2013 Wrapped Up.

I thought I'd take a minute to reflect on everything that has happened in the past year. 

I had actually forgotten about quite a bit of it which is why I'm so grateful that I have a blog that I can read back through.

So here's my 2013 in summary...

January
I shut down my old jewellery business and officially launched the Poodles and Pompadours website after months of wishing, hoping and scheming.

I made a real commitment to making positive changes in my life. I started to focus on my path to recovery from anxiety and agoraphobia and continued on my weightless journey which started in November.

February
For most of the month I was very unwell with viral meningitis and also developed some infections from complications from the viral meningitis. It wasn't very fun, but once I was better I launched our first online shop and Etsy shop.

March
We launched our feeding sets, celebrated my Mum's birthday and booked an anniversary trip to Disneyland Paris.

April
We started offering our dog sitting services again for the first time since moving from London and gained some new clients.

I went on an amazing holiday to Disneyland Paris. It was amazing!!

We won Ingenious Britain's Small Business of The Month award. This was the first small business award that we have won and it was super exciting.

May
Bambi and Bear were sent some lovely pet shampoo from Precious Pets to review for the blog. They loved it!

We held a competition to name our Pinup girl and poodle from our logo. The winning names were Betty and Lola.

We attended our first ever event as a business and had a stall at Croydon Tattoo Convention with the lovely Vicky from Stars and Scars.

We launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise money to enrol on a dog grooming course in order for me to expand my small business to include more services.

June
We won a Pawsome Service for Pet Businesses Award from Truly Pawsome.

We attended our second event at Maidenhead Relay Marathon.

We reached 100% funding on our Crowdfunder goal and raised enough money to enrol on a dog grooming course.

I brought a car and started to learn how to drive (for the second time!)

July
I blogged about my journey with positive thinking.

We welcomed a new addition into our family but sadly lost him a few days later due to a pre-existing illness.

We welcomed another new addition into our family. His name is Ziggy and he is still hopping astound our home very happily.

I went to my first ever dog show. Windsor Dog Show was really fun and I loved looking at all the lovely doggies.

We held our third stall at Maidenhead Festival. This was probably out biggest event to date and it was really fun.

August
I blogged about a lovely lady from Australia who got a tattoo based around our logo design.

I also blogged about the winning streak I seemed to be having as I won a succession of competitions one after another.

We had a surprise family birthday party and lots of summer fun.

I got a drastic haircut and started to make a bit more of an effort with my appearance.

September
My best friend moved to Australia.

I got some work experience at a local dog grooming salon that later turned into a paid job one day a week.

I celebrated my 25th birthday and went to a lovely little burlesque show at Norden Farm.

I enrolled on my Dog Grooming course.

We got a new stockist in Eton for our handmade products and we celebrated Bambi's 5th birthday.

October
October was fairly quiet.
We celebrated Halloween, took a trip to Bournemouth to relax and focused most of our energy on completing assignments for the dog grooming course.

November
We outlined our intentions to stop selling on Etsy.

Bambi and Bear reviewed ScruffyChops shampoo.

We welcomed Cat as a regular kitty blogger with special guests Louis and Marie.

We attended a Christmas shopping event at Holyport Primary School.

We entered a Vodafone small business competition to win a 4G makeover.

December
We won Startacus' Self Starter of The Week award.

We won the Vodafone 4G makeover competiton.

Sadly, we lost Sandy the hamster as she passed away peacefully in her sleep.

We started winding down for Christmas and worked 2 weeks full time at the grooming salon which was bloody hard work!

What a year!

What did you achieve in 2013? Take a minute to write down at least 5 things that you are proud of yourself for achieving this year and put it somewhere you can see it everyday. When you're stressing about reaching your goals in 2014, just take a minute to look at this list and appreciate everything that you have already achieved.

Here's to an amazing and happy 2014.

Lots of love!

Hayley x