2019 Check In & Intentions
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How’ve you been? Pretty much the same as last year? Taking the new year by storm? Laying low because you know that’s an OK thing to do? It’s been a little over two weeks into the new year, so I wanted to take some time to drop in, do some reflection, maybe make some predictions for the year ahead. You know the deal.
We’ve been gradually easing into a new year of work and planning, trying to be even more intentional of how we spend our time, money, and energy. And I’m excited. I’ve already learned we are really really bad at all of those things!
Intentions for 2019:
Time & Energy: Maybe it sounds cliche, but we both want to be even stricter on what & who we allow to take up our time and energy. I know I’ve mentioned this over the last few months and I sound like some cut throat gay ready to get rid of everything and everyone in my life, but really this is just one of those things that takes time to get good at, and it’s been a focus for a while. 2016, 2017, and 2018 led to a lot of mental and emotional fatigue. We were taking on too many projects, trying to do too much, and ended up having that feeling of, “I’m always spinning my god damn wheels but don’t feel like I’ve gotten anything done.” Fuck that feeling. A big focus toward the end of 2018 was on being extremely mindful about the work we take on, actually literally scheduling in down time, and who we surround ourselves with. 2019 will be more of that!
Planning, Duh: We’re going to TRY to get better about actually planning ahead for things like vacations, projects, social time, home cooked meals, etc. Yes we did just book a trip to Chicago with roughly one week to plan, so maybe not doing the best on this one. A big part of the problem with having spent so much of the last few years nearing our burn out level was never feeling like we had the time to plan. But really maybe it was that we never planned so we never felt like we had time to do everything and always felt burnt out? We’re working on switching that up. What’s that cheesy and overused motivational quote? If you fail to plan, you plan to fail? Oh my god I’m nauseous, but yeah, that.
There’s a third intention that’ll take longer to explain, and it’s about you. Well, it’s about us. Us and you.
We’ve been writing on this small corner of the internet for almost 5 years now, which is weird. We’ve created a million recipes, designed a bunch of spaces, and have been fortunate enough to travel to so many places we never thought we’d be able to visit—and share all of it on here and our Instagram. The reality is, only about 20% of our lives get put online. Not because we’re hiding anything, but because it’s literally hard, well, impossible, to capture every moment of our lives… and because at the end of the day, we really only want to share the things that excite us. Groundbreaking news to you, I’m sure.
So, that third intention: In 2019, we’re going to try and be better about sharing all of the less exciting stuff. It’s what we enjoy seeing from other people online, and with things like Instagram Live and personal blog entries, we’re able to do that. For pretty much the entire life of this blog, we’ve felt like if we didn’t have a new recipe, or design, or travel experience to share then there was no point in posting. But, like, that’s dumb, and this should be a space where we can share all of our thoughts, even when they aren’t necessarily remarkably interesting. And maybe you’ll read them because you like us, or because you’re bored at work and want to read something easy, or because you, like us, love feeling connected to someone else even if it’s just online.
We want to be putting more of our full personality online, even when it’s cynical or weird or in general maybe not what folks expect from us (hello, that one time our collection included dick plates and everyone one was like ‘haha what’). We’ve got a multitude of interests, and we’re looking to share that more in the year ahead. And we’re excited about it!
That being said, other stuff you can expect this year: a decent serving of travel we’ve got planned, finally finishing decorating our apartment, and the completion of The La Anna Guest House. We’re also looking forward to creating more recipes, continuing to edit and perfect our huge all-encompassing list of our favorite places in New Orleans, and, honestly, who knows what else.
Thanks for being on this ride with us! If you’ve made it this far, comment below with what your 2019 intentions are, we’d really love to hear from you!
xoxo Beau & Matt