Tuesday 29 April 2014

Reorganize Your School Life

Last weekend was Easter, meaning that it was a four day weekend. I took advantage of this and decided to do some reorganizing before exam season starts. For those uni students reading this, I know that some of you have already finished your exams, but maybe this could be useful for you next year? :P

Anyways, here's how I organize my school life and I hope it gives you some tips on how to organize your own as well!

1. Tackle the pile of papers.

As disciplined as you can be, we probably all have those loose sheets of paper gathering in the depths of our bags and around our desk. Oh, and did I mention that I've a had pile of paper in the corner of my room since Spring Break waiting to be organized? My first step is to go through my school bag and my room, gathering a huge pile of loose papers.

2. Organize those textbooks.

After studying for various tests over the year, my textbooks end up scattered all over the place. Now would be the time to restore them to a little corner on your desk or on a shelf.

3. Sort those papers.

I usually sort my papers into ten different categories. Eight of these belong to the courses I'm taking at school, another is for miscellaneous papers which do not have designated folders and the final one is for and unwanted paper that can still be used for scrap brainstorming and math calculations (yep, I'm a nerd).

4. Put the papers in their rightful homes.

Now that you have all your papers sorted out, it's pretty easy to just grab your binders and add the papers. Sadly, it takes far too much time having to match each individual page's punched holes with the rings on the binder.

5. A table of contents is easy to make and will go a long way.

Let's face it. When school is really stressful, you'll learn everything for a test and forget it right away. You might even toss your notes to the side and lose them all together. By keeping track of every single page in your binder, it'll be easier during exam time to see what notes you're missing and go bug a friend for them...

6. The "One Binder Fits All" experiment.

This year, I have been trying out a new way to organize my school work. Instead of keeping a chaotically messy locker full of binders at school and lugging them home on nights before tests over a one hour bus ride, I've decided to keep them all home. Instead, only one binder stays in my bag at all times and I just add whatever I need for school in the morning and take out what is unneeded at night.

Of course, I'm not completely disciplined on emptying my binder everyday, so I go through the method of taking out any unnecessary sheets, organizing them into ten categories and putting them in the proper binders.

7. A small pencil case is a clean pencil case.

I love my pencil case. It's a small canvas pencil case my cousin (I think) bought me from the Japanese stationery store, MUJI. Actually, all the contents of my pencil case are from there as well... In my last post, I said that the best face care products can be found in Korea, and now I'm telling you that Japan makes extremely high quality stationery for school.

I used to be that kid with the huge pencil case which was full of mysterious pencil shavings and random useless objects. This year, I took the approach of only bringing one pencil to school, along with one eraser, refill led, a mini ruler, scissors and one pen of each colour. It's been so much easier to keep track of my pens, and another plus to this is that you won't be able to lend any pencils to people who may lose them or never return them!

8. Don't be in paper debt.

How many times have you heard the phrase: "Can I borrow a sheet of paper?". For me, everytime I hear that sentence, I think of how it's not really possible for them to 'borrow' a sheet of paper haha. You do not want to be that person who always walks around the class asking for paper. Though there's nothing wrong with that, let's save you the trouble and restock on some paper in each binder, hm?

9. That moment when your teacher gives handouts without holes and all the effort you put into organizing your binder just disappears.

If you have any papers crammed into the pockets of your binders or just kept between the cover of the binder and your first page of notes, make sure you punch some holes into them and add them to the rings.

10. Hide the chaos with boxes.

You'll never be able to organize everything. There is simply not enough room to organize your clutter. This is where boxes become your best friend. I keep a medium sized box under my desk to hide my inner hoarder. I get easily attached to objects that hold some sort of memory with them, and this is a way to keep the clutter away from the open, but still be able to keep them and take a trip down memory lane occasionally.

This smaller box on my desk, however, contains any study items I would need other than the pens in my pen holder and the notebooks next to my textbook stack.

In other words, I have stacks of sticky notes, bookmarks, rulers and... a random stress ball?

11. You love wearing clothes, but you hate folding them.

We all have that pile of clothes somewhere in our room. Lately, I've been studying so late that I'm already half asleep before getting into my bed. There's definitely no time for me to be organizing my clothes from the day of and for the next day. Now would be the time for you to pick through the clothes to find anything that needs to go in the wash or hang up any jackets and sweaters that are lying around.

12. Bags are a girl's best friend... until you trip over one.

After a day at school or a day out in the mall, I have a bad habit of throwing my bag somewhere in my room and leaving it there until it gets in my way. Normally, I would keep all my bags on the floor in my closet. Be sure to take some time to go through your bags, throw out anything you don't need, and potentially find anything you thought you had lost. Then store them or hang them up wherever your bags go and keep them out of the way!

13. Healthy food is a must.

I'm a hypocrite. I indulge far too often in chips and popcorn to be healthy. I have been trying lately to eat more fruits and vegetables and have found a new obsession with yogurt. So be sure to add some healthy snacks onto the grocery list for the next shopping run!

And those are my tips to re-organizing your school life for maximum efficiency while studying. Clutter is not only a hazard while walking around in your room, but is also a big distraction while trying to study. So clear up your space and good luck on the busiest season of your school year!

How do you like to organize your school life?

Monday 21 April 2014

❀ The Stress Shopping Haul ❀

What should have been a relaxing afternoon spent window shopping and strolling down the mall became an opportunity for splurging and stress shopping. My sister and I had only intended to go visit the new Korean cosmetics store, THEFACESHOP, which had opened recently, but we got slightly carried away in other stores as well... So without further ado, here is what came out of my shopping spree!

❀ ALDO ❀

I've always bought the same old classical sunglasses... until now. I never thought that I'd be able to pull off a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses, but apparently I can. I'm so excited to wear these, and I feel that now that I have a more unique and exciting pair of sunglasses, I'll be much more motivated to wear them and protect my eyes from the UV rays in the summer.

These are the pair of sunglasses my sister picked out. We both decided to go for a more adventurous pair, and the 2 for $20 deal made it that much better! I actually love circled sunglasses, but, unfortunately, they don't suit my face at all. When my sister wears these, she looks super chic, hipster and ready to go to Coachella, haha :P

❀ THEFACESHOP ❀

My goal today was to go visit this newly opened store. I am in love. If you have one near you, you should definitely go check it out if you haven't already. Korean skin care products are some of the best in the world and THEFACESHOP has a bonus with cute packaging and affordable prices.

I'm not one to blow dry my hair after showers so I usually wake up in the morning to craziness. Having this cool little brush will definitely encourage me to blow dry my hair at night so I won't ever have to go through the pain of sleeping on a slightly damp pillow ever again! And remember when I said that their product are super affordable? This brush was only $4! If I ever need to buy makeup, this store is going to be my first stop.

❀ FOREVER XXI ❀

Usually, stores like Forever XXI put the weirdest clothing in their sale sections. I always find myself questioning why anyone would design and produce certain pieces of clothing. However, I always stop by the sale section for a two-minute treasure hunt in hopes of finding something worthy of purchasing, and today was my lucky day. 

I currently have an obsession with crew neck sweaters. Too often, I'm up until 2 am doing work, which only gives me 6 hours of sleep max. This obviously leaves me with no motivation to put any complicated outfit together, so I leave the house with a sweater or crew neck and a pair of leggings. I found that this design was super simplistic and had a very unique charm to it, so here it is, in my closet!


If I could, I would wear dresses every single day. Whenever I see a dress that 'suits my style', you could say, it's not healthy with the amount of strength it takes for me not to buy it. I've seen so many daisy dresses around since last summer and have been searching for a Brandy Melville styled dress, since Ottawa doesn't have a Brandy Melville yet. I finally found this dress today and I cannot wait to wear it. I love the loose material it's made out of and the unique cut out in the back.

My sister has been intrigued by the new overalls trend and finally decided to give in. These are going to be super cute with any solid coloured, tight crop top since monochrome clothing goes with pretty much anything.

This is really random, but we spent waay more than $35 at Forever XXI, so here's our free lip gloss? :P

I hope you enjoyed this little delve into my shopping bags. It's going to be so stressful for the few months remaining of school, so I hope nobody allows me near a mall again until summer...

Saturday 19 April 2014

Day Trip to Montreal

Montreal is a two hour drive from where I live, so my family decided to take advantage of our long weekend to visit my older sister's potential university for next year. We also may have managed to find her the perfect prom dress in only one hour in a cute little boutique... 

Montreal is one of the most European cities in Canada, so naturally, my camera tagged along on the trip. So without further ado, here's some photos I took of our day trip to Montreal, Quebec!

First song on shuffle for the road trip. You've probably all heard this song and just don't know the name, but it is literally the perfect road trip song.

Ridiculously high gas prices...


It was a coffee kind of morning for my parents...

Shout out to those who have watched the drama Secret Garden, this reminds me of the car and thunderstorm scene :')

Reading my English class book on the car ride...

Montreal, forever under construction :P

Old Montreal

Chinatown

McGill


Timmy's for lunch :D

The street we went prom dress shopping on!


Cutest lantern ever.


I have an obsession for little chalkboard signs on cute boutique streets. And the little kiddie bike in the back makes it even better.






I'm kind of in love with this mug.



What's a road trip without fast food? :P

Sunset on the way back home <3
Hope you liked the photos! I'll see you soon with another post! :)