i like mondays

Yep, I said it. Sorry to all you Monday-haters, but it’s true. Maybe I’ll feel differently when I have a 9-5 Monday to Friday job and I love my weekends too much, but at this point in my life Monday is just a great day for me. Of course, I don’t have work and I don’t have university on Mondays, but even Wednesdays, which are my Mondays, I love too.

To me, Monday is the start of something new (cue ‘High School Musical’ getting stuck in your head). I am obsessed with new starts. Not that I necessarily need them, and not that my past is bad or something, but I love the idea of beginning afresh and having a clear slate that you can draw out and create something wonderful with. I love sunrises for this same reason; it’s a new day to do something. Begin again.

Monday is the perfect day to do this. It’s the start of the week, a reasonable period of time to achieve something - maybe not something great or huge - but enough that’ll make you proud of yourself. It’s not so long that you lose focus on your goals a while in before you even begin to make progress (we're looking at you, New Years resolutions), but long enough that by the end of it you’ll have something to be proud of.

Monday is the weekly sunrise. It’s the day to start afresh. It’s a day to reflect on what you want to achieve in the next seven days and how you can do that. It’s a day to begin. What do you want to do this week? Cut out alcohol? Cut out sugar? Maybe have smaller portions, just for a week. Finally finish that paper that’s due. Wake up earlier. It takes seven days to break a bad habit - start that on a Monday.

It’s the Monday motivation that gets me going and makes me like them so much, but there’s also other factors I like about Monday. It’s when uni is busier and actually open, so I can see people and have access to the great library. It’s when the shops have normal business hours again, so I can post that letter to my grandmother. It’s the potential that a new week brings, and so much more.

The point of this post is, feel free to have that extra large soy cappuccino, but stop grizzling so much about the fact that it’s back to work or back to uni or back to school, and think about all that lies ahead. And no, I’m not talking about the weekend. Stop thinking about those glorious Saturdays and lazy Sundays and create something wonderful with those weekdays. Monday included.

The lake is still going to be there for you to walk around after work. You might have to attend three different lectures and a tutorial, but there’ll always be a friend free to grab a quick coffee and chat. Your family is going to enjoy that beautiful dinner you cooked regardless of whether it’s after work, school, or if it’s on a weekend.

Do something with your Mondays besides groaning about it while slumped over your desk. For your sake, and Monday's sake - I mean think about how the poor day feels. ;)

xx Silje

i quit sugar - an introduction

CONFESSION: I am addicted to the sweet stuff.

I will not shy away from the sugar-laden syrups added to my latte. M&Ms and jelly babies are my study snacks. Ice cream is my ultimate downfall. If it has sugar in it, it will soon be in my stomach.

There is no self control when it comes to me and treats. I really cannot help myself – put a huge slice of cake in front of me and I will eat the whole thing, scrape the plate clean, and ask for more. I’m the kind of girl who makes any sort of baked goods and eats half of it before it’s even cooked. Oops.

However, I’ve also suffered from a fair few things that I really don’t like. I have acne which isn’t so bad on my face, but is pretty terrible on my chest and back (being honest here!), and it’s looking pretty stubborn. I’m moody a lot of the time and easily irritated. I have days where I’m completely lethargic and devoid of any energy, but I’m up until two o’clock in the morning. Most of the time, I’m lacking in motivation and focus. All of these things can be linked to poor diet, and after being in denial for a long time, I’ve come to realise that to change myself, I also have to change what I’m putting in my body.

Now (if it wasn’t obvious), I’m no health freak. Today my breakfast had chocolate chips in it. But I also know myself, and I really am addicted to sugar. Last May, I managed to stay healthy for quite a while, and it was honestly quite a challenge. It took a good week for my cravings to not be so overwhelming, and about a fortnight for them to completely disappear (well, almost). So when I picked up the I Quit Sugar book, I decided on a whim to purchase it and actually try. Sarah Wilson, please be my saviour.

For the next eight weeks, I am going to (try to) follow the I Quit Sugar detox plan and cleanse myself of sugar. It actually doesn’t look too harsh, and it’s definitely doable. The only concern is to actually curb your addiction, you have to go cold turkey on all sorts of sugar. The main sugar the book tries to get you to quit is fructose, which is the “bad” sugar, but you find a lot of fructose in fruit. And I love fruit! Especially with the weather warming up, there’s going to be a lot of summer fruit coming up. However, I believe I can do this and I really hope I have your support too!

This means that my blogging is going to be a little different to usual. I will continue to post on Thursdays with regular lifestyle posts, but I will also be updating my sugar-quitting journey every Sunday with a weekly recap of how I’ve felt during the past seven days/what I’ve been eating, etc.

I’d love it if you followed along!

xx Silje

opening of H&M perth

Ahhh! H&M has finally launched in Perth! It was only a year and a half ago that H&M came to Australia and settled its first store in Melbourne, before opening stores in Sydney and Brisbane. To say that people were excited for it to come over to the west coast would be an understatement. Perth's H&M opened its doors at 9am, but people had been queueing up since 6am, taking up most of the floor space available in that section of the shopping centre.

What's really lucky for me is that specific shopping centre that houses H&M just so happens to be right outside the train station I get off at for uni. Well, lucky for me - not so lucky for my wallet.

I invited an old friend that I'd be catching up with lately to the opening of the store, who gladly accepted, and we decided to leave at nine. Neither of us were particularly interested in queueing up at six in the morning. Especially not me, with my awful sleeping schedule, haha. My gran had offered to lend me her car for the day, but as we wanted to head into the city for another event (which was a total flop, but we got a free cinnamon scroll, so who's the winner here?), I thought public transport was a better option. I am so glad I did, as anyone who caught public transport received a $10 voucher to spend at H&M!

Once we queued up...

We received a free goodie bag! You may know that I love tote bags and use them for everything, so this was a happy addition to my bag family. Each one contained a bottle of water, a little pouch-like bag, and an umbrella. The last item was a bit of an odd one, but hey - free stuff, right?

The day was off to a great start. We had a DJ rocking some tunes nearby as we waited to get in, and it actually didn't take too long in the line. I reckon it only took twenty minutes at most, but it went pretty quickly. Before we knew it we were in!

There were some ridiculously good deals. I'm talking $2.95 tops. Seriously. Everything was very reasonably priced, and I managed to pick up a couple of items (cheeky spend) for a decent amount. They were just basics, and in all honesty I could have spent a lot of money there, but I controlled myself. Mainly because I don't have money to spend.

It was really nice to catch up with my friend too, even if it was so loud we could hardly hear each other. In fact, more than once I actually lost her in the crowd and had to look around for a minute before I found her again. It was ridiculously packed.

But that's okay.

The store is actually double-levelled, with menswear and childrenswear up the top, and womenswear and accessories down the bottom. It really had everything - jewellery, bags, swimsuits, workout gear, business wear, casual wear, shoes, underwear, the list goes on. Once I actually get a job I'm definitely going to have to go back because there was such a wide variety of things available for such great prices.

The line to pay for your items was literally almost as long as the line to get into the store. Some people had really gone crazy with their spending. I'm talking a full shopping bag full of stuff! I only went away with a striped tee (gotta love stripes) and a scarlet cardigan, but I was very happy with that. My friend bought the cutest phone cover, which had little cats ears on it and said 'meow' on the back. I was very tempted to pick one up myself!

Waiting in line ... to pay

All in all, I think it was a lovely opening, and a certainly very successful one for H&M. I also think it would be great for the surrounding businesses, as there were a couple of cafes handing out free mini drinks and little chocolates. I would've had one but I'm a poor little soy drinker. :(

I would definitely recommend you checking out H&M if you can! It's currently located in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and now Perth. All the addresses are available on their website.

And if you go - happy shopping!

xx Silje

PS. I am not sponsored to publish this post, all of this is just my opinion (even though it sounds otherwise).

Life Lately Vol. 3

Had a 27C day which was spent at the beach with a very happy dog // Went out for morning tea with my gran and her friend and had the yummiest pineapple, raspberry, and coconut smoothie // Iced coconut latte by the sea with my darling cousin

• I keep on shopping! I know I shouldn't be but sometimes it's hard to resist sales. I'm talking to you, $80 down to $30 boots. And two-for-one deal at Dotti. And the really good salesperson at the make up counter. :(
• Turns out a class about research methods is not going to be fun. Like really not fun.
• I've been trying to eat healthier lately and I think it's working. I'm not restricting or only eating healthy foods, just making sure I don't overindulge in the sweet stuff, and getting fruit and veggies in every day. Those little things add up, y'know?
• I had a trial hour at The Coffee Club and I'm hoping that'll lead to something, even if it's temporary. I'm writing this post quite a bit before it'll be published so I might even have had more success with it by this time. I also met someone who works at Myer and said they had vacancies at her store. I would love to work there, think of the staff discounts! Of course, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself here.
• One of the coffee shops on campus do the most ridiculous coffees - in a good way. The other day I had a 'bounty latte', which was like a mocha but with coconut syrup added. They also had black forest flavouring as well as a whole range of syrups, and an 'apple pie coffee', which had apple syrup and was sprinkled with cinnamon. I'm not sure how that would work out.
• Before I say anything on this next topic, I have to mention quickly: don't you dare give me any spoilers! I have just started watching Pretty Little Liars and oh my god, I did not think I'd become addicted. It's such a problematic show. It really annoys me how the actors are portraying sixteen year olds when they themselves are twenty five, and the fact that a young girl is hooking up with her much older teacher kind of creeps me out! Also, everyone is so bitchy and sneaky and the whole concept of the show but it is still so. Damn. Addictive. Like I have not stopped watching for one day. I'm already up to episode sixteen of season one, and I only started a few days ago. Thank the lord for Netflix! And my boyfriend, too, since he lets me share his account!
• I'm still a little bit lonely over here by myself, but I'll slowly get there friend-wise. I have people I can sit with at my lectures, but that's not the same as friends. I just really want a group of friends that I can ask out to coffee, or to a movie, or to go for a run with me. There's such a cute cafe nearby that does amazing breakfast but I don't have anyone to take there! I have an old friend from my youth that I like to catch up with, and we're planning to go running or something once a week together, so maybe something will stem from that. She's really lovely so I'd like to hang out more.

Well, I think I've rambled enough! Please let me know if you know any Perth bloggers, and if you are one yourself then please please comment, and I'll definitely check out your blog/Instagram/Twitter. Friends of any kind (online/IRL) are much appreciated! Tell me in the comments what you've been up to lately. :)

xx Silje

spring has sprung!

It's finally spring over here in Australia, and I thought I'd celebrate with a little bonus post for you all. The weather is warming up and winter is gone, taking the drizzle and gloom away with it. There's a crisp September breeze, the mornings are still quite cool and fresh, but you can feel summer arriving day by day - only ninety days to go now!

I thought I'd share with you a few photos of spring arriving I took on the last walk around our local lake with my grandmother and her dog, Penny. Isn't she the most beautiful pooch you've ever seen? And what a personality she has! She may look like a princess, but she's the cheekiest thing.

My grandmother pointing out all the new trees that have been planted around the lake, with a boisterous Penny walking ahead

Little flowers growing on the outskirts of the football field

Someone found herself a stick!

Patches of yellow in the grass - I thought they were lovely and very reminiscent of spring.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and are looking forward to the changing seasons, whether you're experiencing autumn or spring. Where are you in the world and how's the weather for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

xx Silje

what's in my university bag!

How are we all? Besides university, life hasn't been terribly exciting for me - although I do have a trial shift for a job on Friday (tomorrow when this post goes live). Keep your fingers crossed for me, because I really need this!

I thought I'd do a little what's in my bag because I've never actually done one before and thought it'd be interesting to do. I don't know about you, but I really like seeing what other people carry around from day to day. This is literally what is in my university bag, as I put a photo up on Instagram of my bag asking if you wanted to see what's in my bag, and I got a few likes so I thought - why not?

Here is a basic overview of what is in my uni bag (shoutout to Lily Pebbles, whose blog is featuring on my laptop, haha).

Now let's take a deeper look at what I carry around all day:

Lecture book! I prefer to take my notes by hand, as I feel it gives you more flexibility with note taking. Generally after this, I type up my notes (I've been a bit lazy today and am blogging instead of studying, oops), and keep them all in a folder named after whatever week or module it is. I "created" the tabs myself, by buying folder separators and labelling them with either week number or module number. It's a total mess inside but I find it easy to work with handwriting, although I must admit, my hand gets a bit sore, especially after my three hour evening lecture :(.

Laptop! I don't really need to bring this to university if I have my lecture book to take notes in, and if we do need to use computers, for example in a tutorial, we use the desktop ones on campus. However, I really like having this around so that if/when I have spare time, I can type up my notes, review notes, or blog (although that's a bit cheeky). It's especially handy if I ever need to access material online for lectures, when you can't exactly rush out and find a desktop. If any of you are going to uni, I would really really recommend getting a laptop! I have a MacBook Air, which is on the pricey side, but any old laptop will do, or even a tablet with a keyboard (but a keyboard is a must). I keep mine in a laptop case because it is rather precious to me and I would like to keep it safe! This one is from OfficeWorks.

I think bringing your food is the best option, as I tend to overspend on takeaway from the cafes on campus, and typically don't eat well. If junk food is offered - I'm sold. This is not what we want, however, so I try to bring my own lunch and a few snacks. Today I brought a simple pesto pasta with chopped cherry tomatoes, which was super simple to make. For snacks I usually have chopped up veggies (carrots, cucumber, or celery), individual yoghurt pots, home made protein balls, home made muesli bars, cheese and crackers, or a simple piece of fruit. There's a whole variety of things you can bring!

Water is vital! I chug down at least one bottle of water while at uni. Something about note taking really makes me thirsty, I guess? There are so many benefits to drinking water, and they're all well known so I won't list them here for you. I really think it's so distracting to be dehydrated though, as side effects like headaches can really knock your concentration. And try to bring water from home too! I know I sound a little hypocritical with a Pump bottle here, but in my defence, if I do have to buy a bottle of water, I buy this brand as the plastic is thicker and I can therefore reuse them. Not to mention, if you buy, say, two bottles of water a week at $3 a bottle, and you have 26 weeks of uni, that's over $150 on water alone, when you could be getting at home for free! Or at least included in your water bill, haha.

iPad! Any tablet is useful here - I usually use mine to and from uni. I catch public transport, and I really like reading on the train. With my iPad I can download virtually any book I want for a fraction of the cost of a hardcopy, plus it's accessible anywhere. Also isn't this case the cutest?! I also use it to listen to music, because I'm terrible at keeping my phone fully charged, so by the time I'm heading home, by phone's on flight mode, on silent, and the brightness turned fully down. Oops!

My purse! Always an essential in any bag, this one holds the ticket to getting to and from university, (i.e., my SmartRider), my student ID, money, etc etc. Very useful, especially if I'm falling asleep in my lecture and need a pick-me-up latte. ;)

Other bits and bobs! My phone is pretty obvious, bandaids for any blisters or paper cuts or little boo boos that may occur (I swear I don't say that in real life), hand sanitiser for when germs strike, lip balm to keep your pout nice and hydrated, and a pen because how else are you going to take notes?? I also like having my hair pulled up while taking notes, because it tends to drape down over my face if I look even slightly down. Lately I've been obsessed with giant claw clips, as they're super flexible and you just kind of throw up your hair and clip it in place. I do like to take a hair tie as well though, just in case. Maybe I'll feel like rocking a pony tail, right? This is also where I'd have my earphones but someone forgot them. Who was it? We'll never know...

I hope you enjoyed this post! Tell me what you carry around in your university or school bag, or work bag. Or any bag! Until next time.  :)

xx Silje

university!

I have officially started university, and am in my first week of it. The campus is absolutely huge and full of people, yet I still feel a little lonely. As of yet, I haven't made any friends, but I'm not publishing this post until the end of the week so hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll have found some company by then.

I did bump into a friend from primary school who I've caught up with since moving here, which was really nice. A relief to talk to someone I knew!

My first lecture wasn't terribly exciting. It took a while to get into the swing of things, and I actually really enjoy taking notes (weird, I know), but that didn't happen until after the first hour. We got a 15 minute break in the middle and so, because I was just about falling asleep, I went to get a coffee. This however, ended up in me coming back late because the line was so long, and having to do the walk of shame in front of everyone back to my seat. Ah well, my coffee was nice. And that's what matters, right?! Luckily, I wasn't the latest person back.

I'm off to my first tutorial in half an hour and I'm hoping it's a bit more social than the lecture. No doubt it is, seeing as a lecture consists of a professor talking at you for two hours, haha. I'm excited to get more in the swing of things, as I really like routine. There's something so calming about it, am I right?

The best thing about my units are the exams. I know that sounds wrong, BUT the exams are both multiple choice! I haven't done a multiple choice exam in so so long, and I hate essays so this is a dream come true (sort of). For both units you're even allowed to bring your textbook in, and one of them is completely open book. Of course, I'll still be studying and working hard, but there won't be that pressure of having to properly memorise quotes and references and dates. Like the lecturer explained, he wants the unit to be about understanding concepts rather than simply memorising them. Sounds great to me.

My Thursday evening lecture actually turned out really nice. I managed to talk to quite a few people, and the lecturer was great. He had a really good sense of humour and seemed to know his stuff, which is such a relief, because all my past education I really haven't had many good teachers. Cough, cough, year eight maths teacher.

All in all, I did enjoy my first week at university, despite its loneliness. Hopefully I'll be able to make a few friends and get more of a social life, haha. I bought a ticket to the start of semester party, thinking my friend had got one, but turns out she didn't and they were sold out before she could. Long story short, I didn't end up going for fear of looking like a loser. However, there are plenty more parties popping up every week (one on Wednesday, yay!), so I didn't miss out too much.

On the topic of university, I also started a studyblr, which is a Tumblr blog primary for study pictures and inspiration. You can check mine out here. Please do. :)

Have you guys started university yet? Tell me all about it!

xx Silje

anniversary breakfast

On the 24th of last month Luke and I celebrated our three year anniversary, which is really quite a long time considering we're a high school couple. I only know one other couple who've been together since high school (year ten in Tasmania), although I can imagine there are quite a few.

The plan was to go to Rottnest Island, a small island off the coast of Western Australia, but the ferry we thought left at 10.30 actually left at 10, so we were a little late to say the least. We still managed to book tickets for the next day (a post to come for that!) but we didn't have plans for the rest of the day, so we wondered around for somewhere to eat. Most cafes were either chains or not open until noon, but we found one little place that was absolutely gorgeous, so we stopped in and had a look at the menu, which was delicious.

Look at that cutie pie! The whole set up of the place was really nice, with pastel coloured chairs and tables, and wooden crates for chairs and barrels for tables. It was really super quaint, but managed to avoid looking tacky.

Someone was a little shy ;)

Wasn't our table cute?! We decided to sit outside as weather in Perth is quite mild in winter and the sun was out. All of the tables were undercover, but it was just a bit more refreshing where we were. We also had a very interesting table number decoration.

Apparently Ken and Barbie were joining us for breakfast.

The menu was full of delicious options that made my mouth absolutely water. Luke had a hankering for pancakes, so he had that, whilst I was really hungry, so I went for the option aptly named 'The Beast'. It actually looked a bit funny this 6 foot guy ordering blueberry pancakes and a tiny girl ordering a beast of a meal! We also had the yummiest drinks. Luke had an iced coffee that was ever so slightly bitter at first, but once the vanilla ice cream melted a little it had the most gorgeous flavour. I went for a tropical smoothie with pineapple, mango, coconut water, and chia seeds. Oh god it was good. And of course, like any good hipster cafe, they were served in jars.

I didn't manage to get a proper shot of the drinks because they were too damn delicious to take photos before drinking. I also managed to steal a couple of bites of Luke's pancakes. We were going to go half and half but by the time I was halfway through my meal, I couldn't muster more than a couple of bites I was so full. The Beast had done its job of filling me up, and a bit more, too.

The Beast - bacon, tomato, spinach, avocado, on a toasted Turkish bread pita with pesto aioli and a side of hash browns

Blueberry pancakes with a blueberry compote served with cream

All in all, it was a gorgeous breakfast perfect for a casual meal. Maybe not an anniversary meal, but it was certainly great for a last minute find, and honestly, we didn't have much of a budget. We're both young adults, can you really expect us to afford a fancy restaurant?

I would definitely recommend the breakfast we had, it was so so yummy and I always love just having a nice chatty meal with Luke. Three years later, we can still talk and talk and talk. And if you're reading this, I love you Luke.

xx Silje