Blogmas | Advent Calendars Affordable Last Minute DIY

If you are like me and like the idea of counting down the days til Christmas, an Advent Calendar is the perfect idea for you!
I finished mine last night and did 2 of them, because this is my first year of having/ making my own ones and I got a bit overly exited! :D
So in this post I will show you my very quick, easy and affordable Advent Calendars and also a few other ideas that I came across via pinterest!

To start off, this is the first Advent that I've made.

All I did was to buy a lot of candy and I also added a few face masks, bubble baths and a couple of Christmas themed books that I've got in the last few weeks and never got to use/read. I have this sleigh from last year, it was a flower basket and I really liked it so I kept it, but you can use any type of basket or container that you have lying around. You will also need some sort of paper to wrap the presents and a marker to number your little gifts.

So to recap the things you need are:
❄ candy
❄ anything else you would like as a mini "gift"
❄ basket
❄ markers
❄ wrapping paper

My 2nd Advent calendar.

For this one you will need a little imagination, because on little sheets of paper you will write 24 Christmas activities, such as watch a Christmas movie, decorate your room, Christmas crafts, Christmas cookies, anything Christmas basically!

All you will need for this:
❄ a jar
❄ paper
❄ pen
❄ something to decorate the jar
❄ scissors

And voila! You are done!

Other cute Advent calendar ideas!

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Source - How to

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Other useful sources that you might need!

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And some inspiration for the 2nd advent calendar idea:

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Happy countdown to Christmas!

DIY: Mini notebooks

I've got the idea of the mini notebooks from The Sorry Girls, they did a video teaching their viewers how to make this pretty handy notebooks and I thought I would share my take on them.

The only difference from their video is that I use the metric system so instead of inches I used centimeters (cm).

These notebooks are so small they can fit in any purse/bag, they are ideal in case of emergencies and can be given as gifts too (I did that, paired them with a great book and a few colorful pens). And because it is a diy you can personalize it however you want, you can add letters, bows or rhinestones, anything your heart desires!

What you will need:

• white paper
• card stock (color of your choice)
• pen
• ruler
• scissors
• stapler

Step 1: trace a line of 19,7 cm and another one of 6,4 cm on the chosen card stock 

Step 2: trace another line 1,3 cm from the top of your mini notebook, see below:

Step 3: cot out the card stock following the lines from step 1.

Step 4: fold the card stock at the line from step 2:

Step 5: take as many papers as you want (at least 10, a max of 15) and trace a line of 8,9 cm and another of 6,4 cm like below:

Step 6: cut the papers accordingly: 

Step 7: place the papers in the card stock and staple them in place like below:

And done! Admire your work!

You can approximate the measures as long as you keep the proportions.

DIY: Beautify your pencils

If you are like me it means that you have a dozen half used pencils lying around and you don't even feel like using them, but you don't want to throw them away either. Here is a solution that I've found to be effective!

What you'll need:

• pencils
• washi tape
• scissors

And you will get your pencils from old and boring

to perfectly pretty pencils ready for you to use them!

Song of the day: I wanna be loved by you by Marilyn Monroe

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I wanna be loved by you, 

Just you and nobody else but you. 

I wanna be loved by you alone. 

Pooh pooh bee doo. 

I wanna be kissed by you, 

Just you and nobody else but you. 

I wanna be kissed by you alone.

I couldn't aspire 

to anything higher 

than to fill the desire 

to make you my own 

paah-dum paah-dum doo bee dum, pooh! 

I wanna be loved by you, 

just you and nobody else but you. 

I wanna be loved by you alone. 

I couldn't aspire 

to anything higher 

than to fill the desire 

to make you my own 

paah-dum paah-dum doo bee dum, pooh! 

I wanna be loved by you, 

just you and nobody else but you. 

I wanna be loved by you alone 

paah-deeedle-eedeedle-eedeedle-eedum, 

poo pooo beee dooh!

Song of the day: Skinny Love by Bon Iver

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Come on skinny love just last the year
Pour a little salt we were never here
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Staring at the sink of blood and crushed veneer

I tell my love to wreck it all
Cut out all the ropes and let me fall
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Right in the moment this order's tall

I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind
In the morning I'll be with you
But it will be a different "kind"
I'll be holding all the tickets
And you'll be owning all the fines

Come on skinny love what happened here
Suckle on the hope in lite brassiere
My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my
Sullen load is full; so slow on the split

I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind
Now all your love is wasted?
Then who the hell was I?
Now I'm breaking at the britches
And at the end of all your lines

Who will love you?
Who will fight?
Who will fall far behind?

Song of the day: I love you for sentimental reasons by Nat king Cole

I think Fall is the perfect season to listen to some soul music, because it suits the atmosphere like a glove. One of my favorite songs by Nat King Cole is I love you for sentimental reasons, which I discovered recently, thanks to the TV series "New Girl".

I love you for sentimental reasons

I hope you do believe me

I'll give you my heart

I love you and you alone were meant for me

Please give your loving heart to me

And say we'll never part

I think of you every morning

Dream of you every night

Darling, I'm never lonely

Whenever you are in sight

I love you for sentimental reasons

I hope you do believe me

I've given you my heart

I love you for sentimental reasons

I hope you do believe me

I've given you my heart

BookTubeAThon 2014: Wrap Up

I am an avid reader, but I never was a fan of read-a-thons, because I like to enjoy reading a book at a pace that I choose. But looking at the booktube community I wanted to try it out for once and see what I think about it.

So, I did the booktubeathon, which was organized by Ariel Bissett. This read-a-thon is at it's second edition and came with an official YouTube channel: BookTubeAThon.

The challenges were:

The Reading Challenges:

• A book with pictures.
• Start and finish a series.
• A book with red on the cover.
• A book someone else picks out for you.
• A book from the genre you've read the least this year.
• A book to movie adaptation
• Read seven books.

The Video Challenges:

• Day One: Show your top 3 book you read because of booktube.
• Day Two: Find the items on three covers.
• Day Three: Draw a better cover for any book.
• Day Four: Write a story using all the words from three titles.
• Day Five: Make a rainbow of you favourite books.
• Day Six: Find 5 things from one of the books you've read this week.
• Day Seven: Show us where you've read during the booktubeathon!

Because of these challenges and of the reading sprints, reading became a collective action and not a solitary activity, which I loved!

Now I didn't respect the challenges, because during that week I had other activities that were a priority and I didn't get to read every day, but I was pretty satisfied with what I managed to read. So here is my wrap up for my very first read-a-thon:

Day 1:

I managed to read 80 pages of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, getting me from page 100 (which I've read the week before) to page 180.

Total page count: 80

Day 2:

I continued reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, from page 180 to page 300, which means that I've read 120 pages.

Total page count: 200 

Day 3:

I have started and finished Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote. This book has 187 pages.

Total page count: 387

Days 4 & 5:

I did not read.

Total page count: 387

Day 6: 

I have read Tales of Beedle the Bard by JK Rowling (109 pages) and Quidditch through the Ages by JK Rowling (105 pages).

Total page count: 601 

Day 7:

I've read Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them by JK Rowling (88 pages) and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (155 pages).

Final page count: 844 pages!!!

Pro tip: for a read-a-thon pick action packed books, thinner books and generally any book that you love and has a fast pace, to make you feel that you are devouring them!

I absolutely enjoyed reading some JK Rowling books and I even managed to complete a few challenges:

• A book with pictures (Tales of Beedle the Bard)
• Start and finish a series (Hogwarts Library)
• A book with red on the cover (Breakfast at Tiffany's)
• A book to movie adaptation (of mice and men)

This being said, I would very much like to participate in other read a thons in the future!