It’s been two weeks since the release of The Tortured Poets Department album and having been streaming it for almost (if not all of) every day, I have safely deduced that these are my top 15 songs from the album, in no particular order:
01 Fortnight 02 The Tortured Poets Department* 03 My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys* 04 Down Bad* 05 So Long, London 06 Fresh Out The Slammer* 07 Guilty as Sin?* 08 I Can Do It With A Broken Heart 09 The Alchemy* 10 imgonnagetyouback* 11 So High School 12 I Look in People’s Windows 13 The Prophecy 14 Peter 15 The Bolter
Often times we resort to creating goals that are absurdly out of reach believing that our future-self would somehow has as much faith and virtue as our optimist-goal-creating-past-self to actually execute towards the goals that we made prior. And often times we found ourselves muttering, “oh.. did I really decide on that?” when we came across blog posts or journal entries of that said goal lists; which were collecting dust, unchecked.
2024 is the year that I wholly decided to be easy on myself and one of the departments being my blogger counterpart. I would like to set some goals that I know I would be comfortable in trying to achieve but at the same time not too mundane that I would slack off in trying.
So here’s five attainable blogging goals, for myself:
Write 10 blog posts every month
I’m not going to sugarcoat – being consistent in getting posts out is not a walk in the park. I have gotten out eight so far, and I think I’m doing pretty well in this part. I have started planning posts for May and I hope I get to execute it as well as this month.
Monthly Sunday Reset posts
Sunday Reset is a monthly catch up post replacing The Sunday Currently as I feel like I cannot commit to it weekly. I think at this point I prefer having a roundup post that I can go through to reminisce. I’m quite happy with the formatting of the previous Sunday Reset post, with maybe some alteration in the future if need be.
Being true to myself
This new era of blogging is not how it was 10, 15 years ago. Right now, it’s all about those polished and professionally taken photos with well-articulated articles that conform to the general masses. It gets tiring trying to keep up particularly when I started out blogging at thirteen years old – just a teenager wanting to share her stories with the world, far cry from being a professional. I want to be lesser of that and more of the me 15 years ago. Definitely wiser but still retaining the essence of my old self who just wants to share her stories with the world.
Find more blogs to read and make more blog friends
Some of my favourite blogs to read have bid their goodbyes so I am left with only a handful of blogs still getting updated albeit not as frequent as I would like. I know that there are a massive number of blogs out there that are still pretty active and I will make it a mission to find some new favourite ones. I particularly love personal blogs as I’m such a nosy person and I love peeking into other people’s lives.
Treat my blog as a hobby and not a chore
I used to treat my blog as a chore – or a job that I need to finish before due and that made me want to work on it less. I realised how problematic that was to my blogging productivity so I’m only going to work on my blog when I’m in the mood for it. I want to be happy doing it and it certainly will show on my posts that I pour my heart and soul to write.
I feel like Swifties around the whole are having the time of our lives with –not one, but– two album release last week with the latter being a surprise to all of us. At this point, let’s just say that I’m unwell and I’m trying to fathom all thirty-one new songs from her. Truly a masterpiece of an album.
Nonetheless, here’s a collection of all the little things I’m fond of, at the moment:
01. THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Need I say more?
02. The baby pink Sometime Fuffa Micro Hobo Bag is the epitome of love at first sight for me. I purchased it the second it was released last week. Maybe a what’s in my bag post due soon?
03. Since KVD reformulated my life-long favourite of their famous Lolita liquid lipstick, I’ve been on a hunt for a new lip colour that I resonate with – that sparks joy. I think Wardah Colorfit Velvet Matte Lip Mousse in Sweet Cinnamon might be it for me.
04. Muji pocket notebook and 0.38mm black gel pen are my companion for everyday list-making.
05. Day seven of drinking hot green tea every morning. My guts are loving the detox process.
06. My nails. I went for a manicure before Eid celebration and got them painted shimmery orange which I have loved and obsessed with. Right now, I have on clear nails using Catrice ICONails Gel Lacquer in Clear As That.
09. Starting my day by making some tea and sitting on my desk with my planner from ana tomy.
10. If there is one thing that I can commit to religiously, it will be sticking to my skincare regime day and night. Love all the new products I’m currently incorporating in my routine.
11. I have a thing for the fried golden mantou from Oriental Kopi. It’s so good!
12. We just got back from my in-laws’ last night, but I’m already packing to go to my mom’s in a bit. Love that we are all living so close to each other.
13. Protecting my peace from people who don’t deserve my time. ✨
First half of April has been a slow reading period for me, particularly as we had just celebrated Eid al-Fitr last week and I spent five days travelling to my husband’s hometown. I’m trying to catch up on my reading so these are the six books collecting dust on my April TBR:
01 Punk 57 by Penelope Douglas
02 The Roommate Risk by Talia Hibbert
03 The Rule Book by Sarah Adams
04 Hate Mail by Donna Marchetti
05 It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey
06 Beach Read by Emily Henry
I know that my TBR isn’t as diverse in genre as I would have liked but romance fiction books are just so easy to read and so entertaining. I would like to dabble into fantasy genre again but so far I am not interested in any titles yet.
Hello, welcome to book roundup of January 2024. My book count for this month is of the same as last month’s, with only three books read. Now, here me out – this is due to the fact that I have met with a reading slump after meeting the oh-so-swoony Jack Smith-Turner in Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood. If you’ve read that book, you’d know what I mean. Tsk.
TLDR – I read 3 books this month: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, Hunting Eden by VH Nicolson, and Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren.
Title: Love, Theoretically Author: Ali Hazelwood Genre: romance Trope: enemies to lovers, only one bed, miscommunication Finished on: Jan 9, 2024
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Jack Smith-Turner alone is enough to make you want to read this book. Despite being a single POV book (the POV being from the FMC), you really feel how bad Jack is pining over her. It’s brilliant. Like he’s been #1 in my book BF list for months and we don’t even have his POV! It took me almost two weeks to start a new book because I was scared of being disappointed of other MMC. That’s how much power he has over me.
Title: Hunting Eden Author: VH Nicolson Genre: romance Trope: sports romance, secret baby Finished on: Jan 27, 2024
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 4 out of 5.
This is the kind of book where it’s good, nothing’s wrong with it, but then it’s also nothing to write home about. It’s very spicy which can be sort of a turn off for me because I like angst and slow burn. I do not want them going at it every three chapters. If you like the secret baby trope (although it’s really towards the end of the book), maybe give it a try?
Title: Love and Other Words Author: Christina Lauren Genre: romance Trope: best friends to lovers to strangers, second chance romance Finished on: Jan 28, 2024
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
MY, OH MY. If you asked me what book that has been on my mind living rent free since I read it– it’s Love and Other Words. Best friends to lovers to strangers, a second chance romance 11 years after? I eat this up so well, so full, so good. This is the only book so far that I would want to read for the first time, again.
Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for February 2024 Book Roundup.
Welcome to the first edition of Sunday Reset on Her Little Plans. It has been a moment since I introduced a new blog series here. The Sunday Currently series is just not working for HLP anymore, thus, Sunday Reset will be replacing it as a monthly roundup post that I will be posting on the last Sunday of the month.
I know that this blog post should have been published last Sunday instead, but I was occupied with revamping my blog on the front-wise and as well as the backend thingamajig which resorted me to contacting my hosting provider’s customer service. Changing your blog domains multiple times in half a decade will break your blog. It’s nice on the outside, but helplessly haywire on the inside.
March Highlights
✧ Wedding bells! I attended two weddings this month, one particularly at this nice bungalow-turned-event-space. The overall feels reminds me of my own wedding.
✦ I spent some time with my mom going furniture hunting and had lunch at my new favourite kopitiam-styled restaurant called Oriental Kopi, IOI City Mall.
✧ My husband and I brought our kids to see their favourite cartoon action hero at Lalaport, Bukit Bintang.
✦ A short trip to Johore following my husband who had some work there. I had a good weekend having scrumptious food and coffee.
✧ I had iftar date with my girls at Para Thai, IOI City Mall. Just so happened that it was also my birthday and we celebrated my birthday as well.
✦ We had an iftar potluck at my husband’s hometown in Perak, so we stayed there for a night. I was in food coma. We had more food than we could care to eat.
I read a whooping nine books total this month with three books getting five stars from me. Book Roundup for March will be coming soon. Do follow me on Goodreads so we can giggle about books together.
What I watched
I watched quite a lot of movies on Netflix, but only one notable for my liking and that is Damsel.
Absorbing loads of bookish content on YouTube. larryreads and chandler ainsley are my current favourite BookTubers.
What I listened
I wish to say that my songs on rotation isn’t Taylor Swift, but sadly it is. All of her songs are comfort songs to me.
Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS album is on my radar too! Her music isn’t a genre that I particularly listen to but some of the songs in the album are catchy af.
What I wore
Christy Ng Jean Handbag that I miraculously found at my mom’s house. I usually rotate handbag I’m carrying quite often but this one fits everything I need on the daily basis, therefore, I haven’t felt the need to rotate just yet.
I have three H&M basic tees that I use daily because it’s so comfortable. Remind me to get a couple more so I have enough for a week.
What I loved
Definitely my love for blogging. After I resigned back in January, I have just been immersing myself with books after books after books. Two weeks ago, I picked up my laptop, went to blog dashboard and just started typing and scheduling three posts before noon. And then I went ham and edited my whole blog. Oh, do check out my new categories on the top menu! I spent hours categorising and tagging old posts since 2016. Let’s just say that I’m very satisfied with how my blog is looking right now and I’m very inspired to brainstorm post ideas for it.
I think I have found my most favourite phone case of all time and this is coming from someone who buys a lot of phone cases. This one takes the whole damn cake. I feel like buying all the other colours.
What’s on the April schedule?
✧ I have a mani-pedi appointment fixed with my sister-in-law for the day before Eid. I haven’t had any in a while, so I’m quite stoked!
✦ Eid al-Fitr!
✧ Going on a road trip to my husband’s hometown. I am Selangor born and bred, so marrying someone who has multiple hometowns 2-6 hours away from where we resides is just a delight. I love it.
✦ More weddings to go!
Upcoming posts
✧ I definitely want to stay on top of my book roundup posts. While I have scheduled January roundup for Monday, I still have February and March left to write.
✦ I am still curating fresh post ideas that would best suit my blog. There’s only so much post ideas that you can find on Google. The original ones are always the ones that come from your own ideas.
