Permenantly Catching Up

I don't really know where I'm going with this post but basically do you ever have those days where no matter what you do, and no matter how hard you try, everything just kinda fails? Because I certainly do! And recently starting sixth form again seems to have reminded me of that. 

Don't get me wrong, I know I'm an extremely fortunate person, and I just want to start of by saying I'm not ungrateful for anything I have. It just seems a bit much and like I spend my life permanently catching up with everything. 

Right now I genuinely feel like they're something wrong with me. For some reason, no matter how hard I try, I just can't keep up in situations where everyone else seems to be coping just fine. It's like I'm simply slowing down in a world that's speeding up and nothing can stop me spiraling out of control.

I have always been the type of person that wants to do everything, and be good at it! A feeling I hate is knowing that I didn't put 100% effort into something. I also like trying new things, after all, that's what makes life interesting isn't it? However I feel like I get involved too quickly in things, and before I get the chance to say no, I'm committed.

I would also just like to say that if it looks like I never put any effort in, its because I'm trying to make it look like that. I guarantee that behind all the failed tests that I claimed "I didn't even revise for" has been hours of preparation. Another reason it may look like I don't put effort in is because I've lost all motivation after constantly failing. 

Here are some of the many reasons I feel like I can't keep up with my life:

• A levels. At the end of year 11 I found myself choosing my A level subjects and I was having difficulty narrowing down the subjects. I then decided to do four core subjects and German as an extra subject since I already have a head start in the language by having German family. However, even with this advantage, doing an extra subject isn't exactly a walk in the park.

This is what my room looks like with all my notes

• YouTube and blogging. I seriously want my videos and posts to be as good as they can possibly be and it annoys me like crazy that it doesn't come across. Believe me when I say I spend all the time I can working on my channel and blog, even if that means staying up every night. Also, there is always so much to catch up on and there are so many people on the internet who I want to support, but due to time, I can't keep up to date with the entire time. If it were up to me I would comment on and like every single video/post from the people I follow. 

When I stay up till 2am finishing blog posts

• Tiredness. The sentence I say the most is "wow I'm so tired". This is no doubt the consequence of staying up way past midnight every night thanks to homework and editing. No matter how much homework I get I will always find a way to work on my channel or blog. However, it means when morning comes I'm way too sleepy to actually concentrate on my subjects that I actually want to do well in.

Me the day after staying up late

• Clubs and other commitments. I've been a member of sports clubs for ages and right now I can't quit because we're working towards stuff and I'd let everyone down if I did. However, I have absolutely no time to practice so I'm rubbish at it and let everyone down anyway. Also, my clubs are at the end of the week which means I'm exhausted and have no time to rest and recover for the next week. 

What I feel my karate's like after having no time to practice

• I need to find a job. Like seriously, loads of people in my year have a job and I don't know how they have time for it. I feel like at my age everyone is expecting me to have a part time job and I need one anyway to be able to pay for the things I buy for my blog. 

Every time I check my bank account

• Friends and family. I'd love to spend all the time I can catching up with friends and family because it's important. Unfortunately, I always cancel plans because I'm busy doing homework or I'm just too exhausted to go out. I feel like my social life (if you can even call it one) is seriously suffering as result. 

When my family tells me to stop working and actually get a life

Basically, I'm writing this post because I'm sick of working my absolute socks off and it not showing in any aspect of my life. I'm tired of not being able to meet everyone's expectations and it just leads to constant disappointment. If you have been in this situation than I am willing to listen to your advice. I'm gonna work 100% harder than I usually do catch up and I hope it pays off. The song of the day is Poison by Rita Ora (just cus it's an absolute tune!) Thanks for reading this little ramble xxx

Back To School Advice

I know that some of  you are already back at school but I still thought I'd share this little video giving a few of my tips for the new school year. After all, it's never too late to improve when you're given advice (not saying any of you need to improve you're all perfect!)

Whenever I told people I was filming this video they were like "Wait what? You're gonna be giving advice? Like to actual real life people?" As you can probably tell my previous advice has gone down just amazingly! But nevertheless I think I actually did an ok-ish job giving back to school advice. Well, this is the advice that I personally would have liked to been given.

Here's the actual video itself:

I hope you found the video useful

I hope you enjoyed the video and found it some what useful. The song of the day is What I Go To School For by Busted. If you have already started the new school year I hope you've had a good time so far and if you haven't started yet I hope you'll have a great first week back. Thanks for reading xxx

Summer Favourites

Wait, what? Izzy's doing favourite videos?

Yes you heard me correctly, today's the day I've started to upload favourite videos. I'm pretty rubbish at updating my life and filming videos regularly so I've decided only to do seasonal favourites instead of monthly favourites.

But nevertheless, here's the video in case you want to see for yourself what I've been loving this Summer:

I hope you enjoy!

I split my favourites into four categories which were:

• YouTube
• Music
• Cosmetics
• Makeup

I was thinking of including more categories for my next video, but I thought it was enough to start off with. Besides I didn't want the video to be too long and boring. If you have any category suggestions I'd be happy to hear them!

Thank you for watching, the song of the day is Photograph by Ed Sheeran (I know its been song of the day loads before but I personally never get sick of it). Let me know in the comments what your "Summer Favourites" have been xxx

SANE- A Mental Health Charity

In my opinion, getting involved in charities is a wonderful way to help improve the lives of others. One of my personal goals is to become more involved in charities, especially those related to mental health. I hope that this post is in some way useful, and even if you do not suffer from any of the issues mentioned, I think it's still important to be informed about charities such as this one. 

As I've stated before in my Lets Talk About Mental Health post, mental health is a topic I feel very passionate about. In that post I mentioned many organisations that help specific issues so please check that out if you think you will be affected by it. I spent a great amount of time researching different organisations before coming across SANE. I really support what they stand for so please continue reading to find out more (another well known organisation is Mind, however I will only focus on SANE in this post).

*Disclaimer* I am in no way affiliated to this organisation; all opinions are my own and information was gathered from their website. 

SANE was established in 1986 to improve the quality of life for people suffering from or affected by mental illness. SANE has three main objectives:

1. To raise awareness and combat stigma about mental illness, educating and campaigning to improve mental health services.
2. To provide care and emotional support for people with mental health problems, their families and carers, as well as information for other organisations and the public.
3. To initiate research into the causes and treatments of serious mental illness such as schizophrenia and depression and the psychological and social impact of mental illness.

Sane also offers emotional support in the forms of:

• Helpline- 0300 304 7000 that is available from 6pm-11pm every evening
• Textcare- This allows you to arrange support in the form of text messages that are right for you
• Support Forum- Open 24 hours a day and allows you to give and receive support by sharing experiences
• Blogs: Share your experiences, thoughts and opinions and invite others to share their thoughts

Another feature of SANE that I really like is the Black Dog Campaign. This campaign aims to reduce stigma around mental health issues and help those suffering to seek help. Also, the Black Dog Tribe is a social network campaign dedicated to mental health. You can follow it on Facebook and Twitter. It's aims are to:

• Reduce stigma, prejudice and exclusion
• Encourage more people to seek help
• Educate members of the public - #StopStigma
• Take mental health into schools, colleges and the workplace
• Change perceptions of mental illness
• Demonstrate the importance of research 
• Involve young people in mental health
• Change attitudes of future generations

If you like the idea of helping this charity, there are a number of ways in which you can get involved including (sorry for the number of bullet points in this post):

• Donating- £25 can provide someone with the first 30 minutes of personal and emotional support. £50 provides four people with a call from a mental health professional, providing them with consistent care during a time of despair. 
• Fundraising- Help raise money for this organisation and cause. Download the SANE fundraising pack to get started! 
• Sane Community- A free way to show support for mental health.  
• Volunteer- If you are enthusiastic and wish to contribute to this cause you can check out the range of volunteering roles. 
• #StopStigma- By donating £5 to this charity you can receive a #StopStigma wristband
• Campaign With SANE- Share your story on a media platform by becoming a media volunteer
• Your Stories- Share your experiences with mental health and show others that they're not alone
• Blog- Share your blogs about sane and mental health and check out other's too

Thank you for reading this post, the song of the day is Demons By Imagine Dragons. If you suffer from any of the issues mentioned (I truly hope you don't) I hope SANE is able to help you in some way. And again, if you feel like you have no one to talk to, I'm always here to listen and feel free to message me :) xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 4

So here it is, my very last Germany vlog. It feels weird that I've finally uploaded them all because I had so much footage that I didn't think I'd be able to get through it all. But I'm also kinda sad I have no more to upload because that means there is no more reminiscing of this wonderful holiday to do.

Here is the video itself

I hope you enjoy

Let's talk through the video

As I said in my last vlog, my dad had to leave early due to work. The vlog starts with us in the car, after dropping him off at the airport, having a jam session to the radio. If you can make it past our terrible singing in the vlog then I truly applaud you.

Since Germany was experiencing a massive heat wave (it was almost 40 degrees) we spent most of our time in the swimming pool trying to get a tan. The YELLOW slide was so much fun and I can't even count the amount of times we went on it. As I said in the vlog, there was a little boy who was about 5 years old who kept jumping in front of me wanting to join in with some kind of game. He kept smiling and shouting excitedly and telling me not to do something, but for the life of me I have no idea what he was saying.

Well if this isn't attractive I don't know what is

Whilst we were there we also experienced beautiful sunsets. My mum also had a go at vlogging as she was narrating the sunsets.

Then we went into town and watched the new Mission Impossible film. I hadn't seen any of the others, because I didn't really think it was my sort of thing, but I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. And then as we went to find the bakeries (we went to about 3 in five minutes) I vlogged in public. Yes, me vlogging in public. I just whipped my camera out in the middle of the street without even thinking about it and I didn't feel awkward at all. I got a few strange looks and comments but for some reason I really didn't mind at all. 

And to finish off the vlog in Germany we went to a light festival by the lake. It truly is beautiful and the camera can't even capture the beauty. They have little tea lights on the lake and then they have a massive firework display. I filmed the whole thing but it was about 15 minutes long so I decided to cut it down to the highlights of the display. We also spent 6 Euros on glowsticks each but it was worth it!

So there were all of my Germany vlogs. I hope you've enjoyed watching them because I had a fantastic time making them. The song of the day is Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen. Let's face it, its a really catchy song. Thank you so much for reading/ watching. I'll be back with one of my normal-non-vloggy videos next time xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 3

Yes that's right, I'm back with yet another Germany vlog. I seriously hope you're not getting sick of them yet, because there's still more to come!

Here's the actual video:

I hope you enjoy

Let's talk through the video:

The vlog starts off with my awful makeup disaster. Like a huge makeup disaster. I promise my lipstick didn't look that bright off camera, but in the video it's a serious colour clash with my outfit. Anyway back to what we were actually doing...

The first place we went was to a fish restaurant with my family because its a place we all enjoy going to. Despite neither me or my sister liking fish, we always find a vegetarian option and it is in a beautiful setting in a little valley.

The next place we visited was the Brenz park. This isn't an average, dog-walking, boring park, oh no! A few years ago they refurbished it and made it look dead posh with bright flowers blooming everywhere you look. The park is also filled with exciting playgrounds for children and activities everywhere. There's a bit where to cross the river you have to go though a little netted bridge and its so cool!

On a hill there is a little castle looking down on the town we were staying at. It's so cool to go there because its really old and I always think it looks like a little village on the inside. They were even practicing live opera when we went. I tried to see if I could find where they were performing it because the voice was booming all through the castle, but I couldn't seem to find the source anywhere. 

Me and my sister are natural posers as you can tell

We spent the rest of the vlog eating (well there's a surprise) and walking around the town called Heidenheim and doing some shopping. It's such a sweet town and we love going to their local ice cream parlor to eat some spaghetti ice. I've mentioned before that it tastes better than it sounds.

This was also my dad's last day in holiday. He could only stay in Germany for a week and a half due to work. But I still think he had a lovely time abroad. 

Thank you for reading/watching. The song of the day is Black Magic by Little Mix because its been permanently stuck in my head this summer. I hope you had a lovely time on holiday xxx

Germany 2015 Vlog: Part 2

Hello! Since I'm uploading my Germany vlogs every two days its time for the second edition. So without further ado, here's the video:

I hope you enjoy 

Let's talk through the video

As you can probably tell, the vlog starts of with us sitting in a restaurant about to order food. I couldn't choose between two meals at the restaurant (both sounded delicious) so I asked my mum if she would order one of them "for the table", meaning for me of course. I thought I was getting away with being greedy until my mum ordered the meal and stated very loudly "AND CAN I ORDER A SECOND MEAL FOR MY DAUGHTER OVER THERE WHO IS TOO EMBARRASSED TO ASK FOR TWO MEALS". It was obviously very embarrassing but I guess its karma for being greedy.

We spent the next few days walking around very old, but very beautiful towns. We stood by an old church, which towered over the town. Amazingly, there is a stage set up on the stairs outside of it where concerts are performed. Move over Madison Square Garden, it looks like this is the coolest venue for a concert ever!

From the church you could see a massive roof which is where an important building was (to this day I still have no idea what the building was though. I'm rubbish at paying attention when people explain things to me). Me and my mum decided to go looking for this building, and it turns out that it was a lot further away than we thought. And when we finally got to the building and vlogged it..... it turned out to be the wrong building all along. #awkward

The next 3 days we visited Munich and stopped their with my Uncle. Munich is a lovely place, full of excitement and of course full of expensive shops. Very expensive shops. Everywhere I looked I saw brands like Gucci, Prada and Chanel. 

Whilst we were there there we walked past a church which had figures that come out and dance and play music. For some reason, my family thought the figures came out at 4 O'clock so we waited until then aaaaaannnd nothing happened. We clearly got the wrong time but I still managed to get some wonderful footage of absolutely nothing!

The figures that did nothing whilst we were there

I should mention that througout this vlog, Germany seemed to be experiencing some rather windy weather. Don't get me wrong, it was still tremendously hot, it just meant my hair was flying all over the place and it made a weird noise in my camera. 

The storm we were experiencing one evening

One day we decided to visit the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. We chose the perfect day as the weather was lovely and there were not many clouds to cover the view. Since it's so high up, we also got to see some snow. My favourite! There was lots to do up there including sledging. As you can tell by the video, I'm rubbish at steering. How does steering even work? My mum also attempted to climb to the highest point, but was advised not to go further because she's not an experienced hiker. 

The hill we had to pull the sledges up afterwards

My mum completely pretending to go sledging for the picture so that 

she wouldn't have to pull the sledge up afterwards. What a poser!

The highest point in Germany

To finish off our time in Munich we went to the English Gardens. Essentially, this is a giant park where you can take beautiful walks. There was a tall Chinese tower which we ate lunch by. As I said in the vlog, the tower looked different to how I imagined it. I don't know why, but I was expecting it to look like a pillar instead of a tower for some reason. 

The Chinese tower... not pillar 

I hope you've been enjoying my vlogs so far. The song of the day is Drag Me Down by One Direction because it came out while I was on holiday. They released it with out warning which was very rude. How can they make me get that excited without any warning! Thanks for reading/ watching this post xxx