Patagonia Chocolates

Before we booked my 21st birthday trip to Queenstown, I spent the evenings I couldn't sleep researching the must visit places. While curating the perfect list, Patagonia Chocolates was placed up there within the top 10 places I wanted to visit.

As the name may suggest, they sell chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. That's a lot of chocolate, chocolate mixed with local ingredients (fruit, nuts etc.), hot chocolate, ice-cream and delicious chocolate desserts (hello croissants and churros!). I actually had my birthday brunch there before heading off shopping and on the gondola, and the croissants and churros were in no way a let down.

They're located by the waterfront in Queenstown, between the town and the wharf so they were perfect placed to enjoy an ice-cream in the sunshine!  We tried a few ice cream flavours over our stay and my favourite was definitely the Tramontana. I mean look how delicious it looks wrapped in a waffle cone, quite sweet but definitely worth the sugar overload!

As we were quite a decent sized group (9 in total), their window seats that wrapped around a table overlooking the water were the perfect spot for us to not only enjoy my birthday brunch, but unwind and chat about our adventures with a sweet treat in the chilly evenings. I would definitely recommend you add it to your list if you're planning on visiting Queenstown in the future, don't miss out!

november inspo.

A few of my favourite items, flowers and photos heading into the month of November ♡

I don't know about you, but a perfect photo can inspire me to do pretty much anything, so heres to November. 

LAUNCHED: The Love Crush Studio

It's here and the day has come, The Love Crush Studio is now live! After being 95% finished for a wee while now, I finally took a plunge and launched it to the public. Please check it out if you have the time and let me know what you think ♡

I appreciate all the love and support everyone has shown me on this project so far! It really means a lot.

Coffee Talk

Or should this post be shared over something a little stronger, passionfruit vodka anyone? But since it's only mid-afternoon I think I'l settle on one of those chocolate chip cookie dough latte's (with caramel sauce for the hell of it). So many ideas and possibilities swimming around in my head. I haven't posted a post like this in a long while and it's long overdue that I spilled what's happening in my brain onto a page, a web page albeit. In all honesty I think I'm having a bout of realism that I'm 21 and a little undecided about what direction I want to take my life in (and lets be real, I don't think an 18 year old, even an 18 year old with her head screwed on, is in the position to make such big choices towards in high school).

I finished studying Interior Design in July (which literally feels like yesterday) and I've been having trouble finding a job centred around one of my biggest passions. I feel like I have the skills to go out and practice but living in a smallish city a vast majority of the Interior Designers are independent. Which sucks for someone wanting that all important experience and confidence. Don't get me wrong I don't think studying something quite niche was a bad thing, but probably one of my most bold and passionate moves, but I currently don't feel confident enough to go out on a limb in the Interior Design field. Cue my splash into web / graphic design.

So my little Etsy shop The Love Crush Studio surprised me in one of the best ways, clients! In all honesty I opened it on a whim back on the 26th January and didn't expect anything to come of it. I've been lucky enough to sell not only pre made designs but go out and custom design for some fantastic ladies. I never thought I'd sell or design any custom work, but getting to work with clients on multiple projects has given me the confidence boost that I think I needed. I'm 90% self taught, and getting to a level where other people would hire you to design is mind blowing enough to the girl who taught herself HTML and CSS on Tumblr while procrastinating for her 5th form NCEA exams, but mind blowing to my 21 year old self.  Launching an online shop and designing from my bedroom in the New Zealand country side was an unexpected decision and one I'm so proud of and grateful for.

So where to now? I've been thinking and as much as I don't want to add another $18,000 + to my current student loan, I think I'm in the right place to go back and study towards either a Diploma or Bachelors in web / graphic design. The idea of having an even bigger student loan is frightening, but learning about something I'm so passionate about makes it so worth it. To have a career in the design field is my goal, be it interior, web or graphic and studying further will put me in a much better position to get there.

I'm terrified of being perceived as someone who doesn't know what they want, but choosing to go back and learn more about something I'm passionate seems like the right choice to me right now.

Turning 21 in Queenstown!

This post is so late, but better late than never right?! We actually got back home from Queenstown almost a month ago, and I only just finished unpacking the last of the bits and bobs in my suitcase today. Oops. We had such a fantastic time, and I'm excited to share some of the photos from my 21st Birthday trip to Queenstown! We flew out the day before my birthday and direct from Wellington to Queenstown. It was perfect not having to connect to a different flight, and being able to sit back and enjoy the flight. 

We stayed at the beautiful Heritage Queenstown, not only where the grounds pretty but our lakeview suite provided uninterrupted views of Lake Wakatipu. I've wanted to stay at a Heritage hotel since we were in Hanmer Springs a couple of years back, so what better excuse than for your birthday escape. It was worth every penny to get a Lakeview 2 Bedroom Suite!

I'd wanted to visit Queenstown for a while now, so that's how I settled on choosing where to go for my 21th birthday. I'm not a huge partying / clubbing girl, but there's no doubt I love a drink with the ones I love, so I would much rather travel and explore the world than waste it on getting drunk and waking up feeling horrible the next day. 

All the blossom was out throughout the hotel grounds and the town. The little park in the middle of town was full of the most beautiful blossom trees which was perfect to sit and sip of an iced caramel macchiato after a day of exploring.

I have way too many photos to share in one post so I've tried to keep this post brief on the text front and show the beauty of Queenstown. Make sure to keep an eye out for my next posts, as there will probably be a handful more!

Reading Nook Layout

When it comes to a certain corner in my bedroom, I've been stuck for ideas for what feels like way too long. I mean it looks fine and dandy at the moment, but not exactly the look I'm going for. But the  other day a little reading nook dawned on me, and I've been thinking about it since.

So I conjured up a solution last night and collaged to my hearts content to get the perfect look. I currently have my dress mirror on the wall behind my black ottoman so I'm going to keep it in the same position but fill the corner with an armchair and position my dress mannequin on the other side. I've chosen to go with a teal / aqua cushion and indigo and white wood block cushion to inject a little colour, a cute print about my favourite season, a flowering pot plant and a round basket to store all my home & fashion magazines within easy reach.

I love putting together collage solutions to awkward areas, and showing styling suggestions like this. So if you have an awkward area you don't know what to do, let me know I'd be happy to help ♡

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Spring Inspiration & Reminiscence

All I have to do is scroll through instagram or twitter to see that everybody (well it sure seems like everybody) in the Northern Hemisphere is excited that it's Autumn. But down here in the Southern Hemisphere I'm more excited that it's Spring. The season of my birthday and my favourite season! This morning I stumbled across a blog post I wrote exactly two years ago. It was enough to spark a little inspiration and land me here with an inspiring mood board for my favourite season. 

Lately I've been thinking about how much I've grown over these past 2/3 years. Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up and in a momentary downward spiral, but like I said, it's only momentary. A walk down memory lane through unprinted photos and unwritten memories makes me think about how precious yet life is and how silly it is to dwell on the small negative details. Maybe it's the Winter blues, I'm not sure but I do know that Spring always puts a spring in my step.