February 2016 – Hello Marie

Monthly Recap

25/02/2016 No Comments

February was a fun and action packed month!

Earlier during the month we celebrated Chinese New Year and welcomed the Year of the Monkey. I was born in the Year of the Ox and according to Chinese Zodiac predictions, this year should be a good one for me.

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My husband and I watched some great movies including Goosebumps, The Revenant and Deadpool. A must watch for all 3. We also won some free tickets to see Zoolander 2. It’s not something I would pay to watch (more of a home movie night for me) but still lots of laughs and beyond ridiculousness that fans of the original movie will love.

I got some Vitamin D and got into my bikini for the first time in years! I hit the pool and drove up north to Yanchep Lagoon. The sun and sea salt did me some good.

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Fringe World Festival was in town and we went to our first interactive show! We went to Get Lost Maze and I think I was the last person to figure out how to leave the maze (yes, my dear husband let me wander around aimlessly until I begged him to get us out of there!).

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I’ve been knitting up a storm and am seriously obsessed with my new found hobby. I’ve almost finished my first scarf and have already bought more balls of yarn to get started on 2 more projects.

To round up February, we’ll be heading to Melbourne for a few short days and I’m looking forward to lots of good food and some shopping!

Books

Mini Book Reviews

23/02/2016 No Comments

This year, I’m aiming to read 50 books! Here are some mini book reviews of my first 5 books:

1. A Thousand Splendid Suns – I’ve recently started branching out into different genres and was curious to read this as it was written by Khaled Hosseini, who wrote the popular The Kite Runner. It was a heartbreaking and moving story of 2 women born from different generations but whose lives are brought together by war and tragic circumstances. Although it’s a fictional story it weaves in historical events, which gave me a better understanding of the conflict in Afghanistan, and the plight of Afghan women today. A sad but great read.

2. All the Light we Cannot See – set in World War II, this book follows the parallel stories of a German boy and a blind French girl whose paths eventually cross in occupied France. It’s a beautifully written, poignant story and won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This is a must read and I would love to see a movie adaptation for this book.

3. Fifty Shades of Grey – after a bit of heavy reading, I wanted to read something lighter so I finally succumbed to the Fifty Shades of Grey hype. I’m a big fan of Mills and Boon so I’m no stranger to romantic, or should I say passion filled books but oh my! This was a lot more explicit than I thought it would be but still a fun read and I managed to smash it out in a day.

4. Fifty Shades Darker – this picks up exactly where Fifty Shades of Grey left off and is more of the same stuff but there’s a bit more character and story development. You learn more about why Mr Grey is the way he is and why his tastes are so “singular”. Still a fun read.

5. Fifty Shades Freed – a bit more excitement in this one beyond the bubble of Mr Grey and Ana. The ending is predictable in the way that all Mills and Boon books are but still satisfying. All in all, an easy, romance trilogy with some adventurous sex thrown in for good measure!

To follow what I’m currently reading, you can visit my Goodreads profile here.

The above links are affiliate links that at no extra cost to you, will earn me a small commission should you choose to click and purchase any items. Thanks for your support!

Lifestyle

Perth Fringe World Festival

18/02/2016 No Comments

It’s that time of the year when giant pink bunnies roam the streets and Perth turns into a crazy kaleidoscope of festivities. The first Fringe World Festival came to Perth a few years ago and it’s always brought with it an air of fun and frivolity.

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The main hub of activity is centred in Northbridge and comes to life in the evenings. The tell tale sign of events, shows and restaurants participating in the festival is evidenced by the bright pink bunting flags that are strewn up everywhere. They help add to the carnival like atmosphere and add pops of colour to the streets.

This year we wandered around The Pleasure Garden in Russell Square Park where there were pop up bars, food trucks, side shows and other events being held. As the sun began to set, it was beautifully lit and fun to explore.

We weren’t actually that hungry but we couldn’t resist the smell of the food and were drawn to large grills of barbecued goodness. There were big slabs of steak, grilled veggies, chicken and pasta. I was torn about what to get but my husband and I ended up going with the steak and spaghetti meatballs.

The steak was cooked to a perfect medium rare and was soft to chew, although a bit more seasoning would have helped. I had 3 giant, delicious meatballs to dig into and the pasta with garlic was absolutely divine!

With our stomachs full of delicious food, we wandered around the gardens to see if any shows piqued our interest. We ended up going to Get Lost Maze, which is a mini maze with interactive characters inside. It was kooky, weird and a lot of fun!

If you haven’t been to any Fringe events yet, I highly recommend it! There are so many different events and shows that there’s bound to be something for everyone. It ends this week so be quick!

Lifestyle

Celebrating Chinese New Year

16/02/2016 No Comments

Gong Hei Fatt Choy! Happy Chinese New Year!

On the eve of Chinese New Year we had our reunion dinner hosted by my husband’s side of the family at Eureka Chinese Restaurant. It’s our local go to restaurant in Wilson and we enjoyed a delicious feast.

My favourite part of the Chinese New Year dinner is the Lo Hei, which is a raw fish salad that gets tossed by everyone at the start of the meal for prosperity and happiness. The higher, the better!

For my side of the family, we celebrated by having a big lunch at my parents’ house. Everyone brought a dish and it was great catching up over good food.

May the Year of the Monkey bring everyone much joy, prosperity and happiness!

Knitting

Adventures in Knitting

11/02/2016 No Comments

One of my goals this year is to learn how to knit and I picked up some wool and knitting needles from my local Spotlight store.

It was a slow and frustrating start!

After about 2 seasons of CSI I’ve knitted a decent amount of scarf and am really excited to see neater rows of stitches. The beginning of the scarf is horrendous but I kind of like it because it shows how much I’ve improved.

So guess what I’ll be making everyone for Christmas this year!?

Scrapbooking

Siem Reap, Cambodia and Koh Samui, Thailand Photo Album

09/02/2016 1 Comment

Photo albums are underrated.

To help me get my photos off my computer and into hard copies that can actually be enjoyed, I’ve been using photo albums rather than trying to scrapbook. The verdict? Simple, easy and more importantly, quick.

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One of my goals this year is to scrap old trips and although technically it’s not really “scrapbooking”, I’m not going to bother with technicalities on this one and am just happy that it’s done!

Sometimes, it’s so nice just to get back to basics.

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In 2012, my husband and I went on a 3 week South East Asia trip to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. This album is the second of 3 that I’ll be putting together and captures our adventures in Siem Reap and Koh Samui. You can see the first one here.

Unlike our time in Ho Chi Minh City, I loved Siem Reap. I found the Cambodian people refreshingly friendly and helpful. We were there for about 5 days and hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around to see the Temples of Ankgor. It was unbearably hot but I had a great time exploring the old ruins and was in awe of these ancient wonders.

Back in town, we explored the night markets, indulged in massages and did a bit of bar hopping. Unfortunately, I got really sick halfway through and was bedridden for the rest of our trip. Luckily for me, my husband was happy to play nurse and took good care of me.

Nearing the end of our time at Siem Reap, I was still very sick and could hardly stomach any food or drink, and I was fretting about flying to Koh Samui. Fortunately, it was a short trip over with no disasters and I spent the majority of our short time there recuperating. I was really disappointed that I couldn’t indulge in Thai food as much as I wanted to but still had a few good meals.

Since I was still recovering, we almost missed the infamous full moon party but by the time it came around I was feeling a lot better and decided to bite the bullet and go! It was definitely the highlight of our trip and it was bright, colourful and a lot of fun! I got my arm painted, we shared a “bucket” of alcohol and walked along the beach, soaking up the atmosphere.

Next stop – Bangkok!

The details:

Album from Takashimaya, Singapore
Photos printed at Officeworks and Target
Journal cards from KaiserCraft
Photo overlays from Project Life
Letter stickers from October Afternoon, American Crafts and Amy Tangerine

Organisation

Decluttering My Life: the Digital Edition

04/02/2016 No Comments

Personal inbox – I had over 1,000 unread emails that were cluttering up my inbox! About 4 hours later, I managed to reduce it to a more manageable 150. Most of it were stores that I’d signed up to, so it was easy enough to unsubscribe to most of them. I realised I was skimming emails and leaving them in my inbox, so I’m trying to break that habit and delete them straight away. I also reduced 13 folders down to 8. This is still very much a WIP but a lot more manageable than what it was before!

Desktop – this was so easy and literally took me seconds to delete old shortcuts. I can now see my beautiful desktop picture, which makes me smile every time I see it.

Documents – I’ve started decluttering by deleting a few folders but will need to take some time to go through each one and delete any old or irrelevant documents.

Photos – I haven’t even started looking at this one yet! I have photos dating back from 2006 and am dreading going through endless holiday snaps. The plan this year is to break this down to manageable bite sized pieces so that I can get my photos off my laptop and into some albums. Stay tuned!

Facebook – every year or so I like to do a “clean out” and remove any acquaintances or friends that I don’t really connect with anymore. For acquaintances, it’s loosely based on whether I would stop to say hi if I saw them in the middle of street, and for friends whether I’ve had a meaningful conversation or catch up with them in the last 2 years.

Instagram – I’ve recently jumped on the Instagram bandwagon and immediately started following anyone that seemed semi interesting. This included a lot of stores that ultimately clogged up my feed with pictures that I didn’t really connect with. I’ve unfollowed a lot of these and now use Instagram as a source of inspiration, positivity and creativity.

This is all definitely a work in progress but a good habit that I hope to continue with throughout the year.

For some ideas on how to get started, see below:

25 Areas of digital clutter to minimize

The little guide to digital decluttering

3 Tips to declutter your digital life in 5 minutes or less

Lifestyle

Celebrating Australia Day

02/02/2016 No Comments

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On Australia Day we visited Flora and Fauna Cafe for brunch. It’s a small, hole in the wall, all vegetarian and mostly vegan cafe that serves the most beautifully presented food. I first saw pictures of some of their amazing dishes on their Instagram feed and have been dying to visit ever since.

I’m so glad that we booked because when we arrived, the little amount of space that was available was taken up. As we sat down I saw lots of people coming and going, mainly for takeaway drinks. Although the staff were so busy, service was excellent and we ordered some nachos and the chia protein bowl.

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The nachos came deconstructed with tortilla chips, salsa, rocket, kidney beans, cabbage and smashed avocado. It wasn’t hot but it was perfect in the sweltering heat and the chips had a pleasant crunch to them. The protein bowl was interesting and had coconut and cardamon chia pudding, topped with a selection of fresh fruits, almonds and coyo, which is a vegan coconut milk yoghurt. Both were delicious.

My husband indulged in a brownie and we both ordered different fresh pressed juices. These were great but the star of the show was definitely the food. Who knew vegetarian could taste so good and be that filling? Apparently the menu changes often so I’m definitely looking forward to a return trip!

Later in the evening, we went to The Old Brewery for some drinks and canapés. We were fortunate to be invited by my husband’s workplace and we had a fantastic time. The event was held in a function room by the water and we had an amazing view of the boats and the Narrows Bridge. Around 8pm we were treated to a colourful fireworks display, which was a perfect ending to a fantastic day.