I’ve tried to write this post at least four times, but I’m hoping that this second glass of wine will help make it flow. After all, what excuses do I have? At the start of 2017 I promised myself (again) I was really going to work hard to grow this little ol’ blog – and once again I didn’t. Somebody change the record eh?

Though to be fair, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for last year – it was huge, hard and ultimately amazing. So big I had to admit defeat and delay the whole ‘New Year, New Me’ thing until after my birthday because Lord knows I needed a break.

So what happened in 2017?

Well for a start me and Craig celebrated our first anniversary with a weekend away in York – that I didn’t blog. I wanted it to be for us, where we could be silly and daft and not worry about getting a photo of The Shambles without the millions of people milling about.

It was on the run up to this weekend away, and the return to work that put some pretty big wheels in motion. I realised I was no longer engaging with my job. I liked it, I liked the people… but it didn’t challenge me and make me think. It wasn’t helping me grow. As we spend so much time in work, not being fully engaged felt like a disservice both to my company and me – so I left.

I found another job, that although it was still in marketing it is totally different. It has extra responsibility and meant learning new skills as I went. It was scary, but I’m so glad I pushed myself outside my comfort zone.

In the same week I started my new job, I also moved in with Craig.

Word of advice: Do not, I repeat, do not hand in coursework, start a new job and move house within four days. It is stressful AF and you may end up crying in the kitchen weeks later, because you so bloody tired and still have to do the washing up.

Anyway – we viewed one house, loved it and got told we could move in within two weeks. It happened faster than I ever thought it would. I thought it would include weeks of thinking and planning, but it was all about making the jump whilst we could.

As we were both living with parents it meant sourcing all the furniture and extra bits we needed in double quick time, and I will be forever grateful for all our friends and family for rallying round and making it possible.

A month after moving in, we got two tiny little rabbits. Becoming a bunny mum was such a steep learning curve it needs its own blog post, so let’s just say our lives have never been the same since!

They say comparison is the thief of joy, but boy am I good at it. It’s a habit I need to break, but that’s another story. This year I found out not only were my grades in line with others on my Masters course, they were even pretty good! My course is filled with people who have loads more experience and amazing careers, as much as I loved learning them it also gave me a nice dose of imposter syndrome. So finding out I wasn’t doing as badly as feared really built my confidence up!

Then of course there was the BIGGIE – the engagement! You can read my engagement story here, but to put it quickly, it involved a surprise holiday, a proposal and after it all we managed to get both sides of the family together for meal. It was such an amazing feeling getting everyone together to celebrate. We’re getting married!

The year ended with our first Christmas in our own home. We spent the first part of the morning as a tiny family (me, Craig and the bunnies) then visited all of our relatives before joining my family for Christmas dinner. It was busy, manic and magical!

So there you have it – 2017 was my biggest year yet, and I feel it has laid some great foundations for 2018!