Scallop, Chenille Bow Sweater + 2019 Goals
Ivory Chenille Scallop Bow Sweater (On sale for under $50) // Similar High Rise Jeans // Louis Vuitton Neverfull MM // Blush Pom Pom Beanie // Disk Earrings (Come in clips and posts) //
Hello friends and happy Monday! I know I’ve been pretty slow getting back to my normal blogging schedule. But this week I’m hoping to change that! I have some fun content planned, plus several adorable mommy and me Valentine looks coming. Be on the look out for that!
Today I’m so excited to share one of the cutest sweaters ever! We actually shot this look the day after Christmas (so ignore the red and green nails haha). But the details are absolutely irresistible. I mean, a bow, scallops and chenille?! Yes, please! The most exciting part is that it was just marked down to under $50 and is in stock in all sizes! I have it in the size small. It’s such a darling sweater. Cute sweaters are what get me through the winter months. I also love it paired with this blush pom pom beanie.
Also, better late than never, but I’m excited to share a few of my 2019 goals with y’all today. I don’t really like to call them resolutions. One, I feel it’s entirely overrated haha. And if I call them resolutions, there’s more of a chance I won’t get to them. But that’s just me. To each their own 🙂 Secondly, I feel like it’s more important to set goals, where you’re growing in your walk of life, rather than resolutions, where you’re pressured to change. I don’t know about y’all, but that just intimidates me haha. Because when I think of resolutions, I feel like I am pressured to change who I am, rather than a goal where I want to work hard towards something. I hope that makes sense…it’s much more difficult to put into words. Anyways, let’s get to them! First I’ll share a few personal, then I’ll share a few for my blog.
Personal Goals for 2019
1. Grow closer to the Lord – I’ve decided that 2019 is the year I’m going to grow closer to the Lord than I ever have before. I wholeheartedly want a relationship so close to Him that I will never doubt anything that comes my way. I want to feel His presence like I never have before. I pray for His wisdom. I need Him, and I want to get to know Him like I never have before.
2. Read the Bible from beginning to end – Also this year, I plan to read the Bible all the way through. I started over again with Genesis (one of my very favorite books!) and goodness am I loving it more than I have in my past times studying it. I’m so excited for this! If any of y’all have this same goal for 2019, I’d love to hear! Maybe we could even help hold ourselves accountable 🙂
3. Be more intentional about my prayer life – I wholeheartedly believe in the power of prayer and have truly seen the results of the power of prayer. There’s so much I’m praying about, so many people I’m praying for, and most importantly, SO much to thank the Lord for and praise Him for. So, my prayer time is going to be of utmost importance. I need the Lord’s help and guidance with so much, and I’m fully trusting in Him.
4. Trust the Lord fully – I can honestly say that I’ve struggled with this recently. I know it’s satan and I can’t let him win, but there’s a lot I’ve been doubting lately. And honestly, I have a burning desire to change this. I have recently just felt the Lord saying, “trust me and my timing”. For example, I was really struggling with this the other day, and on that day, my devotion was all about trusting the Lord. Just what I needed to read, and the Lord knew I needed that!
5. Get back into a workout routine – I got into such a healthy lifestyle in 2018, but it was kind of difficult to keep up when the fall arrived. This year, I’m not going to let that happen! I started back with BBG (Bikini Body Guide by Kayla Itsines). I absolutely love this program, mainly because I can easily do it from home with very little equipment. It only takes about 35-40 minutes a day. And it works!!! Doing it, along with healthy eating, I saw amazing results last year. It is by no means easy, but I love it. I do it through the SWEAT App. I started back on January 1st, and am currently on week two with it.
6. Eat Better!! – This is so important! Also around the fall of last year, I got back into a horrible habit (mainly due to traveling a lot), of not caring what I ate. It started to take a toll on me, honestly. I started to feel awful. I’m happy to say that I’ve already changed that. I don’t follow a meal plan or anything, just makes healthy choices 🙂 I truly believe you can find something healthy to eat, pretty much anywhere you go. For example, stick to drinking water or unsweetened iced tea, stay away from soft drinks, stay away from sweets, choose grilled food over fried food, enjoy your veggies and fruit. And honestly, once you start a habit of this, it truly becomes a lifestyle.
7. Drink more water – Yes, yes and yes! Drink lots and lots of water. I try to drink a certain amount each day. And goodness can I tell a difference.
8. Be the very best mama I can be to Madeline – This is just something that I say every year. I know I need the Lord’s help with raising my daughter, and I give it all to Him! I want to teach her of the Lord each and every day. I want to fill her heart so full of Jesus! I am constantly asking the Lord’s help with being the very best mama I can to her. This is just something that I like to say every year 🙂
9. Stay away from the comparison game – This is a hard one, and it is especially difficult in the blogging world. And goodness is it a dangerous trap to fall in! I am telling myself to stay in my lane and to now worry about anyone else. Stay focused on what I’m doing, being Madeline’s mama and trust the Lord for everything to fall into place.
10. Become more self-confident – I know this may sound horrible, but y’all I have been so bad about believing in myself. Over the past few years, I’ve allowed myself to loose confidence in who I am, what I’m doing, etc. My Aunt Linda (If you’re reading this, love you Aunt Linda!!), once told me to have God confidence in all I do. This year, I want to truly focus on not caring what others think about me, say about me or how they may try to treat me. This year I want to focus on being the person and running the race that the Lord has set before me. I am going to be confident in what I’m doing, my goals, how I look, how I feel, etc. I truly believe when you’re confident, it radiates and can empower others to feel the same way. There are so many promises the Lord has made to us in His Word, and focusing on these is enough to give you the confidence you need to walk through life with your head held high. You are SO loved! That’s nothing new in 2019, because God is the same yesterday, today and forever. But maybe it’s new to you this year to lean on those promises! I’m right there with you, and it is definitely a goal for this year.
11. Travel to somewhere new – My mama and Madeline are my very favorites to travel with! This year I want to take a fun trip or two to somewhere we haven’t been before. Any suggestions y’all may have, I’d love to hear! 🙂
Blogging Goals
1. Set a consistent blogging schedule – This is something I have honestly failed to do in the past. It helps so much when planning out a content schedule (monthly works best for me), and stick to it! One of the best tips of blogging is consistency. Even though I’m slow to starting the year off haha, my goal is to have 4-5 new posts up on here a week for y’all! The way to do this without feeling overwhelmed and burned out is to plan out your posts topics at the beginning of each month. I also would love to start off each month giving y’all a glimpse at my editorial calendar for that month. That way, y’all could kind of know what you can expect to see on Something Delightful that month 🙂
2. Set a more consistent work schedule overall – This definitely follows along with the last point, and I do believe it will take some trial and error, but I want to set out a more specific work schedule. With this, I’d like to start my day working even earlier, set aside a specific time to prep posts (preferably at night so they may be published earlier), respond to emails (I definitely need to work on this!), set out a time to work on Pinterest, plan looks, prepare looks, shoot looks, work on Instagram content, edit for both the blog and Instagram, and pretty much everything else that goes along with my job. I think if I had a more set work schedule, I would do a better job at getting content out when I wanted to. And to go along with this, it would help me from feeling overwhelmed. If I start to feel like I’m falling behind, I immediately beat myself up over it and feel like I’ve failed (as crazy as that sounds). But I do, and I need to stop this. So setting a schedule would be helpful, but I know there will be times when I can’t follow it, because hey, life happens and being a mama absolutely 100% comes first, I won’t stress over it too much 🙂
3. Listen to what Y’ALL want to see more of – I love asking and hearing more of what y’all would like to see more. Whether it’s a certain look, a hair tutorial, my life as a single mom, etc., it helps me to know more of what y’all like to see and why you enjoy following me. In all honesty, sometimes I get scared to share some of the stuff y’all ask to see. I start to wonder who will read it and what certain people may think, but I’ve decided I’m going to stop with that nonsense. I am going to share more of what y’all ask to see this year and not worry about what certain people may think. This follows along with my personal goal of self-confidence.
4. Film a hair (both curly and straight) tutorials + a makeup tutorial – I will finally share this! I’ve decided 2019 is the year! Because in all honesty, this kind of intimidates me. As much as I love doing my hair and makeup, I find it to be so fun, I wonder if I’m doing it correctly. It’s important to remember that with fashion and beauty, there really are no rules. So, expect to see a lot more of this from me in 2019!
5. Share more lifestyle posts – I always say, if I can encourage just one person, even if it took me 5+ hours to compose, an entire post on some topic is worth it. Yes, I’m a single mom. Yes, my life may not be the same as someone else’s. Yes, my life may not fit right into the “mold” the world has set for it, but I truly believe it’s so beautiful when we can all come together and share our differences and experiences. We are all unique, coming from different backgrounds. But I think we can all encourage one another in life. Sometimes if you just open up, you never know how much you could encourage someone else or even how much someone else may encourage you. That’s why this year, I want to share more of my life. Whether it is what I eat in a day, what Madeline and I love to do together, what keeps me going on a daily basis, etc., I want to share more.
6. Share more encouragement – This goes off my previous goal, of course, but I want to share more of my faith with y’all. I’m constantly growing in my walk with the Lord, and my hopes through sharing are that I will encourage even one person. I’m trying to think of fun ways to share more. One thing I want to do is memorize more Scripture. I thought it would be kind of fun to have a memory verse a week on here that I’m learning. And if any of y’all want to join me, we can all memorize together.
6. Partner with some brands & companies I love – This is also something newish for me. But this year it would be a dream come true to partner with some brands and companies I’ve always dreamed of partnering with. There’s something just so exciting about creating content with brands and companies you love. Nordstrom would be a dream come true for me!
7. Be more consistent – This also goes off of my schedule goal above, but I want to be more consistent with blog posts. I even want to think of a few, fun blog series to share on here. For example, “Motherhood Monday” or something along the lines of that 🙂 See where I’m going with that?
8. Start a news letter – Again, this is something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do! This year I will make it happen. I wouldn’t be spamming y’all with emails every day haha. But I’d send out a news letter maybe once a week on Fridays. It would contain a re-cap of the weeks blog posts, a few items I’m loving of the week, the weekly verse, weekend plans, etc. Would y’all enjoy this?
9. Reach 100k followers on Instagram – Okay this is a dream and it very well could not happen. Instagram has made it more difficult than ever to grow. Social media is always changing. With how difficult Instagram has made it with engagement, growing a following, etc. I told myself that I won’t get myself down if I don’t reach 100k this year. But it would be amazing 🙂
10. Blog Re-Design – I love my currently blog design, but I want to make my blog much more user friendly. And I guess more professional, categorized and just be a more useful experience for y’all. I have big plans with this! If it works out (and fits in my budget for this year) It’s definitely something I’d love to do! If y’all have any suggestions for graphic designers that you recommend, let me know!
11. Build a community – Okay one more then I’ll stop! Last year, I mentioned that I wanted to get to know you all better and vice versa. I used my Instagram stories as a way to just come on and talk to y’all. And I’m so happy to say that I truly feel I got to know y’all better and y’all got to know me better as well. I want to take it step further this year. I want to build a community! I want to find a way where we can all come together and encourage each other daily! Whether it’s a prayer request, an item you’re currently loving, a funny story, a word of encouragement for other mamas, etc., I want all of us to come together and share! I truly consider y’all to be my friends. Y’all mean so much to me. It may sound crazy, but I just feel like I know so many of you through chatting on here or on social media. I want to expand that. I think it would be so much fun!
One last thing to mention! Right after Christmas, I started to feel just over clothes. Yes, I’m a fashion blogger and yes I’m saying that haha. It honestly started when I shared my blog post on my Uncle Doug. Yes, I love fashion and will by all means continue to share! But I want to be an outlet for y’all. Sometimes, I just feel like I have so much more to share than clothing.
One of the reasons I re-branded to “Something Delightful” in 2015 is because I wanted to be able to share anything on here with y’all! I want to be a delightful part of your day. An outlet where you can come here to find inspiration, encouragement, or just a reminder that you are beautiful and oh-so loved. Yes, a cute sweater that’s on sale for a great buy is awesome and so is a hair product that adds tons of volume to your hair, but at the end of the day, it’s not about what we’re wearing or how our clothes look, but it’s about how you feel in your heart. So in 2019, I will most definitely share my passion for creativity and fashion, but I am also going to be your friend. I want my posts to make you smile and just remind you that you are cherished and so very loved.
Here’s to 2019! I’m trusting in the Lord for every single step, decision, and even every single blog post I compose. I hope y’all will continue to follow along and join in on all the fun. I appreciate you all so very much!
P.S. If you have any post requests of what you’d like to see this year, looks you’d like to see styled, topics you’d like to hear me chat about (both on here and my IG stories), really anything! Please let me know 🙂
Delightfully Yours,
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