Happy Australia Day!
This is an old photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge when I was backpacking up the East Coast of Australia in 2012. It was my first time in Sydney and it was surreal seeing the bridge live in person.
Happy long weekend to those who had Monday off!
When I lived at home I only had the space for a small bookcase, which was crammed full of the few books that I owned. I’ve always loved reading and I used to dream about the day when I had my own place filled with all of my favourite books.
I moved out a few years ago and now that I live in my own home, I’m the proud owner of 6 bookcases filled with books and other knick knacks. With so many empty shelves to fill up, I’ve been on a book buying frenzy ever since! The thing about buying books though, is that it’s extremely addicting. It doesn’t look like much but at last count I have over 150 books, not including my husband’s self help books, Mills and Boon, Lonely Planet’s and magazines!
I started off buying books that I’d read and loved growing up and have branched out to buying classics, like my beautiful hard cover penguin books, and popular books that have had great reviews. I also have to admit to buying books solely on the basis of their covers when something really catches my eye. So it’s probably not a big surprise that I have a long list of unread books on my shelves! Embarrassingly though, I’ve started to lose track of what books I’ve bought and in particular the ones I haven’t read yet, which is where Goodreads comes in.
It’s basically a website where you can create online “shelves” to keep track of the books you’re currently reading, want to read, own and anything else you might want to create. I’ve just started using it and I love it so far. It also doubles up as an online community of fellow booklovers, so it’s a great place to read reviews and get ideas on what to read next.
You can also participate in reading challenges and in line with one of my goals this year, I’ve put myself down to read 50 books. So far I’ve read 2 and am onto another 2 right now. To check out what I’m reading and how I’m going with my reading challenge, click here!
This year I’m using a small Kikki K diary from their Cute range. As the name suggests, it is super cute with bright, cheerful designs and stickers inside. So far, so good and I’ve been using it almost every day to keep me organised. If you’re still looking for something to keep you organised for 2016, I definitely recommend checking out Kikki K!
So in line with my one word, simplify, this year I’ve decided to take on a no new clothes and makeup challenge!
Late last year I had a moment and wondered why on earth was I continuing to spend so much time online and in stores, spending my hard earned money on clothes that I didn’t need or love? At home, I took a good look at my overflowing cupboards and drawers and saw that I had more than enough to get me by for any occasion that might be thrown my way.
I had a quick jump online and was pleasantly surprised to see that this was a thing and many other people had actually done this challenge. I took stock of all the makeup I have and thought that I might as well include it in the challenge as well! Below is about half of what I own, not as much as I’ve seen others have but more than enough to last me many, many years.
I’m really excited to do this and see how far I can go with it. Everyone I’ve told so far thinks it’s crazy but I think it’s definitely doable.
I’m hoping that this challenge will 1) free up my time 2) save money 3) make me appreciate and get use out of what I have 4) help me to cull my wardrobe into pieces that I love and 5) stop “collecting” more makeup and use what I have. I also want to stop the mindless click and buy mentality that I’ve cultivated.
So onto a few rules:
This is my biggest challenge of the year and I’m excited to check in with updates as the year progresses.
For the last few years Ali Edwards has been running a project called One Little Word, where she chooses a word to shape her year. It’s such a simple yet powerful thing to do and this year I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon.
Leading up to Christmas last year and reflecting on the amazing but crazy year that I’ve had, I knew immediately that my one word for this year would be simplify.
Last year my now husband and I worked long hours, studied hard, sat for exams, planned not one but two weddings and went on our honeymoon. In between we laughed, cried, fought, made up and tried to remember to breathe amidst the whirlwind of it all. Needless to say we are very much looking forward to taking a step back, to enjoy life and being a newly married couple.
So here are my goals for 2016:
Here’s to a more meaningful and creative year!
One of my goals this year is to put some artwork and photos on the wall. Finally, almost 9 months later and 3 weeks out from the wedding, their up!
They sit above our dining room table and I love them!
The print is from Jasmine Dowling and the photos are a few of my favourite shots from our engagement session earlier this year by our wedding photographer Kirsty Russell.
Love, love, love!
In an unexpected flash of motivation, I decided to tackle my old holiday photos starting with our South East Asia trip in 2012. Over 3 weeks my then boyfriend and I visited Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, and this album will be the first of 3 albums that I plan to put together for the trip.
The first leg of our journey was Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and was unlike any other city I’d ever been too. The hustle and bustle, people, traffic and sensory overload was mind boggling but also very exciting.
Although it’s been years since I’ve looked at these photos, it was amazing how quickly the memories rushed back. If I’m honest, I didn’t particularly enjoy our time in Ho Chi Minh City. We were scammed as soon as we stepped outside of the airport and it continued throughout our time there, mainly in the form of people over charging us.
It wasn’t so much that people were asking us to pay more because we could certainly afford the extra few dollars but that it felt like they were enjoying taking advantage of us simply because they could. In saying that, we had some great experiences and I enjoyed some of the best food in my life!
So would I return? When I left, I swore I’d never return but I don’t think that a week is really enough time to get to know a country and write it off completely. So many people rave about Vietnam and its people, so I’d be open to give it another shot, perhaps with a local guide and eyes wide open second time around!
Next stop – Cambodia!
The details:
Album from Takashimaya, Singapore
Photos printed at Officeworks
Journal cards from KaiserCraft
Photo overlays from Project Life
My now fiancé popped the question in August last year so I’m excited to be sharing the details of our wedding planning over the coming months. We are having our ceremony and reception here in Perth in October with our friends and family, and a second Chinese wedding dinner mainly for family in Singapore a few weeks later.
As of today we have 9 months to go until our big day and I’m pleased to say that we have ticked off a large chunk of my “wedding to do list”. We have venues booked for both events, a bilingual celebrant, ordered my wedding dress, purchased bridesmaid dresses, a bright colour theme and locked in our DJ, photographer, videographer, florist and hair and makeup people!
We are foregoing save the date invitations and jumping straight to the wedding invites and have Aimee from Aimee Paints designing our invitations. I found her via Hello May, which is a bridal magazine that I’ve fallen head over heels in love with and have taken a lot of inspiration from. Aimee is based in the UK so we have asked her to design our invites that we will then get printed here. We received our first draft just before Christmas and I can’t wait to share them here once they’ve been posted out!
There are still a few other things to be decided on including suits, transport, wedding cake, wedding favours and possibly a dessert table. At one stage we even thought about making our own naked wedding cake but tossed that idea out pretty quickly, simply because we would have no idea what we were doing!
We also have a few Chinese cultural traditions to consider and prepare for leading up to our wedding including the Goh Dai Lai (engagement / dowry ceremony), hair combing ceremony the night before and tea ceremonies on the day. It’s been pretty interesting to learn along the way and something that I look forward to sharing as well.
With the start of the new year, I wanted to give myself some broad creative oriented goals to stretch myself and make sure I set some time aside to do something fun. So without further ado, here are some things I would like to achieve by the end of the year:
Here’s to a creative year ahead!
Last year was a pretty hectic year for me so I simplified things by using my Fujifilm Instax Mini, decorated my polaroids with bright polaroid border stickers and popped them in a mini polaroid album. It was a fun, easy and most importantly speedy way to document those special moments but this year I want to change things up a bit.
This year is going to be an even busier year for me but it is going to be filled with many special events and memories that I want to remember and look back on, so I’m taking the plunge and am going to use a 365 diary from Kikki K, which I received as a Christmas present the other year.
I have to admit that it seems a bit daunting and all of those white blank pages waiting to be filled scares me a little but I’m looking forward to the challenge!