october favourites

Hello again!

It feels like ages since I've written a blog post, but it's only been a mere two weeks. Anyway, let's get onto the favourites!

/ Eclairs sweets /
I need some serious control over these because I consume way too many at a time. These lollies taste like Werther's Original (yummy) but are just that tad bit cheaper. If you've never these caramel/toffee lollies before, you're missing out. Sorry about the sad photo... I ate all of these except two T_T

/ Vanilla & Almond Body Scrub /
This was from a bigger set of goodies but I just picked this out to try it as I've never used a body scrub before. The scent is quite strong but so far so good!

/ Pens /
Yep, been loving pens recently. I'll have a more detailed post on this later so enjoy this picture for the time being! ^_^

Courtesy of Marvel.

/ Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. /
I have been obsessed with this show for the past week. IT'S JUST SO GOOD. If you don't know already, it's a TV show by Marvel that continues after the events of The Avengers (2012) and follows Phil Coulson and his team basically kicking ass as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. It shares continuity with other films and shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show starts off a little shakily but immediately picks up its game during the second half of season 1. Oh yeah. Spoiler alert. Coulson lives.

// Music //
Writing's On The Wall - Sam Smith (from Spectre)
Awesome Mix Vol. 1 - Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack
I've loved old classics recently and this playlist from GOTG contains some pretty good ones!
Dancing On My Own - Robyn (covered by Cyrus Villanueva)
This was an X Factor performance and it was a beautiful rendition of the song originally sung by Robyn. Although it is an incomplete cover, it's still wonderfully done!
Wicked Game - Chris Isaak (covered by Cyrus Villanueva)
Don't Stop Me Now - Queen
This song is so upbeat! I love it!
Another One Bites the Dust - Queen
THE BASS FROM THIS SONG REMINDS ME OF CHILDHOOD. AHH GREAT TIMES.


Well this post was a tad bit late. Please forgive me ^_^

Stay cool!

~ Judy x

OOTD // november grey skies, spring showers and DIY umbrella

As spring transitions into summer (it was flipping 40 degrees Celcius the other day o.o), there have still been a few overcast days of grey and rain.

The other day a friend, Aolei, and I went exploring around the city, and had an impromptu photoshoot in the on and off rain... we only had one umbrella between us, so one person kept getting drenched ._.

I tried a new kind of editing for these photos. Normally I go for a super bright, in your face, high contrasty kinda effect, but these have a much more muted, washed out, film look I think/hope.

Grey turtleneck sweater/cape top // unknown

Jeans // Target

Platform Chelsea boots // Lipstick Shoes

Umbrella // DIY/Daiso

Ring // markets

Here's my friend looking like a princess as always :P

Top and skirt // Gumboots

Boots // Hush Puppies

Ring // markets

We matched with the grey kind of accidentally. What a nice coincidence though, seeing as the sky and the buildings around us matched too! :D

Attempting to twirl around HAHA

As I'm always behind the camera, the few times I'm in front are very awkward and I spend them going "WHATDOIDOIDON'TKNOWWHATI'MDOINGARGHHHH"

Inspired by this super lovely and creative tutorial by Eat Your Teacup, I bought a clear umbrella from Daiso for $3.80 a few weeks back along with a pink and green paint markers. I simply doodle some weird looking flowers and leaves on the inside, attempting to cluster them towards the edges, and bam! Cute umbrella complete :)

I really want to go get another one so I can do a new design, but common sense is screaming in my ears that I don't need fifty umbrellas.

This was an attempt to get a cool reflection photo... f.t. my annoying hair.

Is it just me or would this photo perhaps fit within a sci-fi film? Maybe? *crosses fingers*

I was pleasantly surprised with this photo, seeing as I had no idea what Aolei was doing.

Thanks Aolei, for being the only person who is willing to let me boss them around and for doing crazy stuff in public for the sake of photos xD

We got these rings on the same day, with the fox being mine and the heart infinity hers. I've never really owned a ring before so that's something new. Funny story- she lost the ring on the same day (but someone found it for her so it was all good).

Don't read the next paragraph if you get grossed out easily :P

Bye the way, before you ask, my nails weren't fake xD My friends thought it was extremely gross, but I was trying to see how long my nails could grow without breaking, and I made it to a good half a centimetre before I had to cut them for work ._. 

She reminds me of a happy bear in this photo and I'm not sure why.

I saw the sign to this place called Anita while we were wandering around, and I recognised it from the wonderful aesthetic world of Instagram, so of course I had to go in ;D

It has gelato! I got Hersheys and Cheesecake as flavours, and Aolei got Kiwi Banana and Watermelon Mint.

Turns out the bottom left is a frozen yogurt booth, where they only have the plain flavour of it, but you get UNLIMITED toppings. I should try that next time.

Anywho, sorry this post was a day late! :(

Lately I've been feeling pretty bored and underwhelmed with life. Hopefully I'll get out of this funk and start being productive in preparation for CHRISTMAS BLOG POSTS :D

Question for y'all: what's your favourite ice cream flavour? :)

I love me some strawberry or cookies and cream <3

Stay fabulous!

Lena xx

café cre asion

GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS?

...

It's time for another food post!

So I've heard a lot about this mysterious café in the midsts of Sydney's CBD and feasted my eyes upon endless pictures of glorious matcha fondants and tea and finally decided that I was going to have to visit this place to see the magic myself. So I set out with Lena on a journey to discover what all the fuss was about and why Cafe Cre Asion is rising to become one of Sydney's best matcha cafés.

We actually walked past the street it was on because the street looked very dodgy but nevertheless made it in the end.

First impressions of the place can be mixed - it’s a small cafe which strangely lacks seating and can only comfortably seat around 10 or so people. The seats and tables are very low as well, which may cause a little bit of trouble to eat on. However, it brings a more relaxed vibe to the place, and makes it easier to take photos of the food you’re enjoying!

The famous matcha fondant!

The matcha fondant is served with a small pile of berries and a cute cup of delectable matcha sauce that you drizzle over the cake. By the way, the chocolate cake is filled with rich, matcha sauce and sprinkled with more matcha powder. Yes, it's matcha heaven on a plate. 

I'm starting to crave this as I'm writing this post... not a good thing. Well, this dish has certainly fulfilled my matcha cravings and I'll probably visit the cafe again soon in the near future.

Dish Shown: Matcha Fondant
Price: $8.50
Location: Cafe Cre Asion, 21 Alberta Street CBD Sydney 2000

Well that's all folks!

Stay awesome!

~ Judy x

recent reads || october

HELLO HELLO HELLO ^_____^

Let's just ignore the fact that September was the only time this year we missed both a favourites and recent reads post *cries*

In our defence, most (if not all) of our last exams for the year were during that month... YAAAAY WE'RE FREEEEEE :D

Which means more time to read! ^_^

You know the drill:
I read some books and ramble
You scroll past the rambly bits and comment something nice anyway :3 <3

I've also realised lately that I don't really talk about the synopsis of books, instead just how I feel about everything and all the characters (which isn't exactly helpful considering you probably don't know the characters at all) so I'll try my best to actually talk about what goes on and what not :D

This month I actually put some EFFORT into the photo *shocked face* Here are some doodles in felt tip of (most) of the covers of books mentioned below. I know, they look terrible xD

The Summer I Turned Pretty / It's Not Summer Without You / We'll Always Have Summer (Summer series) by Jenny Han ★★☆☆☆
Jenny Han is such a loved author and to be completely honest I'm not the biggest fan of her books... I find them a little weird. I don't know. Unfortunately, I wasn't that thrilled over the first book of this series- even though the characters were adorable, it didn't seem that believable. However if I start a series most of the time I'm too stubborn to stop, so that's that. Overall feeling: it was okay. It's about a girl's family and another family being best buddies, and of course that other family has two super hot and celebrity looking sons who the girl is in love with. xD

The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi ★★★★☆
This was a cute, feel good read :)

The Son of Neptune / The Mark of Athena / The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus series) by Rick Riordan ★★★★★
I read the first book of this series all the way back in June and couldn't find the rest of the books in my library, so I forgot about it. But then I started again and got addicted, and OH MAN I LOVE THE CHARACTERS SO MUCH! Although I have to admit, I forgot everything that happened in the first book, and by the third book I had absolutely no idea who Piper was. So now I'm constantly getting confused between Piper and Hazel (if you've read this series) so I'M SORRY </3 Lesson learnt- don't wait too long between parts of a series!

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra ★★★★☆
There's something about dance related things that intrigue me even though I. Cannot. Dance. For. My. Life. Urgh. This book reminded me of an Aussie TV show Dance Academy (which I have to admit, was a tad bit obsessed with that show to the point where I even had dreams about one of the characters who died coming back alive shhhh). This book revolves around three girls, all super competitive and are in an elite ballet school. One word to describe the plot: backstabbing. One quality of this book which I really loved were the diversity of races amongst the main characters, which was something unique (it's pretty sad that I even have to say it, but I reckon it's true...). Be warned though, it ends on a big cliffhanger! On a serious note though, it might need a trigger warning in regards to eating disorders.

Kaleidoscope Hearts / Paper Hearts / Torn Hearts (Hearts series) by Claire Contreras ★★★★★
I accidentally read the 2nd (or 3rd, if you count the middle one which is a novella) book first which was pretty stupid of me, but it worked really well as a stand alone actually! Connected well with the main characters in the first and second/third books because one loves art (she makes sculptures of hearts out of broken glass- how stunning would that look in real life! And all the meaning that could be behind it <3) and the second loves PHOTOGRAPHY <3 okay someone really needs to stop me. This post is getting frustratingly long.

Prom and Prejudice by Elizabeth Eulberg ★★★☆☆
This book was pretty cute (unrealistic in my point of view but still). I've been avoiding reading the original Pride and Prejudice (so I should do that sometime) hence why I'm stupid and didn't realise all the characters in this American teenagerised (yay for made up words) version were all based on the original book.

Emmy and Oliver by Robin Benway ★★★★★
SO CUTE SO CUTE SO CUTE AND THE CHARACTERS ARE HILARIOUS AND WITTY AND CUTE <3 Honestly, someone needs to restrain me and my habits of reading these kinds of chick lit books... T^T

This little monster (see what I did there) has been lying around on my table for ages. I really need to continue reading it.

That one patch of blue bokeh on the right xD <3 I LOVE BOKEH! If you don't know what it is, it's a really cool photography effect (you would have definitely seen it before, just maybe not known the name) where there's a deep depth of field and the background is very blurry compared to the subject and lights in the background appear as little circles of colour (or even as hearts, hexagons and other shapes!) and I love it so much and this sentence is awfully long and I'll shut up now.

QUESTION OF LE DAY/MONTH/ETERNITY:

What's your favourite type of genre for books or movies? (or anything else like video games, music and... that's all I can think of xD)

For me, it would be:

Books: Contemporary, Romance (chicklit!!), Young Adult

Movies: Animation, Musical, Comedy
Video games: Simulation (THE SIMS 3 THO <3)

Music: Pop, Indie, Alternative, Musical theatre, Acoustic

Let me know your answers in the comments below! ^_^

FINALLY THIS POST IS OVER. I bet you thought it would never end!

I JUST REMEMBERED: ONE LAST (timeee I need to beee the one...) THING:

Feel free to add me as a friend on Goodreads so you can see me spam my feed xD

Stay fabulous!

Lena xx