July 2020 Reflection: Ramblings and Recommendations

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to my blog and happy August! At the end of every month, I want to start doing monthly reflections. I'll be splitting the post up in 2: the 'rambling' part which is where I talk briefly about how my month went and what I did and the 'recommendation' part which is where I talk about everything I've been loving this month (books, music, products etc.). Hopefully, you'll be able to see what I mean as we go along. Enjoy!

Ramblings

While July was still very quiet, it was a lot more eventful than June was. My birthday was this month and I turned 15- I wrote a post about my goals for this year so, if you're interested, click here.  For obvious reasons, we didn't have anything planned for the day. I think I just watched a bunch of movies with my family, FaceTimed my friends and family back home and ate a lot of food. But I did get a new phone for my birthday which I'm still so excited about and I'll be talking more about it in the recommendations section.

At the beginning of the month, I felt pretty homesick (I spoke about this a bit more in my birthday post) but, now, I've kind of gotten over it. If you didn't know, I'm currently living (temporarily) in the Middle East with my immediate family but I'm from the UK and every summer (except for this one) we go back for around two months. (If you want more insight into what that's like, check out one of my blog posts here). However, this summer we obviously weren't able to go back and while that's not exactly the end of the world, it was quite hard to deal with at first. But I'm feeling a lot better now, which is great. 

This month, lockdown rules were eased quite a bit for us and I was able to go out a lot more often than I did last month. I honestly didn't realise how much I missed seeing my friends and just being out and about. I'm quite an introverted person so I didn't feel the whole anti-social aspect as much as other people might have done (but I did definitely feel it to some degree!) but, clearly, I missed being social more than I thought I did. 

August is hopefully going to be even busier than July was because we'll be preparing for going back to school. I've always enjoyed school (even pre-lockdown: I probably sound crazy to a lot of people haha) so I've missed it a lot. I'm not sure if we'll be going straight back to school in September or if we'll be continuing with online school (which I hope we're not!) but, either way, I have a busy year ahead of me because I'm sitting my GCSEs at the end of this year. 

Recommendations

So, now that the rambling part is over, here are my recommendations for the month. I'll be listing all the things (i.e. skincare products, books, TV shows and apps) that I have been loving. In other words, they're my 'July favourites'. The only reason I'm saying 'recommendations' instead of 'favourites' is because I like the alliteration in the title haha. 

Writer's magazine

A little while ago, I subscribed to a magazine that basically revolves around tips and advice for budding writers. It's based in the UK so I can only pick them up during the summer and as I said before I haven't gone this year. But, even so, I still have a lot of them to read (a lot more than just the ones in the picture!). The reason why they're in this month's recommendations is that I've only just started reading them properly and frequently because, before, I just didn't have enough time.

The magazine has tips for people interested in creative writing and features articles from publishing agencies, bestselling authors and more. If you're looking into writing a novel or short story, or even if you find this interesting, I highly recommend this magazine. They have a website which is over at https://www.writers-online.co.uk/

Love, Rosie by Cecelia Athern 

In May, I watched the film without knowing that it's based on a book and I absolutely adored it. This month, I read the book and probably loved it even more. It's a love story told through text messages, emails, letters etc. and it sounds kind of weird but it works so well and it makes it really easy to follow. I managed to read it online for free (just search on Google: Love Rosie read online free) and, if you're a fan of cheesy romance, this book is for you. 

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 

I'm sure you all know of this classic romance written by Jane Austen. I loved everything about this book, from the storyline to (most of) the characters. Unlike the last book recommendation, you don't necessarily have to be a fan of romance to enjoy this novel as it is so beautifully written and, despite the old language, it isn't hard to understand.

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

This YA mystery book is so intriguing that I finished it in two days. I literally could not put it down. The book is about the mysterious murder of a high school student, with four teenage suspects. It's a mystery/thriller type novel and it is probably one of my favourite YA books of all time (although I do say that every time I read a new one haha). 

Outer Banks

I watched the first and only season of this show right at the beginning of the month and I loved it. It's basically about a group of teenagers on an island who try to find the treasure that one of the character's father went missing looking for. It's really engaging and mysterious so if you're into that kind of thing, you'd love this show.

Money Heist

I'm currently halfway through the second season of this show and I am obsessed with it! It's a Spanish action show and, at first, I was sceptical because I'm not a huge fan of action. Even so, this is probably one of the best shows I have ever watched and I haven't even finished it yet!

Watermelon water bottle

Last summer, I bought this water bottle from Asda in the UK and I forgot all about it until the beginning of this month. It's super cute and summery and it actually makes me want to drink more water haha.

Sticky notes and pastel highlighters

I am a huge stationery freak and for my birthday my brother got me a pack of pastel highlighters and lined sticky notes. They are super useful for when I make notes and I've had my eye on the highlighters for a while now. If I were allowed to, I could honestly spend a tonne of money in a stationery shop so I loved these!

iPhone 11

For my birthday, my parents got me the iPhone 11 which I am so grateful for and I still can't get over it! My last phone was a Samsung Galaxy J5 which had a grand total of 8 GB on it. It was my first ever phone and I had it for around four years but, this year, my parents decided to get me a new phone. I got the purple one which is absolutely gorgeous (it's like a soft lilac colour) and it's such a cool phone!

Folklore by Taylor Swift

I've been a Taylor Swift fan for as long as I can remember so when she released her new album, I was all over it! All the songs have such deep, meaningful lyrics which can hit everyone hard, regardless of whether or not you're a Swiftie. My favourite songs are Cardigan and My Tears Ricochet.

Dream journal

I think I've mentioned in one of my previous posts that I've recently been keeping a dream journal. Every morning as soon as I wake up, I write down the dream I had that night as I remember them very vividly. The notebook I use is from a brand called paper chase and I have another larger one that I use for normal journaling. They're honestly the nicest notebooks I've ever had. The designs are so pretty and the paper is actually really soft and nice to write on. They're on the expensive side but if you're looking for a nice notebook to invest in, I recommend looking into these ones. 

Clean and Clear Morning Energy Facewash

This facewash is by Clean and Clear and it's their Morning Energy shine control daily facewash with lemongrass and fruit extracts. I bought it at the beginning of the month and it does a really good job of cleaning your skin and removing all the dirt. 

Daylio

This final recommendation is actually an app. I mentioned in my evening routine post that I'd recently downloaded this app and that I'd let you all know how I find it later on. It's been around eleven days and it's exactly what I wanted! I was looking for a free mood-tracking, journaling app and this is exactly that. It does have a premium version but I don't really feel as if I'm missing out on much by just sticking with the free one. 

When you go to write in the entry, it asks you to select how good your day was (as shown in the first screenshot). Then, it asks you to select the activities you completed that day (you can edit the goals) and you can also write a note about your day- as short or as long as you would like it.

The free version itself has a lot of cool features such as a mood chart and your year in pixels and if you upgrade to the premium version I believe it offers more features such as unlimited activities and advanced mood stats. Like I said, I have the free version and don't feel the need to upgrade to premium. 

So, that was how my month went and the things that I discovered. Feel free to ask questions about any of my recommendations in the comments, and also let me know how your month went and things that you've been loving!

Thank you so much for reading this post and I hope you enjoyed it! Please subscribe by pressing the button at the top of your page as I have some really exciting posts lined up. If you have a blog, leave it in the comments so that I can check it out too. See you next Saturday!

Stay safe,

Alisha xx