New Treasures

Hello 2012! Welcome to the 4th year of Diamond Canopy, well done if you've been reading my rambles since day 1 but also a big hi to all you lovely new readers! Maybe this year I will finally get round to buying my own domain but we'll see...

Let's start the first post of the year with a couple of sale and non sale purchases that I've made recently. You guys might recognise the L'Oreal Professional Mythic Oil in the post below as it featured in one of the Glossy Boxes a couple of months ago. I didn't really take much notice of it as I was set on buying Moroccon Oil but when my hair stylist used it on me, I was won over. So after Christmas, I promptly popped into my salon and purchased my own bottle. This stuff smells so yummy and makes my hair silky smooth!

I also had a whole bunch of empty MAC products (my mum goes through the eyeliners like crazy) and I swapped them (see back to MAC) for this pink-red Creamsheen lipstick in Lickable. Since it's one of their Creamsheens, the formula is more moisturising, slightly glossy and adds a bright burst of colour. Yay. Not bad for a freebie.

The tie-dye flats below are from Dune. They were a bargain in the sale for £26 but armed with a couple of gift cards, I only had to pay a measly £6 for them. They are made from buttery soft leather and the bows are always a winner with me.

The dress below is from Dahlia on ASOS in the sale and it's the prettiest thing ever! Apologies for the bad lighting, the weather has been truly awful (gale force winds?!) so I've not been able to snap a pic outside for you guys yet. The contrast material in black makes this dress super flattering. As much as I love Dahlia, I would definitely be hesitant to purchase this at full price which was originally £65 on Asos (however, I know they mark it up a little from the actual Dahlia website) just because of the quality of the material. It IS very lovely though and I can't wait to wear it with thick tights, cardigans and then bare legged in the Summer!

The Ring above, gloves and dress below were all new non-sale buys from my sister Hailey (she should totally start her own blog right?!) from Monki. She has such a great collection of rings, I will have to snap a picture one day and this double leaf ring fits in nicely with her collection. The gloves below I absolutely adore.

The dress is lovely too. It appears more of a mustard-orange shade on the website but it's definitely Orange in real life. Hopefully she'll wear it soon so I can get a photo of her in it!

So what other new things have I gained from the post-Christmas holidays? Definitely far too much chocolate. I really need to start eating more healthily, however I've been invited to hot pot at my cousins so that's not going to be put into action until at least next week. Ha, so we'll see about that one. What a fatty.

I've also gained new Mahjong skills! As with many Chinese kids, I grew up with the deafening sounds of clattering Mahjong tiles at every special occassion at my grandmas and often, my cousins and I would be playing Chinese card games (such as Big 2) nearby while the adults played Mahjong. On these occasions, the adults were the undoubtedly noisier than the kids! One of my favourite things in her house is her wooden Mahjong table with drawers to stash winnings, if you wanted to gamble that is!

As kids, we used to use the resin tiles to play our version of Jenga (basically a wall made from the tiles!) but I finally sat down and learned how to play properly. It's essentially a noisy card game where you collect different combinations of suits. There is something very satisfying about slamming discarded tiles and shouting for tiles to complete your hand. I'm still getting the gist of the game (the scoring is the only thing that confuses me) but my grandma is a keen player and she loves that we now play with her!