style: winter blues

Hello babes! So I took the advantage of my free morning to actually post an outfit. This is something new to me and I'm doing it in the hopes it'll help me reflect and refine my style. Part of being on campus (and also living in Newfoundland) is striking the right chord between practicality, comfort and style. I'm still trying to figure out what elements feel the most 'me', which is more of a challenge than I thought. I've always been a big believer that your clothes and personal style are an excellent form of self expression and I was always slow to the game on it. I can always recognize uniqueness and originality in others but I find it hard when it comes to me because I want to wear 50 different identities at once. 

So, yeah, it's a slow process. Reflecting on this outfit: I like the layers; as a busty girl finding ways to dress your boobs (let's be frank here, that's what you have to do) is not always easy and I'm drawn towards more masculine aesthetics anyways. Again, striking the right chord isn't always easy. 

This is just casual-ness for a day of volunteering, picking up some odds and ends and running to my psychology of sexual health class. Button up shirts are my best friend, not going to lie. As are the Blundstones I'm going to throw on with this. I'm going to do a review of those real soon, truthfully because they are SUCH a cold/wet weather essential. 

pearls & earrings - gifts // jeans & oxford button down -GAP // sheer gardigan - F21

Not pictured, the kickass vintage cabin sock I threw on after. Coziness is key. 

Apologies for the mirror pics, I'll try to find a better venue for photographs soon! Hope you're all having a lovely day!
r.

  

Self Care & Why It Needs to be Prioritized

not mine; credit to whomever owns it

              I'm not sure where I first heard about the idea of self-care but the more I've delved into it and come understand what it means it surprises me that it's not a more popular concept.
Then again, perhaps it shouldn't; our society still has plenty of stigma around discussing a lot of aspects of mental health.

~

                I'm sure a lot of people in fact don't know what it is, and thankfully the internet provided a handy summation of it for me: "any intentional acts by an individual to take care of their physical, mental and emotional selves."
This obviously can mean different things for different people but as a student, in particular, the fact that more emphasis is not placed on discussing taking care of your mental self is disappointing.  It's a perfectly reasonable, or at least normalized,thing to hear about drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, making time for exercising and eating well but when it comes to doing the same for our emotional well being, it just isn't talked about on the broad scale it should be. I do realize that physicality is a part of self-care, I mentioned it earlier, however, that alone is does not embody self-care as a whole. Because I totally agree with that; I feel more centered mentally when I do stay hydrated and eat foods that nourish my body and soul (lean protein for dem' lifting gainz and pizza for my soul), and get adequate sleep. However, that's the easy bit. Or easier bit, I should say.

~

               A lot of people I know, myself included tend to not really analyze what it means to take the necessary steps for mental well being.  After taking some time to self-reflect and review some of the self-care notes I was given when I did my volunteer orientation (which is with a Women's Resource center) I think I've summarized the essentials fairly well in the following. These are just some general ideas for prioritizing self care in your life!




 Physical self care:

• Eat regularly! I know that with busy schedules (especially as a student) or when you're having a particularly off day it isn't appealing/easy but it's part of what your body needs to function. This also means try to eat things that are good for both your body and soul. Fruit and veg helps keep your body happy but pizza is good for the soul.
• Take care of whatever medical care/prescriptions you need on the regular. 
• Wear your favorite outfits that make you feel beautiful/empowered/happy.
• Take time when you need it - this means saying NO when you need to; don't feel you have to sacrifice time you need for you to appease other people.
• Get enough sleep; maybe think about creating a soothing evening routine to stick to each night to wind down.
• Stay hydrated! I recommend the Water Your Body app to help remind you; it keeps you more alert, prevents headaches, and is excellent for your skin.

Psychological/Emotional self care:

• Make time for self reflection! Maybe keep a private journal to release at the end of each day 
• Try to stay organized/ahead of your schedule - decreasing your overall stress takes a load of your mind and body. 
• Give yourself affirmations and praise yourself!
• Re-read/re-watch your favourite books or movies.
• On that note, figure out what activities in your life are comforting and seek them out!
• Allow yourself emotional release; this could mean crying when you need to or taking out some anger on a punching bag in the gym.
• Take steps to love and appreciate the body you have - it's a hard road but learning to love your vessel and be happy and comfortable in it does a lot for your mental health.
• Engage your intelligence by trying something new; maybe visit an art gallery or another exhibit of your interest, an up coming performance or concert! 
• Appreciate the non material aspects of your life.
• Accept that you don't have the answers to everything all the time; focus on your present self.
• Consider making time to meditate or pray as private time for peace and self-reflections and self-appreciation. 
• Contribute to causes you feel strongly about!

  

  not mine; credits to whomever 

Personal Recommendations:

• Grow something; I find keeping a few plants in my room to take care of soothing in some way - the greenery perhaps?
• Find some incense or candles that you adore; a nice smelling room does a lot to make your room/space feel like a welcoming, comfortable area for you.
• Keep a gratitude jar - at the end of each day I take a small piece of paper and write at least four things I was grateful for, found inspiring/beautiful/intriguing. 
• Treat yourself to little presents here and there when you can afford it; I find buying a new lotion or nail polish or book makes me feel special and like I'm dating myself!
• Track your finances; I find that staying on top of my finances and budgeting my life means I don't have to stress about spending in the future. 
• Yoga! I find my practice (when I'm not terrible at prioritizing it myself) really centers me and quiets my mind as well as gives me a new appreciation of what my body is capable of. (This goes for any physical action/exercise that makes you feel lovely)
• Focus on having good posture throughout the day.
• Take long evenings to pamper yourself. 
• Learn to cook; not only is the process of prepping a meal pretty tranquil, you get a yummy dish at the end of it to enjoy. 
• Moisturizeeeeeee; especially in the winter when your skin needs it. 

That's all for now! Hopefully this may have inspired you or given you new ideas to take care of your wonderful selves - have a wonderful day!

r.

Weekly Musings #5: Fresh Fallen Snow & Good Vibes edition

coffee date with J

Hallo meine leiben!
My first week back into the semester is almost at an end and I wanted to touch base since I've been at a pretty good place since I got back in town and back to classes. Just decompressing by writing this up before I hit the books to do some light work. Keeping ahead of my studies has been a resolution of mine but more on resolutions later.

No math classes: Yes, ladies and gents for the first time in my academic career thus far I am doing NO math related courses of any kind. This is a pretty huge deal for me since I've had to haul ass to do okay in math since I can ever remember. Not having to devote so much more time and energy to that subject area gives me so much relief and I'm feeling like I'm going to be focusing on my other courses so much better this term, because well, no anxiety from maths. (?!)

General feel good vibes for life: Not a big specific event or anything but despite a few setbacks mentally and feeling pretty damn homesick for time with my parents and cats I'm feeling pretty darn good overall. I've been prioritizing the things that keep me if not happy (because constant happiness isn't like a thing and it's not achievable or realistic anyways???) but very content. Re: keeping my room clean and lighting rad candles, keeping up with my bullet journal, making baby-steps in establishing healthy habits and prioritizing school work and me-time equally. I'm hoping I'm going to be good about keeping this up because I've been digging this mentality.

honorable mentions: ● walks with J under fluffy-falling snow ● having J back after the holiday spent apart ● white christmas lights to decorate my room with ● again, yes scented candles (so good) ● Mac Demarco; seriously, I'm just really digging his music and I haven't resonated with new music in a long time so this is loverly' feeling ● my Blundstones (doing a seperate review post of these because damn such a good investment ● vanilla bean lattes ● re-watching House M.D. ● feeling enthusiasm towards all my courses this term ● sleepovers and cuddles ● being better at staying hydrated ● bullet journal good-vibes ● getting back at the workout grind ● similarly, that sore muscle feeling ● nifty new practical bags and totes ● my general sense of gratefulness ● plans for drinks with rad people this weekend ● new calendars ● crosswords on the bus home ● my supportive amazing parents ● oversized knit infinity scarves ● feeling inspired writing-wise ● new workout kicks ● blue sharpie pens

link love: 

campus in the snow

● I wasn't kidding about Mac Demarco; this song is currently on repeat as is Blue Boy! 
● New hair goals! 
● This lovely website, run by the darling Kat; such an amazing, motivational and useful resource for all students - hello tried and true study tips!
● Linking you this tag on my tumblr for movie master-posts because what's better than curling up with tea or coffee, snacks and kick-ass movies?

That's all for now folks; what have been the highlights of your week been?                               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.

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.