Happy Lunar New Year! I wish you all a successful year with good health and many amazing opportunities!

Celebrating Lunar New Year has been a family tradition and it never feels like the beginning of a New Year until I have gone through all of the Chinese traditions with my family. I love spending time with my family, eating lots of traditional snacks and the obvious…getting red pockets! Haha.

 

There’s usually about a month and a half between January 1^st to Lunar New Year and I like taking that time to reflect on lessons learned from the previous year to help me better set an action plan for the upcoming year! As I get older, I spend more and more time taking care of myself and making it a priority to keep my mind and body in check. My main focus this year is to bring more balance into my life. Here’s my action plan for 2016!

 

Drink Clean

1. Drink More Water
It never hurts to drink more water – my skin will love me for this!

2. Make more smoothies
Love using my Cuisinart SmartStick (currently 25% off at Canadian Tire!) to make smoothies. I always use the typical fruits and greens but this year I want to try ingredients that I haven’t used before like different nuts and oats! If you have a go-to favourite smoothie recipe, please let me know in the comments below!

3. Try a Juice Cleanse
I generally eat pretty healthy and clean, it’s just that the amount I eat is not so healthy haha…so I’d love to try a juice cleanse this year to give my body a detox!

Invest In Natural Skincare

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always struggled with my skin and I used to have really (REALLY) bad eczema and other skin irritations. I’ve slowly learned that there are certain products, ingredients, and environments that will irritate my skin more than others and over the past few years I’ve developed different allergies that I’ve had to be more aware of. This past year, it was really tough and those who have been there with me know that I really struggled with it. I can go on and on about this but I’ll leave that for another post!

Most skincare brands irritate my skin so I started investing more in natural skincare products. My bestie recommended that I try MV Organic Skincare after watching Estée Lalonde’s 2015 Beauty Favourites! Best of the best! video and it has changed both of our skincare lives – just as it did for Estée!! I am absolutely in love with their Rose Plus Skin Booster (available at The Detox Market) and it’s worth the steep price tag of $130. I will share more about this product in another blog post – stay tuned!

Also, I plan on taking a lot more baths – they’re good for the mind and body! I’ll be indulging in all the Lush, Bathorium, and Demo Soap bath bombs that I got this past year!

Share your favourite natural skincare products in the comments below!

 

DIY Projects & Workshops

Over the holidays, I took a Soap Making Workshop with my sister at Demo Soap and we made Christmas gifts for our girlfriends (blog post to come!). I’ve always loved DIY projects and workshops- it gets my creative juices going and during the process, it sparks new ideas and inspirations!

Terrarium Workshop: They are just so pretty! My dad loves plants (our house is filled with jade plants!) and over time it’s become his hobby so we plan to bring him to a terrarium workshop for his birthday in August. I’ll… I mean, he’ll love it!

Pottery Making: I’ve always wanted to do this but I got inspired after following Tortus_Copenhagen on Instagram. He creates the most beautiful and elegant pieces! Check him out! 🙂

Wine Tasting: I know this isn’t really a DIY project or workshop but I love wine and I would love to take a class/wine tasting tour and get schooled.

 

Challenge my body

I love to stay active by hitting up the gym and taking hot yoga classes but this year, I want to challenge my body to some kickboxing, contrology pilates and other cool classes! Any recommendations? I’d love to try!

2016 is already off to a great start and I’m excited for what the year will bring! Thank you for sticking around and supporting My Blanc Canvas and I can’t wait to share my adventures with you this year!

Hope you all have an amazing week! xx