Top 5 Purchases Made in 2021 – Part 2
This article contains affiliate links.
New gear, who dis!?
2021 has been a huge year for Digivangelism.
Having officially launched our YouTube channel and first paid offerings in late 2020, this year has been all about growing into our skin as a company, educating others each and every week, and solidifying our mission.
It’s been a beautiful and powerful thing.
2021 was also the year I (Sammy!) launched my own video editing business, which is now my full-time gig. These big steps required some big purchases on my end. That’s what I’m here to tell you about today.
My Top 5 purchases of 2021 starts small though. Purchases don’t have to be big to be powerful, do they? Nah.
Kicking us off with number 5 on Sammy’s “Top Purchases of 2021” is a notebook I bought from Amazon.
Click here for the video version of this post.
This is my third Eccolo World Traveler notebook from this particular seller, and it is absolutely perfect for me.
Three key qualities in a solid notebook – for me, personally?
- Visually appealing cover that makes me want to dive in.
- Perfect size and line size for my use
- Not spiral bound (because I will rip out every single page and it will drive me nuts all year)
These three ingredients make for a notebook that I will reflect within, dream dreams upon, plot new business directions, and process emotions. It’s everything an entrepreneur could hope and dream for.
You know, unless you are into prompting notebooks… which I am not so much into.
Everyone has their own preferences – I would encourage you to get to know your own needs and find a notebook that works for you…
Oh, and if you’ve been neglecting writing but know it is good for your mind, body, and soul, take this as a sign to get back to it!
- Envato Elements
One of the best ways I’ve advanced my video editing business over the past year is by investing in tools that make my work better quality and more efficient.
But Envato Elements does not just offer tools for video editors.
Anyone who can make use of Royalty Free Music, Sound Effects, Graphics, Website Templates, Presentation Templates, Stock Photos, and more will quickly fall in love with Envato.
Starting at just $16.50 per month for individuals (and less for teams/students), it is well worth a saved headache, especially if you will use it more than once in a month.
If you are tired of searching for stock photos, videos, or music, I’d strongly recommend you invest in this cost-efficient tool as well.
- Homemade Desk
As discussed in our home office tour video, 2021 was also a year of a new desk for my spouse and I.
The desk actually happened because we had decided to close out one of our credit cards and needed to make use of the points we acquired. Purchases at hardware stores allowed us to get more bang for our buck than a normal purchase and so we started brainstorming some options.
We ended up building our own desk out of two large storage cabinets and a long piece of butcher block (which looks super slick, might I add!).
Billy painted the cabinets that night and by the next day we had a brand new desk!
Yes, with a succulent included. We had to embrace the fullness of our millennial nature.
And just this week, I finally figured out what I would do with the lights that were originally draped around the top of the old desk/hutch that was in our office.
Now my office window has color changing lights around it for me to enjoy for those days when I work into the evening.
There will certainly be more light/office upgrades to come, but for now, I’m loving this stylish standing desk and open space for me to focus within.
Number two on my list has nothing to do with tech or ministry, yet everything to do with how well I can function to work within tech and ministry.
Hammocks have been a big game changer for me the past few years.
Laying in a hammock is an opportunity to relax, disconnect, and yes, even nap within nature without necessarily worrying about the multitude of critters and bugs that might find you.
Except the thing is…
I was worried about the bugs (particularly the spider-like ones), even from the safety of my hammock.
This was especially an issue when camping with friends in the woods… particularly, when we would try to sleep in our hammocks through the night.
Enter: Hammock that Zippers
That’s right – this hammock from G4 Free has a zipper that goes all the way around the open space of a typical hammock, completely insulating you from spiders (affectionately called “spooders”), all while allowing you to breathe.
I received this hammock as part of a sponsorship (not for Digivangelism or related to this post) from G4Free and fell in love immediately.
There’s just something relaxing about feeling untouchable by not only all of humanity… but the biggies too.
Finally, my top purchase of 2021 was hands down my Lenovo ThinkPad 15g. I talked about this in in our video comparing our new Digi laptops and also highlighted some of my key favorite aspects of this laptop in this blog post.
This past week, I also had the opportunity to make use of the Lenovo Premiere support that I purchased when I bought the laptop.
The team at Lenovo was incredibly responsive and helpful. After a less-than-positive experience receiving helpful technical care with my CyberPowerPC desktop, Lenovo’s response was a dream come true.
I wouldn’t change a thing about it, personally, and look forward to many wonderful years helping progressive leaders share hope, healing, and light with it as one of my biggest tools.
How about you?
What have your best purchases been in 2021? It’s been a heckuva year – we hope you’ve been able to find some new tools to make life easier, more relaxing, and fulfilling for you and yours.