2017 Bucket List

Hey guys! I feel fully settled into the new year and it’s only day 4. Well, maybe not fully settled but I’ve let 2016 become the past now and I’m ready to move onto bigger and better things and use this year to change things. I’m also in the last 9 months of freedom before I start going to sixth form… so I’m going to use it wisely (to study for my GCSEs… 😦 )

Anyway, I know I did my 2017 Resolutions for you a few days ago but I feel like resolutions and bucket lists are completely different things but are also kind of connected. I feel like resolutions are about shaping yourself into a better person and ending the year feeling like you’ve changed and become the person you’ve always wanted to be (or at least made a start at working towards that) and I feel like bucket lists are just little things that you would like to do or experience. I have a life-long bucket list which you can go and read here but I also like making smaller bucket list for specific things, like Christmas and summer. I’ve decided to make a 2017 Bucket List and share it here with you today. I have made this list by taking things off my life-long bucket list but because it’s a life-long bucket list there are many things that I can’t do until I’m older anyway, so to narrow my bucket list down these are the things I’m hoping to do this year!

1 . Fill A Photo Album – If you read my 2017 Resolutions you will know that I am currently doing 2 photo projects, one of them being ‘A photo a day for a year’ and the other being ‘a selfie a day for a year’, one of my bucket list goals is to fill a photo album. I don’t know why, I guess it’s because with all this digital technology people take hundreds of photos and save them onto their tablets, laptops and phones and then don’t do anything with them – other than post the odd one on Throwback Thursday  – there’s something really nice and original about a photo album and I would really love to complete both of these projects and then put them in a scrapbook together – or at least the ‘photo a day for a year’ photos because maybe a scrapbook full of varying different photos of my own face might be a bit weird. But we’ll see.

2 . Become More Social – I don’t like to think of myself as an introvert because I do go out and I’m a very busy person. However, I don’t have very much confidence when it comes to talking to people in certain situations. When I’m at work I can talk non-stop with my friend and colleagues but for some reason in other situations I just can’t find words to speak to people, inside I’m desperate to speak to people and I would really love to make more friends this year (maybe I can at sixth form which I will hopefully be starting in September) and kind of improve my social skills even though in the right situations there’s nothing wrong with them.

3 . Have Perfect Teeth – This has been on my bucket list for a long time and it’s not really something that’s within my control as long as I stick with the orthodontist treatment and keep them clean and healthy everything else is down to nature. However, this year I’m getting my braces off and so by definition as the only reason for having braces is so that you can have perfect teeth like society demands. I’m very excited to be able to tick this off my bucket list at the end of the year and have perfect glistening white teeth that I can feel confident with.

4 . Finish My Fanfiction Novel – For NaNoWriMo last year (which I plan to do this year as well) I started writing a fanfiction novel (you’ll never guess in what fandom) because I was just too busy to both write and come up with an original idea, I also wanted to have a stab at writing fanfiction as I know it’s a widely popular genre of novel and I was really interested to see if I could write one. So I started and I won NaNoWriMo (reaching my 50,000 by 18th November) but the novel is no where near complete, however, I’ve stopped working on it because I’ve been so busy, this year I would really love to complete it – maybe it can be my summer project as I will have finished my GCSEs and have no more work to do until sixth form starts! Yay! I’m so excited!

5 . Finish My Film – Now before you get excited and planning cinema trips with your friends to see the great new blockbuster made by the one and only Inspired Teen I would just like to clarify that in fact it’s nothing exciting. I am currently doing a qualification in film and drama and as part of the coursework I need to make a film. However, it’s proving increasingly difficult because I don’t have anyone that’s all that keen on helping or being in the film, so I need to find those people or find a way to do a solo project without the requirement of cast members. My coursework should be completed by June so it can be moderated – I’m incredibly scared that I’m not going to get it done! I might create some kind of documentary… maybe… I’m not sure.

6 . Do Tumblr’s 100 Days Of Productivity – I started doing this late last year, I think I got up to day 11 or something like that and then just lost all motivation and stopped. This year I really want to pick it up again and finish it and with all this GCSE work to be doing I can’t see that it will be much of a problem. I just need to remember to document my study sessions. I am so scared for these GCSEs it’s insane. Like, I’m truly, properly, terrified in a way I’ve never been before and I know it’s only going to get worse from here, which is why I need all the motivation and productivity I can get to see me through.

7 . Start Running Often – Last April when I was on holiday I did a lot of running and I really enjoyed it and felt so much livelier and loose after it (as in, my muscles weren’t all tense and aching) and it was whilst on holiday and whilst running that I felt the most positive that I had all year and so I’d really like to pick that up again this year and for longer than five days. My overall goal is to be running everyday but I don’t think that’s likely with the schedule I have at the moment so we’re just going for running often for now.

I think that’s all for now, if I think of anything more I might come along and add it but I feel like these are my biggest goals other than my resolutions to get done in 2017. I really feel like this year is going places, or taking me places, I feel so positive and excited for this year (although that’s how I felt last year) it’s like January 1st came and it gave me this great new burst of life and energy and I know that lots is going to happen and I am so excited!

Let me know in the comments below what your goals for 2017 are! If you enjoyed this post please give it a like! You can also follow me if you aren’t already to see many more posts from me throughout 2017!

To get in touch you can do so using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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Blogging Resolutions 2017

Hey guys, hope you’re all well and settling into the new year well. Can you believe it’s 2017? It feels like such a surreal thing, 2016 I could deal with but 2017 just feels too weird. I think the reason for this is that I always looked forward to 2016 but I never really thought about what life would look like after 2016 I guess, so I didn’t prepare myself to be in 2017. Like, obviously I planned to live in 2017 but I never really imagined what it would be like.

Anyway, today I decided to write a blog post about my blogging resolutions. I’ve never made these before because I only started my blog in May last year so never needed to. It feels strange to write two resolutions lists but here I am.

1 . Blog Once A Week – One of the things I plan on doing now that the new year has rolled in is to organise my time properly. I have four GCSEs coming up in a few months, a music exam in a few months, I need to have finished loads of coursework by June. I have an audition next month, two more coming up. I’m a busy person. However, I’m not going to let any of that get in the way of my blog – I am still going to be here sharing my interests and life. I do need to properly get my act together though, use organisers, planners, calendars, make schedules so I can make sure I get everything done. I’m one of those people that always gets everything done even if I have to exhaust myself to do it. But my health is also important. Anyway, I failed last year to blog every week but I don’t want that to happen this year. I can’t promise that there won’t be a few weeks that I’ll miss here and there through exams or being ill etc. but I am going to try my hardest to schedule posts and keep on top of everything.

2 . Start Using My Social Media More – It’s well known that social media is a really good way to promote yourself. It’s not that I want to promote myself in that way, I’m not in the right position to try and make money from this blog or make it a full-time thing. I wouldn’t even want to at this specific time in my life but I would like to be on social media more for my followers sake, get myself out there a little bit more. I really like social media and sharing little bits of my life, I’ve been terrible at using all of my social media accounts so far with this blog and I’m hoping that’s going to change. I’ll try my best 🙂

3 . Take More Blog Photos – I take many photos and really want to get more into photography this year. The thing I don’t do is take lots of blog worthy photos. Some of the photos I take are photos of me and my friends which I wouldn’t share on here anyway but photography is a great thing and I really enjoy it so I will definitely be posting more photos around my blog and social media accounts this year – what kind of photos would you like to see? Properly edited and composed photos taken when I’m out and about or more lifestyle photos of things that I’ve just seen whilst going about my day? Let me know in the comments!

4 . Do More Life Blogs – By life blogs I mean like ‘blogs’, the posts I write are opinions and blog posts but when some people think of ‘blogs’ they think more of life updates etc. a bit like vlogs – where the video follows the person around in their everyday life – I’m not going to go into too much detail because it’s much easier to watch a video than it is to read a blog post, but I would like to share my life with you. Not the boring stuff but the exciting stuff. I want to be able to look back on this blog in the future and see where I was in life, what exciting adventures I was on. I’m not going to write one every single day but maybe one a week or something, not long or anything, what do you guys think? There are quite often moments when I catch myself wanting to blog about a particular day but it isn’t really a thing I do often and doesn’t really fit with my ‘theme’ if you could even say I have one. But I definitely plan on doing more life updates throughout the year, my life is going to be changing a lot throughout the year with all the plans I have and I would really love to be able to document that for both you, reading this, and myself.

5 . Reach 200 Followers – This is more a goal than a resolution but I would really love it if I could reach 200 followers. To some of you that might not be very many and to some of you that might seem very ambitious, but I’m a very ambitious person. I don’t do this blog for the follows, I do it for myself, because it makes me feel good about myself and is a nice thing I can do to relax when I’m feeling stressed. However, everyone has blog goals and this is definitely one of mine for the year.

6 . Do More Collabs – I haven’t been very good since I started my blog with getting in touch with other bloggers and trying to organise collabs. I guess I’m scared because I don’t want to impose myself on anyone and make them feel like they have to do a post with me if they don’t want to, but I think one of the great things with the blogging community is how willing everyone is to get involved with each others blogs and share their love for blogging – maybe I’ll try and start a blogging series, although that failed a little bit last time I tried… But it would be really nice to share my blog with others. If you’re interested in doing a collab with me please get in touch using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com and if you have any ideas for collabs you’d like to see me do and who with then please leave your suggestions in the comments below.

7 . Do A Best Friend Series With My BFF – I haven’t actually spoken to my friend about this… but I will do that and I really hope we can come up with some kind of Best Friend blog series that we can do as collabs. I really enjoyed doing The Best Friend Tag with my best friend last year and I would really love to do many more posts with her, so why not make a series out of it? I think it would be really cool! Keep an eye out for that guys!

8 . Do Blogmas 2017 – I did Blogmas last month and I really, really enjoyed it. I’m slightly worried about what I’ve just signed up for because I probably won’t have any new ideas by the time Christmas rolls around again. I will also be at sixth form by then and hopefully have a job, so I should probably start scheduling posts now haha!

There we have it, my blogging resolutions for 2017. I’m so glad that I have a blog and got the opportunity to write these resolutions this year – I can’t wait to review them at the end of the year along with my life resolutions and then write some new ones for 2018, but let’s not think about 2018 because that’s way to scary to think about!

I really hope you enjoyed this post, if you did please give it a like! Let me know in the comments what your blogging resolutions are for this year and how they relate to mine! It will be great to know everyone’s ambitions and hopes for the year. If you don’t already, you can follow me to have all of my posts put straight into your reader as soon as they’re published.

If you want to get in touch do not hesitate to do so using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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2017 Resolutions ft Thisizapen

Hey guys, I know I already posted today but it was supposed to be yesterday’s post really. The plan for today was always to do a new year’s resolutions post. But, with a bit of a twist! Instead of just having my own resolutions in this post I have also teamed up with my best friend and she’s going to tell you her resolutions as well. If you haven’t read my best friend’s blog before then you can go and read her blog here , she is an absolutely amazing blogger and writer and she has this amazing talent to make you interested in what she’s writing about even if you’re not interested. That sounded really rude, what I mean is, if it’s not a topic you would usually be interested in she can make it interesting. I’m very envious of her blog.

So, we’re going to start with her resolutions for 2017 and lead into mine. Enjoy!

Thisizapen’s New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Complete a satisfactory second draft of my novel – A few weeks ago, something major happened. Something I had been waiting for. I completed the first semi-satisfactory draft of my novel. It was incredibly difficult for me, so I feel proud. I started writing the first attempt at a “draft” in 2015. I don’t really feel qualified to call that a proper draft because a) it was only a beginning, b) not much of it stayed, and c) I feel like it’s very embarrassing. In fact, it’s so embarrassing that I don’t even like to look at the document. But in the August of 2016, I started writing the first proper draft, and that is what I managed to complete. Unfortunately, at the moment it is mainly a collection of scenes, the story arc having remained in my head. My second draft needs to be an amalgamation of the story arc and the scenes. Wish me luck 😛

2. Play guitar more – This was one of last year’s resolutions. I can fullheartedly say that I failed. Alright, strictly speaking I didn’t fail, because I worded the resolution ‘More guitar’ and I did do more guitar (in like I picked my guitar up about four times) – but that’s just pedantry. I know that I’d meant to play A LOT more guitar. Instead I was really negligent about my guitar playing. This year I would like to NOT do that. I’d really like to get good and feel like I’m good.

3. Tell people why I love them – The first friend I can remember telling me they loved me was Inspired Teen. It was a big surprise and it felt really special because I couldn’t remember any other friend telling me that. These days we tell each other we love each other quite often, I think, and it’s brilliant to be able to tell someone something like that without feeling shy or embarrassed. I haven’t made it a habit to let other friends/acquaintances that I love know that I love them, though, because I’m a bit shy and I also feel like it could be misinterpreted, especially if I tell people of the opposite gender. I feel now that it is time to break that silence. I love some people so much and I really want to tell them, but I always stop myself. If I manage to tell them this year, I will feel substantially more open and happy. It will be even better to be able to tell people why they mean a lot to me. Again, that is something I stop myself from saying, for some reason.

4. Get my dreadlock extensions business off the ground – I’ve been making dreadlock extensions out of wool for myself for a couple of years (not constantly for a couple of years; obviously I’ve done other things as well), and I would finally like to start selling similar ones for other people. I started up an etsy to sell them on, and even started making my first set to sell (they are purple decorated with white and blue string!). I can’t wait to add the other details.

5. Come to a more conclusion-y conclusion about what I want to do with my life.

I know that I want to write and make music, and there are things I’m interested in, but I don’t know what fits into the category of career; what fits into the category of hobby; and what fits into the category of Other. I hope I find out soon. Wish me luck 😛 I’ll need it!

LifeOfAnInspiredTeen’s New Year’s Resolutions (i.e. me):

1 . Take A Photo Every Day – So, one of the things on my bucket list is to take a photo every day for a year, I tried to do this last year and lasted about a week before one day I literally just forgot to take a photo and it destroyed the whole thing. I was really sad, this year I definitely want to do it and then print all the photos out and put them in a scrapbook or photo album. The photos aren’t necessarily going to be of very much (for example, today’s photo was of a bunch of flowers a guest gave to my Mum earlier on in the week, keep checking my Instagram to see the photos I’m taking for the project.

2 . Take A Selfie Every Day – Okay, before you start accusing me of being big-headed this is not because I’m weird and like the appearance of my own face or anything crazy like that, it’s actually because I saw someone do a selfie a day project to keep a record of the changes in their appearances over the space of a year (although I actually think they did it over the space of more than one year) but I would like to do it so I can see the little changes that my face make between now and December 31st, because it must make them and we just don’t notice. Something that’s definitely going to happen is my braces are going to come off and my teeth are going to be properly straight, so I look forward to taking the first non-braces selfie.

3 . Keep Up To Date With My Journal – I’ve never been one for keeping a daily journal. I don’t write an entry every day because I feel like it’s a waste of valuable journal space if I don’t have anything to say. I keep a journal to record my mental feelings more than to record my activities and social events, there is a certain extent to that in my journal but only if it’s particularly note-worthy. However, last year I got a bit out of the habit of journal keeping, I did still write in it but I was finding there were many weeks of lots of activities going by when I wrote nothing, and the busiest periods in my life are when I want to be writing the most, so this year I need to get back on track with my journal.

4 . Take Some ‘Me’ Time More Often – Given that it’s the new year I know that I’m going to be spending the majority of the next four months studying/revising for my GCSEs. From last year’s experience I know that I’m going to get so caught up studying that I’m never going to give myself a break or a chance to wind down and take some time for myself, to just sit down, relax and pick up a good book or something. So I really need to make sure I have time for that this year, otherwise I might get a bit grumpy and over-stressed.

5 . Create A Study Schedule And Stick To It –  Another lesson learned from last year’s GCSEs is that I would plan lots of study sessions, or tell myself I would finish a specific amount of work by a specific time on a specific day and then get distracted and not get it done. Or I’d sit down, start doing the work, take a hydration break and then get caught up talking for the next two hours etc. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen this year because my GCSEs are relying on my ability to get things done.

6 . Get Fit – I’m pretty sure this was a resolution I made last year as well and although I’m not comfortably in some kind of fitness routine and am not currently very active or fit – it’s the winter, what do you expect – I did do a lot more fitness stuff last year than I usually do. I went running every day consecutively for about five days (what an achievement), I’m pretty sure I played Wii Fit everyday for about 7 weeks and got really fit before then having to take a break because I was ill or too busy or something. This year, I need to get my act together because I can’t let my health and fitness suffer because I’m too lazy or busy studying. I need to exercise and it actually make me feel really refreshed and motivated if I get up and go out somewhere before I officially start my day.

7 . Keep A Morning & Night Routine – Very annoyingly I’m one of those people that is both a night person and a morning person and therefore struggle to get enough hours sleep because if I go to bed early I feel like I’m wasting valuable time in the day and if I sleep late into the morning the next day I feel like I’m wasting valuable time in the day. So I just can’t win. However, I seem to have got into the habit of going to bed at about midnight every night and that’s unnecessary. What I really need to be doing is going to bed at about half past ten, winding down until about eleven and then waking up at seven. But that’s not happening at the moment and so I need to get into the habit of making that happen. But I also mustn’t force myself to wake up early every morning if I’ve had a late night for some reason.

So there we have it, mine and my best friend’s new year’s resolutions. Please let us know what your new year’s resolutions are in the comments below – we’d love to hear about them! If you enjoyed this post then please give it a like. Check out Thisizapen’s blog where she just published our Best Friend Resolutions for 2017, give her a follow, check out her posts and once you’ve done that you could even come back and give me a follow if you aren’t already – it’s all free!

If you want to get in touch do not hesitate to use my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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2016 Review

Hey guys, so I know everyone seems to be publishing these posts today but I can’t let the year end without updating you all on how the year has gone. I think it’s really interesting how at first glance everyone seems to be writing the same thing but actually everyone’s post is completely different because everyone’s had completely different experiences of this year, some people are writing about their good experience of 2016 and some people of their bad experience of 2016 and I really like reading about people’s life experiences so this is a good time of year for me, from reading blog posts perspective, however earlier on when I was scrolling through my reader I became slightly overwhelmed by the number of people who have actually posted in the last couple of days, being the last day of the year and all that.

Before I actually get into the specifics of my year I would just like to quickly touch upon the fact that it really is the first day of the year, I know, completely obvious. When I was younger I never really cared about the new year because it didn’t really matter to me. It wasn’t obvious that there was a celebration to be had, in my head it was just a pointless post-Christmas celebration and as far as I was concerned there were no presents and therefore no cause for excitement, however, as I’ve got older Christmas has become less exciting and the new year more important. To me, now, it’s an opportunity to make the changes I’ve been too lazy to make throughout the year, it’s an opportunity to really get my act together and sort my life out and that’s more exciting to me than Christmas is. It’s like a new burst of enthusiasm, optimism and energy and I can foresee finally getting my act together, I feel like I’ve done a lot of that this year and plan on doing even more of that next year. I’m going to go into detail of all the things I feel like I’ve got better at later on in the post.

The idea that the year has ended is brining me many mixed emotions, as every year ending always does, but as I was saying above, the year ending is becoming more important to me. On the one hand I want to smile and jump around with happiness because the year’s over and I can put all the bad things from this year behind me, it’s a time for new beginnings etc. and I can really focus on the things that matter rather than bringing myself down with things that don’t matter, on the other hand I want to sob with sadness and heartbreak at the year being over. I have come so, so far this year and to think that’s it’s left us now is really upsetting to me. I know it’s just a few numbers created by humans to record time and whatnot but to me it matters, it’s a landmark in my history and this year is one that’s been really influential to me as a person – which I’m going to go into more detail about now.

If you read my 2016 Achievements post from the other day you might be familiar with a few of the topics I’m going to discuss with you now.

This year for the world as a whole hasn’t been a great one, we’ve had Donald Trump become President elect of the USA, we’ve voted Brexit, we’ve had many iconic figures die (although personally I don’t really see that as a down side to the year as everyone dies), we’ve had more terrorist attacks, the list is endless.

For the town where I live this year hasn’t been great either, especially in the last month or so we’ve had quite a few crimes and serious ones as well. More than I’m usually aware of happening in my town.

For me personally, this year has been a whirlwind of emotions and achievements/failures.

This was the year I turned 16, it was crazy and I had been waiting for it from the age of maybe 5-years-old, that’s 11 years I’ve waited for one day. It’s insane to think that, that moment came and went so quickly. It’s crazy to think that the year I’d anticipated for 11 years is over. I will always remember this year because it was the year I became a semi-adult. It was the year I finally felt like I could be myself,the year that I finally felt ‘complete’ in a way, the year I could finally be respected as an adult and all of that stuff.

This year I also decided to finally sort my future out, I realised that my future was going to happen whether I made plans for it or not and therefore it was probably best to make plans for it. So that’s what I did. I studied for my first ever proper GCSEs and passed with nothing below Cs and I was insanely proud of myself, as much as I hate to say I’m proud of myself, I was. I’ve always been someone who’s judged myself in a very negative light and believed I can’t do things even when there is evidence that I can, I don’t think that will ever change. So I’m always slightly surprised when I get good results or do something I didn’t think I was capable of. I’m not sure I will ever forget results day 2016. Although I had a results day last year for my English Language GCSE that I sat I didn’t even care, I literally was not fussed because I was sitting it two years early, I could re-sit it and as far as I was concerned it wasn’t going to have any effect on my life because I didn’t have a life plan anyway. Back then, as far as I was concerned I was going to walk dogs as a full-time career for the rest of my life. Now I want to be an actor. Funny how things change. Anyway, results day, it was such a long and painful wait for results day, I think my last exam was on June 09th, so whilst that gave me a long summer it was also lots of time to spend wondering about my results. I felt positive but at the same time felt I was being too positive, I became very scared that I’d messed them up and done worse than I thought, I was consumed by this need to know my results. I was constantly thinking over my exams papers wondering if I’d got my facts muddled up or if I could have gone into more detail about that specific subject. When the day rolled around I had to wait for the e-mail to come in from the school where I sat them, I remember waking up and playing Wii Fit and telling myself not to even think about it, my Mum woke up and came downstairs with my exam results, I opened the document and cried. Actually sobbed with happiness because I’d done it, I’d actually done it. I was probably crying with relief more than happiness. The wait and stress had been exhausting and I was so happy to have it off my chest. That was one of the highlights of the year.

Another one would be my change in personality. Not necessarily in personality, but my confidence I guess. At the start of the year I was dealing with lots of emotions going through my body, in a kind of normal, teenage hormonal kind of a way. I was becoming more independent. Old enough to be left at home on my own while my family went out all day etc. and this was all a new thing for me. Suddenly I was left with all this independence and responsibility and I didn’t really know what to do with it all. I was stressed when I was left at home on my own, I would worry about whether my family were okay on a constant basis, I would have these horrible visions of them being involved in car accidents or being attacked and they wouldn’t come home. And I would just be sat at home watching Netflix all innocently and then I’d imagine the police knocking on my door and telling me that whilst I was watching my 13th episode of Teen Wolf my family were lying murdered in a ditch somewhere. These thoughts and feelings were a lot to handle throughout the year, it became ridiculous and stressful for my whole family and made them worry when they weren’t with me. Made them feel obliged to contact me and keep me updated so I knew they were okay, I have managed to overcome that this year and I feel so much better for it. I feel like I can breathe slighter more now and I can relax when others aren’t in the house with me 24/7.

Another thing that’s happened this year,  I got my braces. It sounds really silly but it’s made me more confident in who I am and made me able to smile without worrying about my teeth (except now I worry 24/7 whether I’ve got a massive piece of food stuck in them). When I first had them fitted in March I cried the next morning because I couldn’t even eat porridge because it hurt too much, I wish I hadn’t had them fitted and hated myself for the decision – I had no idea how I was going to get through a year and a half of it if I couldn’t even eat something as simple as porridge. Although the pain went away and then I could eat again. Now, although I still get a certain level of pain when I get my wires tightened etc. it’s worth it. I can see the effect it’s had on my teeth and I now believe it was totally worth it – I very almost have movie star perfect teeth. I only have four months of treatment left which means I’m very lucky because the treatment has worked faster than the orthodontist first thought.

I had my first job interview this year, which, although I didn’t get the job it was a really great experience and I’m really glad I’ve got the first interview out of the way because it now means I’ll be less nervous for all the other interviews I may have in the future. I also consider it an achievement that I had my first job interview two days before turning 16.

I also feel like throughout the year I have become more money aware and started handling my money better – I now no longer spend my money on pointless things I don’t really need unless I know I really want them. For example, yesterday I spent £7 on earrings but they were in the sale so I actually got about 13 pairs of earrings for that amount but then I also went shopping around and considered buying make-up and a calendar, however, with my new found skills I decided that it really wasn’t worth the money because I have a calendar on my phone and I’m not in need of any more make-up at the moment, better to just save the money for when I actually really want something (Like a Vamps t-shirt when I go to their gig in May!).

This has been a very long post – maybe even the longest post I’ve ever written, so I’m going to end it here. I’m sure there are a billion other things I could put on this list – I’m sorry if you couldn’t get to the end because it was so long; if you did get to the end thank you so much for reading this! Please give it a like if you enjoyed it! Join in the conversation by leaving a comment letting me know your ups and downs of 2016 – can you believe it’s really over?! Also, if you aren’t following me already you can do that free of charge and get all of my posts straight into your reader as soon as they’re published!

If you want to get in touch, please feel free to do so using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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December Favourites 2016

Hey guys, sorry for not posting yesterday – I was really, really sick. Like throwing up all day sick. I really wanted to write a post yesterday and there was even a point when I convinced myself that I was feeling well enough to – until I was sick again, but now my entire Blogmas schedule has been destroyed and I have only tomorrow and today to sort it out. So I’m still going to write the posts I had planned but they’ll probably lead into January now.

I decided to do my December favourites post today because it’s very almost the end of the month (and the year!!) but I have something more important planned to write tomorrow and so I needed to get this out of the way. Some of these things will also be appearing in my Christmas present haul which I meant to publish on the 27th  but then didn’t get time. I will be publishing it in the early days of January – isn’t it weird to be thinking that it will be January soon? A new year, new beginnings and the opportunity to properly get my life together. Exciting stuff.

Anyway, let’s get into it. There aren’t that many things on my favourites this month but that’s only because I’ve been caught up with family things and Christmas to properly experience and try new things out, even my own Christmas presents I’ve been too busy to use really.

MAKE-UP:

MUA Lipstick Shade 2 – I bought this lipstick along with many others on my birthday and only got round to trying it for the first time this month, I have to say I feel in love with it immediately. It’s a wonderful purple shiny colour and makes me feel so confident and comfortable in myself and it’s MUA so what’s not to like?

2True Nail Polish, Shade 9: Limited Edition – I unfortunately cannot leave a link for this nail polish as I got it free in a magazine quite a few years ago and it doesn’t exist anymore. However, I really loved this nail polish this month because it’s a really lovely golden-y bronze-y glitter colour and it was absolutely perfect for Christmas, but an absolute pain to take off because it has actual bits of glitter in it.

MUSIC:

Just Hold On By Louis Tomlinson – I listened to this song earlier on in the month whilst writing a blog post and had it on repeat. I always thought that Louis was really underrated in One Direction and so it’s nice to see him still singing even after One Direction. If you’re not a fan of One Direction please don’t let that make you pass judgement on the members as individuals. There’s more to them than their time in One Direction. If you’ve got a spare three minutes I would really suggest listening to this song.

YOUTUBERS:

Jess And Gabriel – I haven’t had much time for YouTube this month as I’ve been so busy with Christmas planning and all that stuff but I logged on today and spent some of the afternoon catching up and I have to say that Jess and Gabriel were the people I watched most of and they really kept me entertained. They seem like such wonderful people and are such a cute and admiral couple, it made me jealous haha! But honestly, if you’re looking for some new youtubers to watch check out Jess and Gabriel’s vlog channel.

BOOKS:

Super Awkward By Beth Garrod – This is the only book I’ve had time to read this month but it was absolutely amazing! So, so funny and super awkward! It made me feel slightly better about my awkward life haha! Definitely an entertaining Christmas read!

TV SHOWS:

Nashville Season 3  – You may already know that Nashville is one of my favourite TV shows in the world – in fact, it is my favourite TV show in the world – I literally cannot get enough of this TV show. Yesterday when I was ill I decided to binge-watch the third season of the show. I have two more episodes of the series left to watch and I have gotten really into it. It’s one of those shows that isn’t really good for just watching one off episodes of but is really great for binge-watching. If you haven’t seen the show I would really suggest giving it a shot – it is insanely underrated.

FOOD:

Biscoff Biscuits – I bought a packet of these from Poundland a few weeks back and have been loving them. I first discovered them when I tried the Biscoff spread at a friend’s house (also amazing) and then I tried them in their true biscuit form. They are to die for and they’re vegan! What’s not to love?

Mini Vegan Freedom Mallows – I know I mentioned the vanilla vegan mallows in a different favourites post but for Christmas I got the mini ones and I’d never had them before, today I had them on the top of my hot chocolate and they were amazing! You get both vanilla and strawberry flavours in the packet and you get a really generous portion. I put some on both mine and my sister’s hot chocolates and there’s still loads left. Definitely an adequate – if not better – substitute for non-vegetarian marshmallows.

BEAUTY:

Dodo 5-in -1 Hair Curlers – I know the link says ‘currently unavailable’ but these are my new hair curlers that my Mum got me for Christmas and this is where I got them from. I was desperate for some new hair curlers and so when I fell upon these whilst browsing on Amazon I knew these were the ones I wanted, with 5 different hair curl styles to choose from the fun just never ends with these hair curlers. I’ve already used three out of the five attachments and each attachment gives my hair a different yet lovely curl. The curls last all day without needing any hair product put on them, you get a safety glove in the box with the curlers to help protect your hand whilst curling. The wand heats up really, really quickly and it’s just perfect. Exacty what I wanted.

CLOTHING:

Redbubble Sweatshirts – I got two sweatshirts from this website for Christmas and they are so perfect, much better than I ever thought they would be. They are snuggly, perfectly baggy and insanely fluffy, warm and comfortable. When I first tried them on I thought they were too big as I had got them in a unisex size large but after having them on for awhile I decided I really liked the loose baggy fit of the sweatshirts. This website provides loads of cool designs from fan merchandise to just funky and unusual patterns. I would really suggest giving it a try if you’re looking for something TV show related or unusual. The quality is amazing!

M&S Velvet Touch Bed socks – My Dad got me these socks for Christmas as a little add on item to my sweatshirts and I tried them on and they are the softest, warmest, most comfortable socks I have ever worn. They are the bestest thing ever and I really did not expect it since they came form M&S and I’m not a huge fan of M&S clothing, I have to say. If you can get hold of a pair of socks like these I would highly recommend it because you will not regret it. You’ll never be able to wear normal socks the same again.

OTHER:

Kings&Queens LCD Digital Clock – This was another Christmas present, I really wanted a bedside clock for when I was in bed as I find my phone very distracting and annoying to look at the time on when I’m settling into bed and preparing to go to sleep, I like to just quickly glance at the time rather than mess around with a load of buttons. This clock has so many excellent features, it comes in great colours (mine is pink) and is really great as an accessory on your desk or bedside table. It doesn’t only give you the time but the date and temperature as well as having an alarm and special light features to light it up during the night. If you’re looking for a cheap little digital clock this is definitely the one for you.

And there we have it, my December Favourites of 2016. I hope you enjoyed this post, please join in the discussion in the comments and let me know what your favourite things of December have been. If you did enjoy this post please give it a like and make sure to follow me if you aren’t already for many more exciting posts coming in the new year (if I do say so myself!).

If you wish to get in touch do not hesitate to do so using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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2016 Achievements

Hey guys, hope you’re enjoying this Christmas celebrating experience and have been having lots of fun – let me know in the comments what you have all been up to!

My apologies for not posting anything yesterday, I planned to but got so caught up with Christmas festivities with family and friends that I literally didn’t get a second of time. It was a great day though. However, it does mean I’m a bit behind with Blogmas. The post I originally had planned for yesterday is not being published today, I’m not entirely sure when I’m going to publish it but I’ll get it done – I promise.

Today’s post, as we’re now nearing the end of 2016 *sobs* is going to be about my achievements and how I’m feeling in myself about the year. I don’t want this to sound big-headed but as a person I feel like there is always room for improvement, especially at a young age and especially when there’s all this stress on young people about their future, their education, their career etc. you feel like your entire life is dependent on the decisions you make now. The achievements you have now. The effort you put in now. And with all of this going on we also have to try and figure out who we are as people, develop in to people we would like to know, make ourselves people we like, people we can be proud of and all of this is very tiring. Very stressful. So I am here now to talk about all the things I have done that I feel are achievements to my future and to me as a person.

I guess the first thing to talk about, which I believe to be the biggest and most important achievement, is my anxiety and fear. I don’t have proper anxiety, like, I haven’t been diagnosed with it or anything but for lack of a better word, and the fact is, it is anxiety it just doesn’t affect me in the way it severely affects others. It has improved so much this year, I used to get really fearful about others when they weren’t in the house or really worried about myself. I would worry that they were injured or hurt and would sometimes text them to make sure they were okay. If I was home alone while my family were out I would get paranoid about every little noise, worrying the house was going to blow up or catch fire. I would worry about having a shower home alone in case that meant I couldn’t hear a burglar if they tried to get into the house – all really stupid, ridiculous things that were clearly just me being paranoid and lately it’s all been lessening to be almost non-existent and that’s made me so much happier and more relaxed. It feels like a massive weight has been lifted off my shoulders, I was actually paranoid about being paranoid, I used to worry that there was something wrong with me, that I was having these abnormal feelings that I perhaps should see someone about and now that paranoia has gone away too – I now have realized that everyone at a young age who’s experiencing a new level of independence gets paranoid and slightly worried about specific things because they have no experience with them, so I consider this a huge achievement in coming a full mature and independent adult, which is a necessary skill to have.

One of the other things would be my confidence – in all areas of life but specifically my acting. My acting has considerably improved over the course of the year and it’s not just me saying that, I’ve had others say that to me too, but that’s definitely been a high to my year as I need to be confident in my acting – no actor ever got anywhere by not being confident. I’m really pleased that I have this new found confidence in my acting because I never thought it would come, I’m one of those people who’s quite shy and awkward and therefore situations where I have to do silly things never really work out very well but that’s changed; I feel that my acting can now go to many new places with this new confidence and it seems like the only way is up now – especially with monologues to perform in auditions in the new year. As well as confidence in my acting I feel like I have gained confidence during social activities, when it comes to speaking to people. I have gained confidence in my job and most importantly I have gained confidence in myself.

The next achievement is my education and motivation. Before this year, I hadn’t really had much experience with studying, revising or exams at all for that matter. The only exams I’d ever done were music exams and they aren’t really classed into the same category as GCSEs and A-levels. As well as sitting and passing three GCSEs a year early I have also developed motivation for studying and revising for my next year exams much earlier than I did earlier on in the year. I feel like I am well on my way to being prepared for these next lot of exams. Education-wise other than in terms of exams I have successfully decided what my educational steps are after my GCSEs next year as well as going to a number of open days, filling out my applications and sending them and have in fact got an interview day for one of them and two more dates coming in the new year.

Again, I don’t want to sound big-headed but I feel like I am truly prepared for life at the moment, yes, I am very stressed about the new year and all it’s new paths and experiences to be had. I am very scared of all the new situations I am going to be walking into, such as sixth form life. I am very nervous about all of my exams. But at the same time I have never felt more prepared for such a year. I have never looked on into a new year with such excitement yet uncertainty. With such happiness yet fear. And I say, bring it on!

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you did please give it a like. Make sure to leave comments down below letting me know what your biggest achievements of 2016 were. If you don’t follow me already, it’s quick, simple and free – all you have to do is click the follow button to get my new posts straight into your reader as soon as I publish them!

If you wish to get in touch, do not hesitate to do so by using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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My Typical Christmas Experience

Hey guys, it’s five days until Christmas but many more Blogmas things to be discussed!! Many, many more! I have officially finished my Christmas shopping and with a Christmas show and tree decorating tomorrow, I guess you could say I’m on my way to being Christmas ready!

Today’s post is going to be about my Christmas traditions, everyone has them and they are all different, so I wanted to share mine.

I’m a huge fan of traditions, something that you always do at a specific time and it can never be broken. Something that you only share with certain people – family and friends – something that can’t be replicated by others and even if others do something similar, it will never be the same.

I guess the first Christmas tradition is that we always put our Christmas tree up on the 21st of December, according to my Mum it’s because it’s the shortest day of the year. I don’t really care what the reason for it is, I just like that we put it up on a specific date every single year. Tomorrow is the Christmas tree decorating day! Tomorrow is the day when I write a post about how I decorate my Christmas tree. I’m so excited! Christmas trees are so beautiful!

At the end of the day on the 24th we all go and place our presents to each other underneath the Christmas tree, my Mum always puts presents from other people outside of the family under the tree for us, we never go to bed on Christmas eve before placing the presents under the tree, I always get really excited because I get to see mine and everyone else’s sitting under the tree and then get excited before going to sleep – not that I often get to sleep because I’m too excited, also, this year my sister and I plan on staying up all night watching films and TV shows, it’s going to be fabulous!

On Christmas morning, we all wait until each other has woken up, sometimes it’s almost impossible!! Literally, almost impossible, we also have a rule that no one can go downstairs into the living room until everyone is up and about to open presents. That can get quite hard as well because you get thirsty or hungry but you also really want to see the presents and you know if you get down there and see all of the presents you’ll be absolutely full of insane excitement!

When everyone gets up we all go down there and sit down, my sister and I usually in a onesie, and we designate someone to hand out the presents and then we all open our presents, creating a massive pile of wrapping paper on the floor.

This year I plan on making pancakes for breakfast, as well as gingerbread to eat throughout the day, as well as apple crumble for dessert after dinner. We don’t typically have a very exciting breakfast on Christmas but that’s mainly because everyone’s too busy stuffing themselves with chocolates and sweets etc.

I’m going to phone my best friend on Christmas, just like I did last year, simply to wish each other Merry Christmas and what we got for Christmas and what the rest of our plans for that day are etc. Once I’ve got off the phone with my BFF my family and I are going to play games around the table, we have so many games and I’m so excited to have a day indoors playing games and catching up with my family. We might even get to watch a film in the evening after or during dessert.

At some point in the day I’m going to go up to my room and put away all of my presents, I don’t expect to get many but I seem to have got into the habit of keeping my room really tidy and clean, it’s amazing the difference it has made to my mood and motivation, I never walk into my room and think it’s untidy and needs cleaning and I don’t get stressed out about being in my room anymore, I put things away as soon as they need putting away and don’t let them build up and in a strange way I feel healthier because of it, so I don’t want to develop bad habits over Christmas, especially because on the 27th my family and I are all going to our friends for the night and I don’t want my room to be messy in a way that it prevents me from packing or is a nightmare when I get home, too many times in my life have I gone away and had to come back to a messy and stressful bedroom.

The friends which I speak of are the family friends that we spend Christmas with, we have many traditions when we go to their house (they used to come here but then they moved to a bigger house), we play this amazing game called taboo which if you haven’t heard of you should totally check it out because it’s so much fun and definitely easy if you have a massive group of people. It’s really funny and really energetic and gets you really hyped. We also like to play this other game, which doesn’t actually have a name so we call it The Game and basically, what you do, is you get a hat or a bowl or something, and loads of little pieces of paper (about the size of those small sticky notes that you use to mark your place in books/textbooks) and you write down the names of characters or people. For example, Donald Trump or Edward Cullen, you might have to decide on your own rules. But you write down the name of people, real or fiction, and then fold up all the pieces of paper and place it in the bowl/hat – when I say ‘you’ I mean everyone playing the game should have written out a decided amount of names, then you pick your teams (so it’s useful to have even numbers) and pass the bowl/hat around, you set a timer of about a minute and a half and then the teams take turns, one of the people in a particularly team, say, Team A; so, Team A would have the hat and, we’ll say there are three members, of the three members one of them is going to be the ‘describer’ and the other two the ‘guessers’, the ‘describer’ will turn on the timer and will take a piece of paper out of the hat, they’ll look at the name and quickly start describing the person but without using rhymes or body m0vements and it’s up to the rest of the team to guess who the person is, if it gets guessed correctly the person puts the piece of paper aside and moves onto another piece until the timer runs out. There are many different rules that you can make up yourself if you decide to play it.

As well as playing games and opening presents with our friends we also have our proper, official ‘Christmas dinner’ which is always really exciting!

I think that’s it, those are my Christmas traditions! If you enjoyed this post please give it a like! Make sure to get involved in the Christmas spirit by leaving your own Christmas traditions down below! If you don’t follow me already, make sure to go and do that for many more posts throughout December and 2017!

If you wish to get in touch do not hesitate to use my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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Celebrate Christmas Your Way

Hey guys, I started writing this post a minute ago and then my laptop freaked out and so now I have to start again… Today I studied GCSE economics for 8 hours! 8 whole hours! And right about now all I want to do is crawl into bed and go to sleep, but instead, I’m sat at my desk wrapped in a blanket writing this post – which is great, of course! I’ve started using my desk a lot more than I used to – once upon a time I used to only use it for dumping things on, it was the only thing in my room that was ever messy, now I like to think it’s pretty clear and organised. Anyway, I try and treat my blog professionally by writing at a desk to give me a kind office-y feel, it also stops me getting lazy and distracted on YouTube!

Does anyone else feel like it’s not properly Christmas yet? Maybe it’s just me, I always struggle to actually get in the mood/spirit for the exciting event, I get really excited months before and then as it gets nearer and nearer I lose all sense of excitement, it’s strange. It’s kind of like when you’ve got really high expectations of something or you’ve been daydreaming/fantasizing about it for so long and then it actually happens and it doesn’t at all live up to your expectations. I’m not saying Christmas isn’t living up to my expectations, I’m just not properly hyped yet, it’s probably something to do with our still lack of a Christmas tree – don’t worry, it’s going up on Wednesday. I also haven’t wrapped any presents yet, although I might do that sooner rather than later to get my spirits up a bit more.

Anyway, after the biggest intro ever, I’m actually going to write the post – and maybe even an actual intro, rather than whatever everything above is!

Today’s post is going to be about how Christmas is what you make it, Christmas is what you want it to be, you celebrate it the way you think is right, it’s down to your own interpretation. As someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas for the religious reasons and someone who is very close to their family all year round, it’s very hard for me to really properly understand how I should ‘celebrate’ Christmas. Obviously I know that it’s a time to spend with your family, hopefully our family will be hanging out together and playing games all day! Which will be great! But it won’t be all that unusual, it’s not that unusual for us to play games together. We also might watch a film – if we can all agree on one that is.

When I was younger, like lots of young kids, I saw Christmas as about only the presents. I was a bit of an obnoxious child and didn’t really see the excitement in spending time with my family, we did that all the time anyway so why should Christmas be any different? We eat nice food all the time, while should Christmas be particularly special? I didn’t, however, get presents all the time (and still don’t) and when I was younger and cheaper to buy presents for I used to get a lot of presents, as did my brother and sister, so when we came down in the morning there would be so many presents sitting under the tree and obviously I knew they weren’t all mine but the excitement of knowing that all of this was exciting new stuff to be used in my house was always one of the greatest things. As I got older I realised that although the presents are great and although I love giving and receiving presents – there’s more to life, and to Christmas, than just material objects. As I’ve got older I’ve cared less about presents and more about the opportunity to see my family in a way that it’s unusual for us to do now, we’re all growing up and going out and doing our own thing. We’re not in the same place at the same time hardly ever anymore, it’s rare for us all to have dinner together and we never have breakfast together anymore, which is fine; it’s just life. But Christmas is the time of year when I can truly spend time with my family, catch-up and just have fun with them. It happens so little now. Whilst I like the presents and it means a lot to me that people want to buy me presents, family is more important. It always was more important but I was too young to properly make the connection.

I hope it’s not just me, I’m sure there are other people who’s days aren’t all that different on Christmas day other than the fact that they’ve got a massive tree in their house with loads of presents underneath it. What we’ve got to remember is that one day, everything will be different, enjoy the Christmas you have while you can, make memories that will last forever, take a risk and make some compromises. Christmas is the day when you have to let go of your preferences, forget about your dislikes and just go with the flow. You never know how much fun you’ll end up having. That’s what I plan on doing this year, going with the flow, seeing where it takes me, I too often turn things down because I’m not really in the mood for them or don’t think I’ll like them and this year I’m going to be a rebel, let nature take it’s course blah blah blah. I think one of the things that hold people back at Christmas – that slightly halt the family fun – is that everyone is too strict on what they’ll take part in and not take part in, what film they’ll watch and what film they definitely won’t watch and it’s things like these that cause you to get nowhere with your Christmas day. You spend three hours looking for a film to watch and then settle on nothing because you can’t be bothered to look any longer.

Despite everything I’m saying about Christmas being about family, I think one of the things that makes Christmas worth it, that makes Christmas truly special is that you’ve got to decide what’s special about Christmas for you don’t just give in to society and celebrate Christmas with and how those people in the movies do, if Christmas is special to you because you can go for a nice long walk in the morning in dead silence because everyone else is tucked away in their houses drinking cups of coffee or hot chocolate and unwrapping presents, then go for that walk, if it’s going into the dead town centre and taking some photographs – go and do that, if it’s having a nice meal with all of your extended family – do that, if it’s having your friends round and dancing round the house to Christmas songs before settling down and having the longest Christmas movie marathon ever then who’s stopping you? If you want to go to church and say some prayers and sing some hymns and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, then please, I encourage you. The fact is, if you’re only celebrating Christmas the way other people do, and the way you think you should, you’re going to have an awful Christmas, if you celebrate it your own way, the way you want to, the way that will make you happy, who cares what others think. Do remember though, that if for some reason you can’t celebrate Christmas the way you want to, either because you’re too young to have all that independence or you can’t afford it, or your too nervous, whatever the reason, go with the flow, make the best of the situation, it’s better to try and hope something good happens than to not try and know nothing good will happen, or that’s how I think of it anyway…

I’m going to go now, do that crawling into bed and going to sleep thing that I mentioned earlier. I really hope this post was useful or enjoyable to you in some way – if it was please make sure to give it a like! Please feel free to get the Christmas conversation going in the comments by letting me know what your plans for Christmas day and the days surrounding it are! If you’re not following me already, you’re welcome to do so – I will be posting a festive-themed post everyday for the rest of the month and lots of other exciting posts in the New Year!

If you wish to get in touch for any reason, do not hesitate to contact me using my e-mail – aninspiredteen@gmail.com

Merry Christmas!

Inspired Teen 🙂

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