Can I just first establish that I'm super excited for August! I'm allowing myself essentially a month of "vacation" which I haven't had since I was, well... under 13 years old thats for sure! Not a full month to be completely honest, since I do have to start my new job late August etc., but regardless. Anyways, I made an attempt at Bullet Journaling earlier this year, but needless to say that due to the beginning of 2017 being extremely busy, I failed. I used a somewhat watered down version of bullet journalling all of July to mark my work hours down and to try and get the hang of it. So here is my setup for August (inspiration credits will be linked somewhere) alongside a little explanation at what this month will include! I'm just a rookie and I'm hoping I'll get better and better at this as the year comes to an end. It's all a matter of the hours you put in, as it is with all skills.

monthly spread, a little empty still

"empty" weekly setup

"filled" weekly setup

London trip planning

Prepping for Amsterdam!

I will be sharing more tips and stuff I've noticed next month and will hopefully upload the monthly setup earlier than I did this month as well.

I will be travelling back to the UK in the beginning of the month, this time through London with my parents. According to the original plan they were going to escort me all the way back to Dundee, but we agreed that there was no point in them paying extra for a six hour train-ride I could easily take by myself. So, we will adventure London together for a few days and I will travel to Dundee by myself. I can't be the only one who loves taking the train?

After that, I will be going to Amsterdam with a friend of mine for a few days. Super excited for that one. I've never been to Amsterdam before, yet I can already tell I will most definitely fall in love with the city. I will update you on that after the actual trip itself alongside some photos. As you can tell I will be using the Bullet Journal to plan the trip to get the most out of the days we will be staying there.

After Amsterdam I will start my new job essentially, hopefully continue volunteering, and get ready to start the new semester. Apologies that my posts have been a little dry lately, I will try to incorporate a little more thought into the next few! Meanwhile, you should totally subscribe to me via email ;)

Icy Hauklampi

Now umm... Let's not talk about 2016.

The image is not exactly New Year related in any way except for the fact that I took it on the 31st of Dec. I decided I wanted to have a quiet NYE this year; spend the day with my family, watching movies and eating chips (or crisps), like I used to do when I was 13. Boring? Perhaps. Maybe next year I will do something a bit more interesting. Or not, it's not really that big of a deal.

I used to think fireworks worked like shooting stars, granting wishes every New Year's Eve. But fireworks do not work like that. Now (that I'm not 13 and stupid) I know that New Year's resolutions won't come true unless you act upon them.

In 2017 I have decided not to focus on too many things at once. I want to focus on a few smaller things I hope to improve over time. More specifically – two. I already promised one of my house-mates that I will try to be more optimistic and nicer towards others this year with him. So that's one. The second thing I want to do is be more organised. Because when you're organised, you'll  also have more time to be productive (and more time to procrastinate but let's ignore that). I'm starting that resolution by picking up a bullet journal (of which I might do another post once I actually receive it and start drawing down months and other pages).

In 2017 I also want to rely more on instinct. This is not so much a resolution for the new year as it is for the rest of my life. If something doesn't feel a hundred percent right, I won't go for it, or I will let it go. This way I will save time from myself and others. I genuinely have no idea what 2017 will bring us, but I'm hoping it will be solutions to the problems/mess 2016 left behind. While the year will mark the start of Trumps presidency, hopefully everything won't follow this lead set by 2016.

This was a relatively short post I've been working on since last year (ha ha very funny). Ah well. Overall I have never done as much self-reflection as I did in the course of what was the year of 2016. I have a feeling this year will be good.

The view from my kitchen window one morning.

Hello,

I am now back home (aka Finland) for the holidays. I will fly back to the UK pretty soon after the year changes, but that leaves me a few weeks to spend all my moneys on liquorice, chocolate and Christmas presents. Is there anything better than Fazer Blue...?

So what's up with the blog? 
I decided to restart it. I started writing this when I was 18 and going through a sort of 'finding myself' -phase (hence the deep name of the blog). I had just quit competitive figure-skating and lost like 80% of my identity. So writing down the process of self-discovery, or just to have something else to focus on for a while, seemed like a fun thing to do. But life happens, so I started neglecting this blog, or perhaps ran out of ideas, or my old ones seemed childish and stupid, I don't know. All of those posts are gone now. Cringeworthy; all I'm saying... Anyways, here I am, somehow with a new-ish outlook on life, about 60% of my identity regained, writing down trash about my life on this website, again. Good times.

I don't know 100% what kind of content this blog will include, but so far I'm thinking photos + random thoughts about the world + uni tips/rants etc. Whatever I come up with really. I know at least one person will read them (ya creep).

So, that's it for today I think.
I will be back with another post soon-ish, depending how much time Christmas preparations will take.