HELLO friends, strangers of the Internet, and future me reading back entries when I’m feeling nostalgic or wondering what I did with my life… I hope you’re well!

I’ve been keeping busy over the last few weeks, and while I’ve been posting a bit more frequently in terms of random photos and tidbits from my days, I realize I haven’t summed up other notable life updates.

So here we go… a few “life latelies” that come to mind:

The most notable is… I celebrated half a dozen years with Ian! Who knew that I’d meet the love of my life right here at home when I least expected it?! I feel so lucky to have the kindest, most caring, handsome, and adventurous fiancé-slash-soon-to-be-husband. As you may know, we were supposed to get married last month in Samoa, but with the whole pandemic and everything, our destination wedding had to be moved. This deserves a whole other blog post dedicated to the details of how we celebrated our would be wedding weekend, but for now, I’ll mention that it was amazing. We went camping with just a small group of friends, and I wouldn’t have spent it any other way.

I’ve been actively saving money, mostly because I was saving for my wedding, and trying to meet my annual savings goals, but since one of those wasn’t going to happen this year, I did a little treat yo’self and got a new camera lens! It’s a prime Sigma 105mm f/1.4 lens, and let me tell you, it is a behemoth of a lens. It weighs about 5 pounds on the camera, and is so front heavy that it comes with a tripod holder for the lens. I’m still a little bit like, “whyyyy did I just buy that?!” because I tend to lean towards a lighter and more compact camera setup, but this was one of the best portrait lenses on the market, I just went for it. I love it though! Been getting different photos, and excited to keep shooting with it.

Something I never really talk about is my freelance work offering web design to clients. It’s been a journey over the years learning how to manage clients and design websites with the ever changing interwebs, but just a little update that I’m in the progress of changing up my process and will hopefully come up with a more streamlined strategy. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I have to say no when I can’t commit to a project. I have a full time job that I love and obviously takes up most of my working time, so I’m hoping a little changeup in my process will allow me to still do web design work in a more efficient way.

Speaking of work, I am a HUGE fan of working from home. I love being able to get up at sunrise, taking in the morning slowly, dressing up or down whenever I wanted to, working out in the mornings, spending time with Ian, Yodi, and Scruff, journaling, making matcha, and getting my work station all set up with the view of the lagoon. I feel less stressed when I work at home, and my skin has definitely been loving WFH life. My office building just has a really dry and sort of musty air about it, so my eczema gets irritated easily there. But at home by the beach? Ahhh my skin, mental health, and physical body are living for it lol. Oh yes, I’m also making food at home a lot, which means healthier meals, and not just tuna sushi and saimin. And saving time and money on my commute to town. Wow, I think it’s so cool that we can do so much of our work online these days, and I hope this means that workplaces will start to encourage teleworking going forward.

A couple of months ago, I upcycled a Tahiti-inspired two piece dress from a hand-me-down skirt, and coupled with the extra time at home, and my lifestyle shift towards slow fashion, I’ve been wanting to make more of my own clothes. I’ve spent more time on my sewing machine and made myself a reversible wrap crop top from scratch, upcycled an old favorite shirt I thrifted like 10 years ago into a tank top, and also made a wrap mini skirt from scratch. It’s been so fun to pick up this hobby again, and I’m excited to make more original clothing pieces that I’ll wear for another ten years.

Ian built a new board rack in our office/ studio/ spare room. Not a crazy update, but I thought it was worth mentioning. He got a new power tool (I forget what it’s called) and it’s so cute seeing him all excited to build stuff.

Last but not least, we are still safe from coronavirus in American Samoa. The borders are closed for another month and the local regulations have eased restrictions on business hours and social distancing rules, like allowing churches to congregate, and extending business operations hours to 8 or 9pm instead of 6pm. We are crazy blessed. Also, I don’t remember if I shared this on here, but my best friend’s photos were featured on this New York Times article about American Samoa being the only place in the US that does not have COVID-19! Proud of her, and also of our little island, for being a safe haven.