My February Favourites \\ Is it over Already?

February happened. The second month of the year has passed. What were my favourite things about February? I am about to answer that unasked question right now. Oh, and tell me what y'all think of this post header! It's quite cool if I do say so myself! I felt like experimenting.


Books

The Year of Cozy: 125 Recipes, Crafts, and Other Homemade Adventures by  Adrianna Ardarme
This was a non-fiction book with ideas and recipes for every season of the year. I read it on an e-book but I really would love a physical copy! The graphics are really nice and attractive. I love the ideas in it too. Things like ice-cream recipes in Summer, homemade candles for Autumn, handpainted cushion cover for Winter or fruit sugars in Spring. There are also ideas for activities you could do. For example: plant a herb garden, go on an adventure with your dog(only I don't have one) and ride your bike to a never-been-before place.


Music

Deliverance by Strahan ~ I love the tune and sound of this song. And the words are good. My favourite line is "My feet on the ground, my heart in heaven".

Claire de Lune ~ Gah. Can classical music be more beautiful than this? I think not. Classical music is a hit or miss for me usually but I LOVE Claire de Lune!
This is kinda what I think of when I hear it......

Isabel from The Light Between Oceans Soundtrack ~  Another lovely classical, piano piece that I think is absolutely wonderful.


Movies

The Light Between Oceans {2016}

More about that later!  (Let's just say that this movie made we want to squeal, cry and dance happily around the room.) A movie like this deserves a WHOLE entire post about its wonderfulness.


Events


My younger sister Isabella had her 9th birthday and we celebrated by throwing a  butterfly themed party. I decorated the cake so it looked like a butterfly and made fresh berry buttercream icing to cover it with.



Food & Drinks

The cake my mum baked for the birthday party was an especially nice chocolate cake. Paired with my berry buttercream icing it was scrummy! I usually don't like choc cake but this one was fabulous.

Popcorn ~ There is a certain brand of which I cannot remember the name, that makes an addictive Coconut & Vanilla flavour. The coconut is undetectable but you can taste the vanilla and there is a subtle sweetness to them that is just right. (Have I made you hungry?) Who knew I would ever write a paragraph about popcorn.


MISC

GoBamboo toothbrush ~ I was curious about this kind of toothbrush so I got one and its good. The cool thing is that you can compost it!


KEUNE Care Curl Control Defining Cream ~ My mum got this for our hair to help control frizz. It works quite well. I have to use a bit more in my hair because it's longer and thicker than my mum's but otherwise, it's great!


Quotes

This last one made me smile because I get up at 6;30 and do my Bible reading. ♥

As you can see I added section!


Have a great day and I hope your March will be great!

A pre-gushing post by Yours Truely

You know when you hear some new thing and it sounds good but you don't really care at first, but then you learn more about it and you go mad?
If that didn't make a smidgen of sense then I 'll explain in English. I had heard this movie mentioned but it wasn't until I watched the trailer when I fell in love with it.
I show you what I mean in a minute. While I was watching the trailer I was smiling so much and the excitement was building up so later I almost exploded with happiness. I can just tell this will be a favourite of mine after I watch it. I already love it!
Now I 'll insert the trailer so that you can see what I mean.......

*squeals so loud the window cracks* (mild exaggeration)
But do you see now how wonderful it looks is! And doesn't Claire have the most stunning eyes!

0:02 "I could ask you to dance...."

0:06 All the looks! Her hair and red lipstick(♥)

0:16 Dancing, it's gotta be good!

0:57 Him and the baby.....awww

0:59 "You can love this." "Yes, I can!"

2:03 "Your life is my life"

2:08 "I don't want to just survive, I want to truly live."

To sum up why I want to see it in 4 points:

1. It looks soooooooo beautiful and the kind of movie that will have you smiling and crying.
2.Claire Foy ♥ (Little Dorrit, The Crown) She is simply lovely is period dramas!
3. It's based on a true story which makes it even more amazing and moving.
4. It's set in the 1950's or thereabouts. It's a period drama movie!

Anyway, I am thrilled about seeing this! What about you?

Cake Flavoured Tag

When I saw this tag on Keturah's blog I knew I must fill out my answers to the questions. I mean c'mon, CAKE? And books? Perfect!

So here they are!

Chocolate Cake : a dark book you absolutely love
For dark I am thinking like a suspense book.....? Blackout by Lynette Eason then. It was dark, suspenseful and a little creepy but I loved it.

Vanilla Cake : a light read
This makes me think of a contemporary romance read. So for this I must go with The Icing on the Cake by Janice Thompson. And what do you know, it fits perfectly with this tag!

Red Velvet : a book that gave you mixed emotions
I'm curious to try red velvet cake though it basically a red vanilla cake right?
A book that gave me mixed emotions was Summer Promise by Robin Jones Gunn in the Christy Miller series. It made me happy, slightly annoyed and excited to read more of Christy.

Cheesecake : a book you would recommend to everyone
Well, the Bible of course!
A fiction book I would recommend to everyone would be Winnie the Pooh by A.A Milne. Everyone should read this authors short tales of a bear of very little brain(despite that fact, we still love him!).

Coffee Cake : a book you started but didn't finish

The White Horse of Zennor and other Stories by Michael Morpurgo. Though he is indeed on my list of top favourite writers I did not enjoy this book when I read it(which was, I'll admit, I while ago now). It was just simply weird and not my cup of tea.

Carrot Cake : a book with great writing

My first choice would be a Michael Morpurgo book.  The Mozart Question by him.
His writing is just simple and that is what makes me love it. It's descriptive but still simple and wonderful. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak could also go with answer(just saying!).

Cupcakes : a series with 4+ books
The whole entire Christy series. Definitely has more than 4 books! I haven't gotten very far in this series (2 books) but I already love it. The faith content is one of the best hings about it! Todd,though he has not appeared very often, is amazing! Christy has to grow a bit more in her faith but that's all part of the story I suppose.

Fruit Cake : a book that wasn't what you anticipated
Becky's Horse by Madison Winifred. I was not expecting what this book had in store for me! I thought is was just another horse book (I've gotten a bit tired of them) but oh no! It's not! Read it!

Lamington : favourite Australian book
There are not many books set in Aussie. At least not that I have read.
Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo is set completely in Australia but it's not my favourite. It'll have to do though.

I Tag:
Elanor from Musings of a Jane Austen Wannabe
Naomi from Wonderland Creek
Rachel from A Girl's Place
Macaiah from Notebooks and Novels
And Natasha from Simple Things

Journal with Hannah 1 : Art Journal Faves

I am starting a new series here on Books, Cameras and Succulents!
It is called Journal with Hannah and in this series, I will be sharing my journals with you. Two journals in particular. My scripture journal and my art journal.
Today I am just going to show you some of the entries I have done in my art journal.

Excuse my slightly terrible painting of what is supposed to be a lady. These three poems I think are quite pretty so I decided to put them in this journal.

This my songs of the year chart/page. I was inspired to do this from the Youtube video below by Jordan Clark.

And the other section of the page is my word for 2018. Servant. I was inspired to have a word for the year from a podcast by Annie F. Downs.

This page is simply a small poem I found on Pinterest. I love the look of brown paper and I use it a lot in my journals, as you will see in the posts to come.

If you haven't already noticed I love making lists. List of anything and everything. Here I started a list of 'good things'. It's quite fun to do. It's basically a list of favourite things with a different name.

A LIST of my ideal ways to spend a day. This is good to do when you might be having a bad day, even though I wasn't at the time.
(note the use of brown paper) :)

Did you know that there are some really beautiful words out there that don't even make their way into our boring everyday conversations? Well, there are! I mean take those words up there, for example, wonderful words aren't they? Say them, just say them out to your self! (If someone listening thinks you're crazy, never mind them. You probably are!)

Did you enjoy that peek into my 'art' journal?

5 Mini Movie Reviews

Remember when I wrote that post about the movies I wanted to watch?
In case you don't, I 'll put it right here. Movies I Want to watch
Since I posted that I have ticked off a few from that list. Here are my thoughts on them.

Saving Mr Banks (2013)

To describe this movie in one word.....delightful. Truly delightful! Emma Thompson is a wonderful actress and plays this role so well. 

I loved the Sherman brothers too! How they try and try to write the songs to Pamela's liking.
The filming was lovely. Pamela's flashbacks to her childhood were sad and beautiful at the same time.
You've also got to love her taxi driver, who's always trying to be optimistic. There were so many wonderful characters in this movie. ♥
I would recommend this movie to you all if you haven't already seen it!

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Viceroy's House (2017)

I didn't enjoy this movie as much as some I have seen. It's was good because I never knew much about the topic and Hugh Bonneville was great of course. So it was historically interesting. I'm not really sure what else to say. Don't get me wrong though, this is not a boring movie. Period dramas set in places like India always make them seem so exotic, though this movie also captured the suffering well. The man that played Gandhi looked amazingly alike him too!

So I would recommend to people who are interested.

Victoria and Abdul (2017)

This is a lovely film about friendship. And the amazing Judi Dench returns to play Queen Victoria.

My aunt and my mother went and saw this in the cinema together and my mother came home and said it was really nice.

So, of course, we all watched it when it was out on DVD!

It annoyed me how the government was so dead against the Queen cultivating a friendship with an Indian servant, learning Hindi and spending time with him. Let her be happy for once in her mournful life after her dear Albert's death!

It was a good movie though and I enjoyed it enough. There are some pretty cute scenes with Victoria and Abdul.

The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)

I was pleased and disappointed at the same time after watching this film. I was excited to see it because of Jessica Chastain who I quite enjoy watching on screen. It was a great and quite different story from the II World War. Set in a zoo in Poland was a very unique setting for a war film. But I liked it. The animals added something to it. I always admire people who rescued the afflicted souls affected by the Holocaust.

However, there were two things I strongly disliked. Lutz Heck (played by Daniel Bruhl) was horrible! Ugh, ugh, eww! That's all I have to say about him.

And a couple *cough* bedroom scenes which could have been left out. Oh, and the animals that got killed in the bombings. That was sad too.

I did enjoy seeing the war from a new perspective. 

Swallows and Amazons (2017)

My wonderful Nonna took us to see this last year and it was soooo lovely. These four Walker children remind me of the Pevensie children in The Chronicles of Narnia! There is no magic though.
The story is based on the book by Arthur Ransome. The scenery was stunning, acting was great and the story and a twist of mystery to it. Perfect right?
It's a great adventure movie for any age. When we went to see it in the cinema half of the other people watching were older folks. I bet they remembered reading the books when they were kids!
Highly recommend this to everyone!
Rodger Walker is so cute(the small boy) and Tatty has a great imagination(the smaller girl).
Nancy and Peggy are also pretty cool.


And so there are my reviews on those five movies. I love it when you find a perfectly delightful movie with an intriguing story, brilliant acting, beautiful scenery and a happy ending! Don't you?

How to Keep a Diary & Why You Should // 8 Tips from Me

If you're like some people I know, you struggle with keeping a diary/journal.
Usually, I have been good at writing regularly though I did have a gap where I hardly wrote anything at all.
I thought I would write a post about it to help out any of you who might have made it a goal this year to keep a diary.

Willpower WhyPower?

Why do you want to start writing a diary? Ask yourself this and write it down. Come up with 3 reasons why you want to keep a diary.

Tips

1. Find the perfect notebook. Don't get one that is too big as the pages will be huge and hard to fill. At least to start, keep it small. I have learnt this from experience. I now use a smaller notebook and it is way easier to just write what is important to me and in the least amount of time.

2. Keep it near to your bed/in your room. This depends on when you normally write in it. I fill in a page before bed if I have something to update on.

3. If it is not already pretty, make it so. Collage the cover, fabric cover, paint it or leave it plain and simple.

What?

What do you want to write about? Your feelings, document your day/life, your walk with God, travel, exciting things, little details, photos, your moods etc.

It will be helpful to your mental health to get your thoughts down on paper. Especially for us ladies right? We always have so many things buzzing around in our heads!

If you are not so much into writing, document your life with pictures or tell a friend or family member you trust what happened today and how you are feeling.
You could also download a journal/diary app but personally, I recommend physical paper.

Tips

4. Don't write things you would be ashamed of others reading. Yes, you will keep your diary private but some things are better not written on paper. When you're gone someone might read it!

5. Get a good pen. This will encourage you to write more in general. A pen that writes well where the ink flows smoothly out of it will motivate you.

When?

Schedule time to write. Choose a time each day when you will take 5 mins to scribble down what's going on in your head. For me, this is before bed.

Another thing. Any writing is good practice. Why not add more practice into your day?

It's also fun to look back at old/previous diaries. I often do this and sometimes read entries(selected ones only) out loud to my siblings and laugh at them or remember things we did

Tips

6. Always date your entries. Otherwise, how will you know a what in your life you did 'this' or felt like 'that'.

7. Act like you're talking to someone or writing to a trusted friend. You can even give it a name!

8. Write about your successes. Look at what you have achieved!


Mini Diary >>>>

Sometimes you might have small things that come to mind during the day.

A poetic line, a scripture, or a thought. Write these in a tiny journal if you prefer. You can do either the main diary or this mini one or both. 

In the small book, you could also add tickets, leaves, flowers,  a note from someone, photos and small mementoes. This is something I only just thought of now!

One last idea would be to write in a different language if you know any or if you are learning one.
I think this would be really cool and I would love to try it in German (the language I 'm learning) once I have learnt a little more.

So tell me, will you start a diary now? Or do you have new motivation and ideas?

Photo Dump // my pictures from the last 5-6 months

Via Unsplash

I am so happy to finally be able to share my photos with you on my blog. I while back I lost my USB and wasn't able to upload from my camera to the computer...now I can!
Enjoy!

This is our parsley plant after I watered the vegetable patch. I am obsessed!

Chicken Country

 

New Life

My new little brother Lucas Mateo Stanich!

Garden Flowers

Other Things

The End

Now I am mostly caught up on all those I will give you my photos in my monthly faves posts under my favourite photos of the month.

Which was your favourite?