sunflowerdaisy.: Blogging

Blogging

Life Update + My Giveaway Winners!

It's d-day! I know y'all have been waiting for this update. Actually, this week I'm super-duper like hella busy. So many activities and work going on, so many complicated lectures and some tutorials, with 3 lab practicals. Gosh, let me breathe.

I still have some homework and report that need to finish tonight, but I know I've promised an update today for you guys about the giveaway, right? Yayyy, I'm so excited! Can't wait for you give you guys the mystery boxes!

TADAAA! Sneak peek? Here are the 5 MYSTERY BOXES! Cute, right? What's inside? Whoops, can't tell ya! So, let's find out the lucky ones who are going to receive these surprises from me!

Oh, before that, I feel like updating about my life first. Please, let me talk.

Life update? Yeah. So, as I've said earlier, this week is a hectic one. We just had our 2nd volunteering program, Feed The Need 2.0: Health Care. It was so much fun but also very tiring. As a secretary of the organization, I'm so, so glad that everything went very well, although we didn't prepare all out just like we did for the first one. By the way, I talked a little bit about our first program which was Feed The Need 1.0: Kids Fun Fest here.

Heyyo! Spot me somewhere?

The precious people.

With my roommates! Since the theme of our 2nd program is Health Care, we've had free medical checkups for the homeless! Plus, other than giving food, we also gave free hygiene kits for the ones who did their medical checkup!

There were many kids as well.

My lovely classmates!

And of course, the whole volunteer team. Thank you so much, everyone.

I just feel like sharing these pictures because it was such an amazing night. We got to help the homeless around KL. We went back to UM feeling very grateful for everything we have, and also full of conviction. Alhamdulillah.

Alright. MOVING ON TO THE MAIN TOPIC OF THE DAY. GIVEAWAY WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT! Finally! If any of you guys don't know, I did a mystery boxes giveaway for the past 3 weeks. Today's the day for me to announce the winners! I'm super nervous right now. Okay, enough with the ramblings. Bismillah!

ATTENTION CONTESTANTS!
PLEASE CHECK YOUR NUMBER HERE. I MADE A LIST OF ALL THE BLOGGERS WHO JOINED. I've made it a few weeks ago, according to the first to the last person who joined. I'm sorry I didn't have time to personally tell all of you about the list. But I'm pretty sure some of you guys are aware of it. Thank you for always coming to my blog looking for updates. CLICK HERE.

Before everything, I'd like to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to every single one of you who joined my giveaway! I really wish I could give all of the 52 contestants some gifts, but I'm so sorry I can't. I only get to choose 5 of you.

Let's go! I'm using Random.org, and here are the results. It's a video of me picking the winners. I used my phone so that it's easier for me to screen record it. THE 5 WINNERS OF MY MYSTERY BOXES GIVEAWAY ARE .........

WINNERS OF MYSTERY BOXES GIVEAWAY BY LIYANA JASMI
40. https://www.thehundredpages.com/2018/12/mystery-boxes-giveaway-by-liyana-jasmi.html
2. https://thekaellaaaa.blogspot.com/2018/11/mystery-boxes-giveaway-by-liyana-jasmi.html
27. https://ohthrillers.blogspot.com/2018/12/mystery-boxes-giveaway-by-liyana-jasmi.html
15. https://norminieza.blogspot.com/2018/11/mystery-boxes-giveaway-by-liyana-jasmi.html
18. http://www.sisgee.com/2018/11/mystery-boxes-giveaway-by-liyana-jasmi.html

CONGRATULATIONS, MY LUCKY BLOGGERS! It was quite thrilling, the moments I clicked the Generate button. YAY! I've been waiting to choose the winners for so long, finally! CONGRATS GUYS! Alhamdulillah.

To the WINNERS! I really, really hope you guys will love the box. Please email me at hello@liyanajasmi.com, giving me your BLOG POST LINK, FULL NAME, FULL ADDRESS (with POSTCODE) & PHONE NUMBER. Please contact me ASAP, within 1 week. The earlier you contact me, the earlier you'll receive the mystery box! If I receive no response within that given time, I might choose another winner. Huaaaa.

And to others, again, thank you so much for your participation. Thank you for supporting my giveaway. Thank you for supporting me. You guys are amazing. It wouldn't be a success without all of you! Please do keep in touch with me, who knows I might do another giveaway soon, right?

I love every single one of you who are reading this, especially the ones who have been supporting me ever since. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Mystery Boxes Giveaway by Liyana Jasmi

ENDED!

Yowwww! As I've promised in the previous post, I'm finally doing a giveaway! I can't remember when was the last time I did one, probably a few years ago. For now, I'm so damn excited. It's gonna be a huge one because I'm giving lots of stuff! Seriously! Feeling very generous lately, so why not?

And what is more exciting about this giveaway is ... it is a MYSTERY BOX GIVEAWAY! Surprise!!! What is EVEN MORE exciting? There's a total of FIVE (5) MYSTERY BOXES to be won! YES, GUYS! 5 MYSTERY BOXES! 5 WINNERS! WOOHOO!

5 MYSTERY BOXES

5 WINNERS

6 ITEMS IN EACH BOX

30 ITEMS TOTAL

Crazy enough? Haaa, y'all better join. What's inside the box? Eh, of course, it's a secret! 1 box contains 6 items. That's a lot, right? Y'all seriously should join. Who wants a surprise from me? Hehe, don't miss this chance!

So, how to win? Here are the terms and rules. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, now worries!

WAJIB;

FOLLOW this blog (click here).
CREATE A POST with the title 'Mystery Boxes Giveaway by Liyana Jasmi'.
Put the GIVEAWAY BANNER in your post.
BACKLINK the banner to this post of mine (here's the link).
TAG 3 OTHER BLOGGERS, make sure they know about it! Roger them!
PUBLISH! And SUBMIT your post link in the comment section below.

EXTRA (tak wajib);
• FOLLOW any of my social media accounts: Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin'
• You can write ANYTHING you want in that post, no specific contents.

Very easy, right? What are you waiting for? Let me surprise you guys with these boxes! Then you can do an unboxing post, yay. Curious enough? Go and join now!

The differences between the 5 boxes? Well, all the items are almost the same. The only differences are maybe in terms of the colour or designs. Only about 2 or 3 items that are a bit different and special. Hehe, but it's completely random.

WINNERS WILL BE CHOSEN RANDOMLY!

Everyone has the chance to win! 5 winners, guys!

Duration:

25 November - 16 December (3 weeks)

*can be extended / cut if necessary

Winners Announcement:

20 December 2018 (Thursday)

I really hope many of you guys will join this giveaway. I rarely do this kind of contest, so why not? Plus, the rules are easy peasy kan! Honestly, I just feel like showing some appreciation for all the bloggers and my readers out there. You guys deserve this. Don't forget to promote this giveaway to your friends! Hihi.

💥 SENARAI PESERTA 💥

ALL THE BEST, EVERYONE!

ENDED!

My Current Blogging Problems

AHHHH, I can't believe I've left my blog again when it's only the fourth week of 2017. It's not even a month of school yet, and I've already felt the tiredness and how busy I am. This is going to be just a quick post, or maybe a ranting post. I'm trying my best to update as fast as I can as I'm currently writing this at 12 AM and I have school tomorrow.

I know I've been gone for a while and first of all, I'm truly sorry. I have a few reasons, and here I am, trying to explain to you guys one by one. I'm telling this so that if I ever went missing again, here's why, I guess? Gosh, I'm not even sure what's going to happen next but here are the reasons why;

Blogger stressed me out
Warning: This is a rant.
Please know that I was so freaking frustrated when I was writing this post. I didn't plan to write this one at first. But guess what happened? I was actually writing another post before this, and I thought it was saved as Blogger usually automatically save our the post throughout our writing process, right? After I've finished my last words, I saved and closed the editing post tab and went for a quick blog walk from my reading list.

When I came back to the editing section of the post I wrote previously, guess what? Everything was GONE. All the words and images in the post were NOT SAVED. I WAS SO HELLA FRUSTRATED. I've sacrificed a lot of my study time just to update my blog, and this freaking Blogger didn't save my content that I've written for hours! Believe me, I was so mad that I went into my room, shut the door and screamed. I was so stressed, guys. It has only been a few 18 days of school, and it already stressed me out, and Blogger just made everything became worst. I want to cry. This tragedy really made me lost my blogging mood for a whole week.

Tonnes of homework
Dude, seriously. Homework is slowly killing me. I mean, yes it's normal for us as SPM candidates to have lots of homework, but because of them and my tuition classes, I end up not having enough time to do things I like that I usually do. For instance, blogging. Again, I know it's totally normal, but this is one of the reasons why I've been gone for awhile. Just saying.

Tuition classes every day
I used to only have tuition classes 3 days a week, and all of them are after 8 PM. Well, sadly, this year I started to have tuition classes 5 goddamn days a week, and 3 of them are in the evening, after 4 PM. I've never thought I would have tuition classes in the evening, but honestly, it's my own decision. Of course, SPM purpose. I'm trying to find the best classes for me that I think could really help me for the upcoming big exam this year, so this is the result. 5 days of tuition classes a week? Yeap. #roadtospm2k17

So many activities
Other than tuition classes and homework, of course, I do have cocurricular activities too. I'm now in my senior year and other than focusing on curricular stuff, we also have to gain cocurricular marks too. Plus, I have a few positions in my clubs and uniforms, so I just have to attend. It's like a compulsory. Also, I still play a sport for my school which is softball. Which literally means I have training and practices to attend. I've been at school on Saturdays lately, too. There are just so many school activities that are making me a bit busy now.

No internet access
This is like, my current biggest problem ever. It has not been even a month yet that I've moved to a new house. And currently, we still have no Wifi. The UniFi team or something, or should I say, Telekom Malaysia, is having a few problems with our house area. They said something like "oh the port there is already full lah, you have to wait for another one" blah blah blah which I don't really understand, but basically we can't use UniFi anymore (or, yet) and we might have to take internet access from another service like Maxis, Streamyx, YES or others. But whatever it is, it's hard for me to go online especially on my computer because of this. For now, I'm using my mum's personal hotspot. Overall, it's very hard not to have internet access. Not only blogging, but I also can't even search for points for my upcoming oral test. AHHHH.

Tired as hell
Overall, I'm just tired. As you guys have read all of the above, you can tell how packed my schedule is and how tired I would be. It's not even February yet, and I'm already tired. Lol, I swear I need more motivations. But no worries, I'm still trying to cope with these things, and I believe that insya'Allah, I will be okay with this kind of schedule soon. Just need some time to bear with it, you know.

I really wish I could often update although many of you would like me to focus on SPM. Yes, of course, I'm focusing, but at the same time, I don't want to abandon my blog. I need to settle my biggest problem first which is the no internet problem. Once I have the internet access in my house, I will update more.

Mainly, my life as a student is kind of blocking a little bit of my blogging life. Please, wish me luck for this year. Again, I'm very sorry for not updating, but I will definitely come back whenever I get a chance like this again. Insya'Allah, hehe. Till then, I'll be back soon!

Beating The Procrastination Habit

My sleep schedule is so messed up. These days, I have insomnia, so I will sleep around 4 AM. Guess what time did I start writing this post? 1 AM. I suppose that's why I can't sleep, I've been looking on screen too much. I seriously need to stop, school is starting in less than 15 days. I better fix my sleep cycle now.

Somehow, I only could write at this particular time. Ideas would only come during this hour. I wouldn't have any desire to write in the daytime, which is bad. Plus, I have lots of SPM classes this month, so I'm quite exhausted and tired (but I will still sleep late, lol). My bad. And now, I'm forcing myself to update this blog. I already have a blog schedule, so I'm trying to cope with it.

I mentioned about today's topic in my last post. This topic was also requested by Rasya about a month ago. I'm sorry for only doing it today, I was procrastinating to write about this. Ahhh, that is so freaking irony! Well, I guess I'm writing about this not only for you guys but also, for me.

Procrastination is the avoidance of doing a task that needs to be accomplished. It is the practice of doing more pleasurable things in place of less pleasurable ones or carrying out less urgent tasks instead of the larger ones, thus putting off impending tasks to a later time. Sometimes, procrastination takes place until the "last minute" before a deadline. Procrastination can take hold in any aspect of life and can lead to feelings of guilt, inadequacy, depression and self-doubt. [source]

One of my every new year's resolutions is to stop procrastinating. Every year. Whether as a student, a blogger or just an average person with a healthy life. So, since 2017 is coming and we all have a resolution to get rid of procrastination, I'm going to talk about it. This topic is quite big, so let's talk about this in general and together, we fight this bad habit!

Procrastination can be caused by lots of things. For instance;
→ Lack of motivation - when you don't have any desire to do something.
→ Not knowing or where to start - when you have too many things to get done that you just don't know where to start.
→ Perfectionism - when you're afraid that the outcome might not be good enough.
→ Fear of failing - when you're overthinking the issue might fail.
→ Laziness - when you lack energy.
→ Out of focus - when there are too many distractions.

Those are the main causes of procrastination. Whatever it is, we have to beat them to get tasks done. I know it can be hard, but you'll regret it if you don't try. Here are some solutions;

• Make a to-do list
This is crucial. I used to not recording what I'm supposed to do, which I ended up not doing any of them because I'm such a forgetful person (that's a fact). I started to create a to-do list for every single day, and my routine has really changed since then. I became more organised with my tasks and manage my time successfully. Having a daily to-do list is surprisingly helpful.

• FORCE yourself to start
"I'm with the force, and the force is with me" lol, just kidding, that's a line from the movie, Rouge One - A Star Wars Story. I watched it a few days ago, and it was incredible. Star Wars will never be disappointing. Okay, back to procrastination. This is one of the ways I do when it comes to things like writing, either school work or blog posts. I will force myself to start writing even if it's just a few words. Because eventually, I will continue until the end.

• Get rid of distractions
Most of the time, things are undone because of distractions. For example, this post was in my draft for quite some time because I was too distracted with Korean dramas. I'm currently watching Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, and I swear, that show is so effing cute. Oh God, I'm distracted again. See? So, you need to eliminate all the things that are distracting you such as your smartphone, television remote, music, Instagram, Twitter, and others.

• Plan and prioritise your tasks
Sometimes, lots of things come to you at one time. Too many things need to be done in one particular time which just stresses you out, and you'd feel like giving up. So, other than just making a to-do list, write down your tasks according to the relevant ones first. You need to be able to prioritise your work and manage your time smartly. You can use a planner to sort out your work or just the Notes app on your phone, that will work too!

• Find a comfortable spot
Occasionally, you'll become tired and lazy because of the bad atmosphere you're in. And of course, you'll procrastinate. Maybe you haven't got time, or most probably, procrastinate to clean your room. Or maybe your siblings are too loud that you just couldn't focus on your work. Then, be in a clean and comfortable space. Tidy up your room, spray some air freshener, or just get out of the house and find a peaceful place. It can be a library, a cafe, a park, or anywhere you like. Get yourself in a better surroundings and do your work.

• Don't think too much
Overthinking can lead to procrastination too. Maybe you think that your work would turn out bad, your task won't be good enough, or for example, like me, I would always overthink that my readers would dislike and judge my writings. Seriously, avoid that. Overthinking is wrong in any situation. You will never know what's going to happen next if you don't start, right? So, just give it a try. Remember to always be positive!

• Inspire yourself
When you want or need to do something, but you don't have enough motivation for it. What are you waiting for? Find yourself motivations! For example, when you need to study, then go to Tumblr and search the word 'studyblr', there are lots of original and beautiful notes that will immediately make you have the desire to study. Or when you need to write a blog post, then go to Pinterest or Bloglovin' and find some inspirations by exploring and reading blogs you like. There are many ways to motivate yourself.

• Put some effort
I agree that nothing is easy in this world. Life is full of obstacles that you need to get through. But remember, whatever you're doing in this world, an effort is necessary when you want to achieve something. Back to point #2 where you have to force yourself to start, that's where effort comes in. Fight that laziness and just do it! When the effort is there, procrastination is nothing.

I'm not saying that it's going to be easy, procrastination is something that's quite hard to beat. But hey, let's give it a try, shall we? I procrastinate a lot too, so I hope that this post will help everyone including me. Let us all get rid of this terrible habit and make our 2017 an anti-procrastination year!

What are your ways to beat this habit called procrastinating?

My 10 Blogging Sins

This post was supposed to be up on either Wednesday or Thursday, but here it is, posted on a Saturday morning. Screw me for procrastinating. Oh, and that is one of my biggest sins not only as a blogger but as a student and an actual person. Ahhh, I hate myself. Whatever, let's get back to the main topic.

It has actually been 5 years since this blog was created in 2012. I was thinking of doing a '4 years of blogging experience' kind of post, but seriously, I can't even think of any point. All I can think of are all the sins that I've made (and still doing) throughout this journey of me as a blogger. I believe that there are lots of other mistakes I've made or even currently doing that I probably still haven't realised yet, but here are the 10 faults I've made as a blogger.

#1 No content

Well, this blog is a personal blog. But honestly, I feel like I lack content. Maybe some people love these personal things, but I want, and I need to write things that are not only enjoyable but also useful for my readers. Plus, I don't have any blog niche. I write what I want. Up until now, my contents are still not good enough. I'll try my best to write more lifestyle and blog-related post. I want my blog to be more than just a personal blog! Insya'Allah.

#2 Horrible writing

I feel like everyone had experienced this (or maybe not). Let's call it those 'boyan' days, where we use all kinds of weird symbols and awful spellings. I used to write like that in 2012-2013. Remember when I said I deleted all my previous posts in this post? Those are all my 'boyan' posts. Well, it's not that they're bad if you're writing like that but those kinds of posts might turn your readers off. Overall, my writing still needs a lot of improvements, tho.

#3 Not being consistent

If you read my 'How did I Start Blogging?' post, or if you've been following me since the beginning, you must've realised how inconsistent I was. I used to blog, then I was gone for a few months, then I came back, then I went missing again, and now here I am. Let's hope that I won't be going anywhere again after this, except for next year. I mean, I'm surely going to be on hiatus for awhile because of SPM. I'm sorry in advance.

#4 Followers are everything
I was crazy about the number of followers. If you don't know, I've actually already reached 1000 followers last year, in 2015 if I'm not mistaken. And of course, I was so happy. Then, Google started to delete all inactive accounts (I believe), so I lost quite some them. Since that, I've realised that those are just numbers. You can have lots of followers but only a few readers and views, which is sadder than having a few followers.

#5 What is this 'stats' thingy?
Talking about views, I used to not even know what's the use of the 'Stats' bar on the Blogger dashboard. Views? Google Analytics? What are those? After awhile being a blogger, now I know that the number of blog views and stats are even more necessary than the number of followers. Now, I actually care about my blog stats and daily, weekly, and monthly page views. I haven't taken it seriously yet, but at least, I care. Hehe.

#6 Not connecting with other bloggers
Back then, I don't reply to my readers' comments. I don't even comment on my followings' posts. I rarely leave feedback. The only thing I would do was leaving a few words in their chatbox, lol. I used to not get that much of comments, but when I get one, I can feel the joy. I'm delighted that people actually respond to my writing. And that's how I realised that comments mean a lot. About replying to comments, although you might not even know I've responded to you, it's important. Our readers took their time to read our post and leave a few words, so, why not we take just a few minutes to reply to their comments, right?

#7 Too lazy to use a planner
I'm not a planner freak. I've tried to use a planner once when I was in Form 3 because I felt like I need to organise myself for PT3, but it didn't work out (as I said, I'm not consistent). I've also tried to type in my ideas and plans for my blog on my phone, it worked out a little bit, but I know that it's not enough for me to improve my blogging life. And for this upcoming SPM year for me, I want, and I need to use a planner. And of course, not only for my studying life but also for this blog. I've seen bloggers using planners and journals to plan and build their blogs, so maybe I should do it too.

#8 Not having a proper blog schedule
This is why I'm not consistent with this blog. I didn't have any specific days for any specific topics to update about (until today, to be honest). Which means I didn't take my blog seriously. I know that writing is just a hobby of mine, but I'm honestly really passionate about it. Of course, it's hard to start because of all of these procrastinating problems, but when I'm writing, I'm happy. Expressing my feelings and thoughts makes me feel relieved. Too bad, I'm not good at time managing. Having a planner + decent blog schedule should probably help. I've already planned my blog schedule tho, it will be up on my blog as soon as possible!

#9 Always, like always, procrastinating
Procrastinating is my huge problem. I procrastinate on blogging, studying, ahhh everything! If someone asks me what my life problems are, procrastinating would be my number one. For instance, as I said, this post was supposed to be published a few days ago, but it didn't as I'm such a procrastination queen. Again, this is also why I'm not consistent. It's such a hard bad habit for me to beat, but I swear I'm trying my best. Procrastination, please, go away.

#10 Not caring about my blog weight
This is a sin that I recently realised. I've tested my website speed and grades and all those kinds of stuff before, but I never actually care. Until one day I noticed how slow my blog loads, and I was so stressed out because of it. Since that, I started compressing photos, which makes a huge difference on my blog weight. Until today, my blog is still heavy. I've compressed every single picture, but my page size is still more than 3MB. I seriously don't know what else to do to make my site faster. If you have any idea, please tell me.

As you can see, that's a lot of sins. I'm still making some of these mistakes, like being inconsistent, no blog schedule and especially, procrastinating. Whatever it is, mistakes are meant to be done, right? That's just how you will learn. I'm still learning and trying my best to improve everything that I'm doing in life. Wish me luck!

What are your sins as a blogger?

Whenever I Don't Feel Like Writing

Lately, I've been in such a lousy atmosphere, I'm in the mood to stay in bed for 10 years. I felt tired and exhausted all the time. For now, I'm pretty sure I've spent 50% of my time during this school holiday with sleep. I don't really go anywhere, I've only been to my school and tuition centre for extra classes and SPM workshops. Due to my awful mood, I don't feel like doing anything. Am I that lifeless?

All I know is that I will be going to the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale tomorrow! Last week, I pledged to Stop Buying, Start Reading on their website. For every 100 pledges, they will choose 10 lucky people to win the Preview Passes. Alhamdulillah, I'm one of them! The pass admits 2 adults, and it allows us to go to the sale one day earlier before the actual event starts. How exciting is that?

Okay, back to the main topic. I genuinely don't feel like updating at all, and I hate myself for being like that. Another thing I do other than sleeping all along this school holiday is being in front of my computer. Most of the time, I would be on the blog, of course. But recently, I can do any other blog-related things but not write. I feel very bad as I know that I need to update my blog. Just for some reason, I feel so unmotivated these days.

I really want to update every day during this school holiday as I know that I won't be able to update much next year because of SPM, but my current blogging mood is just very dreadful. And here I am, forcing myself to write a 'when I don't feel like writing' post. I guess that's the best post to do in this kind of emotion, right? Here we go.

#1 Update old blog posts
Instead of updating my blog with a new post, I'd update my old blog posts. I haven't got any chance to reformat my previous entries yet since I changed my template more than a month ago. I have to resize the images, change the font and others. I literally laughed at myself when I was editing those posts as my writing was so ridiculous back then.

#2 Find new stock photos
I always love looking and admiring beautiful pictures. Whenever I don't want to write, I would explore some of my favourite stock photos websites and find great images to download to use them in my future posts. The sites that I use the most are PikWizard, Kaboompics, Unsplash and Stock Up. You can read more about this here.

#3 Go through my reading list
This is a way for me to fight my laziness. Going through new posts from the blogs that I followed makes me feel sorry about my blog that I haven't update. I would feel like "gosh, they all have updated their blog and here I am, eating sandwiches while staring at this goddamn computer screen without doing anything" and eventually, I would start writing, just like at this moment when I was typing this post.

#4 Spice up my blog
I think I've mentioned this in one of my posts before, but other than writing, I also enjoy editing my blog. I would find anything to add or change about my blog to improve and make it better. For instance, today, I just added a new CSS for emojis in the comment section! So now, all those boring symbols emoticons have been changed to actual emojis! Check out my past posts' comments or just comment down below with a regular emoticon to see the emojis! You can see the tutorial here. It is as easy as 123!

#5 Plan for my upcoming posts
Sometimes, a few blog post ideas came to my mind, but I just don't have enough energy or desire to start it. Therefore, I would list down all my thoughts in the Notes app on my phone. Not only the main topic, even if I have some subtopics ideas, I would put all of them in a list so that I won't forget anything. Whenever my blogging mood is back, I will definitely refer back to the list.

Hence, these are all the blog-related activities that I do whenever I don't feel like writing a new post. I hope this post had given you some ideas on what to do when you're in this unpleasant mood. I believe that every blogger must have been through this, when you want to blog, but at the same time, you don't want to.

What do you do when you don't want to write?

Just Some Random Talking

I want to update my blog, but I swear I don't feel like writing a regular, niche kind of post. I just want to talk. I always have random thoughts or things that I want to share with you guys, but they're just too random. I've been reading lists of blog post ideas, and none of them suits my writing mood right now. So, let's just do some random talking, shall we?

I have a heap of things I want to talk about, mostly are about my personal life. I mean, updating about what's going on in your life currently isn't wrong right?

#1 Giveaways! - It's been years since the last time I've sponsored giveaways. I love sponsoring giveaways because I don't know how to hold one myself. I did my own giveaway once in 2013 but I still prefer sponsoring. So currently, I'm sponsoring two giveaways by CikPurple and Mellya! Go check them out and don't forget to join, there are lots of interesting prizes to win!
- November Giveaway by CP (ongoing)
- End Year Mini Giveaway by Mellya & Friends (ongoing)

#2 Updated my Tumblr Theme - I was scrolling through my Blogger dashboard, and I got so damn bored. I don't feel like writing or even blogwalking, so I decided to go to my other blog which is on Tumblr! I haven't been on Tumblr for a few months, so I decided to change my template. I searched for minimalist Tumblr templates, and I found one by Zen Themes. It's not that perfect, but I love how simple it is. Check out my Tumblr blog HERE!

#3 Current Favourite Songs - I really want to share these songs with you guys! I'm so addicted to these songs right now that I play this playlist at least 3 times a day! ~~Please~~ listen to them if you're free. These are the songs that have been on my favourite playlist currently;
• When We Were Young - Adele
• Don't Wanna Know - Maroon 5
• 24K Magic - Bruno Mars
• Runnin' - Pharrell
• Starving - Hailee Steinfeld
• Side To Side - Ariana Grande (ft. Nicki Minaj)
• Heathens - Twenty One Pilots

#4 Marvel's Doctor Strange - I was thinking of doing a separate post about this, like a movie review or something. But then I'm just not good at reviewing things ... too bad. So I'll just talk about this film here. Yes, I watched Marvel's Doctor Strange two weeks ago. It was okay, kind of nonsense. I love Marvel Movies so much, and I couldn't even miss one. So far, this is the ridiculous one that I've ever watched after Guardians of the Galaxy. Don't get me wrong; I still enjoyed it! Overall, I gave it 7.5/10. The ratings are 8/10 IMDb, 90% Rotten Tomatoes and 4/5 Common Sense Media.

#5 I still have school? - The SPM is currently ongoing; the other forms get lots of school holidays. The form 4 students only have two days of school per week for this month. Some of my classmates have already started their school holidays. Me? I still go to school. The whole class was just playing. We played Uno Cards, Tumblin' Monkeys and Saidina. I mean, it's not that bad. At least we get to play with our friends and bring our handphones. Maybe staying home is better, but I just feel like going to school. Weird? Probably.

#6 My Final Exam results - Okay, to be honest, I still go to school mainly because I want to get my final exam results. I know, we can obviously check our results online at the SAPS website, but I want to get the papers. I want to study my mistakes and ask teachers about them (and maybe getting extra marks for the correct points that the teachers have accidently missed). Alhamdulillah, I did achieve my target for each subject (except for English because of the Writer's Block I had during the exam, I've talked about it here). So far, I'm satisfied with my results. There are three papers left that we haven't got. So, I guess I'm still going to school next week then?

#7 Going on a vacation! - As I said, I will only have school on Monday and Wednesday every week in this month, so my mom decided to bring me (and my brothers) on holiday! My brothers still have school every weekday, but I don't want to be alone, so my mom agreed to let them join. This holiday is mainly because of my mom who's having lots of meetings and press conferences at hotels lately, so she wants us to company her at the hotel. We're going to Port Dickson and Kuantan! Yayyyy! I'll be back in KL on Sunday.

#8 Craving for sushi - Who doesn't like sushi? I mean, of course, some people don't. For me, sushi is life. I loved sushi so much that I even planned to get a part-time job at Sushi King after SPM next year. I had sushi like only two weeks ago, but I just can't get enough of it! Believe me or not, I even listed all the sushi names that I want to get at Sushi King with the actual prices. Aaahh this is just because of the time of the month I guess, I'm just craving too much!

These are just my random thoughts that I want to share with you guys. I enjoy writing this kind of post! Maybe I should do some kind of series of posts like this? Where I just talk about random things that are happening in life. Would it be interesting?

Do share some random thoughts you have in the comment section down below!

How I Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's Block is a universal struggle that everyone experiences. Not only journalists, bloggers, or novelists, anyone can face this horrible moment. As a blogger, of course, I had lots of Writer's Block moments (every time, tbh) and it's not the best feeling. You know what my worst moment of this condition is? Not as a blogger, but as a student.

A throwback to my final exam, I had Writer's Block during English Paper 1 in Section B, where we have to choose one out of five essay questions and this section has a total of 100 marks. That time, for a moment, I felt so stupid. I can't even think of any ideas for each question, and I was staring at that page for like 20 minutes. I began writing 30 minutes after the exam started. Unfortunately, I didn't get to finish my essay for that section. My script was really short. My English teacher said we have to write at least 2 and a half pages for that section and I only got to finish one full page.

After that paper, I was sooooo frustrated. I wanted to cry as I know how many marks I'm going to lose out of that 100 freaking marks. I felt so down and kind of lost my spirit for the next paper. Thank God I have my friends who calmed me down by convincing me to think positive. Alhamdulillah, English Paper 2 was all right. We haven't got our English marks for the final exam yet. From that moment until now, I'm still scared. Usually, I would worry about my Science subjects scores the most, but not this time. Overall, that was the worst Writer's Block I've ever had.

Okay so, back to the topic. I get Writer's Block every time I'm writing a blog post, I swear. I usually start writing a post at like 4 pm and finished the whole thing at about 9pm. I can't write an entire post straight at one time because of Writer's Block. I will take some breaks between that 5 hours. I do things to overcome this situation. How?

1. Read Other Blogs
Whenever I don't know what to write, I would do some blogwalk to get inspirations from other blogs. It's not like you're copying other people's work, you'll just get some ideas to continue and improve yours. Reading can improve your vocabulary. So, whenever you don't know how to continue your sentences, reading other blogs and learning new words should solve the problem.

2. Watch YouTube Videos
Other than reading, I also do some listening by watching YouTube videos! You know, being a blogger and a YouTuber can be the same sometimes. Bloggers express their words through typing on the keyboard and Youtubers express theirs through talking in front of the camera. Watching videos on YouTube can improve your vocabulary too, it will also give you some ideas to write.

3. Play with My Cats
I know this is weird, but it works for me. You can't write in an unstable mood, right? Whenever I start to feel bored or disinterested, I would get off my chair and play with my cats for a while. My cats are one of my main source of happiness. Just by seeing and hugging them really boost up my mood every time. You need a good mood to write a good content. So, do something that makes you happy!

4. Go on Buzzfeed
BuzzFeed is an online media company delivering news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people around the world. The point here is similar to number 1, it's about reading. Buzzfeed is more to reading news and stories from around the world. They also have fun quizzes and videos you can do and watch! This will not only improve your language, but also cheer up your mood.

5. Take a nap
Getting some rest is important. Have you ever got to those times when you feel so tired and sleepy when you're writing a blog post? Whenever I start to feel it, I would just jump on my bed and get a good 30-minute nap. Your brain needs some rest to work well. So, take a short nap and believe me, you'll feel much fresher and energised to continue your writing!

These are some of the ways on how I beat Writer's Block. I hope these things would give you some tips and tricks whenever you get to this dreadful situation. Let us all bury this plight and write our heart out for our readers! Oh and about my cats and Youtubers that I watch, I will do some other posts about them soon!

What are your ways to overcome Writer's Block? Share them in the comment section down below!

P.s; I had Writer's Block when I was writing this post. *irony*

10 Free Stock Photos Websites

I use lots of stock photos on my blog. If you read this page, I did mention top 3 websites where I get stock photos from. I got them from lots of sites, and I would like to share them with you guys!

Using stock photos is a great way to spice up your blog. The stock photos from these websites are free to download. A few of these websites require you to sign up. Don't worry, they are easy to use and download!

StockSnap.io • PikWizard • Unsplash • MMT • Pexels • Stock Up • iStock • PicJumbo • Pixabay • Makerbook

How do I use them?
There is a search bar on most of these websites. If I want to find pictures for my blog post, I will search something linked to it. For example, this post. This post is related to photos and images, right? So, I will search something like 'camera' or 'photography'. I'll choose one or two and download them. Then, I'll add them to my blog post! If the website does not have any search bar, there are tags where you can look up to.

+ Please read the license of each website before using the photos!

There are lots of other stock photos websites out there, and these are just my top 10. I hope this post would be useful for you guys! Do check these sites out, their photos are phenomenal!

New Month, New Look!

It's November! I'm so happy yet so nervous. My mom's birthday is in 2 days. I have lots of plans for the upcoming school holiday; I'll be making a separate post about that. I'm also going to be moving house soon! I'm so excited to have my own, self-decorated room finally.

Then why am I nervous? I'm still waiting for my final exam results, and I'm seriously going to be a senior next year. Time just flies so damn fast, and I can't believe 2016 is ending in 2 months from now.

Whatever it is, happy new month!

And, for my blog ... as you guys can see, I changed my template! Yay!

I've been looking and surveying templates on Etsy for a while. There are lots of beautiful templates and I want to buy one, but my mom won't let me spend money just for my blog. So, I decided to join Erin Azmir's template giveaway and alhamdulillah, I won!

My previous template was Rosemary by ThemeXpose. I used it for not even a month until I switched to this one. This is the Brooklyn Blogger Template by SandyTheme. It's a pre-made responsive template and very easy to edit, way easier than free versions of the responsive template.

I'm not done editing yet; there are still a few changes I need to make. Overall, I'm so happy and excited! Having a new template makes me want to blog even more. I can't wait to blog my heart out during this school holiday! Huge thanks to Erin for giving away this template :)

By the way, I'll be having a short vacation with my friends today. Just for two days and one night. I will update about our trip as soon as I got home tomorrow, insya'Allah.

Every new month is like a fresh piece of paper, and only you decide what will be written on it. Wishing you all the best!

How Did I Start Blogging?

Every blogger must have their story on how did the start blogging. Today, I feel like sharing with you guys on how did I start my blogging journey. It's been a while since I had this blog, and I would love to share this story.

How? My friend, Ameera started a blog first. I love reading her blog, so I decided to create one for myself, and here it is. I started this blog in 2012 when I was 12. Yeap, four years ago. It wasn't that great; I can barely remember how it looked like. But I still remember my first header that I made using Photoshop. It was hideous and colourful, and I even got my face on it.

I was so active until I started high school. I was still active when I was in Form 1(2013), but then I stopped for a year and a half. I came back in 2015, deleted all my posts, changed my template, URL, and others. I changed everything. I restarted my blog. As you can see from my Archive widget, my posts only start from 2015 because I deleted all my old, funny posts from 2012 until 2013. Then, I stopped again for half a year as my Form 4 life was quite hard and busy. Then, again, I came back. And now here I am, writing this post for you guys.

I edit my blog a lot. I follow lots of tutorials, especially the tutorials by Lyssa. I've used blogskins, I learned reading and editing codes just by blogging. Then, I switch back to denim template because blogskins are hard to edit as it is 100% coding. And now, I'm using a free responsive template. It is still hard to edit and requires code editing, but it's not as hard as blogskins. I want to buy a template, but I'm not sure if my mom would let me. I'm currently joining a template giveaway by Erin Azmir, Click here if you want to join!

My first ever URL was my name, http://liyanajasmi.blogspot.com and I love it. Then, I don't know why, but I changed it. My second URL was http://stxr-light.blogspot.com. This was my Tumblr URL, so I decided to use it for my blog too. I love my first URL, but I swear I don't know why I changed it. I want it back, but sadly someone else took it. Moving on to my third URL which was http://leeyawner.blogspot.com, this is my previous one. This is my name in my friend's way of spelling. I know it sounds weird. My friend spelt my name like that once before, and I kind of liked it. I thought it would be great as a blog URL so I changed to it. Then here comes my current URL which is http://liyanajay.blogspot.com. Jay is my dad, Jasmi bin Ali bin Yaakub. I wanted to change back to liyanajasmi, but as I said, it is taken.

I've always wanted to have my own domain. I will try to get one, soon. I'm not sure when but maybe after SPM? And maybe my own laptop too, so I can blog anytime and anywhere.

I've always loved blogging, especially when it comes to editing the blog. I can stay up until 5 am editing my blog without feeling tired. I wish I have more time for my blog. I will try to be more active from now on. I already have a list of post ideas, and I just don't have much time and of course, Writer's Block. Don't worry; I will try my best to be more active. Maybe at least one post every week. Yayyy!

So, that is that about my blogging life. Oh, and by the way, I still have one week of exams, six papers left. Gosh, I really can't wait for it to be over. I miss eating Maggi so much!

Thank you for reading, do leave your words down there. Have a beautiful day! xx

Changing, Soon.

Hello, it's me. I have been gone for a few months, sorry.

My blog is currently a mess right now, I know. Especially the sidebar widgets. There's a reason why.

Just want to say that I'm currently in the process of editing a new template. I will change everything again. Including my URL. I might also delete all my posts, not sure about that yet.

It's my exam week, final exam. And here I am, blogging. I love editing my blog; I swear it's just so addicting. I really should stop for a while.

Whatever it is, I will be back as soon as my finals are over. I will change and start everything over again. I still love blogging, and it's been almost five years now, and I want to keep up with this blog.

Insya'Allah, I'll be back in November. Can't wait to start blogging again!

Wish me a stroke of luck for my finals. Insya'Allah. Thank you so much!

See all of you soon!

New Chapter

Yow people, I'm back! Eh, siapa ni? Well, I'm Liyana Jasmi. You might know me as Yana. Ehh, Yana mana pulak ni? Blog mana ni? Adoi, takpa lah. Let me tell you the story.

This blog looks kinda new, isn't it? Actually, it's not. Blog ni dah wujud since 2012, masa tu Yana darjah 6. I was a blogger since 3 years ago. Yana active gila blogging masa 2 tahun setengah yang pertama, lepastu Yana stop jap. Dah masuk sekolah menengah mula lah busy samapi berhabuk blog ni tak di-update.

Tapi asal blog ni macam baru je? Lepas dah lama Yana tinggalkan blog ni, tahun ni Yana on balik. Rindu pulak. Bila baca entri-entri lama, lawak betul. Semua entri zaman sekolah rendah. So, Yana decided nak renew balik blog ni. Yana delete semua entri lama, tukar template, tukar URL blog, dan lain-lain. Lama jugak edit balik blog ni, tiga empat hari baru siap. Nasib baik PT3 dah habis and cuti lama sebab jerebu. Hehehehehe. Yana pernah ada Facebook page, tapi dah delete. Dulu, blog ni sebenarnya http://liyanajasmi.blogspot.com. Sebab tu nampak macam blog baru, padahal lama dah.

'Leeyawner' tu amenda? I have no idea. Ada member pernah panggil Yana nama ni. Dia kata ni nama Liyana version Korea punya. Member lagi satu pulak kata version Chinese. HAHAHAHAHAH entah la, but I kinda like it. That's why I used it as my blog title.

Habis. Haaaa ni sekadar intro serba ringkas pasal blog baru ni. Memang nampak kosong, but don't worry. Yana akan keep on update, insya'Allah. Lama-lama banyak lah post ya.

Okay, that's that. Thank you for reading my first 2015 post. I'll update more soon. Bye!