2016 has gone so fast with so many highs and lows. My life has changed so much since this time last year it is quite unbelievable. There is no denying it, 2016 has been rough for a lot of people with a lot of changes that will surely effect the next year, most likely in an unfavourable way, but I thought I would write, focusing on a few positives that have happened this year.

During the summer, finished my GCSE's and started my A Levels. My school work is I feel like this year has gone so fast. School tends to drag on day to day but as you are always working towards goal (normally the end of term!) you don't tend to notice the time flying by. I was so relieved when I got my results, totally relieved that all the hard work and worry seemed to have paid off, but there was little time to relish in it as it was back to school and straight into A Levels. I am having slight regrets on my choices as I have since changed my plans for the future so I am now quite limited to what I can do after sixth form; either science of English literature - I am leaning towards literature at the moment which seems alright to me! This year will go just as quickly with these A Levels and mocks already approaching but so long as I keep working, hopefully it will all work out!

During the past year, I was lucky enough to visit two beautiful cities. In the summer we went on holiday to Dubrovnik, Croatia for a week and it was stunning. The old city has so much history and beauty making it the perfect place to have a wander, taking beautiful photos of all the buildings(I did a post on my favourite photos which you can read here!). I also got the chance to visit one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Paris has always been a dream for me, the whole romance behind it and the beautiful Parisian building have always enticed me and it lived up to every expectation. The buildings were all so stunning and French (kind of a given there but when I was ther it was all I could think!). It had to be one of the best weekends I had this year (I also have a photo diary for Paris here). I have plans to visit another amazing place this summer which I hope to make a reality!

This time last year, I never would have thought I would be sitting here, writing a post to go on my own blog talking about the past year. I started Kizzi May on the 8th of March 2016 in a complete spur of the moment thing (possibly not the best time as I was doing my GCSE's but ah well!). I was stuck in a bit of a rut, doing the same thing every day and felt I needed a change. After reading Vivianna Does Makeup's blog (now called The Anna Edit) and thought that I might as well give it ago. The blogging community is so amazing and I am still yet to find anyone who has been negative towards my blog or any other blogger which was something that I was really worried about when I first started. I am so glad I started blogging and look forward to seeing how my blog develops in 2017.

So there is a whistle stop tour of a very fast 2016! There is so much more I could talk about but I really do not want to bore you with all the boring details! How has 2016 treated you this year?

Christmas has to be one of my favourite times of the year. I love decorating the tree, watching Christmas movies and finding the perfect presents. This year, I really wanted to go to a Christmas market as when I lived in Scotland we used to go to the Edinburgh Christmas market which is fab. It completely gets you into that Christmas mood with all the food and craft stalls filled with little Christmas treasures. I was hoping the market in Southbank would be similar to this, however it sadly did not live up to my expectations.

There were a few stalls along the river, one holding these beautiful candle holders which were beautiful, however the others didn't feel like they had any relation to Christmas. When we went into the main part, there was a huge bar area with about 10 different food stalls - that's it. I think it would be a great place to go if you were with friends, where you could have a drink, eat some food and have a get-together but that wasn't really what we were looking for. I just wanted to wander around some stalls, possibly pick up some nice bits for Christmas presents or some decorations but that sadly wasn't what this place was about. 

So with mingling disappointment, we decided to make the most of the trip to London by walking along the river and up to Covent Garden. It is so lovely at christmas, last year the decorations changed to the theme of mistletoe and it is absolutely gorgeous. Now, walking though there will make you Christmassy! If you are ever in London at Christmas, you have to take a trip here with everyone bumping into each other but no one minds as they're just enjoying buying presents and being there at Christmas.

And, of course, the beauty shops are even more stunning at Christmas so I couldn't resist taking a few quick photos. It is something about all the lights that make them seem so much more alluring than their normal glamorous selves.   

And finally to finish the evening off, I couldn't leave Covert Garden without taking a trip to Ben's Cookies, which has to make the best cookies I have ever had. They have delicious melted chocolate (unless you get one of their other flavours but I do like the classic best) in the centre and are so scrumptious I can hardly describe it.

That was our not so successful but ended up being quite successful in the end Christmas day out in London! How are you celebrating Christmas 2016?

It is finally December which means we can now mention Christmas without an echo of people telling us that that word is banned until 1st of December. I thought I would start December off with a gift guide of the perfect book to give your loved ones this Christmas. Books have to be one of my favourite gifts, to receive and to give, especially at Christmas as this is the time when you can spend more on a beautiful edition that would otherwise be too much any other time of the year. I will admit that I am a bit particular about my books and how they look on my shelf. If I have some books in a certain edition I like the others to match and I love to display my favourite covers on the top shelf. Does anyone else do this or is this just me? But the point I'm trying to make is that you can't beat a beautiful book as a gift. 

Beautiful Books from your Childhood

If you know your giftee well, this is such a lovely and personal gift to give. I have a few books here that I think are absolutely beautiful and love. Not so much because they were books of my childhood (except We're Going On A Bear Hunt) but many people will have. I saw this book of Watership Down when my mum and I were shopping and I fell in love with it, however, the price was a bit too high to spend on myself, little did I know my beautiful mum went back a bought it for me for that Christmas. The cover itself is worth the price tag but it also has beautiful illustrations within the book are beautiful. Alice in Wonderland is a well-loved book by many with many people who collecting multiple editions all equally beautiful however this one will always have a special place in my heart as this was gifted to me by my great-gran who wrote an inscription on the front cover. The illustrations are beautiful and are done by the same person who illustrated We're Going On A Bear Hunt which, was my favourite book as a child.

Some other books I don't have with me to photograph as they have been passed on to younger family members, are the Brambley Hedge books which have to have some of my favourite illustrations. They are so detailed and beautiful that you can look at them time and time again and still find small details you have never noticed before. The story lines are just as lovely as the illustrations and are perfect for anyone, no matter how old they are!

Stunning Editions for the Lover of Classics

If you haven't heard of or seen the Penguin English Library classics, where have you been? Every edition of these books are as beautiful as the next with each cover relating to the story within. The spines are absolutely beautiful and they have to be my favourite part of my bookshelf. It is probably not the reason to start reading classics, but I have to admit, I did start buying them and reading them as I wanted to have those beautiful spines on my shelf. I now absolutely love classics and am currently reading Jane Eyre and Frankenstein for my English coursework at school and am loving both books. If you know that your friend loves a good classic or has a few of these books definitely think about getting another to expand their collection. Penguin also have some of these classics in hardcover which would be perfect if you know your giftee's favourite classic and really want to get something extra special.

Beauty Books for Every Beauty Lover

I wrote a post a few months back about some my beauty books, all of which I would still recommend however I have since expanded my collection so I want to recommend some more books which would be perfect for those beauty lovers we all know. The first book I want to talk about is Bloom by Estee Lalonde which is an incredible book. The writing is beautiful, the photos are beautiful, and everything she writes about is so personal and relatable: anyone would be happy to receive this as a gift for Christmas. I have only had the chance to read the first few chapters but I can't wait to read more about the chapters beauty, travel, fashion, home...pretty much every other chapter!

I am guessing that if you read my blog, you have a love for beauty and fashion so will more than likely heard amazing things about Sali Hughes's new book, Pretty Iconic and I am not about to start going against that now. This is actually my mum's book (however since writing this post I now have my own copy but will show you that in another post!) as she loves Sali Hughes and reads her blogs all the time. I haven't had the chance to read any of it yet but even just flicking through the pages, you can tell that it is will be a good book. Every single page has so much detail about the products Sali believes to be iconic with stunning pictures to match. 

Magazine Subscriptions

Whilst I love getting stuck into a good book and becoming involved in different characters and their stories, it is nice just to read a short article about something you would never have even thought to read about before hand. Over the past few months I have really loved reading from different magazines as, especially if you have had a tiring day at school and really don't have the energy to pick up a book, a short article can be a really nice break. I also like how you can pick and chose what bits of the magazine you can read, depending on your mood and what you are interested in. A few magazines that I have enjoyed reading are the Blogosphere Magazine and Suitcase. Both are equally as beautiful as the other, put together with stunning photos and beautiful stories to match.

If you have a friend who is a blogger, loves blogs or just loves anything from fashion to food, the Blogosphere magazine would be perfect. I love how they have so many different sections for so many different types of blogs. It is not just about the top beauty and fashion bloggers but also travel, arts and crafts, photography, and so many others. The cover interview was so detailed and after reading about how In the Frow came to be so successful, I felt inspired to start blogging more and to get my act together with my goals and aspirations.

Suitcase is another beautiful magazine. Previously I talked about my goal to travel in the future and so this is the perfect subscription for me and anyone else who has dreams of travelling or loves travelling already. Again, the photography is beautiful and the stories behind the places are lovely. the only downside I have about this magazine is that it comes out every four months which just is not enough! 

And so there you have it! My guide to the perfect gift to give those books lovers this Christmas! I hope you guys liked this post and let me know what books you would have on your wish list this Christmas!

And then, of course, you can not go to Paris without travelling to the Effiel Tower and see Paris from the top of the top. It is an amazing sight, both seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time and seeing Paris from the tower. When we turned the corner coming out of the station and saw the Eiffel tower there, it was such an impressive sight, I think because everything surrounding it is so flat, it really stands out with a very strong impression. And Paris is a city even when you are 320 meters high. I kept thinking that it was such a white and clean looking but it also had so much greenery, so unlike any other city. 

On the second day, we decided that we would buy tickets for the hop on and hop off open top bus tour and I have to say I think that this was one of my favourite part of the trip! We got to see so much of the city and see so much amazing architecture, all from sitting down! The fact that you can hop on and off also means that we could get off and walk around any of the touristy places (like the Louvre and the Jardin du Luxembourg which was absolutely beautiful). I would definitely recommend this to anyone who goes to Paris, or any other big city as I will definitely be doing this when I get a chance to visit any other amazing cities. 

At the moment I am seriously procrastinating from writing my English essay but oh well! I'll get onto that later haha! A while back, I did a collab with the lovely Nicole from Thrift Vintage Fashion on how to stay organised and I based my post on how I did this using my bullet journal and you can read this post here, but I mentioned in that post how I would like to do one on how to start a bullet journal so here it is!

So step one! Buy your journal! if you look on Pinterest or twitter, you will see that there are loads of different journals that you can use for your journal. there are a few main brands that people use and I have a Moleskin journal but if you don't mind spending a bit more then you can try the Leuchttrum journals. When buying one of these journals you choose whether or not to have the pages blank. lined or dotted and whilst it is down to personal preference, I would definitely say the dotted pages are the best. This way you have a bit of guidance when making your layouts (there is no way I would be able to plan my layouts if I had blank pages) but you can also be more creative with the dots as you don;t have to worry about any lines crossing through you page (if you decide to have one page horizontal, it may be a bit difficult with a lined book) but as I said it is down to what you like!

Now onto step two! Time to add the bulk to your book! Writing in a new book as always a bit daunting as you don't want to ruin the nice clean pages or make a mistake but one you get started you'll realise that you will make mistakes but it all adds to the homemade feel of your bullet journal. The first page you will need to do is create an index/content page. I have left three pages in order to do this as I needed a double page for my yearly calendar but new that a single page was not going to be enough, and I think I was right! So make sure you leave lots of room! You update your index every time you add a new page to keep track of where everything is.

The second page(s) I would say to put in is your calendar. That way it is close to the front so easy to see and you can immediately put in important dates to keep track of. I have birthdays, holiday dates, and general important things that I need to remember and it is just a very easy a clear way of making sure you don't miss anything important! I wouldn't put in here times of when you're going to see your friends or something that you've planned to do the next day as that is something that I would keep for your weekly log.

And that brings us onto our logs! You can do monthly and weekly logs but I have only every done weekly logs, but looking on Pinterest I actually want to try a monthly log as I think that will help to organise the month even more. In a weekly log, I normally take up a double page and have a section for each day of the week. In some logs, I have some added areas where I can write down things I need to do for my blog, any appointments, notes and anything like that. Another good thing to have is a place to write down any dates for the following week as you probably haven't planned out the next weekly log . When you first start your journal, experiment with different layout and you'll see which bits you like and which ones you don't ever use! 

Any last but not least, collections! Collections are what makes your journal that bit more fun! They are pages in your journal that are dedicated to a use, like your To Be Read list, or your favourite films, or recipes you have to try, or ones you loved, basically anything you want to take a record of, you can create a page and design it like you want and there you go! Pinterest is one of my absolutely favourite resources to use when thinking of collections and new designs! I use if all the time to search new I ideas and you can see some of the things I have pinned for my bullet journal on my Pinterest so make sure to follow me on there! Here I have a few ideas, some are my own but I do love a lot of the design ideas on Pinterest so there are a few ideas from there!

So there you go! Now you can go set up you bullet journal however you want! If this has inspired you to set up a bullet journal then please comment and send me some photos of your journal! I would love to see what you guys have done!