marissa belle ｡･:*˚:✧｡࿐

How crazy is it that we’re in the last quarter of 2020 already? 

I have decided to change the format of how I do monthly recaps as sometimes I honestly find it hard to pick a few ‘favourites’, there are some months I enjoy lots of things and other months where I enjoy 1 new thing. My recaps will now be more fluid and casual, I hope you’ll enjoy the new structure as much as I like writing it. 

I don’t mean to sound extremely boring but September was a very normal month for me. I read a bit more, I encountered more back, neck and shoulder pain than ever before (I think I’ve got the body of a 70 year old) and I miss my boyfriend so much! It has been 10 months since we’ve seen each other, thanks pandemic!

I made some great changes with my blog too, including a whole new theme, an updated About Me page and creating my very own icon! I’m very happy with what my blog looks like now and I’d love to hear what you think about it – whether you’re on desktop or mobile. It was a rather expensive theme but I was thinking about it way too much to ignore it, so I hit the bullet and spent the money.

I enjoyed a few new things this month as well! 

I got gifted a free Batik Face Mask from my favourite local eco-friendly store, BambooStrawGirl! 

I got the mask alongside a purchase of a deodorant stone and some bamboo toothbrushes. The Batik material is extremely comfortable and the straps are easy to adjust. Because of how pretty the prints are, I only wear these on my days off work! I leave the boring regular cloth ones for my days at my job. 

I try to use reusable masks as often as I can because I do feel the landfill from disposable ones are awful! 

I love these red love heart lollipop earrings so much, I got them for only $1 on Shopee and they are ADORABLE. The only problem I have with them is that they’re a tad bit heavy and the stick that comes out of the heart is long and tends to get tangled up with my mask when I wear them out. 

I have a huge collection of really cute yet cheap earrings, I’d love to know if you’d like a haul one day! 

I am also a daily user of Spotify and recently I’ve dabbled in making a few new playlists for myself. Click on the links to listen and follow if you’d like! 

Magical Cottagecore – a collection of soft, fairy-like tunes. Perfect for a cosy day of staying in, or for background music when you’re having a picnic in the garden. Definitely my most played playlist this month! Not a noisy playlist at all – no loud crashing drums or crazy electric guitars. I like most of my music to have soft, snug vibes.

Seasonal Depression – a collection of mostly indie tunes that aren’t too happy and aren’t too sad. Starring a lot of my personal favourites like The 1975, girl in red and Bleachers. 

Sipping Starlight – I’ve had this playlist for awhile but it’s one of my favourites. A lot of atmospheric voices like Billie Eillish, Lana Del Rey and Bon Iver (my personal FAVOURITE indie singer for the last, what, 10 years?I Can’t Make You Love Me? I’m dead). Nothing too noisy in this playlist either, which makes it great for background music as you go about your day. 

Snug Lo-Fi – This playlist is for everyone! You know how much I love my lo-fi beats. This playlist has Studio Ghibli (if you’re into that) and Animal Crossing ‘star gazing’ vibes. I love this one so much and it’s the one I worked the hardest on. I’ve received quite a lot of good feedback on this playlist – very very proud of the collection I’ve gathered. 

Finally, probably the biggest thing about September is that I got into soap making! 

I would like to emphasise the above is NOT my photo, haha! Credit to Allie on Unsplash.

I made my first batch of M&P Soap last weekend and gave them away on my Instagram stories to local friends and I’m so happy to say that I made 14 cute mini bee and honeycomb soaps, some were scented with lavender and some with English pear fragrance oils and I let go of all 14 by the end of the day itself! I was so so so elated, I couldn’t even explain that feeling to you. 

My little bees weren’t perfect but that’s the beauty of handmade stuff!

I am very excited about my little ‘small business’ venture and I hope you all would join me on my journey by following an Instagram account I made for my crafts with a Tangled-inspired store name –

Snuggly Duckling Crafts! 

Not entirely active on there yet as I still have lots to learn and do, but my IG stories will be active! At the moment, I only ship locally in Singapore as I can’t afford international shipping, nor do I know about the logistics of mass shipping abroad – a lot of knowledge to acquire over here! I’m still in the trial-and-error stages of everything.

Overall, September was a pretty cool, chilled-out month with new things I learned and new music I discovered. 

How was your September? Did you have any big life changes, or any small achievements? Let me know and we can celebrate or chat about it in the comments below!