Another year has flown by and it's time to sit down and reflect. 2018 is a year I will always cherish. There were ups and downs as with every year, but 2018 was the year I married my best friend, something that will stay with me forever.
On the 1st January every year, I come onto my blog and find the 'goals' post I'd written the year before. I love having goals, something to work towards and plans to look forward to. If I haven't met them, I'm sure I've tried, some things just take a little longer to achieve or things change.
Looking back at the goals I set myself last year, I did a pretty good job at achieving some, which I'm super proud of.
Move house - well I've sort of half achieved that. I've bought a new house but not yet moved in due to renovating.
Organise my dream wedding - it's safe to say our wedding day was the most amazing day ever. It was everything we wanted and had imagined for us and it was perfect celebrating it with family and friends by our sides.
Continue travelling - I actually didn't think I had been able to do much of this in 2018, but since reflecting and looking back, I surprised myself. I visited some new countries and got to experience some amazing trips.
Rebrand - I knew my name was changing after the wedding so I wanted to rebrand to Sophie Hannah, which since a few days ago with the launch of this new website was completely finalised. I changed my social media handles back in summer before getting married and finally got the new site to go with the change.
Creative shoots - now this is something I didn't get to achieve. I think with the stress of wedding planning, there was no extra time to sit down and organise creative shoots. It's still something that's in the back of my mind, but I'm so dedicated to trying to push myself to create lots of video content for you guys on my social channels, I don't get much time to plan proper shoots.
Sophie Hannah Beauty - I launched my festival jewel collection which I was super proud of. I worked really hard and it was rewarding seeing you guys purchase my designs. SHB has taken a bit of a back seat however. I found it difficult to dedicate time to it, being busy promoting myself and creating content for Sophie Hannah. It's something I will pick up again, but I think I'm going to have a little break in 2019. I do have something else up my sleeve though.
Give myself more down time - now I sort of actually did this, because I got married I wanted to give myself time off. I had a month off youtube which was great and I definitely made more of an effort giving myself breaks. It's hard though when your job is your hobby too.
Continue growing on social media - it's been a funny year with the algorithm, it's hit all of us bloggers. I hardly grew in the first 8/9 months of the year, however my Halloween tutorials were well received and I created some eye catching hair dye videos, my channels boomed in follower growth at the end of 2018. I know it's not about the numbers, but it's the only way to know you're doing well and it's a reward for hard work.
It's now time to set myself some new goals. It's funny because for this year ahead, I don't really have many. I'm pretty content with where I am right now, but I like to have something to work towards.
Move into our new house - if you don't yet follow @sophiehannahome, do! I'm sharing my renovation journey with you all and I really hope you will enjoy it. Our new house is a victorian townhouse and it needs EVERYTHING doing to it. New bathrooms, new flooring, new decor and even an extension for a new kitchen. We're currently still living in our small 2 bed terraced house at the moment, cramped with little space. But my goal for 2019 would be to get the house as liveable as possible for us to move in. Basically we want the kitchen extension to be completed and we'll be happy. This is definitely my biggest goal this year.
Continue travelling - now the wedding is out of the way, I feel like this year I will have more time to travel. We've got a few trips planned already: Brighton for our 10 years, a wedding in Guernsey, a mini holiday to Ibiza with my sister and her boyfriend and hopefully Disney Orlando for our first year wedding anniversary. It's going to be tricky with paying for the house renovations, but hopefully we will be able to experience more travel in 2019.
Collaborations - for 2019, I want to continue growing as Sophie Hannah and I feel like I'm ready for some bigger opportunities. I would absolutely love to collaborate with a beauty brand on a makeup palette or something. It's been a goal of mine for a while and I feel like 2019 could be the year - I hope anyway! I would also love to have a festival clothing collection in collaboration with a brand. Festivals is a key reason why a lot of you follow me and you're always asking where I get my festival clothing and accessories from. It would be amazing to be able to say I designed it and give something back to you all.
Continue growing Sophie Hannah - as I said above, it's not all about the numbers, but it would be super rewarding to continue growing on social media. I still can't believe I hit 554K followers on Instagram and 200K on Youtube by the end of 2018! Thank you so so much.
Spend more time with loved ones - this is something I take for-granted sometimes. I think it's because I've become too comfortable just staying in on a Saturday night, snuggling up on the sofa with the dogs! To be honest I did get much better at making effort with friends towards the end of 2018, so I need to keep this up. I do love socialising so I need to make more of an effort to organise catch ups, even if it does mean travelling to London.
And that's it. Just a few goals to work towards in 2019. The biggest one is getting our house liveable as it will make our lives so much better. I will have more space to create content and to store all of my belongings and the dogs will have more space to run around. I wish you all the luck for 2019 and I hope you stick with me in following my journey.