Sleep

I’ve had a lot of trouble with my sleeping habits over the last few months. Looking for solutions, I asked for everyone’s advice and felt like I’d tried everything. From putting my phone on the other side of my room, to relaxing music (think spa/beauty therapists office) to sleeping pills (my last resort). I tried the breathing techniques, reading, sleepy time tea… nothing was working consistently. Then I started working in a job that is physical and I’m constantly on the move. All the exercise during the day has been helping me sleep, but I’m still not nodding off until quite late.

Not long ago I was looking for a yoga video on YouTube, and I came across this one instructor (who is also a massage therapist and has follow along videos as well) who has the most soothing voice, perfect for lulling me to sleep! I turn on one of her 20 minute videos and I swear I’ve never heard the second half. Hopefully this fix sticks!

I’m always looking for new options to try, can you give me any good sleep suggestions/remedies? Let me know below!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

P.S. – If you’re actually looking for a good yoga instructor for videos, Jen Hilman does a full range for all levels of experience. Enjoy!

Baby Shower

{Peanut butter cup brownies}

One of my friends is about to have the first baby of our group. We are so excited for it! We had a baby shower for her over the weekend, and it made me feel like a grown up for the day (in a good way though, you know?!).

We decided to have an afternoon tea. Everyone brought along food to share and we just had a nice chilled out afternoon (it poured outside, so I had to be the one to make the dad joke about us being at a baby ‘shower’, ugh. Insert groans and pained laughter here).

It’s no secret, I’m an absolutely rubbish cook! Luckily for me, I had been scrolling through Buzzfeed on my phone and came across an article for easy desserts made in a muffin tin. Ding ding ding! We have a winner! I had my sisters over the day before to be my guinea pigs, and I got double thumbs up to share my attempts with my friends.

{Duffin prep}

{About to make the muffins taste like a doughnut!}

{Yummy duffins!}

I made the peanut butter cup brownies and cinnamon sugar donut muffin bites (aka duffins, mmmm). I think next time I should make a double batch of the duffins because they went down a treat! I’m planning to have a crack at a few more of those recipes at some stage soon.

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Travel Tuesday: Kentucky

{Welcome to Kentucky!}

{Payton teaching me how to shoot} 

{First attempt on my own}

During my time at Disney, I went with a couple of people to Kentucky, to visit a friend who’d been in the College Program with us. We road tripped there and had so much fun! We got to visit an Amish community (the pies were delicious!) which was incredibly interesting, and got to see the back roads of a small town. It was the place where I learned true Southern hospitality, and how to shoot a gun (thanks Payton!). It was the kind of place I could imagine living one day (as long as I can get cellphone reception, let’s be honest!).

{Seriously beautiful scenery} 

{Ominous sign... feels to Australian and not kiwi enough!}

Love times infinity,

Justine x

ANZAC Day

{Poppies for the ANZAC's}

Saturday was ANZAC Day, and also marked the 100^th anniversary of our troops landing at Gallipoli. I really enjoyed seeing all the coverage over the last week on all the news programmes, and particularly appreciated all the stories finally coming to the surface about all the brave ANZAC women that bravely and boldly went to war as well. Spending time remembering and reflecting on how our ancestors faced incredible danger, allowing us to live a peaceful life, makes me feel pretty grateful if I’m honest.

Today the public holiday is carried over, so I’ll be spending the afternoon celebrating with friends at a baby shower (our first as a group, eek!).

If you’re in New Zealand or Australia, I hope you enjoy the long weekend of remembrance.

Lest we forget,

Justine x

FBF: Auckland

I visited Auckland twice last year in pretty quick succession. The first time was for the weekend to see Katy Perry (she was amazing!), and then to spend ten days with my family for Christmas. Both trips were spent heavily acting like tourists (my sister was in charge of the daily tourist timetable in the lead up to Christmas so our schedule was jam-packed with fun things to do!).

Today I thought I’d show you some fun snaps of the trips, and all the places I got to go.

{View from the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park}

{Cheeky drink at the local on the way home} 

{Family time at the zoo}

{Harold having lunch}

{Rhino time}

{Made a new friend}

{Take me back to the rainbow...}

{Getting chomped at Kelly Tarlton's}

{Made a new buddy at the aquarium}

{Found Nemo and Dory!}

{Why I couldn't live in Auckland}

{Fishing day}

{Home time}

Have an awesome weekend!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Photobooth DIY

When my sister turned 21, I wanted to do something fun for the party. I’d been seeing lots of DIY photo booths around and I thought it would be a fun way to get loads of her guests having fun and being silly (which became more and more evident as the night went on!).

{The background being #basic so it wouldn't overpower anyone}

It’s so easy! And if I'm saying so, you know it's true! First, choose what you want the background to look like. I was on a budget, so I grabbed a cheap white sheet and some little blue lanterns so that it wouldn’t clash with anyone. We stuck it to the wall in the corner of the room so it was out of the way. 

Side note: my Granny liked my idea, but wasn't having a bar of me pulling it out of the package and whacking it straight onto the wall. Shoutout to her for ironing it first! It looked so much better!

{The props: silly hats, wigs & glasses, feather boas & leis, wands and headbands, pom poms, eye patches, toy swords & guns... just picture me in a $1-$8 shop in the kids toy aisle. I pretty much bought it all!}

Then go find some fun props! I went to all the bargain shops so I could get a lot of bang for my buck, and not be too gutted if anything was broken (it was). As well as things like feather boas, funny sunglasses and hats, I got a chalk board and borrowed a stack of chalk from the kids next door, which turned out to be a hit! Finally, I borrowed a tripod and set up the camera.

{Opened with the birthday girl... duh!}

Once people got started they couldn’t be kept away! The other bonus is instead of paying to have the photos printed we were able to post them on Facebook for everyone to tag themselves in. Everybody can see them and no one has to bug you to get copies. Win/win!

I hope this helps you if you ever want to try it!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

The Body Shop

While I was Christmas shopping last year, I decided to stop into The Body Shop to see if I could get a nice hand cream for my mum. I ended up going just a tad crazy (I blame it on being a quieter time of the day, the Christmas sale deals/cons and all the yummy smells!). Let’s just say I spent enough to get a tote bag as a free gift, and inside it were presents for my mum, both of my sisters and maybe a couple of things for myself too (one of them was featured in my March Favourites!).

I’ve been trawling the site and picking out things I’d like to try next.

{Coconut Soap | Facial Brush | Cleansing Body Bar} 

{'Big Smoke' Nail Polish | Tea Tree Oil | 'Rosy Cheeks' Nail Polish}

{Moisturising Socks | Vanilla Brûlée Lip Balm | Nail Pen} 

{Raspberry Body Lotion | Wild Argan Lip Oil | Camomile Make Up Remover} 

{Body Sorbet | Tea Tree Blemish Night Lotion | Seaweed Pore-Cleansing Exfoliator}

{Hand & Foot Butter | Seaweed Clarifying Night Treatment | Peach Body Scrub} 

{All-in-One Instablur | Wild Rose Manicure Set | Vitamin C Microdermabrasion} 

{Pomegranate Firming Serum | Bouncy Sleeping Mask | Vitamin C Facial Capsules}

Is there anything else you think I should try? Let me know!

Love times infinity,

Justine x

Sunnies Collection

I think I originally picked up the habit of collecting sunnies from my sister. She always bought heaps of them, especially when there was a ‘two-for’ deal going. When I was lifeguarding, I learned that buying cheap sunnies in bulk was the way to go as they tended to meet an untimely death more often than not.

Once I got home and started working in retail, I’d often use my discounts to buy sunglasses, since I was still in the habit of not being bothered by buying super cheap ones.

Check out my collection below (including a sweet pair I scored in the mosh pit from a fellow concert-goer last year).

{1. Factorie (similar here, here) | 2. Factorie | 3. Factorie | 4. Katy Perry Prismatic Tour!}

{5. Factorie (old, try these) | 6. Old (similar) | 7. Wild Pair (old, love these and these) | 8. Once It (similar)}

Love times infinity,

Justine x

P.S. - sunglasses storage tutorial here.

Book Club: The Buried Life

I was first introduced to The Buried Life through the MTV show of the same name, which came out in 2010 (where did that time go?!). The concept of The Buried Life was that four guys, Duncan, Jonnie, Ben and Dave had created their own bucket list of 100 items. The TV show came to fruition with the idea that for every item they crossed off their list, they would travel somewhere to help a stranger cross off one of theirs. The tag line was “What do you want to do before you die?”. So many people wrote in to tell them their bucket list item, that the guys decided to publish a book with their bucket list and then all those submissions included.

{The quote that started it all}

{Number 19: Write a best selling book. Check!}

'What Do You Want to Do Before You Die?' is a collaboration between themselves and their viewers. It tells the story of where the boys came from, how their bucket list came about and their progress so far. It also includes several vignettes from both viewers and some of their famous friends.

{Number 35: Check!}

I picked a few of my favourite items shown in the book for this post. They range from serious to funny to silly. It’s just a cool read, incredibly interesting, really colourful, lots of pictures and instantly engaging. I grabbed a signed copy when it was released a few years back, and I pick it up every so often just to remind myself that the things that I want to do are always attainable. I just have to put them out into the universe (um, hello, blog much?!). The cool thing is that they’ve crossed quite a few more things off their list since.

{Number 59: Check! And Taylor Swift was such a good sport about it}

{Last page of the book}

What’s on your bucket list?


Love times infinity,

Justine x

P.S. – if you are interested in this style of writing, check out Post Secret (the creator chooses new secrets every Sunday. There’s even an app!).