Sundaze 274: Only the things I love

Happy Sunday, my loves!

It feels like it’s been absolutely ages since I wrote a Sundaze. Now that the longer days are here, my outlook has totally changed, though, and I feel like I’ve been soaking up all of the outdoors time. From extra walks to Couch to 5k runs, dinner dates with friends to 15 minutes in the veggie patch after work, I am thriving this spring.

Only the things I love

A few weeks ago now, I met Sian for our monthly accountability chat: we went for dinner at wagamama – my order is often a Silken Tofu Gochujang Rice Bowl, btw – and caught one another up about our current projects. These meetings have become such an essential for me. I’m typically great at keeping myself motivated and accountable, but it’s actually really nice to talk through my to-do list for particular projects with Sian. We share advice, motivate each other, and make helpful suggestions of what to do next or how to combat something that didn’t go according to plan. But, also, we get to enjoy a long ol’ catch-up about life. And this time we discussed my recent social media detox. In short, I shared my realisation that life should be about prioritising the things I love. And does social media fall under that umbrella? I’m not 100% convinced.

Last weekend, after plenty of reflection, I decided to log back in to my social media accounts. In case you missed it, I got rid of Threads, X and my main Instagram account at the start of March, after feeling increasingly Not Good™ towards it. But more on that all later. There are many positives that’ve come from my social media detox. I feel lighter, happier, more connected with the world around me, less jaded, and like I’m better at prioritising things in my day. Namely, I’ve got a big focus on only holding space for the things I love and not absorbing the negativity of others. Lately, it feels like there’s been a lot to love.

My fortnight has been happily dominated by excitement and anticipation for Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department and it feels more joyful than ever to cosy up at home, in my personal sanctuary, getting excited about what the new album will sound like. Which will be my favourite track? What will my Collectors’ Edition look like? I remember absentmindedly sharing my top ten tracks of Midnights in one of those little Instagram Stories template thingies back in 2022 and immediately infuriating nearly 100 people in my DMs – all furious about what my favourite songs were. Never again, I told myself. Slowly, I stopped sharing anything that felt properly valuable and meaningful to me, instead swapping it for algorithm-worthy, herd-mentality aesthetics (and obligatory holiday photo dumps). And it’s sad. Daisybutter is a place for sharing the little joys and loves that make me ‘me’, after all. Many of us OG bloggers began blogs to write about the things we often felt like we couldn’t speak to IRL friends about. I even have a Taylor Swift blog series on here, for goodness’ sake! I love talking about Taylor! It shouldn’t matter what others think.

March and a bit of April sans social media and thousands of opinions felt unbelievably good. I felt confident in my own choices again and, oddly enough, rarely felt decision fatigue. I wrote some essays that I’m really proud of and immersed myself in the Substack community. I read plenty. I watched lots on Disney+ and Netflix and simply revelled in not feeling the urge to share the shows and watch as, inevitably, strangers slid into my DMs to tell me why my choices were awful or not worth watching or that I should absolutely watch *insert something completely unrelated or that I’d seen 15 years ago*. Importantly, the whole experience reminded me that I can trust myself and wholly care again about the things I love.

Here’s a timely reminder that we should all simply be caring about the things we love.

Links I’ve Loved

Speaking of things I watched 15 years ago, I loved this round-up of 7 gateaway K-dramas. It was nostalgic to read, since all of these come highly recommended from me. In fact, I’ve rewatched Goblin three times! And Boys Over Flowers was my first K-drama after years of Cantonese, Taiwanese and Japanese dramas.
If you’re not subscribed to Anh’s Substack, then you absolutely must, especially if you’re a book lover but even if you’re not. Her monthly mini reviews are magic to read – like this Books from March newsletter.
There’s 70% off the ceramic doughnut vase that we always feature on & Chai photos.
I picked up some new running trainers – my first since 2015!
And I’ve resubscribed to Grubby for some delicious plant-based meal kits. So delicious and easy to make, plus I think they’ll help me save a lot of time over some busy upcoming weeks. Get 65% off your first order and 20% off the rest of your first month when you use my referral code at checkout: GRUBBY-MCL7DGRL. (Not an affiliate link, just a referral feature for any paying customer!)
Finally, another must-subscribe on Substack: Misha! Her newsletters are always thoughtful and thought-provoking.