Concentration...

For all those who know me out there... will know that I am not very good at concentrating. You could have a conversation with me and I would probably be wondering what is for tea or making a dragon fight a stick man in my head... somethings are probably better left up in my brain though... SO anyway, I thought I might go through some ways that I use to help myself concentrate... mainly I play with them for a little bit to try and get some motivation back to do the work (there is a lot of work to do people, a lot)! So....

1) I introduce you to Mr. Yellow... as you can see, he is a lovely yellow chap who has the ability to STRETCH... I do hope that many of you readers recognise him... we first met a few years ago when my Granny brought some for me.. I carried one around constantly UNTIL............... his arm came off... I may have accidentally stretched him too much, but anyway, I have invested in some more... to be exact I brought 20 online :) so when one breaks I have a spare, I am not trying to say that I am I serial stretchy man killer... but just in case I have back ups. They are excellent to play with and twiddle around with if your having a melt down with work, and the best thing is that they are so cheap to buy! Get some people, you will not regret it!

2) Well... this next item is something I have been wanting for a very long time... I always need to do something with my hands, I can't just have them flopped there not doing anything, therefore I play with my pen, elastic bands OR.... my tangle! Now this beaut can also make a stressful situation worse if your not careful, meaning you might 'tangle' it into a knot and then get stuck (I do that often)... But anyway, I also recommend one of these to people out there who get stressed and need something to do!

3) Lava lamp. I know you can't take one of these to work or school with you but when your at home... it's so relaxing and funny to watch the lamp bubble away. I have had mine for years, and I am turning it on right now to try and get the bubbles bubblin' they are so much fun it's ridiculous. I know they might not seem it, but the shapes they make are a hoot in a bottle really. If you mad people don't have one of these inventions then I strong;y suggest you GET ONE NOW! Just think of the hours of bubbletastic time we could have! Have a few moments looking at the lava and then begin work again, the things you will be able to do! All calm and dazed by the coolness that you have just seen!

4) Now I may be a 16 year old but the excitement of stickers.. .woah, stickers. Just the word gives me the joy as I think about them. I love them to pieces, you feel so special when you open your work and find a little star with a smiley face staring at you saying 'Well Done'! Ahh it's good I tell you!  A recent situation came to me, it means I now have my own stash of stickers, even though they are ALL mine, I reward myself when I think I have done well. Now this entertains me a lot, and it also means I get a  good sticker! People, having stickers on hand is important, you can reward yourselves, use it to stick paper back together, please someone else, save a life (use it as a plaster) there is so much more that you can do too, but I don't want to brag about their awesomeness!

5) My final thing for today... it has to be music. Music makes me calmer, depending on the kind of music that I listen to... I have a wide range on my Ipod but different playlists for different moods. I am an open book I must say when it comes to the music! my Top 5 most played songs are;
1) Cut by Plumb
2) Your Song by Ellie Goulding
3) Skinny Love by Birdy
4) Lithium by Evanscence
5) Fast Car by Tracy Chapman
For me these songs are just... AHH.. I know they are not to everyone's taste, and for me some other songs by the same artists suck, but I choose a song that I like and I listen to it over and over! I like old songs, and new ones.. but overall they all seem to keep me relaxed and calm when I start stressing about things that I don't need to. Acoustic covers are one of my favorite types of music to listen to because they are so natural and relaxing. It's just nice to hear the natural true talent for what it is!

I know everyone is different in the way they help themselves de-stress and concentrate, but for me there are my top 5 ways to get back into action! I hope some of you readers feel the need to go and invest in some stretchy men.. seriously they are so fun, and they only cost about £1 for 20 of them! >:) BUY SOME! Thank you for reading again, feel free to comment! Always welcomed!

Football...

Now, I have never been a big supporter of football admittedly for certain reasons, although I have recently become more into because since the late summer of 2012 I have been going to some Sunday football matches for my boyfriends team... I have some good friends who also play for them too it's nice to go along and support them when I can. Now that kind of football I like... it's fast, skillful (at times) and mostly fun to watch and shout at them when they do something wrong or good! Now we all have the occasional outburst where we shout at the ref for making a terrible decision... but mainly they are good matches and good to watch. What I can't stand is when it comes to 'professional' football. This just ticks me off it really does, they get paid absurd amounts, abuse their roles in society and much more. NOW I KNOW THIS IS NOT EVERY FOOTBALLER! I have heard a lot about them in the paper and on the news about cheating on their wife's or girlfriends... taking drugs, drink driving, being racist on the pitch to other players, and of course... the amount of money they get paid confuddles me. I can't understand why they get paid so much to kick a ball around? I know it counts as their job, but why? They get paid more than a surgeon who saves lives every day! I just don't get it. Then it comes to SOME of the fans, I get that some people get into the game too much... but from all the years on the news that I have seen reports on the crowd going mad and killing, attacking and causing serious harm to other people?! WHY?!?! I seriously don't get why people do it... it's just a game? One game surely isn't a good reason to go throw a brick in someones face because your team lost? Is someone out there has an explanation to what drives SOME people to behave like this then please... go ahead and tell me your opinions...?

I understand that football is important to some people. I know my friends take it seriously when they play, but they don't start fights (all the time), they aren't rude to the other players... What makes people take it SO seriously that they start attacking the opposite teams fans or abusing their players? It's just sick...


So there is my confusion and rant on football... If you have your own views then please feel free to tell me them.. thanks for reading.

Cup cakes!

I am an eager baker, so at the best time I can I will get out my apron, heat my oven and start a concoction of butter, flour, eggs and sugar and see what I can do! My love for baking cakes came from my grandma really... ever since I was a little tot she had me in the kitchen stirring her mixture (to start with I was useless, but she taught me how to stir effective... by getting the spoon & mixture to stay in the bowl haha). It would be every Friday where she got me up on the chair next to the table, leaving me happily to dabble my fingers in the bowl and steal the occasional lick :') Memories like this are what make me smile, being with my dear granny. Anyway! Her favorite to make were small plain cupcakes, I loved making them too, although I was never allowed to deal with the flour as I always managed to drop it in and cause a screen of white powder in the kitchen... tehehe, when I think about it now I can't help but chuckle, although honestly it's not different today in my own home... I warn you all... FLOUR EVERYWHERE. Beating the eggs was also something that I enjoyed, although those too caused issues... I could beat them enough and granny would have to take over for me as my ickle hands couldn't cope! Now I am an excellent whisker if I may say.. My grandma introduced me to baking, like her mother had shown her and on and on for many times before, when I bake, I go by her recipes and her techniques, always remembering carefully how she taught me. I have open heard "that's not how you make cake" and several complaints to the way I do it, and it drives me mad, my brother is my best fan of my cupcakes and he says they are delicious, my parents too love me making them... so when people say "It's not how you make them" then how do they look and taste okay my friends? Hmm... I will always stand by that the best part of baking is getting to lick the bowl, this too leads me to remember making cake with my grandma, and even today, she lets me lick the bowl at the end along with the wooden spoon, she always makes the comment "How you clean that bowl and fit that spoon in your mouth will always amaze me!" I do love her! This week I hope to be cake mad, as I have 3 ducks I have rather a lot of eggs to use, apparently duck eggs are even better to bake cakes with so I have no excuse to sit around not baking!

A friend's cake, she is also
a lovely baker!

Here's what I use;

4 eggs,
8oz of self raising flour,
8oz of butter,
8oz of suagr...


The steps I take are simple, by starting by mixing the butter & sugar, when it all soft and easy to stir I add the beaten eggs to get in some air (as taught by my granny) stirring it all together, making sure there are small bubbles occasionally... then I add the flour. Now this bit always turns messy, I 'gently' pour it all in *EXPLOSION OF WHITE POWDER EVERYWHERE* and slowly mix in with the rest of the mixture. I used to madly mush it all together until I was told that I was getting rid of all the air, which meant the cakes wouldn't rise properly. So now I mix it all in gently until it's a soft looking mixture. Ahhh... I can just imagine it all now, yum! Of course, when you make cakes for yourselves you must sample the mixture to make sure that it tastes tip top!

Now to decorating... I have recently become rather keen on making sure that my cakes not only taste nice but look nice to, I can't stand it when they are not the right brown! So now I make icing and for Christmas I got a icing gun especially for cake decorating! This week I will put it to the test I assure you! I am well known for making my cakes and icing an odd colour... I don't stick to the natural... I like a bit of red (well a lot) and blue... mwhaha, sometimes a mixture :) Nothing better than a completely multi-coloured cake my friends! Anyway, I hope to show some pictures and more posts about what I will be getting up to this week whilst I have some free time! I hope you all have a good week a head, whether you are on holiday, half term, or still working hard! Bake some cakes to keep yourselves happy, it's relaxing and rewarding!

Thank you for reading, feel free to comment your baking experiences!

Books

Today I read a child's book... I just sat and read it out loud at lunch.. So I have decided to talk about books. Personally my favorites are the older ones which are nice and short! I am not trying to say that I have not developed past 5 year old stories because I have (slightly) I love a good book, scary or full of love... but who can beat "The Gruffalo"? or "Dumbo"?? NOTHING will beat the childhood stories, ever :) Also when books end... it's like my world ends! Harry Potter.... when there were no more books, ahh what happens then! You just have to start reading them all over again to take it all back in!

I have not been a very good reader in public, but the other week I was asked to read to my form of about 20/30 people... and I did it rather well... I wasn't nervous and I didn't mess up.. for me that is an achievement! If it was having to do a speech then I can assure you that it would have gone a lot differently.. I would never have been able to do it, I think it was relaxing to know that it was a child's book I was reading, a favorite of mine that I mentioned earlier... The Gruffalo! I must say you can never be too old for it, it brings out the hootful side in most people. If your not a fan of the children's books still then YOU ARE MAD. Okays? ^_^

Work Load!

Well today, I had a melt down with my work. I normally do some then give up, but today was it for me, I had a bad morning and when I got to school it seemed to just get worse and worse, this led to the unfortunate event of me going crazy and 'hitting the wall' as they say. The amount of coursework I have to do is colossal and the amount of time I have is minute. In fact I have now run out of time for most of my work and I have to hand it in and hope for the best. This is not good news.
 When I had my melt down, which was more impressive than normal I was told by my lovely boyf how to sort myself out. From no where he managed to chill me out and tell me what to do with my work. It was like a fish slap (in a good way) it knocked all the bad thoughts out of me and sorted me. All he did was tell me that I needed to take a step back and organise my things more. Make sure I spent more time on my work, getting rid of all my distractions and block out people that affect how I feel. Recently I have found it a lot harder to concentrate with my work, I don't know why, maybe because I have told myself I can't do it, but it's happened and I feel that I am doing badly. I managed to take History which is apparently the hardest exam for year 12... and then psychology which is so interesting but boggling as at the moment I have NO idea what we are doing in it.... I fear that my exams will not go well. I even said today that I am wasting my time being at school although I have contemplated leaving and getting a job my friends have convinced me to carry on and get my exams done. The work load was unexpected I have to say but I guess with the right mind I can do it, just like everyone else, it might be a struggle, but as long as I believe I can do it I should be able to. My friends are important for me because if they are there for me then I seem to be a lot calmer at school, but if something happens that rattles me then everything goes out the window for the day. This is why what my boyf says to me about my work means a lot to me, he is the only one that seems to know me well enough when I am completely stressed and he knows how to calm me! I am very grateful!

I guess what I am trying to get at in a backward way... is if you are in the same position as me, then confide in someone close, get them to help you because it really does work as long as they are there for you. Making you believe that you can do the work and do everything you need to do, everyone needs that push and help in their lives to keep them motivated! FIND SOMEONE PEOPLE!

Presents?!

Right... every year I face the same problem, it never gets easier, if anything it get's a lot harder... You might be able to relate to this... PRESENTS?! Whether its a friends birthday or Christmas,  I struggle so bad with getting present's for people. Last Saturday was a birthday for a close friend, and I ended up getting her some things that were fun and a little odd... she has an obsession with Stitch (as in the kids film) so I managed to get her some stickers and a purse with him on (I got her other stuff not just that) but it seemed like she enjoyed the stickers more than a 17 year old should, someone like her I can find little things to please them.... BUT some people are just impossible. So on the 17th it's my boyf's birthday and I have no idea what to get him... I am completely clueless and he won't give me ideas and everyone else is pretty useless at presenting ideas. I am stuck, so if anyone has suggestions... then PLEASE TELL ME. Desperate need of help here. I love wrapping presents, even though I am useless.. especially when the gift is not a perfect box. I have problems. I hope there are more people out there that find present choosing hard because I surely cannot be the only person, I have a great imagination at times, but I don't think some of what I have in mind is suitable for a 17 year old... help needed guys.

Big Band Theory.

 So I have spent the last few days wondering what to say, and it came down to......... me still not knowing what to write. So today I sat watching TV and Big Bang Theory came on, and I have to say I love it. I know it may not be to everyone's liking but for me, haha, it is briliant. Sheldon Cooper... OOOSH, that man is just a ball of hilarity on two legs that can't say a line without being funny in some way. I hope there are many viewers of the program because if not then you people are mad, okays?! WATCH IT, it's too good to miss. Fair enough if you watch it and decide not to like it but at least give it a shot. It is so simple at times, with the best lines that can make you hoot for a good 5 minutes, at least! The opening theme tune to it is simply a hoot. You just have to sing a long to it :') unless your like me, you now the first part, hum the middle and then sing the ending? If you do that then I am sure we are not alone with the thousands of other people who have the same issue, it's just that middle part?! It's a butt.
Those Big Bang Theory fans out there; I hope you own all the series of it on box set so you can watch it whenever you want to? I know I wish I could have that privilege  as personally I would never stop watching it! It is something that I could watch so many times over and over and still find it as funny as the first time I watched it. Tehehe. I now demand that all you readers go out now, buy the box set of as many series as you can and watch it. Or at least pop onto 4OD and watch a few for a taster... trust me you will love it. If you don't then sorry, but your a tad mad (that rhymed) GO GO GO!