Lifestyle & Design Blogger

Ava Nguyen

Ava Nguyen is a Midwest product designer, trained in print, who writes about cozy desks, money, rest and what things really cost.

Beat
Cozy tech setups, career pivots, design, life admin, money, wellness
From
US Midwest
On the list
48 items

The checklist

  1. a midnight macbook air with its lid closed on a wooden table, magsafe cable attached

    01

    MacBook Air 13 (M3)

    the macbook air m3 is the laptop i stopped noticing

    In march of last year I was on a client call when my old laptop's fans spun up so loud the client asked, very politely, if I was vacuuming. I was not vacuuming. I was rendering one...

    4 minthe desk
  2. an ipad air 13 inch on a magic keyboard in a store, purple wallpaper on screen

    02

    iPad Air (M2)

    the ipad air m2 retired eleven planners and one of them was mine

    Priya K. sent me a photo of her grocery list last may, handwritten on an ipad, with the caption "I have become my mother." I replied with a voice note that was just the sound of me...

    3 minthe desk
  3. airpods pro second generation earbuds and their white charging case on a gray blue table

    03

    AirPods Pro 2

    airpods pro 2, or the sound of my radiator finally losing

    There is a sound my radiator makes in january at 6am, like someone politely shaking a can of screws. My old apartment building and I have an arrangement: I pretend to ignore it, it...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  4. a hand holding an ultramarine iphone 16 showing its about screen

    04

    iPhone 16

    the iphone 16 in pink, and the button i use like a shutter release

    The apple store guy asked, while bagging my phone, if I wanted stickers. I said, "don't the stickers come in the box." He said they stopped putting them in, first iphone ever...

    4 minthe tote bag
  5. two apple watch series 10 watches, gold and jet black, seen from the back with their sensor arrays

    05

    Apple Watch Series 10

    the apple watch series 10, my first 5k, and eighteen honest hours

    I signed up for a 5k in october 2024 because the group chat did, and I have never once in my life said no to peer pressure. Then I ordered the apple watch the same week, which is...

    4 minrest and self care
  6. a kindle paperwhite e-reader in an olive green fabric cover, showing the kindle boot screen

    06

    Kindle Paperwhite (Matcha color)

    the kindle paperwhite in matcha, and the bath that started it

    I dropped a paperback in the bath in january 2024. Not a good paperback. A paperback I had already read twice and annotated aggressively, and it bloated up like a bagel and dried...

    4 minpages and pencils
  7. a reMarkable 2 e ink tablet with its marker and fabric folio, displaying a wikipedia article

    07

    reMarkable 2 tablet

    the reMarkable 2, or the notebook i finally finished

    There is a notebook on my shelf with "do not write in this one" written on it, in pen, by me, addressed to me. I have bought forty seven notebooks in my adult life and finished...

    4 minpages and pencils
  8. a white nintendo switch oled model docked in its white dock

    08

    Nintendo Switch OLED

    the nintendo switch oled is two generations old and still wins layovers

    My sister and I have a rule about layovers in denver: whoever loses Mario Kart buys the cinnamon rolls. We balance the switch on the kickstand, screen resting against the armrest...

    4 minthe tote bag
  9. a dyson hair dryer from the same family as the airwrap, standing on a wood floor

    09

    Dyson Airwrap

    the dyson airwrap i.d. and the blowout that died in a parking lot

    The last salon blowout I paid for died in the parking lot of the wedding I bought it for. Eighty five dollars, forty minutes under a dryer hood, and then one ride in a car with the...

    4 minrest and self care
  10. a red kitchenaid artisan stand mixer on a wooden counter

    10

    KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer

    the kitchenaid artisan is a 25 pound personality and i would buy it again

    At 1:20am on a saturday I was holding a bowl of frosting that had gone wrong, and it had gone wrong because I put cold butter in it, and I knew cold butter was wrong, and I did it...

    4 minthe kitchen
  11. a logitech pebble mouse sitting on a white desk

    11

    Logitech Pebble Mouse 2 M350s

    the logitech pebble mouse 2 is the quietest $29.99 i ever spent

    My last mouse was a gaming mouse with a rainbow underglow and the trigger discipline of a stapler, and I bought it in college because it was $14 and I thought RGB was a...

    4 minthe desk
  12. a logitech mx keys wireless keyboard, the mini's full size sibling, on a desk

    12

    Logitech MX Keys Mini

    the mx keys mini in rose, or the first thing i bought for the job i wanted

    The offer letter came on a wednesday and by saturday I was standing in a store holding a keyboard in rose, which is a pink so dusty and calm it should come with a warning label for...

    4 minthe desk
  13. a benq screenbar monitor light bar mounted on a monitor, lighting the desk surface below

    13

    BenQ ScreenBar Halo

    the benq screenbar halo, or how my desk stopped fighting the ceiling

    Every apartment I have ever rented has exactly one ceiling light, and it is always bolted to the exact center of the room, which is architecturally correct and completely useless...

    4 minwarm light
  14. a govee aura smart table lamp glowing warm orange, from the same brand as the lyra floor lamp

    14

    Govee Lyra floor lamp

    the govee lyra lives in the corner that killed three plants

    The corner by my living room window has killed three plants and one reading chair, and it is not the corner's fault, it is mine. First a monstera, then a pothos, then a succulent I...

    4 minwarm light
  15. nanoleaf shapes hexagon light panels glowing on a wall

    15

    Nanoleaf Shapes

    nine glowing hexagons, or the one loud wall in a beige apartment

    My apartment is beige and brass and warm light and one candle that got too expensive, and then there is the wall above my desk, which is nine glowing hexagons that can turn a room...

    4 minwarm light
  16. a philips hue bridge hub sitting next to two hue color bulbs

    16

    Philips Hue starter kit

    the philips hue starter kit, and the scene i named brunch

    The first scene I programmed was called brunch, and it is warm white at 60 percent in the living room and soft yellow in the lamp, and there has never been a brunch. I made it on a...

    4 minwarm light
  17. an ember smart mug sitting on its charging coaster

    17

    Ember Mug 2

    the ember mug 2, or the end of microwaved coffee as a lifestyle

    I used to drink my coffee in three sittings, and none of them were on purpose. One at 6am while I answered comments, one at 9am reheated in the microwave with a skin on top that I...

    4 minthe kitchen
  18. a white wireless charging stand on a bedside table

    18

    Anker MagGo 3-in-1 charger

    the anker maggo 3-in-1 retired a nest of cables from my nightstand

    For two years my nightstand had three cables and I had feelings about it. The watch puck dangling off the edge, the phone cable in a tangle I untangled every morning like a tiny...

    4 minaround the apartment
  19. a benq 4k monitor on a desk

    19

    BenQ PD2705U monitor

    the benq pd2705u, or the monitor my print brain finally forgave

    When I left print design, the thing I grieved most was not the smell of toner or the paper proofs. It was trusting the screen. On a calibrated print machine, the blue you saw was...

    4 minthe desk
  20. an instax mini instant camera in pastel blue on a table

    20

    Fujifilm Instax Mini 12

    the instax mini 12, and the only photo of mochi that exists on paper

    There is a photo of Mochi taped to my mom's fridge, and it is the only photograph of that dog that exists on paper anywhere on earth. I took it on a thanksgiving morning two years...

    4 minthe tote bag
  21. A white Apple AirTag disc photographed up close

    21

    Apple AirTag

    the little white disc that ended my keys era

    It is 8:14am and I am standing barefoot in the kitchen holding a coffee I have not sipped and a set of keys I have not found. Noodle the dog is judging me from under the table. My...

    4 minthe tote bag
  22. Bose QuietComfort Ultra earbuds and their charging case on a plain surface

    22

    Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds

    the earbuds that made me rude at work and honestly fine with it

    My coworker, the oat milk cortado guy, stood at my desk yesterday waving at me for what I am told was a full forty-five seconds. I had both earbuds in, noise cancellation on...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  23. Sony WH-1000XM5 over-ear noise cancelling headphones in black

    23

    Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones

    i read my own writing out loud and my headphones punished me for it

    I was at the kitchen table editing a draft, reading a paragraph out loud the way editors tell you to, and my music cut out mid-sentence. The headphones thought I was talking to...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  24. A Marshall home speaker with the brass script logo and textured vinyl front on a wooden desk in warm light

    24

    Marshall Emberton speaker

    a speaker that looks like it should be louder than it is

    Sunday morning, eggs in the pan, a Motown playlist going, and I am doing the spatula dance in front of the stove like a person in a commercial. Noodle is stationed by my feet with...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  25. The Balmuda steam toaster, a slim black toaster oven with a small handle, sitting on a counter

    25

    Balmuda The Toaster

    why my kitchen smells like a bakery at 7am, an investigation

    My sister stayed over last weekend and stood in my kitchen at 7am with real suspicion on her face, asking why the apartment smelled like a bakery. There is no bakery. There is a...

    3 minthe kitchen
  26. A small titanium Oura smart ring photographed on a plain surface

    26

    Oura Ring 4

    my jewelry argues with me now

    "Your body shows considerable signs of stress," said a tiny titanium ring on my finger, on a random Tuesday, while I was drinking coffee and feeling fine. I said "no I'm not" out...

    4 minrest and self care
  27. A small matte black percussion massage gun resting on a grey upholstered chair

    27

    Hyperice Hypervolt Go 2

    i walked down my stairs like a crab and then i fixed it

    Two days after my first 5k I descended my apartment stairs sideways, one step at a time, holding the railing like a person three times my age. Noodle watched the entire descent...

    4 minrest and self care
  28. A dark eye massage mask device photographed up close

    28

    Renpho heated eye massager

    my eye massager snores at me and i let it

    It is 9:40 on a weeknight and I am flat on my back on my bed with a white mask strapped over my eyes that looks exactly like a VR headset from a 2013 mall kiosk. It is making a...

    4 minrest and self care
  29. A Roborock robot vacuum with a LiDAR dome on a wooden floor

    29

    Roborock Q5 Pro robot vacuum

    i named the dust bunny and then i declared war

    There was a dust bunny behind my couch on Saturday that was big enough to have a name. I named him Gerald. Then I swept him out with the cordless stick vacuum like a person who has...

    4 minaround the apartment
  30. A ceramic style pet water fountain with fresh water running

    30

    Petlibro pet water fountain

    noodle now has a water feature and her own spreadsheet

    There is a tiny waterfall running in my kitchen at all hours now, and Noodle thinks it's the best thing I have ever bought her, which is honestly offensive given the birthday cake...

    4 minaround the apartment
  31. A bright orange HomePod mini smart speaker photographed up close

    31

    HomePod mini

    i asked a small orange sphere to run my kitchen and it said ok

    On Sunday I was up to my elbows in bread dough, the oven was loud, my phone was across the room on the charging stand where it lives on principle, and I said "hey Siri, fifteen...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  32. A bedside digital alarm clock glowing softly in a dim room

    32

    Hatch Restore 2

    a fake sun woke me up gently and i have feelings about it

    At 6:12 this morning a small fake sun started rising on my nightstand, ten minutes ahead of my alarm, and I was awake before it finished. No shrieking. No hand slapping a phone...

    4 minrest and self care
  33. A BedJet remote control with a small LCD screen photographed up close

    33

    BedJet 3

    i preheat my bed like an oven now

    At 10:45pm, Midwest October, first real cold snap of the year, I press one button and my bed starts preheating for three minutes, and then I get in like a croissant going into the...

    4 minrest and self care
  34. A Cricut cutting machine cutting a design in a bright workspace

    34

    Cricut Joy

    i let a robot do the part of my job i never liked

    There is a machine the size of a loaf of bread on my shelf that has cut forty spice labels, one tiny paper corgi, a holographic decal for my water bottle, and a single word in...

    4 minpages and pencils
  35. A Wacom One pen tablet with its stylus resting on the pen holder

    35

    Wacom One 13 touch

    i started writing on my screen like it's paper and now it's my whole desk

    On Monday I was in a design critique, one of those calls where twelve people look at a flow chart and one of them is wrong, and instead of typing "what if this moved over here"...

    4 minpages and pencils
  36. A Rocketbook reusable notebook with a pen and the scanning app on a desk

    36

    Rocketbook Fusion

    eleven planners died for this notebook and it's the one that lived

    It is Sunday night and I have just wiped a week out of my planner with a damp cloth. Tuesday's to-do list, the meeting notes, the grocery list I never fully followed: gone, like it...

    4 minpages and pencils
  37. A cup of Nespresso coffee topped with a thick layer of golden crema

    37

    Nespresso Vertuo Plus

    one button, a spinning saucer, and a halo of foam

    At 6:04am my kitchen is dark and I am operating machinery. I drop a little coffee dome into the top of a machine, close the lid, press the only button it has, and the machine...

    4 minthe kitchen
  38. A pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses photographed up close

    38

    Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarer smart glasses

    i finally caught the squirrel on video and it only cost me my dignity

    Noodle has caught three squirrels this year, which is to say she has chased three squirrels with total commitment and a success rate of zero. For two years I missed every single...

    5 minthe tote bag
  39. A DJI Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal camera standing upright

    39

    DJI Osmo Pocket 3

    my saturday looks steady now and my hands are still a disaster

    Last Saturday I filmed my whole day, from the farmers market peaches to my sister's dog losing a tug-of-war to Noodle, and when I played it back I kept waiting for the shake. The...

    4 minthe tote bag
  40. A living room TV setup with a Sonos soundbar under the screen

    40

    Sonos Ray soundbar

    i turned the subtitles off and understood the movie

    On a Tuesday in September I sat down for a movie, a moody British detective thing where everyone mumbles into their collar, and forty minutes in I realized my hands were just...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  41. Apple AirPods Max over-ear headphones

    41

    Apple AirPods Max 2

    the headphones are the color of oat milk and my brain finally went quiet

    It's 8:04 on a Saturday and I'm doing dishes on purpose. The radiator is ticking through its fall warm-up, the guy upstairs has declared this vacuum day, and the bus outside is...

    4 minheadphones and speakers
  42. An iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil attached along its top edge

    42

    Apple Pencil Pro

    i screamed in a coffee shop because a pencil buzzed at me

    The first time I squeezed this thing, a menu of tools popped out of the screen like a jack-in-the-box and I made a noise in a coffee shop that made a barista check on me. That was...

    4 minpages and pencils
  43. A white Logitech K380 compact Bluetooth keyboard with round keys

    43

    Logitech K380 keyboard

    i own four keyboards and the cheapest one is winning

    There's a version of me, roughly two years ago, hunched over a mechanical keyboard the size of a cutting board, accidentally launching apps with a stray macro while my Figma file...

    4 minthe desk
  44. Sonos speakers and soundbars on display at a store

    44

    Sonos Roam 2 speaker

    the speaker that lives in my water bottle pocket

    At 4pm on a Saturday my friend Dana K. texted "are you bringing the good speaker" and I was already out the door with a speaker in one hand, a bag of ice in the other, and exactly...

    5 minheadphones and speakers
  45. A Dyson cordless vacuum mounted on its wall dock

    45

    Dyson V12 Detect Slim vacuum

    there is a laser on my vacuum and i clean at midnight now

    It's 10:40pm and I'm standing in my kitchen in socks, aiming a green laser at my own floor like a detective at a crime scene. The light skims across the hardwood and every crumb...

    4 minaround the apartment
  46. Nothing ear (1) white earbuds in their open transparent charging case on a wooden table

    46

    Nothing Ear (a) earbuds

    the yellow earbuds solved a problem i invented

    My coworker with the oat latte stared at my ears for a full three seconds and said, "are those a limited edition or a toy?" They are neither, Ryan. They are the Nothing Ear (a) in...

    5 minheadphones and speakers
  47. An Anker power bank with a USB-C charging cable attached

    47

    Anker 622 MagGo magnetic battery

    the little white battery ended my outlet diplomacy

    At 4:12 on a Tuesday I was standing in the corner of a coffee shop holding my phone at 11% like it was a wounded bird, doing the thing where you scan the room for outlets and make...

    4 minthe tote bag
  48. An ecobee4 smart thermostat mounted on a wall, seen from an angle with the home screen showing

    48

    Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium

    i talk to my wall now and it behaves

    My rental came with a thermostat from what I can only assume was an estate sale. A round beige dial with a red needle, mounted at exactly my shoulder height, and the only way to...

    5 minaround the apartment