Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Final Recap of 2019 Goals

This year, I had a lot of expectations for myself and sometimes I wondered if they were a little too high.  But, I really wanted to feel like I'd accomplished something when I looked back at the end of the year.  This was my first year of self-employment and I was putting it up on a pedestal.  At times, I felt like I got nothing done.  Other times, I felt like I conquered an entire mountain.  Realistically, I really just wanted to get my s**t together.  (That's literally what I wrote at the top of my working Goals for 2019 list.)  For a while, I have felt like I've been floating along as a bystander in my own life.  This year, I wanted to take some of that control back.  And to me, that feeling of control usually coincides with a checklist.  Hence, this post.

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This year, I picked up my tradition of posting my Disney goals.  Back in January, I posted 20 of my Disney Goals for 2019.  Now I'm back to see how I did.  I've been making goal lists for about 10 years now and I've never completed an entire list before.  Nevertheless, it's something that I genuinely look forward to.  Here are my past goal posts: 2014 goals2014 recap2015 goals2015 recap, 2016 goals, 2016 recap2017 goals.  (As you can see, I never did a 2017 recap, or even posted any of my 2018 goals.  In early 2017, Happily Ever Hatter really took off and I've barely looked back since.  For 2018, I had the same goals as 2017 and I didn't even look at the list except for the first few days of the year.)

For 2019, I went back to basics.  Some of these have been on the lists since the very beginning.  For those of you who are new, or need a reminder, here is a short version:

Melissa's Blog and Disney Goals for 2019

1.)  Go to Walt Disney World
2.)  Go to Disneyland
3.)  Go on a Disney Cruise
4.)  Do the Princess RunDisney Races
5.)  Go to the D23 Expo 2019
6.)  Go to the Epcot Festival of the Arts
7.)  Go to Disney at Christmas Time
8.)  Make Disney Decor for the Holidays
9.)  Make Disney Accessories
10.)  Have Disney Movie Nights
11.)  Have Disney Board Game Nights
12.)  Disneybound/Themed Outfit Challenge
13.)  Have a Disney Themed Party
14.)  Take an Online Storyboard Class, Watercolor or Handwriting Class
15.)  Design an Imagineering Project
16.)  Read Disney Books
17.)  Paint Disney Art
18.)  Decorate House with Disney Touches
19.)  Launch Wish Upon A Wardrobe
20.)  Launch A Touch of Enchantment

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The list was long but at the beginning of the year, it seemed manageable.  So, without further ado, let's see how I did with my 2019 goals!

Melissa's Blog and Disney Goals for 2019

1.)  Go to Walt Disney World- Goal Met
It seems like this is always my first goal of every new year.  Walt Disney World is my happy place, and it's always a goal to go back!  I'm happy to say that this year, I was able to go to my happy place five times- in January, February, September, November and in December.

2.)  Go to Disneyland- Goal Met
Disneyland stole my heart back when it celebrated it's 60th year.  This year, we didn't officially have plans to go back but we were hopeful that we'd be able to.  Although, it was a quick trip, Eliot and I did go to Disneyland for a day in May.

3.) Go on a Disney Cruise- Goal Met
Ever since we did our first cruise in the fall of 2016 I've been dying to go on another.  This year, not only was I able to go on one Disney Cruise, but I went on three!!!  First, I went on a Halloween on the High Seas Cruise for SeaCon 2 back in September.  Then, I was blessed to go on back-to-back Very Merry Time Cruises in early December.  It was heaven.

4.) Do the Princess RunDisney Races- Goal Met
This was my RunDisney swan song.  I don't think I'll do another 10K, and I'm definitely not signing up for another half marathon unless I've trained properly and already completed a few trials at home.  I'm simply not built to do the long distances and it's not worth potentially injuring my bad knee.

5.)  Attend the D23 Expo- Goal Not Met
We had so much fun at D23 Expo 2017 that I couldn't imagine missing this year.  However, we weren't in the financial position to go, so we made the difficult decision to stay home.

6.) Go the the Epcot Festival of the Arts- Goal Met
I've been dreaming of going to this Festival ever since I first heard of it.  This year, we were finally able to attend the 3rd ever Festival of the Arts.  It's now my favorite festival.  Eliot and I were blessed to be there for both opening day and for the last day of the festival this year.  I can't wait to go see it again!

7.) Go to Disney at Christmas Time- Goal Met
This year, we were able to see the decorations at both Walt Disney World and on our Disney Cruises in December!  We also got an extra holiday trip in there at Thanksgiving with his family.  I love seeing the parks and cruise ships decorated.  They're spectacularly beautiful.

8.) Make Disney Decor for the Holidays- Goal Not Met
I don't think I made any specific holiday decorations this year, but I did organize some of my crafting supplies so that I can in the future.  I've got so many ideas!

9.) Make Disney Accessories- Goal Met
I really enjoying creating accessories.  This year, I expanded my horizons as I made myself a few tote bags in my sewing class.  I'm looking forward to learning how to make more bags, scarves, skirts, dresses and more!

10.) Have Disney Movie Nights- Goal Met
Thanks to Freeform, I've seen a lot of Disney movies that I hadn't in a while.  Now that we have Disney+ I expect that number to rise! 

11.) Have Disney Board Game Nights- Goal Not Met
Eliot and I have so many board games and we love playing them.  This year, we weren't able to play any of them, but we did start to organize them.

12.) Disneybound/Themed Outfit Challenge- Goal Not Met
This year, I put a lot of my clothes and accessories away in order to work on getting the house organized.   Unfortunately, that made it so that I didn't really care about making themed outfits.  I have so many fun things and I'm hoping I can do it more next year!

13.)  Have a Disney Themed Party- Goal Not Met
Blah, I still really want to do this... it wasn't the year but I'm still hopeful!

14.) Take an Online Class- Goal Not Met
This is one of those goals that keeps getting rolled into the next year.  I've been looking at online Storyboard, Watercolor or Handwriting classes for sometime now.  I still didn't make time to do any of them this year, but I was able to take a lot of adult education classes in person so that's made me feel really fulfilled.  I love learning new techniques.

15.) Design an Imagineering Project- Goal Not Met
Eliot and I love brainstorming about new parks attractions, shows, restaurants, stores, and hotel resorts.  We'd love to work on a small design project but it wasn't meant to be this year.

16.) Read Disney Books- Goal Not Met
I have so many books.  Santa brought me a few new Disney books for Christmas last year.  I didn't get a chance to read them, but I'm ready to make time for them.  I miss reading!

17.) Paint Disney Art- Goal Not Met
I have so many fun ideas!  Unfortunately, none of them came to be this year.

18.) Decorate House with Disney Touches- Got Not Met 
Eliot's and my main goal (besides business goals) of 2019 was to finally get settled in our house.  We didn't accomplish that, but we did make huge strides towards it.  Stay tuned!

19.) Launch Clothing Line- Got Not Met
This year, we were supposed to launch my clothing and accessory line.  It didn't work out as I'd planned, but I'm ready to work extra hard to make it happen.

20.) Launch Home Decor Business- Goal Not Met
We were also supposed to launch our home decor business and we were very close to doing it this past spring.  However, after much deliberation, we realized that we needed to re-design a few products that we wanted to launch.  We're looking to a Spring 2020 release instead!

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All in all, 2019 was a good year.  My 2019 word of the year was CONQUER.  I had my sights set high to conquer most (if not all) of these goals and I'm a little disappointed that I fell short of that goal.  However, I'm very happy with everything we were able to accomplish.  We traveled a lot this year- a lot more than we were planning to.  That takes up time, but we still were able to get our Happily Ever Hatter stuff done.  Plus, we made huge strides on the house projects.  Eliot and I are on the right track, now we just have to keep it going!

Thanks for the adventure 2019!  Here's to another year to dream big, set my sights high and reach for the stars!!!  Goodbye 2019!  Hello 2020!!!  °o°

Sunday, December 1, 2019

December 2019 Calendar

Hello December!!!  What better way to start December and the holiday countdown than by spending it at my favorite place?!?!  Today, Eliot and I are wrapping up the last day of our Thanksgiving trip to Walt Disney World with his family.  Then, after a few days home in Maine, we'll be back to our favorite place later on this week to kick-off our back-to-back Very Merrytime Disney Cruises and WDW trip with my family!  Between now and Christmas, we're going to be away more than we'll be home which means this month is going to fly-by!!!!  Thankfully, I have my trusty Mickey and Minnie calendars to keep me organized!  And they can help keep your holiday schedule organized too!


I'm so humbled and honored to continue the tradition of posting my free printable calendars for other Disney fans to enjoy.  This is my 5th year!!!  I started making these back when I started my blog in 2014.  I first designed them as a way to track Eliot's and my RunDisney training and it's come so far!  I was so happy with how they turned out that I had to share them with everyone else.  To date, my printable calendars have been used for Disney trip countdowns, Disney themed classrooms, training calendars for runDisney events and to surprise kids with a Disney vacation!

Here's the link to download the December 2019 PDF version of the printable.

Here's the link to download the Blank December 2019 PDF version of the printable.

Feel free to link this post up to Pinterest or Facebook so your friends and family can have a fun Mickey and Minnie calendar too!  Let's spread the Disney Magic!!!  °o°

Note: I've made calendars through 2019.  I don't post the PDF links on my blog until the beginning of each month.  If you're looking for a particular month and would like me to email it to you ahead of my post going live, you can send my blog an email at mydisneylifeblog[at]gmail.com.  I'll send you the PDFs directly as soon as I can!  :-)