Random Thoughts From A Jenny Brain

This is pretty much going to be a very eclectic mix of stuff, from Avon to BuJo, from Science to Geekdom

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Plan With Me | July 2018 | Digital Planning

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Falling Down Rabbit Holes

Falling Down Rabbit Holes| or where I've been for the last 7 weeks

I just looked at the date of my last blog post and saw it was the end of April! What’s my excuse this time? Well, apart from the normal procrastination and distraction of everyday life in mermaid land, I’ve actually fallen down a few deep and interesting rabbit holes lately and they’ve taken up a ton of my available time. Well, sit back and let me elucidate…

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Not So Berry Legacy Challenge

Do you like the rainbow? Do you like the idea of playing with berry Sims but hate berry Sims? Do you want to mess around with aspects of the game you’ve never used before? Boy, do I have the challenge for you!

Welcome to the Not So Berry Legacy Challenge, a ten generation legacy with a focus on bright colors and new experiences.

Basic Rules:

Each heir must represent the color of the generation (i.e. hair, makeup, clothing), but brightly colored skin is not necessary (these aren’t actually berry Sims, that’s the joke). Of course, this is optional but a big portion of the fun.

The colors of the spouses don’t matter as they aren’t part of the challenge. Unless otherwise stated you can do whatever you please with them.

Money cheats can be used, but not excessively. Suggestion: use freerealestate for your first home, but no cheats afterward.

You may live wherever you please unless something is specified in the rules of a generation.

Every generation is supposed to complete both the career and aspiration of the heir unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Keep the lifespan on normal.

If you play this challenge and want to share it with us, go ahead and post with #notsoberry so we can see!

My good friend @alwaysimming​ and I kind of created this challenge on accident, but I think it turned out pretty great. We wanted to make something that forced us to play with parts of the game we’ve never explored before. Hopefully you’ll have fun too. You can follow our gameplay on @mintiphresh​ and @lea-fey​ (pronounced “minty fresh” and “leafy”)!

Keep reading

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Started this challenge on Monday. Loving it so far

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This post obviously won’t be applicable to everyone, but for those of us that do menstruate, tracking not only your actual period but other aspects of your cycle can be important. Here, I’ll explain why, and how I track mine.

Anyone who’s ever had a period will know that doctors always like to know the dates of your last one. Even if you went in with a sore throat, it seems like they want to know about your menstrual cycle – which I guess is even more annoying if you’re a trans man. Having the information on hand can save a lot of time and trouble.

Since having my first child I have tracked my period on an app called P Tracker. I know a lot of people also rely on apps such as Clue to help track theirs. I relied purely on digital tracking for a long time. In fact, it wasn’t until I discovered Bullet Journals 5 years later that I would start tracking on paper as well. While the app is convenient, there’s something about seeing the patterns laid out in front of me that appeals to me.

I used to use this pretty basic pixel type tracker in my journal. It wasn’t anything fancy, but I had the key so I could see the difference in flow and whether I was early or late. It was nothing extravagant, but using the information I’d gained from tracking my period, I could not only pinpoint the best time to try to conceive our second child but could accurately predict her sex.

Back in February, I was watching Boho Berry’s One Month In My Bullet Journal series on YouTube and she mentioned she and her husband were going to be trying for another baby. She created this beautiful, yet functional fertility tracker to use. I fell in love with the style of it, but I’m not planning on having any more children. I decided to use her tracker as a template to make my own but to change the things I was tracking to suit my own needs. After 3 months of procrastinating I came up with this:

The basic framework of the spread is the more or less the same. I used the vertical boxes with columns for each item. The key at the side shows what I’ll be tracking and the colour/symbol I’ll use. Instead of noting when I take tests, or visit the doctor I’m tracking other changes in my body such as acne breakouts and the types of food I’m craving.

You don’t need to be trying to conceive to benefit from tracking your cycle. Many external factors, such as stress, as well as internal factors, such as weight or health problems can affect your periods. Remember that everybody and every body is different. It helps to see how many days *your* cycle has, it will probably differ from the accepted average of 28 days. If your cycle is actually closer to 32 days, and you can see that from tracking it, it alleviates the stress once a month where you think your period is late, when it’s not.

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Tracking your cycle is important. Here's how I track mine This post obviously won't be applicable to everyone, but for those of us that do menstruate, tracking not only your actual period but other aspects of your cycle can be important.

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I’m going to try to keep this movie review as spoiler-free as possible, and I also want to point out that I’m not a huge Marvel buff, unlike my husband. So if you’re like me and maybe haven’t seen all 19 of the MCU movies, don’t worry, I’ll start with a quick catch up of what you need to know.

The Infinity Stones

Six stones were created during the Big Bang. Each has its own power: Space, Power, Mind, Time, Soul and Reality. They are scattered across the universe, and we’ve already seen a few in course of the previous movies. Thanos, the Big Bad Guy, wants to collect all six to become all powerful.

Where did we leave everyone?

The Avengers have gone their separate ways after the events of Civil War. The Guardians of the Galaxy are on the lookout for another adventure after Volume 2. Thor, along with Loki and Hulk, are aboard a refugee ship which holds the survivors of Asgard at the end of Ragnarok and lastly, Bucky Barnes is in Wakanda with the Black Panther.

So… Is it any good?

The quick and easy answer to that is YES! I loved it, and so did my husband and son. It’s the culmination of ten years and 19 movies worth of build up and backstory. Combining the worlds of the Avengers with that of the Guardians of the Galaxy was ambitious, but it worked without feeling overly crowded.

Each of the major characters has their own part to play. Even for a casual fan, like me, I felt I could enjoy it without having to extensively research what’s been going on. I’m still yet to see Black Panther, but I did finally watch Spiderman Homecoming on the night before going to see Infinity War.

Moments of inevitable action interspersed with the quippy one-liners and comedic moments we’ve come to associate with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even moments of shock and despair. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least.

One thing I loved was Thanos. As a villain in a comic book/superhero movie, it would have been very easy to make him two-dimensional and generic (I’m looking at you, DCEU), but Thanos has a motivation, he justifies his actions. To himself, he’s not evil, just making the tough decisions. Without giving anything away, there is a moment where you can clearly see how pained he is by this. Josh Brolin did an amazing job of bringing him to life.

I think it says a lot about a movie such as this one when, as the end credits begin to roll, there’s an audible “whaaaat?!” from the audience. I, for one, can’t wait to see where to story goes in the next as-yet-untitled Avengers movie, which is set to hit cinemas next spring.

*Spoiler-free* review of Avengers: Infinity War I'm going to try to keep this movie review as spoiler-free as possible, and I also want to point out that I'm not a huge Marvel buff, unlike my husband.

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My first Bullet Journal post in quite some time, so I’ll do a little flip through of what’s been going on in my journal in the meantime as well.

Re-cap: October 2017 – April 2018

I moved into this lime green Leuchtturm 1917 in October. I love the colour of it, and it’s the third LT1917 I’ve used.

I didn’t stick with it though, This is the last page I used for the month of October. I remember when we had that red sun, brought about by a combination of hurricane Ophelia and the sands from the Sahara.

I started using it again in January and re-did some of my favourite spreads, one of which was this running tracker (as I hadn’t been running since the middle of October either).

Another new spread I added was this moon phase tracker inspired by the Lunar Abundance practice of Ezzie Spencer. (I’ll be doing a review of her new book soon, so watch this space).

These were the next weekly spreads I did. The eagle-eyed among you will notice there’s a gap of about a month between them. I stopped using my Bullet Journal in the middle of March. With the school holidays, I had no need for it, my daily routine went out of the window. Once school started again on the 16th of April, I knew I’d need more organisation to fit everything in around school runs, and here we are now.

May 2018

Mer-may! I love it. As you’ll guess from my blog name (plus all my other social media names, pretty much) I love mermaids, so I jumped on the opportunity to use them as theme to run through the whole month.

I’m most pleased with the mood tracker. Hopefully, I’ll stick with it, I can’t wait to see what she looks like filled in.

I filmed a Plan With Me video if you want to see

I hope you enjoyed having a quick flip through my journal up to this point and getting to see how I’ve set up for next month. I’ll be posting more of my bullet journal stuff up on Instagram, so make sure to follow me over there, if you don’t already. I’ll also try to get more planning videos up on my channel, so click Subscribe if you want to see those.

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Plan With Me | May 2018 My first Bullet Journal post in quite some time, so I'll do a little flip through of what's been going on in my journal in the meantime as well.

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Hi again, I wasn’t planning on writing another post today, but I’ve baked the Earth Day cake I was talking about in my last post and it’s so delicious, I had to share the recipe.

I found the recipe for Earth Day cupcakes on Pinterest a few years ago, with a frosting heart hidden inside. I have tried to replicate this a few times, with varying degrees of success.

Instead, my family prefer the plain cake as it is. The swirls of colour are meant to resemble the earth, with green for land masses and blue for the oceans.

My Earth Day cupcakes from last year

The trouble with the cupcakes is the tops go a lovely golden brown colour and hide the blues and greens until you either bite into them or cut the tops off. To fix this, I thought I’d make a loaf cake so each slice would show the colours off perfectly when served.

I got the basic sponge recipe from the BBC Food website, but that recipe is for a sandwich style cake. To fill a loaf tin, I would recommend increasing the quantities. Here are the actual quantities I used:

125g butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

125g self-raising flour

a few drops of food colouring, blue and green

method

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350F/Gas 4

Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and smooth

Beat in the eggs

Sift in the flour and fold together

Divide the mixture in two and add blue food colouring to one bowl and green to the other

Add to a greased or lined cake tin (or make cupcakes) mixing the colours by adding a spoonful of each at a time

Bake until an inserted skewer comes out clean. This will vary depending on whether you made cupcakes or one big cake. For cupcakes it’s 12-15 minutes, for a loaf cake it’s 35-40 minutes.

As you can see, the mixture didn’t go very far for me and I will be experimenting with larger quantities.

Regardless of the cake being a bit “short”, it went down well. The kids ate it while watching The Lorax and we’ll now be going out to enjoy the sunshine, while it lasts.

  Have a great and green Earth Day tomorrow everyone 🌎 🌍 🌏

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If you wanted the recipe for the Earth day cake I mentioned in today's earlier post. Here it is! Hi again, I wasn't planning on writing another post today, but I've baked the Earth Day cake I was talking about in…

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Earth Day | Celebrate and make a difference

Earth Day | Celebrate and make a difference

Happy Earth Day, humans! Not sure if you knew, but tomorrow is Earth Day and it’s a great time to raise awareness of the issues that threaten our planet while making it fun and educational for the little ones too. Here are some of the things you can do, along with what I’ll be doing with my own kids. (more…)

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What I Learned from a Month of Blogging Every Day

What I Learned from a Month of Blogging Every Day

If you’ve been following my blog recently you will see that I’ve been taking part in a 31-Day challenge which I found on Pinterest. Given a prompt for each day I published a post every single day for an entire month. That was a lot for me, considering the last post I published was about a year ago, and before that only posted sporadically. So, what did I gain from this experience? Read on to find…

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 31

Final day of the challenge - weird quirks | day 31

Welcome to the final day of the challenge, I will be doing a sort of round-up post tomorrow to tie it all in, but this is the final prompt from the list. And this is a hard one. A Weird Quirk of Mine. (more…)

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 30

Feeling hungry? I am after writing this! Favourite Comfort Food | day 30

It would be just my luck that the day after I decide to make an effort to eat healthier, this prompt pops up. Today I look at what is my Favourite Comfort Food. And I can feel my stomach rumbling just thinking which one to write about. (more…)

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Bucket lists, we all have one, even if it’s just in our heads and not written down anywhere concrete. Things we want to achieve or places we want to visit before we kick the bucket. Here are just a couple of mine.

I already touched on wanting to travel in my post about winning the lottery and that’s definitely high up on my bucket list. There are so many parts of the world I’d love to see from the big cities of Tokyo and Sydney to natural wonders like Mount Kilimanjaro and Monument Valley to places a little further off the beaten track. After all:

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page – Saint Augustine

Speaking of books, I’d like to publish a book in my lifetime. I have taken part in NaNoWriMo twice now but only completed it once. The next step would be to take what I have written and edit it into something I’d be happy for others to read. A lovely lady I’m happy to consider a friend, even though we’ve only spoken online, is a self-published author and I know the hard work that goes into it. By the way, you should really check out her debut novel, I read it last summer and couldn’t put it down. If you want to pick up a copy or download the eBook version, you can get it by clicking the affiliate link image below (see my disclaimer below)

  I’d also like to learn to speak both Spanish and Japanese fluently. I have begun taking steps to achieve these goals. If you read my post from day 2 (20 facts about me), you’ll remember that I mentioned going to an evening class to learn Japanese for four years. It has been a long time since I did any Japanese practice, but I do still remember the basics. Spanish should technically be easier, but without the structure of a class and only self-study to rely on, I’m not so sure.

Lastly, at least for this short version of my bucket list, I’ll include something Disney. I’d love to visit all the Disney parks, and hopefully stay in a resort hotel at each one. I’ve already made a certain amount of headway into this goal too. I’ve been to Disneyland Paris and stayed in a resort hotel there. I’ve been to all the parks that make up Walt Disney World in Florida, but we always stay off-site when we go there. That only leaves California, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

What are some of the items on your bucket list? Are you making any progress towards any of them? I’d love to hear about them and maybe get some inspiration for my own list.

**affiliate disclaimer** – If you make any purchases through the links I provide I could make a small commission, but you will not have to pay an extra penny 

Thanks for reading, if you’re new be sure to catch up from day 1 here. If you’re enjoying the series and would like to see more from me make sure to follow the blog either here on WordPress or Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

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Some of the top items on my bucket list| day 29 Bucket lists, we all have one, even if it's just in our heads and not written down anywhere concrete.

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 28

Ugly crying when your favourite character dies? Yep, that's me. Last Time I Cried | day 28 *contains spoilers*

Can you believe this challenge has been going for 4 weeks now! Only 3 more days to go. The prompt for today is Last Time I Cried. (more…)

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 27

What makes me feel better? Some simple self-care tips | day 27

Today’s prompt is a nice, warm and fuzzy one. What makes me feel better, always. There’s a lot of emphasis on self-care lately and this is a perfect self-care post.  (more…)

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 26

Time to shout out my favourite blogs| day 26

Today I get to champion my favourite bloggers and show where I get my inspiration from. They range from big names in the industry to small bloggers, just getting started like me. Here they are: (more…)

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 25

What are my best physical features | day 25

Today I have to pick my best physical features, at least there isn’t a number I have to choose because, as someone with quite a low self-esteem, picking more than just a couple would be difficult. (more…)

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31-Day Blog Challenge | day 24

A difficult time in my life| day 24 TW: depression/anxiety

I’ve not been looking forward to writing this post as much as the others, and that’s because the prompt is A Difficult Time In My Life. I’m going to keep the details to a minimum, and instead talk about how I coped and how I’m a stronger person coming out the other side. (more…)

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