5 Back-to-School Essentials for Studying

This post first appeared as a guest post (by me) on the Duchess of Plumewood.

So y'all probably know that my blog is mostly centered around design, productivity and my lifestyle, but what you may not know is that I'm a microbiology/cell science student. And as I get ready for classes to start up again this fall, I'm getting ready for all the studying and work that comes along with being a student.

I'm all about finding ways to make sometimes tedious things (like studying or work) suck a little bit less. I love taking care to brighten up a desk--because if you work at a desk all day, then those things brighten up your life. 

So these are my essentials for a bright, happy study session. A sunny print to remind you to keep working. A plant to keep your desk feeling fresh. A chic backpack for when you need to relocate to the nearest coffee shop. A poppy calendar to keep track of everything. Unique pencils for writing down all your genius thoughts.

Calendar Notepad / Positivity Print / Fabric Plant Bucket / Striped Backpack / Wood Pencils

What are your study essentials?

Weekly Goals #38 + August Goals

(photo)

I've said it before and I'll say it again--I can't believe it's already August. I know I say that every month, but this month it's even more of a shock since for the last six months or so, college has felt so far off--"in August". But now August is here! I move in two weeks from today which is just crazy exciting and scary and I'm going to stop writing about it right now because I'm freaking myself out. 

How was your weekend? I spent my weekend with family, sailing and rollerskating with friends (yes, that's actually something people do regularly in southwest Michigan). On Sunday, I leave to go back to NC (aka work is over!!) and then less than a week later I move in! Lots going on around here.

Last Week's Goals:

+ Exercise 120 minutes. I think I got this one. I went for an hour long walk one day, swam one day and rode my bike one day, but I'm not positive on time. Just so you guys know, I'm aware that two hours of exercise a week isn't adequate (especially when it's half walking!) but for now, I'm choosing to spend more of my time working and with friends. Once I'm home and settled into school, I'll be exercising a lot more (hopefully). I chose not to run the 5k because all of my friends were working + I didn't want to do it on my own. No worries, though.

+ Find a new podcast. I fell back in love with This American Life and started listening to NPR's All Songs Considered and Scientific American's 60-Second Science. Both are great!

+ Comment on three blogs a day. Again, I didn't reeeally keep track and I know I missed a day here and there, but I generally did a good job of keeping up with my feed.

Last Month's Goal:

+ My big goal for June was to continue my lettering so that I could sell some pieces at the fair in my town. I did some lettering this month but the pieces I chose to sell were largely digital art and so I didn't spend as much time on hand-lettering as I planned. But really, I'm fine with that. My goal more morphed into getting pieces ready for the fair and I did that!

August Goals:

+ I'm choosing not to make goals for this week since I'll be wrapping up work + my time with Michigan friends and I'd rather just go with the flow this week. So...August goals!

+ Stretch myself for college. Figuratively of course. I'm definitely an introvert and while I can make friends pretty easily when I try, it's hard to make myself try sometimes. By the end of August, I'll have been at school for two weeks. At that point, I hope I've settled in a little bit with friends, activities, classes and etc. 

+ Finish all design projects currently open before school. This could be tough since I'm still at the beginning of some projects, but I'd like to finish those up soon so that I can take the first month or two of school off from design.

What are your goals for this week/month? Any tips on getting ready for college?

Goodbye July: a month in favorites

(Death to the Stock Photo)

Can you believe it's August already?! I feel like I say that every month but especially this month, it just feels crazy. May both feels like yesterday and a year ago. Funny how time can do that.  

July has (obviously) been the busiest month of my summer. Between working full time, working on four design projects, designing a tattoo, selling my stationery at a craft fair and H coming to visit, I've been going-going-going, but doing all good things! I can't wait to see what August will bring (namely, college!).

I've mentioned it before, but I got a new laptop at the beginning of the month, which is fantastic. My old one was dying a slow, agonizing death. But the one thing I haven't figured out/gotten productive enough to try to figure out is transferring my iTunes library. So I just haven't quite been as focused as usual on music. I've been using spotify, 8tracks and songza (my three fave music sites--pandora is a close fourth) for the most part. Trending in my head these days are the 60s, but also soft acoustics. So good. A couple good playlists from 8tracks (with the exception of the first, the titles mean nothing):

Songs to Dance to / 60s rock

Self Portrait / acoustics

For When Words Aren't Enough / indie folk, singer-songwriter

This month, as I mentioned a few days ago, I largely read books I wasn't totally interested in as part of my library's adult reading challenge. I did however, really enjoy two books this month. One, called The Poisoner's Handbook was just amazing. It's a story of forensic medical examiners in the Jazz Age and different cases involving Prohibition-era wood alcohol and poisons. Very, very interesting if you're at all into medicine or chemistry (or even just US history!). The second was Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Although the main part of the book is super well known (everyone dies one at a time until there are..none. You guessed it.), I still thought it was super well written and I never suspected the ending. 

This month, I focused more on design/my life than I have in the past. I'm constantly tweaking, but I'd love to hear what you think. Do you like more design, life/productivity, music or science posts? Anyways, I really enjoyed the first installment of my new series, the Color Files, starting with Tangerine. Ever since I got my tablet, I've been obsessed with digital handlettering, but in this DIY Design, I showed you how to make a font from your own handwriting. Finally, I always enjoy a good Missing Links (science for normal people) post. This one features articles on jellyfish that age backwards, the possibility of printing a human heart and a mind-blowing infographic on the depths of our oceans.

What was your favorite post that you read or wrote this month?!

Free Font: Anders by Tom Anders Watkins

I'm seriously digging this font. The lines, the clean, minimalist feel, the just-bold-enough uniqueness. This would make a killer header font for a rad fashion blogger or a tech website. 

Isn't it just awesome? And as always, best of all, it's totally free. All images are courtesy of Tom Anders Watkins on Behance. Download the font.

(Also, happy August!)