january favourites - stationery galore!

Hello everyone! Time for a very very late post :P Most of the favourites for this month are similar kind of things (stationery!!! <3) hehe ^_^

Also, expect lack of on-time posts this year :( School has been eating my life ._.

Watermelon Pencil Case

I've replaced my previous pencil case (which was really old and dirty and broken) with THIS BEAUTIFUL ONE!!! It's super roomy and bright and argh love it a lot ^_^

Shout out to A, E, J, K, Queen T, and F for it :D Highly doubt any of you people actually read this but whatever. You know what they say, it's the thought that counts!

Medium Watermelon Planner
Also been obsessed with this planner from Kikki K again and it matches the pencil case which is really cool :P Planners and diaries have been a huge essential in my life ever since a couple of years ago, and I find myself being incredibly unproductive without one as I have no idea what or when things are due... so I never do them xD I've never used one of these planners before though, with the rings in the middle and inserts, so it's been fun using all the tabs and sections. I really love the pen holder and the places in the cover where you can slide things like stickers in! Very handy ^_^ The sticky note tabs on the front are from Daiso, if you're wondering :)

Shoutout to Judy, A, S, other J and H for this ^_^ <3

Sharpies
In the holidays my mum randomly bought me a 30 set of Sharpies... Not entirely sure what they could be used for, but they're really fun to use :D Here are some fineliners inside the set that are in these super bright and pretty colours <3

And here are a few of the regular styled ones :)

Sports Camera
Recently I embarked on a road trip up to Queensland, and this little sports camera has been so fun to play with along the way! It came with a gazillion accessories, one of which lets you attach it to a car window. I have some footage in this video here for an example.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this specific model- it's easy enough to use, but do all sports cameras have shockingly awful audio quality? o.O I guess they don't really need much sound... but still ._.

The lens of it, like any other sports camera, is fisheye, meaning it has a bulging effect as if you're in a dome or something. Back in the day I used to HATE fisheye as it made me rather dizzy... but then after watching a million of a YouTuber's vlogs using a fisheye camera, I grew to really like it xD

Learning German
Admittedly, some of this post was written a while ago. I spent a bit of my holidays studying German, through translating random magazines into English, watching short videos designed for beginners and using Duolingo, a site I would whole heartedly recommend for anyone wanting to learn a bit of a new language!

However, while this was fun and all, I've actually dropped German as a subject at school, mainly due to lack of motivation to continue, and I simply did not study hard enough for a subject that requires a LOT of studying, memorisation and practice. Oh well, hopefully will continue learning Deutsch one day in the future, after the whole mess of the HSC (end of high school exams) are over :/

Matilda the Musical
I love musicals a lot, and a few friends and I went to see this one, based off the much loved novel by Roald Dahl. The music and songs in this musical are amazing and unique, fitting in with the story really well! I'll probably write more on this one day, so will cut this ramble short for now :)

January Journies
Most Exciting Thing I've Done
Helped build a life sized cardboard city... hella cool ^_^ Will explain more in another post probably :P

Hardest Thing I've Done
Trekking around the bush in flip flops. Felt like I could conquer the world afterwards (of course, that's only wishful thinking... let's be real here, I can barely walk properly without tripping over haha :'D )

Saddest Thing That Happened
So I lost my phone (still have a slight suspicion it was stolen but no idea) somewhere in December last year. Then I got my mum's old one which was a downgrade from the first phone... and I dropped it this month T_T So Now I have a slidey old phone with a TERRIBLE speaker (and no earphone jack!!!) :/ #firstworldproblems

What I've Been Watching
JANE THE VIRGIN OMG IT'S HILARIOUS!!! Currently almost up-to-date within the second season and als;dfja;sldfkj it's funny :P You can probably guess from the name that it's not exactly appropriate for kiddies (or immature weirdos like myself) xD

What I've Been Listening to
Sorry, mostly musical stuff .-.
Your Fault - Into the Woods Cast (A friend and I are trying to memorise this hahaha :D)
I Know Things Now - Into the Woods Cast (Might be a little obsessed with this song ._.)
Giants in the Sky - Into the Woods Cast (Can't stop humming this)
Believe - Finding Neverland Cast (SO BADLY WANT TO WATCH THIS MUSICAL)
Seize The Day - Newsies Cast (Found this while binge watching Tony Award performances!!!)
Carrying the Banner - Newsies Cast (It's kind of weird that I'm featuring these songs here without having actually seen the real musical or even movie... In my defence, I've tried to watch the movie, but I can't understand the accents for the life of me T_T)
Dollhouse - Melanie Martinez (Shoutout to Coral for introducing this to me and I REALLY LIKE IT)
Stolen Dance - Milky Chance
King - Lauren Aquilino
I Took a Pill in Ibiza - Mike Posner
Volcano - Emily Hearn (If you read a few of the comments, you can probably guess where I found this)
Lanterns - Birds of Tokyo

What I've Been Working On
NOT SCHOOL WORK, THAT'S FOR SURE T____T

Something I've Let Go...
I've kind of decided to let go of my commitments to my YouTube channel and videos... for many reasons for it including:
a) My laptop, in it's 5th-6th year of surviving, is not up for video editing any more :|
b) Time restraints that the new school year will bring :(

I have to say though, pretty proud of myself as I used to spend a few hours a day just of solid YouTube video watching. Now I don't even bother checking it any more, which leaves a lot more time for other things (that are equally as unproductive, but HEY I'M TRYING :P )

Anything worth celebrating?
Thought I'd also take the opportunity to celebrate A FULL YEAR OF FAVOURITE POSTS!!!! YESSSSSS :D :D :D

Here's a little dashboard thing to all of them so far ^_^

January // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September (admittedly, this one is a bit of a cheat :P) // October // November // December

Goals for February?
Survive the start of school and don't get distracted T^T

december favourites

Heelloooooooooooooooooooooo!

IT'S TIME FOR FAVOURITES AGAIN! So let's hop right in ^_^ (Sorry about the candy, they tasted really good so I ate most of the tubes already... T_T)

/ Happy Lab candy /

So I received these as part of a late birthday present and I just love stuff from Happy Lab as they come in cute test tubes and are just the most adorable things ever ^_^ They stay pretty true to their flavour and taste amazing (as you can probably tell from the half empty containers.)

Loving this calendar!

/ 2016 Typo Calendar /
I remember having a wall calendar two years ago from Typo and I loved it so much that I tried to get it again last year but alas, they did not make it that year. But luckily, it was in stock again this year! Hooray! Wall calendars are great for organisation and this ones pretty aesthetic too so it doubles up as a wall decoration as well! ^_^ This particular one is quite minimalistic and provides a lot of space for notes and important dates so it proves to be very useful!

/ Volunteering! /
So I have been volunteering in January (which doesn't really make it a December favourite but) it's truly been an amazing experience! I've been helping out with Yelena (the co-writer of this blog) at the Sydney Festival and I've met some of the nicest people and had great fun through helping out at the events. Volunteering is an awesome way to give back to the community and I hope you all find the chance to volunteer if you can! ^_^

Credits to Marvel

/ Agent Carter / 

Marvel shows are just the best - I absolutely love this show ^_^ It follows the adventures of Peggy Carter, you may know her from Captain America: The First Avenger, and how she kicks ass with style. I recommend this and I can't stress enough how good it is.

Here's the little description provided by Marvel:

"Years before Agent Coulson and his S.H.I.E.L.D. team swore to protect those who cannot protect themselves from threats they cannot conceive, there was Agent Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell, Marvel's "Captain America: The First Avenger," Marvel's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"), who pledged the same oath but lived in a different time when women weren't recognized as being as smart or as tough as their male counterparts. But no one should ever underestimate Peggy."

/ Music /
25 - Adele
This whole album is amazing. I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

Please Don't Say You Love Me - Gabrielle Aplin

I recently listened to this song again and realised that FITZ FROM AGENTS OF SHIELD STARS IN IT WOW (cue fangirl moment *ahhhhhhh*)
My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark - Fall Out Boy

Milk and Cookies - Melanie Martinez

Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful day!

Stay awesome!

 Judy x

LOST & FOUND || makings of a short film

Somewhere towards the end of last year we were given about 15 weeks or so of working on a major project of our choosing for a computing/techy kinda subject. I chose to make a film because

a) I can't code for my life.

b) I like making them!

Admittedly, it was only my second time making one. But the first time was a lot of fun so why not try again? :D

So here's the result of those weeks, including:

1. FOREVER mindlessly brainstorming ideas. (including ranting to friends for advice)

2. Writing a script. Surprisingly, I did this rather quickly as once I had settled on an idea, I was super ready to start actually creating. This script above isn't the actual one for this one (I can't find that one D:)

3. Writing a second, much more simplified 'script' to give to people to read in order to get opinions. This was more like writing the outline of the stories.

4. Drawing up about fifty trillion storyboards T_T

5. Organising a picnic as part of the 'set' (I'm too much of a noob to be using these kind of professional words, hence the quotation marks haha :P)

I got these little bottles from Kmart and tHEY'RE SO CUTE <3

5. Compulsory ice cream stops.

7. Thoroughly planning out each piece of the film and ending up doing random stuff and changing it along the way.

8. Buying a bouquet of flowers! These lasted a few days and were really pretty <3

9. Skipping out on classes for a whole school day just to sit in the computer room by myself (although one period I had to endure a bunch of Year 7s [basically the freshmen, for all you Americans :D Wait, a year below freshman.] which involved dodgily closing the window of the editing program every once in a while to avoid getting judged xD Spent this time editing like crazy and it was pretty fun... UP UNTIL THE POINT WHEN THE PROGRAM WOULD NOT LET ME SAVE WITHOUT MAKING AN UGLY BLACK BORDER AROUND THE VIDEO GAAAH T____T

And a quick word of thank you to everyone that helped, from listening to me ramble on about it, to listening to me boss them around, to just being supportive on the ideas and for simply being great humans... THANKS! :D

So that was the marathon that was the process of making this silly little thing. Hope you enjoy it :) I'd like to talk about meanings behind the film, but don't want to spoil anything... ^_^

Stay fabulous,

Lena xx

welcoming the new year | 2016

Hellllooooooooooo!

After the great positive response I received from my new year post one year ago, I've decided to write up another new years resolution list! So, after looking back on my 2015 new years resolutions, I would say that I didn't achieve as much as I would have liked too.. T_T But hey! I did get to complete some like...

I've taken more pictures as I've got a better camera ^_^

Drawn more and tried different styles that I wouldn't normally draw in.

Passed that piano exam! Wow, that seemed like ages ago... and I've posted consistently on this blog! Woohoo! *celebrates*

But all in all, I could have completed every single one of them if I wasn't super lazy so... urgh why?

Here's a list of 16 resolutions I would like to achieve in 2016 in no particular order:

• Keep my succulent alive 
• Stop leaving everything until the last minute
• Stop being indecisive with everything
• Put on sunscreen (urgh the aussie sun)
• Read more books and complete my new goal on Goodreads!
• Even more art ^_^
• Put studies first!
• Stop procrastinating (which is the hardest thing to do T_T)
• Don't over think too much (I tend to do that way too much and that results in nothing making sense)
• Continue volunteering ^_^
• Grow taller (ha, I wish.) 
• Revise, revise, revise.
• Put up with my current laptop that's starting to deteriorate 
• Exercise regularly (which still probably will not happen...)
• Cut down on YouTube and tv shows and use that time more usefully
• Be organised!

Well, cheers to the new year! Let me know any of your resolutions or goals in the comments below and happy new year!

Have fun!

 ~ Judy x