Open-hearted joys 開開心心 76 and a Summer Break

Happy Friday, my loves.

This cosy online corner has been my greatest love and longest commitment to date. When I opened up an account and started posting in my university days, I had no idea how much it’d mean to me one day. Recently, I’ve been living inside a big old cloud and I’m no closer to scrambling my way out and my consistently low mood and energy has worried me for a while, to be honest.

All this to say that I’ll be taking a short break from posting on Daisybutter this summer, so that I can focus on my mental health, offline. I very rarely take breaks from posting – I usually schedule content weeks in advance! And my ‘Open-hearted joys’ and ‘Sundaze’ are part of my life now! – but I think I need it. I’ve always been the biggest advocate of looking after yourself first, and I’m heeding my own advice at last. I’ll be away from my blog, Instagram and Threads, but I’m keeping my options open with Substack and bookstagram – those are my online safe spaces.

Feel free to explore my older posts, while I’m gone, there’s over 1,000 of them to read. I’ll see you all really soon. Onto the post (I’ve made it a joyful one)!

Michelle x

There’s a lot to be said for appreciating the smaller, not necessarily finer, details of the everyday mundane. Here’s to another list of petite, open-hearted joys, the moments that’ve brought and woven poetry to my days, this fortnight:

一. Our first seaside visit of the year. This Pisces craves being by the sea and on a beach.

二. Tinkering with my Little Free Library! I recently added complimentary bookmarks for visitors and a small business card trade, but I’m also working on some new Cricut vinyls to decorate it for the rest of summer. So far, I’m really proud of how much it’s been loved and used already.

三. Reading (and finishing) The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris, which I think might have permanently changed me. Such a beautifully moving story and lyrical writing.

四. The Eras Tour. Never have I smiled, cried, laughed and danced so much. (If you saw me when Fearless came on, no you didn’t. Life has been Rough As Hell and, as ever, Taylor Swift has been a balm. This woman has really seen me through every tough moment in my life since I was 17 – I can’t really articulate how much The Eras Tour means to me, especially after the pandemic struck off my girls and I’s plans to go to Lover Fest. Truly the most joyful, magical evening that I want to relive again and again.

五. Sunshine when I felt like midnight rain.

六. The runners’ high.

七. Lighting a fresh candle for a Monday working from home. This one, FYI.

八. My family’s collective excitement for our big trip ‘back home’ in October. We haven’t been back to Hong Kong since 2019 and Malaysia since 2018, so we’re suitably excited to finally see family again and go to all of our old favourite places.

九. Weekday evenings where I light a candle, play smooth jazz and prepare dinner from scratch. (Really, this is my biggest and most real joy.)

十. Long catch-ups with friends who live abroad.


What are your small joys lately? Let me know in the comments. And I’ll see you all when I’m back ❤️

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