I’m ashamed to say that there was no particular reason why I wanted to visit Sydney. It was just one of those places you know you want to visit and when Matt and I first started talking about this big holiday, it made sense that while we over New Zealand way, to make a stop there too. A big factor was of course that we knew we would be away over New Year and where better to spend it than Sydney?
Emily x
Well hello there! Long time no see eh?
After so much time planning our dream trip to New Zealand and Australia and finally jetting off in December 2018, it’s crazy to be back in the UK, digesting it all. I’m still slightly shell-shocked at how much we’ve done and what an incredible experience it’s been and I wanted to write down in more detail what we got up to, in case any of you are thinking of doing something similar and so I have a place to relive the memories in detail. For ease of reading, I’ll be breaking the trip down into three parts, New Zealand, Sydney and Queensland. I have decided to only include key parts as quite honestly, this post would go on for ages!
Emily x
After over a year of planning, when this post goes live I will be two days away from jetting away to New Zealand an Australia for three long weeks over Christmas and New Year! If you want to read more about our travel plans you can do so here.
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to happen with my blog while I was away and there was only ever one solution. So from this post onwards, I will be taking a break from blogging with my next blog post going up on the 20th of January. Yes, I could have prewritten posts to go up while I was travelling but the temptation to check on how the post was doing and to reply to comments would be too great and I promised myself that my only concern needed to be dedicated to absorbing every moment of the beautiful countries we were exploring. Y’know, mindfulness and all that.
I can’t pretend that my current relationship with blogging has nothing to do with my decision either. I’ve spoken before about my struggles with blogging and while I definitely a bit more comfortable with the content decisions I’ve made, I still find it difficult to balance blogging with my full-time job while wanting to have a social life and some down time too. So yes, admittedly I’m excited to have some time away from Musings & More but I’m also looking forward to creating posts on our experience in Australia and New Zealand when we return. If you have any recommendations whatsoever for New Zealand, Sydney or Port Douglas/Cairns area, please let me know!
I’ll still be tweeting now and again and I’ll be promoting older posts you may have missed, but if you’re interested to know what I get up to in the coming weeks, make sure you’re following me on Instagram. There I’ll be posting pictures and (hopefully) making you jealous over on Instagram stories.
But ultimately, I will be back and I hope you’ll stick around because there’s plenty more to come.
Emily x
Ashamedly, it’s been far too long since my last Beauty On Trial. Nearly a whole year in fact. Oops. Being perfectly honest, I simply haven’t had a need to buy any new skincare or beauty but a few weeks ago I had a craving for some new bits and this post is pretty much the result of that! For those who don’t know, Beauty on Trial is a series where I give you the low down on beauty and skincare products I’ve managed to get my mitts on! I always allow 3-4 weeks for testing, simply for fairness and so the product has the chance to do its thang. They aren’t always new products but rather new to me. So here’s what I’ve been trying out lately…
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Emily x
I love baking all year round but there is something even nicer about doing it during the festive season. Everything just feels so much cosier and exciting plus there are lots of family occasions that can require baked goods. Last week, I needed something to take to my best friends Christmas housewarming and decided to bake something that included Terry’s Chocolate Orange. Not only do they sing Christmas for me (despite being available all year round…), my best friend adores them. I’ve made a Chocolate Orange cheesecake before but I wanted something our friends could easily grab in between catching up with each other so settled on cookies.
This easy recipe produces soft, squidgy cookies with literally the perfect amount of chocolate and orange. As with most of my recipes, these are quick to make and I can promise you they won’t last long so make plenty!
Emily x