Month: March 2026

Current Favorites: March 2026

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Hello Sunny Siders! We are long overdue for an updated current favorites and hyper fixations, so that is what we will be discussing today!

Drinking hot water

I tried this in a whim because one of the artists I enjoy watching said this is one of her favorites and I completely get why. I love coming into work in the morning and having a cup of hot water to start the day. It’s like having a “fun” beverage without the added caffeine or jitters. According to the internet, drinking hot water can help to aid in digestion and improves circulation. I have no idea if that is true at this point, but I’m going to keep drinking hot water regardless.

Sudoku

With my work of the year being “think” I’ve been trying to do a lot more brain exercises to keep my mind sharp. One of my favorite activities has been sudoku. I got into this at the start of the year and it’s my favorite replacement for scrolling on my phone. My fiancé and I went on a cruise in February and anytime we were chilling in our room we were playing sudoku.

Julianne Doodles, Sundrop Studios, Spilled Ink, and RT Game

While I’m rarely on social media outside of posting for Sunny Sider Crafts, I do still love putting on YouTube videos. My favorite channels have mostly been art focused, and I love putting them on in the background while I’m working on products for Sunny Sider Crafts. It’s almost like having an accountability partner when I see other artists working on projects. My favorites have been Julianne Doodles, Sundrop Studios and Spilled Ink. Not art related, but RTGame has been putting out some fantastic gaming content, especially around Minecraft. My fiancé and I have been loving watching his lets plays while we have dinner or dessert on work nights.

Walks Outside

I’ve been doing a lot of these lately as it’s the few months of the year where the weather isn’t unbearable where I live. I am especially enjoying walks during my lunch break at work. It’s a great way to get up and away from my desk, and I always feel energized when I come back from one. My fiancé and I also try to do “Walking Wednesdays” as we call it, where we go for a walk after work and chat.

Jasmine Matcha Latte

I’ve gradually shifted from being a coffee drinker to preferring matcha and tea. My favorite drink of the moment is a matcha latte that uses Jasmine tea as the base. It is so floral and refreshing and the perfect beverage for spring and summer!

Scrapbook Journaling

Scrapbook journaling combines two of my favorite things: scrapbooking and journaling. I love having a way to utilize stickers and papers I accumulate from events I go to. Instead of throwing away tickets to the movies, I take them and build a journal spread around them. It has been such a fun way to get creative while also exploring my current thoughts and feelings.

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

I shred this recipe that I found on social media with the blog a while ago and it is still my favorite cookie of all time. I make a batch of dough every few weeks and freeze them in balls. Then, when my fiancé and I want a sweet treat, which is almost every day, we pull out the amount we want and bake them fresh. Nothing beats a hot and gooey cookie with a glass of milk for dessert. Probably the reason we haven’t gotten tired of this recipe after making it consistently for over a year!

Minecraft

As a Gen-Z I’ve grown up with Minecraft and have gone through phases of playing it or completely ignoring the game. Well, I’m in a phase where it’s my current favorite game to play. My fiancé, my brother, and I all play together and we are having a blast exploring all the biomes and building our bases. I really enjoy getting to spend time with the both of them playing such a relaxing feel good game.

Driving in Silence

This has been my go to for mornings when I’m driving to work. I spend my drive in silence, or with the windows rolled down so I can hear the birds chirping and leaves rustling. It’s a very calming way to start my day and give me time to be alone with my thoughts. I find myself enjoying it the more I do it.

An Update on My First Set of Goals for the Year

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Hello Sunny Siders, I hope you have all been well during my extended break!

After Blogmas, I wanted a long hiatus to ensure I felt refreshed and inspired to blog and that time has finally arrived!

I thought it would be fitting to start off with a check in on how my initial goals for the year are going.

In Blogmas day 22 I set some goals for the year and focused on 2-3 goals per quarter to really ensure I could focus on them. Since we are well into the first quarter of the year a check in on how I am doing is due.

Goal 1. Drink daily recommended amount of water

I have continually set the goal of drinking more water every year and this year I made it my mission to actually do that. Because I am so bad at remembering to drink water, I wanted to break this one out into smaller more realistic goals so I could actually stick with it.

To get my daily recommended amount of water, I needed to be drinking 3 of my reusable water bottles a day. I set the goal to finish one before lunch, another before the end of my workday, and the final one by dinner time, that way I had plenty of time to space it out.

So far I can’t say it’s been perfect, but I’m definitely drinking more water per day than I was which is definitely a huge win. I am going to keep working to improve my consistency on this one, but I’m proud of the progress I’ve made.

Goal 2. Really start learning Japanese

I’ve been doing Japanese on Duolingo for 4 years and don’t really have much to show for it. This year I wanted to change that. For this goal I’ve started practicing for longer durations each day, aiming for 30 minutes of Japanese a day. I’ve also been supplementing my Duolingo practice with other language learning platforms to see if that helps some of the lessons to stick.

I’m only 2 months in, but I’m seeing improvements in my ability to read all the symbols which is exciting. I’m still not really good at forming sentences, but all progress is good progress!

Goal 3. Replace my screen time with hobbies that challenge my brain

If you’ve been a follower of this blog for a while you know I’ve been working to reduce my screen time and social media presence. I’ve made a lot of progress over the years and wanted to build off of that momentum in 2026.

This is definitely the goal I’ve seen the most improvement with since the start of the year. To make this work I created a new evening routine, carving out my time to use my brain instead of scrolling online.

I’ve delete apps from my phone and even blocked websites like YouTube to keep distractions at a minimum.

So far, I’ve spent the most time learning Sudoku and expanding my mental math capabilities, but I have a ton of activities in my toolkit so things stay fresh and exciting.

Outside of posting for my business, I really haven’t been online at all this year and it’s truly an incredible feeling!

I’m excited to see how the last month for these goals play out before I start implementing my next round of habits!