Alexia Unplugged

This is a bigger update. 2025 was a whirlwind of a year spanning across four different continents and several milestone accomplishments. My last life update was in 2023, so it’s been a while since I showed my face around here. So, hi, I’m Alexia, a real person who runs Alexia Unplugged (formerly Cats Can Fly). Since it’s been so long, I have some thoughts to share about the future of this website and some end of year journaling.

Cats Can Fly is now Alexia Unplugged

This year, I decided to go back to my roots with this website. I originally started Cats Can Fly during the 2020 lockdowns to have a place to share things I love. It took a while for me to find my niche here; I blogged about self care, travel, cafes, and anything else that struck my fancy. Since then, however, my interests have shifted (ever so slightly) and I’ve learned more about myself and my priorities. Thus, I’ve shifted from the nonsensical branding of Cats Can Fly to a more personal brand that better aligns with what I want to do with this space.

Alexia Unplugged is just what it sounds like. My unplugged life and interests. Alexia Unplugged focuses on cozy gaming (I’m not getting rid of that), and I want to include more lifestyle content. My life has evolved through video games, and I want to bring the joy of cozy hobbies and to you too!

I participate in as many hobbies as possible: cozy video games, board games and tabletop RPGs (like Dungeons and Dragons and Daggerheart), hand embroidery, and letter writing just to name a few. These hobbies have helped me through stressful times and encouraged me to slow down. And while my heart will always belong to video games, I find that unplugging and mindful rest becomes more important to me as I grow older.

Now that we’ve covered the website update, let’s move on to the personal update. Like I said, this year filled my cup so much that it spilled over. I am so grateful for this year; during my end of year journaling session, I realized that this year contained lifetimes.

The big ones:

1. I graduated with my Masters in Marketing (Brand & Customer Management) on time! This was my main goal for the year; I have had a hard time staying on track in my education, so finishing my degree without needing to retake anything was a huge relief.
2. I got married! I feel like I have been downplaying this a bit because I’m a little annoyed that this seems like the only milestone/accomplishment that people see, and my educational milestone this year has been overshadowed by my marriage. But I feel so lucky to have been able to find a healthy relationship and supportive life partner in this day and age.
3. I moved to Australia, then moved back to the Netherlands. Australia was like a dream, but there were so many reasons why my husband(!) and I didn’t stay longer. Moving back to the Netherlands was bittersweet, but ultimately it’s the responsible choice. I’m determined to romanticize my life here in spite of the crippling seasonal depression I experience almost all year round.

The little ones:

I don’t think that “big” milestone accomplishments should necessarily overshadow smaller ones. I have a few small wins from this year too.

1. I made a lot of new friends. Being in school is a useful tool for making friends, and I made several from my university! But after moving abroad, I really put myself out there and met so many amazing people through the internet and from real life interactions!
2. Went to three new (to me) countries! I went on a long weekend trip with my in-laws to Luxembourg, which has been on my list for a long time. It was beautiful and I want to go back for more of a city trip (this time we mostly hung out in nature). For my honeymoon to Korea, we had a layover in Shanghai, so I got to go to China for the first time! And my move to Australia, of course, checked off a whole new continent too.
3. I started posting on social media, which is a huge win for me. I was working as a freelancer doing social media management, and I think that was the push I needed to start creating content for myself!
4. I developed my own embroidery pattern! Embroidery has been a big part of my life for several years now and I am excited to start developing more hand embroidery patterns for people who love early 2000’s nostalgia and hate AI 🙂

New Year, New Goals!

In general, I’m so excited to start the new year with a renewed sense of purpose. I love end of year journaling because it’s the perfect way to look back and acknowledge all your wins, big and small. My year ended quite turbulently, and it would have been easy to go into 2026 ruminating on the bad. Talking about all the good and goals you worked toward throughout the whole long year is a way to stay positive and grateful.

My goals this year are few, but big. I am working on getting my Dutch citizenship. While that may not happen this year, I’ve set a goal to reach the B1 (conversational) level in Dutch by the end of the year (hopefully even earlier). I also want to get a consistent job or consistent freelance work, since my last one didn’t work out.

On a more personal level, I want to move more in general; my lifestyle is pretty sedentary, so I want to participate more in movement. Ten minute pilates or yoga videos, bouldering with my friends, going on more walks! I’m going to try implementing just a couple minutes of movement here and there when I’m already waiting around.

My biggest goal, though, is that I want to start making some kind of income from my internet presence. I spend so much time on here, I might as well get something besides attention out of it, right? For now, I will focus on producing embroidery patterns to sell on my Etsy, but I’m open to lots of ideas! I thought of making stickers, creating a magazine, influencer-ing (although wow I don’t know if I could keep up with that). But I’m still a bit stuck on how to make this goal work.

Anyway, thus ends my (not so little) life update. 2026 will be a good one, I can feel it!

What are you most proud of accomplishing this year?