♡ HAPPY MAIL

Happy Mail is one of my favourite types of mail. And it's not often I do swaps but occasionally I do and this time it was with the wonderful Alondra from Instagram. We've been good friends over the years and have done a few swaps before and I was so happy when she suggested we do another. And look at all the goodies she sent me! I felt bad about not sending enough but as long as we're both happy, that's the whole point of happy mail, right? And if we were to do another swap, I'd be sure to add a lot more goodies :-)

I asked if she could get the Target sticky notes and I didn't think she'd be able to get them in the colours I wanted, but I was so happy she found them and sent me not one, but two! And the Rifle Paper Co. Notebooks are gorgeous. They came in a bundle of 3 and they're lined with amazing paper quality, and the designs...wow. I am totally feeling the floral vibes lately and it's really so pretty.

As you can see, I have already started using my adorable new notepad and I can't get over all the amazing things she sent me. And I already posted this on my Instagram but here is what I sent her. I got myself a Kikki K pencil case as well and I absolutely love it. So I just thought I'd share my awesome mail news with you & I hope you enjoyed reading about it :-)

Love Always,
Anna Banana ♡

#BLOGMAS: Annie's Favourite Thiiiiiings! (Giveaway time!)

It has been waaaaay too long since my last giveaway & I kept telling myself do a 2K giveaway, which then turned into a 2.5K giveaway, and maybe someday soon, even a 3K giveaway! But I just wanted to show you just how much I appreciated all your love & support all these years. I never would have made so many friends in so many different countries if it weren't for Instagram and now I'm happily blogging as well. So, I gathered a few things to put into a cute little package & send off to one of you!

If you would like to enter this 2.5K/Christmas Giveaway, all you need to do is leave a comment down below telling me what's on top of your Christmas list this year. If you have Instagram & have commented on my last post, leave a comment down below telling me you did so that you get an extra entry into the draw :D (does that make sense?)

And also, a My Week post. I know, it's been a while, but here it finally is. I hope you all had a great week as well & talk to you soon!

Love Always,
Anna Banana ♡

♡ MY WEEK: 13-19 October 2014

Happy Sunday everybody! Here is what my week looked like. Unfortunately Kalen's aunt had to have surgery but she's making a great recovery so far. Everything went well and hopefully she'll be up & good to go in no time. I've been keeping him and his family company & may have gotten a head start on some super-secret-except-not-very-secret-because-you-can-see-it-in-the-first-picture-if-you-really-tried stuff *wink* Hopefully it goes all according to plan because I've been working very hard on it :-)

As you might be able to tell in the aforementioned picture, I have a lot of sticky notes on my ruler. I used to do this before but kinda stopped for a while. But now it's back in all its colourful glory! Whenever there's something important for me to do, I put it there & the feeling of peeling/ripping it off when I do it is just so satisfying.

Oh, and that "Spending ban"? Not going so well. I cracked. Remember how I said I bought some of the Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy nail polish? Well, 2 became 4... + a post-it cube. I just couldn't resist. First I got the purple shade, Up The Ante. It's such a gorgeous colour & I don't have anything like it so that was justified, as well as the special Top Coat for it. Oh, and about that Top Coat, the brush is super cool! It has sort of like 2 mini brushes in 1. I'm not entirely sure what that's good for or how that helps but hey, it applies smoothly & makes my nail polish look all shiny so that's really all that matters, right?

And when I went to Big W yesterday (big mistake, very big mistake) I ended up getting 2 more. The lighter pink shade is called Cardshark & the darker pink is called Lady Luck. I'm not sure I like them too much so I am very much regretting it... :-( On the bright side, I love my new Post-It Cube! How cute is it? :D I just put it on my desk & it adds so much colour & cuteness.

And here was my #fflovephotoaday picture from last week. I've been very naughty about it & haven't posted many pictures but something is better than nothing...isn't it? ^^"

Anyways, that's it for today!
I hope you're having a great weekend & I'll see you all very soon :D

Love Always,
Anna Banana ♡

LIFE UPDATE & My Week(s): 24 February - 9 March 2014

[In Arnold Schwarzenegger voice ] I'm back!

I apologise again for being terrible with posting. And just so you know, this will be a very, very long post so don't say I never warned you! :-)

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, you may have heard that my Grandmother passed away a few weeks ago. It was the first time a family member had passed away (one where I was old enough to remember) and it was a really hard time for me. Luckily, she had 7 daughters, which meant a very big family & support group. It was all thanks to my family & friends, including all of you lovelies, that I was able to get through it, so I wanted to thank you so much, from the bottom of my heart ♡

The one person who was really there for me, is my boyfriend, K. He was just so wonderful - always there for me, lending a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, an ear to listen and a heart to love and care for not only me, but my family as well. He was truly lovely to my grandmother and she absolutely adored him. So, to my K, thank you & I love you so much.



A belated Valentine's day gift also arrived in time to cheer us both up. He was so upset it didn't come on time, but it came and now we're all happy. My first official Kate Spade item! Yay! As you may know, I have an obsession with the colour blue, and he was sweet enough to get me this gorgeous wallet (he always made fun of my Mickey Mouse one! :P)






For those of you wondering, it is the Cobble Hill Lacey in Grace Blue. It has a soft pebbled cowhide leather and has so many pockets, it's amazing! The inside is also gorgeous with a gold pinstripe lining. Love.

So thank you, again, to my one & only.





And I was on a bit of a Kate Spade roll when I went to Kinokuniya & picked up this beauty. It's the 'Kate Spade Things We Love' Coffee Table book celebrating their 20th Anniversary so congrats to them and yay for me :-)

♠ Kate Spade Things We Love

Now, finally onto some Filofax talk. I started my third year of uni this week so while I still have some sort of free time, I thought I'd catch up on some posts. Here are my 'My Week' pics from the past two weeks. Again, I'm back in my Filofax but keeping decorations & things that distract me from study to a minimum so I hope you still like them nice & simple :-)

24 February - 2 March 2014

3-9 March 2014

So, I hope you enjoyed reading my post & that I didn't bore you too much on the (unnecessary) details but I guess the reason I love blogging so much is that I get to vent & share with you things I sometimes don't even tell my closest friends...unless of course they're reading this right now :P (Hi guys!)

As always, feel free to leave any comments or questions down below. Thank you for all your continued love & support. I know we haven't met in person or anything, but you are all such a huge part of my life that I feel like I know you! ♡♡♡

Love Always,

Anna Banana ♡

hello hello.

Hi! How have y'all been?

Yes, I am still alive :-) I apologise - it's been a while, hasn't it?

For those of you who don't follow me on Instagram, I have been a little preoccupied, "studying" & making my own faux-Kate Spade inserts :D

Week On 2 Pages

Month On 2 Pages

I'm a pretty unoriginal person but I will admit, I am quite skilled at copying other designs...which I guess isn't that great of a skill to be proud of... But, I was pleasantly surprised at how these turned out. What do you think?

You may have also spied the little elephant on my month-at-a glance and no, I did not buy them from Barnes & Nobles :D Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of such a place here in Australia. I made them myself actually - I cut off a bit of the magnet off an actual magnetic bookmark and printed out the elephant on photo paper to get the better quality, glossier effect. And then, voila! We have an elephant!

They actually lasted a lot longer than I expected and are still going strong but I wanted the real deal so I am now waiting [impatiently] for my order to arrive :D (Thanks to Plush Puppy To Go)

Now, back to my inserts. A while back, I was out in the city, wandering from store to store, looking for anything Filofax-related. I wasn't having the best day so far so I thought a little retail therapy might cheer me up - but even stationery & Filofaxes weren't helping my mood. Then I saw these:

Cotton Cream To Do Sheets

White Plain Notepaper 100 Sheets

Maybe it was my mood, but I just automatically reached out and bought them without even thinking about what I would do with 100 sheets of blank, white notepaper. The moment I stepped out of the store, I was already regretting it. Not to mention, they were quite expensive. The To Do sheets were about $9 and the Plain Notepaper (which was in a pack of 100) were about $20. My wallet was very empty.

Ugh, my day was just getting better & better, wasn't it?

The To Do sheets, I guess would be useful since I'd been trying not to waste the few I had from my Saffiano & Metropol. Besides, I loved the feel & look of the Filofax Cotton Cream inserts so I felt a little reassured.

The problem was the 100 sheets of nothing.

It wasn't until a few days ago that I discovered, this may have been the best purchase of my life - ever. As you may already have read, I recently learnt how to print on Filofax-sized paper. I had originally thought that I'd only really use them to type up assessment criterias and whatnot to look a little more studious & professional I guess.

Details of what I need in my upcoming assignment

The idea of printing my own calendar inserts hadn't even crossed my mind! But I am so glad it did. And it brought about a great response on Instagram :)

My friend, Alondra - who really is my biggest inspiration, I just love her pages so much! - even asked how much it would be for me to make a whole year and send them her way! I was incredibly honoured at such a request, and excited by this little challenge, I agreed to send them to her for free! :D

However, we both have major issues with the plain, white Filofax people - as most of you may agree. And so she offered to buy the plain Cotton Cream notepaper & send them to me to print the inserts on. Isn't that just the best idea?! I had only seen the white sheets at the place where I bought mine and didn't even know Filofax made them in Cotton Cream! But of course, they are amazing and after checking their website, I was giddy with excitement.

"Kate Spade" inserts. Cotton Cream Filofax notepaper.

Is that not a perfect combination?

I'm super excited for the paper to arrive & get printing real soon so keep checking up on me for progress reports :D

On another note, I would absolutely love to share my pride & joy with you by making them free downloadables here on my blog. But, I am aware of Copyright and all that headache-y stuff so I don't think that's such a good idea.

But! Do not fear! :D It is very high up on my list of To Do's (on the Cotton Cream ones I bought, actually :P) to make custom inserts for y'all to download for yourselves. I was planning on making a poll or something on what kinds of designs are popular but if you want something extremely customised, just shoot me an email or leave a comment down below & I'll get back to you

Sorry for rambling off a little but I hope this long-ish post makes up for me slacking off the past two weeks & that I didn't bore you too much! :D

Lots of love,

Anna Banana ♥