Today I'm wanting to write about something I'm not an expert in, but I figured someone out there might get some use out of this. I'm sharing how I packed for a 6-day trip in the middle of winter with just carry-on luggage and one personal item. And let me be honest, it was challenging.

Today's topic is another one I'm quite passionate about, and that's how to be productive even when on this hemisphere the days are getting shorter and the lack of daylight can make one tired and unmotivated. If that's something you struggle with, I'm here to share my tips on how I stay grinding even when it feels a little hard. Now, since the internet promotes the unhealthy 24/7 grind, my responsibility to you is to say that my tips and tricks are not supposed to, by any means, encourage you to an unhealthy grind, especially not long-term. But rather, this should be helping you to have a lifestyle that supports you to reach your goals and dreams.

Does that sound good to you? If it does, keep on reading!

I know it might be early for fall favorites, taken that the season just started, but I'm so strongly in the mood that we're doing this. Most likely, knowing myself, the things I'm obsessing about now will be obsession well into November. Because that's how I am.

After you read through the list, I hope you share all your favorites in the comments so I get to know them too!

This new season feels like it deserves some new photo props. I haven't ever been big on getting stuff just for pics, but I thought if I find a sustainable way to do it, I will. And while looking for inspiration and after that trying to find places to buy props, it hit me: I could DIY them. I always have yarn around anyway and Pinterest is full of autumnal ideas and free patterns, so why not crotchet and knit my props.

And that's how we got props seen in below picture:

Heya babes, Let's talk about skincare, shall we? Skin is our biggest organ, so taking care of it - especially if it gets exposed constantly to sun, pollution or makeup - is vital. It's also the trick to fight the signs of ageing if you are about that life. To me it's more about just keeping the skin clean and healthy, I don't really mind if my age would show since apparently I look younger than I am as it is, and also my age doesn't really define me. But what does define me is having a cruelty-free routine for my skin. If that sounds like something interesting to you, keep on reading!

Not too long ago, I had a little talk with an online friend about style and her telling how she likes what I wear - and me telling it's not about having brand new clothes, but rather other things. Most important being confidence in your style. I think I have rather decent experience to talk about this, taken I rock my colorful hair, showy makeup, and alternative (rock) style on daily basis. If someone like this can have it together, so can you (most likely your style is at least a bit more toned down - but if not, I'm very excited for you). 

Keep on reading to see ten tips on being more confident with your style:

This post is a continuation to last week's anxiety management post (click!), where I promised a whole another post on habits that could make you sleep better. These are things I try to live by, but I don't stress about them - not only because stress doesn't help you sleep, but also because I have my routine down and do these pretty much automatically. And also since the routine is there, it doesn't hurt me too much if I slip every once in a blue moon.

Since this is health-related yet again, I'm going to have to put up a little disclaimer: While I've noticed these work for me and I get my sleep as well as stay healthy doing these, I'm not a health nor mental health professional. In case you're suffering from severe insomnia, or any other sleeping disorder, please contact your doctor first. That being said, let's get to my tips on better sleep.

Remember how I mentioned wanting to get more into informative posts? Well here's the first one. Not too long ago I talked to a girl friend who battles anxiety, and we had a good talk about how possibly ease the symptoms or even prevent them in your daily life. And since this day and age so many of us have trouble with anxiety, I thought the same tips could be shared in a blog post to maybe help more people. These are things me and people I know well have found to be helpful, but everyone is different and you may have anxiety that needs more care than this. In that case, it's no shame to contact a professional because anxiety can truly prevent you from living if it's severe. 

And of course the mandatory disclaimer here: I'm not a health nor mental health professional, and I'm merely sharing what has been helpful to me. Take everything listed here with a grain of salt and try them out if they sound any good to you. I'll try to back up my claims with reasons or even science that is available to anyone, but I will not say that any of these tips will magically cure anything or that they will be absolutely effective for everyone.

Lately it seems there has been a bit of a wave of "I tried ___ diet for a week" type of videos on YouTube, especially from Blair Walnuts. And that inspired me to try out a diet that is inspired by the kind of one Victoria's Secret models claim they follow. I gave myself an easier time with the dinners, because we eat the same food as dinner with my boyfriend and it doesn't make sense sustainably that we cook different meals just because of the challenge. But my breakfast, lunch and snacks were determined by the VS meal plans I managed to find on the Internet.

As I've seen many people making the New Year's resolution to be more sustainable one way or another - stopping buying fast fashion, going vegan, going cruelty-free etc., it came into my mind that possibly some of you are also considering doing that but maybe don't know where to start. That was the struggle for me as well, and maybe there are some days when it's that for me still, but after gathering at least a bit of knowledge about sustainability in everyday life, I wanted to share my tips on how to get started. I hope these are helpful to at least one person out there, because in that case the post has fulfilled its purpose.

Today's post will be very photo heavy and probably for acquired taste, but since I'm very proud of my decluttering, I thought I would share this. In case you're not about seeing all the things I gave away/recycled/so on, check back when I post the next article - it will most likely be about style instead of my "trash". But without further ado, let's get to the declutter post!

New year, not so new me. But, a new bucket list. In this year's list, there are same things as in last year's one, since not everything became a reality. And also, some were so much fun I just had to include them again. Some of the things on the list are things I know will happen during this year, and some need a little work to come true. And actually, while you're reading this, I recommend playing the song "True"by Amaranthe in the background, because that song more or less reflects the mood of this post.

"This is the time for chasing my desires, what's in my heart is true."

As I talked about in my stress relief post, Holiday times can be so stressful for people due the commercial nature of this time of the year and so on. Therefore, it's easy to compare to yourself, your advent calendar (or lack thereof), your home and everything to the seemingly perfect ones you may see on social media. If you are a young person reading this, it's worthy for you to know that a lot that perfect Holiday content are related to the big Christmas marketing budgets businesses have and use to sponsor people to create all the perfect-looking content. Therefore, rather than comparing things, take a little time to list things that make you happy right now and/or you are grateful for, so that you can get to that perfect Holiday mood.

Because today, I'm sharing my list with you all.

Today, I wanted to do a post that is not the most typical to my blog, but possibly very important for some of you. As we're in the holiday season, and get bombarded with commercials from the left and right, see all perfect pictures on social media and may even get pressure from our families, it's easy to get stressed about things. So, I'm sharing my tips on how to avoid stress.

As you've gathered if you've read my closet declutter post, you know I have more than enough clothes in my possession. Therefore, I can quite easily go on a low buy at least for a while. The only things I'm not denying are things that I "need" to replace. Like, when I recently broke my only pair of Black flat knee-high boots and gave myself a pass to get new ones if I couldn't fix them myself. So I've been on no-buy with clothes since the start of October, and am planning on trying to do this until February or so. I'm also trying to avoid collecting too much stuff by starting to put away one or two things every time I'm bringing in something new. That may also go for other things than clothes. (Exception being my nail art things because that is my collection that makes me happy as huge one. Not giving that up just to be minimalist.)

This part of the declutter series is one I could probably divide into a couple of posts, but then again I think I rather save posting spots for other things as well since not everyone cares about me going through my unnecessary amount of belongings. This part would've included my makeup as well, but if you've been keeping up, you know I decluttered those in a previous post.

To start off, let's see my nightstand. I keep my hair tools, colors and all that in the lower drawer, and in time, I've placed also everything else there, like old cards in Forex bag, papers and so on. You know I've told you I'm messy? Yup, I'm messy.

A while back, I saw YouTube videos about making your own palettes with existing eye shadows and depotting stuff etc. (Like this one from Angelica Nyqvist where she duped a Jeffree Star palette) That made me think about all the beat up palettes I have (without lid and so on as they are old and have travelled/got dropped on the floor), and how I should put the shades into Z-palettes to possibly get more use out of them. So, I hopped on Beauty Bay, and got a couple of palettes and some extra magnets.