217 of 2017

Every year, at the beginning of the new year, I write up a giant list to review the year that was and look forward to the year that will come. This list pertains the highs, the lows, the blog stats, the memories and everything else that meant something to me in the previous year. This is my final look back on 2017: let’s kick off 2018 with a bang! 

217 of 2017

If you would like to read my other posts, I started doing them in 2012. Click here for:

• 212 of 2012
• 213 of 2013
• 214 of 2014
• 215 of 2015
• 216 of 2016

I like going over these lists in categories. I will start of with my blog/ youtube facts, then go into more personal work and life related facts. Here’s my list!

1. 2017 was the best year for my blog to date.
2. In total, my blog attracted more than 150,000 unique visitors.
3. Additionally, my blog was viewed over 222,000 times.
4. The top three months were March, October and November.
5. 2017 was the first year, where I had more than 15,000 unique visitors in a single month.
6. It was a slow start.
7. I had made a mistake, years ago, which made Google hate me.
8. I found out about the mistake in late 2016.
9. It took more than 5 months to backtrack through all my blogs to find all the aspects that made my blog suddenly rank much lower in Google Search.
10. With that problem solved, I instantly saw my visitor numbers rise again.
11. Of the top 15 most viewed blog posts on my website, 6 were posted in 2017.
12. All 15 blog posts were beauty reviews.
13. Most of the reviews were on drugstore products, mainly Catrice.
14. 5 blog posts were on face products.
15. 3 were on lip products.
16. 6 reviews were on eyeshadow palettes.
17. 1 review was on haircare products.
18. This is the top 15 of most viewed blog posts in 2017:
19. Catrice 24 H foundation
20. New Catrice lipsticks
21. Zoeva Plaisir Box incl. Cocoa Blend, Caramel Melange & Blanc Fusion
22. Syoss Keratine Repair
23. Catrice Light Correcting Serum Primer
24. I Heart Make Up Golden Bar eyeshadow palette
25. Make up Revolution Flawless eyeshadow palette
26. MAC Mehr Lipsick & Soar Lip Pencil
27. Catrice Absolute Matte eyeshadow palette
28. Catrice Nude Illusion powder
29. Maybelline Fit Me Foundation
30. Zoeva Rose Golden & Cocoa Blend
31. MAC lipsticks
32. Catrice the Precious Copper collection
33. Bourjous Healthy Mix foundation (new formula)
34. Out of this top 15, 6 posts are in my all time top 10 of best viewed blog posts.
35. I gained lots more followers.
36. This started at the end of 2016, but kept going in 2017.
37. I now have over 1200 followers on my blog.
38. So thanks to everyone who is following my blog!
39. You guys are awesome!
40. Most people are online on Sunday at 6 PM.
41. Youtube also started to grow.
42. 2017 was the year where regular video posting started to bear its fruit.
43. My channel now has more than 700 subscribers.
44. The most popular video on my channel is the Essence Fall/ Winter 2017 update.
45. Number 2 is my other Essence update video: Spring/ Summer 2017.
46. The top 3 is rounded off by my eyeshadow palette collection.
47. All three videos were posted in 2017.
48. So all in all, I am looking back on a successful blogging year in 2017.
49. It wasn’t always easy to keep it going, especially when I’m busy.
50. But that is why I took some time off last week and now I’m back in full swing again.
51. On a more personal note, 2017 was also a year of change.
52. You may know I became an auntie.
53. And you may also know I bought a house.
54. But life was full of surprises in 2017.
55. I had a health check at the beginning of the year.
56. I had already started to lose some weight.
57. However, the conclusion of the check-in was that while fit, I was overweight.
58. Because I had already started my weightloss journey there was no need for an intervention.
59. But it only strengthened my wish to succeed.
60. My goal was to lose roughly 10 kilos (or 20 pounds).
61. I finally succeeded this fall.
62. Through regular workouts and a healthy daily diet, I managed to lose the weight.
63. I don’t actually weigh myself.
64. Rather, I keep a few clothing items around that I know I will fit into when I’m a certain weight.
65. For instance an old pair of Levi’s 501, I bought years ago.
66. I was happy to say that they now fit me again.
67. I actually have been wearing them to work.
68. They fit nicely, but that boot cut does take some getting used to.
69. The first part of the year was very friends and family focused.
70. I met up with friends left and right.
71. I actually met a great bunch of people at the gym in 2016.
72. In 2017, we started to also hang out outside the gym.
73. In them, I have found a lovely new bunch of people to hang out with and share memories with.
74. Early 2017 also had me start the search for my house.
75. The search started in 2016 already, but that was just the first preliminary scouting round.
76. By the end of 2016, I knew what I wanted from my new home.
77. I also knew how much money I would roughly be able to spend on it too.
78. However, housing financing rule change every year, so come January I had to go back to the bank for a recalculation.
79. I did just that and that’s when the search started.
80. Sadly, the Dutch housing market is mayhem at the moment.
81. I possibly couldn’t have picked a worse time to try buying a house.
82. Not only are there there simply not enough houses, everyone suddenly wants to move to Rotterdam it seems.
83. So that made it extra difficult to try and find something.
84. However, after nearly 2 months of searching, I walked into the place I now live in.
85. In the nearly 8 weeks I was searching, I went to see 3 – 4 homes a week.
86. Since I was not only moving house, but also cities, this was extra time consuming.
87. I spent a lot of time on my days off and on the weekends scouting out houses.
88. I also spent hours searching Funda and calling real estate agents for potential housing opportunities.
89. I’m glad that in the end I managed to find something.
90. It isn’t in anyone’s first choice of location when looking for a house in Rotterdam.
91. However, that is why I have been able to snatch it up.
92. Most people want to live in the city center, or close to it.
93. But I spent 15 odd years of my life living in the heart of a city and I was done with it.
94. So instead, I was looking for some peace and quiet and I have definitely been able to find that here.
95. In the mean time, my brother got married to his long time girlfriend.
96. And since my sister-in-law was also pregnant, we held a baby shower.
97. And in the same weekend I found my house, the baby was born.
98. Meaning, 2017 not only made me a home owner, but also and auntie.
99. I got ill some time in March.
100. I usually get sick at least once a year and this time it was a bad one.
101. I caught the flu, which lasted at least a week.
102. Then I spent another half week with a cold.
103. No fun and it also delayed my house hunt for a while, but in the end it all turned out for the better.
104. Work was absolutely crazy again this past year.
105. It is still fun, but due to some tasks, there are some definite peaks that sometimes make it difficult to plan.
106. I also think that’s what I got so sick when I did.
107. I had been running around for months.
108. With my agenda being seemingly quiet at the beginning of each week.
109. However, within a day, it would be filled to the brim
110. And I found myself being able to finish everything just in time.
111. Add on the stress of the house hunt and in the end that just didn’t go well together.
112. I took my time to recover and was able to battle some of these peaks a lot better throughout the rest of the year.
113. Speaking of work, I was able to take 2 different courses this year.
114. One was a basic course for examiners.
115. The other was one for exam committee members.
116. On top of teaching, running the English team and other tasks such as graduation and placement supervision, that definitely added some work to the plate.
117. I don’t mind learning new things though.
118. And I like how I got to meet some other colleagues, also from other schools.
119. It’s great to exchange ideas and practices with others.
120. Teaching can often be quite lonely.
121. It’s just you and your students.
122. But I like checking ideas with colleagues.
123. I believe it makes me a better teacher in the end.
124. Late spring saw another fun work related event.
125. I went to Orlando on a work trip.
126. I teach English in a programme specializing in Attractions and Theme Park Management.
127. And some of our students go to Disney World in Orlando for their placement.
128. Additionally, we had to do some liaising with the Disney team.
129. Plus, with Orlando being the theme park capital of the world, me and my colleague spent some extra days there to visit some other theme parks.
130. Along with Disney, we also visited Universal and Busch Gardens.
131. It was great to see all the differences between those different parks.
132. And it has helped me greatly to understand better what drives our students.
133. But also what line of work they will be going into.
134. I had always just looked at theme parks from a visitor’s perspective, but never from the operational perspective.
135. The trip really helped me gain better understanding of the industry, which was one goal I had with going on it.
136. After the trip, it was time for a bit of a blog project.
137. I now knew I was going to move, so that meant I had to declutter.
138. I decluttered my wardrobe.
139. I decluttered my nail polish.
140. And I decluttered my makeup collection.
141. Of course, I filmed it all!
142. Face products
143. Blush
144. Highlighters & bronzers
145. Miscellaneous
146. Single shadows
147. Eyeshadow palettes
148. Brushes
149. I still have to do lipsticks.
150. That declutter will be coming to you later this month.
151. I also got rid of just over 100 books from my bookshelves.
152. In terms of reading, I did very well for the first 2/3 of the year.
153. Once I moved in October, I kind of fell of the wagon for a bit.
154. I ended up ready 45 of the 50 books on my Goodreads reading challenge.
155. While I read fewer books this year, I did read more pages.
156. I read 17,992 pages in 2017, which averages around 400 pages per book.
157. While in 2016 I read 17,050 pages which averages 328 pages per book.
158. So I may have read fewer books, but they were bigger.
159. Come summer time, work always gets a little crazy.
160. But this year was exceptionally so.
161. To make matters worse, I had also booked tickets to go to Best Kept Secret.
162. The festival was fun.
163. I finally got to see Arcade Fire live.
164. And I also saw Radiohead for the third time.
165. My biggest discovery of the festival are Her and Sundara Karma.
166. To get a break from the craziness, I spent my birthday with my mom.
167. We did a high tea at a local restaurant which was a lot of fun.
168. I also visited a Japanese market with friends, had a BBQ and celebrated my birthday with friends.
169. To enable the move, I decided to work two weeks over summer break.
170. I exchanged those weeks for extra time off around fall time.
171. Since the finances were now all finalized, it was time to start arranging things for the move.
172. I went looking for furniture, paint swatches and places to find flooring.
173. Apart from saving up as much cash as I could muster, I also contacted moving companies.
174. After doing some research, I knew I wanted to get some professionals in for the actual move.
175. Mainly because I knew I was going to need everyone I knew that was at least somewhat handy for helping me do up the place.
176. So I didn’t want to burden everyone with a move to a completely different city.
177. I didn’t travel over the summer time, but spent the remaining weeks of my vacation just chilling out and preparing for going back to work.
178. Then I had 3 crazy busy weeks as I was teaching loads as well as had plenty of meetings to attend.
179. And then….
180. Then it was time for the move.
181. I received the keys to the place on 2 October.
182. And then the big DIY challenge could begin.
183. There wasn’t much to be done straight away.
184. All the big jobs such as a kitchen and bathroom were fine to start with.
185. Not to my taste, but nothing I cannot live with for the moment.
186. I will be redoing those in the years to come.
187. The main challenge was the paint work.
188. The house came in bright colors and murals, and I wanted everything to be a bit more natural and zen.
189. And there were a few things that needed fixing.
190. Luckily my dad, mom, brother and friends all came to the rescue.
191. Thanks to them, we got the job done in 2 weeks.
192. In the mean time I had started packing up my old place.
193. And we also found a new tenant for that.
194. After all the DIYing was done, I spent another 3 days putting together IKEA furniture and unpacking boxes.
195. October went by in a flash and so did November.
196. I had plenty of social engagements to go to in my weekends.
197. And I was still working on finishing up the house at the same time.
198. Meanwhile I had a major problem with a delivery from a large online store.
199. I had accidentally sent it to my old address and it couldn’t be rerouted anymore.
200. My old neighbours returned the package.
201. But then the postal services lost it in the Black Friday/ Pre-Christmas ordering shenanigans.
202. Luckily, I managed to sort it all out and it all worked out in the end.
203. Needless to say, all this, while work was still going on as usual, was a bit much.
204. Which is why I decided to take some time off between Christmas and New Year.
205. My goal for 2018 is to figure out a good schedule again.
206. I have been able to find a good routine, but fitting in blogging has been hard as I was just super tired.
207. But I’m sure I’ll be able to manage something.
208. I signed up to a gym and will be trying out some classes these next couple of weeks.
209. I have found out that workouts give shape to my week more so than work activities.
210. So it will be nice to have that sorted out soon as well.
211. And once that is sorted, then sorting out blogging will also be easier.
212. My wish for 2018 is to keep on rocking this space.
213. I hope I can let the blog and Youtube channel grow some more this year.
214. And I hope to make many more memories to come.
215. And I will start off straight away, because these next few months will see me throwing quite a few house warming parties.
216. So here’s to love, health, friends and family, blogging, traveling, great music, good movies, plenty of books and lots of cups of tea (or coffee)!
217. Let’s make 2018 the best year yet!

What was your 2017 like?