21 Things I Did in my 21st Year

Hey Beauty Bees,

Tomorrow is the big day, my 22nd birthday, which makes today my last day of being 21. I thought it would be fun to make up a post all about my past year and list 21 things I did, lessons I learned or places I traveled to during it. When I started to really think about it, its hard to think back throughout a whole year and remember what you did but here is what I came up with. (You can also check out my 22nd Birthday Wishlist that I created at the beginning of this week.)

To start off I have to talk about my 21st birthday and all the events that made it great.

1. First Coach Purse - Chris gave me the first present of my birthday and it was my first ever Coach bag, which started my obsession with Coach. He got me the classic print cross body bag and I am currently still using it daily.

2. Shopping Spree - Everyone including myself knows I have a shopping addiction, but on my 21st birthday I gave myself a present of the biggest shopping spree I have ever gone on. I had saved for months to be able to splurge big time on that day and just have a fun day at the mall.

3. First Surprise Party - My family got me so good this year. I have actually never had a surprise party in my entire life and my aunt, uncle and cousins totally surprised me with a surprise birthday party when I went to visit for the weekend. I can remember walking down the stairs to the basement and being completely shocked at all the decorations and people there waiting to welcome me. I will never forget it and all the fun we had that night when we went out to the clubs afterwards.

One of the greatest things that happened to me this year was I got the courage to start my beauty blog!! It has almost been a whole year and I am so proud of how it has turned out and what has come out of it.

4. Boston Beauty Buzz - My blog was born on June 9, 2014. Up to date we are at 150 posts and I plan on making many more. You can see my very first post here.

5. Company Collaborations - Through my blog I have made many networking connections with companies and brands on doing giveaways and reviews. I have also really enjoyed meeting other bloggers and becoming friends with new people because of my blog.

6. Doubled my Makeup Collection - Before I started blogging I thought I had quite a makeup collection but through all the reviews and other opportunities that have been brought forward as well as my own contribution, I have more then doubled my collection.

If you do not already know, I started my year off living in Canada but I have moved and currently live outside of Boston. I went through quite a process to be able to get here.

7. Fiance Visa - This year I was accepted for my immigration visa to move to the USA to marry my Fiance and be able to live here. Of course, this was quite a process which I laid out in my Fiance Visa Post.

8. Montreal Trip - This was the first time I had ever been to Montreal and it was amazing. I had to go for my interview at the US Consulate but of course I made a weekend out of it. My Mom and I enjoyed a weekend of shopping, exploring, eating and fun.

9. Moved to the USA - Upon my acceptance of my visa, this meant that I was going to be officially moving. With many hugs and good-byes, I packed up and moved to Ayer, Massachusetts.

10. Chicago - I have always wanted to visit Chicago and during my flight to Boston I had a layover in the windy city. Although I was only there for 2 hours and was restricted to inside the airport, it was so cool. I can not wait to be able to go back and actually enjoy everything there is to do and see there.

11. Moved in with Chris - This is my favorite thing I have done this year. Even though it is sad to move out of the house you grew up in and leaving your family, I have been wanting to make this step with my Fiance for many years now and I am so excited to finally be able to be living together. It is also really cool to have your own apartment and be able to make your own rules and traditions.

Now living with someone new in a new city, state and country, there are many experiences that come out of it.

12. First Legal Drink - The drinking age is 19 in Canada so it was not overly exciting to order a drink, but it was different ordering a drink while being here since for the past 4 years of me visiting Chris in his hometown I was never able to do it.

13. Not Your Average Joes - Along with a new Country, comes new places to go out to eat. My new favorite restaurant is Not Your Average Joes. This restaurant serves all types of food and is a from scratch kitchen, which makes it so great. I am obsessed with their Ahi Tuna Wontons and Peanut Butter Thing ice cream cake.

14. Natick Mall - This year Chris and I discovered my new favorite place to go shopping, Natick mall. This is an amazing mall because it is a collection of high-end and moderate priced stores. I have done a couple hauls from this mall that you can check out. (Shopping Trip to Natick Mall + Haul  & Columbus Day Sales and Haul)

15. Foxwoods Casino - This was a fun day when Chris took me to Connecticut, to Foxwoods Resort Casino. We spent the night playing poker and slots, along with having a great dinner. I mostly had fun just exploring the whole place since it had a mini mall as well as other really interesting sites within the buildings.

Within 365 days there is a lot of interesting things a person can do, but there are also some very basic things that might not seem interesting to others but made my year great to me.

16. Binge Watching TV - Having my own apartment means I have control over the TV remote, well most the time since Chris loves his Xbox. Together and alone I have watched through many seasons of many shows such as Pretty Little Liars, The Big Bang Theory, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Comic Book Men.

17. Movies - Along with TV, I am a huge movie buff so I went to see a lot of films on the big screen. Guardians of the Galaxy, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Kingsman: Secret Service, Think Like a Man Too and Fifty Shades of Grey are just some of many.

18. NBA Game - During my few months of being in Canada this year, I was able to spend time with family and one of the most memorable weekends was going to Toronto with my big Brother, my older cousin and his wife. I went to my first NBA game and saw the Toronto Raptors beat the Boston Celtics. You can read about the whole weekend here.

19. Weddings - Not including my own wedding that will be happening this year, I was asked to be a part of two other weddings. First, one of my cousins got engaged and him and his fiancee asked my brother and I to be apart of their big day in 2016. The next wedding is my future sister-in-law (Chris's sister) who is getting married this upcoming July.

20. Pizza Dough - This one may seem funny compared to all the other events of the year but being Italian and loving pizza, this was very big for me. I learned how to make pizza dough! I now make pizza dough on average 2-3 times a month since there are so many different ways we can use it for meals.

21. Flash! - I love Marvel and DC Comics. Before it was The Big Bang Theory and Comic Book Men that got me interested. Then came all the Marvel movies. Now I have been absolutely obsessed with the TV show Flash. I am so interested in the character that I have even gone out and bought the first comic book of one of series of The Flash. I am hoping to get the full collection to compete with Chris's Spider-man collection.

These are the top 21 memories from my 21st year of life. I can not wait to turn 22 tomorrow and be able to start a whole new year of fun. What was your most memorable day of the past year?