2012 highlights

Today, I’m doing an exception to my usual schedule, craft or recipe on Friday, to join Grace over at With Some Grace and her special Flog Yo Blog Friday 2012 highlights.

January

Freshly graduated from Uni (again) with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Journalism, I started to send applications to find some work in this field which was and is still a challenge.

At the last minute, hubby and I decided to go to Thailand for a few days.  We booked last minute tickets, packed up and jumped in a plane to spend 6 days in Phuket and 2 days in Bangkok.  It was truly an amazing trip we both enjoyed very much.

February

The idea of starting a blog was growing slowly in my head and I looked at different possibilities.  I started to read blogs and looked at what other bloggers were doing.

I started to do volunteering work with The Multicultural Women’s Sewing Group.

I also learned my best friend in Canada was pregnant of her second child and I felt very happy for her.

March

I learned my oldest brother was going to get married in August.  He and his fiancée live in Canada but her entire family is in Lebanon and they decided to get married in this country.  I was very excited because this was an opportunity to see my family again.

April

After many forms to fill, visas to apply for, waiting and travelling back and forth from Canada to Australia, I finally received my application from the immigration for my permanent residency in Australia!

I opened an account with WordPress, started to draft some posts and creating my blog.

May

After many doubts, I finally gathered my courage and hit publish for the first time with the post Overcoming your fears.  It’s the start of a great blogging adventure!

May is also the month of my birthday!

June

The first of June, my sister-in-law gave birth to my niece in Canada.  She’s the most beautiful little girl!  I wish I will have the opportunity to meet her in the New Year.

The second of June, my very good friend also gave birth to her lovely daughter.

The 22 of June, another good friend gave birth to her first baby.  A gorgeous little boy!

I wrote a post about my experience with bullying and it was very difficult to hit publish.

I joined for the first time Team Friday started by Belinda over at B Being Cool and taken over by Stacey-Lee over at Get on with it already.

I also started a fiction writing course.

July

I linked for the first time with Jess for IBOT with the post How far would you go for love? and discovered an amazing community.

I also wrote the post The Dream after taking the decision of not studying law in Australia.

August

Lebanon!  It was absolutely amazing to see my parents, my brother, my sister-in-law and my family over there.  It was a beautiful trip and we had such a good time spending days at the beach and visiting many places.  The wedding was magnificent!

September

Back to Australia, I received great news: my permanent residency was granted!

On the other hand, hubby’s work contract finished and the company decided to not renew it…

The 16 of September, Derek, the son of my best friend, was born…

I wrote about My occasional anxiety moments and received a Letter from God.

I joined for the first time Grace and her FYBF and discovered another great and supportive community.

October

October was a terrible month…  I received the most tragic news: Derek passed away…  You will always be remembered beautiful angel.

I wrote about the desire of having children; another post difficult to publish.

I did my first Wordless Wednesday linking up with Trish over at My Little Drummer Boys and Bree over at Twinkle In The Eye.

I created the Facebook page of the blog and, thanks to Grace and her Facebook Lovin Sunday, I had instant likers!

November

November was very busy.  Between my mother-in-law who did a full knee reconstruction, NaNoWriMo and everything else, I was quite exhausted at the end of the month.

I won my first blogging award: The Liebster Award.

Hubby also started a new job.

December

I won my second blogging award: The Sunshine Award!

I’ve done my Christmas wish list but I haven’t finished my Christmas shopping!

This year has passed so quickly…

Wow!  That was quite an interesting exercise!

One more thing: I purchased my own domain for my blog yesterday!  It’s now thecraftyexpat.com!  I don’t really know where all this blogging adventure will bring me but I know that I love it and I want to keep it up as long as I can!

Thank you for reading!

How was your year?

Happy Friday and enjoy your last week end before Christmas! 

Tagged as: 2012, highlights