setting up a new bullet journal!

Hey guys, today we are talking about bullet journaling. Honestly, are we even surprised? I recently got a new bullet journal as a present, thank you you know you are :). I did already have a bullet journal but my new one was extra special to me because I’ve always wanted a ‘real’ one. By a ‘real’ one I mean a thick, dotted journal that you see all over Pinterest and all the pros using. Another thing that made this even more exciting was that I actually got a beginners set so it included a bunch of other things too! In this blog post, I am going to be doing a lil’ review of the set and showing you the spreads I have created so far.

a quick review –

The set included the bullet journal (ofc), fineliners, stencils, stickers and washi-tape. This was all for the reasonable(ish) price of £25.99. IT’s by a stationery brand called ‘Feela.’

The journal itself is very high quality. It has lovely thick paper so ink doesn’t bleed through and a strap/pen holder to keep it all in place. I decorated it with one of my Harry Potter stickers, which I thought gave it a little personal touch.

The fineliners are so pigmented and pointy. I find it so satisfying when you get new fineliners because they haven’t been pressed down on and the ink is in its best state. The stencils are really handy for making spreads look more neat and put together. I already had a huge collection of these bullet journal stencils so I was more then happy to add more! The stickers are so cute, fun and colourful. What I really loved about them is that you could write on them, so you could use them as titles and headers. Of course the washi-tape was great, they cam in six adorable patterns and they can easily brighten up any spread.

Here is a link to this set: Feela Dotted Journal

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my bujo setup ~

For my first spread I did the infamous calendar page to kind of ‘start off’ the year. This took a good half an hour, it was tedious but overall I’m very happy with how it turned out. It’s nice to have something to always refer to when I need. Also, I think it’s most most aesthetically pleasing spread. For this page, I used my 0.38 Muji pen and my pastel Stabilo highlighters.

Of course we have to have a key blogging spread. This is my year in blog posts where I wrote out all the Saturdays and Sundays of the year, leaving gaps to fill in all my blog post ideas. I find this really helpful to plan special holiday content straightaway. For example, in June I can already write down a Summer bucket list post and for August I can write my back to school ideas. I would seriously recommend doing a spread like this if you are a blogger or even a YouTuber. Just call it ‘a year in videos.’ I created this spread with a red fineliner, a blue marker pen and my Muji pen (duh).

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To start off February, I tried to imitate a spread I saw in ‘How to Bullet Plan,’ a book I am reading at the moment. I drew three boxes, one for tasks, one for events and one for extra blog post ideas that randomly pop into my head. I also used my stickers to write February on and I really like how it turned out. Also, in the corner I did a lil’ February calendar. To finish off this spread I added a little quote sticker that I had from before to start the month off with some good vibes. I think I will start doing that every month to have a little reminder and start the month off with something positive.

I also wanted to document some fun memories form each month to look back on at the end of the year. I wrote down all the days of February leaving a line to write a little positive thing that happened that day. I loved the effect I created with the layered washi-tapes, thought it was v cute. This spread is how I incorporate a diary into my bujo.

To finish off my bujo setup I did my weekly spread layout. This is definitely the spread I use the most. I am constantly updating it every single day and it keeps me the most organised. I have a pretty different setup to most things I have seen but basically I have urgent and pending tasks and then a timetable from 4-9 on weekdays and 10-10 on weekends. A bare bones to do list has never really been enough for me to handle school, my blog and my lack of a social life.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog post! We are finally back to Saturday and Sunday uploads, I am so excited. Follow and like for more content like this. Comment below any blog post requests for me!

Keep Smiling and Goodbye 🙂

Last post: how i study

how i study + memoristaion tips (five steps)

my guide to the perfect study setup

I love setting a mood when I study because I think it provides ultimate efficiency for work. The first thing I do when I have a lot of studying is to collect all my work and check all the dates of my exams. This way I can put the stack in chronological order. To increase my focus on the task at hand I love to just have my desk lamp turned on and not my main light. I think it’s a mental thing but I find a lot easier to concentrate with just one focussing light. Another thing I do to set a mood is light a candle. I like to light the same one each time I study to familiarise work with the scent.

A few other things I do to set a productive atmosphere is writing my to-do list on my whiteboard so I can have it right in front of me or putting my bullet journal on my desk, which is where I usually write my to-do list. Also, so I don’t have anything to allow me to procrastinate I always have a study snack and a glass of water.

making notes and using revision guides

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The first step when it comes to my studies is making notes from my revision guides. I will read all the content and write down everything I can remember to see what topics I am struggling on and need to revise first. For example, I had a chemistry test this week and literally, brain dumped everything I could remember from my classes. I discovered that I didn’t write down anything about the electrolysis core practical so I prioritised all that in my notes and then went over the other things.

If ya’ll need some good revision guide recommendations that don’t make your studies so mind-numbingly boring good ones at CGP for maths and science, Collins for english and Oxford for humanities.

quizlet for flashcards

Another way I like to revise is by using Quizlet. Quizlet is a study app where you can make flashcards for pretty much anything. I spoke about this in my last post but it makes studying marginally more exciting as you can play memorisation games and match up the terms to each other instead of just flipping through them. I like to use Quizlet for quotes for English/RE, equations for Science and formulae for Maths. Here’s a link to my Quizlet so you can use my flashcards: https://quizlet.com/immy2005243

exam q practice

After I have learnt all the content, I like to try some exam-style questions so I can test my knowledge. For maths and science, I have CGP workbooks with a bunch of questions in them. For my more essay-based subjects like History it is really easy to either make up the questions yourself because they all follow the same structure or find some online.

Also, one thing I really struggle with during exams is time management. Recently, I have started timing how long it takes me to write the long essay questions. For example, I had an RE test a few weeks ago and I figured out how to do the first three questions in ten minutes so I could use the other forty minutes on the long essay q.

writing from memory

Like the beginning of my study saga, I come back to brain dumping all the content I now know after revising all of it. If the mission worked I will know everything I need to know for the exam or I will inevitably stress about not knowing a whole topic and cram the day before. What else is new?!

highlighting my notes

On the day of the exam, I will be reading over my notes and I will highlight all the key bits so if I am to remember anything it is the main points. Also we gotta make sure we use pastel highlighters bc they are elite.

And that’s how I somehow study?! Like and follow if you wanna see more content like this. Comment below any specific subjects you need advice for revision on, I’ll try my best to give ya some either in a new blog posts or or my social medias, which are linked below.

Keep Smiling and Goodbye 🙂

how i literally organise*everything* in my life (in-depth)

Hey dudes, welcome back to my blog or welcome if you’re new! Today I am talking about something I have been really into recently – organising. I’m a GCSE student, somewhat of a social media person and just generally trying to be happy, so I have several ways to try and be a functioning human being. I’m going to be talking about all the things I do to get my stuff together! Not that long ago, I did a similar post to this but I realised I missed a few things out and some things have changed a lot so here’s an updated planning post.

~blog~

//google keep//

Previously, I would a notebook to plan the outlines and brainstorm all my blog post. I figured that it would be more convenient to use a notes app to type up all the tasks I need to do for the blog posts and of course all the ideas that need to go into the end product. I use Google Keep because I can easily bring it up on my tablet and my laptop. Also I love the dark mode feature on there!

//setting reminder in google cal//

Every Saturday and Sunday, I set a reminder for my blog posts. I do this on the Google Calendar, because once again I can access it on my tablet and my laptop. I type in the name of the blog post and usually set the reminder for 10am because that is when I normally publish my blog posts.

//planoly for instagram//

Planoly is a legit God-send for anyone who has a company on Instagram, is an influencer or who is just into the app. It allows you to add as many photos as you would like to your feed without actually posting them. This is so you can see how they look next to each other, especially if you are trying to keep up with a theme, like me. Other features I use on this app are, the hashtag groups (lets you type up hashtags and save your favourites, without going over Instagram’s limit), the captions (let’s you type your caption beforehand) and the drag and drop method (let’s you move around pics so you can find your fave combo).

//sync twitter and instagram//

This is something so simple you can do in like two minutes but before posting a picture on IG there is an option to share it to twitter too. This is great if you use both platforms and it had helped me increase likes and engagement on my posts. All you have to do is login to your Twitter account through Instagram and then you can swipe the little button any time you want to share pics to Twitter.

//writing days//

This isn’t set in stone but I do tend to write up my blog posts on Sundays and Mondays. I’m not really sure why, probably because it is the start of the week and I always seem the most motivated to work on my blog then.

//shooting days//

Like my writing days, I also have shooting days. Some people are unclear about what this means but it is basically when I will shoot photos for my upcoming blog post and Instagram photos. I do this on Thursdays and Saturdays mainly.

//lightroom cc + more shooting//

After shooting all my blog photos, of course, I need to edit them. To do this I use the free app – Lightroom CC. It is a bit more advanced than most editing platforms but I will eventually do a ‘how I edit my Instagram photos/ how to use lightroom.’ More on photos, when selecting which photos I’m going to use in blog posts and Instagram posts, I will take loads of pics and then put them all on my laptop and then mass delete the ones I don’t like.

~school~

//separate notebooks//

For my revision, I like to have separate notebooks for each of my classes. This keeps my really organised and on top of all my all my classes and I always know where my different notes are. I ordered a 10 pack of really inexpensive A4 notebooks for about £5. Also, they are all pastel, which is a bonus for me because I love all things pastel. Honestly, if you give me cute stationery I will work harder.

//revision guides for everything//

I obviously need some content to put in these notebooks and what better way to find that – revision guides. Oo what a smooth transition. I am not going to talk about these life-savers too much as I have a whole studying post coming tomorrow, but having all the key information laid out for you is extremely helpful when it comes to exams.

//quizlet for flashcards//

One of my favourite ways to study is by using flashcards. I have been using this method of study since year eight. I consistently would use them in year nine as that is where the school ‘game’ really leveled-up with exams and workload. BY the end of the year, I had about five hundred fricking flashcards for various topics. Although they did help me retain information the amount of them was just unmanageable so I decided to switch it up this year. I now use a free app called Quizlet to type up all my flashcards. A great thing about Quizlet is that you can do tests; play games where you match up the correct terms; get the app to play the flashcards like a quiz and there is no limit to how many cards you make. Also, it’s all contained in one app.

//set reminders for when hw is due//

Another thing I use Google Calendar for is my homework and deadlines. So I can keep track of all my assignments I will put a reminder for each piece of homework the day before it is due. This prevents me from missing my due dates and having to face the wrath of mad teachers. Additionally, I use it mark my exams so I can plan all my revision accordingly.

//classcharts to check homework//

This isn’t exactly something I do but my school uses a platform called class charts where all the teachers can set and track homework. Students have their own accounts too so they can check all their assignments and due dates. I try to check it as much as possible and make notes in my bullet journal of important things.

//revision timetable//

A very recent addition to my organisation scheme is a revision timetable. I realised that now I am almost half-way through year ten I should probably be studying daily for my mocks and real exams next year. I use an app called ‘Easy Study,’ which generated a revision timetable for me based on my preferences. It reminds me of which topics I need to study each day and it is really motivating. I have been doing separate studying every day this week so far so hopefully it will become a habit. So far I have set it to two topics a day but I think I’ll crank it up a bit when exam season comes.

~general~

//bullet journal//

Over the years, I have tried many methods of keeping all my things organised. Planners and to do lists, weekly layouts and notebooks. Nothing seemed to work until I discovered bullet journalling. When I was younger, I loved the artsy side of bullet journalling so I would start one and never finish it because it didn’t have much practicality. Now this method really helps me get my ish together! I love how planning in my bullet journal is threputic and actually fun, instead of stressful.

One of the most prominent spreads in my bullet journal is the weekly spread. I have quite a unique way of writing the things I need to do. For my weekly spreads, I like to categorise my tasks into urgent and pending. I also have a little schedule next to each day so I know what to do each hour. This really helps me with time management so I can get all my studying and blog stuff done. I recently started a new bujo and I’ll be doing a post about it next week so stay tuned!

Hope you enjoyed that blog post, we love staying productive on this site! Like and follow for more content like this ✌ Comment below how you plan your life!

Last post: stationery faves

stationery faves + what i use for my bujo (swatches)

Happy belated new year! Ik I haven’t posted on here for a few weeks. I actually had a blogging rut (wasn’t motivated to write anything), which is not how I wanted to start the new decade. I think it may be because I posted very consistently during the holidays and then I just needed a break. Regardless, I’m back! Today we a talking about my obsession since I was in yr3 – stationery. I am going to be sharing with you a few of my favourite, inexpensive stationery pieces. I use all of these in my bullet journal or my school notes, or both! I also included all the links to these items or dupes to them.

zebra pens

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My go-to pens for my school notes and bullet journal are the Zebra Pens. I love the way they flow and they are so easy to write with. You don’t need to apply much pressure, which is great because I have a habit of pressing down v/ hard, making my hand hurt a lot. Also, I am firmly a black pen person so the colour is great. The nib is super thin and make really pretty, minimalistic notes. Lastly, they are very inexpensive; you can get three off amazon for £1.50.

stabilo pastel highlighters

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Highlighters are great for school notes, highlighting key points or making your bujo/planner look pretty and organised. They’re very helpful for colour coding and making fancy(ish) titles and headers. But when you tell me I can do all that with pastel colours, it gets 100x better. Although regular highlighters are cool, sometimes they are just too loud, bright and neon. So a good alternative is pastel highlighters. I find them so pretty and they make my notes look way more sophisticated. I would recommend the Stabilo highlighters because they last long and never smudge.

staedtler pastel fine liners

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Yes, I have an unhealthy obsession with pastel. I love to use fine liners to also create pretty patterns and headers; write down key words/vocab; and underline my date/title. The Staedtler pastel fine liners are my personal favourite because the packaging is really cute and they are super easy to write with. Also there really handy for colour-coordinating with my pastel highlighters. For example, when I use the blue fine liner, I will use the blue highlighter. This way my notes look really organised and cohesive.

plastic stencils

These aren’t really an essential but these stencils have a ton of patterns, title templates, shapes and icons, which are great for me bc I’m not that great at all the artsy stuff. You can get so fricking creative with these and make some stunning spreads. I don’t use these for my school notes (i’m not that xtra yet) but sometimes in my bullet journal. I haven’t really experimented with them a lot yet but I did do a ‘self care ideas’ spread and use them decorate it.

washi tape (duh)

I am that basic girl that uses washi tape to decorate everything. But why not? It’s so pretty and so great to personalise your stuff. I love to rip it up and line the weekly spreads in my bujo. You can also wrap it around your pens so you always know which ones are yours. It’s great to liven up some pretty dull spreads. I snagged a 10 pack of cute washi tapes from B&M Bargains for £1.

Hope you enjoyed that short blog post! Let me know your stationery must-haves in the comments. Like and follow for more content like this! My last post and my social media link will be down below!

Keep Smiling and Goodbye.

Last post: https://imaanazizblogs.wordpress.com/2019/12/30/a-not-so-basic-jeans-a-t-shirt/

a not-so-basic jeans + a t-shirt

hey, hey, hey! Welcome back to my blog or welcome if you are new. Today, I am talking about how to dress up one of the most basic combinations of clothes ever – jeans and and a t-shirt. I figured that every owns these two pieces, so y’all can easily achieve a look like this. Of course feel free to add your own personal changes, as you please. I have two looks for you guys so have fun reading!

simple and cute jeans + tee

Firstly, we start off with any plain or graphic t-shirt and your favourite pair of jeans. To easily spruce up this look, tuck in the tee to sinch in your waist. Roll the jeans up a little and add some trouser socks. Then grab your favourite pair of white trainers, or any trainers that you think compliment your top. When choosing shoes try to find a common colour between the shirt and the shoes. This way your outfit will look way more put together.

As this outfit is still super simple, you will want to go crazy with accessories. Get your favourite pieces of jewellery. Layer up necklaces, find something a little outside of your comfort zone. Gold if your outfit is darker (it’ll stand out better) , silver if your outfit is lighter. I also have this cute, braided-style tan belt, which I thought fit in perfectly with this outfit. I also added this mustard, corduroy scrunchie on my wrist; it added a nice pop of colour. And that’s the look! I thought this one was quite cute and playful.

unleash ur egirl

This one is more of an edgy look. What I did to achieve this one was, get a plain dark tee or a band tee (pretty much anything with dark accents), and I got a dark wash pair of jeans. Like before I sinched in the waist by tucking the t-shirt in. Then I went for some black boots with silver accents on them, so they really stood (pun intended) out.

To complete this grunge look, I grabbed a fake patent leather belt and some silver jewellery. The jewellery worked well to compliment the silver in the boots. Also the red in the pendant was a great statement for this look. I then did a messy bun with a black scrunchie, to really tie in the whole look. Also, the messiness of the bun really worked with emo/egirl theme of the outfit. And that was that!

Hope you enjoyed this short but sweet blog post! Comment below you favourite clothing stores, so I can check em’ out. Mine are H&M and New Look! Like and follow for more! Come back on the 1st for a special new years post.

Keep Smiling and Goodbye!

Last Post: plan w/ me! (2020 bujo setup)

plan w/ me! (2020 bujo setup)

Welcome back to my blog or welcome if you are new! Today I am doing my third bujo-related post on here. If you don’t know what a bujo is, it is a acronym for bullet journal. A bullet journal is a place you can plan out your life but also keep your toughts and ideas. I recently completed a whole bullet journal and started a new one. I thought I would do a plan with me post as I prepare for the new year. But first…

a bit about my bujo

My new bullet journal is from TK Maxx. It is a plain page, elastic bound notebook. What really stood out to me about this particular bujo is how it is refillable. Once you have used up the pages you can easily refill the notebook with more A4 paper folded in half. This seemed really cool to me because I can easily colour code or get lined/dotted paper refills if I wanted to. When looking for a bujo, I always opt for something that is either elastic-bound or traditionally-bound, because I find spiral-bound notebooks very uncomfortable and not as practical. One of the most important factors of finding your perfect bujo is cofort. So definitely shop around and find something that is not only practical but also comfortable.

Also this time around I focussed on making my bullet journal as efficient and personalised to my life as possible, instead of just copying pretty spreads I found on pinterest. I didn’t care much about it looking perfect and aesthetically pleasing, I mainly cared about what worked for me. I also use the Frixon erasable pens so it doesn’t really matter if I make misktakes along the way. Now onto my 2020 bujo setup…

2020 calendar

This spread was certainly the most tedious and difficult spread to create but it was kindo worth it?! Anyways I went to the Google calendar, copied all the days of all the months and this was the result. It is quite cute, I love the colours and how they compliment eachother.

2020 goals

I did a spread next to the last one with all my 2020 goals. I felt this was important because I will also have something to look at, that will hopefully drive me and motivate me in the new year. I didn’t include a photo because I will actually be doing a blog post on this soon. Also because I haven’t written all of them yet!

january spread

Obviously, I needed a spread to mark the new month. I attempted to do this cool font thing I’ve seen others do.. it was kinda cute but I could’ve done better! I wanted to keep things really simple and straightforward so I just wrote out a January calendar, to refer to whenever. You may begin to notice the main colour scheme for my bujo is pastel colours mixed with a minimalistic, monochrome look. I said before, I wanted to keep it practical not pretty.

note to self

I thought for one my first spreads, I would start on a positive note and write down a couple of the most meaningful quotes and affirmations. This is for me to look back on when I’m down or demotivated. One of the quotes I copied was: ‘Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the song without the words, and never stops at all’. This one really hit me in the feels and keeps me going every time i’m sad.

10 day spread

This is quite abnormal and not a spread I usually do but, I wanted to do the first weekly spread for January. But me being me I didn’t want to wait three days for the new week to start because I am obsessed with planning. For my weekly spreads, I took a pencil and drew four lines horizontally and one line 7.5cm away from the start of the page vertically. Then I wrote all the days of the so-called week in a thick grey marker. Then I took my usual black pen and wrote urgent & pending in separate columns. This took about five minutes, which was perfect because I wanted my most used spread to take a few mins.

And that’s my 2020 bujo setup! I hope you enjoyed that lil’ bujo blog post. Like it if you wanna see more posts like this! Comment below if you have a bujo, if so what spreads do you like to use. Follow for more as I am still doing my holiday series.

Keep Smiling and Goodbye!

Last Post: grwm ft emily

get ready with me (a/w edition) ft emily

Hey gyals, welcome back to my blog or welcome if you are new! Today’s post is a little ‘get ready with me,’ but for winter. I’m going to do my go-to winter makeup look, a few of my go-to hairstyles and a little outfit idea for those chilly days. This is also a collab (wow i haven’t said that in a hot minute) with my internet best friend: Emily… more about her at the end.

prepping my skin

One of the most important steps of this whole look is prepping my skin so my makeup goes on effortlessly and looks more natural. Here are a few products I use most days to keep my skin the way it is:

Simple Moisturising Face Wash

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this in a previous post, but a product I have been using for years is the Simple Face Wash. Simple is by far one of my favourite skincare brands. I particularly love this staple of theirs as the scent is so fresh. I love how it bubbles up and cleanses my face. It is also perfect for getting rid of toxins and creating a solid base for applying makeup.

Nivea Face Cream

This is to lock in all that goodness from the face wash and keep my skin nice and moisturised. It also evens out the texture of my skin and adds to the lovely base for when I do my makeup later.

Carmex

One of the most uncomfortable feelings can be having dry and flaky lips. A great way I like to salvage this situation is getting a good lip balm. Carmex is my favourite lippy to use as it instantly makes my lips smoother and healthier. It’s like the next step after vaseline, as it has the same effect but in my opinion it is better and easier to apply. I used to spend my money on the expensive lip balms but carmex is so much better and it’s only a £1.

go-to makeup look

I do not like to too excessive with my makeup and I am not as fond of it as much as I was. I love glowy, rosy flushed looks – they are more flattering and natural on me. Here are the simple steps of how I achieve this look:

Maybelline Primer – if i’m going out for a while I like to start this look with a good primer, especially because nice like to layer on quite an excessive amount of blush later on.

Garnier BB Cream – for this natural look I like to go for a very light coverage base such as this BB cream. It also works as a concealer and smoothes out the texture of my skin.

Brow time – to fill in my brows I like to use the Collection Brow Pomade and a spoole. I love to go for a feathery look, which is why a spoole is such a staple for me.

Blush is an essential – I have recently really been into blus, especially cream or liquid blush. I have this little cheek tint from Benefit, which I have been using in pretty much all my makeup looks. I also like to use a little Maybelline baby lips in Cherry to create a pretty ombre effect on my cheeks.

A glowy highlighter – I love to apply a little highlight on my cheek bones and the tip of my nose. I am using the MUA highlighter atm. I found it in Superdrug on sale and it is such a beautiful and natural product.

Curly Natural Lashes – recently I have been ditching mascara and instead using lip balm. Specifically, eos as it is firm and have a great consistency for keeping my lashes, brows and baby hairs in place. I still curl my lashes, as I think it is so pretty.

Lip Scrub + Oil – for my lips I kept it real simple and just applied some of my scrub to smooth out my lips and then my Rimmel lip oil to seal it all in.

Barry M Matte Setting Spray – to make sure my makeup didn’t randomly fly off my face I spritzed a bit of setting spray on my face to lock this whole look in.

a warm af outfit

I have spoken about this corduroy dress in a previous post but basically this specific night I wore this with my black boots, black tights that kept me toasty and a few gold jewellery pieces.

hair time ! !

My hair was not cooperating at the time so I just used a black scrunchie, which really tied in (pun intended) the whole monochrome look.

That concludes today’s blog post! I hope you enjoyed it. Emily actually did her own version of this about a week ago, which will be linked right here. Make sure you give it a read for a more casual take on this grwm post! Like and comment on this post and come back on the 27th for another post!

Keep Smiling and Goodbye!

Last Post: my holiday bucket list!