Background image from Unsplash.com

I am not someone who absolutely loves color. My wardrobe is 75% black and neutrals (the rest just being colorful items I bought years ago). I do use color while planning in my planner but if you saw my Bullet Journal Setup for this year (click here to see that), you'll see that it's minimalist and black and grey (except the book which is a blue - not a big fan, but I'm about to buy a new one). Anyways steering back to the topic...
Summer is represented by color and florals and beaches, etc. I don't mind the florals and the beaches, kinda mind the bright colors. I've thought of some Floral DIYs that you could make with any color palette of your choice - whether you want it in gray-scale or filled with neon hues, it's up to you.

An idea of how your frame-calendar could look like!

• Select a photo frame of your choice.
• Print out or draw (your choice) the layout of the month or months you intend to use on paper sized appropriately according to the frame size. (FYI, It doesn't only have to be for summer months, keep reading for more ideas). 
• Collect flowers, leaves, etc. of your choice and decide on a general arrangement that won't completely cover your calendar but overlays a little bit.
• Add a very small piece of double-sided tape (or loop a single-sided tape) to the back of your flowers/leaves but make sure it's barely visible if it is. Stick it to the calendar.
• Insert the calendar page with the stuck on florals into the frame and smush it between the glass of the frame and backing board. 

And there you go! Now all you need is a dry erase marker to add notes/events/reminders/etc to your calendar. If you have some important events you already know of you can write it on the paper before putting it inside the frame.

This one is again very flexible to your aesthetic!
You can add polaroids, quotes, flowers/leaves (fake or real, though real flowers will probably not last long), reminders, and so on.
Here's how I would make it:

• Take a clipboard of your preferred size. You can get one with your color choice, or if you don't find one that's the right color, spray paint it whatever color you desire! Remember to tape the clip if you want it to remain the way it is.
• Take some good pictures, either aesthetically pleasing or great memories. It doesn't have to be a Polaroid it could be a simple printed picture as well (though using photo paper will make it look way better if you decide to print)
• Print out a quote or two and cut it out. You can add anything to it, you can even make it a vision board/inspiration board.
• Add the elements to your board. You can do this in two ways as shown in the picture above:                   1) If you want to make it have a clean look, add double-sided tape or any tape to the back of your elements                                                                                           2) Stick them to the board using washi tape/a thin duct tape or use bulletin pins (you may have to hammer them a bit so they don't fall out. This will work if you have a wooden board, but you'll probably crack it if you are using an acrylic/plastic one).

You can put this up on your wall using a nail. If you live in a dorm or if you are not allowed to drill holes into your wall wherever you live, you can place it on your desk at a slight angle or on a shelf and it'll look just as great!

3 different preferences! From minimal to all-in (and a lot more variations in between!)

This next one is very common but there are endless possibilities on how you can customize it. The selection of glass, flowers & leaves, etc.
Personally, I prefer the glass type shown above (simple and sleek looking) and the first arrangement (left). 
Here are a few additions you can make to this DIY (I recommend using fake flowers/leaves if you do any of the below):

• Add resin or clear candle wax to the vase after arranging your flowers to give the effect of water (you can add stones before adding the resin/wax too).
• use masking tape to make a shape/stripe across your vase/glass and paint or spray paint the exposed part
• spray paint the flowers  a color of your choice. White and/or black is what I would do (minimalist and my aesthetic).
• add pebbles or sand (or both) to the bottom of the vase/glass

I decided I wanted to try something new but the problem was that I didn't have the right laptop for this kind of editing and I didn't have the right software nor the right skills/experience. I wanted to do stop motion. I'd never done it before but I thought I would give it a go, and I did. With my laptop constantly hanging and my software too, it was a bit of a struggle, but I really wanted to get it done since I had already started and spent so much time taking so many pictures. I completed it. It took longer than it should've because I used a basic software, but that's okay because even if you have the most basic video editing software, you can still do it. I've never used the right kind of software for anything, I just make with what I got and I've done that for as long as I can remember. I hope you like this video (below) and please feel free to leave any feedback in the comments below as I did this for the first time and don't know if it was good for a first try. The video is called "Little things that make me happy"

Here's a quick list on last minute and easy Father's Day gifts you can give to your Dad!

1. Etched stuff 

This is my style. I like casual, minimalist and neutral tones. In this particular video, I show you what is majorly part of my wardrobe - black and white and grays. I tried to link some of the places where you can get what I am wearing but I couldn't find places for the majority of what I show you in this lookbook. I hope you liked this video and please subscribe to my blog and youtube channel if you wish to!

Welcome to my blog, Black & White & Wise!

I hope you find my posts useful and entertaining! This is basically a Lifestyle Blog and here's an overview of the series I have on here:

Photography Album

Planning

College Talk

Health/Beauty

Life

DIY

Social

Miscellaneous

Hope you guys enjoy everything on my blog! Be sure to comment and share posts if you like them! Thanks for visiting!

Click Here if you want to see how my Bullet Journal for 2017 looks like (setup)
Click below to see my video! (:

Hey, guys, I put up a new video on my YouTube channel today. You can see it above, I'd love if you check it out!

Disclaimer: The following routine is more constructed for A-level students than for other boards, however, if you are provided with a syllabus from your teacher/from the board and have past papers then you can totally do this routine. You are the best judge of what your teacher tests you on and what the difficulty of your class is, so if needed, you can always change up the below routine. For example, you can rely more on the textbook or materials given by your teacher if you know that most of the questions on the test will come from there. Continue reading! :)

Here is an overview of how I study for finals:

1. Light studying (done a long time before finals are close):

• Reading the textbook
• Skimming through study material

2. Heavy studying (I start doing this about a month or two before my exam)

• Going through the subject/paper syllabus
• Reading study guide/study materials provided by the teacher
• Making notes using at least 2 study materials (e.g. a textbook and a study guide) and the syllabus
• Revising my notes and any other pages in the textbook/guide that I have made a note to refer to
• Solving past papers (leaving one - you'll see why as you read)
• Writing down or copy-pasting important questions and their answers from the past papers I solved 
• Revision two days before the exam, solving the past paper I left out as a test one day before the exam, and then one final revision a day before the exam and/or the day of the exam

Though usually my papers are difficult, if I have a practical paper, I will not study as intensely but I will still do most of what is said in the points mentioned above.

Tips!

• Keep a water bottle/snack/both near your desk so you don't have to get up every time you are thirsty or hungry. This will just disrupt your flow and concentration
• If you have trouble focusing for too long, try out the Pomodoro Technique, click here to go to the post on my other blog about the technique if you don't know what the Pomodoro Technique is. Personally, the Pomodoro technique didn't work for me, click here to see what I thought were the pros and cons of the technique.
• Make your notes neat and clear so that when you are revising, you actually feel like studying.
• Make your own notes if you have time! Writing your own notes will help you understand better and remember better compared to just reading online notes or someone else's notes.

I recently re-vamped my bullet journal to make it way more minimalistic and monotonous in a way (if that makes any sense) than the previous messy/all-over-the-place "theme".

To see how my Bullet Journal looked in my first attempt click here!


I kept the first page the same because the sticky note has some ideas for future monthly spreads and the key was already the second attempt - I'll just make my next journal better oh well.




I messed up my 2017 overview page so much I just had to change it up. I made it simple, only added the months that were left of the year, and combined it with my future log because I didn't feel like wasting pages on an element I didn't use much (I'm pretty much jobless till University begins)




I added a new element for when my University begins - Class schedules for each semester. I also kept two blank pages (not shown below) in case I need them for anything college related and want it handy.




Next is my June spread. I decided to make a big calendar since I have an exam around mid-June and want to assign specific studying checkpoints to each day and also want to maintain my blogging and YouTubing schedule. There's also a page dump for the month because sometimes this girl just needs a space for some messy planning to get things in order.
I also have monthly goals and Social Media stats since I want to keep track of the growth of my blogs, Instagram, etc.




This last page is just a place to note down a few recipes for the occasions when I like to cook.




That's all I have for now and I'm hoping to make my journal look way more pleasing now than before. However, I do plan on getting a better quality bullet journal once college begins because honestly, this journal was just lying in my house and it kinda sucks. A lot of normal ink bleeds through sometimes and the pages aren't bound together properly. For now, though, it'll work...


I hope you guys enjoyed this post! Make sure to see my first youtube video above and don't forget to subscribe and all that :)
Happy Planning!