The middle of the year means tax time, a new financial year, “holy crap we are in the second half of the year” and a myriad of related thoughts. I’m honestly just really relieved and glad that we are in July.

The three things I’m most proud of from this past month are:

1. Getting Nick a really nice surprise for his birthday – a Fossil bag I knew he wanted. He said he had always wanted a satchel and didn’t think he would actually get one.
2. Starting my category on web development. I am already filling it with posts!
3. Actually getting started learning some JavaScript and jQuery. It’s small, but it is progress.

The three things I’m most grateful for from this past month are:

1. My new workplace taking the time to set up onboarding meetings and various walkthroughs to get newcomers to get to know how everything works. It really, really helps out a new person when they may not know a thing or two about how something works.
2. My mother. <3
3. The team at Casual Band Blogger. They published some of my work in their first publication and I am thrilled to be a part of such an awesome team. Thanks gals + guy for letting me contribute to something great.

The most impactful lesson I learned this past month is:

Sometimes, “okay” is not good enough. Having something be just “okay” is not nearly as good as something being good, much less great. You have to do what makes you happy.

Looking ahead to July, I am…

super excited about:

The next edition of Nick’s Fashion Quarterly, which will be published this month. ;D

going to experiment with:

Drinking more veggie smoothies (I bought my mum a NutriBullet for her birthday and she’s obsessed!).

fully committed to:

Bettering my blog, both content and design wise.

planning to read:

Anything online that provokes thought, mostly in the realm of self-improvement and zen. I really want to control any negative emotions, and while I know meditation is an option, I know there is a plethora of great reads related to calming the mind.

curious to learn more about:

JavaScript, jQuery and Angular JS. I have my head around the first two, but want to feel confident writing the code. I am curious to see how easy or how difficult Angular JS might be.

Monthly review template from Nicole.