If You Do One Thing This Month #5

...use some of these hacks to jazz up your Blogger layout!

This post is SO totally inspired by Bloomin' Rouge's great posts on techniques to try on Blogger; read hers here and here if you've not seen 'em already.

Today I've assembled a few little tricks that I've been busting out on my layout, plus some sites that have been super, duper helpful on the subject...

Build A Test Blog Site
This isn't a trick I've heard many people mention, but my God is it one that I swear by. Any complex widgets or major design efforts are always tested out on my dummy blog, and it's made my life SO much easier. I even use it to see how blog posts will actually work/look beyond the Preview option (I hate that all Blogger preview options can't be clicked through... le sigh!) This has been an amazing help and if you've not got a test blog already, get on it now!

Make Your Own Pinterest Button
Pinterest has been responsible for the rise to fame for so many bloggers out there; adding a "Pin It" button can really help drive traffic to your blog. I'd considered option for the simple, standard Pinterest button widget that is offered by the site - but having spotted a few bloggers that had their own personalised buttons, I figured I'd make my own.
This tutorial is the one that I used to host my button, which I designed for free on PicMonkey. Frankly I've never felt like more of a design genius.

Customise Your "Older/Newer Posts"
This one is a two in one jobbie... I personally hate the look of the "Older/Newer Posts" options that feature at the bottom of Blogger templates, so I've found two ways to make them more bearable. The first option is to change it to numbered pages, which I think looks far more professional. I am using Style 4 on the post I've linked, and all I had to do was change the colours to suit me and BOOM, I was off.
I've also had a fiddle in my blog posts to make sure that "Older/Newer Posts" says the title of the blog post it's referring too,  and I got the code for that here.

I hope you guys liked this post - do please let me know if you have any of your own stylish hacks for jazzing up Blogger layouts as I am obsessed with finding more!

To Do List #2

I just went back to look at my last To Do List, and was very excited to find I could tick off everything on the list... result! I love having little goals to chip away at; every semester at uni I write myself a few things I want to achieve, and it's lovely to look back and realise that I nearly always succeed.

Here are my goals for this semester:

1. Become majorly nerdy. We're talking going to the library by choice, sitting at the front of lectures, being the one that asks the stupid questions. SWATTING IT UP big style.
2. Get at least two hours exercise in per week. I miss being a fitness buff and it would be lovely to get back into pole; on a similar vein
3. Take up yoga and build my core strength. I have basically no core strength whatsoever and this is the part of my fitness I am most wanting to change.
4. See more of my bros. I've improved from my seriously asocial ways that set in over the summer, but now I'm back at uni there some uni friends who I've majorly missed out on seeing.
5. Become a homebody. I am terrible at tidying, horrible at housework and interior design is not my scene... yet. My room this year needs a lot of nurturing and I hope I can make the space my own, and one that is not a tip 24/7.
6. Continue practising my photography. I'd love a new lens but I am also determined to make the most of my current one (Canon 40mm, in case you were wondering.) I feel I've improved but there is always room for more.

I love hearing what other people are working on - so now it's up to you! What goals are you working towards?

My Year Abroad: What I Wish I'd Been Told

Truth be told, my Year Abroad did, at times, truly disappoint more than delight - optimism is a hard flame to rekindle once a stranger's snuck into your flat three times after all... but that's a story for another time! I've compiled a list of the realistic things I wish I'd heard before the move to France; not the ridiculous claims about the glamour and the lifestyle (bollocks, by the way) but the nitty gritty about what to actually expect. I'm hoping this will prove at least slightly helpful to those of you who've just made your way there!

1. Make travelling a priority: doing amazingly at a job you're never going to repeat is not worth caring about.
2. It's not going to be the best year of your life. 
3. You feel homesick, lonely and isolated.
4. You've already had Freshers - you won't learn much from another year of partying.
5. Foreign flus = Freshers flu x 1000
6. You will change, for the better.
7. Make the most of your friendships.
8. Find every opportunity to speak the native language.
9. French pastries are amazing.
10. No matter how much you think you hate it at the time, you'll miss it after.
11. Reverse culture shock is almost worse than culture shock, as it's unlikely you'll be properly expecting it.
12. Write letters to your mum - she will love them.
13. Find a new hobby/passion.
14. Take millions of photos.
15. FRENCH BUREAUCRACY IS HELL.
16. Have your exit strategy sorted - how do you close your bank account? Cancel your phone contract? Tell your landlord you're moving out? You get the idea.
17. Just because you didn't enjoy every second does not mean you have failed.
18. Places are just places. Paris is just a big city. France is just a slightly less developed country. Let go of any romanticised ideas.
19. MUSEUMS ARE ACTUALLY INCREDIBLE.
20. The cheese is the bomb!

There is also the truth that other people's years look far better than reality on their Facebook/Instagram, so don't beat yourself up if it looks like you're having a lame time compared with everyone else!

While we are on the subject - this is a shameless chance to share what were some of my highlights, and I am taking it...

Have any of you guys lived abroad? How did you find the experience if you did - and if you haven't, where would you must like to go?