Mega Award Catch Up #2 (A-Z Playlist, Liebster Award, Unique Blogger Award)

It’s me again! Here’s the second part of the award catch up posts!

A-Z Playlist

Mel from The Bookish Wanderer created this little Playlist Tag which should be a bit of challenge. Mel blogs about video games, books, wanderlusting and writing. She’s pretty awesome!

Here’s my A-Z Playlist.

• Another One Bites the Dust – Queen
• Bad at Love – Halsey
• Curious – Hayley Kiyoko
• Don’t Let Me Down – Chainsmokers ft Daya
• Emperor’s New Clothes – Panic! at the Disco
• Finesse – Bruno Mars ft Cardi B
• Galway Girl – Ed Sheeran
• How Far I’ll Go – Auli’i Cravalho
• Issues – Julia Michaels
• Just Give Me a Reason – P!nk ft Nate Ruess
• Kiss Me – Sixpence None the Richer
• Love Yourself – Justin Bieber
• Milkshake – Kelis
• New Rules – Dua Lipa
• Outlaws – Alessia Cara
• Primadonna – Marina and the Diamonds
• Que Sera Sera – Doris Day
• Rock Bottom – Hailee Steinfeld ft DNCE
• Stressed Out – Twenty One Pilots
• Toxic – Britney Spears
• Umbrella – Rihanna
• Valerie – Amy Winehouse
• Weak – AJR
• XO – Beyonce
• You Don’t Own Me – Grace ft G-Eazy
• Zero Zero – Operator Please

Liebster Award

Jamie nominated me for the Liebster Award! If you don’t know of Jamie of Don’t Give a Jam fame, then you need to check her out asap.

Jamie’s Questions

• Coffee or tea?

Coffee

• What is the best concert you’ve been to?

Ed Sheeran

• Fruits or vegetables?

Fruits

• What is your absolute favorite comfort food?

Chips

• Appetizer or dessert?

Dessert

• If you had to wear the same outfit everyday, what would it be?

Cardigan, singlet and jeans. I wear it most days anyway. It’s so comfy!

• Morning person or night owl?

Morning person.

• Does your morning skincare routine vary from nighttime?

I don’t really have a set daily morning/evening routine. I have products I use, but it varies a lot of the time.

• TV shows or movies?

TV Shows

• What do you pick out first when choosing an outfit?

A top or a bottom. Or a combination.

• Breakfast or brunch?

Brunch.

Unique Blogger Award

The lovely Mimi from Blushy Darling recently did her own award catch-up post and was lovely enough to nominate me!! If you’re interested in beauty and makeup at all, you should definitely check her out!

• What is your holy grail makeup product?

Bare Minerals Foundation

• Coffee or Tea?

Coffee

• If you were to go back in time were would you go?

I’d choose not to really.

• What Disney princess are you?

They all have their pros and cons. I’ll go with Moana cause reasons.

• Moon or stars?

Both.

• Night in or night out?

Night in.

• If you can be part of a TV Show what would it be?

The Amazing Race.

• Celebrity Crush?

Amy Poehler.

• What is your favorite song?

Anything by Ed Sheeran.

• Favourite flower?

Baby’s breath.

Nominations

As before, I wanted to nominate some bloggers I’ve been loving lately. Don’t feel any need to do it if you don’t do awards!

• Maha
• Mimi
• Carly
• Kate
• Jirah

That was a lot of awards!! Thank you again to everyone who nominated me!

Angela.

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DIY – Crayon Art

Welcome to another little DIY project. I saw lots of these on Pinterest, and there were lots of variations. You can attach the crayons to the canvas to make it ‘drip’, or you can melt the crayon directly on the canvas. I chose to do the latter. Whichever you choose, it always ends up looking like a piece of watercolour art which is amazing!

All you need to do this is crayons, a hairdryer and a canvas.

Here’s a timelapse video of how I made mine.

That’s all you need to do! I’m excited to try do more with other colours. I ended up sticking to colours that reminded me of ‘space’. So blues, purples, blacks, and a bit of red. I do wish I thought this through more and actually put something to protect my desk from the melted crayon bits that went everywhere. They were really hard to clean up. Anyway, here’s my final piece!

It definitely looks like watercolour. I love how it looks, and I really can’t wait to try make more!

Have you ever tried this DIY before?

Angela.

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Who’s More Likely To? – First Anniversary Celebration

Isn’t that a fun title? It made me snort with laughter.

Anyway, it’s our anniversary today! We’ve now been married for one whole year! It’s crazy to think that. So much has happened since then.

To celebrate, I wanted to do a video. I’d seen these done with couples and friends before, but it’s the “Who’s More Likely To?” tag or challenge or whatever. I copied a bunch of questions, wrote them down, and one evening, Rory and I sat down and answered the questions.

It was a lot of fun, and I like to think we learnt a lot about each other.

Here’s the video:

Some things we learnt included the fact that Rory is clearly the more romantic one in the relationship, while I’m more likely to either fall over, cry or fall asleep in a random location. Good times!

Today is quite a laidback celebration for us, we do have gifts and a special dinner planned but that’s all. The real fun is in a few months when we go to Japan! I have a few more posts planned out in celebration of our first anniversary, so I hope you guys enjoyed this first one!

Angela.

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DIY – Marbled Jars

I went back and forth on sharing this DIY, as I wasn’t 100% happy with how it came out. It has grown on me a little though, so I thought I’d share it anyway!

This is a Pinterest favourite when it comes to DIY’s. It’s a cute way to upcycle a jar, vase or something similar with some splashes of colour! I know Sarah has done it a few times, and hers always come out so beautiful!

The general idea of how to make this is pretty straightforward. You use a container (that you will never use again after this), fill it with warm water, then add some nail polish. Next, you dip in the jars you want, and the nail polish just wooshes on to the jar. Afterwards you let it dry.

I think maybe the container I used was too deep, and not wide enough, as the effect on the jars wasn’t quite what I expected. Maybe I didn’t swirl it enough, or I didn’t put in enough nail polish. Either way, I wasn’t thrilled with how they came out. I only tried it on the small jars I had, and stopped at that.

I did this DIY a few weeks ago, but I kept coming back and looking at the jars. They’ve kind of grown on me now.

I’d love to try this again with my milk jars I also have. It’s all about practice right?

Anyway, the jars I have now, I like to store random bits of decor in. Sometimes it’s my fake rose petals in water. It has a nice swirly effect.

Other times, I like to put the fairy lights in.

All in all, I’m happy with my first attempt at creating marbled jars. It’s definitely something I’d like to do again.

Have you guys ever tried this kind of DIY? How did it go for you?

Angela.

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Let’s Bake! (Petri Dish Jellies Edition)

So this isn’t technically baking, but I like keeping the title of the series. This was one of the easier creations from Nerdy Nummies, so last weekend, I decided to give it a go.

I ordered Petri dishes from Amazon, as that was the one part I didn’t have. The concept seemed easy enough, fill the dishes with jelly and get creative with the lollies on top to make it look like ‘bacteria’.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Jelly in different flavours (strawberry, blueberry, lemon, orange and lime) – with mine though, I only used blueberry and lemon, otherwise you get too much jelly. I used food colouring to get the different colours.
• Lollies
• Petri Dishes

That’s pretty much it!

Pour the jelly crystals into a heatproof bowl. Add one cup hot water and mix. Add one cup cold water and mix again. I poured some into separate bowls and made different colours. Then, I added them to the petri dishes!

I filled them up around two-thirds of the way and put them in the fridge. Let them set for an hour, before taking them back out to put in the lollies.

I just had fun with setting up the lollies. I tried to pick lollies that I thought would look more like ‘bacteria’. It was so much fun placing them all in the jelly. Once I was done, I put them back in the fridge to set even more.

That’s it! Another hour later, we were able to dig into them! I made 20, so there was quite a lot of jelly in the fridge. In the end I only used two boxes of jelly, so we still have three for a later date. I do recommend using food colouring instead of making five boxes of jelly. Cause then you have waaay too much! That all being said, I love how these came out! They’re so colourful and cute, and a little creepy!

I’d say they would be perfect for a kids birthday party! It’s nice to come home and have a little treat waiting in the fridge too 😀

When’s the last time you had jelly?

Angela.

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10×10 Challenge Completed! (Summer Edition)

If you haven’t read this post, let me explain what this is about real quick. I saw a post by Meg, who did this 10×10 Styling Challenge, created by Style Bee. Basically, you choose 10 items out of your wardrobe, and for the next 10 days, your outfits can only come from the 10 items. The rules aren’t too hard and fast, but I decided not to wear the same outfit twice, as that seemed to defeat the purpose of this challenge.

As a refresher, here are my 10 items.

So, here’s my 10 outfits I came up with!

Monday – Outfit #1

I started off with my floral dress as it was a sunny day. Also, a dress is pretty much an outfit on it’s own, and I wasn’t feeling the most inspired this Monday morning. That being said, wearing this dress tends to cheer me up. It’s floaty and sweet, and I paired it with my comfy flats (again Mondays). I took this picture before work (still kinda tired tbh), as I normally tie my hair back in some way at work. Babies like grabbing hair.

Tuesday – Outfit #2

Another warm day, so I put together an official outfit. T-Shirt, Shorts and Sandals are comfy and perfect for another hot day. This was taken after work, and I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, but I kinda liked this picture.

Wednesday – Outfit #3

Today was Valentine’s day! I put my hair in a braid rather than a ponytail to be a teensy bit more festive. I wore my floral singlet, harem pants and also a grey cardi. It was cooler in the morning, but by mid afternoon I had to take it off as it got really hot again. This was the also comfiest outfit I’ve had so far, I love these pants 😀

Thursday – Outfit #4

I was feeling kind of lazy on Thursday, as you do. So I wore almost the same outfit as Wednesday, except I threw on my Superdry shirt instead. Still counts right! Plus, I left my hair down (which was a mistake as it was windy today).

Friday – Outfit #5

It was a little cooler today, and by that I mean it was cloudy instead of just sunny. So I decided I could wear my sweater. There haven’t been too many days where I could wear that, as I would just get to hot. But, paired with shorts and sandals, it was okay. I also wore a necklace today just for fun! It’s my little owl one, the kids are fascinated by it.

Saturday – Outfit #6

The weekend! Saturday was a fairly busy day for us. We were out for almost the whole day, driving here and there. We also decided to eat out for dinner which we haven’t done since last year. We normally get takeout. We went to a little Italian place and the food was so goood! I’m happy with my outfit choice. I love this floral dress, and since it was a bit cloudy, I could bring out my trusty cardigan for an added layer. I also wore contacts for a change, cause I wasn’t too lazy.

Sunday – Outfit #7

It only now occurs to me that I’m derping in this picture, but too bad. It’s staying. Another sunny weekend day. A bit warmer than before, so out came my combo of singlet, shorts and sandals. I did have to check that I hadn’t worn this combo before, but I have been keeping track of the combos in a notebook, and I was safe. Also, I like pairing something floaty with something a little more fitted. I also realized that I’ve been wearing these sandals for a few days in a row, but they’re so comfy!!

Monday – Outfit #8

Still a warm day, but with lots of clouds. Pairing my cardi, with my stripy singlet and shorts proved to be a good mix. Since it was slightly cooler, my cardi helped keep me warm, but since I was in shorts, I wasn’t too warm. Also, this is comfy to move around in all day, as working with little kids and babies, you tend to prefer comfort over style.

Tuesday – Outfit #9

There was a decent bit of rain today, so I actually wore boots today, but for the sake of the challenge, I put on the black flats, which was my original shoes I was going to wear. I wanted to wear my floral dress one more time, but I wanted it to look different. So, since there was rain and it was a bit cooler, I threw my sweater on top. I’m not quite sure what I thought of this outfit. It seems a bit too preppy, but hey, I was super comfy in it!

Wednesday – Outfit #10

I was trying to think of what I hadn’t worn together at this point. It was a little warmer, so I didn’t want to have too many layers. Black and white is always a good mix, so I wore my stripy singlet with harem pants. I wore my yellow sandals just for a pop of colour.

There you have it! My first ever outfit challenge completed! I actually had a lot of fun putting this together, that I’m planning on doing this challenge seasonally. Otherwise, I’d just keep using the same 10 items. I recommend giving this a go, even if you only do it for 5 days instead of 10. It definitely helped me to mix and match more, rather than wearing the same thing everyday to work, like I sometimes do. But hey, the kids do it too 😛

Which was your favourite outfit? Mine’s a three way tie between 5, 6, and 7.

Angela.

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Brotherhood of the World Blogger Award (+2400 followers!)

Hey guys! It has been a while since I’ve done a blog award. But the lovely Azra, from Simply Serenity has nominated me for an award I haven’t done before. So let’s do this!

Rules

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and post a link to his/her blog
• List the rules of the award and post a picture of the award
• Answer the questions from your nominator
• Nominate 10 other bloggers and be sure to let them know
• Write a list of questions of your nominees to answer

Azra’s Questions:

• What is your biggest blogging goal for this year?

I wrote it down in my 2018 Resolutions post, but it’s to reach 5000 followers. I decided to just put down an insane number, but my blog keeps surprising me, so we’ll see what happens.

• What is next destination on your travel bucket list?

Japan!! We bought our tickets last week, and we’re heading off in May. I’m so excited!!

• What is one thing that you wish you can do but you are scared to do?

Something crazy like bungee jumping or sky-diving. It sounds like an incredible experience, but also terrifying you know.

• What is your current favorite meal to have?

Pizza.

• What is your favorite dessert?

So many. Cookies. Cheesecake. Pancakes. Everything sweet.

• What is last movie you saw and did you like it?

The Greatest Showman. I quite liked it. It was aesthetically pleasing, I loved the songs and all the dancing. Plot wise and character wise though, it was a little weak.

• What is your favorite song of the moment?

End Game

• What are your favorite blog posts to read?

I like reading a whole range. Travel ones are cool as I get to see new places. Lifestyle ones are fun as I like knowing what you guys get up to. Beauty ones are fascinating as I’m trying to learn more about makeup. I follow a huge range of bloggers really.

My Questions:

1. Do you prefer to cook or order take out?
2. What did you do last weekend?
3. What is your favorite ice cream flavour?
4. Would you rather have a grapefruit sized head or a head the size of a watermelon?
5. What would motivate you to run a marathon?
6. Do you have any vacation plans coming up?
7. How did you get your name? Do you know the meaning of your name?
8. What is something that you’ve never done but would like to try?
9. What’s the best thing that happened to you this week?
10. What do you like to do on a rainy day?

Nominations:

• Jirah
• Maggie
• Jamie
• Pamela
• Sarah
• Anyone else who wants to take part!

It’s always nice to do an award post every now and then. Thanks again to Azra for nominating me!

Finally, as you may have saw in the title. My blog has reached yet another milestone. They seem to be piling on fast lately, and I have no idea why but I’m thrilled! My blog has past the 2400 follower mark, and while some seem to be random business accounts, I still appreciate that more people find my blog and are interested enough to want to read more! I really feel like I should do a special post for the 2500 mark, so I’ll put on my thinking hat and hopefully come up with something good!

Angela.

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Summer Picnics

Having a picnic is always on the plan for summer. It’s just nice to eat food outside, surrounded by nature.  So that’s what we did, one beautiful Sunday afternoon.

We set our sights on Percy Scenic Reserve. It’s a fairly popular spot, and it has some little tracks you can walk, as well as lots of grassy areas to sit down and have a picnic. It’s also nostalgic for us, as this was where we took our portrait photos for the wedding!

Starting off, with a quick car selfie. I put in contacts so I could wear my sunglasses for a change!

We picked the spot, where we did our first look photos almost a year ago!

Now we get to the food. We have a picnic basket which we bought two years ago. Funnily enough, it was at Rory’s insistence we bought it. Because he was planning to propose, and wanted the picnic to have all the bells and whistles. The basket is perfect for two people.

We didn’t get too fancy with our meal. We made sandwiches, and bought some finger food, fruit and drinks to throw in the basket as well.

This was just after New Years, so I brought along some of the cookies I had made as well!

After we’d eaten our fill, we rested, chatted and people watched for a bit. Then we went for a wander. We spotted a duck pond nearby. The ducks made a beeline for us, but then ignored us when they realized we didn’t have food for them.

We also wandered down the waterfall track. It’s a fairly easy track, all flat, leading through lots of little rivers, creeks, bushes and trees.

Taking a selfie with sunglasses cause it’s that bright!

It was a nice way to spend time after the picnic.

Finally, we made our way to the waterfall. It’s very pretty, and there were lots of people milling about. I managed to snap a photo of the waterfall without any of the people in it though!

That’s all for this post! Have you guys gone for a picnic lately?

Angela.

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DIY – Gingerbread House Competition

Hey guys!

So I’ve always wanted to do one of those gingerbread house kits. I finally managed to track one down this year! Rory was keen to join in too, so we got two kits. I wanted to film a fun little challenge video out of it, and that’s what we did.

Here’s the video if you want to take a look at the shenanigans that went on as we built our houses!

Here’s pictures of our houses if you just want to see the gingerbread goodness!

Rory’s House

Angela’s House

Side by side

Let us know whose house you like! I’ve never done a poll thing, but this seemed like a fun excuse to create one!

Have you guys ever done one of these kits?

Angela.

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