This year I wanted to keep things as simple as possible. I was looking for a pocket sized diary that I could pop in my handbag and keep with me at all times. On a trip to Melbourne last year, I found the perfect diary at one of my favourite stationery stores!
The diary that I’m using this year is a 12-month pocket agenda by Rifle Paper Co. The cover is made from thick, flexible paper and it has a gorgeous floral print. It includes a 2020-2021 yearly overview, 2020 holidays, monthly and weekly overviews, and sections for important dates and notes.
I love how small and light it is. I can definitely see myself using this all year and taking it away with me on trips. So that’s my diary situation for 2020!
Do you like to use a diary? If so, what’s your diary situation this year?
Did you know that Lego makes Chinese New Year Lego sets?
When I first came across these last year I was dying to get one but unfortunately they were all sold out in retail stores and massively overpriced on other platforms, so I decided to give it a miss.
This year, Lego have released additional sets and I was excited to see that the Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner Lego set from 2019 was available! Out of all the sets that I’ve seen this one resonated with me the most. I thought it would make a beautiful showcase in our living room, so I just had to get it!
Two days later, it arrived by post and I built it on Chinese New Year’s Eve while binge watching Netflix. The set portrays an extended family enjoying their Chinese New Year’s Eve meal in a gorgeous red and gold themed house.
The set comes with 6 minifigures dressed in their traditional Chinese New Year clothes and includes 2 parents, 2 kids and 2 grandparents. The detail on the minifigures is amazing and I especially love the mother’s floral cheongsam. Both kids should also have a red packet each but unfortunately I only received 1 in my set.
The house itself is beautifully detailed. Inside, there are 2 bookcases filled with books and family portraits. There’s also a tv, adjustable lounge chair, lamp and 2 floor vases with red blossoms. The key focus of the room though, is the large round table filled with delicious Chinese New Year delicacies!
Outside the house, the front entrance is framed by lanterns and the front door has a sticker with the Chinese character “Fu” meaning Good Fortune. On either side of the paved footpath there’s a mini garden with pink and red blooms, which adds a lovely touch.
This is the first lego set that I’ve ever built so I was a bit nervous about putting it together but I had nothing to worry about! The pieces were separated into 4 main bags and there’s an easy to follow instruction booklet. All up it took me just over 4 hours to build.
Overall, this was a beautiful set to celebrate Chinese New Year and is currently being showcased on top of our living room bookcase. If you’re looking to add some Chinese culture in your home, this is a fun and unique way to do it!
A few years ago, I embarked on a no new makeup challenge and since then I’ve largely stuck to using up what I have. To keep things interesting I generally switch my products up by season or whenever I get bored of using a certain product. However, I’ve never tried panning a certain number of products over a year. I love seeing people do yearly project pans and their updates, so I thought I’d give it a go this year!
These are the 20 skincare and makeup projects I’ve chosen to pan this year:
Skincare
FACE MASKS: Fresh Vitamin Nectar Vibrancy-Boosting Face Mask, Etude House Collagen Mask, Multi Effect Collagen Honey Mask and Sephora Pearl Mask.
BROWS: Benefit Foolproof Brow Powder and Benefit Gimme Brow.
BLUSH: The Balm Cindy-Lou Manizer.
HIGHLIGHTER: The Balm Mary-Lou Manizer.
EYESHADOWS: Colour Pop Truth Super Shock Shadow, Makeup Geek Eyeshadow in Peach Smoothie and Makeup Geek Eyeshadow in Bling.
LIPPIES: Tarte Amazonian Butter Lipstick in Plummy Rose and Etude House Apricot Stick.
As a stay-at-home mum that rarely gets the opportunity to “go out, out” I’ve put in a few quick wins in there such as my foundation and concealer – 2 items that I will definitely use up this year. That’s why you’ll also see a few more skincare products than other project pans out there. The added bonus though, is that it’ll give me some “me time” and make sure that I give my skin some much needed TLC!
Below is a closer look at how much some of the products have already been used.
Most of these products are well loved. Some like the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask are new and I want to enjoy them while their fresh. Whereas some like the lippies I love but need to use up as they’re getting old.
Eventually I would love to have only 1 or 2 items from each category that I love using on a day to day basis. No more hoarding or collecting! Just a small bag of skincare and makeup products that bring me joy.
Stay tuned for quarterly updates!
Are you doing a project pan or following along another project pan? If so, please let me know in the comments below!
I had no idea that you could make giant pancakes in your rice cooker or instant pot! These are now on my must try recipe list!
Not all toys are created equal and if you have a little kid, you know how easily they can get bored of their toys! If you’re looking to start collecting some quality, open-ended toys that your kid will get some good play out of, here’s some great ideas!
This year is the Year of the Rat and Chinese New Year officially runs from 25 January to February 4th. Unfortunately living in a small rural town means that there are no public events celebrating Chinese New Year, however we had a small hotpot dinner at home to celebrate!
We recently purchased our hotpot with electric grill from one of Aldi’s infamous Special Buys. Although not completely authentic to Chinese New Year, I was still impressed by their Lunar New Year Kitchen and Cooking theme.
For our hotpot, I kept things simple with chicken stock, corn and shitake mushrooms as our soup base. For the hotpot ingredients we had a small array of vegetables, fish balls, noodles, tofu, liver, and prawns. For the grill we had sliced ribeye steak and pork belly.
The dipping sauces are one of my favourite parts of a hotpot and we had oyster sauce, sesame oil and freshly minced garlic. The fresh garlic makes all the difference!
Wishing everyone a prosperous, healthy and happy new year ahead!
Australia is currently experiencing one of its worst bushfire seasons. The loss of human and animal life, as well as damage to homes, and the land has been devastating. Here in Albury, we are fortunate to have some distance from the fires raging along the Victorian and New South Wales border. However, close enough to experience the bushfire smoke and haze.
If you’re looking for ways to assist, I’ve rounded up some links below to help people and animals affected by the bushfires. Every little bit counts!
I was shocked to find that I took a much longer break from my blog than I originally intended. Has it really been over 6 months since I’ve been back!?
While I’ve been absent here, life with a little one has certainly kept me busy.
Being a mum has been the most challenging but rewarding job I’ve ever done. This year I don’t have any new year resolutions beyond surviving life with a toddler.
I’m not sure how often I’ll be posting this year but it’s nice to be back!
To celebrate my first Mother’s Day this year, we took a short road trip to Beechworth. Beechworth is a small historical town that was formed during the gold rush in the 1850’s. Many of the original buildings have been preserved, however today many tourists visit for its gourmet delights.
Beechworth Bakery
Having skipped breakfast that morning, we were starving when we arrived so our first stop was the famous Beechworth Bakery. Inside, there was a long line but it was well worth the wait!
I ordered 2 of their pies including their signature pie “Ned Kelly”, which is a steak pie topped with bacon, cheese, and a whole egg on top. I also ordered one of their pork and bourbon pie specials. Both were warm, hearty, and delicious but I favoured the pork and bourbon pie.
On the way home, we stopped by to buy some cold pies to heat up for dinner that night: butter chicken, Ned Kelly, and Caulioccoli pie. All of them were delicious but there was something so wickedly decadent about the cauliflower and broccoli swimming in a rich bechamel sauce!
While Beechworth Bakery are known for its pies, they also do an extensive sweets range so that’s something I’ll have to check out on our next visit!
Bridge Road Brewers
After browsing a few stores along the street, we had worked up an appetite again and decided to have lunch at Bridge Road Brewers based on recommendations from local friends in Albury.
Through a small alleyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how large the area was. There’s a kids playground and lots of seating outdoors. Inside, there’s a small brewery where they also hold tours.
For lunch, we shared 2 small pizzas – the funghi and roasted duck. Both were amazing but I couldn’t get enough of the mushroom pizza! The crust was thin and crispy, and there was large mushrooms with blue cheese, baby rocket and pine nuts. Having lunch near their wood fire was just perfect!
Beechworth Ice Creamery
After a delicious lunch, it was time to get our sweet tooth on! Of course, we’d heard all about the ice creamery in town so we had to visit Beechworth Ice Creamery.
Out of the two of us, my husband has the sweet tooth so I let him pick the flavours while I minded Miss K outside. He decided to go with 2 scoops of rum raisin and salted caramel. It was an interesting combination and I can’t say I was a fan of the rum raisin but the salted caramel was delicious. Still not as rich or creamy as Venchi but yummy all the same!
Beechworth Honey
With our stomach’s full, we made our final stop at Beechworth Honey. I’m a big fan of supporting local businesses and love honey, so I wanted to check out the home of Beechworth Honey.
Inside the store, there are shelves upon shelves of every single variety of honey you could dream of. There were so many different flavours that it was a bit overwhelming but in the centre of the store there’s a tasting station where you can taste before you buy.
I picked up a few products that we normally wouldn’t be able to find outside of Beechworth: almond honey, creamy honey and cinnamon, and naturally honey sweetened soda (honey and lemon, honey and ginger and honey nectar). I also couldn’t resist picking up a small candle made of rolled beeswax sheets.
Around Town
Although we were mainly there to check out all the delicious things that Beechworth has to offer, we also visited the beautifully preserved telegraph station where you can send a telegraph for only $2 domestically or $4 internationally! Today it’s one of the busiest telegraph offices in the world and for a bit of fun, we sent a telegraph to my husband’s parents.
Further up the road on Ford Street and away from all the main sites, I also came across a second hand book store called Beechworth Books. Although I’ve run out of space at home, I can never resist checking out book stores and was pleasantly surprised at how well stocked this store was! Definitely worth checking out if you’re a fellow book lover.
A Final Note
All in all we had a lovely afternoon at Beechworth and I really enjoyed my first Mother’s Day. The town is a short 40 minute drive from Albury and as big foodies, it was really lovely to indulge in all of the delicious goodies they had on offer. Although it’s a tiny town, there were a lot eateries and stores we didn’t pop into, so we’ll definitely be back!
It’s Autumn here in Australia and the colours of the trees have turned beautiful shades of gold and red. In Albury, I love to take walks by the Murray River and there’s something so soothing about spending time among nature.
I’m so lucky to be living so close to the river! There’s so much wildlife here, and it’s a fantastic place to hang out with picnic tables, BBQ’s, kid’s playground, and a very cool cafe!
I suffer from really dry skin and lips, which unfortunately gets worse during the Winter. So when I saw that Laneige had a lip sleeping mask, I knew that I had to try it out!
As a brand, I first came across Laneige when I was holidaying in South Korea and bought their iconic water sleeping mask. I loved their water sleeping mask, so I had high hopes for their lip mask as well.
I bought the classic (pink) lip sleeping mask, which has a faint candy strawberry scent. There are also 3 other types available: grapefruit, apple lime, and vanilla. The texture of the mask is thin but sticky, and a little goes a long way. The mask comes with a small applicator in an adorable pouch for hygiene purposes.
When I first used the product, I had chapped lips and a bit of flaking. I applied it before going to bed and was pleasantly surprised to wake up to soft, moisturised lips! I applied the mask the following night and since then I’ve used it every few days, and am pleased to say that it really works!
At $26 a pop for a small 20g jar, the lip sleeping mask was on the pricey end for me. However, a small amount goes a long way and it actually works, so it’s something that I would repurchase and recommend.
Have you tried the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, or any other similar products?
