A look back at my month with photos, blog posts, plans & goals progress, links and more.
What I’ve been up to
Despite Easter at the beginning, April was a very back-loaded month and I barely took a single photo until the last couple of weeks when the cherry blossoms bloomed and I headed off to Liège. We also started out with storms and snow but have glorious weather now, though still with some strong winds. Helensburgh has been celebrating 100 years of television (John Logie Baird was born here) and this knitted postbox topper is too cute.
I was a little worried I would miss full bloom, either due to the terrible weather or my Belgium trip, but thankfully it worked out and we got some beautiful blue skies for photos. Always fun to try and find something different for Angel Bunny each year.
I’ll be doing a separate post about my trip but it was quite an adventure with 3 trains, 1 bus and 1 flight each way! Going to Belgium via Amsterdam isn’t entirely sensible but it worked really well for me. I could have done with an extra day to explore more as Liège is so pretty and I doubt I’ll go back.
Looks like we’re getting a new photo of my happy vase every month too. Some of my birthday flowers hung on for a surprisingly long time so I transplanted the yellow ones here for some extra sunshine.
Purchases & Gifts
I bought very little this month, though I spent a fortune on holiday just on transport and food.
I really enjoyed the Sakuraco snack box this month. It can get a little repetitive after so many years of reviews but this one was themed around Hiroshima and had so many citrus and fruit flavours with a pretty even mix of cake, jellies and rice crackers.
Things I Wrote
- Bargello Kindle Cover
- TokyoTreat & Sakuraco Snack Box Highlights
- Free Kawaii Easter Bunny Crafts
- Kawaii Aliens from Outer Space
- 2026 Sanrio Character Ranking
- Kawaii Bag Charms to Buy & DIY
- Pompompurin Birthday Picks
- Cute Alphabet Crafts
- Original Kawaii Plush To Buy & Preorder
- U*SA*HA*NA Shopping Picks & Crafts
- Kawaii Links Roundup
Plans & Goals Progress
Books: I read 8 more and I’m now 8 books ahead of schedule! You can see them all in Books, Comics & Zines I Read in 2026.
Crafts: I didn’t do any crafts this month as I couldn’t settle on a new project. I did blog about my Bargello Kindle Cover if you missed that. I really love it and it’s holding up well to travel.
Cycling: I hoped to finish the Spring Classics climbs this month but I’ve been too tired from my trip to tackle the Cipressa – hopefully I will get to it before the challenge ends on Sunday. I did do La Redoute before heading to Liège-Bastogne-Liège and was awarded the least deserved polka dot jersey in history at the top (my time was better than 0% off all attempts, thanks Zwift!). Other than than, I’m still very much enjoying myself and even switched to an annual membership as it’s so much less stressful than riding outside.
Generally Good Stuff
I’m still playing Animal Crossing but only once a week now as I’ve finished all the new stuff. Instead I……started playing Tears of the Kingdom again (for the fourth time). I had started playing LEGO Star Wars but then Nic came round and 2 player is so much more fun that I’m not going to play solo any more.
Having a lot of train journeys in new places made me finally figure out how to listen to music again. I usually prefer to read books but you see so many interesting things from a train. It worked out really well bringing my big headphones and I’ve got a 3 month Apple Music free trial to listen to some new stuff.
Still not watching a lot of TV but I was happily surprised to see Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands on the BBC Scotland schedule and watched it on iPlayer later (it’s there for a few more weeks). The girl band part is really great but it gets a bit muddled later trying to tie it in to better access/equality for women and minorities in music. Leaving out the likes of bis/Chemikal Underground because there were men involved felt like a big gap. Also a weird focus on major labels = success, and ignoring that mainstream girl bands also had very similar experiences around issues like pregnancy and creative control. Hope there will be more films like this though.
