Once I had ticked off my Christmas present list for my family, it was time to indulge in some guilt-free present shopping for me. I say ‘guilt-free’ because it’s hard to get certain things where I live in Sicily so when I was back in Ireland it was a question of now or never. Walking in to the newly opened Homesense in Cork, I was in homeware and stationary heaven, especially when I saw how reasonably priced things were. With basket in hand, my goal soon revealed itself to me: to Monica Geller up my 2018 with notebooks and planning tools and to pick up a few things to transfer my spare bedroom into the inspirational workspace it longs to be.
Everything you see here is from Homesense, except for the “Light Up Your Life” light box which I got in Tesco’s (in Mallow) for Eur 18. It’s an incredibly strong light source that can be used as a lamp plus it has extra letters to personalise a message. I had put in new batteries to only later discover that it accidentally switched on in my luggage the whole journey back to Sicily (even during my 3 day stop-over in London!) D’uh! Note: must buy new batteries
Weekly Planners: Eur 6.99 each Desktop Sign: Eur 8.99
These weekly planners came in handy as small gifts and they were well received. They aren’t dated but are sheets with Monday – Friday and To Do / Notes sections that can be ripped out to plan each week.
Dream Notebook Eur 8.99
I’m going to start journaling my dreams again. I believe dreams shouldn’t be overlooked as they can be messages from your sub-consciousness to your consciousness communicating something you are not aware of yet, like bubbles rising to the surface. It will also force me to try to remember my dreams as soon as I wake up and not let them melt away into nothing.
Be Brave with Your Life Eur 8.99
This notebook is perfect for mapping out my goals. A goal that isn’t written down is just a dream or an idea in your head. However, getting goals down on to paper doesn’t necessarily mean we will actually achieve them! The next and most important part is to break down that goal into little bite-size steps and then putting that first step onto your “To Do” list for today. “To Do” Lists are useless and only gather cobwebs unless we transfer some of them onto our “Today’s To Do” list to be completed and crossed off.
Pencil case: Eur 12.99
Now that I am a teacher, I needed an oversized pencil case to throw in pens, USB sticks, post-it notes, equipment keys, coins etc instead of them sadly swimming in the inner pocket of my bag. I’m so happy with this find and it’s conveniently transparent to grab things at ease.
Notebook: Eur 5.99
Chunky with a thick hardbacked cover, I don’t think note taking ever looked so cool!
Planner: 9.99
I’m chuffed with this. Last year I bought an Erin Condren Life Planner which cost more than Eur 50 and was shipped from USA as I was hoping such an extravagant buy would organise my life – and it worked! It was my first time buying and using a planner and it became essential at busy exam season. This Homesense planner ticks most of the Erin Condren boxes, if not more. It has a year, monthly and daily planner with cool funky little shaped boxes for more note taking. The design of every month is different and quirky and there are also information sections (world times, dialing codes, roman numerals etc). It has a dedicated note section at the back and I love the strong message “This is my Year” on the front. I’m looking forward to putting the fun stickers and cool mini post-its to good use on my planner and goal notebook.
Desktop Sign: Eur 8.99 Stickers: Eur 5.99
Mini Post-its: Can’t find price tag but probably the same as the stickers
So I hope you enjoyed my Christmas Haul. Did you get yourself something nice to inspire your 2018? Let me know in the comment section below.
Ciao for now,
Eimear xxx
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Would you like to know more about my insights on Dreams? Check out my blog post Inception:
aheadwithstyle 
I wish I could remember my dreams. They seem so important when I’m dreaming them, then they dissipate when I wake. Often something is slightly out of sync with the waking state, as though the dream universe has slightly different laws. I do remember that I used to dream a lot about having the power to fly. Yes, kind of like Birdman, but I dreamed it before he did. I think I even dreamed it before reading the Carlos Casteneda books decades ago. Flying was sooooo real. I’m glad I haven’t hurled myself off a precipice to discover it in waking. My dreams would come to an abrupt halt, coincidentally with my existence. When I was little I used to dream that monsters were trying to get me and I always hid behind the couch. I would tremble in fear there as they crept around the corners to seize me. They never got me though. I’d wake up. But for the most part I don’t remember my dreams these days, just that I’ve dreamed a lot and it was somehow important.
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You know John they say being able to fly is supposed the ultimate feeling of happiness. I used to have lots of flying dreams when I was younger too…perhaps it reflects we were truly happier and carefree before the world had its way with us! that’s a really interesting thing you said that the dream world has different laws.that’s the perfect way to describe it. It’s like when you just come out a dream and when you awake you just realise what you were thinking about in your dream doesn’t make any sense whatsoever in the real world yet it did in the dream. It’s as if we use a different language to think with in the dream world (for example symbols, numbers and metafors mixed with certain words) like a different computer program we use when we dream that doesn’t translate at all when we wake up and seems like gobbly guke.
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Btw maybe if you get in the habit of writing your dreams as soon as you wake up, no matter how crazy or meaningless they may seem in that moment, it gets you in the habit to remember your dreams and makes you better at remembering them. You may be surprised that perhaps some of your dreams came true- maybe hence why we get the deja vu feeling- perhaps we had dreamt it already.
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