December // BuJo Set Up

Wow. December already. I'm taking things easy bullet journal wise this month. What with potentially moving house and Christmas being a very busy time of year when you work at a Church I'm not even going to attempt to do any kind of tracking.

But I thought I may as well show you my set up anyway. I've added in a little "Present To Buy/Bought" list where my tracker would usually be. But seeing as I've already filled it in with all my present buying ideas I can't show you it. Sorry!

Exact same monthly spread as always because I love it so why change it. Although I did add fairy lights to add a festive feel..

 As you can probably tell I have completely changed my weekly layout and while it looks a heck of a lot better it's a bit of a pain to set up so I don't know if I'll be continuing with it in January. I've added four tracker boxes on each day to replace my monthly tracker. So we have steps per day, sleep per night, did I read today, and breakfast, lunch and dinner checks. Let me know what you think about this layout and whether or not I should stick with it.


You may have noticed that the images today were not the best and I can only apologise. Apparently my camera has given up being a camera and now only likes taking dark photos with some random dots in the middle of the photo. So I'm using an old iPhone to take the photos on a very grey day. Sorry!

Kate // SK

Move Out With Us // Preparing to Move

Exciting times ahead for Bekah and I. We potentially have a house to move into!!

Fingers crossed all the paperwork goes ahead and we can be moved in by Christmas.

Today I thought I would talk to you guys about preparing to move. And of course because I love bullet journaling so much I have a spread to go along with what I want to talk about.

 So this is the first of what I am guessing will be multiple bullet journal spreads in the coming weeks. I set this up today to get my head around the packing and bills that need to be sorted before we move into the house.

Most of this spread are ideas I found on a couple of other people's moving bullet journal posts so I'll link those at the bottom of this post for you to check out.

So this a very not to scale and not accurate map of the upstairs of our little house. I have colour coded the rooms relevant to me, the plan is the to colour code the boxes I pack for ease of unpacking.

Moving onto the downstairs and another not to scale map of our kitchen and living spaces which are again colour coded.

This checklist is full of the things which need to be done before/as we move in. Very small boxes representing ALOT of work.

This will become a running record of the packing being done day by day on the run up to the move. I'll finish setting this up once we have a move in date.

Furniture?

So Bekah and I have decided to move into an unfurnished house which means that before we can properly move in we needed to buy beds and sofa's and bookshelves etc.

So look out for house hauls and more moving posts coming soon!

Kate // SK

Inspiration from:

Moving Insider

Creative Pineapple

A/W Reads // SK Books

Something about the last few months of the year makes me want to read more. I like reading new books and old favourites. It's the dark nights when there isn't much on TV that make me want to curl up with a blanket and a cup of tea and escape into another world.

These are some of my firm favourites that I like to read at this time of year. They're beautiful, immersive books that drag you in and keep you until you finish the whole book.

 This book is one of my all time favourites. It was first published in 1992 and when this copy was bought it cost £3.99 (don't you wish books still only cost that!?). So Far From Skye is about a pair of siblings Morag and Allan MacDonald who are forced to emigrate from the isle of Skye to Australia in the 1850's. It follows them as they are uprooted from their home and have to adapt to an entirely new home.

Rooftoppers is a book I pre-ordered (which I never do) because I loved the sound of it so much. Rooftoppers follows the life of Sophie who is in an orphan and her discovery of the children who live under the radar on top of the rooftops of Paris. What an idea. 

This is another book that I have loved for a very long time. I first got this out of the library when I was in primary school and since then I have purchased my own copy as the library no longer has it. Ragboy, Rats and the Surging Seas follows Silas, a rag and bone boy, who discovers a mermaid lying injured on the beach one morning and decides to rescue her. 

The Secret Garden is one of my all time favourites (I feel like I'm saying this about every book in this post). When I was a child I was enchanted with the idea of a secret garden, I wanted my own so much that I asked my mum for a bit of garden of my own, needless to say me gardening my own little bit didn't last very long. Unlike my gardening efforts my love for this book has stayed strong. Mary Lennox is orphaned and sent off to live with her Uncle, she's a contrary little girl who isn't interested in anything, until she discovers a garden that has been locked up for years. 

First off, how beautiful is this copy of Wuthering Heights. I got this copy for my 21st birthday and I am still in love 2 years later. Wuthering Heights is such a dark tale but the descriptions of the moors are perfect for a cosy night in. This book is about the family that lived at Wuthering Heights as told by housekeeper Nelly to a visitor to the area 30 years after the events unfolded.

The Fox and the Star is a beautiful illustrated book about a fox and (you guessed it) a star. I don't want to go into the plot because it's short and there isn't much I could say without ruining the book. All I will say is that the images in this book are incredible and while it only takes 5 minutes to read it sticks with you for a long time after you put it down.

What old favourites do you like to read at this time of year?

Kate // SK

5 Favourite Things About - WINTER

Autumn is nearly over and that means winter is on it's way (see how I avoided the game of thrones reference there?) and while a lot of the time the only good thing about Autumn ending seems to be that it's nearly Christmas I thought it would be good to remind myself, and you, why winter is actually sometimes alright.. let's give it a go.

Crunchy Grass

Why is crunchy grass so satisfying? There is something so good about walking over the garden or local parks and hearing and feeling the grass crunching under your feet. It's such a winter sound and I forget how much I love it.

Being Cold

Now this is only going to relate to a select few of you. Most of you are probably thinking I'm mad right about now. But I love being cold. Being too hot is possibly the most uncomfortable feeling for me. It's November and I still don't have my heating on and I'm still sleeping with my window open at night. I love being cold because then I can wear all my cosy lounge wear and not melt. Call me crazy, but the cold winter months have their benefits.

Layering

I love layering. I love wearing all black but playing with shades of black (yes this is a thing) and textures. I really enjoy picking out layers, what I do hate though is coats. Nothing makes me more irritated in winter than the need to wear a coat. I will actively choose to be cold rather than wear a coat.

Winter Drinks

When Costa comes out with their winter drinks I'm there. Hot Spiced Apple juice, endless flavours of coffee (getting weirder every year) and the Christmas themed cups. I'm easy to please.

Boots

I love wearing boots, heeled boots, flat boots, ankle boots, knee high boots. I love them all. And winter is when I get to wear them.

I don't know about you but this blog post has made me much more up for winter.

Do you agree with my points? What points would you add or remove?

Kate // SK

Writing with Sparklers // How To

Every year you see the amazing pictures people have made with sparklers, spelling out their names, drawing love hearts or just a crazy mess of lines in the darkness. Ever wondered how it's done? Stick around and I'll try to explain it to you.

First off here are some of the examples Bekah and I achieved this year using my Pentax K-r camera.

Cool right? Well we love them.

The most important setting you need to work with in order to create these images is Shutter Speed. This controls how long the camera's shutter is open and letting in light. So the longer the shutter speed is the longer it takes a photo and the more movements of your sparkler are captured in your picture.

For most of the images above the shutter speed is between 4 and 13 seconds. The longer the word we were trying to capture the longer the shutter speed was.

Shutter speed is something you can probably change on your smart phone too so even if you don't have a DSLR camera you can give this a go.

The other setting I altered for these photos was the ISO setting. ISO is how sensitive to light your camera is, the higher the ISO is the more sensitive to light your camera will be. For these photos I turned the ISO down to 400, which is as low as my camera can go. This meant that my camera didn't pick up light from other sources as much, such as street lights in the distance and it meant the background of the photo was more black and the focus was on the sparklers more than anything else.

ISO is not something you can necessarily change on camera phones, but if you're photos come out too light in the background you can always edit them later.

It's a combination of these two settings that really makes these photos work, without changing the ISO you end up with a picture which is over exposed and looks rubbish. Likewise without changing the shutter speed you would end up with only the slightest movement of the sparkler which wouldn't give you the photo you want.

FINAL TIP: If you don't like sparklers/don't have any/are too young for sparklers there is an alternative. Bekah and I tried out using our phone torches as a way of creating these photos and it worked really well. I'll put some examples down below. We used exactly the same set up as with sparklers but with our phone torches instead, handy!

Have you created any photos like these? We would love to see them!

Kate // SK

TGIF // Friday Favourites

There's a definite Autumn/Winter theme to today's Friday Favourites. I just bloomin love A/W.

This tote bag is from Waterstones, the illustration is by Quentin Blake, it's a total throw back for me so when I saw it I snapped it up right away. It's smaller than your average tote bag and I've been using it to transport my lunch to and from the office every day. It's the perfect size.

I've been lucky enough to have some how managed to have a cold for a month straight now, this ginger cordial has been a total life saver for me. This cordial is the only reason I've not lost my voice/ torn out my throat in annoyance or curled up in a ball and tried to hibernate.

I have these pyjama trousers as part of a set from Primark. There is nothing more wintery (is that a word) in my mind than a set of red tartan pyjamas. Every time I wear them it makes me happy. My sister and Bekah also have the same set because I made them get them and we are that cool. Jealous? I thought so.

My sister got me this lipstick last year and I love it. It's really dark and probably as close to black as I will ever be brave enough to wear. Plus, could the packaging get any nicer?

I picked these boots up from Ebay for £16 and oh my am I in love. They are so comfortable and they don't make the clip clop noises (the two things I value most in a heeled boot).

What are some of your favourites during the Autumn/Winter seasons?

Kate // SK

Happy One Year | SK ANNIVERSARY

WE'RE A YEAR OLD!!

Can you believe we started this blog one whole year ago? That is CRAZY! 

To celebrate this lil' anniversary I thought it'd be a lovely idea to share our favorite posts with you guys. I'll photo's and titles below and, if you like, just click the photo to be taken to the post!

Bonfire's and Fireworks

Autumnal Walk

Just Be You

Blooms Day 10 // A Letter To Santa

Snowy Walks

Portugal // Travel Blog

How-To | Finding Your Style

This Is Scotland | Cramond & Skateboarding

Strawberry Picking | Birthday Celebrations

Oh Hi There!

BuJo // August Set Up

The Role of a Nurse | My Perspective

What I Got For My Birthday // 23!

Fireworks Night

Again, I can't believe it's been a whole year since we started this blog!
Here's to another year (and I WILL be better at posting!)

Bekah // SK x

Fireworks Night

It's that time of year again. We wrap up warm and go and stand in a field and look at pretty lights in the sky. How weird. But wonderful. This year I went to two firework displays, Bekah was working on the 5th so we found a town near us that had their fireworks show early so she could still go along.

I love attempting to get half decent photos of fireworks so here are this years efforts, are they better than last years? I'll leave that to you to decide. Take a look at last years here.

   

  

Did you get any good shots of fireworks? We would love to see them!

Kate // SK