Valentine’s Day Stationery: Miscellaneous

Welcome to the third and final part of the Valentine’s Day Series.  If you haven’t found a present yet, well… time is definitely running out!  But don’t fear – for Reema is here!  Wow, that was pretty cheesy, wasn’t it?  Moving swiftly on, there’s only a few days till Valentine’s so this last post will contain a whole bunch of ideas that I’ve titled as “miscellaneous” stationery as they don’t quite fall under any one category.  There’s still plenty of time to do these ideas because even if you do a “simple” version of them, they could still be really thoughtful and sweet.  So without further ado, let’s jump right into the first one.

Valentine’s Day Stationery: Memory Books & Journals

The second part to the Valentine’s Day Series is a little bit more time consuming or creative than the first but the results are so worth it.  You don’t have to create a beautiful scrapbook, like the photograph below.  Honestly, it doesn’t need to be a work of art and I will list some easier ways to achieve the same effect but it gives you the option to be as creative as you’d like with this!

Instead of scrapbooking, let’s focus on memory books or journalling.  I really love these sorts of books.  One of the best presents I got from my friends was back in school.  They all got together to create a book for me, writing messages and adding photos in it.  Everytime I look through it, I recall all of the amazing moments and memories with them from school – some of them are things that had happened when we first met and I had forgotten all about them by this point!

For example, one friend wrote about a time that we were messing around and she was trying to push me into a spider web so I was resisting (as I hated spiders and it was also just gross!).  However, her purse fell on the ground whilst we were wrestling and a boy tried to run off with it.  I immediately stopped wrestling her and stopped the kid.  It was a natural reaction – one that I didn’t think anything of.  But she wrote that it was that moment that she knew I was a good friend – one that would defend her friends and fight for them, even if they were trying to do something, by her own admission, kind of mean (like push me into a web).  That moment impacted her in a way I never knew about until I read what she wrote on this book, years after the event.  Sometimes, you never realise who you’ve impacted or how you’ve had affected them – and sometimes the ones that have left lasting marks on you will never realise either, unless you tell them.

Valentine’s Day Stationery: Notepads

Since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, I thought it was the perfect time to do a little mini series on thoughtful gifts  ideas and all of the Valentine’s stationery that you need in your life!  You can read the introduction here before we dive into the first idea.  This one is probably one of my favourites.  It’s so simple and easy to do, you have no reason for not doing it.  It’s inexpensive but thoughtful and you could even turn it into a game…  So let’s jump right in and see how this idea might work for you!

Valentine’s Day Series: Stationery, gifts and ideas to be more thoughtful than costly

This week, I wanted to share with you a whole bunch of amazing products and ideas to show people how much you love them…  And I’m not just talking about your partner but also ways to show your parents, siblings, friends – anyone really – that you love and care about them.

Now I don’t think I’m a romantic person, by any account and I don’t really do Valentine’s Day myself so I won’t even pretend to be a master of romance.  But I’m a huge fan of valentine’s stationery – like kind of obsessively so – I don’t know why, I don’t get it either…  I think it’s partly because I don’t like the idea of people doing something for someone they love just once a year so I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day myself but I love the idea of spoiling the person you love and making sure they know that they are loved so the stationery and products associated with it are brilliant for that.  I’m one of those people whose hand will automatically draw hearts when I’m trying to randomly doodle on the page.

I do appreciate that Valentine’s Day can also sometimes give people the excuse they’ve been looking for to pamper themselves and their loved ones – it can give a couple who may not be very romantic the chance to be more romantic without feeling too awkward or out of place.  You definitely don’t need an excuse to pamper yourselves or your loved ones but sometimes, sadly, you feel like you do – and Valentine’s Day could be a perfect opportunity for that.

Honestly, I think a part of me would like to believe in the fairy tale idea of people always declaring their love for the other and showing their loved ones how much they care on a daily basis.  Of course, I’m fully aware that this doesn’t happen often – I know I definitely take my loved ones for granted at times and I’m sure I’m not alone in this either.  But I like to think that you just know your loved ones love you, that they care about you and worry about you no matter what happens.  I like to think that people will show you that love, care and concern spontaneously throughout the year, through their daily actions or small surprises, simply because they want to.  Not because society (and by society, I really mean the commercial industry in this case) has told them they should.  (The same goes for you, by the way – it’s a two way street!).

Personally, I’m a huge fan of the small things people do for you.  Like one gift I loved was a set of rings from my mum when I was younger.  I came home to find them on the pillow, with a handwritten note to say “to my dearest princess”.  They weren’t expensive or anything but the fact that she had written a note and made a little bit of effort to show she cared meant the world to me.  I remember that feeling of happiness and that’s worth more to me than the more expensive gifts I’ve gotten since.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

– Mary Angelou

So, on that note, I wanted to share a few ideas with you that might help you give that warm fuzzy feeling to your loved ones.  A lot of these you could do for anyone you love, not just your partner or someone you’re romantically interested in.  You could do some of these for your parents, grandparents, children, siblings, any relative or friend!

How to find motivation to read more

Last week, I shared 35 resolutions that will help you to become a better you.  It wasn’t just for you, it was for me too.  One of those was to “read more” and it’s one that I really need to do.  So I thought I’d make that resolution one of mine for this year, making it apt to share how I plan to do that this year.  I don’t read enough, in my opinion and I’ve always said that “one day, I’ll be a read more”.  Of course, one day never really comes, does it?  So with resolution 14 in mind, I’ve decided to actually pick up some books that I’ve been meaning to read but never got around to it.  And let’s be fair, the best way to achieve a target you probably wouldn’t have planned to achieve is to set up something to motivate you to do it – and that’s where this post comes in handy!

In my searches, I came across a few things that I’ve started to do or am planning to use – in the hopes that they’ll help me to achieve my goal & in turn, also help you to do the same.  I thought I’d share a few of my favourites here today.

35 Resolutions to becoming a better you

Since deciding last week that I should work towards hitting my focus in life, I thought I’d think about some resolutions that would help me to achieve that goal.  It’s a simple goal but one that can apply to anyone, which is to simply be the best me that I can be.  Resolutions work timely with the new year and also my birthday, which marks my personal new year (as yours would for you).  I thought of a bunch of resolutions that may be applicable to you so check out the list and see what you think!

If you haven’t found the perfect resolutions for you then this ideas list is a great place to start.  Whether you just haven’t made some yet or you want to try another one, hopefully you’ll find an idea to inspire you from this list!

The old school “new year, new you”

Oh wow, I’ve missed blogging.  I just don’t feel the same when I’m not able to call myself a blogger – so what better day to relaunch my blog than my birthday?  It’s been a hectic few months – what with volunteering abroad for 2.5 months, the run up to Christmas and my travel plans for NYE – and I came back to find that I couldn’t access any of my 32 WordPress drafts!  (Yes 32…  I don’t even know why I have so many.  They may need a little bit of a clear out, to be quite honest). For some reason, none of the drafts seemed to appear – which caused a little state of panic in me.  I thought I had lost all of my drafts – which was only made worse by the fact that my phone randomly died in October!  After losing all of my photos and data, I’m a little weary of technology failing me.  Has this taught me to back up things?  No.  But that’s another story entirely.

What I wanted to do was quickly update you all and just get back into blogging, now that I have figured how to finally get my drafts to reappear.  And what better time to get back into blogging than the new year, on my birthday?  Because a birthday is like another year – instead of saying “I will achieve this in 2017”, you could easily use your birthdays to say “I will achieve this at the age of 26”.  I know that January will be fairly busy for me as I have just returned from Bali and have to catch up with all I missed from Christmas, especially all of the work that’s mounted up at the office for me.  So it may be unrealistic to even pretend that I’ll start blogging regularly straight away.  However, that is definitely a goal for 2017 – something I am determined to stick to, as I absolutely adore blogging and I miss it every time I stop.  There are a lot of ideas that I have, perhaps too many, which will take way too much time to complete and it’s incredibly easy to get overwhelmed by that – which I believe is a reason for my inconsistency in the past.  That is something I am trying to work on and my plan is simple. It’s literally just to start doing it by taking one step at a time.

Speaking of goals, I feel like that is a very apt topic for this time of the year.  Everyone’s been busy preparing for Christmas and the start of 2017, which brings us to resolutions.  I normally don’t set resolutions as I don’t think you should wait until the new year to do something you want to do.  If you think you should stop smoking or lose weight, there’s no better time than right now, right this minute to make that decision.  You don’t have to wait until the 1st January to do that.  I also don’t like that most resolutions are broken faster than they are set.  I know plenty of people who talk about how they’ve broken their resolutions – some within weeks but others within only hours or days.  Yet not many people who talk about how they’ve managed to keep it.

All that being said, I love the idea that everyone sets resolutions together and attempts to achieve them together.  Whatever your resolution is, having someone keeping you accountable can certainly help you to feel more motivated to do it.  So although we shouldn’t wait for the new year to make the changes we want to make, we can definitely take advantage of the opportunity when it arises and set our resolutions!

I haven’t really thought of specific resolutions yet – I’ve only just decided that I should set some and make changes that will help me to achieve my goals.  For a while, I have been aiming to do one thing: to simply be the best me I can be.  This involves improving myself wherever I think I need to – from changing bad habits to developing my skills.  This is definitely a goal that anyone could have.  What it means for you depends solely on yourself.  To help me to become the best version of myself, it’s important to sit down and have a think about what I want to improve or change.  This is where the specific resolutions come in.  They’ll be some of the things that I want to change or improve upon – so, it’s now time to start thinking what they could be!

Whilst I think of mine, I’d love to know what are your resolutions?

* Magnitone Lucid: The Unboxing & Initial Thoughts

I am super excited today for two reasons. The first is that this is the launch of my Lifestyle section and the first proper post under this section – which makes me really happy as that’s something I have wanted to dip in and out of, whilst still focusing on Stationery & Crafts. The second reason is because I have a product that I have wanted to try out for a while sitting in front of me. That product is the Magnitone Lucid cleansing brush* and I am hoping it will help me to clear up my skin (as it promises to do)! As it’s here, I thought I would do a little unboxing and some initial thoughts on the product and what I am hoping it will do for me so you can see what you get in the package.

The Magnitone Lucid is a facial cleansing & exfoliation brush that you can use daily. It promises of softer, clearer and brighter skin within 7 days. The Active Electromagnetic Technology sends quick vibrations into the skin and allows your cleanser to penetrate your skin better than washing it by hand would. It comes with two modes: Deep Clean & Sensitive and you have the choice of several different brush heads to suit your individual needs.

The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

Hi guys! I am back from my holiday now so finally getting around to catching up with some overdue posts!

This post is a little bit different for me but basically Angie kindly nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award so I’m dedicating this post to that. First up, I just want to say that I’m absolutely thrilled to be nominated – especially given I’ve only recently started blogging – and I certainly did not expect it. So a big thank you to the lovely Angie for giving me this pleasure. There are a few rules to follow, which I’ve taken from her post and she’s given me 10 questions to answer! So, let’s go!