year two, term three essentials

EDIT: I just realised I've written two of these! (One earlier this month). I guess this post is more of my exam essentials and the other one was more of a project essentials. How weird!

Technically, there wasn't a term three in my second year but for the sake of my sanity, I pretended there was one anyway (with the Easter four day weekend being the separating point of term two and three). Term three was pretty much exam time and project time so my essentials are quite study and comfort oriented.

Exercise Books

Earlier this month, I talked about how I use my notebooks and one of the things I used them for this term included practice papers and writing rough notes in a quick and cursive scrawl. The ones shown above are from Artbox (the three from the left) and Semikolon (just the one on the right). Exercise books are cheap and cheerful and the lack of pages in them make them easy to carry around in my bag to university.

Pens

From top to bottom: Pilot Coleto, Pilot Kakuno in Fine, Zebra Mildliner, Kaweco Skyline Sport, Lamy Safari.

I used fountain pens a lot during revision because to me, they are more of a luxury pen than a gel pen or a biro. Also, look how cheerful the colours of their barrels are?! They were exactly what I needed during a tough and intense revision period. The Kaweco Skyline Sport is a new addition after a friend recommended it to me in March and I gushed about it earlier this month.

Now that there are three fountain pens in my stationery arsenal, I kind of want to try others but I just don't see a use for more expensive versions of them. Especially as I've lost a few pens already when running around on placement - but luckily only cheap biros (though I did also lose a Muji gel but they're not that expensive to replace). 

Comfort Clothes

I spent a lot of this term in sweatpants or sweatshorts and I have no regrets. Studying calls for slubby tanks and comfy loungewear because of how often I shift positions. Cross-legged, sitting on my legs, sitting with my feet up - I can't sit still for too long without moving.

For the rest of summer, I'm predicting my essentials will be:

- my Rayban Wayfarers
- a pair of comfortable flats for walking around in
- floaty summer skirts
- seeing friends I've not seen much throughout the year.

Let's hope the weather holds up this summer :)

happy 5th birthday, blog (and a little giveaway)!

Five years ago today, this blog was born and I was a mere, nineteen year old who had just finished my first year of a university degree. Fast forward to now and this blog is still here and running (though there were some patches of inactivity during my first degree).

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's joined me on this journey: you readers (who I still can't believe actually choose to read my weekly ramblings), sponsors and companies/brands I've worked with and my friends and family for supporting me. Writing a blog is pretty nerdy but I've enjoyed every moment and I can't imagine giving this up. Though I may have to post less frequently in the next two years, I don't intend to give this up anytime soon.

Anyway, to celebrate five years, I've got a two sets of prizes to giveaway as sponsored by The Fox and Star.

1) A Weekly Times planner and a Livework clouds pen
2) A Monthly Times planner and a Livework clouds pen

To enter, all you have to do is follow the instructions below using Rafflecopter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Good luck!

Terms and Conditions

This giveaway is hosted in conjunction with The Fox and Star and Angela (here at Paper Lovestory). 

The giveaway is open from the 27th of July 2015 at 00:00 hours until the 10th of August 2015 00:00 hours. 

You may tweet once a day for an additional entry, provided it is done through the Rafflecopter engine. Entrants must be aged 16 or over to take part. 

Entrants under 16 must have their parents permission to enter.

If you win, you are agreeing to send me your postal address so that your prize can be posted to you. 

You have seven days from the announcement of the winners to send me your address, otherwise a new winner will be drawn. 

There will be two winners - one for each prize. 

Only entries through the Rafflecopter engine will be valid. 

Delivery of the prize is the handled by The Fox and Star, not by myself (Angela at Paper Lovestory).

This giveaway is open worldwide. 

my week #171

So this week, I got super excited as I'd written in that Paper Towns was due to be released on Friday. Imagine my disappointment when logging on to check film times to see that it's been pushed back again to the 21st of August! Although the book didn't impress me as much as some of John Green's other offerings, Nat Wolff is in the film and he's just too adorable not to see on the big screen.

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon tweaking the blog layout. I hope you like the new, fresher and updated design - it's nothing special but I was trying to go for something a bit more grown-up and brighter. What do you think? :)

How has your week been?

year two, term three essentials

This term started off with exams and then a five week project block. As a result, there weren't many physical essentials: most of them were on my computer (such as Pages, Numbers, etc).

However, revision and project time both have one thing in common: time management. It is essential to have a rough schedule to ensure that everything is done on time. Therefore, my essentials this month were a planner, a project notebook (an A5 exercise book from Artbox) and two black pens that saw a lot of use: a Kuretake Zig Cocoiro and a Uniball Signo.

No pretty colours this term but it's been a weird term! I was super organised and had all my notes written out by the end of my second term and that's why there are no Muji coloured gels or coloured post-it notes!

It's my two-week summer break now before I go back for the next academic year so I'll keep this post brief. Once term starts again, I'll most likely have more (and better) study pictures to show :)