Bullet Journal

Recently I have had a little extra time on my hands..hello Easter holidays. So I chose to spend this time efficiently and organise my life/home/routine/go to the gym.. HAHA I wish. Instead I found myself sucked into Netflix binges and hours of YouTube time. I often get up in the morning with grand plans of productivity to find myself 4 hours later having caught up in the very busy lives of Mr Selfridge dreaming of lunches in the Palm Court with Lady Loxley.

In my YouTube vat I discovered a new way of organising work/life in the form of a Bullet Journal. Hands up if you have heard of this, if not you need to get yourself onto YouTube and spend hours in the depths of which pen causes the least amount of bleeding and all the washi tape goodness. Drool.

I will admit that I am an absolute stationery addict. Therefore this type of organisation appeals to me so much. However I will admit, the idea of bullet journalling is not new. The basic idea is something I already did in my previous diary/organiser. However on discovery of a new community, I quickly took the opportunity to order myself a brand new notepad, and create yet another new planner for this year (only my 4th so far..whhooops!). I will admit that my bullet journal has been the most fun to update and I love pinteresting new ideas for collections to link around my daily to do lists and I love the idea of monthly trackers.

The BuJo I chose is the Leuchtturm 1917 which appears to be the BuJo of choice, in Lemon Yellow. Which looks very green in these pictures. I chose dotty lines, although I think on reflection I would have preferred the square lines.
Have you fallen into the bullet journalling hole? Do you love it? Which BuJo do you use? Any spreads you would recommend?

Let me know opinions.... or alternatives :)

Secret Garden, Enchanted Forest and other self help books.

I have recently gone through a very stressful and difficult time. To combat this my mum has been reading up on different ways to manage stress. One of the ways she discovered is through adult colouring books, and no I don't mean colouring books with naked ladies in them. I mean beautiful, intricate and difficult colouring books aiming to help your mindfulness.

These are the books we purchased

Designed by Scottish Artist Joanna Basford, they each come with different quests and hidden items to find. 

They are absolutly beautiful. 

I have been torn between using pens or pencils as I don't want to damage the paper :) so far I have stuck with my Staedtler pencils. 

I would say I totally have been taken in by the notion of colouring for better mindfulness and have been colouring nearly every night. I could easily spend my days/nights colouring in! I have recently expanded my colouring in books adding Dream Cities by Rosie Goodwin and Alice Chadwick to my collection

I am a huge fan of beautiful architecture and this book allows me to colour in well known cities my way. I would recommend this book for any colouring fan.  Here is Amsterdam waiting for me to colour it in. Cannot wait to get stuck into this one. 

Poundland Haul!

I love a trip into Poundland. I know it's not the fancy shops you see many bloggers hauling, but I feel you cannot beat a bargainous trip into Poundland.

You can always find stationary galore, all for a reasonable price (I'm looking at you W H Smiths) and small bits and bobs you can use around the house.

Here are some of the bits and pieces I picked up on my last trip:

Chalk Paper, okay this is an odd one, but I am a huge fan of anything I can craft with, so when I spotted these beauties I could not walk past. They are sticky back plastic sheets, that are CHALK!! Think of all the pinterest-y fun I could make with these bad boys.

Colouring pencils- again an odd one as I am not 5 years old but let me explain... I have recently got into adult colouring books. My mum bought me them as a stress reliever during a particularly difficult time and I was intending on using my fancy pens, but I felt that pens would ruin the lovely paper so changed to colouring pencils. I did have lovely Staedtler pencils but I could not find the, anywhere so needed something to keep me going. 

Plastic Wallets- a girl can't have too many plastic wallets. As a trainee teacher I use these for lots of different classroom things, but they can be used for lots of different things in life. You can organise receipts, use them to hold coupons, for travelling... I could think of a thousand different reasons. These bad boys were 5 for £1 which is a bargain. 

Frisbee- I am going on holiday next week and couldn't resist this wee cheeky frisbee to play with on the beach. 

#selfish and the rise of the psuedo celebrity book

Last year the number one selling book in the UK was Girl Online by Zoella, and I can understand why. She has over 7 million subscribers on youtube with monthly hits in the millions, it was understandable why Penguin offered her a book deal. I am disappointed that they alluded that the tween starlet wrote the book all by herself. Enter international backlash from all Zoella fans who had believed that the internet sensation had written a novel alone. However those of us who really thought about it would not have been surprised to hear that it was written in collaboration with a top UK writer. Penguin should have been honest in the first place and given the writer the recognition she deserves from her part to play in the biggest selling book of 2014.

This leads to the rise in books from "Psuedo Celebrities", it appears every youtuber under the sun has a book on preorder on Amazon- FleurdeForce, Tanya Burr, Grace Helbig, Hannah Hart, PointlessBlog, Tyler Oakley, Sprinkle of Glitter, Marcus Butler, Joe Sugg, Dan and Phil. Make it stop already.

I understand that these people are young people who are trying to make the most out of their huge online popularity, however I feel that the market is inundated with "celebrity books".

I am 100% an advocate for young people reading, however I am an advocate of good quality books that help young people extend their vocabulary and I feel that these books are the opposite to these values.

Then we have Kim Kardashian's latest offering, a book of 450 selfies. My worry is the type of person who would spend good money on a book filled with Kim's self indulgence. The idea of a book of selfies came from none other than Kanye himself, who encouraged Kim to release her sexy selfies to the world.
What is the world coming too. Maybe I am showing my age by not getting behind these projects but call me old fashioned I like my books to have more words and less pictures of Kim Kardashian.

I am sure all these books will do exceptionally well in the sales department, however I am not inclined to spend money on this type of book.

What do you think? Do you buy celebrity books? Who is your favourite? Who would you like to write a book?

December December December

Welcome to December!!

I cannot believe we are here already!! I am loving the toasty warm winter weather clothes that I am able to wear this time of year. My favourite is a cosy bobble hat and my brand new warm coat from Marks and Spencers!! Whats your favourite thing to wear this time of year?

I am also loving the winter make up style, I LOVE dark colours on my lips and nails this time of year. One of my favourites is the Revlon colourburst lipgloss, which are a lipgloss that stain your lips. I especially love the colour Embellish, it was new last year and is a very dark purple in the tube but when applied is a lovely berry colour. Don't be afraid of the dark colours as they are not that dark on your lips!!

This is me wearing the Revlon Lip Burst, cannot wait for Christmas parties to kick in to wear this again!! 

What are your favourite winter make up items? 

University Again....

I've decided to take the plunge and return to Student life.
It's been 2 years since I've been in full time education, I am a little apprehensive about returning to poor studentdom.

I feel that I am doing the student thing properly this time. I'm moving into student accommodation, which I didn't do before as I commuted to my place of study. This time I'm not going to have all my lovely home comforts around me as I pull my hair out with deadlines looming I have to cope all by myself!!

My course only lasts a year so I imagine it's going to be a quick year.

I can't wait to start.

This little blog is going to be about the run up to returning to student life, tips, hints and maybe some style, I said maybe!

I hope you enjoy

Lady Baxter