Trip to Hawaii

Hi everyone!

I recently got back from a trip to the Hawaiian Islands and I loved it so much I couldn’t bear not so share the photos I took. We went to three islands: Big Island, Kauai and Oahu.

My favourite island was Kauai. The topography was insanely beautiful. It is the oldest island of all the Hawaiian islands. We stayed on this island for the longest, so we managed to fit in a number of activities. We visited the Kilauea Lighthouse and from there we saw some whales breaching! We also went on a horse trek around a farm with views of the surrounding mountains. One of my favourite things we got up to was a small plane ride around the island, it was about an hour long and we saw 6 humpback whales! It was amazing to see them from above as you could really see just how huge they are. We also saw countless waterfalls and the beautiful Waimea Canyon. The most beautiful part of Kauai was definitely the Na Pali Coast, it is just incredible.

We also visited a Coffee Estate. I don’t drink coffee, but it was still really interesting. We learnt that medium coffee has more caffeine in it than dark! That is because some of the caffeine is burnt off when the coffee beans are roasted. We also learnt that you should never freeze your coffee because it makes it go off faster, it’s just that some companies write that on their packaging so that it goes off faster and we buy more!

Big Island’s main attraction is the active volcano – there was lava flowing into the ocean on one of the shores of island! We were all really disappointed though as when we went to go look at the lava they had closed it off as a huge 22 acres of molten rock, steam and debris crashed into the water. So instead we drove to the crater of the volcano and waited until sunset to see the glowing steam from the lava bubbling in the crater.

This was the view from our house we stayed in!

This was the glowing steam from the crater of the active volcano

We only spent one day on Oahu, we stayed in Honolulu. We managed to fit in a trip to Pearl Harbour, which was really moving and eye opening. I had only heard of Pearl Harbour and didn’t really understand what exactly had happened, but going there and learning all about it was really interesting. Visiting the memorial was really sad, I can’t really describe the feeling when you know you are standing above the ‘graveyard’ of so many people and the fact you can see the boat under the water just adds to that feeling. You can almost imagine the series of events and it makes it even more real.

 

Christmas Baking

I just thought I’d share some photos of the mince pies I made with my sister on Christmas Eve and the Gingerbread House I made as well!

Here are the pictures of my gingerbread house. I wasn’t very happy with how the icing ran quite a lot, but I guess you always learn something new every time you make a gingerbread house!

Mini Gingerbread Village

This year I wanted to try making a village of mini gingerbread houses instead of one large one, and although it was a bit fiddlier than a traditionally sized one, I think it was worth it!

This is the (vegan) recipe I used -it worked pretty well, and the icing was strong and relatively fast-setting, so perfect as a glue to hold the pieces together.

I used graph/grid paper to make the templates for the shapes, which I then cut onto baking paper and traced onto the gingerbread.

Dusting the village with icing sugar at the very end really helped to make the snowy look more realistic than the snow ‘drips’ I made with the icing on their own. As I like simple aesthetics, I added minimal decoration to the gingerbread houses, but you could definitely add sweets and more detailed icing if you wanted to.

Thank you for reading, I hope this inspires you to try making a mini gingerbread village too 🙂

-VW

P.S. The origami is a little Christmas tree my younger sister made for me for the village!

Watercolour Christmas Cards

Hi everyone!

Christmas is nearly here and although there are some amazing cards in the shops right now, it’s always nice to make one yourself – also the person you’re giving it to will appreciate it even more! So today I thought I’d show you how I’ve been making my Christmas cards this year.

Wreath

Pattern with Leaves and Berries

Swedish/Norwegian Gnomes

Pinecones

All is Calm, All is Bright

Hope you enjoyed that series of photos! I got most of my inspiration off of Pinterest, hopefully this helps you to create your own watercolour Christmas cards to give to your loved ones on Christmas Day.

-CW

Christmas Room Decor

Hi everyone,

As it is the first of December, I thought it was only right if I showed you how I’ve decorated my room this year. I tried to keep it a little more simple and a little classier. I hope this gives you some inspiration for your own room or house.

Thanks!

-CW

 

 

 

Travel Scrapbook

Whilst travelling around Europe for three weeks, I had a lot of time to think of how I want to preserve my memories; whether it would be in a travel journal, a video or, the one I chose, a scrapbook. I am not a very strong writer and I would much rather look at a bunch of pictures and souvenirs than pages and pages of writing. So it only made sense to save all the little tickets and maps from everywhere we went and get some of my photos printed in order to create a scrapbook.

If you want to create a scrapbook like I have then this is what you’ll need:

-a black paged visual diary
-a white gel pen (might need more if you want to write lots)
-all your tickets, leaflets and maps from your trip
-printed copies of some of your favourite photos from each day
-a copy of your itinerary (to refer back to)
-scissors
-glue (or blue sticky dots)
-time & patience!

Step 1:

I sorted all my tickets, maps, leaflets, postcards etc. in a clear page folder and separated them into days, this will help further on so you don’t forget about things and have to try and squeeze them in later and make it easier to visualize how much space you will need for each day- I needed a double page for each day.

Step 2:

Get your photos printed; I recommend getting them printed at a shop near you so you don’t waste all your printing ink at home. I printed 83 photos and it was only $20. Then do the same as you did before with the souvenirs and separate your photos into days.

Step 3:

This may seem a little tedious but place all the things you want to include on the page, and post it notes for the things you want to write and then photograph the page layout. Do this for every page, it will help you to have a much more relaxing time when actually sticking things down and make the process seem a little faster. This also allows you to check the spelling of certain words in bulk and makes your pages look more of a collection; from experience with a long trip’s scrapbook, those last few days always get the least amount of love.

Step 4:

Check spellings, name & details and order of the pages, just to be sure so that you don’t have a terrible disaster when you realise you said that ‘the Colosseum was amazing’ beside a picture of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Step 5:

Stick everything down! You could be watching TV or listening to music because you have already planned the pages and you don’t have to worry about making a mistake!

Step 6:

Write all the notes at once; this will keep your handwriting consistent and you won’t have to be constantly picking up and dropping the pen.

Step 6:

Admire your beautiful scrapbook!

I hope you make a scrapbook of past or future trips and I hope these steps/tips help you to have an error free beautiful mémoire of your travels, happy scrapbooking!

Travel Tips: China

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a school trip to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. It was a really different experience -it wasn’t like anywhere else I’ve ever been before! Here are some tips to help you feel prepared and stay calm while in China.

Water

You can’t drink the water that comes out of the taps in China, so you’ll need to buy your own. It makes you feel really guilty having to throw away so many plastic bottles, but there’s not a lot you can do about that! Our hotels provided us with a small bottle a day each, but you’ll certainly need more. If you find a mini mart, stock up on small bottles for out and about during the day, and larger ones for at the hotel, as you don’t have to carry these around.

Snacks

It’s a really good idea to bring snacks with you (just put them in your checked luggage) when heading to China. There are lots of mini-marts near the hotels where you can by food, but if you want something reliable, healthy, or have specific foods you cannot eat, then I would highly recommend bringing your own snacks. Energy balls were my favourite snack, as well as little snack-size bags of almonds or trail mix. Sometimes it is just really nice to be able to eat something that you know the taste of after trying so many strange new foods!

Makeup remover wipes

These were sooo good after a long day out! When you’re tired you don’t feel like spending a long time doing things like taking off makeup, so makeup remover wipes are perfect! When we got back to the hotel, I’d get them out, give one to everyone in my room and we were all happy and clean.

People taking photos

Just as a heads up, if you’re of European descent then everyone is going to want to take photos of or with you. You get used to holding toddlers/babies and smiling next to ecstatic-looking grandparents! If you don’t want people to take photos with you, then shake your head and say no politely but firmly, and walk away if you need to. If people are taking photos of you, then try taking photos of them! They don’t like it either so will probably stop. At the end of the day, it’s not a big deal, so try not to worry about it!

No personal space

In China, people have absolutely no problem with pushing right up against you, and the same with people on bikes! Just make sure you keep walking in a straight line when you can, as this way it is easy for the bikes on the footpath to dodge you and you won’t get run-over or yelled at.

Thank you for reading, have a lovely week 🙂

VW xx