Closet Makeover & DIY Alcove Seating

I had the idea to turn my closet into a little alcove seating area in addition to the closet as I wanted somewhere cosy to read. I have quite a small room (box room), so any extra space is amazing.

This is what my closet started out as (picture below). It was an absolute mess. I had a lot of clothes all smushed together, I had a bag hanger on the door which made it look even messier and even in between the clothes you can see a computer monitor.

What you want to do first is empty your closet completely, I even unscrewed the clothes rail because I wanted to put it further back and higher up since my closet is very deep. This is when your organise your stuff as well, I sorted through my clothes and decided what I wanted to keep or donate. Then I sorted through my stuff as well and put them in some under the bed storage solutions.

This is an optional step but I filled in the holes in the wall and then painted the closet. I used a duck egg blue for the walls, which needed two coats. Then I used a white paint for the skirting boards and floor, I didn't really need to paint the floor because you're not going to see it, I just wanted to.

Once you've cleaned and painted the inside it's time to start organising your clothes. I have a four drawer organiser which I just use to put stuff I don't have anywhere else for, they're all kind of messy but it works for me. I then hung longer dresses and tops on the left hand side so they can drop down and shorter tops on the right hand side. The box in there with the pink lid is where I keep all of my hoodies. This isn't all of my clothes, I do have a set of drawers in my room it's just what I choose to hang. One thing I did that you don't see in this picture is I have a small tote bag which I hung on a hook on the left hand side in the empty space.

Once I did all of this my main plan for the closet was to turn the front into a little seat (kind of like a window seat without the window). So I bought a tension rod and a little curtain and hung that up. I then bought this little light which is battery operated from Amazon and hung that up in there, since there was no lights and I had planned on reading in there. I also took the door off of the hinges and stored that in my attic. Then what you can't see in this picture is that I bought some seat padding and some fabric (not my favourite fabric but I'm planning to replace it soon) and just made a little cushion to sit on.

Then this is the final result. When I want my clothes I just push back the curtain and take them out, but I manage to keep everything organised and it's a cozy little nook to read in. 

Hope you liked this DIY, let me know if you try it too :) 

My DVD Collection, Libib and my favourite songs.

Hello everyone, so today I'll be showing you my DVD collection, I've been collecting DVDs since I was about 10, I don't have a big collection despite collecting them for 7 years but I try to never pay full price, so I will go to CEX or Cash Generator and instead pay at most £3 for a DVD. I have the first four seasons of friends and I paid roughly £1.50 for each season because as anyone knows collecting can be an expensive habit, so I try to keep the cost down as much as possible. Now onto my DVD Collection. I organise my DVDs alphabetically instead of just by however I want like I do with my books because its a lot easier to find. You will also see a little cardboard thing and I made that (out of cereal boxes) so when there are DVDs in front (Like on the first shelf) you can still see the ones at the back, eventually I want to make a little wood platform for a bit more stability since you can see the middle of it is sinking in a bit.

Also I'm not going to list all thee DVDs like I did with the books so instead I'm going to link you to my Libib library. (Not sponsored by Libib I just find it useful) Libib is a free phone app where you scan the barcode of DVDs, Books etc. and then it creates a library of what you have, I find this really helpful when I am looking for new DVDs, if I have it already I just take out my phone and check to make sure. I also keep a book library on Libib as well so if you want to check out all of my books, including the ones not on my personal bookshelf then you can. Just click here to check out my little DVD and Book library.

Now onto music, this is just going to be a list of my top 10 current favourites in no particular order because I honestly cannot choose a top favourite.

• All My Mistakes, Keywest (Okay so this is an Irish band and they were in Birmingham city centre doing some songs and that's where I purchased the albums and I just cannot get them out of my head, I love this song so much)
• Immortals, Fall Out Boy (I love Big Hero 6 and immediately fell in love with this song when I heard it, Its also really great to run to)
• Mr Brightside, The Killers 
• Say It, Just Say It, The Mowglis
• No Story Time, Small Pools
• Tongue Tied, Group Love
• Stressed out, Twenty One Pilots
• House of Gold, Twenty One Pilots
• Gasolina, Daddy Yankee (so I know very little Spanish but I just love the rhythm of this song and again its really awesome to run to)
• He Mele No Lilo (This is from Lilo and Stitch, I was watching it with my little cousin and after not watching it for a few years I forgot how much I loved this song, its sung entirely in Hawaiian and I searched the translation and its just such a nice song in words and rhythm and I can't get over how much I love it)

My Bookcase

Before I start, I'd like to tell you guys that I am doing a new posting schedule, once a week on Thursdays, when I get my sixth form time table that might change depending on the amount of classes I have on Thursday but I'll make sure to tell you if I change it.

This is my bookcase, these aren't all the books I own just the ones that don't fit on the big bookcase downstairs, which is the families bookcase but in reality just mine and my moms.

Its kind of random but makes sense to me, the top shelf is kind of done in height order, and is where any classic book I have goes (even though its not all classics. From left to right its:

• Bad Girls Don't Die trilogy by Katie Alender, (Read my reviews here -> 1, 2, 3)
• The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (yet to read),
• The Duff by Kody Keplinger (yet to read),
• A witch in winter and A witch in love (yet to read the second one) (both signed) by Ruth Warburton,
• Maximum Ride by James Patterson (yet to read),
• Percy Jackson and The lightning thief (Read some but gave up),
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
• The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald by Susan Hill
• The Woman in Black
• Fantastic Beasts and where to find them and The tales of beedle and the bard by JK Rowling
• 1984 by George Orwell

I also keep a little block up there to hold the books back and like the other shelves a little candle. These bookmarks are also kept up there, 

The first bookmark is from Waterstones and it was free, its a Game of Thrones one (even though I haven't read or watched it). 

The second one is one I made and is a quote from The Fault in Our Stars.

The second bookshelf is mainly where I keep contemporary books. The shelf is decorated with a photo album and the same candle from the top shelf. It also has a really simple book end my Mom gave me. From left to right again its:

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green,
• Paper Towns by John Green,
• Looking for Alaska by John Green (yet to read),
• Will Grayson Will Grayson by John Green (yet to read),
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (you can read my review for this here),
• The Dark Heroine by Abigail Gibbs (Yet to read),
• I Coriander by Sally Gardner (yet to read),
• Vendetta by Catherine Doyle (yet to read),
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (yet to read),
• Dorothy must Die and The wicked will rise (Got half way through the first one and lost interest but will try to read again),
• Wolf by wolf by Ryan Graudin (read my review here).

The third and final bookshelf is my dystopian book series. On this shelf I have the same candle and bookend and I have a little minion my brother won for me out of a claw machine. From left to right its:

• Divergent book series by Veronica Roth - I tried to read the first one but I kept getting side tracked and then I lost interest which is really disappointing because I won't watch the movies until I finish reading them. Also if you want to buy a book series I suggest you buy them all together because it works out cheaper, I got all 4 of these online for less than £15 and if I had bought them all separately it would have been over £30.
• The Maze Runner series by James Dashner - I have yet to read this but again I got all 4 for £10 in the works and in waterstones they're £6 each or £24 for 3 of them so I really suggest shopping around for books as they can get really expensive.
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
• The Lunar Chronicles: Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

So that is all of my books on my bookcase in my room, the reason I have such a small bookcase is because I have a teeny tiny bedroom and no where to put it, so it sits on top of my dresser nicely. If you want me to do a review for any of these books or any other, let me know in the comments, or if you've read any of these tell me what you thought of them :)

Learning Japanese

Firstly I would like to apologise for not updating the past week, I've been in a writing funk where I didn't want to write a book review, I was considering writing a movie review for Independence Day: Resurgence which I might still do anyway and then decided on telling you how I'm currently learning Japanese.

Learning a new language is difficult, especially when you have to learn a new writing system but I still decided to learn Japanese. I'm still a beginner so this is more a "How to get started" guide. I started off by downloading a few apps, I wont mention those apps because they weren't that helpful. I use an app called SpeakEasy on my iPhone which just has basic phrases and I mainly use it for pronunciation, I also use an app called HIRAGANA which lets you trace out the hiragana in correct stroke order but it's completely different than actually writing the hiragana on paper.

I would mainly suggest going to a Japanese class if you can because self teaching is really, really hard. I haven't made much progress, mainly because I'm not practising everyday which I will start to do because it's really important if you want to improve. Unfortunately for me my college (sixth form) doesn't offer Japanese classes and the language centre near me won't kick classes back up till September which I am seriously thinking about going to.

Buy books! Books are great for learning, if you have a small budget them Amazon sells used books for cheap and you could find them in clearance as well, I have two books that I've bought, one I completely regret wasting my money and the other is just the best for learning Hiragana and Katakana.

 So these are the two books I bought. I'm going to talk about the first one that you see, Japanese in 30 days, before anyone asks I didn't think I would learn the full language in 30 days I just thought it would help me with the alphabets and pronunciation as it came with two CDs. Did it teach me anything I hadn't already learned off an app? No, it didn't. You write in Romaji for the first 27 days! You don't even look at Hiragana until Day 28! It was ridiculous, you have no idea how upset I was that I wasted £15 on this book. Although I can say if you are going to Japan for a while and you just want to know enough to have conversation and you don't really care about reading or writing then I'm sure this book would be perfect for you. However if you want to learn the language, avoid this book, especially because of the amount of Romaji they use. I'm constantly told to keep away from Romaji and because I actually have a grasp on Hiragana now I completely understand why I'm told that.

The second book now, Hiragana and Katakana is amazing, I'm still working my way through the hiragana and from one day of using this book I was able to write the first ten characters of Hiragana without referencing to the book. It's honestly such a good book, I picked it up from waterstones for £10 and it was by far the best decision I've made. It doesn't just teach you how to write the alphabet it also teaches you some words and how to write them in Hiragana and Katakana, it also gives you a little history on the language at the beginning so if you are just a beginner I really suggest this book.


Next, lets talk about this app. HiNative! This app lets you speak to native speakers of a language and ask them questions, you can record your voice speaking that language and ask if your pronunciation is correct. Or write in that language and ask if your sentence is grammatically correct. You can just ask anything as well. I use the app mainly for asking questions about my speaking and writing capabilities and I like to help out people who are learning English as well by answering their questions. It's not just for Japanese and English, its for a lot of different languages, I know Spanish is one and I think Korean is too, so if you're not learning Japanese and are learning another language I'd suggest going on the app and seeing if they do your language because it really is so helpful. Everyone on there is really nice and they tell you where you're going wrong or if you sound great or if your writing is perfect. I'm going to insert a picture below of what the layout is.

Another thing I'd suggest for learning Japanese is listening to Japanese music and watching Japanese shows or movies. Also there are Japanese youtubers or youtubers who live in Japan and although they don't really "teach" Japanese they do speak it so you can pick up words from them that you might not get from reading a textbook. I particularly like watching on youtube "Texan in Tokyo" they're a married couple and they live in the Japanese countryside and whenever they speak Japanese in a video they always have subtitles, I was watching one of their videos and learnt that もも (momo) means thigh and peaches, which I would not have learned in a book. So don't underestimate what you can learn from watching someone speak Japanese because you don't need to just stick to a textbook.

 So this is just what I use and are just suggestions and my opinions, none of this is sponsored, so what I'm saying is just genuinely what I think of these "products". These are what have helped me and what haven't helped me. All of the apps on here are free to download, so if you are learning Japanese I really would suggest giving them a go, like I said they have helped me at the very least a tiny amount. If any of you have suggestions for me for learning Japanese, please tell me in the comments section and I'll have a look because I am still a beginner so it's nice to look at new approaches and ways that might accelerate my learning. Thanks for reading :)

Brownie in a Mug Recipe.

So I do realise that these are everywhere on the internet but I searched through tons of recipes and not really liking any so I kind of invented my own so if you try it out I hope you like it.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons of flour,
• 2 Tablespoons of Sugar,
• 2 Tablespoons of instant hot chocolate (I prefer Cadbury but any works fine),
• 1 Tablespoon of Cocoa powder,
• 3 Tablespoons of water,
• 3 Tablespoons of melted butter (you could use oil as well, I just prefer butter. You could also use less or more, typically I just melt two tablespoons of butter and however much is melted - as long as its not over 3 Tablespoons - I will use)

So before I tell you the method I'm going to explain why I use instant hot chocolate instead of just cocoa powder. I like my brownies sweet and the cocoa powder makes it really bitter which I don't like, I could just use more sugar to counter that but I don't want to add too much sugar. If you do like your brownies bitter you could just use 3 Tablespoons of Cocoa powder instead. You could also add extra ingredients like nuts or chocolate chips or vanilla extract, honestly its to your preference, whatever you like you can put in, this recipe is just what I particularly like but everyone is different :)

Method

1. First put all of the dry ingredients into a mug (after measuring them) and mix them together,
   
2. Melt your butter (if using oil obviously skip this step),
3. Add in the water and butter/oil and mix until you get this consistency,
   
4. Put in the microwave for 1 minute (depending on your microwave power you might need less or more time, this picture is how I enjoy the texture of the brownie but you could leave it in longer to make it more crumbly or less to make it more moist), 
   
5. Finally, enjoy your brownie :) 

Book Review: Wolf by Wolf, By Ryan Graudin

Author: Ryan Graudin

Language: English

Her story begins on a train.

The year is 1956, and the Axis powers of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan rule. To commemorate their Great Victory, Hitler and Emperor Hirohito host the Axis Tour: an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents. The victor is awarded an audience with the highly reclusive Adolf Hitler at the Victor’s Ball in Tokyo.

Yael, a former death camp prisoner, has witnessed too much suffering, and the five wolves tattooed on her arm are a constant reminder of the loved ones she lost. The resistance has given Yael one goal: Win the race and kill Hitler. A survivor of painful human experimentation, Yael has the power to skinshift and must complete her mission by impersonating last year’s only female racer, Adele Wolfe. This deception becomes more difficult when Felix, Adele twin’s brother, and Luka, her former love interest, enter the race and watch Yael’s every move.

But as Yael grows closer to the other competitors, can she bring herself to be as ruthless as she needs to be to avoid discovery and complete her mission?

This will contain spoilers so read at your own risk.

This book was recommended by a youtuber (booktuber), unfortunately I cannot remember which youtuber recommended it. As soon as she described it however I wanted to read it. The book is essentially an alternate universe where the allies lost the war and Germany won. Its in the perspective of a young girl who escapes from a concentration camp after being experimented on and gaining a new genetic trait (really don't know what to call it). I have previously learnt about Germany during the war and Nazis reign, in fact I just finished my As History exam this year which was about Germany, so I have learnt about it previously and as soon as you open the book you see the authors factual knowledge which is refreshing. I think Graudin really managed to capture what victims of the concentration camp went through which is important when writing a book which includes knowledge of WWII. 

As soon as I picked up the book I was enamoured with it, it's fast paced and really demands your attention which explains how I finished it in a couple of hours without putting it down for longer then five minutes. I particularly enjoy how Graudin separated the past and the present for Yael, by going from one to the other instead of having a few chapters at the beginning explaining her past and then going on to the present. It breaks the action up a bit and gives you a good look at Yael's past without overloading you with information.

I enjoyed how Yael took on Adele's persona without letting go of her goal. It shows how hardened she has become from the war and how she knows her mission and she isn't being sidetracked from a different life she could have if she just took over Adele's life. Something that did disappoint me though is how we never got to look at how the real Adele was adjusting which is understandable considering it was in first person but it was slightly disappointing. I was also incredibly frustrated with the end, how did Hitler not die? Also if the shape-shifter was taking his face, how long was he doing it for? Is the real Hitler even alive at all? So many unanswered questions! There is a sequel but I have to wait until November for that. There is also another book called Iron to Iron, which details the previous years race and focus on Luka's experience with the real Adele which sounds interesting but I do want to read the sequel before I read the prequel. 

Back to the book, I believe Graudin really created a realistic version of a world that could have occurred if Hitler had lost the war. With Germany managing to take over Great Britain to America remaining isolationists and turning a blind eye which America actually did until a certain point in WWII. I commend Graudin for keeping to the majority of the facts since as an author of fiction she could have easily bent them to meet her needs.

The race as a whole was riveting, I couldn't put the book down and the introduction of Felix to the race was nice, you can see he is a concerned older brother and how much family means to him which was refreshing. I also enjoyed how Luka was, don't get me wrong I don't appreciate him sedating Yael to win the race but I do appreciate how his character was both trustworthy but had a hint of deception around him and while I don't particularly encourage smoking I like that he does, its a small hint of a rebel in him that I appreciate. 

All the sabotaging also made so much sense, anything to win. For the German competitors it meant favour of their fuhrer and for the Japanese it meant honour which definitely fit what we associate with those countries citizens during the war, we still typically associate honour with the Japanese now, so I felt like it was a nice touch. 

Overall I enjoyed the book despite being frustrated with all of the unanswered questions but I suppose that's what the second book is for however that still leads me to scoring the book 4/5. I just felt the end of the book was slightly rushed with what happened which I can completely understand given that the sequel was obviously planned so a cliff hanger was needed but I do appreciate how Graudin gives us a hint at how the rebellion is rising, instead of just leaving it where Yael killed the fake Hitler.

Also if anyone has any suggestions for books that they want a review of, feel free to comment and I might end up reading it and writing a review, thank you. 

4/5

Book Review: As Dead As It Gets, By Katie Alender

Author: Katie Alender

Language: English

Publisher: Hyperion

It's been three months since Alexis helplessly witnessed Lydia Small's violent death, and all she wants is for her life to return to normal. 
But normal people don't see decaying bodies haunting photographs. Normal people don't have to deal with regular intrusions from Lydia's angry ghost, sometimes escalating to terrifying attacks.

At first, it seems that Lydia wants revenge on Alexis alone. But a girl from school disappears one night, and Alexis spots one of Lydia's signature yellow roses lying on the girl's dresser the next day. Soon, it becomes clear that several of Alexis's friends are in danger, and that she's the only person who can save them. But as she tries to intervene, Alexis realizes that her enemy is a much more powerful ghost than she's ever faced before... and that its fate is tied to hers in ways she couldn't possibly imagine.

Not even in her worst nightmares.

So I read this book in less than 3 hours and it is by far my favourite in the trilogy! (CONTAINS SPOLERS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK). Also before I start the review can I just say how much I love the book covers for this series? I feel like they are so beautiful and really fit with the theme of the books, they look scary but at the same time so pretty and delicate which I really do appreciate. 

I love how at the beginning it kind of seems as if Alexis is the exact same way she was in the first book, at least the no friends part.

I also really appreciated her new "power". I find it incredibly she can see ghosts now.

Now if we look at her sister Kasey, I have to say she seems like an entirely new person; Popular, outgoing, has a boyfriend etc. the list could go on.

And lets talk about Jared for a second. I really hate him, I hated him as soon as he started to become controlling. I am glad he died. I don't say that often, yes he was going through a traumatic ordeal with his ex-girlfriend's death but I'm glad he died. I mean for crying out loud he drugged Alexis. I also felt like he needed to die, not just because of my hatred for him but the fact that there was no way he was getting over Laina's death, except maybe going to a lot of therapy sessions. As we see in this book there is something after death so we know he goes somewhere. Hopefully he can go and be with Laina wherever she may be and he can become a little more sane. But there is no love lost for his character dying.

Carter definitely improved from the last book, maybe its because he has seen what he had lost when he and Alexis broke up (or he realised how crazy Zoe was). But he definitely proved himself to me in this book.

Elliot, oh how I love Elliot, why did she have to die? Katie why did you do this to me? I really did love her, she was just an amazing character. She was strong, she was kind but only to those who earned her kindness and overall I just thought she was real. She was flawed obviously which was proved when she refused to have a spread for a dead girl in the yearbook until she got what she wanted. Which just added to her character and she became that friend that Alexis needed. 

Lydia, can we just recognise that she did not be what I thought she would be. Yes at the start of the book she was annoying and blamed Alexis for her death constantly but she really grew as a character despite being dead. She became something so much more than the girl we saw in the first two books and I can't help but acknowledge how amazing she became.

Finally Miss Hasan. I hate her, I hate her so much. I realise its her job to make sure Alexis isn't messing with ghosts but pumping the girl with drugs because she thought she was slightly crazy, no, at least get a real doctor to diagnose her as crazy first. 

Overall I gave this book a 5/5 because to me it was the best book. It was also the scariest, whilst I won't be having nightmares from it, it did make me see the series as deserving as its title of a horror.

5/5