Have you ever asked your friend or that special someone what they want for Christmas and they said "I don't mind"? Because same. Every year actually. And, sometimes, the annoying thing is that they either don't like it, don't make use of the present I got them or complain because it's not something they liked or wanted. It's the same every single Christmas, especially with my younger sister whom I find a little bit ungrateful at times.

Sooo, it's that time of the month! And by that, I mean SUMMER! Because of all the free time and no more studying, I assume you would want to use that time usefully by working and earning some money.

As a 16 year old, finding a job is difficult because of my age and my lack of experience. However, age shouldn't matter. And if you're 16 years old and under, I have a few tips that may help you look for a good job over the summer.

Via link

Now, when applying for a job you always need a CV and/or a covering letter (when asked for one). This is very important as it informs your employers of your skills, your personality, contact details and any experience you may have. To write a good CV, you can go here because this is a very useful website that helped me build my CV!

Also, bear in mind that it is not okay to lie in your CV! If you fail to demonstrate to your employer that you can juggle a bunch of coffee mugs or make a chai latte in 30 seconds as stated in you CV, then you're in some big trouble. Be honest and be yourself - that's key in almost all situations.

If you don't have much experience which you can include in you CV, then I would recommend writing a covering letter explaining your skills and why you would be the ideal employee.

Via link

Once you've completed your CV and ensured it's not all lies, you can now find some vacancies. You can look online, one of my favourite websites to search for a job is Indeed.com because it's very easy to use and very straightforward.

If you prefer, you can go out to your local mall and lookout for flyers indicating vacancies or go in store and ask if they have any vacancies. I feel like doing this, with a good first impression, will make you look eager and willing to take the job and it will allow the employer to see what kind of person you are.

You can also contact any friends or family members or anyone you know who runs a shop/business or who work someplace, you can ask them for a role. I think this is probably the easiest way to get a summer job!

If you don't find any vacancies, you can always do babysitting, dog walking/sitting or paper rounds. These wages usually depend on the people you're working for and for how many hours and it's usually not that much but it's steady.

If you can't find any vacancies or you're struggling to find some people willing to hire you for a babysitting/dog walking job, then you can always volunteer! This is not a paying role, but this will build your confidence, experience and references to add into your CV and for when you're looking for an actual paying job!

Via link

You can volunteer at your local charity shop - all you need to do is ask to volunteer and I think they hand you a form to fill in with all your details and from there you can gain the knowledge you need to help you impress employers!

All these tips are based from my own knowledge and experiences from finding a job and I hope you find these helpful! Please keep in mind that finding a job would also depend on where you live and your current situation!

Also, if you're wondering - no. I currently do not have a job yet. I only recently applied to one at a bakery and I should be hearing from them soon! I have applied to previous jobs before such as WHSmith and New Look but I guess another person took up that vacancy!

Remember, finding and attaining a job is not as simple as it seems. There are some competition to face, laws to look into (especially if you're under 16 because of child labour laws - depending on your country), bank accounts and lots of forms to complete, etc.

And also remember, to be calm, be yourself and be honest! Having a positive attitude and being true to yourself attracts employers!

I hope these are helpful and good luck! xo

Whilst browsing through my Pinterest to feed my creativity, I came across this journaling method known as the bullet journal system.

Since exams has started for us, I decided to give this ago to help me stay organised and create headspace so I can focus. And honestly, I never felt so relieved and productive in my life.

To help you feel the same feeling (it is a fairly nice feeling), I'm going to show how you can organise your life with this awesome system.

One of the obvious things you need to do is get a notebook and pen (you can have coloured pens if you prefer). It doesn't have to be an expensive Moleskin real leather notebook, it can be any that suit your taste. I would recommend getting a notebook with dots or squares as it will help you keep you bullets and lists in line and more organised.

For your first page, make a list of the bullets that you're going to use with the fill-ins and marks.



It doesn't have to be exactly like mine - make it yours since it's gonna be your bullet journal!

You will need to use these bullets when you're note-taking to make it easier for you to understand and complete.



To make your life easier, create an index. Doing this will help you find the right page.



From what I saw on Pinterest, the bullet journals were colourful, neat and had lots of illustrations. If that's the style you prefer, then go for it. But, frankly, you don't have to do that. It is your journal so you can make it into whatever would fit your needs. It is not a journal for display so you don't have to illustrate fancy drawings or banner or write in a really fancy font.

For my bullet journal, I simply put the date at the top with a list of Reminders, To dos, inspiring quotes that I find, events/appointments and my thoughts. Occasionally, I would draw a little illustration to make it visually stimulating for me.



And once I completed a task, event or attended an appointment, I simply cross it out.

To help you refer back to something, I placed these sticky notes on the pages that I wanted to mark with tiny icons to show what it is:



To make your life much more productive, you can add a 'Goals' page where you write down what goals you want to achieve whether it's to lose a few pounds, wash more often or make more friends.

I also found on Pinterest that some people keep track of their habits which I think is a good idea because you can see what kind of perpetual things you do on a daily basis and what habits to change (as what Mike Murdock once said: "You will never change your life until you change something you do daily")

I think it would also be quite important to keep a record of your contacts of family and friends as your backup in case something happened to your cell phone or you account was hacked and whatnot.

What I like to do is write all my thoughts down. I write down whatever's on my mind. I just feel like it lifts the weights that's holding me down and refreshes my mind.

Sometimes, I like to write a 'personal overview' where I write down what went well today, how productive that day was and what else to improve. This introspective constructive criticism helps a lot because then you get a birds eye view of your life and you can see what's standing in your way and how to jump over it.

I hope you find this helpful and inspired you to create your own!

Remember: it doesn't have to be perfect. No one and nothing is perfect :)

If you want further help or guidance to create your own bullet journal, you can inbox me or go here!

Since exam season is coming up, I would like to share some of my advice for revision to help you be prepared, stay focused and do well in your upcoming exams!

Via http://www.stopbreathethink.org/?

An example: my revision timetable c:

Special Update

Hey!

If you're a wannabe artist who's struggling a little bit in drawing realism then, as a fellow art student, I'm giving you 5 tips on drawing realistic objects!

1. First, have good pencils. This is going to sound obvious, but it's true. No matter what medium you work with in art, you must have good, quality materials so your results can be a good, quality finished piece.

Pencils that I do recommend for good, quality finished realistic drawings are Faber Castell sketching pencils, the sketching pencils that they sell in WHSmith, Derwent pencils and Staedtler pencils (as shown in the image above of my proud 4-hours-worth drawing of an eye). They usually come in packs with 5 pencils, graded from 4H to 3B (the lightest pencil to the darkest pencil). These are the pencils that I personally use but if you don't have these, then make the most of what you already have!

2. Start off with a lighter pencil/hand. When drawing something, always start off light then gradually go darker. This makes it easier to erase any mistakes you made when drawing your rough outline - it is a nightmare erasing a drawing where you pressed too hard!

You can draw with a light pencil, like a 4H or HB pencil, then what I do is swap pencil to a much darker pencil like 2B (I also use this pencil to shade). If you don't have different graded pencils, then draw with a light hand and then press slightly harder on the paper to go darker!

3. Measure, then outline. When drawing a person, outlining guidelines will help you a looong way! This method will make your portrait more proportionate and, therefore, realistic.

From fuckyeaharttutorials.tumblr.com

4. Have high quality source material. This is something that I hear in every art class from my teacher. He tells us that high quality art studies come from high quality source material. Which true though. I mean, if you're drawing an animal from a crappy photo on your Blackberry then you're going to struggle drawing it because you can't see the details of the picture. Print the image you're drawing, large and high quality, on nice paper. This will make drawing that animal easier!

5. Polish your drawings. Once you finished, take your drawing and compare it with the image you drew it from and see if you need some polishing to - e.g. make that shading darker, add more eyelashes on that eye, etc. Reviewing and perfecting your drawing will ensure that it is proportionate and looks like your image.

So there you have it! 5 useful tips that you can use when you're drawing realism! You don't need to follow these tips as these methods may not apply to everyone, but these are just what I do whenever I draw.

You can see my other art tips here if you'd like!

I hope you find these useful and happy drawing!

I hear a lot of people who say that they are rubbish at art and they can't do anything artsy, but the thing is everyone's an artist! Everything is basically art, including your face, the patterns you see in leaves, even a plain piece of paper with a small dot in the middle would be art.

So if you think you're not good at art, well you're wrong.

Realistic drawings are impressive because of its difficulty, but art isn't just all about that. You don't have to draw realistically to be an amazing artist. The key to being amazing at art is creativity and ways of expression. If you want to boost this creativity and hone your skills in art then keep reading!

Here are my top 5 tips to be amazing at Art

1. First things first, experiment. Experimenting with different medias will help you discover which medium you're especially good at and help you learn different techniques; helping you find one that's more suitable to your style.

2. Find inspiration from different artists. This will help you boost your creativeness and what to create. If you like an artists' style, don't copy it. Instead, do something similar and interpret it into your own style. You can also research how they create their artworks and experiment with that to find your suitable style and technique!

3. Use source materials. If you want to draw a person in a specific position or pose, then get one of those artist mannequins or use your a person or just search up online. You can't draw or paint, etc. without source material and you can't picture it in your mind because it's difficult to do so (Trust me, I've done that so many times and it hasn't worked for me).

4. It doesn't have to be perfect. Nothing is perfect, and art can be anything so if the person you just drew or sculpted is out of proportion or the flower you just drew looked nothing like the image, it doesn't matter because nothing is perfect! If you are not happy with your artwork or you made a mistake then improvise. Add more paint here, or draw more dots there, do whatever you think will improve it.

5. When creating an artwork, buy good quality materials and tools. If you don't, then your work wouldn't be good quality. You don't have to buy crazy expensive stuff, if you don't have money or you can't afford them then make the most of what you've got.

If you follow these tips, you could become an amazing artist and create masterpieces!

Remember 

Art isn't all about impressing people, it's more about expressing yourself. So don't stress yourself out because your artworks aren't perfect. Remember, nothing is perfect. Everything is art and everyone is an artist. And PRACTICE. Practice makes perfect!

Hope this helps!