Happy New Year Everyone!

2020 was quite the year.

I started my third year of university, built some furniture, and reached lots of blogging milestones.

Oh right, how can I forget, there was also a worldwide pandemic that led to job loss, deaths, and a societal standstill.

Overall, a year that will never be forgotten. 2020 was a year to remember and what better way to commemorate the year than with a review of everything (well mostly everything) that happened in both my life and blog.

For the last couple of years, I’ve been writing a “Year in Review” blog post both as a reminder of what I have accomplished (good or bad) within the year and how I can improve on that during the following year. Plus it’s fun to remember what happened within the year that made it so memorable!

2020 Accomplishments and Year in Review

blogging

This year was extremely good for Plaid and Sugar. I was able to fulfill a huge chunk of my blogging goals and in some cases, I even surpassed them which was extremely unexpected!

One of my goals was to reach 30,000 all-time blog views and surprisingly I reached that goal in June! I finished 2020 with almost 46,000 all-time views. Over 25k views in just one year!!!  If you do the month that’s an average of two thousand blog views per month which also surpasses one of the goals I had set up for the blog back in January (which was to get around 1500 a month!).

Plus for the first time ever, Plaid and Sugar had over 3000 blog views in just one month (December) which was an unbelievable (but not unwanted) surprise! And I feel so proud of my little blog, I never thought I’d reach that amount of views in a month and so I thank you all for helping me reach this milestone ♥

As I mentioned in my 2020 Mid Year Update, in late February I change my blog theme/template and so that minor blog goal of changing it was fulfilled! If you have a Blogger blog and want to change the look, I recommend checking out Berenica Designs on Etsy (not affiliated). All of the templates are beautiful, somewhat cheap and the owner is extremely helpful anytime you need help!

Also, in late August I decided to uy my own domain name so that it would be PlaidandSugar.com! It was a nerve-wracking process since I was worried about link redirection but it was surprisingly easy and oh so worth it! Plus it makes me feel like a more professional blogger.

So blogging-wise, 2020 was really good to me and hopefully, 2021 will be like it!

life

As for my personal aspect, 2020 was a mix of both good and bad, which is strange but sometimes I need to look on the brighter side, or else fear and anxiety will consume me.

In March lockdown started then in mid-June everything went back to semi-normal (stores, libraries, community centers opened again with some restrictions) but then in September when all the children had started school again COVID cases rose again and so in October mostly everything started closing down again. And as I write this, my province has started a second lockdown (only essential stores are open) and we are all home again.

Many people I know (both friends and family) have gotten or died of the virus and many more have lost their jobs and are living in uncertainty right now, especially concerning the aftereffect of 2020 and what will happen in 2021.  I won’t write much about this, because everyone knows that 2020 was a year that deeply affected every single person in the world and didn’t want to minimize the virus while trying to see the positive of they unpredictable year.

In September I started my third year of university and it was quite different from years prior. Mainly because all classes were remote (i.e. online) and so it has certainly been a learning process as it’s not the same as being in-person.

But like everything else, I’ve adjusted and have found some positives to online learnings such as not having to commute therefore having around 12 hours extra per week and being able to watch recorded lectures at 1.5x speed and with captions is a huge plus. The winter semester starts in a couple of weeks and I feel more prepared for it as I now know what to expected and how to deal with it.

This past summer I spent a huge chunk of my time making furniture and taking care of my vegetable garden (which you can read here). I grew countless tomatoes both small yellow ones, classic red ones, and green peppers. It was an amazing experience as over the summer we did not have to buy any tomatoes or peppers at the store and although I’m not a big fan of tomatoes I enjoyed “feeding” my family through the garden.

As for furniture making, I made multiple benches, in different styles, some console tables and refurbished an old rocking chair!

I also got into a “fixer-upper” mood and renovated my super sad looking entryway into a useful and welcoming space and I have to say. It’s one of my favorite projects of the year! Hoping that in 2021 I’ll be able to do more makeovers.

Without these hobbies, I probably would have been much worse mentally and it helped me take my mind off of everything going on in the world for a short while and so I’m glad (and privileged, of course) to have had the opportunity, and tools, to do all of that.

One thing I’m proud of is how much I sewed this year!

Compared to other years, in 2020 I sewed multiple pairs of shorts, made a birthday skirt for my 21st birthday, some tops, and a super cute and comfy sweater.

If you remember the “plaid” in Plaid and Sugar stands for my love of sewing and so it was nice to go back to my (blogging roots) and post more sewing reviews and projects.

Also, in mid-December, I sewed my first lined coat which I will post about soon!

As I mentioned before, between June and late September it felt like life had gone back to semi-normal and so everything had opened up anew, and while we didn’t do interprovince or region travel I did get to visit some new places:

In July I went to a lavender field which was absolutely beautiful and will definitely be going back next summer!

Then in early October my family and I went to a local apple orchard to pick some apples and enjoy the fall season.

It was an amazing experience and I definitely recommend it! Plus I made a crazy amount of baked goods with the apples we picked so that made the experience much more memorable.

regrets?

Some, I wish that I had posted more but this year I had an extremely hard time both coming up with blog post ideas and working on them. Mainly due to depression and anxiety, plus add COVID to the mix and it’s nigh on impossible to focus and led to wasting a lot of time which I regret. But I also recognize that we’re in a pandemic so it is permissible to not do things (hopefully that makes sense).

Unfortunately, I did not reach both my Instagram and Twitter goals for the year and I regret not having spent more time posting and being on there to grow my audience. But then again, blogging is my main focus.

Surprisingly this year (I mean 2020) I did not read as much as I wanted. You’d think that being in lockdown I’d have endlessly time for reading but anxiety, stress and procrastination prevented me from focusing while reading. But hopefully in 2021 I’ll get back on track!

How was 2020 for you? Besides the pandemic, what was the most memorable thing that happened to you this year? Did you fulfill some of your goals?