Hello friends! It’s been a crazy week or so, so some quick life updates…

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The Blog Connect was a success!

There’s a lot more coming when it comes to The Blog Connect conference (this is what it was all about), but we got a lot of good feedback! I’m excited to recap and discuss what worked (and what didn’t) with the rest of the awesome team.

I quit shopping.

Okay, sort of. I gave up shopping for Lent, and am still doing strong after Easter. I have a post coming eventually with all of my purchases this year, but scaling back has been nice.

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The NFL Draft is in town.

Philly has been hosting lots of big events the last few years, including the Papal visit and DNC. I wasn’t expecting much from the NFL Draft, but I actually ended up having a fun time. (The NFL knows how to put on events, now I just wish they would have a better understanding of issues like DV.)

I’m looking for a new hobby.

Not quitting the blog anytime soon, but I would love a hobby that isn’t digital and can help me decompress. The answer is probably cross stitching. Super trendy, I know. My mom actually cross stitched a lot when I was growing up!

Fill me in on what’s going on in your life!

~ Sarah

[obligatory introduction sentence on how not-awesome 2016 has been]

Not everything about 2016 was awful.

The highlights… A new job. Being in a friend’s wedding and attending another. Deepening and rekindling friendships near and far. Going to Vancouver and the Pacific Northwest. Falling in love with Philly more and more. Building my blogging tribe and improving my content (at least I like to think I did!). As for cool things that are on deck in 2017…

I’m moving!

I’m going to get this out of the way: one of the lowlights this year has been the end of a long-term relationship. These things happen, and I have a lot of fond memories, but that doesn’t make moving on any easier — it might even make it more difficult. (This is also why I’ve had so much trouble recapping my West Coast adventures — it’s a textbook example of bittersweet.) Anyway! I buried the lede here, because the best thing to come out of this is that I am moving into my very own place this January. I’m so excited. I’ve never lived by myself before (I don’t think we can count the dogs as roommates), but I am happy with how things are coming together with the new place. I’m also going to be closer to Center City and be able to walk to work and basically this is my moving mood:

I’m going to get a library card!

I mean it this time. My success rate with my 2016 resolutions is all over the place, but by far the thing I am most disappointed by is not getting a library card and not reading more! My plan is to see how long I can do without cable at my new apartment. Hopefully I can just focus on books and podcasts and earn my hipster credit.

I’ll be going to Florida soon!

Some sweet friends from high school got engaged this summer, and I am so excited to go to their wedding this spring. I’ll get to see people I haven’t seen in years, and I’ve already ordered two potential dresses. This trip will also mark the longest Florida drought for me (it’ll be about 14 months!). I couldn’t appreciate my time at home more.

Every year has some change in it, because duh, but it’s a little different when you know that going into it. I wish you all a happy and healthy 2017! Thank you for reading, as always, and keep fighting the good fight.

~ Sarah