Weekly Musings #6: february blues

Hello again - a valiant effort to stay on track this evening with my review failed miserably since I wanted so awfully to touch base here and kind of just do a round up of the stuff that's been going on in my life recently. February hasn't been what I'll call overly kind to me so far, so it's living up to its cliche, one would suppose. Nothing in particular coming up on the horizon and its just felt a little down in general what with the butt-tonne of snow and lots of school work. To try and counteract these gloomy moments, I've been trying to actively write down or point out the more positive things that have happened thus far.

David's Tea strawberry rhubarb parfait // slippers at home for midterm break // bus stop loveliness // vegetarian meal prep

Midterm break-breather: Such as it always happens with me, I dip suddenly after a few weeks/month of being back at school. I know I've touched on how important home/family is to me a few times here and I doubt I'll stop bringing it up. A few days back around the blustery ocean to play scrabble and drink wine with my parents and sister was lovely. And catching up on sleep and work without feeling completely bogged down did wonders for my general sense of peace and mental clarity. Plus, time with my lovely cats is something I can never say no to. 

Contemplation: This one is vague and kind of abstract I'll admit, but I've just generally found the "noise" in my head is less of a flurry and more something I can actually manage and actually process recently. Of course, more often than not it's still all kind of overwhelming and harried, but I've been finding I've been having more clear days than anything else. Even if whatever I'm contemplating isn't the most lovely thought to be thinking, at least I'm being honest with myself, and that does a lot for my mental health in the long run.

homemade waffles (midterm break)

Honorable mentions: ● trying out new ideas for my weekly meal prep and having them be insanely delicious ● peppermint coffee ● finding long forgotten favorite novels ● new pillows ● toast with peanut butter and honey ● finding the time to actually do my makeup nicely and feeling like a total fox ● the lovely people I volunteer with ● safe spaces for critical debates and feminist fun ● prioritizing my yoga practice again and it not being about anyone but me ● a tidy bedroom ● getting into watching the old Twilight Zone ● earplugs (hallelujah) ● successful new note-taking methods ● days that feel like spring ● anticipation for treating myself to a new piercing ● more anticipation for an upcoming performance ● feeling in touch with music again  ● OPI's "love is hot and coal"; such a rad nail colour ● compliments on my Blundstones from a bus driver ● Binge watching How To Get Away With Murder

Link love: ● Someone please buy me these stunning white cat-eye shades for spring? (!!)

● Holla' at me for Valentino's Pre-Fall 2015 collection because oh my god, my obsession with astrology is soaring to new heights. (The capeeesss)
● I've also finally found a way I really enjoy eating salmon, so I'm telling you all to go try this now.

That's all from your slightly forlorn blogger for now, folks; back to the books - has February likewise gotten you down? What silver linings have you found? Much love!

r.

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.

an introduction, of sorts

Incessant [in-ses-uh-nt] adjective. "continuing without interruption; ceaseless; unending."

Incandescent [in-kuh n-des-uh nt] adjective. "intensely bright, brilliant. aglow with purpose, ardor."

          I suppose my choice for a blog title and URL was a rather arbitrary one; I simply liked the alliteration, really. "Incandescent" has also just been my favourite word since Pride & Prejudice in 2005. However, I do think it represents me in the fact that it is a two-word, personal manifesto for how I'd like to live my life.
Ceaseless, intense brightness, vigor and purpose for life.  Starting blogging again, among other 'returns' for me, is to make a point of using my 24 hours a day in a meaningful way and to not let my days go to waste. In an homage to the late and great Robin Williams: carpe diem, if you will.

And though I know I already included a handy button with a short blurb on myself and an 'about me' page, I might as well say it one more time. I'm Rachel, a tender 19 years of age, and a current university attendee in Atlantic Canada, with a penchant for boyish collegiate clothes, frowning a lot and pretending I'll actually make it through Anna Karenina before I'm 80.

Here in my first post I wanted to specify more what this blog is going to be about. Lifestyle blog is probably the best way to tag it, as I'm not particularly focused on one thing or the other. Rather, this will be a collection and reflection of the many facets of me. My outfits, musings on one world issue or another, fitness and health, university-related posts, book/film/music reviews and recommendations and a simply a place to catalog my life and find confidence in myself.

If you're the type of person who doesn't mind the occasional existential outburst, enjoys hard cover books and also has an obsession with achieving the perfect eyebrow, I think you'll fit right in. 

xx.

r