

August was a LONG month. There were so many house showing, so much chaos, a lot of time spent loading everyone (including the pets) into the car and figuring out what to do while strangers walked through our home. There were a lot of days spent occupying our time at parks, festivals, the zoo, or even with friends. I picked my camera back up this month and made an August photo challenge. There were a few summer pictures I wanted to capture before everything started to look like fall. I had a girl’s day painting sunflowers in the fields, visited more sunflower fields with my mini sessions, and photographed my second wedding!! AH I’m so thankful for all of my clients! Every client who books with me will forever have a spot in my heart.

September

We packed to a comfortable position by September (though it wasn’t enough evidently) so we spent more time at the Renaissance festival, photographing friends, or getting cider and donuts at our local orchards. My flowers got flattened by an opossum! I photographed my cousin’s senior pictures, then Evelyn and my grandmother made everyone paintings for Christmas from her hand or foot prints. We sold our house!! We had two weeks to pack the rest of our belongings and head to the new house.

October

I had a few new clients reach out for a first birthday and a senior session before we moved! We visited the Renaissance Festival again, I picked my camera back up to document our move and new house, and WE MOVED. Our days were filled with unpacking, daily walks in nature instead of the suburbs, trick-or-treating downtown (twice!), visited Copper Harbor to see the fall colors, and announced our move on Youtube.

November

November was a dream of a month! We filled our time with play group, daily activities, daily walks or park time, I bought a homeschool bundle so we had plenty of crafts, the house was finally put together from recording our home tour so I could focus on spending more time with Evelyn! We harvested rosehips from the garden and dried them for teas. We foraged some natural materials for our various crafts. I was gifted an amazing box that supports other small-business families! We took our first trip back down to see family for Thanksgiving, I hosted my last mini session of the year, and we started getting into the Christmas spirit when we came home.

December

When we got back home, we went straight to our local tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree! Our local towns turned their downtowns into vintage Christmas wonderlands and we enjoyed sleigh rides, seeing Santa, and window shopping with all of the well decorated windows. I knew I wouldn’t be able to realistically keep up with a never ending Christmas photo bucket list, so I challenged myself to a Christmas Countdown project. This was such a fun and creative project to work on and I’m so happy with all of them! We made 3 snowmen, went for walks on our sled, made cookies, drank hot cocoa, spent time reading in front of the fireplace, seen a magical train, and drove through the light shows! We spent two weeks enjoying time with family and friends too.

Our year started in fear and ended in so much fulfillment. It just goes to show if you trust in the process and continue to manifest your goals + desires, life will figure it’s way out.

What was your most precious memory of 2021?