Cherry Blossom Festival

Cherry Blossoms at Auburn Botanic Garden

The last time I had a good view of cherry blossoms was in Korea during my Spring 2015 visit with my bestfriend. They only bloom at the end of winter and start of spring, so you've got to watch out before all those beautiful blossoms fall out of those trees. I was clueless about this Cherry Blossom festival until a friend told me about it and the family decided to have a look.

A few weeks ago, the cherry blossom festival was held at Auburn Botanic Gardens. It did not disappoint! All the trees are in full bloom when we came...the only concern was there are too many people. The garden was packed with people, we couldn't get a hold of at least one tree to take a good photo with. I would recommend coming there on a weekday because that weekend, it was too crowded for my liking! 

There are three different areas where you can view the cherry blossoms and my favourite was at the Japanese Garden where the trees seemed to be parallel to each other looking like a tree lane from Nami Island. How I wish I could just tell the crowd to line up because the view was so instagram-worthy. LOL 

Sorry for this low quality photo! Took it with my phone ~lol

A Forgotten Love for Photography

Have you ever loved doing something so much but you had to be practical so you choose to forget it?

Taking photos has always been one of the things I enjoy doing the most. I didn't know how it exactly started but I find myself in awe trying to learn everything I should know about the basics of photography. I love taking photos with high depth of field--focussing on one object while all the others are blurred. It's not easy but once you get the hang of it, you will enjoy taking photos (in between teary eyes too tired from staring at the viewfinder for hours lol).

My friends are my practice models and almost anything that I can look at and try depth of field would be an amazing alternative for models. They started liking my poor photos and have encouraged me to try photography as hobby so I did. 

I covered for weddings, church activities, Uni department announcement posters photo shoot, birthdays and family portraits. They were all amazing and unforgettable but I stopped doing this thing that I dearly loved because it's something that I can live without. It is something that I only get to do if I have long free hours. It is something that I do not consider as a priority. So, it was forgotten. 

As much as I try to avoid getting into photography, Heavenly Father has always find ways for me to do things that I really love. After a very looong time, I had the chance to cover for some inspired activities for the youth. I asked myself "is it time to go back and do what I love?". 

Maybe photography was meant to be a part of my life because it always finds its way back to me no matter how much I try to forget it. So, this time, let me give it another try :)

xx

Twinkle

Hello, it's been awhile :)

Where do I even start? Hello? How have you been? Do you still read this blog?

From my birthday post to this "back-from-Hiatus" post, so many things have happened that I can't seem to find time to blog about the beautiful places I've been to, the beautiful people I met and the amazingly delicious food I had.

Hello, it's been awhile.

Living away from my parents has been a challenge but I'm glad I have my sister and my friends to keep me sane, bringing me to events, ysa activities, festivals, and going op shopping. My life would have been pretty lonely without them. I am not a fan of negativity so I am always always always inviting friends to enjoy the fun stuff and forget the not so happy ones.

So what happened in the past few months?
+ Got a cool office job
+ Survived two Terms in Uni so far (got really good ratings!)
+ Managed to surprise Mum for her Golden Birthday (even if I'm here in OZ)
+ Challenged  myself to join a Dance Routine for YSA Annual Ball (yaaas I did it! I'm not the best dancer but I can say I nailed it somehow lol)
+  Deactivated from Facebook (for a month now) because I wanted to discipline myself. Self control is difficult for me, I couldn't do my daily scripture study because of facebook so I deactivated. Now, I can absolutely tell you I've been reading my scriptures and I am more productive now!
+ Managed to create a concept and design for a cookbook (now published! yaaay!)
+ I'm planning on going back to writing my online journal :)

Stay tuned for my upcoming posts. The Winter Korea trip was not fully uploaded but I'll try to add the last post and start the Australian Destinations that I enjoyed as I live and study in the great place down under! Gosh, I still can't cope with the accent...but I'm getting there.

Have a lovely week!

xx
Twinkle

Embracing Twenty Three: A Birthday Post

Thank you for even bothering to click the link. Welcome to my blog/online journal! 

I'm the type of person who only receives countless birthday greetings because facebook reminded some people that it's my birthday. Funny as it sounds, but it's true! I'm glad we have facebook to increase socialization when it comes to birthday messages and save some of our friends from the horrors of forgetting birthdays. 

Hello. I'm. Twenty. Three. (I'm adult[???] but still needs heaps of adulting101 lectures haha) I can still remember writing my birthday (hand written) diary entry last year and my 21st birthday blog post two years ago (and the year after that, and the other year, too). Now, here I am, writing again for my 23rd birthday. Time flies so fast that I can say I'm left behind on some things I think I should be ahead of in life. Sometimes I ask myself "Am I already in my quarter life crisis? or Am I just being too emotional because I'll have my period tomorrow?(hahaha)" those kind of questions. Anyhow, life goes on and I should look forward to living happily every single day. 

So now that I'm 23. I'd like to list down 23 things that I find beautiful in my 23 years of existence. 

1. FAMILY. Having family who guides you, loves you and supports your choices even if some of your choices may sound odd. A family who would honestly point out the wrongs in you to make your life better and make you a better person.  Having family who will never ever let you struggle through challenges in life alone is beautiful. The best of my support system...through everything. I'm just sad my parents are not physically here with me. For the first time in my 23 years of existence, they are missing my birthday. 

2. The kind of FRIENDSHIP that even distance and time couldn't break. That type where you don't need constant reassurance that your friends won't scratch you off their imaginary list of friends. When you reunite, everything is the same. 

3. FRIENDS WHO TREAT YOU AS FAMILY are the best people in the world. I am so glad to have met beautiful people who treat my sister and I as if we are part of their families. If you have friends like them, let me tell you that you are very blessed to have them.

4. Deep CONVERSATIONS about life, future plans, books, kdrama realizations and travels. It's just amazing how humans are designed to talk to each other as a form of entertainment *for me* (and learning as well). 

5. I find WRITING beautiful. I am not really good at writing but having a way to express my ideas is interestingly soothing for my overall well-being. Jumbling words to come up with a better sentence and randomly arranging thoughts to accurately depict my emotions is beautiful.

6. FOOD. This should not come as a surprise because (duh?) I love eating! In my 23 years of existence, I've come to love a wide variety of cuisine but my favourite right now is Japanese and Thai!!! Sashimi! Sushi! Tonkatsu! Moo Ping! Kao Pad Thai! Ugh this makes me hungry.

7. TRAVELING is beautiful. Be it a domestic, international or even just a road trip to that place I've been meaning to see. Having the chance to witness the beauty of different places and being able to have an in-depth experience of a culture different from ours is extremely exciting and I think that's beautiful.

8. Receiving Handwritten Letters is beautiful. In my 23 years of existence I still take note of how many handwritten letters/notes that I receive. Hehehe. I just really appreciate the effort of writing your thoughts down instead of typing it for me. It's like a "personalized" thing that only I can get from you.

9. WEARING MAKEUP! I mean wearing CC Cream, a Mascara and lining my brows. Oh and that winged eyeliner ;) You know the stuff that makes me feel I'm pretty sometimes.

10. NOT WEARING MAKEUP. As much as I like wearing make up, I also find not wearing make up beautiful. That feeling when your face is free from any chemicals. It is comfy and surprising (when I look at the mirror hahahha)

11. Reading books that are NOT from the "Romance" Genre. I grew up knowing that women are stereotyped into reading only the romantic type of stories or novels but hey, I enjoy sci-fi and tear-jerkers too! We can talk about Harry Potter and Paulo Coelho books all day, I wouldn't mind.