Lets Get Organized *insert overly excited voice*

Hello all you wonderful internet surfers, 

A very important key to being organized is to be clean. Now I'm not saying that you need to go take a shower (unless you smell, please do) no, I mean the items and bits + bobs around you need to be clean and orderly. Keep things to a bear minimum. This rule can apply to any area of your house; kitchen, bedroom, bathroom or laundry. I'm going to use my work/study area as an example ...

So as you can see, in my work area, I have no shelves or cupboards ( the cupboard on the right has my moms tea cups and dishes, basically just paraphernalia). My desk is also in a public are, so by the power invested to my mother by being a mom, it has to be kept clean! 

My first rule/ tip/ hint for organizing would be 

~ Keep Like Things Together ~ 

Trust me, you'll do yourself a huge favour by doing this. For example, I keep all my English papers / books  together. They're not held separately from my other books or files, but they're not jumbled up between biology and math. I also keep any study work or tests together in a folder with labelled dividers, that way if I ever need to review my notes from say my SAT papers, then I just open the file and flip through till I reach the SAT section...  

Second rule would definitely be to have

 ~ Limited, or none at all if possible, bits + bobs lying around ~ 

Bits + Bobs are things like ponytails for your hair, your guitar tuner, your breakfast bowl (from yesterday morning). You don't need more than one rubber (eraser) lying around (oh and if it is lying around, get it into your pencil case ASAP , it's just cluttering up your desk missy!) Now, I'm by no means saying that you can't have anything interesting or slightly unorganized on your desk, remember EVERYTHING IN MODERATION. I have on my computer screen two wooden animals I bought when I was in Namibia stuck down with presick. My dad calls them 'dust collectors', I call them special reminders of the wonderful time I had, and the memories I made ... 

Stuck to the bottom of my screen is three notes. Two are lovely Typo Polaroid cards from my mom and best friend. They're encouragements, and motivation for me when I feeling low. So I keep them there, and when I'm not feeling quite right, I turn them over and read the loving words, reminding me that I have my friends and families support and love. The other may be even more important than the motivational cards because it helps me with my computer. You may remember from my first post, but I have a Love / Hate relationship with technology. I love it, but it hates me. So I made this note to remind me what to do when I have a problem with the computer. Oh and my siblings seem to have a keen knack for figuring our my passwords, apparently dance and guitar are obvious passwords for me... so I have to come up with clever and cryptic passwords... unfortunately some of my passwords are so clever and cryptic that even I can't remember them. So I have a sort of password hint written there too ;)  

Tip number three 

~ Only Keep Things You're Busy With Out ~

Often when it comes to school, I feel overwhelmed. I see all the work and panic, stress and become unmotivated. Lets face it, this has happened to the best of us, Right? Right (will that be our Always? Sorry 'Fault in Our Stars' moment). When this happens, and if I'm being honest this happens to me often, I have to take a step back and remind myself to take things ONE STEP AT A TIME. Don't over think these things. 

So I keep the books I need this week out, and all those other books? I tuck them in a FAR AWAY cupboard where they stay far from my sight. But I also love to see how far I've come, so I typed up a list of all the books I have to read and categorized them by subject and printed it. As I finish a book I'll highlight it so by the end of the year, I have a lovely, bright and cheery, page. 

My forth and final tip is 

~ Keep it Clean ~ 

I can confidently say that this is something we're all guilty of. Cleaning your room/ kitchen/ bathroom/ desk, organizing the cupboards, straightening out the shelf, wiping down the table, and moving the tea cup from yesterday, can take a lot of effort if you're not in the habit of keeping it clean. So I challenge you to break that habit of messiness and become a person who cares for their things. Don't label yourself as someone who has 'always been messy' because you were as a child. Get organized. It's simple and easy, and once it's done, it can be a shelp to keep it like that (it takes me less than a minute to mess up my room searching for an outfit, so I'm not saying I'm not privy to this post...) but it's worth it (no not searching for the right outfit, keeping your belongings clean and tidy!!!!) 

Anyway. I hope this was helpful for those who want to be more organized, or motivated those of you who don't give a damn what state your room or house looks like. 

Have a wonderful day (its a lovely sunny day here) 

Chat Later Gator

xxx Andrea Claire 

Two Years Apart

Hello,
So some exciting news is that my friend Kyra and I have started a band/girl group YouTube channel called 'Two Years Apart' where we will be uploading videos of us singing song covers. I'll post a link when the site is ready.
Today we spent about three hours recording our first cover, and made plenty bloopers, (I'm busy going through all the footage and that is definitely proof enough for me).
Just want to say a quick thank you to Kirstie for putting up with our laughter and having such patience with us ;) I take my hat off to you. THANK YOU, YOU AWESOME PERSON !
The video should be up soon so keep checking up here for the link to our channel! YIP YIP YIPPEE

Pic from the video shoot today :)

So excited to upload the cover video

 starting to edit now...

An Interesting Turn of Events

Hello ....

Yesterday's events were... well interesting to say the least.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to a film shoot where we would be recording footage of cyclists performing stunts, tricks or just riding their bikes, which we are going to edit together to make a short advert for the track. You may be wondering (or not) how this track came into being... It was created at the end of last year when the local high school's cycle team hosted an event on the plot of land, essentially it was just an open plot, owned by the city, and it could have the potential for a park but due to vagrants and dog walkers, it was never turned into one. So, when this cycling event took place there, a route was laid out for the cyclists to follow, and by the end there was an actual three and a half kilometre track. My dad, who is quite a doer, like Sherlock, and had foresight, contacted the city council to ask for permission to make the track permanent. Many meetings, papers signed, angry dog walkers, police visits to clean up the litter, teen boys building crazy jumps, ramps and burms later, we've ended up here, with a brilliantly positioned cycle track, where families spend a good chunk of their Saturdays and Sundays riding. How awesome. A place, once before, just a dirty vacant park, now a place for the neighbourhood to exercise.
Hopefully in the next couple of days I'll have edited all the amazing and epic footage we took in to a video, actually I take it back, it might take a couple of weeks... I still have to find the perfect song... any suggestions please leave a comment :) anyway, so keep a look out on my YouTube channel for that video.
Besides filming all day in the sun (not complaining we had perfect weather, what more could I ask for) I found out that in October and November this year, I will be writing my G.E.Ds and S.A.Ts ... WHAT!?!?!?! Yeah... so I'll be finished with school a year early. Pretty exciting and nerve wrecking stuff right there. Speaking of, the other thing that is a part of growing up that happened to me yesterday was that my mom bought me the K53 Learners and Drivers manual. Yeah guess whose getting ready to learn to drive. ME!
So what else exciting adventures (I'm being sarcastic there) does my week hold? Well today has just been me editing, playing guitar (I've finally perfected Fallin For You by Colbie Caillat), and finding the perfect cake pop recipe for my besti and I to make tomorrow :) I'll post some pics when we've made them for you to see. For my birthday last year I was given a cake pop book and, holder thingy. That doesn't really explain what it is that I was given. Basically it's a mould that fits twelve pops that you put the batter in and bake in the oven then pop them out (excuse my lame pun) and decorate :) if that still isn't explanatory enough for you and my descriptive skills aren't doing justice to the mould, check out MoreZoella on YouTube and watch her vlog ~ Cake Pop Fail and Date Night. It's really cool :) even though they (spoiler alert) fail ;)
Then later in the week I'll have an exciting announcement with my friend and fellow musician Kyra... which I can't tell you know what it is, but I'm telling you it's going to be exciting!!!
Quick confession, today I learnt how to do a proper fishtail braid. I'm sure for many teen girls, this is a basic hairstyle and wouldn't be a huge accomplishment, but for me... I'm so excited that  I got it right :D oh and during writing this post, I listened to Wrapped Around Your Finger and If You Don't Know by 5 Seconds of Summer... If you don't know who they are then I suggest you climb out from under that rock you've been living under and find out, and if you do know who they are and haven't heard those songs then please go listen to them because they are AMAZING! (oh and if you do know then I love you) (even if you don't still love you)
So that's it for me for now,
Chat later
xxxAndreaClaire

Tiny sneak peak of one of the shots we took yesterday :)

First Post ...

Hello wonderful person on the other side of the screen :)
(how do I know you're wonderful? well cause you're on my blog... that wasn't very modest, sorry)  

So I (Andrea Claire aka PapercraneAnni) have a confession to make...

I actually used to have a blog, yeah I was twelve and the spelling was horrid, grammar... well lets just not talk about the grammar, and content was just plain boring, consisting of what I ate for lunch and what  I did over the weekend (which was usually some form of exercise or seeing friends, the weekend bit, not for lunch... friends aren't for eating)... I will not be giving you the link to that blog because it's just simply embarrassing and should be left lost somewhere out there on the internet... trust me you'd agree if you read it...

So confessions over... for now ;) time to continue onto more interesting things. Things such as, why am I writing a blog?
 
As I said before, I've had a blog before, so I thought to myself, could my almost seventeen year old self write better than mini me? Of course! How awesome is that? We grow and learn more everyday. I don't know about you, but I'm so happy I'm not the same person I was when I was twelve... oh the awkwardness :/ Also I am a creative person, well I like to think of myself as one. Pinterest is constantly logged on on my phone and computer (follow me, link below)... just to give you an idea.
Now creativity, in my mind, is not limited to drawing and painting, which I adore by the way, but reach much further into the interests out in the world. Being creative fills me with such joy and glee... and it drives me mad when people refer to my interests as hobbies. It's such a .... spare time word. When I say that, I mean the word hobbie is often used in the same sentence as spare time... people have this misconception that hobbies are the things you do when you're free... not cleaning your room/house, studying/working, but to me they are my motivation, something I make time for and don't do half heartedly. I get my kicks from doing them, and think they deserve a special, specific descriptive word, for which I am still searching... I'll let you know when I find it, so for now... I'll have to stick with hobbies *cringe*

You may be, at this moment, wondering what these specific things I am defending so passionately of not being hobbies are... my being creative, as I said before, goes farther than drawing and painting. For me, I'm being creative when I'm playing 'Stairway to Heaven' on guitar, or just rearranging my bookshelf alphabetically or by genre. It's when I'm editing/ storyboarding/scripting/ or researching a film I'm making. When I've discovered a new diy décor idea, or buying new watercolours. It could be when I'm journaling, finding meaningful quotes or baking a cake (especially the eating part... then I thrive deliciously on my creativity ;) )

If you keep following my blog, you'll see that this will be my creative outletness place ;) how awesome is that? Due to the wonders of technology, you can keep updated on all my creativeness, and even comment on it, share or send me a link to your own blog, youtube channel, or pinterest account where you keep track of your creative ideas.

Wanna know where to find and follow me, out there on the World Wide Web?

Pinterest ~ Andrea Claire
YouTube ~ Andrea Claire ( I have a short speed painting video that I made and painted, but if you watch it I apologise for the blurriness, I'm in the process of updating my editing software, so next video will be better quality)
Wattpad ~ Papercraneanni
Google+ ~ Andrea Claire

Almost done ...

Tomorrow a fellow film maker and I will be filming a video to advertise a mountain biking track in our area, which is very exciting because;

a) this is putting us out there as filmmakers
b) i'll be putting up the video on my youtube channel when we've finished it (so of course you'll get to watch it)
c) we get to spend time with some awesome adrenaline junkie cyclists for three hours

Another quick confession before I go...
I've been listening to Fast Car by Tracy Chapman on repeat while I was writing this post, and half way through typing I somehow managed to delete half of the post.... which is incredibly frustrating.... and one of the reasons I say I have a lovehate relationship with technology... I love it, so so much, but for some absurd reason, it despises me.... maybe I offended it at some point... maybe because  I used to write such a pathetic blog ...

Till next time
xxx
Andrea Claire