The Good, The Bad, The Ugly - Lessons Learned 2015


2015 as I've mentioned will forever be a year that changed my life on many different levels. Some good, bad, and ugly lessons were tacked on with free admission & no heads up. It's all made me a little wiser on the home front and I am ever so grateful.

The Good

1. Straightening out our "T's" in the Social Media World.

~ My husband thought Tumblr was Tinder. Keep in my mind - Craig & I met before Tinder existed so it's a little fuzzy to us. Tumblr is a picture blogging website & Tinder is a hook-up/dating app. No correlation. He told a friend to join Tumblr to meet women. I cracked up so hard. 

~ The Social Media icon "t" stands for Tumblr not Twitter. The lil bird is Twitter - the lowercase "t" is for Tumblr. I have to remember this...I can't tell you how many times I've clicked the wrong thing. 

2. Dry Jewelry Cleaner Wipes are your Best Friend! 

~ Our first Christmas together Craig bought me an amazing heart shaped locket w/ a cute picture of us inside. I wore it everyday until it tarnished. I was heartbroken. It was my favorite piece of jewelry and the sentimental value was priceless. Low & Behold this Christmas my mother-in-law gifts me some dry jewelry cleaner wipes as a stocking stuffer. The magic these lil wipes did had me almost in tears. The locket looks brand new and I didn't have to use any liquid. I will never not have these in my house!! 

~ Note: Alex & Ani bracelets tarnish very very easily. I left mine in the bathroom and I thought they were ruined. The dry cleaner wipes were perfect and cleaned them up good as new!

3. Take Other Bloggers' Advice

~ I feel like I"m a better person because I read blogs and adhere the wisdom bestowed upon me by very wise bloggers who know their stuff! Some of the advice works, especially the blogging advice!

~ I recently started using Canva which I learned from blog. It is forever going to change my blogging techniques.

4. Officially Learning Your Occupation.

~ By day I am a marketing analyst for an insert (ad) distribution company. Basically I make sure the store ads are in the right newspapers depending on geography. I've worked at the company for Five Years and I never felt like I had a full 100% comfort level with my daily tasks. However, when an employee leaves, sometimes you get an opportunity to shine and show just how well you do in fact know your job. This happened for me back in August and finally I can feel the comfort level settling in because I do know my job. It's refreshing to feel productive & helpful.

5.  Embrace New Food Recipes! 

~ My picky husband has promised me he will try anything once. This opened a flood gate of endless possibilities which have changed our lives for the better. Mostly I've been using Pinterest, food bloggers, food brand websites like Pillsbury & Johnsonville, and trying to catch those 30 second videos where people whip up a masterpiece on Facebook! Craig and I have been able to add some amazing staple dinner recipes to our rotation and it's helped out in so many ways!

The Bad

6. Not Paying Attention to your Diet & Exercise will Result in Weight Gain.  

~ Self-explanatory but it's a lesson I have to be acutely aware of in 2016. In five years I've gained close to 40-50 pounds. 2015 pushed me over the 200 pounds mark and it's been hard to get back under it. It's my own doing too. I can't ignore the nutrition facts besides Fat/Calories anymore. I can't get extra chicken at Chiptotle with all the dressings without seeing the effects on my body. It's finally time to start again.


7. I spend 75% of my income on food.  

~ This lesson was propelled by #6. A handy dandy self-audit in Excel was all too eye-opening. The culprits...Chiptotle, Pei Wei, Panera, Qdoba, & Noodles & Company to name a few. Thankfully these are all lunch places I frequent. I will definitely be working on drastically cutting my lunch expenses in the new year!

8. Discus Commenting Platform can block you as a Spammer. 
When I started blogging again in October 2015 I knew one of the tricks to start getting your blog out there. Commenting!! In recent years, Discus, has really picked up around the blogosphere. I started commenting on tons of blogs over and over and left my lil HTML link code for my blog in the comment. I guess I did it too much and eventually Discus blocked me as a spammer. I'm still a little upset about this because I didn't leave comments such as "Please follow me" or anything Spammy. Anywho, to fix this I created a new email address and now I'm able to comment on blogs using Discus. I do not leave an HTML signature of my blog anymore. If Discus is used correctly, other bloggers can go to your Discus profile and click on your blog's link.


9. When traveling make sure to notify your credit cards of your travel plans. 

~ Your credit card/debit card may not work in other countries. Especially if you're an American traveling outside the U.S. You can call the credit card provider and notify them of your travels. I didn't do this when we went on our honeymoon...Read below to find out why this was so bad. 

The Ugly

10. ALWAYS PACK AT LEAST A FULL DAY OF CLOTHES IN YOUR CARRY-ON WHEN TRAVELING!!!!!!

~ This final lesson is something I will never ever forget. Craig and I went on our honeymoon using United Airlines to the Dominican Republic. I was so excited until we got to arrived at the airport, but unfortunately our luggage did not. We had nothing. No underwear, no toothbrushes, no bathing suits, nothing but the thankful cash we had in our carry-ons. It was brutal. All in-clusive resorts don't generally sell underwear in the gift shop. Luckily, the shops sell sun dresses & bathing suits so Craig and I had something to use. The resort also was ever so kind and gave us some simple amenities. His luggage showed up the next day, mine two days later from our arrival day. Definite lesson learned. 

~ Always pack other must-have essentials also in carry-on. Your birth control, other prescriptions, extra cash, and other essentials you need to be you.

What Were Your Top Lessons Learned in 2015?  

3 comments

  1. I spent a lot on food during the second half of last year.. but I love it.. :-)

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  2. Fun post to read! Thanks for linking up to Thinking Out Loud Thursday today.

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  3. What a great post - The Tinder/Tumblr made me laugh!

    Christina :: Simple and Delish

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