365 Day Journals

As you've seen with my year in photos, I've had a bunch of fun journaling pictures this year. With 2015 right around the corner, it's the perfect time for you to join the club and make a 365 day journal. It's been rewarding for me to do something not so... Digital, and it's a really nice keepsake to have at the end of the year. Here's some ideas to help you start your own 365 journal.

Photo A Day Journal

Photo journals have been really popular this year, and are a great way to document your life. It's easier than you may think to snap a photo every day, and its much less daunting than a traditional written journal. All you have to do is take one photo each day. It can be anything from a selfie with friends, a new purchase, a photo of your pet or a sunset. I didn't even plan that to rhyme. #winning

Throughout the year you can add your photos into a journal and decorate them however you like. While I loved journalling my photos, theres nothing stopping you from trying different mediums for your photos. Try making an Instagram account, design a photo book online or even a make a blog to share your daily photos. 

Sentence A Day Journal

The idea of writing journal entries seems a little daunting to me, not to mention time consuming. If you've had similar struggles, then a sentence a day is a much friendlier option to take. Record daily events, questions and amusing tidbits in just one sentence. Its a great way to improve your writing and creativity - Imagine how good your 140 character tweets will be!! Plus, its a great thing to do with all those beautifully empty notebooks I know you have lying around your room. Get as creative as you would like with the journal itself. Try adding in stickers and drawings to give it a personal touch. If you want a head start, there are some beautiful sentence a day journals available online and in stationary stores like Kikki K. 

Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal is a great way to gain a fresh perspective, and a more positive outlook on life. Gratitude is defined as 'the quality of being thankful', so a gratitude journal is a place to record the things that you are thankful for. Each day add in one or two things you are thankful for. If you would like, just add in something new every few days. It could be anything big or small, anything from national peace to... pineapple m&ms! Take a minute to be thankful for the things that are important to you. Taking that time and making a gratitude journal has been proven to make people happier, and more appreciative. Sounds good to me!

Happiness Journal

A happiness journal is one of the most creative and simple journals you can make. Its basically a big scrapbook of things that make you happy. Find a gorgeous notebook, and let your imagination run wild. The only rule is that every day you have to add in one thing that makes you happy. Fill the pages with quotes, photos, magazine clippings, favourite outfits, colour swatches, album artwork, drawings, flowers or absolutely anything else! At the end of the year you will have a colourful mess of utter you-ness. This journal is obviously a lot less structured than the previous suggestions, so you can let the creative beast in you free. Be warned though, I have a feeling a journal like this might be hard to maintain for the entire year. Are you up for the challenge?

Have fun journalling and be sure to tag/send me photos of anything that you make! I'd love to see it! Happy New Year!

My Year In Photos

What a year its been! 2014 has brought with it so many great memories, and even greater oppourtunities. I've grown this blog so much this year, and have loved every minute of it. I'd like to take a moment to personally thank you, my readers, for being such downright legends. You're incredible. I'm so looking forward to bringing you fresh content in 2015! 

But before the year ends for good, I thought I'd share my life to you in little rectangles. I've been taking a photo every day this year, and recording them in a journal. While it was tedious at times, its super fun to look back on my year and smile. I've seriously limited myself on photos in order to avoid boring you to death - so here's 20 moments from 2014.

The first few days of 2014 were spent at my Nationals sailing regatta in country QLD, where we had a rather unusual house guest. 

After months and months of mood boards and an endless stream of decoration ideas, I finally repainted my room! It's been so refreshing to change up my space, and I'm so glad I did it.

In March I was lucky enough to do the Urban Challenge camp through my school. It's an Amazing Race sort of camp, with all sorts of activities and challenges. It was exhausting in the most brilliant of ways.

Over Easter we took a sneaky trip to QLD to soak up the sunshine and visit family.

I tried the infamous N2 Gelato while in the city at a conference. The ice cream itself was very rich and quite expensive. Despite the ice cream, the shop itself is awesome. The science-y theme is very unique, and is well carried out in everything from the menu to the staff uniforms.

I picked up my very first issue of Yen Magazine this year, and haven't missed one since. Yen is written with such a flare, and each page is overflowing with something new and exciting. I'll be happy to part with my money for a Yen mag for years to come!

For those of you that don't know, Vivid is a festival of light and art that is held in Sydney each year. It features projections, films, sculptures and all sorts of other wondrous things. My Dad and I have made a bit of a tradition of going in and photographing it each year. This year we were invited to visit the Canon HQ and had a great time trying out the Canon gear. 

My friends and I made ourselves at home in a new cafe that had just opened locally. It doesn't matter how old you are, Nothing beats milkshakes in bear shaped glasses!

In July we explored Melbourne before my cousin Sydney's wedding. Melbourne was utterly freezing, but the wedding was beautiful!

One of my best friends moved in around the corner from me. Cue sunset dog walking, and sneaky meet ups for hot chips!

I had another fun year at sailing with my little sailing family, and I'm even learning how to make the boat move forward now! Jksss. 

I've just realised this is my second ice cream photo. I'm trying to decide whether to be ashamed. Nah, you can never have too much ice cream. This was taken at Messina, which has become infamous around Australia for darn good ice cream. And I have to say - it is pretty good!

Being the keen market shopper that I am, I visited Surry Hills markets and found some real treasures. The majority of the stalls are run by Surry Hills hipsters, selling their old stuff. There were a truckload of vintage and very unique finds. After the markets I walked around the block and gleefully discovered an American Apparel. I spent a solid 45 minutes inside swooning over all of the overpriced amazingness that is AA.

Clueless turned 20 this year! I decided to brighten up a sick day by watching this classic, and it really did make me feel better. The stereotyped characters were hilarious to watch, but Mean Girls is still better. #sorrynotsorry

Taylor Swift brought us a new album of bubblegum pop beats. While it is different, Swift could never disappoint. It feels like I've had this baby playing non-stop since the day it came out.  

I found myself in the Grand Theatre for the first time ever, seeing Mockingjay Part 1. If there's ever a time for choc-tops - it's now. 

We went to a fluro party, and I learnt how to roller blade. Well... I kinda learnt how to roller blade. I'm becoming quite skilled at being dragged around by people more co-ordinated than me ;)

This fabulous bunch threw me a fabulous surprise party. It was such a sweet thing for them to do, and I had the best time. Ily guys xo

I dyed my hair!! After an eternity deciding on the colour, I had it dyed red. I went through phases of loving it, then really hating it. It's washed out a little now, to more of an auburn/orange and I can say I'm liking the change. 

We went and saw Katy Perry! It was the most incredible show. 20 days later I'm still on the concert high, playing the Prism album over and over again.

There you have it, my entire year. Check back tomorrow for more on 365 Day Journaling! I'm super keen to share this one with you :)

Why Christmas?

It's Christmas Eve! Now is the time to frantically clean your house, go out and buy all those last minute presents, and wrap up everything you can with that weird paper you just found in the cupboard. In the midst of all the holiday madness, I thought I'd bring it back to where Christmas all began, with the Christmas Story.

Luke 2:1-20New International Version (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Full Credit to Bible Gateway

So there it is. The birth of Jesus. That was the very first Christmas. While the birth is 100% important, being the basis of most of Christianity, the part I want to stress is the giving. Whatever religion, nationality, or age you are I want you to remember this Christmas that it is about giving, not getting.

That very first Christmas God gave to us. He gave his son. It wasn't about us, about receiving. It was about God. He loves us so much, he gave us his son. Possibly the most famous verse in the bible is John 3:16, and it says 'God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that whoever believed in him could have eternal life.' That's why giving is so important.

But we get so tied up in getting stuff. We write lists, and we read blogs to get ideas for our lists, and we're always in this cycle of want. want. want. But at the end of the day, it's just stuff. It's not the meaning of Christmas.

So remember the importance of giving this Christmas, and have a really wonderful time with your family and friends xoxo

Cookies In A Jar // Quick and Easy Christmas DIY

Everything is so festive right now! It's 2 days until Christmas, and i'm starting to get really really excited! I've never done any cooking on Zola before, so I thought I would put together this cookie video for you. Making this recipe takes less than 10 minutes, its super easy and its a great gift for just about anyone. It's a recipe for cookies in a jar. You make the jar, and the receiver gets to make up the cookies. It's like a homemade packet mix. Check out the video below.

After following the instructions in the video, write out the remaining steps for the person you will be giving the jar to.

The remaining steps are:
1. Preheat oven to 190C and line 2 baking trays
2. Empty jar into a large bowl
3. Add 125g melted butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Stir.
4. Shape tablespoons of mixture into balls, and position 5cm apart on baking tray
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes
6. Allow to cool before serving

Full credit for this recipe goes to the team at Taste.com.au. You can view the full recipe I used here. If you do make this, be sure to tweet me @zolablog so I can have a look! Happy cooking, and Merry Christmas xo

P.S. Shoutout to my left-handed Mum, and her fabulously blue nail polish, for helping me shoot this video xo

PRISM TOUR // PART TWO

I'm back with part two of all the Prism fun! Last Friday I blogged to you just before leaving for the Prism concert, so full of excitement that I pretty much lost all writing abilities. All my excitement was well rewarded, though, because the concert was AM-A-ZING. Here's how it went down.

The night started with the cliche, but obviously compulsory 'look at how cool I am standing outside Allphones Arena' photo, which I'm sure half of Sydney has taken at some point. Here's ours!

After that, we headed to the merch booth to dream at the over priced goodies. I decided on the cheapest item, a Prism wristband. It's rainbow, I couldn't resist. We then headed up to our seats. On the way we passed a 'Binocular Hire' stall, which made me seriously question how far we were from the stage. Our seats turned out to be on the left of the stage, not particularly close. It was, however, a cool perspective because we could see the majority of the crowd as well as the stage.

The opening act, Tove Lo, was playing when we walked in. I hadn't really heard of Tove Lo before, apart from a few times on the radio. Her music is great, and she did such a fantastic job of getting the crowd pumped up by simply singing into a microphone and running around the stage a bit. That was a nice bonus.

Much to my surprise, Katy Perry came on stage almost right on time. Naturally, she opened with Roar. She came up onto a stage made up of several triangles, which folded into a triangular pyramid shape. Very prism-y.


When the stage unfolded itself the first thing I noticed was how amazing her costumes were!! Her first costume was a silvery skater skirt, with a matching top. Both the top and the skirt were trimmed with fluro lights. Not sure how that was possible with electricity etc. but it looked incredible. After a few songs Katy changed into a yellow leather skirt, black leggings with little yellow peace signs, and a smiley face top. It was such a bright, fun costume and to top it all off she had a grass green wig with little pigtails. What else would you expect from Miss Katy Perry?

Speaking of cool costumes, Katy brought a girl up on stage for being well dressed. The girl was wearing a 'pizza bathing suit' as Katy called it, and love heart sunnies straight out of the 'This Is How We Do' music video. She brought up a few other audience members onto the stage, and took 'ussies' (a selfie with more than one person) with them. Katy doesn't like selfies apparently!

After an epic 'California Girls' dance party Katy said goodnight and went down one of the little holes in the stage. Sad that it was over, we chilled in our seats for a little bit, avoiding the crowds toward the exit.

A message appeared on the screens saying 'Prism Vision' repetitively. A little confused, we looked around to see what was going on. We remembered we had been handed glasses on the way in. They looked similar to 3D glasses, but with a different effect. We put them on, and waited. Around 2 minutes later, Katy Perry reappeared from the side of the stage with something along the lines of 'It sounds like you still want to party!' So on we went, for a beyond stellar finale of 'Birthday'.

A girl was selected from the crowd to sit on the Birthday Throne, because it was her birthday, and the number went on around her. The glasses we were wearing had a special type of plastic lenses, that made all the lighting look very reflective, rainbow, and well... prism-y. The lights and rainbows changed with the beat, which was a really unique thing to add to the chorus. During the bridge, Katy attached herself to a set of balloons suspended above the stage, and came floating around the arena. On top of that, several hundred balloons were released onto each side of the arena! Wowowow!

It was a massive party, and so so so much fun!! Thanks to Katy Perry for such a great night :)

Follow on Bloglovin' here and never miss a post on Zola xo

PRISM TOUR // PART ONE

Savannah Wears:

Top - Dragonberry

Skirt - Dragonberry

Bracelet - Sportsgirl

Shoes - Rubi (Not Pictured)

December 12th has finally arrived! After months of eager anticipation, today is the day I'm going to the Katy Perry concert. I'm headed off very very soon, but I thought I would check in first and show you what I was wearing. So here it is.

I'm wearing this cute ice cream top, and skirt I found on holiday last year. It's a very cute match, and as you know I can't resist anything with food on it haha. It's also unexpectantly freezing in Sydney at the moment. I'm sitting at my computer writing this with my hoodie over my shoulders. Not quite the concert look I was going for... I'm also not too sure how I'm feeling about the midriffy bit, with my blindingly pale complexion. I guess I'm born this wayyyy.  Lol sorry wrong artist. Ily Katy.

Oh, you might have also noticed MY HAIR IS RED!? Whaaaaa!? I had it dyed yesterday, and I'm still getting used to it. I haven't quite formed an opinion on it yet, but I'm glad I did it. Time for a change. At the same time, I'm not sure if it clashes with all this pink. Oh, the struggles.

As far as the concert goes, I've heard its so amazing, and I couldn't be more excited. I'm especially excited to see Katy's costumes and things. I wonder what colour her hair is. I guess all questions will be answered soon! I'll report back over the weekend to share with you all things Katy Perry.

Cya!

Forget Everything You Know About Christmas Carols

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas, and I am still acting like an over-excited 5 year old. But hey - what better time to act like an over-excited 5 year old?! My room is currently decorated with wreaths, stars, and lights. I'm wearing Christmas earrings, and I've spent my morning making presents for my friends. But what is Christmas, without Christmas music. 

This is where we hit a problem. Traditional Christmas carols make my ears bleed. Sorry to be a killjoy on my own Christmas spirit, but after Mum has played the Christmas Hits CD a few times, the songs start to get rather annoying. I'm sure I'm not the only one feeling this. But fear not! Forget everything you know about terrible Christmas music, and enjoy my Christmas Playlist. I've included 73 minutes of modern, pop Christmas music for you to enjoy. All the best from the Glee Cast, Ariana Grande, Meghan Trainor, Train and more. So turn up the volume, and put this on repeat just like I have been all week! Merry Christmas!

Be sure to share your favourite songs with your friends using the sharing links below x

P.S. I've made a Facebook page for Zola, so be a darling and like it for me here :)

Wild and Refined

Savannah Wears

Necklace - Collette

Shirt - Sportsgirl

Shorts - Paper Heart

The last week has been a crazy whirlwind of happy and sad moments between finishing up at school, holiday adventures, and a surprise party. Holaaa! I had some super awesome posts planned, and they have kinda gone up the window. They'll be up soon, but first lets have a catch up.

So, my last day of school was on Wednesday. That was really sad for me, saying goodbye to everyone and things. I walked past all the little things, like classrooms, and toilet blocks, thinking how weird it's going to be not seeing the everyday things everyday. It was really nice to reflect on all the memories, and I feel really blessed to have known all the incredible people at my school.

On Thursday, we went to Wet 'N' Wild in Sydney. There were 9 slides, and a few other things around the place. The first slide I braved was possibly the worst slide in the park. I kinda freaked, and didn't attempt the other 2 slides in the 'Adrenaline' section. There were 3 more slides that were more... tame. I rather liked those ones, and spent the day just going on those over and over. The other 3 slides were closed because it was going to storm. It didn't, thank God!

By Friday, I was ready for some retail therapy so we headed to the new H&M in Macquarie Centre. I wore my striped tee, which I love and wear with everything. I paired them with these cute scallop shorts from Paper Heart, and a gold chain necklace. There's few things I love more than black and white with bright colour pops. It combines the order of monochrome with a bit of fun, and nothing says fun quite like red lipstick. 

That brings us to Saturday. Funny story... So I was planning on spending the afternoon relaxing at my friends' house, but it turns out they were planning something a bit mischievous.  My amazing friends had planned me a surprise farewell. It's safe to say I was pretty surprised. Seriously though, I've never been thrown a surprise party before and I had the best time with some really great people. Thanks again guys xx

We spent Sunday in Centennial Park watching Trop Jr. Two very creative individuals I know made the finals for Trop Jr. this year, so we thought we would go and check it out. The day was filled with great films, hot weather followed by a random storm, and deliciously free popcorn from the team at Spotify. Visit the Tropfest channel on Youtube to see the films!

So there's my wild week in all it's glory. I hope you've had a good one! Be sure to check back very soon for more posts, and follow on Bloglovin' so you don't miss a thing. 

Christmas Wishlist

Ok guys, I'm pretty sure there is some sort of insect nest outside my room at this point in time. I can hear buzzing, and I am not ok with that. But you know what they say - keep calm and blog on. So here it is!

Today is December 2nd, which means Christmas is in only 23 days!!! Christmas is easily my favourite day of the year, and I get excited about it pretty early. Before December had even started I was playing Christmas carols, making Christmas decorations for my room, and of course, writing a Christmas list. Zola is about to get ridiculously Chrismassy, and I thought 'what better place to start than my Christmas list??'

Clockwise from top:

1. Happy Plugs Headphones in Copper

2. Donuts Forever Phone Cover by Kirstin Nohe

3. The Body Shop Body Butter

4. Washi Tape

5. Ice Glam Watch in Rose Gold

6. Pots by Dank Pots

7. iTunes Cards

8. Freshtops Emoji Crop

9. Staedtler Triplus Fineliner Pens

10. Hula Hoops

11. Cotton On Body voucher

This year I've included lots of beautiful but practical goodies like stationary, headphones, and a watch. As you can tell I'm a little in love with rose gold/copper at the moment...I'm also loving the donut phone cover! It's so hard to find a case that would suit my pink iPhone 5C, so when I found this one on Casetify I was stoked. It even matches the headphones! 

That just about wraps it up. #punintended #sorrynotsorry Be sure to tweet me @zolablog, or share this post if you liked it, and let me know what is on your Christmas list. Stick around for gift ideas, Christmas DIYs, Christmas music and more coming very very soon xo