Thursday Press #61: the 2022 wrapped edition

[30 DEC 2022] Lifestyle Edition Vol. 010

Tell me I'm not the only one who's forgotten what day it is?

Blame a whirlwind of candy-cane-colored travel for this month's Friday favorites landing in your inbox mid-day instead of before dawn.

While we haven't had a full year of these monthly treats, I thought it'd be fun to take a look back at the entirety of 2022 and recap some of my absolute favorite things from the year!

Spoiler alert: choosing one for each category was impossible…

Favorite Investments: 2022 was the year I really started investing in my business seriously. From the HerHQ Foundations program to a website copywriting course to strategy calls for my workflows and email marketing, investing in the people supporting my business has been life-changing.

Beyond the people/services, I added a few programs to my business backend that have changed the game, including ClickUp, Zapier, and Loom. Talk about saving time + sanity!

Favorite Instagram Post: If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I love a good analogy. And this one is one of my best. Plus, it's packed with foundational Pinterest knowledge!

Favorite Email: What does looking for toilet paper have to do with Pinterest and your website? Find out here (and snag some solid gold CTAs for your next blog post).

Favorite Lesson Learned: Ask for help. Sure, it might feel good in retrospect to feel like you did something all by yourself, but I'm begging you to stop making yourself struggle just for the sake of it. Asking for help doesn't make you weak. It opens you up to connections and frees up time you would've spent watching YouTube tutorials on 2x speed only to still be confused.

Favorite Book(s) of 2022: I read a lot of good books this year, and a lot of decent books this year. Some of my favorites include: The Hotel Nantucket, Written in the Stars, and A Court of Wings and Ruin. This was the year I leaned hard into reading just for fun books and it was indeed fun. (P.S. I haven't finished the ACOTAR series, so TBD which book ends up my favorite of the bunch)

Favorite Desk Tunes: According to my Spotify Wrapped, I listened to an average of 6 artists. Constantly. Special shoutouts to Noah Kahan, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, Orla Gartland, and Nina Nesbitt.

But in addition to their albums, lofi beats and study playlists were really the stars of the show when it comes to getting solid work done with some music in the background.

Favorite Self Care Activity: No screen time in the morning & turning off notifications from social media. I've talked about these plenty, but I plan to continue leaning in to more intentional screen time. And yes, saying that makes me feel like I'm parenting myself.

Favorite Coffee Order: As I'm currently mourning the fact that the limited edition hazelnut Nespresso pods are out-of-stock, I'll drown my sorrows in venti peppermint white chocolate mochas and do my best to recreate them at home.

In 2022 as a whole, I fell in love with Chobani creamer. 10/10 recommend. I'm a simple coffee gal, but maybe I'll try some more fun recipes in 2023. Feel free to send your recs my way!

Favorite Gift Given: I go wild for a personalized Etsy gift. This year was no exception. We got a picture frame custom engraved with my grandfather's handwriting for my mom, with a message he'd written on a card several years ago. 

What made this gift even better? Every single member of my family had gotten some variation of his handwriting engraved on a product for each other. Talk about great minds thinking alike!

Favorite Gift Received: The Hatch Restore alarm clock. After staying up and sleeping in wayyyy later than normal this past week, I'm in desperate need of repairing my sleep hygiene. I'm especially stoked about the sunrise light feature on this clock to get us through the rest of these dark winter mornings.

And of course, here are this month's favorite (festive) cat pictures:

I feel like December has been about 5 days long. It's absolutely FLOWN. But it's been a good one. I hope you've gotten some much-needed rest and are looking forward to 2023. I know I am!