I've Moved

At the beginning of summer I decided to switch my blog to a new platform with a new look. I decided that I enjoyed writing about books. So if you want to catch up with what I've been doing head over to my new blog. https://creativecodex.wordpress.com
 

May Unboxing

Last month I received my first ever owlcrate and I must say it did not disappoint. On Monday I received my second one now if you saw my first unboxing you'll have seen that this months theme was Steampunk. I was super excited yet very curious about what in the world they were going to send in this. When I first opened this months box my one question was, "Is there a Clockwork Angel themed trinket in this?" While I knew that there would be from the sneak peek E-mail they sent I was still super excited. Of course there was along with a few other items that will help out greatly when I do my steampunk costume in August. :)

 The first thing you see when you open up the box is this handy little card. On the back is all the information about all of the products that are in the box. But after you set this aside you get to the goodies.

Lets break it down:

1. The Infernal Devices ring designed by Sparks Emporium
2. Skeleton key pendant necklace created by Crystal Compass Designs
3. Steampunk nail-wraps by Espionage Cosmetics
4. A awesome ring from Elope. This is just one of the five metal accessories that this months box had.
5. Minimalist art print tribute to J.M. Barrie from Creative Daffodil Studios.
6. And the book, Everland by Wendy Spinale. According to the card this story is a unique spin on the classic Peter Pan story. Along with the book I received some gold flash tattoos based on the book and a letter from the author.  

If this has made you interested in what owlcrate has to offer head over to their website and subscribe. Junes theme is Royalty! Also if you enjoyed Aprils box owlcrate is offering a one time purchase of Aprils Dystopian themed box!

What's in my Gym Bag

Woah, so this past semester was absolute madness! Finally I'm on summer break and am trying to make the most of it! So the first thing I did was start going back to the gym. I always try to go to the gym during school but I can never seem to fit it in once homework and everything else school has to offer starts up. So i have taken to only going to the gym on my breaks from school. So I'm back at the gym and am really making it work this time. I feel absolutely great this time around, and have not had that dread of  'I really don't want to go!' So to share my excitement I thought I would share what I keep in my gym bag.

To start my bag isn't anything too special I purchased it at my local Wal-Mart for under $20. I really like it and it works for me.

1. Set of headphones - Can't workout without music. 
2. Headband and hair ties- My hair is super long right now and I can't concentrate without pulling my hair back.
3. Clothes - I go to the gym first thing in the mornings on my days off from work, so I keep the next days outfit in my bag so i can just grab it in the morning.
4. Knee braces - I maybe young but my job is very physically taxing so, sadly I have a bad knee.
5. Water bottle - I love this bottle I got it from Victoria Secret a few years ago.
6. Personal Hygiene products - I keep a fresh smelling body mist in my bag to spritz on after my workout. Deodorant is a must for anyone.
7. Emergency bag - I keep one of these in every bag I carry so that I always know I have things I would need. I keep band aids, an EOS balm, nail clippers, hand sanitizer, bobby pins, extra hair bands, and oil absorbing sheets.

If I were to be going somewhere other than home after the gym of course I would have much more to carry with me. I'm very happy with my gym schedule and it feels great to be back in the gym. I have so much more energy to get everything I need to do done.

Holy Subscription Box!

 SO the other day I was scrolling through the old Facebook and came across one of those advertisements for subscription boxes. Typically I would just shrug it off thinking it would be cool but that day was different, call it impulse or whatever but I had to order it. So what was this box of wonderful that I had to order?
OwlCrate! Now this is a box full of goodies. Ok so first things first, this is a bookworms dream box. Each box comes with goodies that are related to not only the theme of the month but also books. The big surprise in each box is a newly published YA Novel that falls under the theme. The month of Aprils theme was Dystopia, and with it I got many themed book related fun, as well an awesome looking book.

In this months box I received:
-A coaster, that reads "I spent my life folded between the pages of books"
-A Hunger Games magnet by Property of the HalfBloodPrints
-Stacked Hunger Games Mocking Jay bracelet from The Geeky Cauldron
-WICKED decal from The Maze Runner series created by ShailyAnnDesigns
-A small pocket sized notebook which features artwork from George Orwell's 1984 by Manuscript
-Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

Wanna join the fun Subscribe for the May box with the theme Steampunk!

5 Steps to Get Back on Track

Monday I posted about this semester being much more chaotic than fall. So today I decided to talk about  how I'm using spring break to get back on track.

For starters is bringing back the planner. At this point of the semester I have only used my planner to write in due dates and big events when in the fall everything goes in the planner. My first step to getting back on track is to get my planner back on track.

My next step is to go over what my goals were in January and reevaluate them to accommodate how the semester has been going. Hopefully this will help me get back into what I need to do.

Step three, Clean! Oh my goodness are my work spaces a mess! I can't even get to my desk in my studio. I have three full days off this week and while I slept most of Monday, cleaning is my top priority.

Step four, Get caught up with school work. This is important I know I have a few things that’s due when I get back to school next week so completing those as well as some other things I know is coming up is a must.

After that is trying to stick to a set schedule, I know to make a habit of something you need to do it continuously for so many days so that’s what I need to do I need to make a habit of sitting down and following my schedule.

I hope this has helped anyone who is in the same boat as I am. I know sitting down a writing this has got me feeling much better about getting things back on track I hope it works

Spring Semester Horror

I've been seeing a lot lately that the spring semester is a lot worse than the fall semester. It's been a conversation that I've had with a couple different people and I must say it is true. For what ever reason as soon as you hit the spring semester everything goes haywire and nothing happens the way you planed it. I've though a lot on why this is and can only figure it's because the break in between semesters is so much sorter for the spring. That and it feels as though the spring semester is shorter than the fall. But what ever the reason is we still get super stressed out in the spring.

Personally I've been spiraling out of control. It's super upsetting to make a detailed goals list and hope that you can actually do it this semester, then classes become very overwhelming so you're weeks behind in your planning. It seems to be my trend, plan to do a bunch of things, start them, semester gets picked up, then drop all the planning for trying to keep my head above water. At least I can say I'm passing my classes, which in the grand scheme of things is the important part right.

It's now spring break at my school and I'm going to use this time to try to regroup with everything and maybe get back on track with all the things that I wanted to do this year. I'm also hoping this new work schedule helps me with this.

2016 Goal Setting

I've never been good at Goal setting I always ended up forgetting about the goal or just giving up because it got overwhelming. So recently I decided to try it differently this year. I sat down the other day and told myself this is it you want to do these things you need to figure out a way to do it. These are the tricks I'm using to get my goals in order and achieve them.

My first step was to grab a pen and some paper and write down the areas I wanted to work on. For myself I chose;

-School

-Book

-Etsy

-Blog

I then started with one, in this case School and started to write what I wanted out of this semester. I decided that is how I wanted to organize all four sections, So each section was separated, spring 2016 which is January to May then Summer 2016 (June and July), then Fall 2016 August to December. For right now I just focused on what I wanted out of spring.

The Four notebooks and the Colors.

Now I have a list of goals for each section of my life with a reasonable "due date." I didn't stop there however. I then took to One Note this could be done with just a plain note book but this way I can print off the pages I want. If you haven't used One Note before it is a Microsoft office product that helps you organize your notes and documents all in one place. Now I have never really used One Note before but I love the ease of use it has and thought it would be perfect to use for my goal planning. In one note I made a notebook for each thing on my list, color-coded them with my planner, then moved on to pages. Each notebook, except school, has two pages: one is goals and the second is a timeline.

My Goals page for two of my sections

In the Goals page I've typed up the goals I wrote on my piece of paper earlier. Then it gets fun, The timeline page is where I've made my goals reasonable and easily achievable. I split up my goals put the date I wanted it accomplished then split the main goals into tasks with due dates. This way I know I need to work on a task for my main goal on a specific day and I know I will be able to do the task.

My Book timeline for one goal

Then I moved to my Planner and put the task in there with a sticky tab on the day I want to do it. This way when I plan for the next week I know I have something to do for my goal and I can make the time to do the task.

There you have it my new trick to get Goals done, splitting your large goal into small quick tasks that you can work on once a week. I hope this will help you with any of your goals you may have I know I feel so much better about getting everything done this year!