LIFESTYLE | Recent Places of Joy

The format of this post is a little different as this is almost like a photo dump of photos that I had taken for Instagram Stories of things I have been enjoying over the last couple of months. While beauty blogging is still a massive part of my life, makeup is still very secondary, even tertiary to other "hobbies" I have discovered. I think once I get my second dose and we don't need to wear masks at work anymore (still mandatory for my work and that is fine by me), my love for full face makeup will come back, but I doubt it will be at the same level as it was pre-pandemic. While I am still setting aside my dollars as much as I can, I am allowing myself some fun purchases that have brought me much joy and have found ways to make my day job kind of exciting!

LEGO

If you have been following me on Instagram, LEGO has become almost an obsession. I played with LEGO as a kid, but once high school hit, my sister and I never looked at our bricks again. Yes, I had perused LEGO sets over the last few years, but I had no idea that they had sets targeted for adults until I caught a glimpse online of the LEGO Nintendo Entertainment System. I could not believe the level of detail that went into this almost 3000 piece set and I WANTED IT! At $300, it was not a cheap "toy" and I ended up buying it as a reward for finishing my taxes in April. I had fully intended to build this with my husband, but I ended up building 99% of it! It was the most relaxing time sitting there putting bricks together and I was so sad when it was over. 

That's when I started looking at the LEGO site almost daily to see what was of interest and lemme tell ya, there was A LOT. My second set ended up being the soon to be discontinued "Friends Central Perk" set and though I loved all the little characters and the "play factor" of moving the characters and accessories around, after building it, I realized I preferred building more display type LEGO sets and have since moved on to R2D2 and The Typewriter! I also build little sets that have been GWPs or gifts at work on my lunch break for about 15 minutes which has also been very calming. Needless to say, LEGO has been so much fun for me and I have even gotten rid of beauty things to make room for LEGO on my shelves!

This little Adidas Superstar sneaker was a GWP with The Typewriter I bought and was something I just completed at work two days ago. It now sits on my desk at work and I cannot get enough of its cuteness! I am very slow with my building as I am all about the journey and not the end product so something that people sit down and aim to finish within a dedicated Sunday afternoon is NOT how I want to spend my time. I want to be almost meditative in my process AND Lego is so expensive that I want to stretch out the fun factor for as long as I can without just staring at it in the box!

Sharing My Work

I think a lot of people still like to keep the beauty blogger and the day job separate (if you don't blog full time), but more and more social media has blurred those lines so last year I decided to take photos of pretty things at work and post to my work account (@jaynehlim).  I also post a few photos to my beauty account just to mix things up a bit. We now have a ringlight at work which has motivated me to take photos of pieces of jewelry I find interesting and hey, if a sale results from it, even better! I've never been a pushy sales person as I am MUCH more about having a relationship with my clients. 

My job keeps me at a desk a lot of the time so taking time to look and play with merchandise honestly feels like such a treat to me. I usually have about 1-2 hours free each week to take photos and plan out shoots and so far the feedback on Instagram has been pretty positive for this type of content on my mainly beauty Instagram so I will keep it up!

Food

The joys of food! I discovered YVR Cookie earlier this year on Instagram and fell in love with their over the top gooey-centred cookies coming in flavours like Cookie Butter Skor, Salted Caramel and even Cookie Monster! These are super rich and I do not advise looking at the calories on each of these, but man are they delicious! My husband and I would split one cookie as they are very sweet and quite rich to the point where I can make myself feel sick by overindulging so half a cookie is PERFECT for me. They are best eaten heated up so the centres can get all gooey and can be frozen if you can't finish your cookies within 7 days. I have ordered three times this year from YVR Cookie as well as gotten a box as a birthday gift and I have savoured every crumb!

I have also continued to try and cook at least once a week which is usually on the nights when my husband is playing D&D. I will cook for both of us which mentally makes me feel like I have some skills in the kitchen! I wish I were a little more domestic and cooking for both of us makes me feel pretty awesome. 

CBD/THC

I started looking at CBD edibles last year and found that 5mg is just enough for me to feel relaxed and ready to sleep. My mind often races at night and I am naturally a night owl because of it. I was starting to feel really terrible in the mornings trying to get up for work and wanted to look into more natural ways of stress relief and sleep aids. I am very sensitive to alcohol, medication and caffeine so I am very slow with how much CBD I take and also how much THC goes into my body. I have never smoked pot, cigarettes or vaped in my entire life and I don't plan to. There is something about my lungs I want to keep pristine so edibles have been perfect for me. Up until this year, I had never tried marijuana and then Muse Cannabis opened up next to my work and they had some great CBD/THC gummy options! Right now, my favourite gummy brand is Wana as the flavours are really tasty and the THC concentration that works best for me is 2.5mg which is enough to settle my mind and help me relax. I tried 5mg and I felt super anxious and like gravity was pulling me to the ground which was not a great experience so half a gummy is what works best for me.

I also started looking at topical CBD and realized that Vancouver-based brand Delush was right underneath my nose so while talking with a friend about it, she ended up getting me a bunch of things from Delush to try! I have only tried the bath bombs so far which worked nicely! Make sure you stay in the tub for at least 30 minutes to feel the relaxing effects! 

Where have you been finding joy recently?