Going Green - Succulent Bowl

It has been forever since I've made a post, and for that I am very seriously sorry!

I've had a few crappy things happen in the last few weeks and I just got a bit upset about everything to the point where I just had no motivation to do anything.

But now I'm back! And I have a post I'm super happy about to make up for my lack of existence.

I have come to love succulents, because they're so easy to grow and if I forget to water them (which is why so many of my plants die) they are still okay, because they retain the water! So as I'm sure you've all seen online, people have been planting a variety of different succulents in bowls, and they all look great!

 Above is an example of one that I found on lovely old google! I just love the different colours and the mass of them!

So here's a little DIY on succulents and how I did the succulent bowl.

 First of all, get a cacti & succulents mix. It's important to get the cacti one for your succulents as the mix makes the water easier to pass through, which is exactly what you want for your plants. Succulents don't need a lot of water, as they hold them in their leaves, and if they do get too much water, the leaves won't be very plump and will be long and thin. Not a good look, so spending a few extra dollars is definitely worth it.

 I got this bowl for about $10, and it's best to get a terracotta pot. This one was the main one I used as I had heaps of plants, yet not enough to hold all my plants.

This is one of the bowls I did, which I put in only three succulents. One of the succulents I bought already had a pup on it, so I knew it was going to be bigger soon (the pale succulent on the bottom). The other dark green succulent is one of my favourites, so I put in this one and the small one I was having issues growing in a pot by itself before, so I changed it's pot with these ones and hopefully now it'll really start to take off. 

When planting succulents, it's important to not be too rough with its leaves, as it has a special film on the top of the leaves that protects it from too much water. It acts as a rebound for the water so they don't get too waterlogged and end up dying. So be careful!

Lastly, this is my ultimate favourite bowl. The one in the middle is my most favourite succulent of them all because it's green with purple edges and just ugh I love it so much. The other succulents around it are super tiny, yet I'm hoping they'll survive and thrive. 

So there you have it guys, my little succulents and their little homes. I have also added some small black stones so now it looks even better than just the soil. If you have any succulents, totally tweet them to me on @thesjdiaries or even tag me in them on Instagram! I will be using my personal Instagram so you can all see how weird my use of it is. Yet I do need to update it and put more photos up of course (last upload was 1 week ago and it was of my succulents oops) you can find me at @sarah__smiles and stalk me! I'll most likely follow you all back if I can :)

xx Sarah Judith

Becoming More Fashionable?

Hello my people.

The last few days of my life have been very fashion related. I have been going through my clothes, and I have chosen to sell some! I have about three bags of clothes, some shoes, and other accessories. I am hoping to sell these somehow, (not sure yet) and then I'm hoping to use the money I get from those clothes to of course get some more clothes back into my wardrobe. 

 So whilst looking through my clothes, shoes and accessories, I have had a bit of inspiration! I have decided to try do an outfit a week, and if that hits off, I'll try and become affiliates with boutiques, which would be super awesome! I'd just love to experience the whole excitement of creating something new weekly, writing something about it and then having you super cool people be able to see it for yourselves!

So I have a few more goals for my little blog of mine, which one of them is to begin asking for affiliates with boutiques after I've had my 18th birthday!

So here goes to The Sarah Judith Diaries becoming a little bit more fashionable in life and on my blog! My wishes for this blog are coming closer already, with more than 900 page views! I have tried to make it that every month, my page views are more than the month before. And so far, so good! Even if it's only one difference, I will be super happy with it! 

Also, when I get to 1000 page views, I will be uploading a video! Of what, I have no idea, but I will 100% come up with an idea for all you little children of the internet.

xx Sarah Judith

Valentine's Day

Beware my little lovelies, this is not your normal 'Valentine's Day' post. This is a post that I have been sort of dreading, yet sort of wanting to post. 

On Saturday, it is - as you may have noticed from the abundance of romantic crap in stores - Valentine's Day. This year for the special day, I am single. 

Last year, I wasn't, and it was the most amazing thing ever, because it was my first V day with someone. Oh, I was such a cutie. 

But now, I am fully single, working on said day, and super excited. 

Why?

Because I plan to make this the best V day of my existence (until the next one). We've all heard of people complaining about V day, saying it's artificial, and I agree. The whole V day is practically a sham to spend money on the person you love. 

This year, February is not V day, it's now Me Day. It's going to be a day where I do no study, sit on my couch and watch Gossip Girl, before I go to work, and then continue the marathon when I get home. Yes, I said Gossip Girl, because I bought the entire series today, just for the sole purpose of Me Day. 

So whether you have a special person, be it a girl, guy, or even a food, love that person. Give that person the happiest day, because like myself, I think I deserve the happiest day, and so Me Day is going to be awesome. Move over, V day, Me Day has arrived.

I had also been looking at the hashtag, #valentinesday, and I found a few funny ones, and just tweets that I generally liked. Many of them have to do with chocolate, which is 100% fine with me, as my love for chocolate is amazing. I love chocolate as much as there are grains of sand (just watch the video of the guy's creepy video to his girlfriend, that's my love for chocolate). 

Me Day may seem a bit self centred to many people out there, but seriously, we all need to have a Me Day, or a Me Week. It's a good thing to do to yourself, and man, I'm loving the idea of discovering the world of Gossip Girl, and I can assure you that tomorrow (Friday) and on actual Me Day (Saturday), I will be live tweeting the whole time. It shall be awesome, and it is going to make me look like the most basic white girl out. So be it, I will enjoy it, and long live the awesome Me Day!

xx Sarah Judith

How to Live Happily

Hello again my little family of people.

The last few weeks have been the most amazing weeks of my life, and I've been the happiest I have been for as long as I can remember. Since this feeling is hopefully going to be permanent, I am here to give you little munchkins my knowledge on

HOW TO LIVE HAPPILY

Because it's a very important life skill.

1. Have a playlist of happy songs on your phone. - This has helped me get through my new daily bus rides to and from tafe. I have it blaring through my earphones and I'm pretty sure the fellow passengers on the bus think there's something mentally wrong with me because I'm super happy. Even at 7am in the morning. It's what the music does.
2. Eat healthily. - I have always had a rather healthy diet, mainly because my mother thinks she's overweight. She's not, and she's a freaking awesome person, who needs to stop looking towards the media for body idols. I eat healthily whenever I can. If I'm feeling hungry, I have some crackers with some dip. It's better than macdonalds, and it tastes a whole lot better. 
3. Try not to have negative thoughts. - I used to have negative thoughts about everything. Many of these thoughts I kept to myself. Until one day a guy friend of mine, I realised that he actually complains about everything. If it's raining: 'I hate rain, makes things slippery'. Something was wrong with the food he ordered: 'Wow I wish I got something different, because this is disgusting'. He complains about everything that he could've prevented, and it annoys me to no end. So before complaining about something, I now take a breath and think of something positive about it. It's raining: 'The trees look so much nicer when wet actually'. Easy!
4. Make more time to hang out with friends. - This is pretty logical. Even if it's for a quick coffee (or in my case hot chocolate), friends are freaks and are freaking amazing. So no excuses, hang out with your friends dear people.
5. Walk. - I try to walk at least 4km a day. This is super easy for me, considering I walk those just going to and from bus stops to get to and from tafe. It makes you breathe in the fresh air, and gives you that little bit of exercise.
6. Combination? - You could totally go all out and try these five tips at once, which would be pretty crazy, yet kudos to you, people who can achieve it. I can totally imagine going on a walk with my best friend, drinking a berry smoothie I made myself, listening to music with said best friend and totally complimenting everything we past. We would be the new town weirdos, but at least we'd be hella happy!

So that's how I stay happy, having a laugh with friends and all of these steps are just plain simple. Just do what makes you happy and the rest will come naturally. I have finally given up on caring what people think of me as a person, and have begun to concentrate on how I feel as a person.

xx Sarah Judith

My First Week of tafe

Hello everyone again!
I have finally completed a full week of tafe! That's it, my first week of tafe is over, and I have very seriously loved every single minute of it.

I am so in love with nursing already, and I haven't even done prac.

The week started off with Tuesday, which I had Cultural Cluster and Aged Care. Cultural cluster is a class made up of three other classes, and has to do with working effectively with other people from other cultures. I already love the class, as I love and enjoy many other cultures and just the idea that there is a class dedicated to working with cultures is absolutely great! Aged Care is also now one of my other favourite classes since it's about old people. The class is seriously on my favourite age group. I have always strongly believed that old people are worth taking care of, since they have created the world we live in, whether they like it or not. And also because old people seem to like me, since I'm small and look like a twelve year old mostly.

Wednesday is the best day ever with only one class - Infection control and workplace health and safety. The class goes from 8:00-10:30 and that's it for the day. The class focuses more on the legal side of nursing, talking about how to prevent and control infections and then of course the workplace health and safety side is more about keeping everyone in the workplace safe at the workplace and sending the worker home safely. Then after that class I go into the city for a meal ;) best treat of the week!

Thursday's are my full days. I have communication which is a mixture of psychology and counselling, pretty much learning how to communicate effectively with our clients. Then I have terminology, which is learning all the medical jargon used in the gigantic medical world, and lastly Fundamentals, which this week we spent the last half of the lesson (1.5 hours) learning how to make beds! Who knew that making beds could be so technical! There were diagrams and everything, even a chapter in our text book is dedicated to the making of beds.

So that's my first week of tafe, and I have even made a friend. She's pretty cool, we seem to have a lot in common and I'm hoping we get to make it through the course together.

Just a small update on my education life, ensuring you all that I'm not slacking!

xx Sarah Judith

Where I Write My Blog Posts From

 Hello readers of my blog!

Tonight I have a post about my blog posts; where I write them. 

 I write all (mostly) my blog posts sitting cross legged on my bed, listening to music on spotify far too loudly, with my fairy lights lit and my awesome Eiffel Tower lamp on. Sometimes I’ll be in my pyjamas, my work uniform (if I’ve just finished work) or just my everyday clothes. I either write one post for that current night and smile happily when I press the ‘publish’ button or some nights I even write many posts and schedule them if I have a busy week or two ahead of me. Either way, this is where I relaxingly write my blog posts for you lovely people to read, and it helps me to enjoy it greatly.

 The one thing I love about writing these blog posts from my bed is the pillows. I have two rectangular pillows and one rainbow crochet circular cushion my mum made for me, and all three of them make the bed super comfortable and if I’m having a mind blank, I can lay on the for a while and it’s just super relaxing. And they even look good!

 Another item on my bed I adore is my quilt. My mother made it for me when I was super young and got my first bed. I still use it, and it’s still in super good condition, mainly because of the high quality. (Mum, if you’re reading this, does this mean I get brownie points?) This quilt is super soft of course and the pattern is great and I don’t think I’ll ever part with it, unless giving it to a younger generation of my family. That could be super cool.

My fairy lights are a relaxing feature that I move around my room regularly when I think it’ll look better in a different place. They’ve been all over my room, and of course they look snazzy everywhere. Also, with only them on at night, it lights up my entire room, which is helpful for going to the toilet at 2am and not wanting to be blinded by a harsh light.

That’s my little area I create my blog posts for you all to read. Whether it’s writing a blog post for that night, or a few posts for many nights in advanced, or even editing my photos for these posts, I sit in the most comfortable area of my house that doesn’t give me any excuses to procrastinate or to even get off task.

This place is 100% going to be where I study for my diploma and write my assessments from. It is now not only my blogging area, it’s my mini computer lab!

Also in about a month or so, it’s getting a makeover and I am super excited to share it with all of you in the very near future. Just a hint, it’s not going to be the same colour scheme as it is now, and it’s going to make me feel a whole lot more like a proper adult.

xx Sarah Judith

My Bucket List

 I’m back, and this time, I have a bit of a generic post for you all.

The Bucket List. We’ve all heard of it, and many people have one of their own. Mine is fairly short as I have no idea what I want to do in the next 2 hours let alone the rest of my life. But after some careful thinking, I have accumulated a few that I think would be fairly great to happen whilst I’m on this Earth.

Travel to every country –

Well of course this is my first choice, because I love travelling. The whole flight experience, meeting new people, being involved in different cultures and then of course, the photography. Oh the photos I could take. The amount of memory cards I would fill, and the huge bill for printing them. It would be so cool to then also tell people ‘yeah, I’ve been to every country in the world. Be jealous’. Also the food, just to taste things I’ve never knew existed, to see the world would be the most amazing experience known to mankind and I would probably not know what to do with myself once I’ve been everywhere. Of course I would only go to countries when their safe. Not that silly.

Dye my hair a darker colour –

I have always wondered what I would look like with darker hair. My super white skin may look amazing with it, and that’s something I would greatly appreciate.

Use liquid eyeliner perfectly –

I’ve tried it a few times, and IT’S SO HARD! How people get it perfect every day, I shall maybe one day find out. And I’ll probably make a post about it, since it’s on my Bucket List!

Sell one of my photography canvas prints –

I have wanted to do this since Christmas (2014) after seeing the canvas prints I did for my dad. He loves them, and I love them two, so why not sell them? It’ll be a cool way to get my photography out there.

Graduate from tafe –

For obvious reasons, graduating from tafe will be one of the many things in my life to give me happiness and I’m looking forward to it! It shall be an awesome moment!

Get a job as an Enrolled Nurse –

That’s the whole reason I went to tafe, and duh, I’m going to get a job doing what I love!

Graduate from University –

Then I can work as a registered nurse! How cool is that! I have more experience than I did before! Awesome!

Get a job as a Registered Nurse –

Heck yeah registered nurse is going to be an awesome profession and I can totally see myself as one for many years of my life.

Move to Melbourne – 

Melbourne is the true love of my life, and even though I’ve only been there once, I know the love I feel between her and me, it is meant to be. I could honestly write a lengthy romance about the love. It’s meant to be.

Go travelling with the brother –

My brother is pretty cool when he wants to be and even if we go somewhere for a few days, travelling with him would be pretty great!

Grow my hair to my waist –

It’ll look awesome and I can plait it, pretending I’m a Disney Princess. Life goals.

Cook every recipe in my cook book – 

The cookbook I got for Christmas (2014) is chockers with recipes I would love to explore and it’s going to be exciting to cook every recipe in it!

 Be a vegetarian for a week –

 Because I love eggplant, and could seriously survive on just yummy vegetarian goodness. Chicken, I will miss you.

 Have the perfect bedroom – 

 This every girls dream. If you deny this, I’m sorry but you are 100% wrong.

 Meet Ball Park Music and have photos with them –

 I LOVE THESE GUYS! They make me super happy and got me through the last two years of high school. For that, they deserve billions of cookies and wow they’re the epitome of cool.

 Get paid to blog –

 I love blogging, and to be paid for it would be super cool, even if I get paid about $2 a week. I’d be totally up for that.

 Be dumped –

 What a depressing one to end on. But yes, folks, I have never been dumped, I’ve always been the one to do the dumping and I believe that it is probably time for me to taste some of my own medicine.

So maybe the last item isn’t as great as the other ones, but it’s on there. Why? Because many people I know have been dumped, and I don’t exactly want to be left out! Rejection is part of life guys and I’m here with sort of open arms.

Until next time

xx Sarah Judith

Hello There Enrolments

Hello fellow lovers of the internet. Today is a pretty freaking awesome day as in my glorious email inbox I received the long awaited Enrolment Package from Tafe Brisbane.

That's right, I got into a course at Tafe Brisbane as of yesterday morning. 

I'm going to be studying a Diploma of Nursing at Southbank Tafe campus!

And not only am I going there, three people I know are going to Southbank Tafe with me. Two are people I went through preschool and highschool with and the other is one that reads my blog constantly and makes fun of me at work. He's an alright guy. 

The rest of my life is finally shaping up and now I have an awesome future ahead. For the next 18 months I shall be attending this Tafe and I'm going to try make it the most amazing next few months ever. 

After completing my diploma I'm going to have 6 months left and in that 6 months I'll hopefully be able to find a job as an Enrolled Nurse, work there and at my current job for that time and then after my brother graduates, I will be taking him somewhere overseas instead of him going to schoolies.

Not only is the year looking better by the minute, I can sort of say what I'm going to be doing for the next two years of my life. 

Thanks for reading this short blog post but I promise the next one will be longer and now excuse me because I'm going to now have an awesome night with my crazy friend

xx Sarah Judith

5 Things I love and Hate About Being Graduated

Hello! Sorry for not posting for what seems like forever! I had a lot of stuff to do, and tonight is the first night I've finally had to myself, without working or going out with friends. (And studying, which was about four weeks ago).

I have some pretty flipping awesome news...

I HAVE GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL!

Probably one of the most happiest moments of my life, and at the ceremony, I got an award! It was for helping the school without ever being asked, and also being the school photographer for the last two years, giving up my time to take photos of people and things for the school!

They gave me a $100 gift voucher to Dymocks and I bought two photography books with it so I can expand my uses of my camera even more so. Thanks school :)

So in this happy, commemorative blog post, I will be writing two lists. '5 Things I Love About Being Graduated' and '5 Things I Hate About Being Graduated'.

Here goes...

5 Things I Hate About Being Graduated

1. Working - I have been working 32hour weeks which is super hard because I'm used to working 10 hours maximum a week. The pay is awesome though! ($850 a fortnight roughly)
2. Home Time - I am rarely at home, which means that I barely have time to do mundane stuff like clean my room, do chores, and I even miss cleaning my clothes.
3. Juggling Different Lives - I have my work life, family life, social life and blogging life. It's been super hard to even fit in this before going to bed tonight because I have a long day at work tomorrow! Social life is hard because I have different friendship groups and then family has at the moment been pushed nearly to the bottom, but thankfully they understand that I'm trying. Blogging has very obviously hit the bottom, but I have decided to write more than one blog post a day (when I have time) and then schedule them! What a genius idea.
4. No Sleep - I have been sleeping really badly because of my crazy schedule and I'm hoping that next year work will hopefully sort out my hours. It's Christmas, so its pretty darn ridiculous!
5. Christmas Shopping - Super hard to get done! I spent two hours in the shops, somehow managing to get all my presents in time, and now I just need to find time to wrap them. Maybe I'll just end up buying those present bag things because of lack of time :O

5 Things I Love About Being Graduated

1. What is School? - Haven't been to school in about 3 weeks and I have pretty much forgotten the ways of school. What is homework? What is this thing they call classes? Yep, really loving not getting stressed about having to do assessment for subjects I absolutely hate and am never going to need out in the real world. Sorry pi formula, you just take up too much brain space.
2. Going out with Friends on a School Night - Oooh damn. Going out to around 11pm on a school night? That used to be practically illegal in my parents eyes and now I could be gone all day and into the night without even a text asking what time I'll be home. Makes me feel a little unloved, but so much more mature.
3. The Money - Since I have been working 32 hours a week, I have a lot of money flowing in. It means that I will have a fair amount of spending money for Melbourne, and what's left over once I get back from that goes to my new laptop for University. The laptop I've been using is my brothers old one and it's a little old. Sorry, little Acer.
4. Teasing My Brother - The first week I had of holidays was while my brother was still at school, completing Year 10. So, I of course rubbed that in to him by doing as many things as I could, sending him snapchats and texts to him at least once an hour. He really loved that.
5. Holidays - I have a super long holiday, which started on the 21st of November and it will end when University commences in March next year. That's a whole lot of time I have to do stuff in, and a whole lot of blog posts waiting to be written. 

So there we have it. The two lists I have been thinking about since I graduated. But seriously, being graduated makes me feel so different. Who am I without school? I can wear whatever I want, have my hair however I want and can get more piercings I want.

So a few questions out to you all, what should I do for the rest of my holidays? What should I do in Melbourne and also a more general one, when did you graduate? (If you haven't graduated you can always tell me when you are going to graduate!)

Thanks for being so awesome, 

Sarah Judith xx

Attention!

Hello!

I'm probably the happiest I've ever been in the last few years of my life at this very moment. As we speak, my last ever English assessment is printing out and I'm beginning to prepare myself for my maths exam on Monday. From Monday, the 10th of November onwards, I will be finally free of all high school assessment for the rest of my life!

I'm nearly free! I am shaking from excitement, thinking of what I can do with my new freedom.

If anyone now asks me, 'How's high school going?' I can answer, 'Oh, I'm actually in between educational journeys.'

So here is what I am doing educational wise from now on:

19th November - QCS results are out (not going to even look because I just care about my OP)

21st November - My graduation, formal and going to an afterparty yay

19th December - OP results are out (nervous for this date)

15th January - Major offer round for universities (its the offer date for all the unis I applied for so this day is going to be pretty scary)

THEN

March 2nd - 4th - this is when Universities start! Pretty excited for this date.

But what am I going to be doing during this time? Hopefully blogging a lot, shopping a lot, and sewing a lot. And on this blog, I will be oversharing!

My blog, Twitter, Facebook (I really need to actually get on that a lot more) and Instagram is going to be hopefully overflowing with everything I want to share with you guys! From food to small travelling trips, there's going to be a spam of my awesome holiday.

I'll of course be working a lot since I'm no longer a student and my boss loves me so yay for the money flow!

Until next time (Probably Tuesday),

Sarah Judith xx

Busiest School Week and an Announcement!

Hello again!

I've been super busy this week, and so has my camera.

As I am my schools senior photographer - our team of photographers consists of me and my maths teacher haha - I was having a huge week due to it being '*insert school name here* Week'! For legal reasons I can't exactly tell you which school it is, sorry.

But! I was running around for about two hours snapping photos of everything and everyone, for the whole week. I don't think I've had a better work out!

I would absolutely love to show all of you some of the photos that I was able to take, but sadly most of them have my school uniform in it or the name of my school somewhere in it. So, there was a picture of a sheet of music that was played on one of the days, so I'll show you that.

So, this is one of the reasons I haven't been able to post for a while, but I have an awesome idea for a post to be coming up! It has to do with my art assignment, getting messy and reusing old books!

Also something I would like to share with everyone, I now have a twitter, so you can all stalk me! (Please, please, please don't!) Anyways, it's @thesjdiaries so if you follow me, tweet at me and we can be really cool twitter friends!

See you next time,

Sarah Judith xx