Hello there and happy happy New Year family and friends!

This is probably one of the best Christmases and New Year I’ve had. Well, for one, we are spending the holidays with the entire family in Vancouver. Secondly, we have a new member in the family. My little cute nephew, Magnus. Such a wonderful gift to us especially after what he and my sister went through after giving birth.

Oh, 2017 was kind to me. I’ve seen so many places; did few things I’ve always wanted; It had ups and downs; proud moments and failures and a combination of all emotions. Nonetheless, it was something for the books. It taught me so many lessons in life that made me stronger and wiser. I guess, that’s why I was able to say it was still kind. Because I see most of the things as lessons to be learned. No one fails. We only gain something that makes us become better.

Anyway, I’ll be on a holiday for the entire January as I’ll be spending more time with my sister and Magnus. I’m also taking this time to recharge myself. I’ve been out of focus with my goals last year. Though, it was fun and some were new to me. However, I think, I was everywhere… doing everything without a focus, as always.

This time though, I feel I really knew what I wanted to do and I want to concentrate on that first. So, last night, I’ve been doing my usual end of the year journal and scheduling, using my Blangko planner of course, hehe. For the past few years, I’ve been thinking of goals and plans. But I never thought, I should have done a year end review as well. To see where I left off and where I can go from there. All thanks to Arriane’s The Purposeful Creative podcast for giving this light bulb moment.

Slowly, I’ve been going back to painting since I got here. Yay! Thank God for it… And I’m practicing Yao Cheng’s Botanical Watercolour at Creativebug just to warm up my hand muscles and to have a finish product almost everyday.

I’m also planning to have a free downloadable desktop and smartphone wallpaper every month. Since I’ve painted these Craspedia flowers from the class, I thought it would look nice as a wallpaper design. Just click the links to download it either for your desktop or phone.

January 2018 Desktop Wallpaper

January 2017 Smartphone Wallpaper

Two years back, I had a post about 5 Things To Become A Better You and my word or theme for that year was grateful. For 2018, my word would go a little deeper than the surface – forgive. One thing 2017 taught me was to go back to the root cause of what’s stopping me from what I truly wanted to happen in my life. With the help of journaling, I was able to dig deep and distinguished some things that I need to resolve.

I wanna say, I have a lot of plans for 2018. But truth be told… I’m just gonna rest for a month first. Listen to my inner self by journaling more. Hone my skills by learning and practicing. And simply to take care of myself as it also taught me that our health is very precious and it’s all that matters actually.

So, as you write your thoughts, reflections, goals and dreams for 2018, I pray that we will have the strength, motivation and commitment to finally pursue what we always wanted.

Happy New Year friend…