Tips for Practical Exams

Hey guys!

Apologies for the 2 weeks abscence since my last post! I recently had my Irish oral (counts for 40% of overall exam), French oral (25% of overall) and music practical (50% of overall!) for my Leaving Cert. It’s fair to say they were a pretty stressful 2 weeks. But luckily I made it through and I thought today I could give a few tips based on my experience. I’m not even sure if other countries have practical and oral exams but hopefully this might be helpful in some way anyway!

1.    Start prepping early

I think it’s especially tempting for practical exams to leave everything until the last minute. You don’t necessarily need to spend hours studying but if you’re not prepared you will regret it! Try and do a bit every night leading up to the exams rather than leaving it all until the last week, you’ll save yourself a lot of stress.

3 Easy&Healthy Breakfasts

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Today I'm gonna share with you 3 healthy, and in my opinion, tasty breakfasts that I enjoy. I only realised after that I use oats in all of them, I don't actually eat oats every day they're just really handy! I didn't put in any of the measurings because I always just play it by ear.

DIY Christmas- Decorations&Gifts

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Now I am about as unartistic as you can get. Drawing and painting and I just do not mingle well. I even have problems drawing diagrams in biology, seriously it’s that bad! However something I’m not too awful at is crafts. I still wouldn’t really call it my thing but I can handle a few artsy bits now and again. If you just go on Tumblr or Pinterest (I don’t use Pinterest but I’ve heard it’s great) you can find a ton of ideas and most of them are pretty easy. If you’re often broke, like me, then it’s a cheap way to Christmas up your room and give cool gifts for cheap.

If only I could make some this good!

My Dressing Table

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Today I thought I would share with you a place where I spend time pretty much every morning. In my room I have two big wardrobes and built in between them is a dressing table. I have a lot of makeup, hair products and beauty tools so trust me when I say this really comes in handy. I thought that ye might like to see how I arrange everything so ye might get some ideas for your own makeup etc storage!

5 Things To Do On Halloween

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One day until Halloween, yay! Is there a name for this day? I’m going to call it pre ween night. Preen? No, ok I’ll stop now. Anyway as it’s Halloween tomorrow I thought I’d write about some of the things you could get up to on the spooky night.

Party it up

How To Live A Healthier Lifestyle

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Alright let me first start off by saying I don’t wanna be getting all preachy. I am not an extremely healthy person, nor do I claim to be. I do however try to live the healthiest lifestyle possible. That definitely doesn’t mean that I always achieve that. There are times when I’m not very healthy at all, but that’s ok too. Today I just wanted to share a few tips with you guys about how I attempt to live a healthy life. Phew, disclaimer over, let’s get on with the post!

Exercise as often as possible

I try to exercise every day of the week, except Friday when I give myself a day off. The key to getting a lot of exercise is doing something you enjoy. If you have to force yourself to go to gym it’s much less likely that you’ll actually go. Two years ago I was really into running, I would go about 4 times a week and even ran a relay marathon! However last year I stopped enjoying it so much but would still make myself run once a week. It’s much harder to get exercise when you’re dreading it. Joining a sports team/exercise class is a great way to keep yourself motivated. Things I like to do at home are YouTube workout videos and dance workouts (check out Dance Fitness with Jessica and Refitrev!). Just find something that you like to do and can look forward to.

Buy attractive workout gear

Another great way to keep yourself motivated is to have nice clothes to exercise in. I know that whenever I buy some new workout stuff I want to exercise asap so I can try them out. You don’t have to buy the best highest quality stuff, you can get pretty good workout gear from Primark/Penneys.

Take time to prepare healthy food

Sometimes it’s just so much easier to grab a packet of crisps or heat up a pizza instead of making your own food. I know that that option always seems appealing to me. But if you just spend a bit longer you can make yourself some tasty and healthy meals. Breakfast is probably my favourite meal so I don’t usually mind taking a bit of time to prepare it. The picture above shows my breakfast from the other day and something I make quite often.I mixed honey and chia seeds into greek yogurt and then topped it with goji berries, strawberries and a little granola, mmmm.

Snack less

Now I definitely struggle with this one. Because I only have small snacks I don’t think they count as much but if you count together all the snacks from one day it’s probably quite a lot! My tip is to try and cut out one at a time. For example I usually have a snack when I get home from school and later at about 8 o’clock. So I’m trying at the moment to cut out that evening snack. Obviously treats every now and again are fine though.

Drink more water

Now, I don’t have problems with this one because I drink lots of water. I don’t know why, I just get dehydrated really easily I think! My tip for you if you want to start drinking more water is too carry water bottles everywhere. I always have one with me, in school, in the car, wherever I go. If you’re not a fan of the taste of water then try adding things like lemons, limes, oranges, mint leaves, cucumber. Infused water tastes really good and supposedly is good for weight loss which is an extra bonus.

Try herbal teas

I love herbal teas and have at least one mug a day. They’re a great alternative to orange juice in the morning or a sugary drink in the evening. Also, they’re a great way to take in more water! There’s so many different types you can get, some calm you, some energise you, some make you sleepy. My favourite is definitely peppermint but the fruity varieties are really good too!

De-stress

I think people often forget that part of a healthy lifestyle is a healthy mind. Try not to get too worked up and worried about things. If you’re feeling stressed out take time to relax, do some yoga, read a book, have a pamper evening (tips here!). Practice positive thinking, if you feel happy and good about yourself, you’ll look good on the outside too. In many ways a healthy mental state is more important than a healthy physical state.

Well that’s it guys, I hope this helped you and maybe got you motivated.If you have any tips for staying healthy please don't be shy and share below!

Catriona xo

A Very Small Candle Haul

Hey guys!

Today I wanted to share with you a few things I picked up in town recently. It really is a tiny haul but I decided I would write a post on it anyway just because I love everything I got. Also if you’ll believe it the whole lot came to just under 7 euro so I’m pretty proud of that too! Not much beats the feeling of picking up some great bargains does it? Everything is candles or candle related because I’ve burned up my others and wanted some new scents in my room.

How To Have The Perfect Pamper Evening

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So you know when you have a cold and a cough and you’re throat is sore and you’re just completely exhausted? Well I’ve been feeling like that the past week. I think something’s going around and everybody’s picking it up cause we’re all worn out from going back to school. Well as I’m feeling as bleugh as I am, I decided to have a little pamper evening  for myself. I need to start doing more of these, especially as I’m bound to be stressed out this year with exams. I think everybody needs to take a little time out every now and again to treat themselves and make themselves feel refreshed. So today I thought I would share my tips on how to have the best pamper evening ever.

Run a bubble bath

Few things are more relaxing than a hot bubbly bath. Just run some hot water, add bubbles and sink into the warmth. If you had bath bombs they would make it even better. I spied some Lush bath bombs my sister got for her birthday recently while I was running the bath and was tempted to steal one but decided it was better not to!

The School Survival Guide

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Ok so I’m pretty much crying while writing this cause the thought of going back to school next Monday. NOPE. As usual summer lasted about 8.39937432 seconds. I sorta feel like I did nothing for the whole 3 months but actually I did tons, probably my most productive summer ever. I spent 3 weeks in Irish college, went on a 2 week holiday, had a good few nights out and actually managed to keep in touch with most of my friends the whole summer. So the fact that I’ve had one of the best summers yet combined with the fact that I’m facing my final school year and have to do my Leaving Cert (A levels/Final Finals/you get the point) means that I am not 100% looking forward to it. So as I’m pretty much done with secondary school (high school) I thought I would share my tips on how to get through “the best days of your life”.

Ok look, yes I am AWFUL at Photoshop. But this is the first thing I've ever made on it and I have the artistic skills of a one legged dog so let's just appreciate the effort I went to. Also if you get where this picture is from then we should talk. 

Healthy Sticky Peanut Butter Chocolate Treats

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I really didn’t know what to call these delicious treats. At first I thought ‘healthy Snickers’ but they’re not really that like a Snicker so I settled for ‘sticky peanut butter chocolate treats’ which is pretty much exactly what they are. The stickiness comes from the date which are really sweet and sort of caramel-y. I know they’re not really really healthy but hey, they’re better than a bag of sweets or a chocolate bar!

Healthy Oat Pancakes

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I looove pancakes, they’re definitely one of my favourite foods. But I am also trying to be healthy at the moment. Actually I’m always trying to be healthy but most of the time I fail because like, chocolate. I know banana pancakes are really popular lately but I hate bananas, like ew gross, they’re the only fruit I don’t like. So I came up with this banana free (but still quite healthy) alternative.

Holiday Essentials

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As ye are reading this I’ll be on my summer holidays (“vacation”) in England, so the posts for these 2 weeks have been pre-scheduled. I’m actually writing this the night before I head off so I thought I would write a post about what I would think of as some ‘holiday essentials’ . Obviously depending on where you’re going, different things are going to be essential. The weather in England is similar to Ireland but more sunny so I’m being optimistic and treating it as a sun holiday. The second week we’re staying in Cornwall so I know I’ll be spending a lot of time on the beach.

      

       Books/magazines

Weekday Night Time Routine

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Ok so I decided to write a post about my daily night time routine. Personally I love reading blogs and watching youtube videos just to see what other people do at night. It’s such a great way to find new products and introduce new things into your own routine. So anyway, here is what I generally do to prepare myself for the all important beauty sleep!

Once I’ve finished my homework/study/exercise,and all the stuff that needs to get done in the day I like to relax by watching something on Netflix or a couple of youtube videos. As I said in my April favourites, I love love love Suits. I'm also really into Pretty Little Liars at the moment. And youtube videos, I watch A LOT of them.

Exam Stress and Study Tips

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So with my summer end of year exams looming around the corner ie they’re starting next week!! I thought it would be a good time to write about a post about dealing with exam stress and just a few helpers for how to study. Now, I have to admit that I could be called somewhat of a nerd. I like to do well and I’m only happy if I know I’ve done the best I could have done. Because of that I do tend to get a bit stressed out around exam times, as any member of my family will tell you. So basically these are just a few things I’ve picked up over my years of swotting.