My thoughts on Care Packages by Michelle Mackintosh

Hi there everyone! It's Poppy again.

A few weeks ago I mentioned the snail mail book I got for Christmas. For my birthday in June I received another book my Michelle Mackintosh. This one was called Care Packages. It was all about putting together and sending care packages to others. While I haven't read all of it I have read a few pages and it looks amazing.

As the book explains, care packages originated shortly after world war two. The first CARE packages were sent by an organisation called the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (which is now known as the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere) to Europe, where there were huge number of people at risk of starvation. Since then the term 'care package' has come to mean a parcel sent for comfort, or to help someone out. And this book is full of examples of care packages you could send! And what to put in them.

I definitely recommend this book. Even if you don't have anyone in particular to send a care package too, you could give someone one for their birthday or Christmas- or even just to say thank you. I'm sure they would love it.

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Floriade Photos

Hey,
Yesterday morning I went to floriade and took some pictures of the many beautiful flowers they have there. I wanted to share a few of my favourites with you today, enjoy!

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Bullet Journal Update #3

Hey,
Normally I post these bullet journal updates on a Monday but I am going away tomorrow (!!!!!) so I'm doing it today and I have some posts scheduled for the rest of the week, apologies if I don't get to any comments and/or emails this week.

Yesterday night I brought an actual proper bullet journal, it is a leuchtturm 1917, dotted and a specialised bullet journal. This was probably not necessary but it is a good quality book that will last for a long time, and now that I have experimented and found how much I love bullet journalling I figured that a proper book wouldn't hurt.

Today I am going to share 4 ways to make your bullet journal more interesting.

1.Colour
One super easy way to make your bullet journal is using colour. Simply colouring in the title, or a small doodle can make things heaps more interesting.

2.Hand-lettering
I don't really use this in my journal, but you can search on pinterest and instagram and find heaps of examples of beautiful hand lettering that can be a super-easy way to make your bullet journal beautiful.

3.Quotes and sayings
Making your journal interesting can be easy if you just add a few of your favourite quotes every week and/or day. I have a few pages in my bullet journal devoted solely to quotes.

4.Doodles
I love spending time adding small pictures to some of my daily and/or weekly logs in my bullet journal. You could add a symbol for the weather or something simple like that to begin.

Have a great week everyone!

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Inspiration

Hey there,
I spend way to much time on pinterest finding inspirational quotes and pictures that I can look at when I am not having the best day. I think that it is really important to have inspiration surrounding you most of the time, other wise how will you stay motivated? One of my favourite places to find inspiration is pinterest.
Today I wanted to share some of the quotes I have found recently, hopefully they will help inspire you. 

'Your story isn't calm. The road has been chaotic at time, filled with detours and rain and loss so sudden and soon. Sometimes the bliss was so elevated your heart could hardly hold it. sometimes it was maddening to have and then to lose. You learn soon enough that it hardly ever goes as planned- gentle, easy and smooth. But that my friend is what makes you fascinating. You have something to tell. Something you've walked thorough. Something wild. Something courageous. Something true. You're made of stories within stories within even more stories. Those quiet depths of you'- Victoria Erickson

It's better to look back on life and say: "I can't believe I did that." than to look back and say: "I wish I did that."

Life is full of give and take. Give thanks and take nothing for granted.

"Progress is impossible without change & those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything"- George Bernard Shaw

'I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which have never happened.'- Mark Twain

'For what it's worth: it's never too late to be who you want to be. I hope you live a life you're proud of, and if you're not, I hope you have the strength to start over.- F.Scott Fitzgerald

'Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.'- Dr Seuss

'You have brains in your head. You have feed in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.'- Dr Seuss

It's not about perfect. It's about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day that's where transformation happens. That's how change occurs.

Hopefully you enjoyed this post,

let me know what other quotes you love

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Bullet Journal #2

Hey,

As promised yesterday I am going to give you an update on my bullet journal experiment today. Check out this post if you want to learn more about this experiment.

In the last post I just touched on what I was going to be doing with the bullet journal and a few of the things that I was liking about it. Today I am going to be talking about the weekly layout and why I find it has helped me.

For the last two weeks I have created a two page spread that contains room for do-to lists and events for each day, as well as study tracking, blog tracking, notes and goals. In the next few days I will be uploading some pictures onto a page of the blog.

Layout

I found that this layout works really well for me, especially since I am a very visual person. I find it helpful to be able to sort from the events and tasks for each day because this allows me to break up my day and plan ahead, and there is enough room for me to add some quotes, pictures and colour.

Study Tracker

The study/blog trackers I also find really useful. My study tracker consists of a table of 9 colums and 9 rows, down the left side I write all my subjects, in the first colum I write if I have any assessment that week, and what day the assessment is on, and on the remaining 7 colums (one for each day of the week) I write a day of the week. When I spend time working on homework or studying for a subject I colour in the box for that subject on the day that I completed the task on. I find this helps me balance my time and ensure that I am spending equalish amounts of time on each subject.

Goals

I have 3 boxes for my goals in each weekly spread. I use the first box for a goal for that particular week and the other two boxes are for my long-term goals. This goal set-up helps me keep track of my aims and goals and is always there to remind me of what I have to remember to do.

That's all for today, but next Monday I will share some tips for making your bullet journal pretty and interesting. Let me know in the comments what you thought of this post and/or what you do in your bullet journal.

See you on Wednesday,

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I've been reading....

Hey there,
Finally, we only have one week of school left for this term! I can't wait for the holidays, especially because I am going to Queensland with one of my friends for a week! As I mentioned in my last post I have started a bullet journal experiment. I am really enjoying it at the moment and tomorrow I will share some of the things I've been doing with it, please let me know in the comments below if you have any bullet journal inspiration for me, or ideas that you have tried.

Today I wanted to share some of the books I've been reading recently, most of these I've been re-reading, so sorry if I've mentioned them before.

More than this- by Patrick Ness. I read this book about a year and a half ago and I remember I really enjoyed it so it has become by at-school book. If you love mystery/ dystopian or similar styles of books I can almost guarantee you'll love this one. A review of it should be going up on our goodreads account in the next few weeks.

The summer I turned pretty, it's not summer without you and we'll always have summer- by Jenny Han. I just finished re-reading this series and while they are not my all-time favourites I enjoyed reading them. These books are for lovers of romance novels and/or realistic fiction. Again, a more thorougher review will be going up on our goodreads account.

This is what happy looks like- by Jennifer E Smith. I just finished reading this book for the first time and I loved it. It is again not my faovurite ever book, but it was enjoyable and entertaining. Another one for lovers of romantic and/or realistic fiction. Let me know in the comments if you would like to see this book reviewed on the blog in the next few weeks.

Hope you will enjoy reading one of these books and don't forget to let me know if you have any suggestions for me.
See you tomorrow.

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Bullet Journal Experiment #1

Hey there,

On Monday I decided that I was going to start a bullet journal. I really enjoyed looking at the ones I found on pinterest and I decided that it would be a great way to organise myself. 3 days later I have found a journal to use, a pen and started my index page as well as some other pages. For those of you who do not know below is a video that explains what a bullet journal is.

I've decided that I am going to make my bullet journal an experiment and publish weeklyish updates here. Each week I am going to give you a few tips that I have learnt and include some photos of my journal. Today I am going to share some tips for getting started.

1.Don't stress about it being neat and the order making sense- the index page means that you don't have to worry about keeping things in any order.

2.Experiment with different layouts and find the one that works for you. I am still finding the layout that works best for me and I'll let you know when I find it.

3. Use colour and pictures to make it more interesting. I am going to stick with 3 or 4 main colours to use for each page and add pictures instead of words to make my journal more exciting and, hopefully, make me want to use it more.

Let me know in the comments below if you have any tips for me to use in my bullet journal , or if you have a bullet journal.

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Spring is here!

Hey.

It's just become spring here and all the beautiful flowers are starting to appear. I love all the colour that overtakes the usually green garden during spring, and autumn. Today I wanted to share some pictures I have taken in my backyard over the past few days of spring. Enjoy!

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5 Benifits of Playing a Team Sport

Hi there,

On the weekend I played my last netball game of the season, unfortuneatly we lost but it was still really fun playing with my team. That got me thinking about some of the ways that playing a team sport is good for you. I did some research and have put together this list for you.

1.It teaches and improves goal setting and teamwork skills.

2.Playing sport, particularly a team sport, can help improve your self-confidence and confidence in general.

3.You learn and improve leadership skills.

4.You become more persistance and resilient and can manage stress better.

5.Sports improve memory and concentration.

I am sure most of you have played a team sport at sometime in your life, and I encourage you to take on up if you don't already. It is fun, good for you and has lots of hidden benifits. Let me know in the comments what sports you play.

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Being more productive.

Hi there,
Once again, it's Poppy. I've got a pretty lengthy post for you today, so strap yourselves in. Today I wanted to share with you my thoughts on being more productive and some things that help me make the most of my time. (which I am really not the best at, so please leave some more tips in the comments below)

Everyone has the same number of hours in their day. It is what you choose to do with these 24 hours that makes the difference. You can choose to make the most of your hours and get heaps done and out of the way or you can sit around and do nothing. You still used 24 hours in that day, the same amount someone who went to school and finished 3 assignments. Being productive isn't easy and sometimes it isn't fun but it is rewarding. It saves you time and energy in the long run and can help reduce your stress levels.

After reading that paragraph I hope you have decided the being productive could be slightly useful and you want to give it a go, now I'm assuming that you would like to see some step by step instructions or 5 ways to be more productive. But unfortunately it isn't that simple. There are thousands of ways out there that claim to make you more productive and I haven't got any proof of how well they work. Instead I want to share a few things that help me be more productive. Understand that this might work for you, if you are similar to me, and may not if you aren't. If you want to find more ways, simply search ways to be more productive (I just did it and there were a lot of results).

1.Creating aims and deadlines.
I used to and still do really dislike setting goals at the beginning of each semester and generally mine are the same 'do better in PE' 'contribute to class discussions' as always. I know that goal setting is good but I can't seem to see the benefits for me. However, setting out aims of what I want to achieve in each day, or by a certain day is one super useful way I find to make me more productive. It gives me a clear list of what I need to do, and I can then sit down and work out how much time I'm going to give each thing and create a checklist of stuff to do for that day. Deadlines are also useful, telling myself I need to have my draft essay written by the 7th of September can help me break stuff down and not spend hours doing not-much.

2.Take breaks
This one has been scientifically proven. Taking a 5-minute break every half an hour can help make you more productive. As much as I like to think so I know I cannot stay focused on one task for an hour and a half. Usually I will give myself half an hour to work on something, take a five-minute break, then move on to something else and come back to that first task another time.


3.Don't put it off.
My final tip is to not put things off. It makes it 100x harder to get other stuff done and you will be distracted all day. If you do it straight away, you can be more focused and get more done.

Wow, that was a lot of typing. If you've read all the way down to here I really hope you have gotten something out of this post and it will help you to get more out of your 24 hours. Please let me know in the comments ways you find help make you more productive, also take a look at this video.

See you on Sunday

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Even more photography

Hi there,
It's been a while since I shared some of my photos with you, so today I am going to do just that. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and don't forget to check out our September photo challenge post.

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September Photo Challenge

Hey everyone.
Last month I write up an August Photo-a-Day challenge and challenged all of you to take a photo every single day for the 31 days of August. I don't know how many of you did it but I do know that I tried (and failed) to keep up with everything and taking a photo every single day. I really liked the idea of a photo challenge but I couldn't work it into my already bursting schedule. But that gave me the idea of something a bit more relaxed and easier to fit into your lifestyle.  (Drum roll please.....)

The September Photo Collage Challenge

The September Photo Collage Challenge is simple (I guess) and it allows you to fit the challenge in and adapt it to suit your lifestyle.

The challenge is to, between now and the last day of September, fill a 3x3, or 4x4 or 5x5 or even 6x6 or 9x9 (if you are feeling ambitious) grid of photos. You choose the sized grid that you think will be most achievable for you (if you think you can take 81 different photos in the next 26 days go ahead, and make sure you let me know how you go).

Here is how it works:

1.Choose the grid that best fits what you will be able to do (I think I will be doing 5x5 or 4x4, that is only 20-25 photos).

2.Simply take the number of photos in the grid you chose that summarise your September.

3.Try and make the gird as accurate as possible, that is the challenge try and not just take photos of your exciting holiday but capture the not-so-interesting parts of you life as well, if the majority of your September was spent at home doing not-so-much your grid should reflect that.
4.Create the grid, using a collage app or website.

The exciting bit:
I figured that to make this challenge that little bit more exciting I would make it a competition.
If you participate in the challenge and at the end of September decided that your grid is amazing and you want to share it with the world (or the small part who have discovered this blog) you can email it to us (as a photo please) with a short summary about your experience and/or September for the chance to get it displayed on our blog, and the chance to create the October photo challenge with us (if that is what you would like).

So get your cameras ready and start snapping at September! We'd love to know if you are participating, let us know in the comments below. Over the next four weeks we will be sharing some tips and ideas for your September Photo Grid.


 

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