#stayhome
What a time to be alive these days… with so many things happening around the world, it’s kinda scary. So many jobs potentially lost with countries and cities shutting down 😩How would I know that the second year back in Singapore started out like this. Can we please just reboot 2020 already? It felt like I was just toasting to a great new year in 2020 with Paula over a rooftop bar at The Screening Room yesterday, and then now we are at #stayhomesaveslives moment.
Singapore is in a partial lockdown. It’s day 14 since majority of the businesses shut down, except essential services. I didn’t leave home after day 11 to go to the post office to send out some stuffs and get my groceries. Honestly speaking shut down or not, I’m mostly home anyways. It didn’t matter that much to me. However, despite being home all the time, I do feel a little tug at the back of my mind to go out and breathe some fresh air. But now that I can’t, I miss it terribly. Hopefully the world will heal soon!
Finding things
to do
Scrolling through social media, lots of people are complaining about being bored at home. Honestly, me too, especially when a couple of my projects got cancelled 😭Things get a little more complicated when you live with Asian parents as well. None the less, I’ve found some stuffs to occupy myself and gave myself as much #metime as possible. Here’s a list of things that I found joy in doing…
drawing / bujo 🖌
At the end of every year, I will be searching through a couple of stationary stores to decide a new “sketch” book for the following year, which is my Monthly / Weekly Journal. There was once I printed one myself (which I’m still trying to find the chance to produce them again, in a better quality), for 2020 I decided to splurge on a nice leather blank notebook from Montblanc.
Each month will have a cover page— which strangely, I started out 2020 January’s cover theme as “being at Home”. Maybe it was a sign that I knew that I would spend a lot of time in 2020 at home 😅Now it’s April, a new cover: tales of the kitchen. I’ve always love floor-length windows, but it seems like it’s rather difficult to find them. After much pinterest search of beautiful kitchen, I arrived at this final illustration ☺️
I usually draw my sketches in A5 format to keep them in size for my planners, but this time round I decided to enlarge it and turn it into a Poster as well as a printable A4 for readers to print out and trace them ✨✨✨
twopartsofone inking process
Destressing theraphy
To use the printable, you will need a lightboard. These days, it’s pretty easy to get one. I got mine from Taobao which cost me less than $10. I’m pretty use there are some on Amazon as well. (Except I’m not sure if the stores will be available for shipping)
Or you could go back to the #oldschool method and trace it over window panels 😁That was seriously how my schooling days were when there wasn’t enough space at the light table. If you have brush markers, it can be fun to test out #theartofanyhow
Learn something new ✨
Did I share that I invested in an iPad Pro earlier this year after much contemplation? 🤑
I wanted to tap into the world of Digital Art again. If you’ve followed the blog long enough, I did digital illustration when I was in school. It’s been so long, and honestly, my Wacom Intuos has been untouched. ProCreate seems like something completely new, especially with a tablet. I can’t seem to be able to grasp my original style of painting that I’m used to with Photoshop.
During this period of emptiness, I spent quite a lot of time to explore potential styles that I can do. Even though I still suck at painting faces, here’s a sneak peak of one of my complete piece for my cousin’s wedding ✨
Maybe during this period you can pick up a language too? Who knows 😜
Read 📖
Self help / improvement books are interesting, but they are never my go-tos.
I mean, life itself is already complex /mundane enough so I would prefer not to read something so close to reality. Instead I love fantasy. Plunging into a whole new different world is so much more enticing than self-improving 🤣I’m not perfect, but I think I’m good enough 😬 One of my favorite YA authors, Sarah J M recently released a new trilogy (if I’m not wrong) Crescent City: House of Earth & Blood. I finished it 2 days straight, without putting the book down that pissed off my parents 😬I love the little twist and unexpected reveals.
I think there are 2 types of people in the world: either you hate or you love Sarah J M. I happen to be the latter. There were lots of comments how the book feels the same as ACOTAR or TOG series, or like nothing’s interesting blah blah blah. Personally I don’t really care. I enjoy the world of Faes so the book talked to me.
On the other hand, Bookdepository still ships depending on where you are located; I had some promo codes and checked out some books. First book to arrive is The Kinfolk Entrepreneur 😍I had it in my wish list for some time now, the reason I checked out was because the book is mainly talking about Creative Entrepreneurs. It’s rather relatable, contrary to what I just said in terms of “close to reality”. But I’m pretty sure these featured creatives would be rather inspiring ✌🏻
Besides books, I read lots of webtoons / mangas as well. Something which I think isn’t really #asianparent-approved 🤣
I have always love bad-ass battles so if you’re craving for some good action… I will recommend these (I will skip those mainstream ones):
Solo Leveling (Season just ended 😭)
Tower of God (Good for binging!)
Quan Zhi Gao Shou / Versatile Mage
A Returner’s Magic should be Special
The Last Human (What if one day Earth becomes like that too 😱I’d be the first to die 😅)
Seraph of the End
Plunderer (The anime feels like rubbish compared to the manga 😰)
Of if you like something on the romcom side, there’s True Beauty which is big hit on Webtoons as well as Age Matters. However Age Matters is currently on a season break 😭While The Lady and Her Butler which has completed can be rather entertaining too.
Watch 🎥
Catch up on all those bloody tv shows that airs weekly! Instead of waiting for them weekly, it’s so much nicer to binge watch. I personally wait to binge watch everything at one go and specially choose to end the last few episodes at night before I sleep. Just so that I can fully absorb the storyline and give a closure to my mind. Does that make sense? Am I the only to do this 🤣
Up on this list, I’m sure everyone’s talking about CLOY (Crash landing on you) which is really good. It hits the right spot and makes you brawl your eyes at all the emotional scenes. It’s the kinda thing I let myself do: letting go all the emotions. I feel that it’s a good way to help to destress. When there’s too much sadness, I let the tears flow, when it’s way too funny, I squirm and roll in my bed in laughter 😆
Anyways, here goes my fangirling talk— I mostly watch Asian series. But if you want some English series, I enjoyed The Witcher and Altered Carbon pretty well ✨
Crash landing
Crash Landing on You
One of the scenes where flood gates were open 😭😭😭
It was difficult for me to see how the story would end… luckily it ended the best way they ever could ❤️
KINGDOM
Kingdom
If you’re up for suspense and a bit of gore, Kingdom would be good. Stopping at season 2 absolutely isn’t enough at all… perhaps you should wait before starting 🤣
My holo love
My Holo Love
My Holo Love seemed like one of the lesser featured Kdramas going around. The storyline is quite intriguing as it talks about AI. Plus with only 12 episodes, totally binge worthy within a day 😆
pillow book
Eternal Love of Dream
Eternal Love of Dream : Pillow Book, is a side story from Eternal Love: Ten miles of Peach Blossom, featuring the secondary couple. Despite that they replaced some recurring characters, over all the drama is great! One that I couldn’t get it out of my mind despite the closure, which I’m still stuck somewhere in reading the original novel 😆 I wanted to know what the original author had in mind when she wrote about them. If you’re interested in the original novel, I found them here, translated in english ✌🏻
Goodbye My princess
Or if you’re looking for some extreme melodrama, I highly recommend Goodbye My Princess, which in my opinion is also another underrated show. You’ll laugh and cry together with the main characters… but mostly cry I’d say. So let’s say that I’ve warned you : it’s not #happilyeverafter
goodbye my princess
cook 👩🏻🍳
Dalgona coffee
Everyone has become a chef lately (according to instagram stories, everyone’s cooking so well!) 🤣And considering the amount of cooking videos I was watching on youtube, I should be one too.
I’m hooked on to these fluffy giggly pancakes. While I do have the ingredients and tools at home to make them, I can’t seem to find the motivation to make them. I’ve never really been a baker at heart, I’d rather go out and get them instantly instead of baking it from scratch. The closest thing I’ve done would be making that tiktok famous Dalgona Coffee! Considering that I have a handheld whisk, it was so much easier than whisking the mixture for 400 times to make it fluffy 😬😬😬
However, that said, I’m fine with cooking meals. I missed cooking my meals… Covid or not, I’ve always found time to cook for myself, since my family usually ain’t fan of korean-styled food that I make 🤔
Selfcare 💆🏻
#stayhome or not self care should be a daily / weekly affair! It’s not just about pampering your skin too.
It’s about the insides as well. Before everything went on shutdowns, I was quite curious to try out health supplements. Then a promo happened, I got a bunch of Korean Red Ginseng (with Peach) to try. I bought quite a few of them and packed them into "#Selfcare” encouragement parcel for my cousins ❤️They taste rather sweet and somehow work like some sort of “snacks” for me.
Skincare wise: I’ve discovered a new brand called Miraskin which helps with anti-aging. Aye, I’m at that age where I start to worry about wrinkles 😰While I’m not too sure about it’s lifting capabilities… the pack comes with a couple of ampoules that leaves the skin bouncy and hydrated the next morning 😍If it’s a little more affordable, I would have done the whole lifting / ampoules process everyday 😜Other than that, being back to Singapore seems to have changed my skin’s type from dry to sensitively oily. With my recent outings to the supermarket with a mask, I have serious breakouts too 😱Goodness, I can’t wait for the whole thing to be over already.
Dear Earth, I’m desperately wishing for your speedy recovery 🤞🏻
Building that core : December 2019, I signed up on Classpass to get my butt moving. I discovered a new love: Aerial yoga! It helps to stretch my ever-tired back so well. Now that studios are closed, I missed those classes so much. It’s unfortunate that I can’t install aerial silks in my home. I haven’t given up on Pole dancing yet, there’s so much more to learn— but I lack practice and a buddy which seems like a shame. However, as partly motivated by Paula, she suggested following Chloe Ting’s routine to get abs in 2 weeks. I don’t exactly believe in that 2 week wonder, however I did start doing some workouts at home.
Hopefully by the end of this #stayhome moments, I wouldn’t have gained extra 2-3 kilos 😆😆😆
(p.s. every product mentioned were bought with my own money, #notsponsored!)
