Happy New Year - A Glance Back and Look Forward

It's officially 2013. I hope you made it through New Year's Eve safely and I wish you the best for a bright and happy new year.

~A Glance Back~

For me, the highlight of 2012 was my acquisition of Rebella, aka Canon Rebel T3i. I literally pour my heart and soul and blog my fingers to the bone for it, lol....Seriously. I'd like to thank the Luuux community for making that possible.

To be honest, 2012 was a rather sad and depressing year for me. I've totally let myself go. Lost weight then gain a ton back. Left some project hanging in limbo. Had some unfinished business in my heart and mind. To compensate for my mild depression, I've spoiled myself to death throughout the year. Probably not the best way to cope with it but it made me happy in some ways.

As far as my blog, I am amazed at the amount of work I've put in. I did a total of 477 posts in 2012. I blogged almost every single day. It's unfortunate that Blogger doesn't give you a yearly overview statistic. But since I regularly look at the stats, I've noticed that I do get a pretty constant amount of traffic on a daily basis. I get on average 1700 views per day and 50,000 a month. Definitely saw an increase in traffic within the past 3 months by 200 more daily. I am very pleased to see that.
If you look on the right side panel, you will see my most popular posts. I still cannot believe how much traffic I get on the daily for some of those, most surprisingly my Birthday Food post, which I totally wasn't expecting to get over 12,000 views and out numbered many of my beauty posts, lol.
Second surprising post was Essence Lipstick Creamy Nude. I certainly wasn't expecting to get close to 13,000 views for it. I barely hear people talk about this brand so that was a shocker.
Dupe for MAC Rebel Lipstick earned over 20,000 views. I did not see that one coming and didn't realize how popular Rebel is.

I didn't have a particular goal for my blog in 2012 but I am quite happy with my non-planned accomplishment.


~Looking Forward~

I haven't thought thoroughly about what I have planned for my blog. Most of the time, I just blog on the fly, lol. If I do anything in advance, it's usually just a couple days or a week at the most but that rarely happens.

I am hoping that in 2013, I will not haul as much products as I did in the past couple years. This is an expensive hobby and the dollars add up. I've had to throw away some products that I've barely used and have gone bad. I've also noticed some product collecting dust. This makes me feel that I've wasted my money on things I didn't need. And I work hard for my money so it makes me feel bad. I haven't thought of a reasonable budget yet but I know I need to cause otherwise, I'll just go back to doing the same old thing, lol.

I'm hoping to do more makeup looks this year. I don't have a specific number in mind at the moment but if you would like to make a suggestion I'll be more than happy to consider. In my last two makeup looks, I've included a picture tutorial. I don't know if anyone actually looks at those or find it helpful but it is a lot of work to put together so I'm still on the fence if I should continue doing so. If you would like to continue seeing the picture tutorial, please let me know.

I'd like to branch out to indie companies and international products. I don't have a specific brand or company in mind but I'd like to at least try a few for 2013. Recommendation are welcome.

I've recently started a photography blog (another expensive hobby, smh). Though I don't see myself posting on it on the daily like how I do here, I still have plans and projects for it. So now my time is divided by my so called life, work, and two blogs, lol. You can bet that I will be keeping myself extremely busy.

I'm a rather mellow and quiet person most of the time, though I'd like to network with others, I feel like I just don't have that bubbly personality that makes me look "noticeably" friendly without coming across as fake. I guess I need to improve on my (online) social skills, lol...even hate to admit that but that's kind of how I feel.

So that is it...no major plans yet but that's usually kind of how I am. Most of the time, I like to just go with the flow.