Lavender & Twill : July 2017

Friday, July 28, 2017

༺ Currently: Islands of Adventure ༻

‘Currently’ posts are a series of memoirs, featuring snapshots of one small life story by briefly touching on events that are occurring in my day-to-day journey. These episodes feature photos from my Instagram, do come and say “Hi!” if you are around. Also, if you would like to participate in this feature yourself, please feel free! I’d love to read your posts, so don’t forget to leave a link. ♡

READING:

Some Terry Pratchett! It’s slightly problematic as I have to wait to buy new books on my Kindle, and I usually finish a Pratchett in a day, so I’m having to pace myself a lot. Sometimes I miss my giant bookshelf of books!

WONDERING:

Not much actually. I’m too busy doing, thinking, and concocting plans. I’m not really wondering much about what’s going to happen as I have too many things occurring in the meantime for the head space.

FEELING THANKFUL:

For a LOT of things! Right at this moment, I am thankful for the opportunities for change, and the chance to create new paths for our family. Also for the opportunity to try things I’ve been wanting to do all my life. It’s amazing to see dreams becoming reality. ✧*｡(ˊᗜˋ*)✧*｡

EATING:

LOADS of yummy foods! Highlights: Vietnamese pork noodles, Pad Thai, Papaya salad, Chicken and Ginger, Tom Yum, Laska, Fried Pineapple Rice ~ anything super fresh and tasty!

WATCHING:

DC’s Heroes of the Future. I’m a bit meh about it ~ I feel like everyone keeps making really dumb mistakes, and that drives me batty. I can not stand watching stupidity unfold. But that being said, it does seem to be improving slightly, and it does have funny moments.

WORKING ON:

Teacup Girl! Ohmygoodness, I’m so thrilled as we are in the beginning stages of starting a business! I am working at designing and creating my own brooch company. Which is super exciting, and it combines my two loves ~ art and vintage inspired fashion! And I can’t even… ヾ(≧∇≦)ゞ

LOVING:

The pool! The beach!! All the cute stationary. Exploring new places. “Ah-bencha!” as Lottie says! Showing our children exciting new things to see and do. The good food. Shopping ~ hehe. The chance to follow our dreams. Old Town White Coffee, it’s the best coffee ever! Air Con ~ do not underrate it… The stunning scenery of lush jungles, and islands in a shimmering aqua sea. The wild animals ~ monkeys! And the tame ones ~ cats everywhere.

ATTEMPTING:

Find the balance for our family in South East Asia. Yes, we are enjoying our time here, but there are certainly days that don’t go well, where the children are cooped up all day inside, or I’m feeling too tired to cope, or we are feeling too stressed out about food. For the most part, we are making it work ~ but we’d like things to operate more smoothly. Especially the important things like getting my supplements on time so I don’t run out of my medications.

WANTING:

To keep having amazing adventures, exploring whole new worlds and cultures with my family, and to see Teacup Girl get off the ground and become what I am dreaming it could be!

DOING:

Life. Good life.

(‘Currently’ post inspired by Danielle of Sometimes Sweet and Kaelah of The Clueless Girl's Guide!)

xox,

bonita

༺ ♡ ༻
Find me:

Friday, July 21, 2017

༺ Miami Beach ༻

It seems crazy to me that our time in Malaysia is coming to an end already… This weekend we are supposed to be jumping on a plane and flying back to Thailand. But we haven’t booked our flights or accommodation yet, so we need to do that stat!

For all our time island hopping the last few months ~ {it’s only been three months, but it feels like years already!!} I think we are all ready to find a more permanent base of travel, and settle down for a while.

Over the course of our journey, we would move to our temporary place, discover what works for our family, and would just be getting into the swing of things ~ only to have to pack up, move, and figure it all out again!

Being able to explore new places is super exciting for me, but we have found that our family definitely requires more familiarity with our surrounds to figure out a good routine for our day to day life. Exploring is best kept to the weekends for all of us, but that being said ~ I still have fun going out by myself during the week as well!

I’ve been walking through a lot of shopping centres here in Penang. There is so much development, so many tall condominiums and giant malls that are eight stories high! It’s a crazy change of pace from tiny Koh Lanta, but I still feel like there is an element of that lazy, sun-kissed island life underneath all the high shine, and the veneer of society.

We catch Ubers everywhere, and I love seeing all the old historic buildings in Georgetown, I wish I could take photos of them, but we whizz by so fast {or sometimes slowly. The traffic here is definitely… Intense… People don’t follow the lines on the road, or the road rules much. Here the motto seems to be – “They are more like guidelines anyways…” Bonus points if you know the quote! (¬ ᴗ ¬) }.

I haven’t had much chance to blog, but I hope that will change going forward.

Silly of me, but I didn’t bring a tripod for my DSLR with me. I didn’t have the space and I thought, “Oh well, I can just shoot on the weekends.” I found out pretty quickly that that idea wasn’t any better than it was back at home in Australia!

We just can’t juggle blog shoots and keeping the children happy at the same time, so I really haven’t had the opportunity to shoot much. However, the other night I went, “I need a tripod.” So I went and bought one and that was that!

Now when I go out exploring by myself, I can stop and take some pictures too. So I walked down to the tiny beach at the end of our street, and hung out under the trees by the surf.

I was wearing this awesome Voodoo Vixen dress, which I have been loving. It’s been fabulous for wearing out and about in hot, tropical weather. Plus, the pockets are just fantastic! You’d think it would get a bit dirty being such a pale coloured fabric, but it really doesn’t which is super great.

I also picked up this Anello backpack very early on here in Penang, {our first full day here, when we were in Queensbay Mall actually!}. It’s been absolutely brilliant!! It’s not only the most elegant backpack I’ve seen, it’s also designed so well, and it is extremely functional.

There is a back zipper for access inside the bag without having to go in at the top, and my bag organiser inside keeps everything neat and tidy. The top handles are great if you want to just loop it on your arm and carry it for a short while, or if you need to open it up.

It’s the best backpack I’ve ever had, and I love it so much! ❤ It’s very comfortable to wear, as well as having a really classic, vintage look. I highly recommend one if you are looking for any kind of stylish backpack that functions beautifully. Oh! And it also fits my Surface Pro perfectly, so it can definitely carry a small laptop if you want to bring one.

The backpack has been a key part of figuring out a slightly different version of my vintage style for tropical weather. But I think I shall save the details of tropical fashion for another post, maybe I’ll do a “Vintage style in the Tropics” guide? For now though ~ I’ve already rambled on long enough. Haha!

To sum up the last few months ~ these islands of adventure have been amazing, with so much beauty just waiting to be discovered… But we are off to the mountainous jungles next. See you on the north side!