Visual Diary Entry 3: Summer in Review

Hey ya’ll it’s been a hot minute. I’ve been a bit busy with personal projects and my day job. It’s already mid-October and I couldn’t be more stoked about Autumn, but am experiencing a little summertime blues. Summer is my favorite and I’m already missing the sunshine, but I do love me some sweater weather. So as an ode to summer, here’s a photo dump recap of my days off chilling at home.

At home during the summer when it’s nice, I am not much for going out these days (I mean pandemic and all), so I enjoy staying inside and cooking or baking more often. I randomly felt like making a layered cake, so I attempted twice on two separate weekends/days I had off (most of my days off are the beginning of the week since I work all weekend). Both attempts tasted great, but didn’t look as aesthetically pleasing, but whatever—I literally made cakes for consumption only lol. Attempt #1 was silly because instead of baking two separate layers, I baked the entirety of the batter and then tried to cut it in half 🙄 which didn’t work well at all but it was so tasty haha!

Attempt #2 was much prettier, but I need to work on my execution because I did not plan it well, yet again lololol. Again, STILL delicious. Found a lovely recipe for vegan vanilla cake which was so easy & and then just worked the recipe into a layered cake, but I need to figure out a better cream or frosting situation so it actually adheres to the cake. I also should have sliced the strawberries for the inner layer work to sit better, because this was so fun to put together, but the moment I cut into it, it just kind of fell apart. Oh well, it was eaten so fast it didn’t matter. Strawberries just looked so perfect this summer.

I’d also been on the hunt for a more minimal waste mascara in particular because it’s the one makeup item I use the most and I felt like if I could reduce waste using it I should try it out. So I tried out Izzy Mascara which is a zero waste mascara! It’s vegan, cruelty free, and comes in a refillable aluminum tube! All you have to do is send back the tube when you’re done and they send you a new tube! They have a neat refilling/sanitizing system that is just so innovative and so environmentally conscious, even the shipping process to send back the tube is zero waste. They send you a reusable fabric-like mailer that can be used over and over. It’s great! Unfortunately the mascara didn’t work for me. The finish was gorgeous, and it was nicely lengthening and volumizing in a natural way, but the formula smudged a great deal on me. No flaking, just couldn’t handle the raccoon eyes. It was a huge bummer indeed, so I didn’t end up repurchasing. I’m still regularly using the Em Cosmetics Pick Me Up mascara that I like, but did pick up the new Rare Beauty mascara to try and have been enjoying that. My only grip about the Rare Beauty formula is that it does smudge on me by the end of the day. The look though is stunning and I wish it didn’t smudge. I have the travel size, so when I’m finished I will make a decision on whether or not I repurchase.

Over the summer, the shop I work at had summer vacation for 2 weeks, so me and the boo took a road trip home. I finally got to visit my mom in my hometown after not seeing her for basically 2 years. It was so nice to spend time with her, as well as see some old friends. I also got to play with my friends new puppy, so that’s a huge bonus.

The end of summer feels so long ago, but here’s the rest of the photo dump. I picked up a reusable film camera since I’ve not had one since I was a kid and missed having nostalgic photo albums to go through since they’re all at my mum’s. Haven’t developed film from it yet, gotta fill it up first! My end of summer also consisted of me chopping off my pandemic hair, baking a bunch of other stuff, and also lots of iced coffees at my favorite spots before I fully switch over to the hot drinks for the cold season!

And that’s it folks! Thanks for humoring me with my silly photos. Hope you enjoyed catching up with me a bit! I hope to share more snippets of what I’m up to lately. In other news—actually exciting—I am working on illustrating a friend’s short storybook for children! So I’m super stoked to be working on that. Will share more as we near completion. Self publishing is something neither of us has done before, but we’re both pretty excited to be able to work on this little project. Hope you’ll tune in next time!

Chai Season

Spiced apple oatmeal & a homemade oat milk chai latte.