Tuesday, November 17, 2015

My Stationery Essentials

I like to write my notes with a pen and paper. Call me old fashioned but I find that I can scribble stuff down faster than I could with a laptop, and also that I tend to comprehend more of what I physically write than what I type. This means that I need pens that can write nicely and without smudging.

I have issues with pens that smudge as I tend to drag my hand across the paper when I write (similar to left-handed people) which also means that I get blisters on my little finger when I write (as well as ink...). So this is a list of all the pens that I like as well as other items that I find I like to have with me.

Pilot G2-07
I find that these pens have a nice tip that makes my writing look really nice. Although the ink is a little slow to dry I find that it doesn't smudge too much. These pens also have a great lifespan, they usually last me a term at university, so I only go through four a year.

Sharpie Stylo Fine Point
I love felt pens, but for me this is the only one that doesn't smudge. However I find that I go through quite a lot of these. I tend to push quite hard when I am writing which means the the tip disappears quickly.

Stabilo Swing Cool Highlighters
I have used these highlighters since I started high school. They are a nice size and they last forever, I think I have only replaced them three times, and you can buy each colour separately meaning that you don't have heaps of one colour waiting to be used.

Kikki K. Felt Tip Pens
These are slim felt tip pens that I like to use for underling the titles and dates in my notes, as well as writing things in my planner (colour coding duh..). These pens are cheap and last a long time. I would also recommend Stabilo Point 88, but they are not so easy to buy in New Zealand, well you can buy the packs but if one runs out good luck finding just that colour. So I like Kikki K. as they always have replacements.

Ruler
When I rewrite my notes I like to make sure that the underlining is straight so I always use a ruler. It doesn't have to be a long one I just use a 15cm (5.9in) one.

Post it Flags
I like to use these to flag pages in my textbooks as well as in my notes. I also colour code these.

Post it Notes
These are great for writing little notes, whether it be things to add to my notes, or for notes inside a textbook these have so many great uses that I can't live without them.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Taking Notes in Lectures

Taking notes in a lecture can be stressful, the lecturer talks too fast, too slow or they just use slides all sorts of things can change the way that you are able to take notes. So I though that I would write a post on taking notes in a lecture the way that I found has worked in many different situations. See my other College Series posts for other forms of note taking.

First of all I like to get to class early, this gives me time to read over my previous notes and get my pen and paper sorted out. By doing this I am more focused and not in a rush at the start of the lecture, therefore putting pressure on myself to keep up.

At the top of the page I write the date and the name and number of the lecture. During the lecture I tend to write as much information down as possible. As long as it is somewhat readable I really don't care what it looks like.

I underline the headings in the colour corresponding to the subject that the lecture is on. I mainly take these notes in a bullet point format, this allows me to jot down as much information as possible without having to worry about sentences.
After the lecture when I get home I rewrite my notes into my notebook. I add in details from the slides (if there are some) and add in diagrams.

After I have rewritten all my notes I will go through and highlight things like references to the textbook, people's names, important dates and key words and concepts. This means that I am inadvertently studying my notes by rewriting them, and it helps me to remember what was covered.

How do you take notes in a lecture? Do you like to rewrite them? Do you have any good study tip that you find help?

Monday, July 27, 2015

Back to College Organization

I started back for the second semester two weeks ago, so I thought that I would share with you the little tips and tricks that I use to stay organized and keep up to date with all the work. Also considering that a lot of you will be heading back to start a new year at college.

First of all I want to say that I live at home, so any moving of apartments and things are something that I really can't help you with...


I have adapted some of my earlier college organization ideas as I am always learning new ways to stay organized. I use my Assignment and Readings Printable that I talked about and shared here. I have changed the way that I use this and now I work out with my weekly planner, which I shared here which classes I will be studying that day. So on this printable I work out what tasks I want to get finished and cross them off as I go. So in someways you could say that it is type of to-do-list and well yeah it is.

I also write this list in my planner, colour-coded in the colour that represents that class. This is one thing that I cannot stress enough. It helps with working out what assignments are due when as well as simple things like which notebook to take to class. In my planner I also write the to-do's for today with little check-boxes. Similar to that of a bullet journal.

To class I always take with me the notebooks that I need for that class. My planner, my pencil case as well as the textbooks I need in case I have some spare time to do some study.

In lectures I always write my notes. I have shared a post on note-taking but I am going to be updating that soon and making it more specific for lectures. So look out for that soon.

When do you go back to College? Are there any little tips that help you stay organized at the start of the semester? How do you stay on track with study and assignments?

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Budget Planner - Transaction Record Printable

A while ago I shared the Monthly Budget Sheet of my Budget Planner and it has had a lot of downloads and has been extremely popular, so today I thought that I would share with you another printable of my Budget Planner, the transaction record sheet.

I love to keep track of my finances and these printables are fun and colorful, meaning that I really look forward to writing up my budget and they make me want to.
 
One day I might open an Etsy shop and sell my printables, but for now I am happy with just sharing them with you guys for free so enjoy this free transaction record sheet.

Here you can download the transaction record sheet.

Below is a photo of what it looks like:

How do you manage your budget? Do you plan a budget or not?

Friday, July 3, 2015

Weekly Planner Page

Hi all,

Its been a while since I shared my last printable as I have been busy studying for finals. So I thought that today I would share with you a great printable that I created to help with weekly tasks and is really useful for studying and planning in general.

So here is my Weekly Planner Page.

And here are some photos of it:

As you can see it is in the same style as my other printables, meaning that it works well with them and they create a great base for an organized life, or study, .or whatever you choose to do with them.

How do you like to plan out your week? Do you use a planner or write out your tasks separately?

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Junk Free June Complete

I am officially finished Junk Free June. It was an amazing experience and I am so amazed that I was able to go a whole month without Junk Food. I have lost a significant amount of weight. My skin is really clear and I feel so much happier as well as having a lot more energy.

The whole experience has made me understand the foods that I put in my body, as well as helped to make me love my body and want to look after it. I started exercising regularly and I feel so much better for it.

However I am looking forward to doing some baking and enjoying the chocolatey goodness of choc-chip cookies, but I will not feel guilty for eating them as I quite often used to.

Sugar Copy
Image: Junk Free Blog

How do you look after your body? What is your favourite baked good? How do you exercise?

Friday, June 19, 2015

Junk Free June Week 3

It is now the end of the third week of Junk Free June. I have found that the campaign has been really beneficial to me learning about food and what I am putting into my body. So far this month I have lost 7kg. I am so happy and have a lot of energy.

This is great considering it is exam time here, and I feel like I am studying 24/7 but as well as being helpful to me it is a great cause, raising money for the Cancer Society.

tumblr nkiw3kgyMK1u7sk7uo2 1280 Copy
Image: Junk Free June Blog

I thought that I would share with you this amazing recipe from the Junk Free June Blog, you can find it here.

How is your June going? Do you have exams as well? What is your favorite healthy snack?

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Junk Free June Week 2

The second week of Junk Free June is a lot better than the first. I am starting to feel like I have more energy and am noticing that my skin looks and feels a lot better. But I am still craving sugar. I can't wait until July to do a little bit of baking and enjoy the sugary sweetness again.
IMG 8745 Copy
I found this great recipe on the Junk Free June Blog and have made it several times you can find it here. They are absolutely awesome.

Junk Free June is a really great campaign to raise money for the Cancer Society, but it is also helping me realise what I put in my body as well as helping me learn about food. So far I am pleased to say I have lost 5kg. This was really helped by me adding a little bit of exercise into my day.

I am a firm believer that by doing even a little bit of exercise is better than nothing. So even if I can't do a 30 minute work out I will try 10 or even 5 minutes, because it all adds up.

How is your June going? Have you ever done a campaign like Junk Free June? How do you like to exercise?

5 Tips to Help with End of Semester Motivation


 Finding the motivation to do anything is a push for most college students, but add in the stress of the end of semester and impending exams it makes it so much harder to push through and get things done.

I have been struggling with finding motivation to finish my last few assignments. Something that is so unlike me, I am usually the one who starts things three weeks early. So I thought that I would share with you some helpful hints on how to find motivation and achieve whatever you set out to achieve.

1. Organize:
My best advice for you is to make a schedule, whether it be a study schedule or just a schedule for the day it really does help. I made a study schedule that maps out the exact times that I am going to study. I then printed this off and stuck it on my wall above my calendar with some washi tape.

2. Break it Down:
After I have made the general schedule I break every single task down and write what I need to get done, when I will start and when I will finish. I like to allow only 30 minutes for each task and I will come back to it if I don't get it finished. This means that I stay focused on that task and before I have time to drift off I can move on to the next thing.

3. Procrastinate Productively:
If I do start to lose focus I will find something productive to do, so instead of wasting time scrolling through Pinterest (let's be honest this still happens...) I will clean, tidy my desk, grab a drink or a healthy snack, go for a walk outside or make a schedule for the things that I need to do tomorrow. By doing something that you ultimately need to do when you can't focus means that you aren't wasting time.

4. Have Everything at your Fingertips:
I like to have everything that I am going to be working on right next to me. This saves time when I am switching between tasks as I am quickly able to find what I am doing and start quickly.

5. Cross it Off:
Once I have finished a task I like to cross it off and write the time that I finished it by next to it. This is extremely handy for me to realize how long it takes to do certain things and also promotes a sense of achievement as I can see at the end of the day how much I achieved.   

How do you find motivation? Are there any special ways that you like to plan out your study? Do you have anywhere special that you like to study?

 


Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Junk Free June Week 1

I know that this post is a little late, and for that I am sorry. It is currently the end of the semester and I have so much stuff to finish and then exams to study for :( so I am really, really sorry.

Junk Free June is a great cause, raising money for the Cancer Society and helping me eat healthier and make wiser choices when it comes to food. The first week didn't go as planned. I thought that I would be feeling great, happy and healthy but this is not the case. I feel sluggish and as if I have less energy.
IMG 5362 Copy
Image: Junk Free June

This may be to do with the fact that it is a bit of a drastic change in my diet and my body is not used to eating this healthy.

I really did have to push through by the end of the week as I was starting to crave sugar and some foods that I didn't know had sugar in them that I really wanted. In all this has really helped me to pay more attention to the food that I eat and what they could be doing to my body.

This week I have decided to start doing a little bit of exercise as well, to see if this will help me gain energy. As well as being a perfect time to start a health kick.

But as for the way that my body is responding to eating healthier, I am pleased to report that in a week I have lost 2kg. Something that I have been struggling with for a while. So that makes it a lot easier to head into week 2 of Junk Free June.

You can support me here.

How do you stay healthy? Are you doing Junk Free June? Have you done something similar?

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Winter Gear Organization

It's no secret that I love organizing. I love having a place for everything and making my day so much simpler and faster. However I recently stumbled over a problem. Half of one of my drawers were being taken up with gloves, hats, scarves and everything else that comes with winter. So I set out to solve this little problem.

Now I feel that it should be said that I don't live in the coldest place. It snows maybe once a year, a few frosts but generally is not the freezing cold place that you think that it would be. Leave that for the central south island were the lowest recorded temperature is something like -26c (-14.8f) in 1903 In Ranfurly or -21.6c (-6.88f) in 1995 in Ophir, that's what I would call cold.

Moving on... I quickly thought of ideas for where I could store my winter gear, and after a few pinterest searches decided on a wire basket that I could put at the bottom of my wardrobe.

You think that this would be simple enough, but I live in New Zealand, I see things online then start to see them pop up in shops anywhere from 6 months later to never.
 

After searching high and low for a basket that was the right size and shape for the space and that also suited my budget (I ain't gonna pay $50 for a place to store things that I hardly use in), I almost gave up when after looking in Kmart I saw a few items that would seem like I might find one in there, but no... So I went home and looked up the Australian Kmart website because we always get the same products and lo and behold there it was a blue wire basket for $12.

Of course I had to wait about a week before it was in-store here but it was worth it. It was the perfect shape and when I got home I quickly filled it up and felt super happy.

How do you organize your winter gear? Does it get cold where you are from? Does it snow where you live (I like snow!)?

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Junk Free June

I know that it is hard staying healthy in College, that's just something we all struggle with. So this June I have signed up for Junk Free June. An initiative to support the Cancer Society here in New Zealand. This means for the month of June I will be going without "Junk Foods".
Image: Junk Free June

This is going to be tough for me, I will have to stop baking for an entire month. But it is such a great cause and I would really love it if you could get on board and support me. You can donate here.

You could also sign up and do it too! It is such a great idea and I will benefit so much from this as well, as my eating habits are less than healthy. So I will be using this as a jump-start to a new healthier me.

Remember you can donate here.

Saturday, May 16, 2015

Keeping up With College Work

I'm sorry about the lack of posts recently. I have been really busy with college studies and work (I started a new job recently) so getting used to a schedule is getting really hard. So I thought that today I would talk about keeping up with College work
I know it is around finals time for my readers in the Northern Hemisphere, but here we are 3/4 through the first semester, the time that everything starts to build, and getting a little bit behind means that it takes ages to catch up. So in terms of my really bad time management at the moment I thought that I would share with you some tips to help with getting stuff done.
Use a planner. I can't stress this enough. It is always good to write down things that are going on, work, assignments readings and everything in between.
Make lists. Even when I am behind (like now) I like to keep a list of everything that I have to do urgently, and things that need to be done when I have time (things like readings). This way when I do catch up with my notes I can easily see what reading I need to read next (also helps if they are in order of when they needed to be read by).

Just Do It. Nike was onto something when they wrote this, you never get anything achieved if you don't start it. So just take a few minutes and start it.

Plan out study time. Making an effort to plan out time to achieve certain tasks mean that you do not have an excuse to not do it. 
Every little bit counts. An hour or two a day is what I am doing on catching up. When I am caught up I will continue to do this to stay on track and ace my exams (which are in like a month, eek). Just by doing a little bit doesn't make it hard or even seem hard, but eventually you will catch up and be flying through ahead of your syllabus and happy as Larry!

There are so many things that take up time in College, but just by applying these little tips you will get through it and stay ahead of what you need to do.

What little tricks do you have to stay ahead with College Work? Do you have any day planner that you like to use to work out your daily schedule?

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

5 Tips on How to Deal with Stress

Stress is a big thing in College, it determines so many things from your grades to your friendships yet people spend very little time dealing with it and more fighting it.

I will start off by saying that everybody deals with stress in different ways. I seem to bottle it up and then it builds to the point of really bad anxiety. I recently started a new part-time job and I had to deal with really irrational anxiety before I started, things that go through my head like what-ifs, even though I know that it won't be that bad I still have to fight with myself. I have a few printable's that will help with stress here.

I have a few different ways of dealing with stress and these 5 tips are all very useful.

1. Exercise. I know that this seems like the last thing that you want to be doing when you are all piled up with College work, but it really does help to relieve some of the pent-up energy. I also read somewhere that by doing exercise it helps to get rid of the adrenile that your body uses to stress.

2. Yoga. This is like the epitome of de-stressing. It really does help. Just take a few minutes to look up a youtube video and go for it. I promise you will feel so much better.

3. A Hobby. I like to bake when I am stressed, it helps me to divert all of my attention to what I am doing in the moment. Any hobby or interest would work as long as it is something that you enjoy and takes up a lot of your attention.

4. Start small. Just start working on the things that you are stressed about.You will not get anywhere without starting.

5. Spend sometime actually thinking about the things that you are stressing about. Write them all down. Make a date that they need to be done by. There everything is now out of your head and onto a piece of paper.

How do you deal with stress? Is there anything that you always find you stress out over?

Friday, April 24, 2015

ANZAC Biscuits

Tomorrow (the 25th) is a public holiday here in New Zealand (and Australia) as it is ANZAC Day. It is a special ANZAC Day as it marks the 100th Anniversary since the landing of our soldiers at Gallipoli in Turkey.


I thought that today I would share a recipe that has become a very popular biscuit in New Zealand and Australia. The ANZAC Biscuit!! But first I thought that I would share some history behind these biscuits.

First of all this is not my recipe, it is the original recipe and I don't feel as though it is right to change a recipe with such a rich history as these. However it is also illegal to change the recipe and still call them ANZAC biscuits, and are never to be called "cookies". ANZAC biscuits were claimed to have been sent by wives to the soldiers fighting in the First World War, these biscuits were sent because they did not spoil easily and traveled well. As well as being used as a fundraiser to support the war effort.


ANZAC Biscuits: Print

Ingredients:   

125g Flour
150g Sugar
1 Cup Coconut
1 Cup Rolled Oats
100g Butter
1 Tablespoon Golden Syrup
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
2 Tablespoons Boiling Water

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 (350) degrees. Mix together flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats, set aside.
Melt butter and golden syrup. Dissolve Baking soda in the boiling water and add to butter and golden syrup. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, stir in the liquid. Place spoonfuls on a greased tray or baking mat. Flatten with a fork or the back of a spoon. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden in color.

How are you spending your weekend? Do you have any recipes that are special to you and your family?

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Monthly Budget Printable

Managing my budget is something that I feel I have to stay on top of. I am a College Student so working out how much I earn and spend a week is really really important. I talked about my Budget Organizer here.

This printable is a great place to work out your monthly budget and I thought that I would share it with you. However I did have to make some changes to make it more universal, as I have mine with things that only relate to me and others in New Zealand.

So feel free to download and use to your hearts content!!
Download Here

Sunday, April 19, 2015

5 Tips to Help with Productivity

It is currently mid-semester break for me, and this means that I have a lot of assignments due as well as a lot of other stuff to catch up on. So I am so sorry for not posting much recently.

I always have goals of how much I am going to study, but life seems to get in the way. Friends come back from other Colleges and you end up hanging out with them or spending time with your family that you didn't really plan on but it happens (or binge-watching way too much TV, anyone else loving Younger, or The Royals as much as me, soo good!).

I guess that's where this post fits in it is really hard with all the distractions to stay focus and achieve those things that you set out to achieve at the start of the break. So this post is about productivity, how to spend your time wisely and get everything finished without feeling stressed (However reading this post is not actually going to do those things for you so this requires a bit of work on your half as well).

 1. My first tip would be to plan, plan everything from when you are going out to when you want to get things done by and every other little thing that is important. Why? Because planning makes you realize how much time you do have to finish things, like when I am really stressing about things I generally like to count the hours that I have left, this makes you see that a week or 168 hours is actually a decent amount of time and it is easier to relax because step by step you can get things finished. My post on Planner Organization can be found here.


2. Next I like to write a list of all the things that I have to get done (color-coded of course). This way I can visualize the things that I need to complete and am able to see results as I tick each one off my list. I like to catch up on readings and everything else in the breaks because this way you start the new term fresh and on a clean slate.

3.  My third tip would be to use my assignment schedule, it is a really great tool for remembering when things are due and also use my assignments and readings printable these really help to map out when things need to be done and when you plan to do them.

4. My fourth tip would be just to get started, you are never going to achieve anything if you never start. I know about procrastination and all that but even if you do a little bit everyday you would be a lot more likely to actually finish it than if you never started.

5. My last tip is to stick to a rhythm, get out of bed at the same time everyday, make your bed, have your coffee. Just do assignments and things that need to get done first therefore the rest of your day can be spend doing things that you enjoy (like binge-watching Gilmore Girls) which is a similar tip to what they say about working out, once you have achieved what you need to in the morning you are not stressing about have to finish it all day. 

How do you combat procrastination? Any tips you find help to keep you productive? Any TV shows you are enjoying right now?


Friday, April 10, 2015

Friday Procrastibaking - April 10th

It is the end of my first week of our term break. I have three assignments due first day back. But I wanted to share with you a recipe I made this week, or last week really.

Yes it is Easter related!! I love Easter it is such a nice relaxing time to catch up with family. However for me it does not symbolize spring, as it is the start of autumn....

So I found a cute idea on (you guessed it) Pinterest. You may have seen it. It was these cute little chick cupcakes. So I thought I could easily whip up something like that for our Easter Sunday lunch. I found the original idea here.

 I made my favourite cupcake recipe which I shared last week, and just tinted the icing yellow and covered the cupcakes. I then dipped them in yellow tinted sugar. I then put chocolate drops on for eyes. Then drew little wings and covered them in sugar too. Remember to tap off the excess. I then added a little bit of red food coloring to the icing to make orange and drew a beak and feet.

I think that they turned out really cute, and everyone loved them!

How did you celebrate Easter? Any special recipes you love to make for Easter?

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

How I Study

Hi all,

It is getting to the intense part of the semester for me. We are now our half-way break (where did the last six weeks go?) and that means that assignment after assignment are needing to be handed in. So I thought that I would focus today's College Series post on How I study.

I am lucky this semester I only have one exam and one of my courses is mainly taken up with a group project so I don't have many assignments. But I do like to stay on top of all of my work and studying.

I called this post How I Study because it is just that, it works for me but you may find that it doesn't for you, so... 

I always make sure that my desk is tidy, this helps me feel like I want to use it as well as being able to use it. Therefore when I do sit down and do some study I don't need to move like three thousand things out of the way and get distracted (it would happen every time). I shared what my desk set up looks like here.

 I find that setting aside time to study really helps me in actually getting it done. So for every class that I have I set aside an hour of study before the next class. This way I get everything done before it needs to be done and things like readings done before the next class.

I also like to have a set amount of time that I like to do certain tasks. So if I do get off task I can move on and do the next thing. This way I am not wasting time and get on with other things.

I like to make sure that I have a snack and a drink of water when studying. Because I find that if I have everything I need then there is less distraction and I can focus on the things that I need to do.

As soon as assignments are released I like to print the instructions out and put them in date order at the back of my folder. This ensures that I have the instructions and can get started straight away when I study. I also like to keep my assignment schedule at the front of this folder, so I know when things are due.

How do you like to study? Are there any techniques that you use to study? Any special ways that you use to stay on track?

Friday, April 3, 2015

Friday Procrastibaking - 3rd April

Happy Easter everyone! I am the first to admit that when I have a lot of things that I need to get done I tend to not do it. Instead I prefer to clean, organize and bake. So I decided to start this new feature of what I like to call "Procrastibaking". What is it you ask, well, it is simple it is just how I describe how I bake while procrastinating.

Because I have no lectures on Fridays I tend to think that I have three days to get this stuff done, I will make a cake/ some cupcakes/ a pie/ whatever I see on pinterest that looks really really good.

So this weekly feature will show the things that I made, which will not always be my own recipes but I feel are really great that I should share them and you should try them.

Anyways, this week I made cupcakes, cute little cupcakes with pink icing and sprinkles or 100s and 1000s as I call them (must have been feeling really girly this week), so here are the pictures (sorry were taken with my phone...):

 These cupcakes were absolutely perfect, super fluffy and the icing was so good (like lick the bowl good). I got inspiration from a photo on Pinterest which linked to here. And I also think that I fell in love with everything on this blog.

 I made my standard vanilla cupcake and butter-cream recipe. I iced the cupcakes with a number 30 Tala icing tip.

So here is the recipe:


Vanilla Cupcakes With Butter-cream Icing: Print

 

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 Cup Softened Butter
  • 2/3 Cup Sugar
  • 3 Large Eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 1 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon Salt
  • 1/4 Cup Milk

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F and line 12 muffin cups with cases
  2. In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
  3. In a small bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
  4. With the mixer on low, add a cup of the flour mixture and mix until combined, then the milk until combined, followed by the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until well combined and when the mixture has a mousse like texture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
  5. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 17-20 minutes or until just set and a toothpick inserted into them comes out clean. Remove from oven, and allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes. Then place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled ice with buttercream.

Buttercream:


Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups Confectioners Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Softened Butter
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Tablespoons Milk
  • pink food colouring

Method:

  1. In an electric mixer beat together the butter for 2-3 minutes until soft and creamy. Add the powdered sugar and beat on medium until well combined.
  2.  Increase the mixer speed to medium and add the vanilla and milk. Beat for 3 minutes until everything is nice and creamy, but stiff enough to pipe.
  3. Add the food colouring and mix until well dispersed.

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Desk Drawer Organizing

I like stationery, I like it so much that I tend to have more pens, highlighters, tape, and every other thing that you can think of. However this problem leads to me having a very packed desk drawer. I shared what my desk looks like here

So today I thought that I would share with you the organization of this drawer as it has changed (several times, because I just can't seem to get it to work). Do you have that problem where it just doesn't work for you, it annoys you so much that you tend to not open the drawer, let alone have no idea why you are keeping thousands of pens when you never use them.
I started by pulling out everything. Then I lined the drawer with some polka dotted wrapping paper and stuck it down with clear contact paper. Unfortunately the drawer doesn't pull out any further than this so it was rather hard to get it stuck down evenly.
 I then put everything back in working out what things needed to be nearer the front, so I played around with the layout a few times.

So I eventually landed on this, it means that my mouse and hard-drive (the things that I use the most) are at the front and things like my calculator that I hardly use are further at the back. My pens were already in a plastic organizer (yes I do have crayons...). Also leaving place for my label-maker to fit nicely in the middle.

My desk only has the one small drawer. I was looking for a desk that had a drawer along the whole front, but I couldn't seem to find one, let alone on my budget. But somehow I manage to fit everything in this drawer, it is not as accessible as I would like but now it is super pretty with polka dots!

Are you a stationery junkie like me? How do you organize it all?

Friday, March 27, 2015

School Computer File Organization

Staying on track of assignments, making sure they are handed in on time and nothing is left out is really really important. So I am focusing today's College Series post on Computer File Organization.

I find organizing my computer files really fun (does this make me really weird?) it is so easy to save things in their proper place and then when you come to needing them again you can find them really easily. Now I have a laptop running Windows 8.1 so this will mainly apply to those of you with similar laptops or computers, but you can use my advice from this post and use a similar system with other operating systems.

It is getting to the middle of the semester here, which means a lot of assignments due before we break up for Easter (it has gone really fast...), so having designated folders for classes and assignments is just a little thing that I find saves so much time.

 First of all I have a Uni folder on my desktop, because my semesters run March to June, and July to October I arrange the folders inside this by year, you could label them as 14/15, depending on where you live.
 Then inside these folders I label two folders "Semester 1" and "Semester 2", this way I can easily locate the things that are relevant to what I am doing at the moment.
Inside these semester folders I have a folder for each class, I only take four classes at a time so I just label these by the course code.
Finally inside the class folders I have sub-folders for each assignment and lecture slides as well as the other things that may be relevant to that course that I feel I should keep.

How do you organize your school computer files? Are there any organizing ways that help your stay super organized all semester?

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Assignments and Readings Printable

I love to stay on top of all of my college work, it makes me feel relaxed and free to enjoy my day. Most of the time this doesn't happen, as much as I plan and make sure I get everything done on time I always feel like once I have finished one thing there is a thousand more things to do.

So I made another printable.... And I am going to share it here with you!! (yippee!) 

 The printable is made to be printed on both sides of the paper, so on one side you will have the assignments for the week, or classes however you want to categorize them (the photos have the dates and my classes printed, but on the PDF they are blank).

So on the back will be the readings, which again are left blank, so you can write them by class or date or however.

These really help me in staying organized and on time with assignments and readings and I hope they will be a big help to you too!

You are welcome to download them here