JOYFUL.

[Oola Blue Fish Dish* c/o JOY]
As time goes on, I'm becoming really aware of lack of room tours and homeware hauls. I just bought a house, it's exciting and it's something to write about, right? Well, yeah, but also, it takes ages to get ready. It still feels like there's always something to do and over half our stuff is still packed up in boxes in our front room - which I guess explains why we have SO MUCH storage space.

I've been watching llymlrs' moving vlogs and even though she's still sitting on the floor, I'm pretty astounded that her new place has come together more so in a few weeks than mine has in months. Comparison is a killer, but I'm working on it.

When we moved, we cleared out a lot, I think it's a good thing but it meant that we spent a lot of time asking ourselves whether the thing destined for home, charity shops or the dump was useful to us. Now we feel very much clutter-free but as as before, I'm still on the lookout for cute homewares to make my new house a home - we've still yet to put all our pictures on the wall!

When I was contacted to do a little chat about Joy the Store, I jumped at the chance. It's one of those quirky 'bit of everything' shops that I really like and would buy everything from if my pockets were deep enough. Full of useful but pretty (and less useful but still pretty) items, it holds the same place in my heart as the wonderful Oliver Bonas.


From pug vases to sweet trinket boxes and a washing up sponge after my own heart, as well as a range of books, mugs and photo frames, there are all sorts of things to choose from. I opted for this beautiful fish dish, knowing that it would match another fish dish I bought a few years ago and that Moon is always pleased to see nautical things.





I like to have various bowls and trays round the house as receptacles for things like keys and money, we have a couple with potpourri in (because my mum gave us the biggest bag of potpourri as a moving-in gift and I actually don't know what to do with it). So bowls are just useful things to have. I'm still undecided about this one because it could work for a fancy serving dish or, as we're using it now, a fruit bowl, or another clutter collector. Whatever form it takes, there's no doubt that it's as useful as it is pretty and I'm pleased to have another sea-themed item in my home.



Joy is a shop I'll always pop into if I see it and I get a feeling that now I know about it, their website will be one I'll visit regularly too – especially because I need to make that Buddha butter dish mine.

*This is a sponsored post: I was sent products by Joy to promote for this post, all opinions are my own.

Family Highlights.

It's a week to go until my birthday and I must admit to feeling a slight pang on loneliness as it's the first birthday I'll be spending almost entirely on my own. I think there are plans to do something lovely with Moon in the evening but there'll be no family or friends around me as usual, which is odd, but I suppose that's how most grown ups do it. With an actual grown up job on the horizon, I start officially after Reading, I guess I'll just have to get used to it. It's quite the life-perk having a summer birthday though, hopefully the sun will at least stick around for me.

Anyway, enough chatter, here are some snaps I took when I was at home on Saturday that I've yet to share with you. I'm glad I'll now have time to pop back at weekends if I want to and I'm looking forward to the weekend after my birthday where I'll be spending spending quality time with my family, twenty-three is a horrible birthday anyway, I'll probably need some time to wallow.

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I never thought about it before but we nearly always had goldfish until we moved to New Malden, and then even in our current family home we only had a fishpond in the garden. These guys are a new addition since I've moved, I like them, but I've never seen goldfish as much more than moving decoration, despite my mum's fondness for them. I'm looking forward to the impending arrival of a little cat down to how much my sister and mum both miss Doll.


We went out to a Korean restaurant in New Malden called KJ, I would have liked it a lot more if I hadn't realised how much I actually don't really like sushi/sashimi. I think that's thanks to eating so much of it a few years ago in Hong Kong, now it just makes me want to vom a little.


I definitely sometimes think I look quite a lot like my mum, she's gone pretty wild since she's retired, she's got a perm and everything. I say she's gone wild, that's probably the most drastic thing she's done...




I must admit that it all looked amazing and delicious, and the tempura was perfect. I just must remember to pass up on sashimi at every given opportunity.

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Actually, this massage chair is a pretty big change. Here's Moon having a go on it once he got back from work, I enjoy his facial expression. It's the weirdest machine yet, yes, there have been more than one, but it's also the best.


I ate well on Saturday, my Mum's cooking is the best.

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We went out for a walk when we got home and spotted this little chap. I love hedgehogs, it was actually one of my first 'proper' words. Also the moon was beautiful, I may have found a downside to our garden in that the trees in the field behind hide the moon from us.


Coffee and donuts is always a winning combination to end a good day, particularly if they're Krispy Kreme donuts ♥

Tsim Sha Tsui & Sai Kung.

Yesterday we were out from 11am to 12am, so like I mentioned in my previous post it was a long day. However, due to all the excitement of, you know, getting home, no one went to bed until 2am... and I couldn't sleep until at least 4am, I only woke up an hour ago. Perhaps I am slightly ashamed but the last few days have been knackering and it's not something that I plan on doing from here on in.
My sleeping pattern so farhas been awful, going to bed at 2-3am and waking up at 9, I hit a wall at about 3pm but don't embrace it and power through, I think that was the key to it, so maybe this slight mistake will make everything a bit better.

We began yesterday with a buffet lunch at The Royal Garden restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, it's part of a large hotel that has a few other restaurants in it too, it was pretty posh. They had so much choice in food, from sashimi to salad and to hot curry dishes and dim sum. It was a weird mixture, but it worked because you could choose from anything, I don't think there's anywhere similar, that is as good in the UK. The had some pretty awesome puddings too - I had chocolate fountain, American cheesecake, a chocolate mousse and a pandan pancake, you know, I haven't really had any sweets in a while and it was all paid for, so...






After The Royal Garden we went to the Hong Kong Museum of History, I was surprisingly underwhelmed. I usually really go for museums and enjoy them, but there was something about this place. Maybe it was because it was too fact-heavy, I knew nearly everything and what I didn't know, I wasn't interested in. I think what the main problem was my sister taking about 10 years to look at everything, she examined every detail of each plaque and we were there for nearly 3 hours, which would have been fine if I had been enjoying it, but I just ended up bored and frustrated. I think the slow pace meant that even the parts of Hong Kong history that I am interested in had the enthusiasm sucked out of it. It's quite a patriotic place too, which I thought was a bit strange for a museum, I don't mean it in a bad way, it's just something I've never really experienced before.







We then did a bit of shopping around Mong Kok, and I picked up a neat underwater 35mm camera, which I look forward to using on the beach in France at the end of August. I hope it works as it's much cheaper than buying disposable underwater cameras and I already have the film, it might be alright. Then we went to the Tsim Sha Tsui ladies market, which was fun until I got tricked into haggling for a bag I didn't even want, it's a nice bag, I just don't feel much of an affinity for it. We all hopped on the bus once we found each other (my sister and I got separated from my mum and cousins) and we headed over to Sai Kung, a small fishing town on the other side of Kowloon. I couldn't see much because it was very dark by then but we went to a restaurant that was right on the harbour which had fishtanks full of fresh seafood to pick from for dinner. I've never seen anything like that before. The supermarkets here and Oriental supermarkets in the UK as well as some restaurants do allow you to pick live seafood, I suppose, but nowhere near on this scale or with this much choice! The restaurants even allowed you to hold some of their produce, my Mum took one for the team and held up a huge lobster, bigger than any I've ever seen. The meal was great but the journey back was a bit of a pain because it was so far away from where we were and it was very late.









Yesterday was easily my favourite day so far, just because there was less travelling and more taking the time to do things, even though it was busy, it was still enjoyable. I loved taking so many pictures and having so many fun things to take picture of, this does however exclude the museum, but that's just me, I think everyone I was with loved it.
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