as most of you may not know, my fiance and i recently bought our first home!
so i have been completely wrapped up in that for the past few months and have really tried to get it organised and running exactly how i want it (which has been a mammoth task). i think i have finally reached a happy place with it and managed to find some time to get back on here and write a blog post!!

through the purchase and set up of our home, i have tried to be as eco and environmentally friendly as possible. especially through my purchases of kitchen, cleaning and bathroom items!
its definitely easy to get wrapped up in the convenience and availability of single use products when setting up your home; they seem to be the cheaper and less time consuming option.

i have picked a few of my stand out eco-friendly items that i highly recommend to everyone. they are all things that are easy to add into your lifestyle and help you do your part for the environment.

first up is my favourite change and purchase.
my Face Halo; i picked this one up after hearing about it from beauty guru Chloe Morello who is a part owner in the company. basically it eliminates the single use makeup wipe (which take 100 years to decompose!!!!). not only does using the face halo eliminate makeup wipes from your routine and day to day life but also the chemicals that come along with them!
the face halo uses halotech fiber technology and you literally JUST have to add water. it is the best thing i have ever purchased!!! super affordable too, its roughly 3 for $30AUD. they are super easy to clean, you just have to wash it with some soap (any soap) after each use then machine wash it every week-few weeks depending on how often you use it. you get up to 200 washes per face halo!!
i can't recommend this product enough - it truly works!
https://www.facehalo.com.au/

next up are two products that i use weekly and reduce a significant amount of plastic!!
they are my reusable produce and shopping bags. if you are like me and love food shopping then these are a must! not only are they convenient and money saving, they also really help the environment.

here in Australia, the supermarkets sell reusable plastic bags that you pay 10 cents for per bag and you are meant to bring them back and keep using etc. but i often find 1. you forget to bring them with you 2. they end up breaking after a few uses and 3. people just treat them as a single use throw away anyway.
so i decided i would purchase a set of reusable shopping bags and a set of produce bags when we moved in. (i can confirm i use them every week without fail).
the produce bags are exceptionally handy, i use them for all my fresh fruit and veggies and they can also be stored in the fridge if you can't be bothered emptying them when you get home.
the reusable shopping bags speak for themselves, they allow me to organise my shopping as i am walking around the store and are easy to transport to and from the car.

i also make sure i have fold up carry bags in my handbag at all times, so if i ever get stuck at the shops and need a bag i always have one!
https://www.biome.com.au/reusable-bags/2380-onya-weigh-reusable-fruit-veg-bags-set-of-5-9340655000477.html
https://packingsorted.com.au/

one of my favourite kitchen purchases are my food savers! i use them for tomatoes, onions and garlic that aren't being used. these are great because they eliminate the use of cling wrap or other single use plastic storage and keep my left over vegetables fresh.
they are perfect for when you only use half an onion or half a tomato or one clove of garlic and want somewhere to store the remainder. (although it isn't ideal that the food saver it self is plastic, it does last a long time and can be washed etc).
i definitely recommend these if you cook and want an alternative way to store your half used vegetables!
https://www.amazon.com.au/Hutzler-Classic-Food-Savers-Set/dp/B019Y6BWOI

reusable coffee cups are something i have been using for years and swear by them! these days you can get so many different styles and designs; it would be hard to find something you didn't like. i have been loving the Frank Green cups, i have both the original and stainless steel version and they are by far my favourite reusable cups!
i generally use mine for when i am leaving the house, i will take a coffee from home and it always stays warm for my journey. i also like to pack my small sized one in my bag for when i feel like a coffee when i am out. they really do help with eliminating landfill and can be used for so many other beverages aside from coffee!
https://frankgreen.com.au/


lastly but not least, is another reusable beverage item - a stainless steel drink bottle. like the coffee cups, you can also get these in a range of styles, designs and sizes. i particularly like the ones by Swell and from Kikki K (which i am currently using). the good thing about a stainless steel drink bottle is that you have the option of carrying both hot and cold beverages. they are perfect for summer when you want cold water that will stay cold all day or for winter when you prefer to take a tea with you.  these also really do reduce the rate of plastics entering our oceans and landfill and would literally last you years without replacement.
https://www.swellbottle.com/
https://www.kikki-k.com/au/shop-by/category/reusables/stainless-steel-drink-bottle-woodland-11222601.html?cgid=shop_by-category-reusables#start=4

so these are just a few of my favourite eco friendly things i have incorporated into my new home. i hope i have inspired you to make some changes in your home too. if every one of us started to do even one of these things every day or week, we would really make a difference.
i have put a link to each of the products i use.

hope you have all been well
thanks so much for coming back :)
stephanie xxx

for valentines day this year i thought i would steer away from your typical gift guide or date ideas post and share with you my engagement/proposal story!

for those of you who don't know, my now fiance proposed to me just before we embarked on our holiday around New Zealand and a day before our 3 year anniversary.

Where: Sydney, Australia
When: 31st of October 2018

so firstly, i will give you a quick idea of how it all panned out. we were going on a cruise to New Zealand departing from Sydney (see previous blog posts) and had planned two days in Sydney beforehand to celebrate baes birthday and our anniversary. i had pretty much organised the entire holiday and had every detail sorted, until bae asked what we were doing on our first night in Sydney (the 31st). He said he wanted to plan dinner so we could celebrate our anniversary separate from his bday.
basically from here i was like well... that's a little strange considering he hasn't organised anything else so far. i kinda had an idea he would do it on this holiday. so once he said about dinner, i 90% thought that is when he was going to propose.

we flew in Sydney early in the morning on the 31st, checked in our bags at the hotel and then spent the remainder of the day shopping. bae disclosed no details of dinner and just told me i needed to be ready for 7pm and to wear something nice for a fancy restaurant.
as the day progressed, he seemed pretty relaxed and calm so i started to doubt whether he was actually going to do it or if i had made up this magical idea in my mind (haha).

the time came to get ready and everything was still normal (i was internally freaking out whilst trying to get ready but). bae was literally just watching Netflix on his phone so i was like ?? surely not.
anyway, as it got closer to 7pm he said "okay im going to order an uber and head downstairs, i will call you when to come down". so here i am like why can't i know where we are going?

i got down to the uber after his call and he was sitting in the front seat holding his suit jacket - which i automatically knew wasn't normal because he hates sitting in the front of ubers. we drove for 10 minutes and it was dead silent so im trying to make conversation about Sydney as we drive past to distract myself from what might happen.

we pulled up to this park at the bottom of this street overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge. at this point i am thinking okay so maybe the uber dropped us off in the wrong place and we have to now walk across this park to some restaurant that has amazing views of the harbour?

as we started to walk across the park which felt like a 5km walk (it was really not even 500m but i had heels on and was freaking the eff out), we saw a lady holding her phone taking a picture of the view. this is when he asks me to put a blindfold on and hold his hand. BASICALLY i lost it from here, i was internally a mess but trying to keep it together on the outside.
(just quickly, i am probably the worst person to be blindfolded ever because 1. i am the most uncoordinated person ever and 2. i like to know everything at all times).


so we get to these stairs and bae is trying to guide me down them whilst wearing heels and a blindfold which was never going to happen! so he had to carry me (which would have looked hilarious), he puts me down and we continue to walk for a bit.

i am told to take one step forward and stand still...
he then asked me to take my blindfold off..
and that is where i saw the love of my life on his knee with my dream ring (in the biggest ring box ever might i add).
it was PERFECT.





he organised the whole proposal through a lady who owns a company called buythecow. i was lucky enough to have a professional photographer capture the moment and take photos for us afterwards that we will literally cherish forever.
after we took a few moments to take it all in and enjoy the setting, we headed to dinner at a family owned Italian restaurant with a view of the Harbour.

basically the whole night was perfect and it still feels like a literal dream. i don't think it really sunk in until we returned home 2 weeks later. i am SO excited to be marrying this man and to start planning out wedding together.

xxx