Hello! I’m currently writing this update in the car on the way to dropping my parents off at the airport (..well Dad’s currently driving and I’ll drive the way back, don’t worry I’m not being naughty and using my phone). The last few days have gotten really quite busy. After the work week I was excited to sit down and pump out a few new blog posts but I’ve ended up becoming so busy 👀. I’ve gone on adventures with my dad while he’s had time off work, I’ve shopped for my one of my best friends birthday presents, run other errands, and just generally haven’t had solid time to sit down and put a decent effort into coming up and writing posts.

So today (or should I say tonight as I type this in the late hours of the night) to continue with my Blogtober and not be a quitter I’m just going to do a basic little life update.

Last night I went and saw a great band called “The Kite String Tangle”. I raved all about them in my “music I can’t stop listening to post”. They were amazing! Full of energy and had many songs that would it hard for the stiffest of people not to bust out and boogie. I came home, got my makeup off, grabbed my little Cavoodle Harvey, and slept in. I must add, at 6am when Harvey woke me up all excited to get up for the day I dumped him in my brothers room cause I NEEDED a sleep in. I’m a bad sister. Today I just ran must needed errands and got ready for one of my best friends birthday parties. Her party was great - her family is Lebanese so the food was absolutely delicious. I definitely went back for seconds and thirds.

Next weekend I’m going away for the weekend with two of my best mates and we’re going to stay in a nice little Airbnb. Will take lots of photos!

Will try and stick to my Blogtober dammit, even though I have full time work this week. It has been so fun and challenging for myself, and I feel I’ve created content which hasn’t lacked in substance to what I usually would post on my usual posting schedule (which really is once a week, or whenever I go “oh crap I havent posted in ages”).

With a catch phrase of "Shop now. Take now. Buy in 4." it's no wonder Afterpay has become a raging success among online retailers.

I think it teaches people unhealthy habits with their money. It makes the price of a product look more appealing by dividing it by 4, telling you that you can have it for a cheaper price straight away instead of having to pay a full amount. It doesn't change anything though - you still will pay the same price if you pay for it up front rather than do it in 4 payments.

My motto is "if you don't have the money for it then don't buy it". I've always done this in my life. At times when money was tight I didn't bother excessively buying things like makeup or clothes because I knew it would be wiser to save it or spend it on essentials like food and petrol. In those times it would have been so easy to buy into the Afterpay craze and purchase a range of things online, but it wouldn't be wise. It's not good to get into the habit of repaying things. I only ever want to be in debt when i've purchased a house or something that's a proper investment.

I think it targets vulnerable consumers who haven't got sound budgeting skills and who have developed a "I just want it now" mentality. I think it is a dangerous way of people to get in the habit of buying things.

If somethings that's good - then save up for it and buy it when you have the money.

Okay now we have that uber silly and cringe song away I want to celebrate the fact that i've stuck to blogging for 3 years! It has gone by so quick, i'm amazed. It's so fun going back to old posts seeing the products I used to write about and the life updates I did. It feels really cool knowing i've had this blog to document a lot of the big milestones in my life - traveling, university, finishing placement, getting my dog Harvey, graduating, getting my first job etc. Shout out to my ride of dies who have been here reading since the start (you know who you are!) and also to the new readers who have joined in. It's been so fun interacting with all of you, it means a lot.

The highlights...

• Getting to have a creative outlet which is all my own! It's so cool having my own website where i'm the designer, creator, writer, and editor. 
• Getting better with my photography skills - I used to be pretty terrible but these days i'm actually getting a lot of shots I like. I even bought my Canon G7X camera which is my best friend.
• Interacting with other bloggers - there are so many lovely people I have met along the way, all from different countries. It's awesome coming together with people who share common interests. 
• Getting better at makeup! Having my own blog which features A LOT of beauty products has meants my makeup skillz have leveled up. Still not amazing, but a whole lot better than I was.
• Blogger events - i've actually only been to two but the last one was amazing. It was great fun and I got to make quite a few blogger friends :')

Hello everyone! Continuing on with Blogtober (blogging every day of October) i'm doing the Wanderlust Travel Tag. I thought it was quite a fun one with some interesting questions. :)

1. Where have you traveled to that you would love to travel again?
Europe. I've actually been three times, and even still there is so much more of it I would love to see. I just love how it's so easy to travel around and each different country has a completely unique culture.


2. You're leaving tomorrow, money is no object where are you going?
CANADA. I reallyyyy want to go to Canada, i've been obsessed with it lately. I follow a lot of Canadian photographers on Instagram and it just looks stunning. If I went i'd love to travel around the whole place, perhaps rent a car.

3. Preferred method of travel; planes, trains, or cars?
Trains! There's just something I love about trains, there's much more ease with them opposed to planes. Unfortunately living in Australia and being so far away I have no choice but to go places on planes (eek) but I like taking trains when I can because you get to the see the countryside. Plus I just hate airports haha, they're always so stressful.

4. Favourite travel website?
Does AirBnB count? I just love going on there and looking at places to stay, even if I don't any travel planned haha.

5. Where would you travel to just eat the food?
It's gotta be Italy. The land of pizza, spaghetti, arancini balls..it's carb loaded but so delicious.

6. Is there a place you would never go again?
Probably..Hong Kong? I didn't mind it but I didn't love it.

7. Can you recite your passport number from memory if asked?
Definitely not, I can't even remember the first number! Or does it start with a letter? Gosh, I have no clue.

8. Do you prefer the window, aisle, or middle seat?
Who would willingly choose the middle seat?! I prefer the window, always. You get to look out and watch what goes by, see the twinkling city lights as you land, and you have your own little space. The only downside is having to awkwardly ask people to get up when you need to go to the bathroom but I feel that's an okay trade off to have your own space.

9. Favourite travel memory?
There's SO MANY I could choose from. Still to this day I think what stands out most is my first time going to England. We caught the dreaded 24hour flight to London airport, caught a taxi to the house we houseswapped with (you can read about the experience here) and it was the most beautiful cottage covered in so much snow. I had never seen that much snow before. It was just a wonderful moment realizing we were going to spend the next 3 months living there.


10. What is your most ideal holiday?

Somewhere cold to escape to when it's the middle of Australian summer. It gets soo hot here and i'm not a summer person. Probably going somewhere I can see the snow and go snowboarding.

"Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, argument is an exchange of ignorance". - Robert Quillen

We live in a generation where more and more people have access to wide platforms for voicing their opinions. In prior decades, and without the comfort of the internet, people would resort to soap boxes and writing to newspapers to air out their thoughts on topics. These days there is an abundance of opportunities to get your thoughts out there - like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. They're an easy way to reach a large amount of people which are also in a sense a safer way to voice opinions as you suffer less repercussions than if you were to stand in the street yelling out your views.

Due to the ease of expressing opinions online I believe people have become more intolerant of listening to other people.

Just the other week I was blocked by someone on Twitter. I kind of want to laugh at that statement as it's something I never thought would happen as I don't engage in speaking rudely or negatively to people online. This blogger tweeted saying how she thinks people are total snobs when they refer to their job as a proper or adult job. I replied to this jokingly saying how it made me feel bad as I occasionally refer to my job as an adult job only because I studied hard through university and my current work feels different to my uni jobs. This was met with a string of quite rude comments calling me a snob. I was a little taken back because, as I said, I never engage in being uncivil/mean to anyone online and was surprised someone would be unkind back? I tried to explain as nicely as I could how I never intend for it to be a demeaning statement and I think what everyone does in life is important as we all make the world go round. Gosh, I even added in a smiley face to sound friendly in case my original statement could be interpreted the slightest bit mean haha. Without much discussion or anything I was blocked. It just made me more disappointed than anything that we weren't able to enter into a civil discussion so I could hear why she felt that way and then also reiterate how my intentions were not to be snobby in the slightest. Well, I guess that's the internet for you.

In my opinion: discussion is power. We should never get stagnant listening to other points of views and hearing why people believe what they believe. I think it's important to hear what people have to say. In the past i've held certain views on topics only to have them completely changed when having a conversation with someone. One of my best friends (shout out to you Cherri!) comes from a different background to me and holds quite a lot of different views on topics to myself. I absolutely love chatting to her as we both have such civil conversations discussing soo many things. I love trying to understand her point of views and rationale, similarly she also likes trying to understand my views. Discussing doesn't mean you always have to agree with each other but it just means you're trying to absorb more knowledge and gain an understanding.

Unfortunately, the media is a very one sided thing and if you happen to have an opposing view to the alleged popular opinion of the day you face ridicule and an onslaught of horrible comments. This is probably why I never post my opinions online, because I know for talking about certain topics I could face a lot of backlash from people who don't have any intention of understanding where i'm coming from. It just shouldn't be that way. The best way for our society to grow is being able to have open conversation with one another which is free from judgement and argument.

I do think social media is good in many ways for acting as a forum for discussions but it's so important for us all to treat each other as HUMANS. It's the simple things like being respectful, not judging people, not throwing out hateful words, asking why someone feels a certain way.

In my life I think I strike a great balance of: working, catching up with friends, exercise (okay I only go for a few walks a week but that still counts right?) and being at home. As i'm naturally more introverted I cherish being a homebody and chilling around my house when I can. Sometimes i'll be productive and do some work and blog, but sometimes I just want to relax and find a new series to get into.

These are the shows I have binged over the last few months, all of which I have recommended to anyone and everyone in real life. You know a series is good when you find yourself bringing it up in conversation just so you can get someone else into it.

Everyone has their "thing". Some it may be baking, reading a lot of books, photography, sports..mine happens to be music. Music is just my absolute passion and I love nothing more than discovering new bands and going to various concerts. I'm always making playlists for myself and friends, burning CD's for my car (yes i'm still a little oldschool, I love my mix CD's!), looking up what bands are touring soon, and trying to find new music.

This year there have been some absolutely fantastic albums released. The ones I were mainly excited for was Lana Del Rey, Asgeir, and Foster The People due to them being my favourite artists. I was also lucky enough to discover new artists with some were recommendations and some being just found at random. These ones mentioned in this post are the standouts, the ones I keep going back to and the ones I can't stop telling people about.

PARCELS - HIDEOUT EP

Now this isn't really going to be a proper life update but just a post to announce.....i'm going to be doing Blogtober! If you don't know Blogtober is basically where you post everyday for the month of October. I'm quite excited for this challenge and have a notebook full of ideas for various posts. I did my first post of the month yesterday (my Colourpop haul) and this is my second.

Today has been the cosiest day in a longgg time. Where I live (Queensland, Australia) has not had rain in ages to the point we're currently in a drought. Today I awoke to find the sky gloomy, the air cool, and the trees being embellished with many raindrops. It's currently 5pm and I haven't left the house all day. Suuure I probably should have gone to the shops to buy some food to do meal prep for my work lunches this week but I couldn't bring myself to get out of my comfy gear and become presentable. Not today, not today. So instead I have had many cups of earl grey tea, written up some blog posts to get ahead of the blogtober game, had a friend come over briefly for tea, and watched the latest season of Doctor Foster with my brother. *sighs* Isn't this the life? Unfortunately I have work tomorrow and as much as I love my job I also love rainy days so it's going to be a major struggle to get out of bed. Wish me luck.