I Learned to Sew!

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Man, it’s already July and 2020 has passed by both very fast and very slow. I can remember what I did the week that everything went into lockdown back in March. It was like any other week until it suddenly wasn’t.

To be honest, the first few months went by slowly a blur of both depression and anxiety of our new reality and that any life progress we wanted to make in terms of starting a family would be stalled another year for financial reasons caused by the pandemic.

However, the one thing I did find myself having more of was a valuable resource: TIME.

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New quarantine hobby ✌🏻

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I had been looking at sewing machines for half a year. Almost buying myself one for Christmas, but stopping myself when I think about how much time it would take to learn or if I would have enough time to commit to the hobby. That all went out the window during the lockdown, when picturing an end to it is still unpredictable, so I bought the damn sewing machine.

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#Upcycled: Shirt made from mom’s fav dress shirt.

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It’s a continual learning process, and it takes a lot of patience. Every day it tests you a little, fabric gets stuck, thread gets bunched or breaks, but what I found was that making something was so satisfying. At first, I was just upcycling old shirts into new dog shirts, but then I got decent enough to use new fabric to make Bacon some original clothing.

Then we decided to open a shop to sell off any limited amounts I could make with the extra fabric. We called it The Bacon Collection because everything will be limited to a few, so shop it while you can! We’ve already got some sales which has kept me busy in the past few weeks.

Fabric shopping is so much fun and I can’t wait to continue to find fun prints to make into dog clothes!

 

2010 vs 2020 me

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I don’t think I liked the person I was 10 years ago. I wasn’t very confident and found myself in a toxic relationship. I often searched for validation by doing stupid things or slightly oversharing on the internet. 2010 was a low point emotionally for me so it’s amazing to look back and see how far I’ve come.

In 10 years I experienced so many things. 10 years ago, I started my music blog, that I had decided to end this year. It brought me some invaluable experiences shooting bands in different cities and some of my greatest friendships but also realizing that I am not the same person I was when I started it had merit too.

I both met and married Nash. We moved together to the city and got full-time jobs related to our industry, something we couldn’t even fathom not too long ago. We went on lots of food adventures, even as far as Japan.

Our family got Teddy, and for the first time, I experienced the unconditional friendship of a dog. Then years later I got Bacon for myself and he vastly changed how I see and appreciate the world. He made me explore the corners of the city that I never would’ve seen and made me a much more active person (less online couch potato) than I was.

I don’t know what’s in store for the next 10 years but that’s okay, surprises are the best part of life. Happy New Year!

Some things don’t stay the same

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Recently, I announced my decision to end Ride the Tempo after 9 years of music blogging. You can read the full entry here.

When I first started blogging, there or in any capacity in general, I was HOOKED on the internet attention writing gave me. I needed the audience to validate my every passion, purchase or daily life happenings. I loved recording everything even the mundane things and having everyone read about it. I lived half my life online in front of a computer.

Somewhere in the past few years, I grew up. I wanted to be less online, out of exhaustion from recording everything all the time and that I started to want to appreciate the moments more as they happened. I think getting a dog had a little bit to do with that. I wanted to pay attention more to someone who was giving me his undivided attention. Not to mention I got married and I wanted to be more present with my family too.

I began to feel that the value of time as something that you can never get back and I want to spend less of it in front of a computer.

That being said, this blog isn’t going anywhere any time soon. I still love having it to document how I’ve grown and perhaps it will occasionally feature some music blogging when I miss writing about it. I think 2020 is a great chance to start something new.

Bacon hits 10k!

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Bacon recently hit 10k followers on his Instagram. When we first got him, we never thought he would grow so quickly. I’m decent at social media but at the end of the day, half the credit goes to him. He’s always down to pose for a photo, try on new outfits and go on new adventures. That may all sound easy, but our family dog Teddy was actually the opposite type of dog.

When we first got Bacon, we put him in outfits and different situations right away and realized one that: that he was fearless. He also constantly has a positive attitude that I wish I had more of in real life.

I made so many new friends because of him and that’s been the most rewarding part of this experience!

Doing More of Nothing

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I read this article about How Millenials Became The Burnout Generation recently and parts of it hit me kind of hard. As an Asian kid, I have been prepping for “my future” since I was young. I excelled at school, but as I grew older the naive thought that school could lead to my “dream job” led me in random directions. I finished post-secondary school with a Bachelors of Music Degree and then went on to do a diploma in Entertainment Management. While I regret neither of those decisions (the latter led me to my husband), it was a life in the early 20s that wasn’t easy, required a lot of working for free and long hours. I’m doing okay today, but it’s nowhere where my parents were when they were my age.

I’ve been living online, “optimizing” my presence on the internet since I was 12 or 13. I became fluent in the online world wherever I went. I taught myself to code my own websites and blogs at 12 (hello Geocities), mastered the economy of Neopets, sold a popular Ragnarok Online account and had a lot of Asian Avenue/MySpace/ICQ friends. By the time smartphones and Twitter/Facebook came around, I was ready. I had been building a personal brand and online content for more than half my life without thinking about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love social media and appreciate what I have in life right now, but I’m starting to step back a little on my own channels. Life doesn’t always have to be content. Not everything I do has to be productive. I started to feel the burnout for real last year after years of blogging every day. I loved sharing all the products that I had used up every month until it started to feel like a chore writing it all down that I stopped trying to use up stuff altogether. I even haven’t finished building the set of Nintendo Labo because I kept thinking I was “too exhausted” to document the steps.

Despite my dog having a fast-growing Instagram account, he’s the one that has taught me that life can be slowed down, not everything has to be documented and that sometimes you miss laughing at the best moments when you’re behind a screen.

This year, I’m making a conscious effort to do more of nothing. It’s hard because sometimes you can accidentally “optimize” the nothing, which makes it again feel like work (like when I tried to do self-care Sundays). I want to do more of truly nothing, staring into space, cuddling and taking more naps with the dog and going on more walks. I don’t know if that’s really a resolution. Can I make a resolution to “do nothing”?

Burnout and Letting Your Days Guide You

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For the past few years, before 2018, I blogged here almost every day. Then last year I got engaged and in November of 2017 we brought home Bacon.

The blog was left a bit neglected as I planned the wedding of my dreams.

And Bacon’s Instagram started to grow in ways I had never imagined.

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When you and your friends are always impeccably dressed

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I spend a lot less time recently and more offline at the dog park, hanging out with friends or family. I’ve been tweeting a lot less, though highly active on Bacon’s Instagram.

I felt less of the need to document life on the blog, and more to just live it. I’ll always love blogging, but I no longer feel the urge to do it every day. I started to burn out from doing that while trying to fill a day with activities and the result was the lack of recent posts. I felt the constant need to explain myself because of my self-imposed content creating goals which resulted in the lack of posts.

For now on, I’ll write when I am in the right mindset instead of just to fill the space.

 

Things I Used Up: July 2018

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It’s been a while, but I’ve been so busy with August, I almost forgot about my July post for the things I used up. Luckily, I haven’t been accumulating too many lately as I’ve slowed down the shopping for myself. I think I shop way more for the dog now!

In July I ended up giving away a few products that I thought would benefit the receiver more than I:

  • Lamella doll eyeliner
  • Mini Poni Miniso Magic Candy Lip Tint – Raspberry
  • Benefit 15 hour primer sample
  • Body Shop Mango Soap
  • Yes to Tomatoes Clear Skin Charcoal Mask
  • Hello Kitty Cherry Blossom Mask
  • Body Shop Vegetarian Expert Face Mask
  • L’Oreal Hydra Genius Essence Sample

And Here are the things I used up:

Adventures in Québec

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Last weekend, I was in Québec city for Festival d’été. This year, I did more exploring of the city and surrounding areas.

On Saturday, I visited J.A Moisan, North America’s oldest grocery store.

It looked like it hasn’t changed too much over the years and stocked a lot of specialty products. I ended up getting some sodas to try.

 

I also had the privilege of going on the Island of Orleans food and drink tour. It was a 3 hour tour where we were taken to the beautiful island of Orleans that was a different world only 15 minutes away from the city. The vegetation there was lush and we sampled wines, ciders, sweets and jarred things. It was a lovely escape from the hustle and bustle of a city.

Things I Used Up: June 2018

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Another month, another Things I Used Up post. June was a bit hectic in terms of work so the list is a bit smaller, as I didn’t have time for many masks or trying new samples. There was a lot of quickly getting ready to head out somewhere, so I reached for my versatile palettes. I didn’t pan anything though.

Here’s what I used up:

  • Pixi Glow Tonic – This lasted me more than a year, so I’m proud to have finished it.
  • Face Shop x The Solution Brightening Face Mask
  • Tony Moly x Bart Simpson Jeju volcanic lava nose strip
  • The Face Shop x The Solution Radiance Face Mask
  • SNP Fruits Gelato Brightening Mask

Thing I Used Up: May 2018

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Oh my, it seems like the last time I posted was the last post of this series! A month passes by so fast. I finally have Fridays off for the summer, so hopefully, I can catch-up on some blogging. I have a lot to post about! But first to keep my de-cluttering resolution, here are the things I used up in May:

  • Smashbox Always Sharp Waterproof Eyeliner
  • The Face Shop The Solution Smoothing Face Mask
  • Nars Orgasm / Laguna Duo (panned a few months ago but wearing thing, so time to go!)
  • Be a Bombshell Some Beach Lip Crayon
  • Tony Mony x Bart Simpson Jeju Volcanic Lava Nose Strip
  • Dr Belmeur Skin Sync Ex Daily Repair Sample
  • Tony Moly Vital Vita 12 Synergy Serum Sample
  • Raccine Delicare Soothing Mask
  • The Face Shop The Solution Pore Care Face Mask

Thrown Away

  • Revlon Instafix Highlight Stick (broken)
  • Sephora Makeup Palette (estimated it’s from 2007, so getting old!)