30 Jan 2014

Hong Kong sticker finds

If you hadn't already guessed by now, I do love me some cute stickers and with myself being in Hong Kong for two weeks during the holiday period, I knew that hunting down some cute stickers was something I had to do. Stickers are ridiculously cheap there and I managed to find a market stall that sold three sticker sheets for $10. Three sheets for less than £1! I bought six but now I wish I had bought more... I also found some other stickers in a store called 'Log-On' and these were a bit more pricey.

Here were the ones I bought from the market stall and Log-On:


I love the diary stickers I found as I think they are better than stickers that are over the top or irrelevant.


I also managed to find some Rilakkuma ones. Rilakkuma is a character with sentimental value to me and that is why they pop up every so often in my diary pages and whatnot. The characters look like a teddy I have from when I was younger and with Rilakkuma being such a big thing in Hong Kong, I knew I had hit the jackpot when I found all sorts of items with this character on. Needless to say, these following sticker sheets had my full attention when I found them:


Although I didn't buy many stickers while in Hong Kong, I've started using less and less of them in my diary pages. I don't know why this is but sometimes, I felt like I was just sticking for the sake of sticking.

Anyway, stay tuned for more posts on Hong Kong-related stuff!

26 Jan 2014

my week #93

This week, I have had a six day week, with a one day weekend! This is because on Saturday, I had a Surgical Skills workshop. It was just a beginner's day but I really enjoyed it! I was really quite surprised at how much I enjoyed it as I didn't think I was the surgery type.

Quite a 'quiet' week in terms of stickers, washi, etc but I'm beginning to prefer these minimalistic pages (well, minimalistic in contrast to what my weeks have been like, this time last year).


How has your week been?

23 Jan 2014

my 2013 '52 books in 52 weeks challenge' in review

My goal in 2013 was to read 52 books.

Please do not judge my bad taste in books!
It was a bit of an ambitious goal and unfortunately, I didn't achieve it. Although it looks like I only read 42 in the picture above, I actually read 43 as I forgot to record the last one I had read. 43 books in 52 weeks really isn't bad for me as I usually find it easy to start books but hard to finish them. I tried reading books that I didn't think were for me (hello, Nicholas Sparks and Meg Cabot) but found them such easy reads that I ended up enjoying them!

With all this in mind, I am going to try and read 26 books this year (that is, one every two weeks). Before I can achieve this goal, I need to write a list of books I want to read. I like anything easy to read (that don't require many brain cells) or something that is a bit cheesy (Cecilia Ahern is a personal favourite). I dislike sci-fi (though I did like the Hunger Games trilogy but I don't know if it can be classified as such) and fantasy.

Do let me know if you have a suggestion :-)

19 Jan 2014

my week #92

My week has been a lot lighter than the last one (thank goodness) but I've still spent the majority of it studying! It was nice to let me hair down at the weekend too.

I've also tried to detox this week but it's been a fail so I will try again in the coming week (try being the key word!). I feel like I've given myself too many food treats whilst away in Hong Kong during Christmas and New Year so a detox is well overdue.


How has your week been?

16 Jan 2014

december review

Instead of talking about my essentials for December, I am going to review what I was up to. For the first half, I had uni and exams (worst time ever) and the second half was spent in Hong Kong.


Hong Kong's transport system isn't much different from London's but it is a bit better (air con on buses and trains, yes!) and more punctual. They use an 'Octopus card' as a travel card and it isn't dissimilar to the Oyster card we use in London. Hong Kong were using the Octopus long before London started using the Oyster though!

This Octopus card ended up being quite essential during my two-week stay.


During the flight there, we flew over a part of China that was really beautiful:


I promise that the above picture was taken over China and not over another part of the world!

The airport had some amazing Christmas decorations:


As did an area of Tsim Sha Tsui:



Here was the view across the harbour while I waited for a Star Ferry:


Hong Kong is quite often seen as a financial hub with many tall and shiny buildings but where my dad is from, it is really quite rural and has an authentic 'village' feel to it. On one of the days, we had a vegetarian brunch with my mum's side of the family and the next two pictures show the area that we had the brunch at. It was a really amazing and beautiful area.



I will do a post on some of the food I had whilst I was in Hong Kong but until then, here is another picture of the same area. Can you see some high rise buildings in the far distance? I loved how tranquil this place was (it's called Ping Che for anyone who is interested).


In complete contrast to the village areas of Hong Kong, Harbour City Shopping Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui had a few 'observation decks'. I took advantage of one of them to take this picture:


And so it was, two weeks passed by really quickly. I saw a lot of family and friends and apart from the ridiculously cold weather (it felt like it was colder than the UK!), I had an amazing time. With there being an uncertainty as to when I'll next be able to visit (holidays will be scarce for the next four years for me) and as I hadn't been back since the summer of 2009, it was nice to be able to see some familiar faces and places.

On the last day, we had breakfast at the airport:


And before we knew it, it was time to head to the gate where I snagged myself a window seat in order to take this picture. The shadows in the background are actually mountains and although it looks very bright and sunny, it was still quite deceivingly cold that day!


Whilst on the flight back to the UK, I opened my window to a view of the sunset:


All in all, my December was hectic and I felt exhausted after it all (but in a good way!). Not only did I see a lot of people and eat a lot, I also had the pleasure of attending a wedding of my cousin's daughter. It was truly an amazing night and I will most likely blog about the food at the very least (a Chinese wedding banquet is very different to one a Western one).

14 Jan 2014

my week round-up #52

Here was my week and here are the blogs taking part in this week's round-up:

{1} Project Kate
{2} Amy's World
{3} Life of Kitty
{4} Miss Mai's Adventures
{5} My Organized Mayhem
{6} Le Monde de Mzelle
{7} Sailor Mouth
{8} Break of Light
{9} She's Eclectic
{10} Student Spyglass
{11} Innocent + Twisted
{12} Little Red Moose
{13} Addicted to Stationery
{14} Lucy Wonderland
{15} Right Brain Planner
{16} Deligted
{17} Everything IB

So, this will be the last weekly round-up I will do for the foreseeable future. University has taken up a significant amount of my time and I need to prioritise how I use my time. It is up to you if you want to keep the Paper Lovestory button on your blog or not as I will (hopefully) be introducing some newer badges and buttons for link exchanges. 

Thank you to everyone who took part in this feature - it has enabled me to discover new blogs that I probably would never have come across otherwise. Apparently, next year isn't as intense as this year so I will maybe re-introduce this feature if I find that the rumours are indeed true.

As for this blog, I will still be blogging! Expect 'my week' posts every Sunday and also one other post each week as a minimum.

NB: Inclusion on my weekly round-ups do not mean that I endorse any of the products or services sold by readers in the list and I do not get commission from any sales that may be the result of a click-through.

12 Jan 2014

my week #91

This week was the start of the second term. A second term that will, undoubtedly, be just as packed as the first! It already feels like the work has piled up but I really enjoyed this week's 'case' - so much so that I need to be careful that I don't go into too much depth with my 'self-directed learning'. The next two weeks will, hopefully, be more relaxed with my spare time. 


How has your week been?

9 Jan 2014

the last two weeks of 2013

My holiday period was spent in Hong Kong - hence my brief hiatus. As I had scheduled the 'my week' posts for this time, you only saw the pre-filled in version and so, I thought I'd show off the used version.

Here is the after version of week 88.


And here is week 89.


I hope your holiday period was as good as mine. Although Hong Kong was colder than the UK (how is that even possible?!), I had a fantastic time seeing friends and family - all thanks to my parents for this amazing Christmas present :-)

7 Jan 2014

my week round-up #51

Here was my week and here are the blogs taking part in this week's round-up:

{1} My Purpley Life
{2} Even Artichokes Have Hearts
{3} She's Eclectic
{4} Miss Mai's Adventures
{5} Lucy Wonderland
{6} Roses in December
{7} Properly Made Up
{8} Twenty5Seven
{9} Addicted to Stationery
{10} Fi-Lily Fi-Lo
{11} Hop Skip Jump
{12} Break of Light
{13} Filofax Is My World
{14} Coffee & Stationery
{15} Amy's World
{16} Askatla
{17} Everything IB
{18} Right Brain Planner
{19} Sailor Mouth
{20} Innocent and Twisted
{21} Little Red Moose




NB: Inclusion on my weekly round-ups do not mean that I endorse any of the products or services sold by readers in the list and I do not get commission from any sales that may be the result of a click-through.

5 Jan 2014

my week #90

This week, I arrived back in London and still haven't had a chance to relax (until today). Thursday was admin day - grocery shopping, life admin and unpacking all had to be done. I spent Friday on work experience and Saturday consisted of netball in the morning and house cleaning in the afternoon and evening. I have no plans (apart from vegging out) today.


How has your week been?

2 Jan 2014

my 2014 set-up

There is no Filofax Week Round-Up post this week as I am taking a brief hiatus! Instead, I have written this post on how I have decided to organise my life in 2014.


This year, I have a choice of using my Kate Spade, Smythson, Slimline Deco or Compact Metropol. I haven't decided yet and I do feel very attached to the Metropol...

As for diary inserts, I have opted for Filofax white 'week-on-two-page' inserts. Here is how they look:


I actually really like how the colours stand out on the white paper and although the paper quality is rubbish, the big spaces for the weekdays are something I definitely could have done with during the first term of medschool.


For notepaper, I have decided to use up some old Kate Spade diary inserts (2012 ones!). I have covered the bits that have date-related things on and although it doesn't look perfect, I can live with it as the paper quality is amazing! It seemed like such a waste to throw them out.


As with last year, I have opted to use some 'to-do list' inserts again:


Finally, I have also decided to use my iPad's Reminders app to keep track of the many things I need to do in various parts of my life. I thought I would give the app a go as I've been quite unfair on technology in the chance and I do like the design of the app. We'll see how this experiment goes...


All in all, I'm excited for 2014. Although my social life is pretty much non-existent due to a never-ending mountain of work every week, I am enjoying every second of it all and I think 2014 will be an even better year for me :)

How have you decided to organise your life in 2014?