4 Highlights from 2020

Happy New Year everyone! What a year, right? 2020 hasn't been as kind as we all hoped and with the year we've had, it's hard to think that there have been any highlights at all. However, on New Year's Eve, whilst I sat on the sofa with my fiancé watching the fireworks (and drones!) light up the skies in London on TV, I began to reflect on my 2020 and realised it's not been all doom and gloom.

In 2020, I've had four really amazing and life-changing things happen and reflecting on my past year has changed how I look at my 2020. I'll never forget how tough and cruel this year has been not just to me and my loved ones but to everyone around the world. And I'll never forget how it changed us all either but I can't deny that these three things made 2020 a good year for me and I genuinely think that if it wasn't for 2020, some of these things wouldn't have happened.

Here are my four highlights from 2020:

I started my small business, Cece Designs.

During the first lockdown, I had a lot more time on my hands than I thought I would and wanted to do something worthwhile. Whilst some were baking and others were catching up on their reading, I began my small business selling scrunchies and pouches. I bought a sewing machine, perfected my sewing skills, (downloaded TikTok) and launched Cece Designs in a matter of weeks. Never did I think a national lockdown would give me the motivation to start something I always dreamed of doing, but I did and I've never looked back. As I write this post, I've reached almost 200 sales, have established a following on TikTok and am looking to launch new products in the form of sewn homeware pieces this month. Not bad, huh?

We moved house

After putting the offer in for our new house in October 2019, we were ready to move in a matter of months. In fact, we thought we were moving in January and had already started packing our lives away in December but what we thought was a little problem took an awful lot longer than we thought to sort out. (It's a long story and one I have written about in more detail for a post later on this month.) Fast forward to August 2020 and we were finally able to book a van and move into the house we spent almost a year trying to buy. I cannot begin to tell you how happy moving made us and how much it changed our lives, but it did.

We got a bunny

Back at the beginning of November, I went to Pets at Home to get my usual things for Cracker (my Syrian Hamster) and I spotted that they had a few rabbits there. They were so cute and little and as always, I swoon over them, pay and get out of there with my hamster goodies. Fast forward a month later and I was back to get my things for Cracker again and noticed that there was only one bunny left all on her own. I remember her because she was the only black and white one there. I remember feeling her pull at my heartstrings and the fact that she was there all alone didn't help.

I had no idea how long she'd been by herself and I enquired about her. I went back again after a weekend of uhming, ahhing and worrying about her and ended up buying her the following Monday. I knew I'd done the right thing because when I bought her the woman at the till had told me how she'd been there a while and they were beginning to really worry about her.

From that day this little black and white bunny who we called Oreo became the newest member of our family!

I got engaged! 

Christmas, I got engaged to my best friend. John surprised me with a ring under the tree and I was not expecting it! I had no idea and he had put a lot of work into getting it all sorted without me finding out. Looking back, I should've guessed some of it but I was none-the-wiser. I'm glad though because the it was perfect that way. It was the most beautiful moment and one I'll cherish for the rest of my life. After the year we've had, this was a perfect way to end 2020.

I hope you have also had some positive things to take from 2020. It's been a tough year but we got through it.

Here's to a brand new year full of growth, positivity and hope.