zoella lifestyle

Showing posts with label zoella lifestyle. Show all posts

Write About It...

Tuesday, 10 January 2017

Like most, I'm a big fan of stationary (who isn't?) I recently I realised I have a pretty excessive amount of notebooks, and when I tried to have a clear out, I then realise I actually get plenty of use out of the whole bunch so I thought I'd share my love and uses for notebooks with you.

I have 9 notebooks in total I want to talk to you about - yeah, I have slight notebook addiction, but I like writing things down, and well, stationary helps me convince myself I'm organised, even when I'm not...

Firstly I have my 2017 diary - mine is from Kate Spade (find it here) and I use it pretty much daily to organise my plans and to check what I am doing. I had the same diary for 2016, just in a bigger size. I enjoyed using it so much that I felt the need to repurchase. I love that this diary both has the entire month laid on a page and each week laid out on a page so I can see either my plans for the month or my plans for the wee which just makes everything very easy. Also, I did notice this year they added monthly to-do lists, which is just pretty damn cute.

While we're on the subject of diaries, let's talk about my other ones (...because one is clearly not enough). I like to write everything down, so I have a diary for 'dear diary' purposes. It started out for me to record memories, but it's slowly turned into getting anything off my chest, and if I'm honest it mainly consists of "I fancy this boy, and he doesn't fancy me back"... but I find it very therapeutic to write down my thoughts, no matter how ridiculous they really are. For this, I used another Kate Spade notebook (similar here). This one is yellow, with the words "a likely story" on the cover. I loved the quote on the front which is why I choose this one, being yellow however it does tend to get a tad grubby. This diary is very typical teenage girl, but I wouldn't be without it.

To record daily thoughts and goings on, I recently began a One Line A Day, 5-year memory book - which some far I've kept up (only another, almost 5 years left to go). I love the idea of this, it makes looking back so simple, and as it's only a line it's easy to maintain. You just fill out the year with each entry. I can't wait until a couple of years in to see how much my life has changed.

Now, let's talk blog organisation... I have a couple of notebooks I use for this...

The first is from The White Company, it's a grey notebook with the words Do Small Things with Great Love on the front - a nice little reminder to put love into everything. The pages inside are plain, which means I can be a little more creative with what goes on them. Originally, I bought this book intending to use it as a bullet journal - but slowly it became more of a blog post date planner and to-do list book.

The next blog planning notebook I have is from Kate Spade (again. Can you telI I'm a fan?!) and it's my favourite notebook of the lot. On the cover, it says "with freedom, books, flowers and the moon, who could not be happy?" which I think is possibly the most wonder quote ever (especially as I'm a very big fan of freedom, books, flowers and the moon). I use this notebook to jot down idea's, draft posts, plan video etc. I do however wish I kept this book for my personal diary, however, as it's so lovely (but I may repurchase it when I use this one up... is that acceptable?)

The newest to my collection is my Daily Journal from Oh Deer. The cover is a plain turquoise colour with the words daily journal printed in a rose gold. The pages inside are laid out perfectly to plan to your day. It just has everything you need. I've only used it a few times so far but I've loved using it, it's just made everything very easy to schedule in.

I'm attempting to immerse myself into the world of poetry writing, as it is something I'd love to be good at - so I find myself writing a couple of (usually awful) poem each week - and I keep them all written in this little red book - so hopefully in a few months time I'll be able to flick through and see an improvement.

Lastly, I've got some of the Zoella lifestyle stationary (full blogpost here). I use the Once Upon A Time notebook for general life organisation - it's where the shopping lists and things to remember go.
And then for the last smidge of organisation some weeks, I'll use the Zoella She Designed a Life She Loved Book to plan my days and write weekly to do lists.

Please tell me I'm not the only one with an addiction to notebooks...

first impressions zoella zoella lifestyle

Zoella Lifestyle First Impressions

Monday, 3 October 2016

Like many bloggers, I was pretty excited to hear Zoella was bringing out a lifestyle range. I have always liked her beauty range (the hand cream is a saviour), however, as I'm definitely no longer in my teens (mid twenties actually... It makes me cringe a little when I say that!) I'm a little outside of the age group the Zoella Beauty range is aimed toward. However, I still find myself intrigued when there is a new Zoella release and interested to see what she creates, as I'm sure many 20-somethings are. I think Zoe may have realised this too, as her lifestyle range seems to have a slightly more grown-up vibe - it definitely seems covers a larger audience, I don't feel too old for these products, but I can see teens enjoying these bits and bobs, and even those a little older than myself. I have a weakness for stationery and candles, so of course, I was going to be obsessed with the range, and alongside this, I'm a complete sucker for a cheesy, yet inspirational quote and these seem to run through the aesthetics of the stationary.

On the day Zoella Lifestyle went to boots stores, I popped in to see what I could get my hands on. As it had gone midday, there already wasn't much of the range left in store (it must have seriously been leaving shelves fast!) However, I managed to pick up three of the things I was lusting after - The Once Upon A Time Notebook, The She Designed A Life She A Life She Loved Organiser/Stationary Book, and The Seaside Stroll Candle. I'm pretty impressed with these things so far, so I thought I'd give you the lowdown...

The Once Upon A Time Notebook (£14):

The notebook is A4, so it's a good size. The cover is a soft faux leather, and a lot more flexible than it looks, so which I really like. There are quotes written on the front, back and throughout the book. The quotes are a great way to gain that extra bit of motivation, inspiration, or even just a friendly reminder to stay positive. Alongside this, the quotes in the book are also ideal for dividing up the pages and working in sections. The text on the cover is embossed, in a stunning rose gold, which stands out against the grey, giving the notebook a sophisticated, yet eye-catching finish. To put it simply, it's a very pretty notebook, which pretty much shouts positive sayings at you - what more could you want from a notepad?!

She Designed a Life She Love Stationery Book (£10):

This was one of the things I was most excited about from the launch. Similarly to the notebook, it follows the grey theme with the rose gold embossing of an inspirational quote (this also happens to be a quote I really love). It's smaller in size, which makes it much more handbag friendly. It closes neatly the use of a magnet, which I think is a little sleeker than an elastic band, and has an orange and white zig-zag pattern which adds a bit of interest to the design on the front. When this book opens, it reveals it is more of an organiser/stationary set than notepad. It is split down the middle. The left side contains post-it notes. Arrows, exclamation marks, ASAP and a note to self - basically every kind of post if you could want, which also happen to be much more aesthetically pleasing aspect than your average fluorescent post it, which remind me of revising for exams and 9-5 office jobs. On this side, there is also a 'big plans' list, which I think is perfect for to-do lists. On this side, there is also a 'big plans' list, which I think is perfect for to-do lists. If you read my blogpost on being more productive, you'll know I mentioned that I find having too much on my to-do list overwhelming and counterproductive. This little list writing section is perfect to avoid that - there are a set number of spaces, and it's titled big plans - it's basically telling you only need to pop in important stuff down. Of course, anyone can use it as they please, but I will be using it for my big plans.

The right side of the book contains just one page which is set out as a mini weekly calendar. Each day is boxed in "hello Monday" with two sections per a day, a sun and a moon - night and day. This makes is really easy to map out of your week. My only complaint is, there is not much space for each day, however, that's the compromise you make for having such a compact organiser. There is also an option to write down the highlights of the week, and next week's goals. This is the perfect if you need to organise your time and stay positive.

Seaside Stoll Candle (£10):

This was the only candle they had left when I got to boots - however, I'm a sucker for a sea salty ocean breeze kinda scent, so popped in straight in my basket. Firstly, the box this comes in is incredible, it opens up into a beautiful beach image - it's the details like this why I love the products Zoe created, she's put love into every corner of her products, rather than slapping her name on whatever because that will sell it anyway. The candle is in a clear glass with the name on it. The candle smells exactly as I expected, which is a good thing. The scent transports you to the beach, it's both salty and fresh. The scent is also much better quality than I'd expected. The candle is heavily fragranced considering the low price point and the smell will fill the room - but it's not overpowering enough to give you a headache, a balance which is tricky to come by with fragrance.

I'm pretty pleased with all the bits I got for myself, and I'm looking forward to checking out the rest of the product Zoe has to offer. I think they pricing is really reasonable, there are lots of perfectly thought out details in each the products. Everything is oh so pretty - as always Zoe is on point with the aesthetics.