Girl Online Review! *SPOILER ALERT*

Hey! I'm back again after project after presentation. It's Valentine's Day as I'm writing this. (side note: I was prematurely born, and I was brought home on Valentine's Day. My mum wanted to nickname me Valentine!) At home like it's a regular Saturday, I'm sharing my thoughts about one of my favourite books at the moment - Girl Online written by the lovely Zoe Sugg!

When I realised Zoe was writing a book, I was sad because I thought it wouldn't be in the book stores in my country. I read the first chapter on Louise's (sprinkleofglitter) Facebook and got so interested in the story. The next time I went to the book store, I saw Girl Online sitting on a book shelf alone on the "New Arrivals" rack. I didn't hesitate and picked it up immediately. 

Noah said: " Art was supposed to make you feel something."  This book probably was a magnificent piece of art,it made me feel so many things!
1. It made me feel confidence, that I could actually do it. It was something that sparked suddenly when I was reading that book, and for that I am grateful.

2. It made me feel acceptance. It was okay to be anxious. I do not suffer from panic attacks of any sort but I do get anxious before presentations and it was a huge obstacle to my confidence. Accept what you are feeling, that it is normal. But do not let them bring you down. You must find a way to overcome them. You can do it!

3. I loved the way Penny's blog was written in such a chatty way. She also chose to write it annoymously which was a concept that crossed my mind when I was contemplating to start a blog. In the end, I chose not to as I wanted to interact and post about my travels or discoveries. I would follow Penny's blog in a jiffy if it was real!

4. Near to the end, the major twist made me grip to my book, however I was hoping for more story development on the part where it was actually a scam if that makes any sense? I thought it escalated rather quickly and would've needed a little more elaboration.

5. I really connected with Penny's major breakdown. I absolutely felt a connection when I read about Penny's major reveal. The emotions she felt were once mine and it's amazing that I surpassed them! If you're feeling low at the moment know that things will pass and one day you'll wake up feeling not so sad anymore. This is the perfect segway to announce that I will be writing a positivity series after my exams so you can keep an eye out for it!

Overall, this book emitted a warm, cozy vibe that is a suitable book to curl up with at the end of the day with a cup of tea. Warning: Laughs, blushes and possibly tears may erupt while reading this book! Fortunately, I did not mind the fact that it was ghost written in some parts, I enjoyed the story nonetheless. 

I really wanted to write a detailed review but my restricted vocabulary does not allow me to do so. I hope you enjoyed my first book review. Read up bookworms! I hope happy days come your way :)

Girl Online, going off
Ness. :)

New Year's Adventure

Hello! Happy New Year! I went to a little adventure on the first day of 2015, here are some photos.

I went to visit a cave but before that I had to climb over 200 super steep steps to each the cave. Some people walk up barefoot which was really brave of them.

Feeling fatigue and short of breath, I made it! 

*angelic choir music plays*

At the end of the cave you get to see this.

After visiting the cave, I went to visit an Orchid garden. Cue the many macro shots of orchids!

I wanted to go see fireflies at night but sadly it rained :( Did you guys do anything special during the holidays? Let me know in the comments below!

Ness :)

New Year's Resolutions : 2015

The new year is coming in less than 50 hours, so let's talk about new year's resolutions. Or more specifically, what my goals are for the next 365 days.

1. Care less of what people think of me
This is such an important thing it is the first thing on this list. As you know from that few lines of first blog post I crashed hard this year. Next year, I'm planning to be a prefect in my school. I find it weird and anxious making the switch for some reason. I counted all the bad possibilities of my future, all the cons of being a prefect, all the struggles of being a prefect untill my stomach churned. I have no idea why it's such a big deal, but it is. I need to stop caring about what people think of me and just do it. More often than not, people are too busy worrying about themselves.

2. Focus
I am the type of person that tries anything and everything to find out what I'm good at. 
Sports-wise: Swimming, running, badminton, squash, basketball and volleyball. 
Hobby-wise: Illustrating, drawing typography, photography and writing.
I end up knowing a lot of stuff but I am not out standing on any one of them. This year, I will still be active in all these sports but I am planning to excel more towards badminton. Hobby-wise I'm shortening them down to graphic design. I know graphic design isn't a hobby. Being a graphic designer enables me to do all these things. I fell in love as soon as I discovered this possible career path in July and I'm so glad I did. 

Now onto more physical goals of 2015:

3. Do not break the chain!

In 2015, I am going to participate in Charlie McDonnell's Don't Break The Chain movement. I have 2 charts, one for studying for at least half an hour every weekday and the other for leisure activities like blogging and designing in no particular order every Saturday and Sunday. 

4. Organise desk every week.
This is a more practical way of saying: stay organised! 

5. Run a marathon
Running builds up stamina and keeps me healthy. The annual Colour Run sounds fun to me!

There are my goals for 2015. What are yours? I would love to know them. Let's support and encourage each other okay? Here's to a great new year!

Ness :)

A Design A Day, Keeps Boredom Away

Every holiday, I remind myself it is a time to recharge and get my life on track before school started. But this holiday, I lost all sense of productivity. In my mind, productivity meant getting my homework done or studying. School was out, I got to sleep for as long as I wanted to, but that was a bad thing in a way. Wake up. Eat. Play. Sleep. That was my daily schedule. and so I wanted to change it.  

It took an incredibly long amount of time for me to get "in the zone". It took away half of my holiday time. But it's never too late for a change, right? For my holiday, I challenged myself to design something every day. A Beautiful Mess' article Make Something, Anything! really inspired me to do this. (they're a pretty awesome group of people,you can check them out here.) They're not my best works,but it does get my creativity flowing and pushes me to make even better stuff. Here's my progress:

Day 1: Colourific!

This is a silly name, I know. But this made a pretty cool pattern when I was messing around with some geometric shapes. The triangles aren't aligned properly and the colour scheme clashes in a way. I need some help on designing patterns. Any tips?

Day 2: Don't Break The Chain

This calendar was inspired by Charlie Mcdonell's video Don't Break The Chain which he shares a productivity tip that he learnt from Jerry Seinfeld. I figured i could give this a go and made my own calendar. I wish I had a grid though, it would be much neater.

Day 3: Leo Valdez Quote

I designed these for my best friend Megan that loves the Percy Jackson series. She's the daughter of Hades and her favourite character is Nico De Angelo. I think this is a funny take on Spider Man's quote "with great power comes great responsibility".

Day 4: My blog banner!

This is my favourite thing I've designed so far. This blog is a representation of who I am as a person and creativity describes it. Everything was made using geometric shapes. The "hello" was written by me using a brush then scanned into my computer,edited as an overlay. I can pick out some mistakes here and there like the weird looking keyboard but I am very proud of this one.

That feeling of seeing your visions come alive is one of my favourite things in life, I wonder what else my mind has in store? 

Hey there!

Hello! I am known as Vannesa among the strangers that use the world wide web. Vannesa was a name I made for myself since I was young to be used on the internet. I don't know why, but it stuck to me to this day.This is my first blog post. I'm a student that aspires to be a graphic designer, Youtube enthusiast and proud hand letter. My friends describe me as creative and caring, but sensitive and self critical at times, it's your choice whether or not to believe it!

In 2013, I graduated primary school and moved on to secondary.Everyone else went their seperate ways and I faced the ever so terrifying new school with only one of my best friends beside me. I was timid,anxious and my normally extroverted side faded away. When my class was selecting monitors,it took me that one second of courage and insanity to raise my hand. As a result, I landed on the spot of an assistant monitor.

At the end of April, all it took was a surge of over-confidence to cause a serious conflict with the class monitor which resulted into mass discussion and cyber bullying from many students. Many discussed the matter online publicly,where I could see them in a click of a button. It was my major fall of the year, and I felt panicky,helpless,and worthless.

After many hours of browsing for pep-talks, endless messages left on my Facebook, many weeks of thinking (and crying!) later, I slowly reached out to recovery. I found things that made me happy, friends that were supportive.... These things made me crawl out of a deep dark abyss. I wanted to make a difference in other people's lives like they did for me, and this is when I decided to create my blog.

The Good Creative is a platform where I can document my life, help others in need and (hopefully) influence other people in a positive way. It can be a place to communicate to understand each other, and I believe understanding is a very strong force. There will be writings from my wandering mind, designs I make in my free time as well as documentations of my daily adventures.

If you read all of this, thank you, and I hope you stick around.