May 14, 2024 Andrea

Environmentally-conscious living is admirable, but I have become cynical about the use of terms like “sustainability” and “zero-waste” in popular culture. Frequently, they are employed to market a particular aesthetic of products or services instead of referring to solutions that truly address the underlying problems. This book reads like “sustainability-lite” – meant to be inspirational rather than instructional. At its core, there are essentially three main “sustainability” suggestions: Handmake your gifts Gift food or consumables Use recycled items for packaging There are a few interesting ideas and the tone is of someone trying to convince you that being environmentally friendly…

January 16, 2024 Andrea

Ever since I got my first full time job, planner shopping has been a much-anticipated annual fall event. I made do with the free school-issued agendas while a student, but one of the pleasures of becoming an adult was finally having the income to indulge in my hobbies. Although Happy Planners, Erin Condrens, Passion Planners and Hobonichis dominate most of the Instagram accounts that I follow, I am actually not drawn to them as personal planning systems. (I admit that the cost of entry gives me pause…) For two years, I loved my Michael’s Recollections planners which have a similar…

April 21, 2023 Andrea

“Does anyone have a 50th birthday card? At 2 am on Saturday morning, the message went out on my family’s Whatsapp chat like a card-maker’s bat signal – I was so ready for this! There’s nothing like a goal and a deadline to increase the odds of completing a project. I did not have a lot of time since my extended family was throwing a surprise birthday party for one of my aunts that evening and I still had a list of chores to complete. As I sipped my morning latte, I scrolled through my Pinterest account, looking for inspiration….

February 4, 2022 Andrea

Welcome to my new blog! Having the inaugural post during Lunar New Year seemed like the perfect way to start things off. Tang yuan (湯圓) is one of my favorite Chinese desserts. It’s name is a homophone for reunion and so traditionally, it’s eaten at family gatherings during festivals. The first time I made tang yuan was with my friend, Shirley, to celebrate the Year of the Rat. We were hundreds of kilometers away from our families (the first Chinese New Year that I had ever spent away from my parents and siblings) and the sweet rice balls were a…