2023 in Review
It’s the last blog post of 2023! In an exciting turn of events, 2023 was an even bigger year for CCCH than 2022! I published fewer new blog posts this year (the lowest since I started blogging in 2013) and yet had my highest year of page views yet. I’m getting so close to a big scary page view goal I set for myself! I’m so excited to see what’s to come in 2024. Thank you, as always, for reading and for sharing my content! It means so much to me. 🫶🏻 It’s so exciting to watch this space continue to grow.
As I’ve done for the past few years, I went through my 2023 posts and picked out the most read blog posts that were published this year. Because I didn’t publish many new outfit posts (the first year since I started blogging that I didn’t share new outfits regularly), I omitted that section this time.
I also recapped the books I read, picked out my favorites (so hard!), and recapped my travel. This was a heavy year of travel for me! Perhaps my favorite (or least favorite? ha) part of this post is looking back at my sartorial purchasing trends, including spilling how much I spent on clothes this year (as always, I’ll be sharing my best and worst purchases of the year in their own post next month). Bring it on, 2024! ✨
READ NEXT: 2022 in Review
2023 in Review
MOST READ BLOG POSTS
READING RECAP + FAVORITE BOOKS
In 2023, I finished 45 books, 32 of which were audiobooks! Holy cow, I had no idea the vast majority of the books I read this year were on audio. Whew. (Of note: Three of the books in the first collage below were read in 2022, and I finished two audiobooks and two Kindle books this month that haven’t been shared yet.) I originally set a goal of 50 books and then dropped it to 45 when I realized I was trending below my goal. I was a little ambitious this year because last year I started reading audiobooks, and I realized I could read so much more with them! I’m thinking about staying around 40 books for my 2024 goal.
Out of the 44 books I read this year, my favorites were The Displacements, Four Thousand Weeks, Lessons in Chemistry, Every Summer After, Die With Zero, Swipe Up for More!, Remarkably Bright Creatures, Paris: The Memoir, Decluttering at the Speed of Life, and The Christmas Orphans Club! It’s pretty much impossible to narrow it down.
In 2023, I had a near-book-buying ban. I purchased two physical book preorders and I believe only one Kindle book on sale, and I grabbed a bunch of free Kindle books through Prime First Reads, but other than that I did not buy new books. I plan to continue that through 2024 and only make exceptions for a select number of preorders. I still own so many books (physical and digital) that I’ve not yet read (and to be honest I still added more new books than I read this year lol), and I have hundreds of books on my wish list through the public library.
I use StoryGraph to track my reads! It’s an alternative to Goodreads that was founded by a Black woman; I’ve actually never been on Goodreads, but I know you can import your Goodreads data fairly easily if you want to try StoryGraph out. The best part is the multitude of STATS!!! Fun stats, though, haha—stats you actually want to look at, like your most-read genre, how many pages and books you read every month, etc.! I love the year-end roundup and am looking forward to seeing mine soon. Plus, you also get curated recs! If you join, add me as a friend—my username is cottoncashmerecathair!
TRAVEL RECAP
Compared to 2022, I traveled a TON in 2023. I had three big (week-long+) trips planned plus ended up on a bunch of smaller trips. I saved up almost all of my PTO for this year.
Our first major trip of the year was to Texas to board Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas for our week-long cruise to the western Caribbean! This was my mom and step dad’s joint milestone birthday trip. We stopped in Roatan, Honduras, and Cozumel, Mexico (we couldn’t stop at the second port, Costa Maya in Mexico, due to wind and high seas). It was our first cruise and likely won’t be our last; we enjoyed it way more than we thought we would! I shared my Royal Caribbean cruise packing list and things to do if you’re a new Royal Caribbean cruiser.
A couple of weeks after returning from the cruise, Korri and I drove down to southern Utah for a week-long tour of the Utah national parks we hadn’t yet been to. This trip culminated in the MRGC Gymnastics Championship in Cedar City, Utah. (This was Boise State’s conference; the Mountain West now hosts gymnastics.) This trip was supposed to happen in 2022 but they moved the 2022 championship to Boise. It was a lot of travel for us back to back but very much worth it.
I wanted to hit lots of spots, so we didn’t spend that much time in each park. We spent one day in Capitol Reef, one day in Bryce Canyon, and one day in Zion, plus made some fun stops in between each park (Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, among others). We had a taste of each park; I’d love to go back and spend more time in each place! After Zion, we drove to Cedar City for the championship, and then we stopped by Great Basin National Park in Nevada on the way home. (Here’s our itinerary and my packing list.)
We traveled to Denver for the NCAA Gymnastics Regionals competition at the University of Denver. It’s three days of gymnastics and marks the start of postseason. There’s a play-in meet on day 1 with the bottom 2 teams, then the round of 32 is on day 2, and then the sweet 16 is on day 3. The top 2 teams from each regional site (4 sites, 8 teams total) advance to nationals! There is a rest day in between the round of 32 and sweet 16, so we spent 4 days in Denver.
I got to see my brother and his cat, and we met up with one of Korri’s friends. Boise State was sent to LA, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see them (they did awesome—two gymnasts qualified to nationals!), but the teams we did see were great and it was almost less stressful to watch! We met a bunch of the parents of the Denver gymnasts and they were so nice and welcoming.
Korri and I didn’t travel again until July for The Eras Tour in Seattle! We flew up a couple of days early, partially to see my mom and step dad in Sequim and partially because flights were less expensive going up early. We were in Sequim the weekend of the lavender festival, which was super fun! The weather was absolutely perfect. We drank lavender lemonade, picked our own lavender bunches, and bought lavender souvenirs. I wish we could have stayed longer!
We were fortunate to have tickets to both nights of The Eras Tour. The first night, we were in the nosebleeds, and we had front row lower level seats the second night. There’s nothing quite like a Taylor Swift concert, and The Eras Tour is something else… 3.5 hours of straight production! I hate that it was nearly impossible to get tickets. Before the second show, we met my parents for a Seattle Mariners baseball game, which is why I’m dressed like not a Swiftie LOL. Korri and I flew back to Seattle in August for another Mariners game and the Ed Sheeran concert! We missed an incredible thunderstorm in Boise that night. Ed is absolutely amazing but I’m still a little bitter. 🤣
Our final big trip of the year was to Germany and Austria for two weeks at the end of September! This was our family trip to celebrate my dad’s milestone birthday (and since our birthdays are only a few days apart, I celebrated in Europe as well). We flew into and out of Frankfurt; Korri and I flew Singapore Air business class for the first time (using credit card points). We visited Frankfurt, Berlin, Füssen, Munich (for Oktoberfest), and Salzburg. I wish we had an extra day in pretty much every city. I shared our full 2-week itinerary, which we did by train, as well as my Germany packing list—carry-on only!
On the way back, Korri and I stayed a night in New York City to see the Seahawks play the Giants. We were there for a little over 24 hours and fighting the time change but got to do a couple of other touristy things in the city while we were there (Times Square, One World Trade Center).
Korri and I wrapped up our year of travel by flying to southern California for a long weekend in early December to visit my grandparents in Oceanside. We also drove up to LA one afternoon to visit my other set of grandparents. We walked to the beach, ate super yummy food, and got some quality family/game time in! It was great to see my grandparents for the first time since 2014.
Idaho Recap
While not entirely travel-related, I also blog a lot of cool things to do and places to see in Idaho! I focused on more Boise-specific content this year. I shared my How to Spend a Long Weekend in Boise series with itineraries for spring, summer, fall, and winter. I also updated the best brunch spots in Boise and blogged the best lunch places, restaurants with patios, and best coffee shops.
I traveled to north Idaho a couple of times for work. I spent time in Grangeville, Lewiston, Coeur d’Alene, and Wallace (the center of the universe)! I also saw St. Maries, Moscow/Pullman, Orofino, and Weippe. It was really cool to see a bunch of areas of Idaho I either had never seen before or hadn’t seen in many years.
CLOTHING BUDGET RECAP
Now for the fun part: the annual clothing budget/wardrobe additions recap! 😅 It’s always eye opening to see the stats laid out like this. After December 2022, I added 4 new items to my wardrobe in January and February 2023. Most of my winter wardrobe additions tend to happen in December because of the great late November/early December sales (in December 2023, I added 4 items and those are included in my annual total below).
In spring 2023, I added 15 new items to my wardrobe (including 8 new tops), most of which I bought in May. I added 14 new items in the summer (June through August), with tops again being the majority of the new pieces. I also made quite a few returns in the summer (8 total).
Fall is usually a big shopping quarter for me because of my birthday in September, but I didn’t shop as much this past fall because of our Euro trip. In fall 2023, I added 7 new items to my wardrobe, and only one of the items was purchased in September. I did not make any returns in the fall! You can find all of my 2023 wardrobe additions in one place on this Pinterest board.
In total, I spent $2,652 on clothes this year (slightly more than I spent in 2022). I was a little over my $2400/year ($600/quarter) budget, but the overage was easily covered by earnings from Poshmark sales. I’m honestly a little surprised that I spent more this year than last year! It doesn’t feel like I shopped nearly as much…but that’s because I shopped more in the spring than in the fall.
Even more random sartorial facts from 2023:
Total number of items added to my closet: 46 (same as 2022; this includes items I didn’t count against my budget and may not be on my Pinterest board)
Total number of items bought and returned: 14 (down from 22 in 2022)
Total number of items from my “main” closet sold on Poshmark: 29 (down from 41 in 2022)
Added 8 tank tops
Added 6 pairs of jeans
Added 5 long-sleeved tops/shirts
Added 4 pairs of shoes
Added 3 pairs of shorts
Added no new jewelry
Purchased 2 new-to-me items via Poshmark
Spent the most money on my Nisolo Go-To Lug Chelsea Boot ($151.50) and the least on the Madewell The Crossbody Bag Strap: Webbing Edition ($2 after using a $25 coupon)
Top brands/retailers: Madewell, Uniqlo
New-to-me brands/retailers: Dagne Dover, Birkenstock, Faherty, Lululemon
