Visual Diary Entry 1: April So Far

Visual Diary Chapter 1

Month of April so far.

Spring has officially sprung here in good ol’ Boise.

I have again realized that I don’t give this blog/website of mine enough love or attention, so I’ve decided I’ll just photo/thought dump once and a while and treat it like an online visual diary.

The weather has been really gorgeous lately—sunshine, warm high 60s-low 70s, crisp breezes, chilly mornings, warm afternoons, sun doesn’t go down until after 8pm, you know, the works! Despite it being lovely outside, I’m still a homebody and enjoy being a hermit inside.

April 4, 2021

Homemade lemongrass tofu bánh mì.

We’ve been cooking a lot more at home in general these days, since pandemic times began. We ate out far too often pre pandemic and so we’ve saved lots of cash making shit at home.

I try to eat plant-based as often as possible for health and skin reasons and this turned out pretty tasty without pork! Very simple but huge flavor.

My affair with Crown Affair

Over the holidays, I treated myself to fancy haircare since my hair is SO long now. It hasn’t been styled or cut for over a year since the pandemic began, so I thought it would be a good idea to invest in keeping it healthy and maintained.

My hair was usually kept at/around collarbone length and it is now a little past my mid-back. It’s so long that it makes my arms a bit sore trying to comb & brush! I was majorly influenced by Courtney Halverson of Pretty Little Fawn and decided to give Crown Affair a whirl.

I managed to get a holiday discount and ordered the limited edition holiday alabaster set first. I use the long handled comb for in-shower conditioner and treatment distribution throughout my locks and detangling. The short comb is to take with me or use at my vanity at night before bed, in conjunction with the Brush 003, specifically for fine hair. I did get a sample of The Oil and fell in love—it’s quick absorbing, moisturizing/hydrating without being greasy or heavy, it has a lovely and very light floral/citrus (tsubaki and yuzu) like scent without being distracting or overpowering. I can only smell it if I inhale my hair deeply after a couple hours. I like to put this oil into my hair straight out of the shower after towel drying excess water. Also picked up a brush cleaner to keep my brush neat and clean.

I also purchased The Towel (not pictured) also by Crown Affair and I love it! Cuts my drying time way down and leaves my hair the perfect amount of damp, for oil absorption, and air dry styling without the frizz.

All of these items have been game changers for my hair personally, definitely very spendy, but I won’t be buying any new combs or brushes for a VERY long time. In the event that there’s another fucking global catastrophe where I’m not able to get my hair cut, it’ll be bearable with these handy bougie af tools.

Dawn. Afternoon. Evening.

I also invested on a good shampoo system during the holidays. I’m super picky with scents and since shampoos typically leave a scent lingering for a long af time in your hair, I needed something I didn’t mind the smell of and that actually did my hair some good. Dae’s shampoo/conditioner/deep conditioner treatment has been another hair game changer. Yet again, another not-so-affordable option, but if you hadn’t noticed, I’m all about that investment since pandemic times began. 🤷🏻‍♀️

All of Dae’s products leave my hair silky soft, smooth, far less dry than it has ever been, healthy feeling (says a lot since I haven’t cut or trimmed my hair/ends for over a year), slightly less fallout, and my hair has been utterly manageable. The scent is floral and oranges, but nothing overpowering and it doesn’t last all day, which I prefer. I don’t have to fight to detangle it and styling is a damn breeze. I can airdry my hair now without it look like total garbage.

While this shit ain’t cheap, I subscribed for a discount, and have this shipped every 3 months. That being said, my boo and I both use the whole set and these last us more than 3 months so I can easily skip a shipment until I really need it.

I’ve made haircare part of my daily rituals & routines, so I consider all this money spent on my damn hair, basically self care.

Lazy AF styling.

Made by MLE was another ad I stumbled across on IG that totally got me. With my hair being so damn long, I needed other ways to style it for work etc. without fussing too much, especially since I’ve basically tossed all my heat tools aside for air drying. I saw these and had to have them (as with anything I lay my eyes on 🙄) I like using the sesame barrette for more stylish or chic messy buns for work. The big clip to keep all my hair outta my face, again for busy work shifts. The baby cloud one is so cute, and I like using that one when I prep my hair for bed. To protect my locks, I’ve been loosely braiding at the crown of my head, wrapping into a loose bun, and then clipping in place on the very top of my head, so my long hair doesn’t get tangled and I’ve been successful at keeping any sleepy time breakage at bay. These hair accessories are designed and handmade and they’re the most gorgeous and amazing quality. Every time I use or see these, they make me so happy.

For every day air-drying.

April 17, 2021

Tradlands

Another huge investment purchase I made recently was a Tradlands dress. I have been getting more into linen clothing in the past year because I love the aesthetic and I LOVE me some breathable fabrics. I’m a person who is very extreme in temperature one way or the other. I run super hot in the warmer months, and ice cold in colder months. I just can’t regulate my body heat and so layering cute shit always kills me in the winter because if the heater is running, I’ll get too hot. Same goes for if the AC is running, I’ll get too cold sometimes, but cry about being sweaty when the temp outside hits 80+. Anyway, I saw this rust colored Nico Dress by Tradlands in collaboration with an Instagram content creator, Candice. I saw how she styled it and knew I had to have it in my closet. I’ve been really inspired by slow fashion and in general “slow living” folks both on IG and Youtube and have been wanting to make small changes in my life and purchasing habits to be more environmentally friendly/conscious. So I’m slowly replacing shit in my closet with good, quality, pieces, and recycling various pieces that are versatile for all year ‘round, like this dress! It’s the perfect color for spring/summer and fall/winter. It can be worn alone, or layered up which is excellent, because I love being able to use one piece for lots of different kinds of outfits. It’s been a dream to wear and I’ve only had it for a week and wear it everyday when I’m not working. I’m not made of money and I know most of us aren’t, so I hope someday slow, good quality fashion is more accessible to the masses. Until then, I scavenge for coupons and discounts and make sure I only buy what I need.

Slow Sundays

On my days off I’ve been the laziest sloth. I wake up and lay around in bed for a couple hours. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m actually tired or if it’s lethargy or probably just pandemic blues. With the weather warming up and the sunshine we’ve been getting, I think I’m just coming out of all the winter blues finally. I struggle with winter basically every year. Anyway, when I’m feeling inspired, I usually get a wild baking hair up my ass and wanna try something new in the kitchen. I bought some checkerboard biscuit/cookies from my regular trip to the Asian market and really liked them, so I looked up how to make vegan or at least dairy/egg free ones so I don’t have to fork over $2 per box and found this recipe by EatwKriss. It’s a wonderful base cookie recipe that can be altered. For this batch, I did adapt EatwKriss’ original recipe to my personal tastes. I subbed coconut oil for vegan butter sticks, halved the tablespoon of cocoa powder the recipe called for and replaced the other half with instant espresso powder to really bring out that cocoa flavor and these turned out buttery and delicious. My oven is temperamental when it comes to temperature so I ended up overbaking these by just a couple minutes! But they turned out tasty regardless. I plan to use this recipe again, adapted with butter and try different combinations and designs. I’m thinking I’ll try strawberry & matcha combo next and save time on the checkerboard design and just do plain round biscuits or a pinwheel type of design where I spiral the different doughs together.

I decided to enjoy a couple of freshly baked cookies, with an afternoon Dalgona coffee.

The cookies took a little over 2 hours to complete, but only 15-20 mins of that was prep and mixing, cutting and shaping the dough. The rest of the time was time spent chilling in the fridge. These were delightful and I hope ya’ll try the recipe, it’s a good one, especially with vegan butter!

If you’ve read this far, thanks for tuning in and spending a little time in my corner of the internet universe this fine Sunday. My posts can sometimes be a journey to get through because I’m a little all over the place. I hope you enjoyed my month of April so far. I hope to be back with more diary entries going forward.

Until the next one!

Lifestyle & Travel, Food & DrinkAnnaCupofCoffeeApril 18, 2021Lifestyle & Travel, Skin & Beauty, Food & DrinkComment