July 2, 2015

Sant Joan and Kinfolk discovery


Last week we had a public holiday on Wednesday for Sant Joan {Saint John's feast day} on June 24th, which marks the summer solstice as well. It is customary on the night of June 23rd to light fireworks and enjoy the shortest night of the year with bonfires at the beach. Truth be told, I wasn't very looking forward to the fireworks this year, seeing how Liam was so little and I was worried he might get scared! In the end we didn't hear much noise from out summer house, so Liam fell asleep pretty early and wasn't woken up at all. I myself didn't take part in any activity involving bonfires or firecrackers, we stayed in with my brother and the hubby watching a movie and by the time we finished everything was over, ha! 


I loved having the chance to allow myself some well deserved rest in the middle of the week, it changes everything! Also, I finally got the chance to fully unwind and get some quality time reading Kinfolk magazine. What an amazing discovery this was!


I had been seeing people raving about Kinfolk magazine for too long already, so when I saw their new issue had just come out, I rushed to get a copy for myself. Oh boy, I wasn't disappointed! In fact, I was ecstatic! Kinfolk is the best magazine I have ever laid my eyes upon. And I do read a lot! It's a lifestyle publication that promotes slow life in a holistic way, that meaning, in each and every aspect of your life. Hence, they talk about work, family, community, decoration, architecture, but also, food, photography and travels, it's just so very complete! This issue is all about essentialism, or how to prioritize by leaving all clutter behind and focusing solely on what really matters. I couldn't recomment the magazine enough, I'm even thiking about buying the older issues if they're available! Kinfolk is a quarterly magazine, and you can read some of their articles on their websiteI realized this all sounded like I was paid to brag about Kinfolk, but God save me, I was not! I simply truly love it :)



We set up the pool for Liam for the first time and he absolutely loved it. He was super cheerful, laughing while splashing around, a heart-melting sight for his mama, papa and grandparents! <3


This coming weekend will be special too, because we're going on a weekend getaway to northern Catalonia {Alt EmpordĂ }: Figueres {DalĂ­ Museum!}, Port de la Selva, Cap de creus and CadaquĂ©s. Make sure to follow me on Snapchat @oliviaschoice because I'll be sharing most of our trip with you guys! I can't wait!!! 





September 3, 2014

Life with Baby



Liam arrived on August 28th, 2014, after a long 32-hour labor, when I was 41 weeks 4 days pregnant. My labor sure does deserves a post on its own, so I'll be writing all about it soon! Today I want to share yesterday's family stroll, when Liam was 5 days old. He is such a good baby, he sleeps and eats a lot, and never cries. Everyone who's seen him says he is so calm, and very handsome, too! Both daddy and I are sooo in love.








Liam is definitely a bright-eyed baby, taking into account he's not even a week old yet! He makes my heart stop <3 Who knew this kind of happiness existed? :)

April 22, 2014

Life in Barcelona



J and I moved to Barcelona on February the 25th, when I was 15 weeks pregnant. The queasiness from the first trimester had just stopped less than a week ago, and I was finally back on top ready for the new challenges that were awaiting for us in Barcelona. 

I haven't had much cravings during my pregnancy so far (besides Greek yogurt, the only thing I ever made J run to the supermarket for in the middle of the night), but the one thing I really really missed during those first three months in Hong Kong was my mom's food. I got sick of Chinese food and couldn't stand it anymore, I spent my days daydreaming of the food from my childhood, and all I could do was cook whatever I knew how to, but it was still not enough to stop me from craving my mom's cuisine. So you can imagine how happy I was when we finally moved back and I got to eat all I really loved. In only one week I gained a kilo, the same I had gained during the previous three months in Hong Kong. 

Once we arrived to Barcelona, we started working right away. For those of you who don't know, we joined my family's business, in the shoe industry. New opportunities came in for my parents' company and they asked us to move back and join the business. We had much to learn before going to the biggest shoe fair in Europe, in Milan, which took place in early March. I'd say we catched up pretty fast, and everything has been really smooth working for my parents. Almost a month ago, J and I found our new apartment, right next to our office, in Passeig de GrĂ cia. We haven't moved in yet since we're still furnishing it, but I'd say we're ready to move in as soon as they deliver our bed later this week. I'm looking forward to share some pics after it's fully decorated! That's all for my life update so far, more to come soon xx


February 3, 2014

Some updates

My blog has been completely unattended this last month of January. The truth is much has been going on in my life and none of it was worth blogging about. I've been arranging everything for our upcoming big move to Barcelona, from packing, to closing my shop, selling the remaining stock on other platforms, dealing with all our contracts that need to be cancelled, etc. J's last day at his company was last Thursday, the last day before the Chinese New Year of the Horse, which started on January the 31st. I was so ecstatic on that last day of his at work! No more missing him on weekdays! Now I'll have some help from him for the remaining stuff, mostly his stuff since I'm almost done with mine. We're leaving on the night of the 24th, but we're going on honeymoon from the 11th to the 19th, and to mainland China to greet the new year to some family members from the 7th to the 9th. This means we have exactly 9 days left to sort everything out. NINE days which include several farewell lunches and dinners with friends and family, no wonder I'm a bit worried, don't you think? I think the hubby is not really aware of this situation, I'll have to ask him to read this and count by himself! Anyway, I still have some afternoon tea posts to share, as well as some wedding stuff! Hopefully coming soon. Also, we've been to the beach today, the weather is amazing these days :) Warmest Chinese New Year in years!



January 14, 2014

2014

Happy New Year, friends! With so much going on lately I haven't even had the time to wish you all a wonderful 2014! May all your wishes come true!

My parents, brother and uncles arrived to Hong Kong on the 27th of December, our Hong Kong wedding reception was on the 29th, and off we went to Thailand on the 2nd of January until this last Saturday. Ten days of bliss being soaked in the sun, surrounded by infinity pools, amazing beaches and my beloved family. But this Thailand trip deserves a post of its own, which I'll be sharing with you in the days to come.


Today I mostly wanted to talk about our big news for 2014. 2013 was the best year of my life, I got married to the man of my dreams and everything in my life was like a fairy tale. Yet, I have the feeling 2014 will be even the more special, we're in for lots of important changes this year, the first one being we're moving out of Hong Kong... for good. Yes, in a little more than a month, on the 25th of February, the hubby and I are moving to Barcelona, my hometown, to join my family business. I have to say I'm elated. After 5 and a half years living in Hong Kong, I'm really looking forward to go home. Last October, when we were home for our wedding, my dad asked us to join the company, saying he's planning on retiring in some years. We thought about it for a while and finally made up our minds by the beginning of November. You may have noticed I basically stopped putting new products to my online shop Frill Me at that moment, and this is the reason why. My shop will have to be closed by the end of this week, so if you have a crush on something and still didn't get it, this is the right time.

With our honeymoon coming up next month from the 11th to the 19th of February, there's actually not much time left to get everything organized for the big move! I've spent these couple days packing and tossing, and somehow the house still looks exactly the same. ?!? I need to pack my 5.5 years stuff, but J needs to pack his whole lifetime stuff! I seriously don't know how we're gonna make it. Wish me luck on this new adventure... I'll continue blogging no matter where I am :)


November 10, 2013

The Secret to a Perfect Life


I believe perfection, like beauty, lies in the eye of the beholder. Yet I think we will agree if I say a perfect life is the one in which you have everything you could wish for. Today I wanted to write about how to achieve the life of your dreams because, yes, you can. Having a perfect life is something everyone can achieve. It took me long to get myself to write this article, mainly because the message within is so deep I didn't know where to start.

This Secret to a perfect life I'm referring to can be found in the movie or the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. This is a life-changing book, or at least it was for me. Read along and discover how to get all you ever wanted.

What is the Secret, you may be wondering. The Secret is in fact the Law of Attraction. The world is full of frequencies, through which signals like radio, wifi, tv, etc are transmitted. But it's not only machines that emit frequencies. We, humans, do as well. The Law of Attraction says that whatever you think of, you attract to yourself. Which is why the main point of the Secret is to keep thinking about what you want in order to get it. More than that, you actually need to imagine yourself already possessing that, and tune your frequency, your mood, into the one you would be feeling were you to really have the object of your desire. Say you want a brand new BMW car. What you would need to do is not praying to get it, but rather imagine you're already driving the car, feel the engine, the soft leather of the steering wheel on your hands... Or if what you want is a new partner, you'd have to live as if you already had him. By sleeping on one side of the bed instead of in the middle {to leave room for the other one!}, or just trying to feel happy as if you already had what you wanted, instead of moaning because you don't have it. The Secret says the world has enough ressources for each of us to achieve anything we want. So don't go thinking something is impossible, because it's not.

For my entire life I've been a very lucky girl, or so I thought. I used to think luck was the reason of my well being and all the good things that always happened to me. But after reading the Secret I realized I had unknowingly been applying a lot of its principles throughout my lifetime. I have always had a vivid imagination and would spend hours thinking about my awesome future, and how perfect it would be to have this or that to the point that I could feel as excited as if I already got it. And then, no doubt, I always ended up getting it. Since I've always been an optimist, the things I imagined where almost always good, thank God! On the rare occasions I kept thinking about bad outcomes too much, these ended up happening as well. It's all about how much importance you give to each of your thoughts. For the perfect  life, it is a must to get rid of negative thoughts. Anything that makes you feel bad is a negative thought, and should be avoided at all costs. You need to emit a happy frequency so that happy things can happen to you, this is the core of the Law of Attraction.

After realizing how much our mood influences the things that happen to us, if I had to give a single piece of advise to all of you, this would be it: Do not let situations affect your mood, rather make your happy mood shape what happens to you. This is what will ultimately lead you to the perfect life: being the master of your fate, by controlling how you feel and what you think. It's sad that most people do not know this and live their lives in permanent despair. If something bad happens to you, you can't let it affect your mood to the point where you go from emitting a happy frequency to emitting a sad one. In fact, this bad experience should be erased from the memory as soon as it took place, and you should never think about it again. When you enter a moody stage where you only see bad things around you, mind you, more and more bad things are bound to come around. In fact thinking about the things that you DON'T want, and asking for them NOT to come true, will actually make them come true. Because the Universe can't hear the NO in your prayers, all it can see is how much power you put into that thing. Let's put my own wedding as an example: like any other bride, I didn't want it to rain on my wedding day. But did I ever ask for it not to rain? Did I ever worry about it? The answer is never, not even once. I knew it would be a warm and sunny day and that's how I pictured it in my mind. Five days before our wedding, we went to see our caterers for the last arrangements, and the chef told us he had been so worried a couple days before, because there was a big thunderstorm forecasted for our wedding day, althought finally it seemed it would be coming a bit earlier. As soon as I heard this comment, my brain dismissed it. I hadn't checked the weather forecast not even once, and I would certainly not be worrying about any rain situation, when I knew deep inside that my wedding would be a very sunny one, because I had pictured it so many times. The funny thing is on the day after our wedding when I turned on the TV, the weather report was on. They were saying how the whole country had seen so much rain in that weekend. Well, guess what, there was not even the tiniest drop in our wedding venue!

It is of vital  importance to always make wishes in a positive form, wishing for what you want, instead of wishing for what you don't want not to happen. Mother Theresa must have known about this power. She never agreed on joining any demonstration against war, but she always said "do call me if you ever have a pro-peace demonstration, I'll be there". The "No War" message gives strength to the word war, since the Universe can't hear the No.

The way people ought to live their lives to be able to achieve happiness is by being fully aware of their thoughts and  never letting bad situations affect their mood. Only by keeping a permanent state of happiness and optimism, in other words, transmiting LOVE and being thankful for what we have, will we surround ourselves with more love and favorable outcomes. In fact, it is not until another of Rhonda Byrne's books, The Power, that she finally states that the Secret is ultimately all about love and gratitude. Since the Law of Attraction says you bring to yourself what you think about, it's only by having loving and thankful thoughts that we will attract more good things to us.

Ask for what you want, believe that you already have it, and you will receive it. Ask. Believe. Receive. And remember, keep yourself in a happy mood, being thankful and loving those around you, for by the Law of Attraction, what you wish to others is what is bound to come back to you.

If you want start living the life of your dreams, go ahead and read The Secret, The Power, and The Magic, all by Rhonda Byrne, and then apply that knowledge to your daily life. You will be amazed by what life can be like!


June 28, 2013

My Last Day



Today was my last day at my office job. I feel excited, relieved and, above all, motivated. Excited about moving forward, relieved of some pressure, and motivated for my new project.
My lovely online shop is doing well, and I think the timing to leave my full-time job and start focusing exclusively on my shop is just the right one. When I quit my job on May 31, my store was only a week old, so it took a lot of courage to present my resignation letter at the time. One thing I knew for sure was this is my dream, and I have to pursue it no matter the risks. Besides, because of my company's one month notice policy, I still had to spend a long month in the job after I resigned, so I'm glad I did it early so that now that I feel I can make a living out of my shop, I am free do focus entirely on it. This month didn't go by fast, but THE day eventually arrived, and I finally said bye to what has been my life for the past year and a half. 

To celebrate this new stage of my life, J and I are going on a trip to Osaka, Japan, tomorrow until Tuesday. It's been four years since I last went to Japan, so this is something I've been really looking forward to! Besides, we want to have a baby next year and I read it's not entirely safe to travel to Japan when you're pregnant because of the radiation, so it was now or never! 

If you purchase at my shop during these 4 days, please note that I will ship your order on Wednesday when we're back, as I already mentioned on Frill Me's blog. I might also take longer than usual to reply to any enquiries on facebook or info{at}shopfrillme.com.

As usual, you can follow my instagram or my facebook page to see what I'm up to in Japan. Have a lovely weekend, or an even nicer long weekend for all Hong Kongers :)


May 31, 2013

I quit my job today to start living my dream life!


 
Yes, the cubicle life is over for me! I resigned today from my Online Sales & Marketing job after a year and a half in the company. I'm still like floating in another planet but I think I'll manage to explain the reason why I resigned.


Basically, I have never been an office girl. I got this job a year and a half ago and I have been really happy with it because it allowed me to earn very good money while getting some very valuable insights on e-commerce among other areas, but I've always known it was something temporary. I knew I didn't want to be in the office after I had children and having to leave them with someone else 8-5. So I thought why not starting now? Why not start to live the life that I really want?


I have always known deep down inside that it is my wish to work for myself, and that I most certainly don't want to spend my life working at an office for somebody else. I started to consider this seriously and wondered why I was still where I was, given that I had more than enough savings, and that I wasn't learning much new. At that moment, about two months ago, I decided to start the project of my online store, Frill Me, with the idea of making a living out of it and quitting my full-time job to devote myself to it. One week ago, my online store was successfully launched, and I realized if I really wanted to make something big out of it, I couldn't keep my office job much longer. I kinda knew this even before the launch, and since the first reason I created this store was to work full-time on it, I decided the sooner I could focus wholeheartedly on it, the better. 

I'm a bit scared with my decision because it really takes a lot of strength to quit a job just like that, but I'm very motivated and passionate about this new project of mine. Besides, I'm also writing a book on afternoon tea, as I mentioned on instagram before, so don't worry, I won't be bored!!! In fact, I expect to be really, really busy, but enjoying every part of it, while getting to go for afternoon tea! Ha! Having to spend tea time in the office is something I really hated :D

Almost everyone around me was telling me to wait a bit longer until I could see how the store was working out. The thing they didn't understand is the store won't go alright just by itself! I believe good results come from hard work, and thus I need to put all my effort in it. Some, or most, probably wouldn't dare to leave such a good and stable job just like that, but I thank my parents for my entrepreneurial spirit, that makes me brave and daring. As Steve Jobs put it: Stay hungry, stay foolish. I most certainly will.


Image via iStockPhoto




April 15, 2013

Back to Hong Kong



I'm safely back to my lovely appartment in Hong Kong. I'm waiting for J to come home after work while I'm typing this. I'm so anxious to see him! 

Tomorrow I'm going back to work and it seems like forever since I last went! With these days in Barcelona and our pre-wedding trip to Thailand it's certainly been a long holiday! 

These 10 days I spent in Barcelona organising the wedding have been so productive. We basically have everything settled except for the video, for which I still want to look at some more options. The rest is confirmed and we only need to polish some details. I'll be telling you all about my wedding providers one by one in the upcoming Wedding Wednesdays! I also want to thank my amazing mom once again, who has been organising everything with me for the whole week {and since I got engaged, really!}. The pic above is us visiting my wedding venue, isn't it stunning? :)

Besides getting everything settled for the wedding, something else totally awesome took place: my bridal shower! You may have seen some pics on my instagram, and I'm so looking forward to share the whole thing with you! It was a very touching experience to see everything my girls put together for me! I won't be able to tell you all in detail until two to three weeks from now, because we had an official photographer for the day and she needs some time to process all the 2,000 pictures she took! OMG!!! 

Happy week to you all!


April 7, 2013

Half a year to go for my wedding!


Half a year from today I will be at my own wedding party as Mrs. Lau. It's kind of amazing that my wedding is only 6 months away already. I've been doing the food tasting today and OMG {!!!}, I'm sure everyone's gonna love it! I'll tell you all about it on a Wedding Wednesday post soon. 



This may be too much information but the truth is I got my period today. Oh God, I don't want to have my period during my wedding!!! I have a baby to conceive! Just kidding {or not}, but in any case I don't want my period on that day, I think that's not too much to ask for?!


February 28, 2013

At the moment




[1] TOTALLY IN AWE of Sassy Hong Kong for coming up with this amazing article on 35 fashion websites with free delivery to Hong Kong. Priceless piece of information!

[2] LOOKING FORWARD to watch Silver Linings Playbook with J tonight in Festival Walk. Here are some of the reasons why! 

[3] NON-STOP THINKING of our pre-wedding trip to Thailand happening in less than a month now! We're staying in Bangkok for a night and in Hua Hin for another three, where we booked a breathtaking pool villa.

[4] FINISHED READING The Start-Up of You, by  Reid Hoffman, co-founder and chairman of LinkedIn, on investing in yourself and adapting to the future. This book is an endless source of inspiration, one of the best I've read of late. I've started planning my future accordingly, and the least I can say is it's gonna be BIG! But let's not forget... 

“Before dreaming about the future or marking plans, you need to articulate what you already have going for you – as entrepreneurs do.”

February 10, 2013

Happy New Year of the Snake!


Happy New Year to all my Chinese readers. May the year of the snake be one full of health, wealth and love. It is most certainly a year I have been looking forward to. One only gets married once in a lifetime! :)


December 9, 2012

Weekend Getaway: Ocean Spring Resort in Zhuhai, China



We're just back from an unforgettable weekend getaway to celebrate J's birthday. We were planning on going last weekend but by the time we wanted to book the hotel, it was fully booked! A 1000-room hotel fully booked on a regular weekend?! Yes, nothing unusual in China. 




We've been to the Ocean Spring Resort in Zhuhai, famous for its hot springs. Zhuhai is the city in mainland China bordering Macau, and to go from Hong Kong you only need to take a 70 minutes-long ferry ride. The resort had three hotels: an inn, a 4 star hotel, and a 5 star hotel {ours!}. I loved our huge business room with sea view. The resort is famous for its hot springs but it also has a very decent amusement park! 



We spent our Saturday afternoon in the hot springs and both of us LOVED it. They are really worth a visit. My first {and until this trip, only} experience with hot springs was in South Korea in January 2011, where the outside temperature was below zero, so you can imagine the adventure for a first time at the hot springs... This time in Zhuhai has been completely different. The weather here was more like a sunny autumn day than a winter one, with pleasant temperatures above 20 degrees Celcius. I never imagined the hot springs at Ocean Spring Resort would be as amazing as they actually are. I was very positively surprised by many things. First, the hot springs were not crowded as I had feared {this is China after all!}. Second, there were many many different spaces to explore: Turkish style, European, Chinese, etc. And third and my favorite: there was an area with about 20 pools in which each of them had a different herb or substance inside {chrysanthemum, mint, tangerine peel, ginseng, green tea, thousand Chinese herbs, milk, coffee, red wine, etc.}, with a description explaining what that herb or substance was good for and the benefits it had on your body. I guess the total number of pools was around a hundred, most of them outdoors but some indoors as well. I obviously couldn't bring my Canon camera inside, but here is a pic I snapped with my iPhone!


After the hot springs both J and I agreed our bodys felt great and our skin even softer than usual! That's saying a lot, because J and I are naturally soft :D After the hot springs we watched a nice 80 minute acrobatic show called "Memory of the Sea", performed by Russian and Chinese actors.



Today we took some pictures around the resort and then spent a while in the amusement park, where unfortunately most of the amusement rides were closed :(




Have you ever been to hot springs? Isn't it just awesome? :)

December 2, 2012

Happy birthday, my fiancé


Yesterday was my fiancé's birthday. This is the third birthday I get to celebrate with him, and all I wish for is to be next to him for all his birthdays to come. For the next one, he will already be my husband... He is my soulmate and best friend, the one who I can always count on, the one that makes me smile, my reason to move forward even when things seem difficult, my happiness, my joy, my everything. We were born more than ten thousand kilometers away, yet we managed to find each other and promise to love each other in good times and in bad, when life seems easy and when it seems hard. Our love is written in the stars. I love you J.