Holiday Gift Guide – Non-Beauty Edition

Hi everyone! As we’re nearing Christmas, I wanted to share with you a few gift guides. To start this series off, today I have a list for the non-beauty lovers in your life! Admittedly, this is where I’m weakest in gift-giving because I obviously am more knowledgeable about beauty. However, very few of the people in my life are beauty lovers, so I have to open my mind to the many other great gifts out there! I’ve included some specific items, as well as gifts with a large price range to fit everyone’s budgets.

BOOKS

Who doesn’t love a snuggle up with a good book, especially in the dead of winter? This one might be tough because not everyone has the same taste in books, but if you’re thinking of gifting a book, you probably already know what the recipient likes to read. A few of my favourites in the last few years: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Nightingale  by Kristin Hannah, and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I haven’t read it yet, but Becoming by Michelle Obama might be a good gift too; who doesn’t want to read a book written by this incredible and inspirational woman?

Japan Travel Diaries: Tokyo (Part 2)

Hello again! Today is a continuation of yesterdays’ travel post, where I’ll be talking about the second part of our stay in Tokyo.

DAY 4

We started Day 4 in Asakusa, another district of Tokyo. It is well-known for the Senso-Ji Temple, as you can gather by all of the tourists gathered here even though it was really early and drizzling out.

Up next was Ueno Park, which is situated near the Akihabara area. I thought of it as a mini Central Park, because like Central Park, it has its own zoo and some museums around it. The day we visited Ueno Park was a rainy one, so we avoided a bit of the rain by going to the National Museum of Nature and Science, which was inside the park. The museum ended up being a lot better than we both expected!

Japan Travel Diaries: Nara and Osaka

Hi everyone! Today is another installment of our Japan travels. This time, I’m talking about our day trip out to Nara and Osaka, both of which are just a short bullet train ride away from Kyoto. Our original plan was to visit these places on separate days to allow for more time to look around, but because we missed a day due to our cancelled flight, we had no choice but to do them together. It would’ve been nice to spend some extra time in both places, but I think it general it worked out just fine.

Our first stop of the day was Nara. There are a few different ways to get to Nara from Kyoto, but we took the bullet train, which took about 50 minutes. Once you arrive, the main attraction, Nara Park, is about a 20 minute walk from the station.

NARA

If you’ve heard of the city of Nara, you probably know it for Nara Park, which is a huge park that is also a home to hundreds of deer. Before visiting Nara, we thought there would only be a few deer lounging around, but they are roaming freely everywhere! At the park grounds, standing around on the middle of the sidewalk, crossing the intersection right in front of cars…everywhere! Not surprisingly, the mascot of this city is a deer.

Creating a Capsule Beauty Collection

In the last few years, you may have heard of the term “capsule wardrobe”. It means a compact collection of outfit staples, which not only include clothing, but shoes and accessories as well. The term was coined by London boutique owner Susie Faux, who thought that the capsule wardrobe should consist of no more than 30 pieces. If we’re able to condense our clothing into such a small collection, shouldn’t we be able to apply the same concept to our makeup?

When I first started dabbling in makeup, I had a capsule beauty collection. At one point, all I owned was three eyeshadow singles and one blush! It’s been a long time since those days, as I keep collecting more and more makeup with no end in sight, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed by how much I own, and I don’t even have nearly as much as most beauty bloggers! Sometimes I long for a more simple collection.

Below, I’m sharing a list of product categories and suggestions on how to put together a capsule makeup collection. Including tools, I’m trying to keep it under 30 products as per Susie Faux’s idea of a capsule wardrobe. This list isn’t meant to mean you have to own X amount of this category and Y amount of this category – of course it’s fluid based on your makeup routine. It also doesn’t mean you have to use the same blush, lipstick, or mascara for the rest of your life, but just to own one at a time. I’ve also included which specific products I would choose for my own capsule makeup collection – they’re all products that are either in my current collection or have used in the past.

Japan Travel Diaries: Kyoto

Hi everyone! Today’s post is a continuation of my Japan General Observations post – I’m going to be talking about our first leg of our Japan trip, which was the city of Kyoto. We had five days in Kyoto, one of which was spent on a day trip out to Nara and Osaka, but that will be the topic of discussion the next Japan Travel Diaries blog post.

Kyoto is an old historic city full of culture and tradition; compared to the fast-paced Tokyo, it is a more “outdoorsy” and relaxing city. Apparently, there are over 1,600 shrines in Kyoto! As you’ll be able to see in pictures, there’s a lot of greenery here, which was quite different than what we saw in Tokyo. Read on to see what we got up to in this beautiful city.!

PS – I am sorry about all of the photos taken in portrait mode, especially ones that should have been in landscape. I noticed while looking at my photos that I did this a lot during the trip and I have no idea why! Also, I did not take a lot of food photos in Kyoto because I literally stuffed all the food in my face before I remembered that I was supposed to take a photo 😂

Japan Diaries: General Observations

Hi everyone! If you’ve been following my Instagram, you may know that I recently took a trip to Japan. Japan is such a unique country and there is so much to talk about that I’ve decided to write a separate post on general information and observations. I took more photos of the activities we did, so I don’t have too many pictures of these random things, but in the following few weeks, I’ll be posting individual travel posts about each city we visited. I’ll have more photos to share then!

First of all, our trip totally started off on the wrong foot. Originally, our flight was meant to fly into Osaka, but it was cancelled because of the typhoon that hit the city the week before we were due to leave. The Osaka airport wasn’t taking any international flights at the time, so we called Air Canada and asked for our flight to be changed. They switched us onto a direct flight to Tokyo for the same day with no fuss or extra charge, which was great. On the day we were supposed to leave for our trip, we arrived at the airport as per usual, and around the time that we were to begin boarding, they announced that our flight had been delayed for an hour due to mechanical issues. After that hour passed, they made another announcement that they were still looking into the issue, and if they didn’t have the right part to fix the issue, they’d have to fly the part in from Vancouver – which would take at least another hour and a half! By 3:30pm, at which point we’ve been at the airport for five hours, they announce that the flight has been cancelled, and that we will need to come back the next morning for our 7:00am flight. Not only was it annoying to have waited an entire day at the airport and the fact that we lost a day of our vacation, but it meant we had to wake up at 4am the next morning to make it for our 7am flight. It was an inconvenience for sure, but I didn’t want it to be a point of stress or negativity because we were still going on vacation and it was supposed to be fun! Anyways, once we arrive in Japan, all of our flight issues were quickly forgotten anyways.

July-September Movies I’ve Watched

Hi everyone! Today is the third installment of my 50-movie challenge for 2018. Read on to see what I watched in the last three months!

Cars 3 – 4/5

I’m a big fan of Pixar movies, and I loved, loved, loved the first Cars movie back in the day. The second one I did not like at all, so I was pretty apprehensive about the third – sequels tend to get worse and worse, and I always feel like they should just quit while they’re ahead. I was actually pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this one – it had a lot of heart.

Bad Moms – 4/5

This movie was hilarious! It’s about three overworked and underappreciated moms that decide they’ve had enough and go wild. I really loved the cast – the moms had a lot of chemistry together. Even though it’s a chick flick, my husband enjoyed it, too.

How To Be Single – 4/5

I didn’t know much about this movie going into it and thought it might be one of those silly chick movies with no storyline, but it ended up being a very thoughtful movie. The characters learn that it’s okay to be happy about being single, to not be happy about being single, but also that it’s okay not be be single. I really liked the cast, how all of the story lines fit together, and the ending was really satisfying.

Feel-Good Friday

I love me some fall colours and pumpkin spice everything, but can people please stop talking about how they’re ready for fall? The summer felt like it was two weeks long. It went by way too fast and I’m not ready for it to end! Today is another Feel-Good Friday post – read on to see what I’ve been enjoying and what I’m wanting!

THINGS I’M LOVING

The Fosters

I started watching The Fosters on Netflix a few weeks ago, and I freaking love it. It’s about a family called The Fosters, made up of lesbian moms Stef and Lena, and their five children. The name of the show has a double meaning – Foster is their family name, but four out of five of their children are fosters (that they eventually adopt). This show hits me in the feels – the family has so much heart and love, it gives me the warm fuzzies.

Music

Despite being born and raised Calgary and country music basically being a birthright, I’m not a fan of country music. However, for whatever reason, lately I’ve been really into country right now. I’ve discovered a bunch of corny pop-country songs that I love: Tequila by Dan + Shay, Speechless by Dan + Shay, Mercy by Brett Young, and Marry Me by Thomas Rhett. Don’t judge, okay?

 

Terrace House

Okay, The Fosters is great, but I started watching the latest season of Terrace House on Netflix and I. Am. Obsesssssed. I watched twenty-four 40-minute episodes in four days, but now I’m caught up and waiting for the next 8 episodes to come out. Terrace House is a Japanese reality show about 6 strangers (3 boys and 3 girls) who move into a beautiful house together, and you follow their interactions and lives both inside and outside the house. There’s no point to the show – people aren’t trying to oust each other, aren’t (necessarily) trying to find love, and aren’t trying to win anything. North Americans may think it sounds like Big Brother or Real World, but it’s not. People on Terrace House are polite, get along with one another, and genuinely like and respect each other.

It sounds boring – why would anyone want to watch a show about people getting along? Yet somehow it’s so captivating, because interesting stuff still happens. The show follows them when they go on outings as a group or dates with one another, and also if anything interesting happens at their jobs. They are allowed to leave the show at any time, and are replaced by a new member which sometimes causes some drama (but polite drama lol). Each episode is also interspersed with a panel of commentators made up of 6 Japanese celebrities/comedians who discuss what they’ve just witnessed, and they are HILARIOUS. Last season took place in Waikiki, Hawaii, but this season takes place in Karuizawa, a snowy city North of Tokyo, so they go snowboarding instead of surfing. I loved the Hawaii season, but it doesn’t even compare to this season. I can’t sell it well – you just have to watch for yourself. The first episode or two is confusing (or at least I was confused, particularly by the commentators), but you get sucked in pretty fast.

THINGS I’M COVETING

I’ve never been one for nail art but I want these nails so much! I’m thinking of getting these before I go on vacation, but I can’t decide…

I’m currently looking for a tight turtleneck for the upcoming fall season and this one is perfect – I love all of the colours that it comes in!

I’m on the hunt for sneakers and these and these have really caught my eye. I love how the pink ones are made of fabric, but I wish it came in white!

I recently discovered Desenio and I really want to buy some prints from them. There are SO many I want to buy, but I don’t really want to go and spend $200 on prints…

This mug is hilarious – my friend and I always joke at work that we’re not in the mood to work.

Does anyone have any recommendations of makeup and skincare brands and/or specific products that I can find in Asia? Namely Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I will be visiting these places in the fall, and I do have a small list going, but I’m hoping to get some more ideas!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Mint & Blush Geometric Styled Wedding Shoot

Hi everyone! Today I’m veering away from my usual posts to talk about something that I did for my calligraphy business. Back in December, I had the pleasure of collaborating in a styled shoot with the talented Alyssa from Alyssa Truong Photography, as well as my dear friend, Cakes by Shanajane. Shana has just put up her blog post of our collaboration here, but also be sure to visit her Instagram. It’s a catalogue of the stunning creations she’s done over the years!

It’s taken us a full 8 months to share this styled shoot with everyone – oops 😅 To be fair, the theme gives us spring wedding feels, so we wanted to wait until the weather was warmer to share our photos…we might have just waited a little too long. But just look at our spread and how whimsical it all looks together!

50 Movie Challenge: Movies I Watched April – June

Hello, everyone! In today’s post, I’m talking about the movies I’ve watched from April to June as part of my 50 movie challenge for 2018. I feel like I did pretty good in terms of the number of movies I watched, because I put on a lot of random films on Netflix while I was blogging.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard – 4/5

An entertaining movie where Samuel L. Jackson plays a hitman, and Ryan Reynolds plays his fallen-from-grace bodyguard.  Ryan Reynolds’ character is hired to safely transport Samuel L. Jackson to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands to testify against the president of Belarus, who is being tried for crimes against humanity. We loved the chemistry and banter between the two main characters. Does anyone feel like Ryan Reynolds just plays himself in comedies?

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 3/5

I’m not a Star Wars fan at all, but I watched this with my husband, who is a fan. It was a decent movie; I gave it 3/5 because I stayed at least somewhat interested during the movie and didn’t fall asleep, which is what usually happens when I watch Star Wars movies.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – 3/5

This was a cute movie and I know it did quite well considering they made a sequel, but somehow I just didn’t love it. The idea of being able to control what food falls from the sky is so brilliant, though!