This time last year, I made a few New Years Resolutions for the first time ever. One of which was to post weekly on my blog; a goal that I managed to stick to for most of the year. However, after 6 months or so, my ideas became rushed and generic as A Levels became more intense and my creativity was nulled by the stress and exhaustion. The Creative Writing side of my University course has helped somewhat to revive my creative flow. I knew that this year my main goal for my blog was to firstly pull more passion into my writing and, secondly, to expand my audience. For my New Year post, I want to share with you how I plan to achieve that.
Firstly, one thing I have missed since leaving college is the free periods I would have stuck in Stratford that led me to a coffee shop or cafe to just sit. I would read, write or study. Whatever needed doing. The thing about living at University is that when I am provided with hours like that, it's all too tempting to just go back to my flat and waste the rest of my day. I don't know what it is about home but, for me, it just isn't the place for productivity. So, in the New Year, I have made it my goal to take myself out every week for a coffee and a walk and to just sit and write blog posts and read. It wont ever be a time for doing my University work, it will be my creative time and it will be a priority.
I have purchased a few things to help with this plan and to maintain a level of creativity in my every day life.
Journaling is always something I have wanted to do. I love the look of journals and I love documenting my life; however, journaling in itself seems quite overwhelming to me. I find it hard to know where to start and I always seem to just get bored writing down everything that happened each and every day.
I recently was browsing in PaperChase with a friend when we stumbled upon their journal collections. My student budget at the time urged me not to buy any but two had caught my eye that I haven't been able to stop thinking about since.
The first is a black Dream Journal with a gold snake feature on the front. I have had a lot of vivid and strange dreams lately which would make good creative pieces given time to think about them. I love this Journal because it has two sections; one is very structured with themes and titles, the other is more flexible. I love the idea of documenting dreams so that you can remember them later. Your brain is at it's most active when you're sleeping which, as a writer, makes it so important that you can somehow gain something from that lost time.
The second is called an AM/PM Journal. It's a sort of bullet journal that sets you tasks each morning and evening. It invites you to reflect on your day and your mindset and I thought that filling this in on days when I have Creative Writing modules would really help enhance my thought processes ready for the sessions.
Both of these journals are beautiful and will come in so handy over the next year in taking my blog somewhere new.
I want to share a lot more creative pieces here as well as making my blog more focussed on books. I am thinking of rebranding my layout also. It has been three years since I started this blog and it's remained at the same level. I'm ready for it to grow a little now and really do something with it.
For any of you who have been here since the beginning, thank you. I hope you will still enjoy where I take things.
Chloe.
As always, I am not trying to show off with this post. I always find these so interesting; a lot of YouTubers do videos this time of year as a sort of Christmas haul and I'm quite a nosey person, I like seeing what people like. I'm only going to share a few things, many of them are by brands/people that I love and want to give my support to and it might inspire your January sales shopping!
One of my main Christmas presents was a piece of equipment I need to record my EP in the new year; that process will be documented largely on my Instagram; ChloeHanks23 so make sure you go over and follow me to see that. I am so excited about it.
I have followed the family SacconeJolys on YouTube for a couple of years now and I have also been a huge supporter of Anna's Jewellery line. Slightly on the pricier side than your usual high budget but low quality YouTuber merch, this line is a gorgeous collection of statement pieces that last a long time and have a personal touch that make them perfect for gift giving. Two christmases ago I received a necklace in Rose Gold featuring my star sign. Anna's recent collection, Written In The Stars, really caught my eye because the new pieces sat so wonderfully alongside the original collection. Although these necklaces are slightly expensive, I totally believe they are worth the money. For example, I could spend £20 on a necklace from Accessorize and have it tarnish in 6 months or I could get a £70 necklace for Christmas that still looks brand new after two years. It's a much better investment.
The piece I chose for my present this year was cheaper than the core range that was released a few years ago, simply because the pendant is much smaller. It is this gorgeous Rose Gold Star choker that has my birthstone featured in the middle. I love this because it looks beautiful just on its own if I'm wearing a high neck top/sweater; but also it sits wonderfully with my Star Sign necklace too. These are such lovely, personal gifts to really make someone feel special at Christmas time or for their birthday.
As always, I had a few books on my Christmas list. I've been finding reading fairly difficult since starting university; my completely new schedule has killed my motivation for it slightly and so I wanted to get a few new books to get me excited to read again.
I've been inspired by Neil Gaiman's writing since studying Creative Writing; I got two books of his this Christmas: The Norse Mythology collection and The Ocean at the End of The lane. I'm super excited to read these and I really hope they help me feel passionate about books again.
I also received The Book of Dust which I have been so excited about for months. I have already started reading it; it's the loveliest, cosiest book for winter. The His Dark Materials Trilogy was such a huge part of my childhood and I can't wait to do a full review of this once I have finished.
I've been really into witches since starting University. I used to be really interested in the fictional witch character when I was a child but the history student in me is now so intrigued by the Witch Trials. It's featured in a couple of my Creative Writing pieces and I just want to know more. I saw this cover on Instagram a little while ago and jotted down the title, The Witches of New York. I don't know much about this book other than it caught my eye. I'll probably review this in the New Year as well.
Two writers I've really loved over the last few years are Angela Carter and Agatha Christie; both very different genres of writing but equally interesting and inspiring, I was thrilled to receive more of their work this Christmas too. Black Coffee drew me in simply because I love coffee, this is a novel adaptation of one of Christie's plays so I'm excited to get into that!
I was lucky enough to receive lots of beauty products. Now that I'm a student, I don't have the budget that I used to to try out new products. I received the Kylie Jenner Burgundy Pallet which I have used every day since Christmas and am loving! I also received my favourite fragrance Olympea by Paco Robanne; I ran out a little while ago and couldn't afford to replace it.
I'm hoping to give my blog a little refresh in the New Year which I will write more about soon! Thanks for reading, don't forget to follow my Instagram to keep up with all things blog related and otherwise.
Chloe.
