Bullet Journal: Organization for 2015

my key of shorthand symbols

I want to preface this by saying I hate making titles for posts. I'm not a particularly pithy person, hence why all my posts are very matter of fact and decidedly not catchy. Find me a concise and fetching way to title a post on journaling and, and.. I don't know you can come blog with me I guess?

Anyways, in what is my decided addiction to tumblr I run a side blog which catalogs and archives all matter of material related to studying and being an academic. Study and organization tips, advice on test prep, and generally inspiring and motivational images for kicking your ass into gear for revising.
(Studyblr, is the term for that kind of blog, if you were interested)
And as a lot of people are on break, there's a lot of prep on the go for how to hit the pavement running in the new year, which of course, has incited the purchase of a number of daily planners.
But I was more interested in the methodology of staying organized. I have a filofax, which is now lying unused and though I loved the quality of it the one thing I hated was having to buy refills of particular pages if I wanted to continue with it. Enter bullet journaling. I'm not really sure how to sum up what exactly it is, per say because it's such a flexible system and (as you'll see) you can tweak it to fit your needs. So it's not quite as prescriptive as buying a planner with the pages already designated for you. Essentially, it's meant to be an efficient, short-hand method of staying organized, where you can see large groups of information "at a glance."

Here is the link to the official web page that will be able to describe the original system much more efficiently. However, there were aspects to that I did like, re: the monthly events in a column on oen page. I'm a visual person so what I decided to do was draw out an actual calendar to jot small things in and double as a tracker page. Specific tasks and events are on the other side of the spread with room for notes and additions.
The tracker page idea was something I stumbled upon in a random video but in that version the page was flipped so it ran horizontally, so you would have had to turn the actual journal to view it correctly and I just wasn't feeling that. So instead I designated my tracker symbols to the actual calender I drew out, which you can see below.

monthly two page spread

As you can see, I'm tracking the quality of my sleeping, completing my workouts, water intake, if I'm sticking to eating well and my overall mood for that day. And, yes, you can see I've scheduled in my nuvaring dates in already. Fight me, it's a medical marvel. I don't have any dailies pages yet, since January has't arrived yet but once I do get back into the school year and actually really get into this system I'll do an update post and let you know how I've been finding it and if I've made any changes. The main reason I think I'm going to like this system is it's flexibility and the customization aspect to it.

Like I mentioned earlier, it's not quite the same as the original system but it's fairly similar. Rather than set pages or whatnot I can put everything in the order that works for me and the shorthand, bullet style of the dailies pages works for me, as I'm that person who has a million sticky notes to remember little things. The kind of artsy, personal feel to it was another thing that drew me in; taking my sharpie and Staedtler pens and taking the time to make it aesthetically pleasing is kind of cathartic for me and feels more "me" than buying inserts or pre-planned journal.
 The pictures are a little out of order but below (starting from the left going clockwise) is my first dailies page I've drawn up, then my index and some collection pages I've started. The index is literally just the table of contents for your journal, which is another aspect I really think is going to come in useful. You just designated particular pages for certain things and than label at the front. My moleskine is blank so I number my pages myself but plenty of journals are pre-numbered. The collection pages in the bottom right corner are (for right now healthy recipes I want to try and a to-do list of things I need to pick up when I go back to uni. If I don't end up filling up that pages, I can half it off, draw up something else to put there and simply add it to the index. Like, do you see how efficient this is?!

dailies sample page // index // collection page spread

I don't plan on tracking my dailies pages in the index, that'd be too much, but collection pages, yes indeed. I think this will include things like self care ideas, lovely advice to myself, workout ideas/tracking and pages for planning papers for school. Hopefully this will keep my ass on track in 2015.

That's it for now on the bullet journal front! You darlings have any particular plan to stay on track in the new year?

r.

Vegan Double-Chocolate Brownie Recipe

Alright kids, buckle up, we're heading for some seriously decadent chocolate goodness for your holiday baking this year.

I've been wanting to do a 'recipe' post for eons now and though I wanted to gear that more towards actual meals, kick-starting it with this luscious dessert is no bad thing.
So recently (as in like, a week ago) my dad, mom sister and I served two nights worth of delicious dining to Hey Rosetta when they were in my home town to do a couple shows. My dad is an excellent cook and can honestly whip up just about anything from any culture you can think of.
The band actually had a number of dietary restrictions, including gluten intolerance and a few lactose intolerant individuals and one vegan.
Naturally taking the wonders that are butter and cream out of a recipe can seem like a shot to the foot but let me tell you this vegan brownie recipe is probably worth risking incarceration or something.

It's good.

Firstly here's the link for the recipe, all credit due to Crazy For Crust. I figured I'd write it out here and add some notes on what I noticed after fiddling with it a bit after a couple times making it.





ingredients:

• 1/2 a cup of vegetable oil
• 1 & 1/2 cups of sugar (This is what the recipe calls for BUT let me tell you one cup is plenty and keeps the brownies tasting rich rather than sickly sweet)
• 1 tbsp. of vanilla 
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa 
• About a 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce 
• 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted 
• 1 tsp. of salt 
• 1 & 1/2 cups of flour 
• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips 

instructions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Get a long baking pan of your choose, glass or whatever preference and either rub down with butter or cooking spray. I use butter so it wasn't perfectly vegan, if you want to stick to that use a cooking spray
• Stir together oil and sugar. Stir in vanilla, cocoa, and applesauce. Add melted chocolate and salt, stir until smooth. Slowly stir in flour. Add chocolate chips.    
  ● a note on melting the chocolate, either use a double boiler or do  SLOWLY in a microwave, I did it in 10 second increments; any longer and if you don't take the time to stir your chocolate will burn and let me tell you that's really just...gross.   
  ● And yes, do throw in that much salt, you didn't use any butter or whatnot so do keep to that amount
• Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-28 minutes. (I would try 25 minutes first, it tends to be just right). It'll seem a little "un-set" when you take it out, so let it set/cool for a bit before cutting. 

When you're stirring everything together your 'dough' is going to seem very dry and thick, this is okay. It's not going to be nice and pour easily into your pan, use your clean hands and kind of pat it. in and down.

Behold the final decadence. 

I suggest finding a good raspberry or strawberry coulis recipe to serve with this.

Let me know if you try this out! Would you like to see more recipes?

r.

Weekly Musings #4: Holiday Edition

Well hello my lovelies. I'm sure many of you can sympathize with me in terms of school being an absolute drainer this term. With volunteering and staying on top of my marks and making time for relationships blogging took the back burner. Which, with my intention to document my year more makes me a terrible person. Well, if not terrible, than disorganized.
Regardless I seriously hauled ass this term and improved my marks a whole bunch, which I am so incredibly proud of myself for doing. With another good term under my belt in the winter applying to psychology faculty (with acceptance) looks promising.

Without further ado however, I wanted to take some time to reflect on some things I've been appreciative of these past few weeks since cluing up my first semester and coming home. 

cozy room and stella artois // our christmas tree // MUN library // en route from the gym to aforementioned library

Being Home: This one seems fairly simplistic, but I've been reflecting on what home means to me a lot this year. Maybe it's because I am actually a professional nostalgic and Christmas just exasperates that but the whole beginning month of December was stressful to the enth' degree and it made me all that much more elated to be back in my childhood bedroom and spending quality time with my parents and sister, while having time to explore my tiny sea-side town all over again. I didn't realize how much I actually enjoyed my small-town roots.

Self-Care: Again, with the way finals and end of term projects and such caught up on me and I didn't have time to focus on the outlets that maintain my sanity. My diet, sleep schedule and general habits I have for taking care of myself slipped considerably. Being on break has given me the opportunity to getting back to eating vegetables and other wholesome food again, as well as getting enough sleep (sleep is so important to me now?!?!) Yoga and running are now back on track again and I've (obviously) started blogging again and journaling consistently and I'm starting to feel like myself again. I suggest that you all prioritize some self care this holiday season. I'm probably going to make a post about it, truthfully. 

not mine; credit to whomever

honorable mentions: ● bursting with ideas for new blog posts ● white christmas lights to adorn my room with ● seeing Hey Rosetta! at my local theatre; seriously this was such an amazing, meaningful moment for me, they are probably one my favorite bands of ever ● decadent vegan brownies ● staying hyrdated ● beautiful, thoughtful gifts from J ● wrapping presents to Spotify christmas playlists ● making running progress ● kitten cuddles ● binge watching Mad Men ● quinoa-bread toast with homemade jam ● egg nog and rum (hella' great combination, get your juice on with this guys, seriously) ● new teas for chilly mornings ● actually reading for pleasure ● kindness from strangers ● Christmas trees in public establishments ● my dad's wonderful cooking (I'm sorry I talk enthusiastically about food so much) ● craft beer ● cozy mornings in bed  ● drinking enough water every day ● Christmas baking and tree decorating with my lovely momma ● stretching sore muscles 

link love: ● Gala on "living out loud"  in the winter. 
● I really need to invest in a thick tweed-y coat like this one; anyone know where I can get one at a reasonable price?
●30 movies to watch  with your relatives & co. this holiday. ● A Cup Of Jo's editor Caroline on being single for the holidays and how to survive it. (Kind of feeling this in a weird way since J is away for our whole break)

How's your holiday break been so far lovelies (if you are on break)? Everyone still as excited for Christmas as I am? Talk soon!

r.