Half the year has gone and I’m sitting here in a daze wondering how it passed so quickly. If I had to choose a word to describe this month for myself, it would have to be self-exploration. For whatever reason, I felt as though I had outgrown the lifestyle I had been leading and needed some change. Not necessarily that I wanted to overturn everything upside down on it’s head, but I was ready to shake things up for a change. So this month, I want to share my favorites with you. I haven’t really done a monthly favorites post before, even though it’s something I see quite often in the blogosphere as well as the vlogosphere. I tend to do in-depth reviews or collective lists here on Silently Free, but one day I was looking back through my posts and thought to myself: I have a nice collection of posts about things, but they don’t really come together to form a picture that is me. So I’ve picked out 6 photos to share my favorites with you this month.
#1. Mojito Sparkling Water is a treat I love in the summers. It’s refreshing and I love that it isn’t too sweet or too sour. I was so excited to find this at a nearby cafe, because sometimes you don’t want coffee or tea or a smoothie. Sometimes you just want something cold, light, and refreshing while you listen to your jam and pour your thoughts into a notebook.
#2. Calligraphy Class. You guys know I’ve been obsessing over calligraphy lately, and I finally had the opportunity to take a class. There are quite a few calligraphy classes going on in Korea, but most of them have been classes for Korean calligraphy. The store that I buy a lot of my supplies from does offer classes, but the course fee was so high I just couldn’t stomach the price. So when I learned that some of the members of the calligraphy group I joined were offering classes, I jumped on board. Instead of taking a class for Italics, which I have been practicing up to now, I decided to take a class in the Foundational Hand. Sheila Waters recommends in her book to start with the Foundational Hand to learn the underlying structure of the alphabet letters. I gained so much insight from my teacher Scarlet Woo, and had so much fun getting to know other people in the class who were interested in calligraphy.
#3. Aviators are a classic in my book, and I love my aviators to pieces. I got these beautiful aviators at the TOMS popup store last year, and they are the perfect color match for me. I feel like the trend for sunglasses is always changing, but aviators never look out of place. So this year I didn’t really feel the need to go out and buy a new pair of sunglasses. I’m still very much in love with these. If you’ve ever tried on a pair of aviators but it didn’t suit, they weren’t the right pair. I didn’t realize aviators came in all different shapes and colors until fairly recently, but it makes all the difference! I wanted the pair with silver frames and slightly blue-purplish tinted ones at first, but when I tried them on they didn’t feel right. Then I tried the gold frames with a brown gradient and it had my name written all over it!
#4. Traveler’s Journal. I’m not quite sure how I tumbled into the world of traveler’s journals, but I’m pretty sure it was a mix of instagram and youtube. I’ve always had notebooks that I fill with my thoughts and ramblings, and I’ve always liked the idea of a leather-bound notebook like moleskins. Only I wasn’t too crazy about the price of a moleskin and the idea of having to dish out that sum each time I burned through a notebook. So when I saw the Traveler’s Journal by Midori and how you can essentially have the leather cover and just switch out the notebook refills, I hopped on board. Part of what I love about the Traveler’s Journal is that it’s not spiral bound, or ring bound. It has a band that you sort of hook your notebook through, so it’s comfortable to write on both sides of the notebook. You can also customize it and add things like pockets to hold anything from photos to tickets. I tore out a photo spread from a magazine and put it inside a clear pocket to decorate the first page of my journal. I’m loosely following a bullet journal system, but mostly I’m using it to pour out my thoughts without having to adhere to a monthly, weekly, or even daily calendar. So in essence, it’s like any notebook I’ve been using but with a more permanent casing.
#5. Meditation. I never imagined that I would have anything to do with meditation. My mind is constantly busy and I hate being bored, so sitting and not doing anything never really appealed to me. Only during this month of June the universe has been telling me to give it a whirl. I’ve been reading Eat, Pray, Love and the author talks about trying meditation. I hop on youtube and someone is talking about how they started meditating. So many people have been talking about the benefits of meditation, so I decided to give it a chance. So I sat on my yoga mat to try to meditate. Of course, a neighbor’s dog decided to start barking so I had to wait. Then the light bothered me so I turned off the light. Then I sat there in my dark room and meditated for something like a mere 5 minutes. For the most part I focused on breathing, and just took note of what thoughts came and passed through my mind. When I started to get sleepy I got up and went to bed. I didn’t really expect a huge difference since I had sat there for such a short period of time, but the next morning I woke up and my heart felt full of love and energy. So I decided I wanted to explore meditation a bit more and maybe perhaps look into daily affirmations as well.
#6. Tiramisu Bingsu is hands down the best Korean dessert ever! If you ever travel to Korea you must try it. It’s like shaved ice only with a softer texture and a milky sweet flavor. It’s topped with the same powder that’s on tiramisu and drizzled with coffee. There’s a slice of tiramisu on the side, and it’s absolutely glorious during the scorching summers. It’s what I was wolfing down whilst watching Paul Antonio’s calligraphy lesson on periscope.
Your Turn ♥ What are your June favorites?
