School Fair

When school finished a few years ago, I thought I would never come back - I was done with my years of schooling, and I would never have to see the walls of the school ever again - I was very excited to not have to go back. However, this was not to be. I think while you're still in school the only thing you want is to get out, but once you leave you almost want to go back. It's normal to you, it's how you've lived for at least 12 years of your life, so it's beyond strange not to be locked into that routine anymore.

Anyway, enough with the nostalgia. Last weekend was my high school's annual community fair day. My sister was performing a couple of pieces on her violin, and I wanted to catch up with some old friends, so I went along for a few hours. My mum and I bidded on a whole bunch of items in the silent auction, and won a bit more than we probably should have, but oh well. The things we won are actually quite nice, and what we don't need will have good lives in the emergency present pile. I didn't manage to snap everything we bought/won, because we opened most things before I remembered to take some photos, but I got what I could.

All the items in the following photos came in the same 'mindfulness hamper', and my sister and I decided to share them with each other, and make our bathroom look pretty.

These are some of the jams and relishes we bought. I'm especially excited to try the tomato relish (big fan over here!).

The remaining images are of an assortment of things from a variety of the different hampers we won at the silent auction.

Quick Tips: Motivating Yourself to Study

Ever feel like your studies are dragging you down into a bottomless pit of homework that you aren't motivated to get out of? Don't worry, you are not alone. Everyone feels like this at some point in their lives, and since the school year is beginning to start up and the university semester will be starting soon (well, here in Australia anyway), I thought it might be beneficial for my readers who are studying to know how they can motivate themselves to study and try their hardest at whatever it is they are doing.

Tip 1. Make sure you are doing something you enjoy, or something that you know will help get you where you want to go. I know this can be hard if you are still at school and don't get much say in which classes you take, but at least choose your electives based on what you love.

Tip 2. Use cute stationery. Maybe it's just me, but I find that cool pens, diaries, and even websites, help me get in the mood to do some work.

Tip 3. Look through study blogs. Tumblr has plenty of them. Have a look here.

Tip 4. Set yourself rewards. For example: 'If I do this reading I can watch that episode', 'If I write 500 words of my essay I can have a piece of cake'.

Tip 5. Figure out your learning style and cater your study techniques towards that. Not everybody can sit at their desk and concentrate for 45 minutes, not everybody can easily understand things without listening to someone talk about them. Emma Blackery made a really useful video on study techniques, which I would definitely recommend you go check out.


Motivation can be hard to find, but once you have it, don't let it go. It isn't always easy to feel inspired about your studies, you can feel stuck studying the basics when all you want to do is the in-depth stuff, but the more you care about your work, the more motivated you will become.

I hope you are all finding this series a useful one, whether or not you connect with all of the posts. If you have any ideas for more topics for this series let me know in the comments!

Feeling Burnt-out

When we stress a lot, and focus all of our attention and energy into being active in our lives (whether this be through studying, working, doing art, or spending time with others) it is easy to get burnt-out. It happens to everyone at some point, and I believe that it is just a part of life that we will all go through.

If you're not too sure what I'm talking about, being burnt-out is when you still want to do things, you still want to achieve those good grades, you still want to write the next chapter of that book, but you just can't summon the motivation or energy to do so. It becomes this big struggle between what you want and what you can (be bothered) doing.

The best thing to do when this occurs is to take some time out for yourself. And when I say 'time out', I don't mean one afternoon, or going over to a friend's house, I mean take a whole week off (or at least a weekend).

Here are some of the things I do on my days off when I feel overwhelmed:

• Having bubble baths
• Going shopping or out to lunch/coffee with friends
• Making my favourite foods
• Catching up on all those tv shows
• Unplug from the social world - not checking emails, facebook, etc. as often as I usually would
• Reading my favourite books
• Sleeping in, not setting an alarm
• Going for walks in the parks that surround my house
• Not setting a huge agenda, doing what I feel like doing

Even if you end up falling behind on your workload or homework, it will be worth it in the end, because after your mini break you will feel more refreshed, and you'll be able to get things done a lot easier and more efficiently.

I thought this would be an important topic to talk about today because, as well as feeling burnt-out myself, this is a stressful time of year for many people - there is holiday homework to be done, work deadlines to meet, christmas parties to plan, etc. So I would encourage all of you who are feeling overwhelmed by life right now, to plan to take a week, or a few days, off from whatever it is that's causing you to feel that way.

May you all be feeling de-stressed and calmer soon xx