Happy for the Holidays!

Hello my beautiful friends!

*takes a long dramatic breath* Wow. 2016 is almost over. Thank goodness!
 I've been away from blogging and posting online for a while. I've uploaded a couple of videos here and there but I haven't been consistent. In the past week I've just been reading and staying in my bed after my exams. My stress and anxiety levels are now at a position that is not life threatening, but now the fear is creeping in because the next 2 years of my life will determine what direction my life is heading. In one of my orientation classes, my teacher's message that the next two years will make or break our lives was not helpful at all.

This is a polaroid from a recent Christmas Party I went to with my friends! We're all so glad to have this time to recharge for the upcoming school year. BTW this is my friend Rachel's hand. :)

For now I'm so happy for the holidays. The Christmas light, hot chocolate and Christmas songs are distracting me from the daunting thought that I'm not smsrt enough or studying hard enough for the future I want. I can't wait to put up the tree and spend time with family. Even the thought of not having any money left after Christmas shopping is appealing to me. The hard thing about shopping for my family and friends is that they all deserve mansions and to wake up with hundreds of roses carefully placed around their rooms, but all I can afford is a gift from the dollar section.

The holiday season is always full of laughs! On the left is my friend Monique (who made a cameo in one of my youtube videoes!), in the centre is my friend Donna and on the right is me!

This looks like a cheesey chrismtas card, lmao.

I'm now taking time to look after myself and manage my time. My holiday homework is ready to completed according to my priority schedule and my life now has some semblance of organisation. I'm a person prone to being stressed out and I acknowledge that. I'm trying to take steps to ensure that I can cope and can perform to the best of my ability. In retrospect I'm suprised I was even able to do as well as I did this semester. At the moment I think that self care and self love are very underrated. It's all too easy to love and care for others while forgetting to do the same for yourself. Please look after yourself right now and don't neglect your health. The holidays are a chance for to to heal and rejuvenate. 

'Tis the season to be jolly!

Please take the holidays as an opportunity to rest and spend time with family because I know that I definitely will. This is going to be a great chance to have a break from the struggles of life (aka the crap storm that was 2016) and focus on the important things in life: family, friends, love and chocolate pudding. I'm so grateful for the holidays right now and I'm looking forward to the insanely hot Australian Christmas! 

Happy holidays!

-xox Kellie

GEMINA BOOK LAUNCH!

Hello my beautiful friends!

Today's blog post is based on my reflection of the Gemina book launch at the State Library of Victoria! Before we even begin I am going to admit that I missed 2 trains and ended up arriving 10 minutes late. *face palms so hard that I have a permanent imprint on forehead* I know it's now December and in typical Kellie fashion I'm posting this very late, but honestly I've just been avoiding this because of the insanely high cringe level, AHAHA. Let's get into it!

On the 22nd of October was the book launch. After a hectic week consisting of a biology test, maths analysis and cracked phone screen I was so ready to go to the book launch and forget about how much I fail as a human being. (Can we also just talk about how expensive it is to fix a phone screen? Over $200!!! When I heard a crack I prayed that was my bones instead of the screen, smh) Too bad the universe was not on my side. The train lines were still being fixed and there was a super light drizzle, thus leading to my predicament of missing 2 trains and madly ordering my sister and mum to walk faster. In the end, we were a bit late, I hate being late and thinking about it now still makes me mad. However, the event itself was amazing and did make me forget about everything. 

The book launch was filled with laughter, mini games (where you can win a death!) and engaging questions asked by Adele, the lovely lady who was the speaker (??) for the event. (Not certain about the correct term for what she was doing, but she was wonderful!) There were also many stories told and oh boy were interesting! The real friendship between Amie Kayfman and Jay Kristoff made the whole event feel as if it was one big group of friends hanging out. When I think back to that night the main thing I think about is how there was an actual person in America who shot a bullet into a book for 'research'. If you've read Gemina you would know why that was so cool. I still can't get my mind over the fact that an actual book was impaled by an actual bullet! 

My favourite part of the night was probably when we did a 'book wave'! This is Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's signature thing. It's essentially a Mexican wave, but with books. They do this at all their book launches and I was so excited to be apart of one! Although I was sitting at the back and you can't see me. There were SO many people in that room. It was great to see so many people come out to support Melbourne writers, especially such deserved writers! 

At the launch I was in group 3, the final group to get their books signed by Amie and Jay (is it rude to only use their first names? I'm too lazy to type out their while names again :P) I didn't mind being last because that gave me the opportunity to sneak in a little reading session of the book and DAMN it is good. Watch out for a 'word vomit/book thoughts' coming out soon ;) While getting my book signed something happened that made my whole day! My sister and I were standing there in front of the table while they were signing and I asked, "Did you enjoy the chocolates? I'm the weird girl who gave you some at the Inky Awards." AND THEN THEY REMEMBER ME!! Jay said he didn't eat the chocolates because he isn't a fan of them but kept my later and said it was "sweet"! Amie said that she ate both of their chocolates and that they both kept my letters. *screams in excitement* Afer that I died. There is not a part where I came back to life or anything, I died, the end. Two of my favourite writers from 2016 just acknowledged my existence and said I was sweet. I'm deceased. :)

So that was just a long post of me fangirling again. *blushes, but isn't sorry* I hope you enjoyed this post and it gave you some insight into the event. It was so much fun to attend and it was worth it to book the tickets a month in advance! Now comes the wait for the next book!! 

Happy reading!!

-xox The girl with her head in the clouds

aka Kellie :P