I’m Choosing Happiness in 2026

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I usually hate when people say things like this but this year I am trying to embrace it – I am choosing happiness for 2026.

I have been inspired by a friend who has started sharing her journey online of doing something every day that makes her happy. It sounds silly but she said she has never known true happiness due to her upbringing. And while I have not been in this situation, I feel like over the last year, I have been very negative and have not had a great time with my mental health.

So at the end of last year, when my mental health was at its lowest, I started going to therapy. This helped me massively because it helped me deal with issues I had unknowingly been struggling with for a long time, as well as helped me with my short-term issues, which caused my mental health to dip in the first place.

Along with that, I have decided to take a work sabbatical. These two things weren’t really about choosing happiness; they were more about choosing my mental health over a shitty situation. But I am including them here because choosing your mental health is part of choosing happiness. If you are not in a good mental space, it is hard to see the positive in things and be happy, so it’s important to work on it.

As I am now in a better mental health space and I am looking forward to my upcoming time off work, I have decided to prioritise my happiness for 2026. I think last year I was too busy trying to make it through work so I could get to my big holiday at the end of the year that there was nothing else going on. Even when I did have time off work, I wasn’t really resting or taking time for myself; I was doing other things.

So this year, I am taking things a bit slower. I am trying to focus on leaving work at work e.g. not thinking about it after I log off for the day and trying to take time to myself to enjoy things that I like to do. It’s not that I wasn’t doing things I enjoyed last year, I think it was that I was so burnt out I wasn’t appreciating any of it.

Obviously, I cannot control how hectic work gets which causes the burnout but I can work on setting boundaries with it and trying to restrict how much it impacts my day-to-day life. I think I got so caught up in the idea that work was everything when it’s really not. I mean, yes, I care about what I do and want to do a good job but at the end of the day, that is not all I am.

So I am focusing on my life outside of work and nurturing it. Leaning into my hobbies, prioritising seeing friends and family and just remembering what it was like to not care about work 24/7.

I know it’s not always going to be as easy as doing something small that will make me happy; life is difficult but at the same time sometimes all it takes is a small thing to make the day a bit brighter. For example, I have been appreciating the days when it has not been raining because it’s been super rainy in the UK this year. The small bit of sunshine we get does wonders for my mood. So I need to soak it up as much as possible.

I am being more intentional about the choices I make to ensure that my life is fulfilled outside of work and trying to decide how I can be more fulfilled in the job I have. Which is mostly why I decided to take a work sabbatical, to take a step back and try to plan out what’s next for life. I appreciate not everyone can really stop working to do this but it’s an opportunity that I have and I am going to take it.

So yeah, that’s where I’m at. Thought I would make a blog post to share the journey I am taking and maybe it will inspire someone else to do the same. It’s so easy to dismiss self-care when there’s so much else going on in the world but it’s okay to take time for yourself and enjoy a little peace when you can. Especially now, more than ever, I feel like everyone needs a little joy in their lives.

I Want to Write Again

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Today I have taken the notion to write again. So here’s some backstory: I used to write fanfiction. It was 2010, I was obsessed with twilight and while looking stuff up online about Twilight I found fanfiction.

This was my gateway into creative writing and I fell in love. I was writing non-stop for a solid 2/3 years and it was amazing.

Then came real life and responsibility and creative writing went out the window. I went through a couple of periods where I wrote a few things here and there, the most recent one a few years ago. It fizzled out within the year and I was sad. I was wondering if I would ever get the drive back to write.

Cut to 2026 and it’s here! I guess it never really leaves you. But the real question is, now what am I going to write?

The answer is: I don’t know. I really like creative writing, but I feel like my blog is not the place for it. Also, I like the idea of being more anonymous for that writing, so I will have to find a space for it. Previously, I was writing on Wattpad and fanfiction.net but I have not visited those spaces in years, so I am not sure they are the spaces for me anymore. I also had a stint in posting some stories on Tumblr but again, I am not sure if that is the space for me.

I am also not sure if I will stick with fanfiction. I like the idea of writing my own book. I always have. When I was 15, writing fanfiction, it was novel-length. So I feel like I could write something real, but at the same time, it’s a lot of work to write something good, and it would take time. Would I ever publish? That’s the dream to have people read your writing and relate and enjoy it. But I don’t know if I would bother. I have considered Amazon publishing in the past, but I don’t know if it’s for me.

So ideally, I’m just looking for a place to share bits and pieces I’m writing, fanfiction or not, I feel like I need a place. Because the thing with writing is that while I do write for myself, I do enjoy sharing it. It meant so much to me when people used to read my stories and like what I had to say, so I feel like it’s something I’d always want to share with people.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know, but until then, I will do some research and find a good space for it. If not, then I guess I can always create another blog lol.

My Thoughts on the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Nintendo Direct

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Last week Nintendo released a direct all about the new Tomodachi Life Nintendo Switch game and I am super excited about it! I really enjoyed the 3DS version of the game when it came out, I had created all my Miis based on real-life people and it was interesting to see how their lives played out in this mini simulation. There was never a dull moment in my little Tomodachi Life and I even documented it on a Tumblr blog. Maybe I will revive it for the Switch game who knows?

So let’s get into what Nintendo have shared about the new Tomodachi Life because you know I have thoughts.

First off, when we create a Mii you can do it from scratch or you can use prompts. I am disappointed they did not show what the prompts were to create the Mii, I wonder if it is similar to the Sims where it asks questions and will set their personality based on the questions and randomise the appearance or if there are some questions which will help determine appearance? It will be interesting to see what they are.

One of the big new features in Mii creation is that we can now set the gender as non-binary. Some people may have issue with this but I think it is a huge move for Nintendo. You can also set dating preferences as well which is nice; it reminds me of when they added pronouns and relationship preferences in the Sims. It’s a small feature but allows for more realistic and inclusive gameplay which I am all for.

I assume we can also import Miis as we could for the 3DS, not sure how it would work here as the 3DS had a camera to scan QR codes but it could be similar to how you read QR codes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, by using the Nintendo app on your phone and linking to the game.

Continue reading “My Thoughts on the Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Nintendo Direct” →

Everything I Crocheted in 2025!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

In my second year of crochet I decided to branch out and crochet some clothing! It was fun to take on a new challenge and I definitely learnt a lot. Looking forward to seeing what I can complete this year, with the projects getting bigger I am definitely crocheting less items but as they say, quality over quantity.

If anything just completing the two current WIPs I have will be a big achievement for me.

The Grand Opening of Hotel Reverie! | Exploring the 3.0 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Who would’ve thought I’d be back making Animal Crossing content in 2026? This is a LONG video but I wanted to do my best to showcase the new 3.0 features and see if there was anything else new that wasn’t mentioned in Nintendo’s trailer.

The real question is if this will bring me back to playing Animal Crossing, and truthfully it won’t. At least not full-time. Sure, I want to play to decorate all the hotel rooms but once that’s done I am not sure if there is much else worth of substance here for me. I have enjoyed this game a lot over the years but I think I have done all that I want to.

My main concern is that with the next instalment of the game, it is just going to be a decorating game. Which is fine but that to me is not what Animal Crossing is about. So we will see what the future has in store for the game, I am just hoping we don’t forget its roots.

Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty Review

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

It has been a while since I’ve written a long book review but while reading this book I felt like I needed to vent so here it is. This book was not my favourite. And maybe I should have stopped reading it but honestly by the time I was fed up with it I was already too far gone so I had to finish it.

One of the red flags for me is that this book centres around a family of tennis players and it turns out I don’t reading about tennis lol. I listened to the audiobook of Carrie Soto Is Back last year and it’s all about tennis, and while I thought that was fine, reading a second book about tennis cemented that it’s not for me. I’m not a sports girlie and I guess that also extends to reading about it.

Aside from the tennis, it took me a while to get into this book. I thought the first few chapters were interesting, hearing about a woman going missing through the people who were eavesdropping on the woman’s family but after that, the book started to drag.

Continue reading “Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty Review” →

My Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 Reunion Thoughts

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

We need to talk about this because it was not a good reunion. I don’t know how much footage they got from this day and if this really was the best edit but like give me the uncut footage or something like this gave me NOTHING.

First of all, Brett and Zac fighting backstage immediately lead me to believe the reunion was going to be spicy. Them hashing it out after five minutes and being cool is such a guy thing. Ugh. Give me a smackdown besties! Also Brett is twice the age of everyone else and is acting like the biggest child, which is so embarrassing.

Meanwhile, on the main stage (deadass this kinda feels like RuPaul’s Drag Race untucked with the men backstage and the women on stage lol) they bring in these random side guests at the sponsored bar which serves NO PURPOSE. Like Chase comes on and says NOTHING. Like what’s the point??? “What til season 4” nah this is not what a reunion is for. Why bring him here at all??

They also brought out Layla’s boyfriend and Chase’s brother Mason. And okay, that made sense to confirm about him and Layla being together but again it was kind of a nothing moment. But I am happy Layla is happy. I wish they had talked more about her growth this season and coming into her own because that was a moment.

Continue reading “My Secret Lives of Mormon Wives Season 3 Reunion Thoughts” →

Rewatching the Twilight Saga in 2025

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

This year, Lionsgate has done us a solid and re-released the Twilight Saga in the cinemas, and I being a former major Twihard (Idk why we called ourselves that, who came up with that??) absolutely had to go. And naturally, rewatching something I love, I have to share some thoughts, so here’s how I felt revisiting these movies again. I actually did a rewatch of the movies with my friends last year, but it’s so different taking the time to properly watch them with no distractions.

Twilight

First of all, I have never seen Twilight in the cinema until now. Call me crazy but I didn’t actually fall in love with the saga until New Moon came out. I hadn’t seen the first movie at all before going in blind to a midnight premiere of New Moon my older sister invited me to. So getting the chance to see Twilight in the cinema was unmissable. I needed this experience in my life. Suffice to say it was a very different experience than the one I imagine I would’ve had in 2008.

Continue reading “Rewatching the Twilight Saga in 2025” →

Unboxing my Hobonichi Cousin for 2026

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Surprise, it’s another video post lol this time I am sharing my Hobonichi for 2026! I filmed this last month and have just got around to editing it. I am super excited to try out having one notebook for a full year of journalling and I am interested to see what it will look like when it’s all filled in and full of life. But for now, it sits on a shelf and I will continue working on filling in my Hobonichi Avec.

An Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update in 2026?!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I was not planning to make so many YouTube video posts on this blog in a row…sorry but that’s just how I’ve been feeling making content recently so here is my latest video talking about the new Animal Crossing update coming next year!

I don’t think anyone was expecting this so it’s a nice surprise. I am looking forward to seeing what it is like but at the same time, don’t think any of the new content is super groundbreaking. Still, I think it’s nice to have something to tide us over until they announce a new Animal Crossing game. But based on this update I am wondering if we are still a few years off another main title game…

For now we will take what we can get.