Zoe's Musings

Hi everyone! Today I thought that I would show you the equipment that I use to do my blogging!

The camera I use is the Nikon D3200. I was lucky enough to be given it for my birthday last year, and it's definitely a big reason as to why I picked up blogging again. As every other blogger will tell you, you don't need a fancy camera or fancy equipment to blog, and you certainly don't need a big DSLR with fancy lenses, however I wasn't happy with the quality of my photos when I was just using my phone, as they often turned out grainy & were darker than I wanted them to be.

I use the stock lens with my Nikon, which is the 18-55mm lens. This does well for close up shots, and I don't need anything too fancy for taking my blog photos.

I write my blog posts & upload all my photos to my laptop, which is the Apple Macbook Pro (the one with the CD drive). I love my laptop, I'm definitely an apple girl, whenever I use Windows I struggle because of how different the software is :P



I edit my photos using a combination of Ribbet and iPhoto. I start off with them in iPhoto, brightening, cropping etc, and then if I'm putting text overtop I upload it to Ribbet and put in any text or effects there.

To organise my blog posts & plan ahead I use iProcrastinate, which is a free app in the app store for my macbook.


It's like a regular calendar but better, because you can include all the steps that you need to complete for it to be finished, and you can check things off once you've done them. You can also see all the tasks for a particular subject, which helps you check them off like a to-do list.

It helps me to plan ahead and to keep track of all the blogging tasks I have. You could also use it for planning out emails, deadlines, advertisements etc.

And that's what I do! I don't use professional lighting or anything, I'm not a pro blogger, but this is what I use to keep up my blog.

Hope this was helpful,
Zoe

This week's song of the week is When I Find Love Again by James Blunt.



This song is so uplifting, and it always puts a smile on my face when I hear it :) It was a song I was loving last week, and it's continued to make me happy this week so I felt it deserved to be featured.

It's been out for a little while now, and is only just starting to pick up speed. I really like James Blunt, and this is yet another great song from him.

Other songs I've been loving this week: 

Hi everyone!

If you don't already know, I'm in my first semester of university. I've been super busy revising recently, and thought I'd share my study tips with you all.

1. Find a study style that suits you 

2. Organise your notes as you take them!

3. Establish a routine

5. Set goals

7. Have a study playlist

So I went into boots today, and picked up a few things to try from the Collection counter, because I was curious about some of the products.

They had a deal on where if you spend £5 you got a free mascara, so I picked up the Work The Colour eyeshadow pencil in the shade Vintage Blush, which is a really pretty champagne/peach colour. I also got a Lasting Colour lipstick in Sweet Tart. The packaging of the lipstick is a bit cheap looking, but that's to be expected with the price.



It smells and tastes really nice, fruity, and it applies really easily! It isn't that moisturising, but it's not too drying either. And I love the colour too!

I then received the Supersize Fat Lash mascara in Ultra Black for free, which was cool! I'm always looking out for new mascaras! The mascara has quite a large brush, which might be interesting and unwieldy, but we'll see.

I'll let you know who I get on with the mascara & eyeshadow as I use them more!

Zoe xxx

(Source)

Autumn is well and truly setting in now, as much as I would rather the summer would stay around just a bit longer. I have exactly 3 weeks until I have to move to university, away from my family, and I'm terrified.

I'm not scared about the moving as such, although that'll be weird. I'm only going to be a couple of hours away from my family, so I'm not too worried about it. I hope everyone I'm sharing a flat with are nice, the ones I've spoken to so far have all seemed to be kind, and really helpful, so that's good.
I'm more worried about my classes. I have to take classes in chemistry and maths, and I'm awful at both of them. I don't know why my uni took me on, because I didn't get good results in my chemistry or maths, but I'm going to have to work extra hard at them to try and catch up.  I see lots of time spent in the library in my future.

I've only got 4 shifts left at my job, and as much as it's work and I get tired of it from time to time, with difficult customers, I really do enjoy it, and I'll miss the people I work with. I've gained so much from the few short months I've worked there, I feel like I've grown up and gained so much confidence from it.

Other than that not much has happened in my life. I'm beginning to get stuff ready for uni, and I'm super nervous!

Hope everyone's had a good week! :D

Zoe xxx