Drawing Masterclass | Review + Demo

Hello all! I'm back with another review of an artsy product! If you watched my Dick Blick Warehouse Haul video a while back, you would have seen this Drawing Masterclass book! It's actually a really awesome book, and I'm so glad I was able to snag it for so cheap.

Drawing Masterclass | REVIEW + DEMO

I'd say it's a bit over the level of beginner, just because there's not much text to explain why lines are being placed in certain places, but if you're a visual learner, like me, you should be able to get the hang of it! Each drawing in this book goes step-by-step, so even if there's no text you can see where new lines have been placed, etc.

Here are my ratings!

Overall : 4.5 / 5

Text : 2 / 5

Visuals : 4 / 5

Step-By-Step Instruction : 3 / 5

Quality : 5 / 5

The intended audience for this book is probably for artists who aren't at a very beginner level. I've had background with linear perspective for several years now, so the lack of text and smaller step-by-step drawing visuals (even though they had plenty of room to make them bigger, it seemed) didn't bother me whenever I used it. To a beginning artist, who's just learning, it would most likely be overwhelming or confusing until some basics of linear perspective were learned. There are some information chunks in the beginning, but as you move through the book it starts to fade away from the text aspect and more toward the step-by-step processes. In my own demo, I was able to complete the drawings I tried out from this book (I did it freehand, no ruler used) without any text to really help me, so if you can find the lines they add in, as they're not marked or colored differently, you'll be alright with following along. The examples in this book are a bit more advanced than what you would probably find in a beginner's book. There are a lot of details, a lot of depth, and just a lot more in each drawing than what a class might require. Definitely a book for practice before tackling a major perspective piece.

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In my honest opinion, I feel this book is for artists who have at least tried linear perspective before and understand the basics of it. This was a nice refresher for me, since I once thought of doing this for a living as an architect way back when, and I really think this is more of a "relearning" sort of book that dusts the cobwebs off of the knowledge already stored away.

I personally loved filling pages in my sketchbook with these practice drawings. I did them small enough that I didn't really need a ruler, so it went by much quicker and I didn't really care if the lines were messed up or not perfectly straight. Again, it was fun just to PRACTICE and not have to worry about how it looked like. That's the enjoyment I get out of this book most of all. I mean, I could go ahead and do a full piece from that book, but I don't feel like it would personally help me as much as just practicing the basics and learning the techniques required to make my own scene from it.

Hope you enjoyed! <3

Dick Blick Link

Amazon Link

Plan With Me | FEBRUARY

Hey hey hey, everybody! It's time for another plan with me video! :D I'm excited for February because my birthday is on the 1st and I'll be 21! Also, it's me and Amelia's 13th anniversary of being friends, ON February 13th! Golden year! So this month's theme will be anchor, green, and blue themed to celebrate our friendship.

Plan With Me | FEBRUARY

I go over January in this video because it's probably one of my favorite months I've done so far and I totally spaced and didn't make a video for it. So you're kind of getting two months in one video, but you mostly see February. Also, you'll notice a bunch of washi in the thumbnail because at the end of the video I timelapse my washi tape process! Enjoy! (:

I used a lot of spreads and ideas from other bullet journalists, so here are their links!

@sunshine.and.stationery (mini calendar, washi layering)

@bujoboosted (checker life check, ultimate productivity challenge)

@blank_space_bujo (column weekly spread)

@bluelahe (running list)

@chartreuse_giraffe_bujo (post-it note memories spread)

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Overall, I'm kind of disappointed with how my February turned out. I don't hate it, but I wish I had better washi combos for this month since so many milestones will be happening. Also, I realized how redundant my weekly dashboards were after I inked them in, so March will probably look vastly different depending on if I decide I like the last week of February or not. I can definitely say that I'm going to be making a February Review + March Planning spread like I did for November and December of last year because that helped a TON for me and I'm surprised I didn't do it for January and February considering it was my first Leuchtturm experience. Also, the music in the video got messed up and I didn't catch it so you can barely hear me toward the end of the video, so sorry! :(

Oh well, bullet journaling is all about learning what works for you and making mistakes to get there! Happy February, everyone! <3

My Healing Crystal Experience + Shop Reviews

Hi all! Today I'm going to share with you my experiences with healing crystals! I'm really excited to "show and tell" in this post because I'm OBSESSED with my crystals, and it's one of the few things I actually believe in 100%, as I've seen it work wonders with myself and others! I originally was introduced to healing crystals by GentleWhispering and her second vlog channel on YouTube and I hope to have her size of a collection someday, but hopefully it'll be over time and not all at once. Crystals are expensive, sometimes!

It all started with four! My friend, Krissy, bought some and shared it on her Snapchat story and at that time I was half-and-half about healing crystals. I wasn't sure if they really worked so I didn't want to waste the money, but at the same time I was always drawn to them so it was hard for me to stay away. I've always been interested in crystals, ever since I was little. I used to write stories about them and now I'm glad it's come full circle and now I can use them efficiently! So, instead of buying the chakra set, I bought the four I thought would benefit me most. I ended up buying Citrine (which is still my favorite crystal kind to this day), Carnelian, Blue Onyx, and of course some Clear Quartz.




My friend and I got these off of Sacred Soul Stones, and just because of the person I am, I was a little nervous to see how these would come to me! I had never ordered crystals before and I didn't know what to expect. But they took care of me VERY nicely! I received my four crystals in little baggies, each with a piece of paper that explained each crystal's properties in detail. I even got a personalized letter, coupon code, and a free mesh bag of dried rose petals, which scented my room for a good few months! They're all tumbled crystals, as I'm attracted to them more and at the time natural crystals were too expensive for me to purchase.

I tried these crystals out for a few weeks and I just, overall, felt better when I used them. I accidentally missed my whole class once because I carried Carnelian (which helps with creativity, along with Citrine) and I ended up planning all of November in my bullet journal and totally lost track of time! A lot of my stones have the property to help with creativity, I'm so predictable. I remember feeling odd carrying around a crystal throughout my day because:
1) I was afraid to lose it.
2) Even though no one could see it I still felt silly carrying around a "rock."
3) I didn't know how it would affect me, and I didn't see the results at first.

Crystals truly are the kind of thing that chooses YOU. Even when I buy my crystals online I always feel pulled toward one more than another and it's crazy to wrap my head around that my own spirit is choosing which crystals come into my life, not necessarily my brain. And this might sound crazy, but if you work with crystals or have had experiences with them, you know the feeling.

After I bonded with my first four crystals, I decided to look around for other crystal sites, because I knew there had to be cheaper ones out there. Soon, I found Raven and Crone and I was happy to see their prices were about $3.00 less per crystal than Sacred Soul Stones. Another perk at Raven and Crone was that I can choose what size crystal I wanted. For example, on SSS my Blue Onyx was the same price as my Citrine and it's about half it's size. Over at RaC I can choose between extra small, small, medium, large, extra large, and sometimes larger than that! They have decently sized crystals, and a ton of options of each kind of crystal, for $2.00 and under. It's amazing but VERY dangerous for my wallet!

My order from there had 9 crystals for the same price as I paid for 4 at SSS, and they sent me a FREE CRYSTAL! The packaging was a simple small white box (I ordered mostly small or medium stones) with each of my crystals in their own tiny baggies, and in those tiny bags they had specified properties neatly typed up for me to read about. All of that information PLUS more than what you get on the little papers is found in all of the crystals' descriptions on their website. I've since gotten some crystals from my friend, Nicole, when she went to California over break, and in shops around me! (I'm secretly hoping Nicole and I can go on a crystal shopping weekend and go around to places haha).

Overall, my crystal experience has been a very positive one. Rarely, do I ever feel negative, as I tend to do a lot of the time, whenever I have a crystal with me. I keep them on my artsy table that sits at the head of my bed, and I've noticed a significant decrease in nightmares since I've started collecting more. I read somewhere that some crystals can dissipate nightmares, so I'm assuming that's what's happening! I've learned to tell my crystals their intentions and they listen to me very well. I've cleansed them a few times, but it's been a while since I've done that, so I'll probably do that this week sometime. To share something that Maria (GentleWhispering) said in one of her videos, no crystal can be harmful unless you will it to be. And as I'm experimenting with these crystals, I'm seeing more and more how they improve my life and I hope to have quite the collection someday, because it's nice to believe in something like this when the outside world can be so negative and dark.

I highly recommend healing crystals to anyone who wants to try them. And if they don't work for you, that's okay too! They're fairly inexpensive if you get smaller crystals to start out with! <3

*~* My Crystal Collection *~*

My crystal collection has grown over the last few months, so I'll share which ones I have in the best way I can, based on the above photo!

• To the far left I have a fossil whose organism turned into a crystal whenever it died (I got one for Austin and I from a state park near us and we broke ours open together), going to the right of the smaller piece, I have a Selenite sphere (local find), Natural Rose Quartz (from Nicole), Tumbled Rose Quartz (RaC), and Chrysophase (Nicole).
• Second "row" is Basalt (RaC), Tiger's Eye Red (freebie from RaC), Tiger's Eye Gold (RaC), Clear Quartz (SSS), and Carnelian (SSS).
• Two middle ones are Green Aventurine (RaC) and Tumbled Citrine (SSS)
• Third "row" I have South African Amethyst (RaC), Blue Lace Agate (RaC), Jade Nephrite (RaC), and Natural Citrine (RaC).
• The bottom two are Natural Blue Calcite (RaC) and Amazonite (from Nicole).

My First Bullet Journal! | COMPLETED

Hi everyone! I'm SO happy to finally be able to share this post with you! (: I'm officially out of my very first bullet journal, and I can't believe everything I've tried and all the people I've met because of it. I don't go over too too much in the video, but here is the link and I'll show some of my favorite spreads further down!

First Bullet Journal | FLIP THROUGH

// What I learned from this first bullet journal //

I learned a lot from this journal! I started it in June/July (I count June because I technically started in June with a cheapy $6 journal from target but it fell apart and that's when I started this journal!) and I had a TON of time because it was summer vacation and I had recently lost my job. So, I had a lot of time to plan and color in spreads and add in random pages and collections I would never use. And, once my next semester of classes started, I had a lot less time than I did in July to decorate the pages as elaborately as I wanted to, so my style changed A LOT.

In August, I actually had time to make a Plan With Me video (my very first one!) before classes kicked in. I remember being really nervous to keep bullet journaling through the semester because I was so dependent on my calendar planner for knowing what was coming up and, since I was still very new to the bullet journal system, I hadn't found my groove for within the semester at the time. August was color coded, colorful, and decorated just like July.

September is a train wreck. Homework and exams kicked in hardcore, I was trying to get everything, or as much as I could, done before I left for Michigan/Art Prize, and it was overall just a busy month. Even my mom was swamped with events and work, it was nuts! I ended up almost stopping bullet journaling altogether, and posting on my BuJo Instagram as well, but I decided to power through! I started out good in September, as I was planning on having a blue mushroom and rainbow theme (kind of like the colors of the Instagram tracker above) and I LOVED the double dashboard spread I had created, but the second one didn't even get finished before I went to full page, boring, black and white dailies.

October is probably #3 on my favorite BuJo months I've done so far! I really redeemed myself, got into hand lettering, and tried some new things! October was a key month because I found my style a bit more. I realized the dailies worked for me if they were more like thirds or half pages, I found out how to manage my time with school and planning out spreads and keeping track of everything in my bullet journal, all at the same time. Once I figured that out, I was set for the rest of the semester. October is a pretty black and white month as well, but it was a lot more filled in and organized.

November was an experimental month. I ordered my Leuchtturm in October and November was my month to try out spreads I thought I'd like to take advantage of in my next BuJo. This included dashboard, weekly, and daily experimental spreads. I loved it and wished I had done something different at the same time, even though I can't really put my finger on what I want to change. November was also the month I decided to take care of myself more, so I was regularly going to the gym, not eating out, drinking more water, and becoming more self aware with some helpful spreads! I also started journaling on my dailies regularly, like I did at the end of October.

December was the first month I really felt like I knew what I was doing. I had used sticky notes to plan it all out ahead of time, I made the planning spread above to make sure I knew what worked for me and what didn't, and I got WASHI TAPE! This was a big game changer because I wanted more color in my BuJo, but I didn't want to bleed through my pages with markers or inks. Now I'm addicted to washi. December is #2 (close 1st, but January in my new BuJo is my new top favorite) on my favorite BuJo months list.

Phew! That was a lot! It was so cringe-y to look at the beginning of this bullet journal, especially the amount of blank pages I wasted! I was so anal at the beginning with ghosting from my Microns that I washi taped pages together and left a lot of pages blank! I could easily have fit 2 or 3 more months at LEAST if I hadn't had that many blanks, which makes me curious at how many months I'll fit into my Leuchtturm. Honestly, I'm thrilled to see the improvement in my BuJo skills, and even January looks better than December! :)

Thank you all who have stuck with me since the beginning, I get inspiration from all of your wonderful planners and support! <3

New Hobby + #HPLettering Challenge Recap

Hello again! Today I'm sharing a new hobby I've found that I LOVE. Well, first off, I started reading Harry Potter this year (Amelia is so excited) and I'm in love with it! Also, hand lettering is my new hobby! I started in October with the #LetterTheOffice challenge from @thelittlestbujo on Instagram and I fell in love with different fonts and the fun of lettering! I do it all the time in my bullet journals now and I can definitely say I've improved and I'm pretty good at it!

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE the show The Office so this was the perfect lettering challenge for me to start out with. Since then I've joined the #happyletteringchallenge in December, which kind of became a flop once finals were over because I was so pooped from the semester from hell that lasted two weeks later than any of my other 5 semesters at BHC. I just wanted to sit around and do nothing and I ended up going into a bit of a planning slump like I did back in September. I'm back at it now, though, because I was excited to get January started in my new A5 Orange Dot-Grid Leuchtturm!

Since I had gotten super into Harry Potter in November-December I decided to join the 16 day #HPLettering challenge that one of my BuJo besties, @sunshine.and.stationery on Instagram showed me! I found that my Copic Markers (the only brush pens I really have) work REALLY well for hand lettering. So I tried it and loved the results, along with using my Stabilo 88 pens, and did the challenge in my sketchbook!

All photos found on @haleyjournals

Unfortunately, even though it was a shorter challenge, I was unable to finish it because my classes got CRAZY and I could barely think or do anything. So I got as close as I could, and I thoroughly enjoyed the practice! I do plan on doing more lettering challenges within my bullet journal every month, but I'm not holding myself to doing every single day if I don't have the time (: Personal limits come first, challenges can wait! <3

Michigan Trip - ART PRIZE!

Hello, my lovelies! It feels like I've been waiting to make this blog post since I revamped my YouTube channel in January! This whole travel vlog series has been a long-awaited treat for my channel, and I can't wait to share all the deets with you here. It's probably going to be a long one. You've been warned!

ROAD TRIP | Michigan - Day 1

The first day was pretty much a full travel day. From Geneseo ALL the way to the other side of Grand Rapids was complete chaos, driving wise. Massive traffic issues, loads of construction, almost bumper-to-bumper the entire way. I can't believe I was originally going to drive up there by myself! I got to use my beats headphones in the car (I bought them specifically for this trip so my dad and I could listen to our own music) and they worked like a charm when I was getting nervous about the traffic. Being in the passenger seat is hard sometimes. The best parts were the Denny's in the suburbs of Chicago and seeing Lake Michigan for the first time! Lake Michigan is, honestly, the best part of the video. We had driven along the side of the interstate on some back/side roads until we finally found a park, in the little town of Glenn, that lead all the way down to the beach! It was the first beach I had ever set foot on. The sand was so soft, but inside the water it was full of little broken pieces of shells! They hurt to step on, my feet were red until we got home 4 days later, but man were they exfoliated! (: I ended up bringing home a ton of rocks, and I wish I had brought back more! The water was a lot warmer than we thought it would be so we stayed there for a good one and a half to two hours before making our way to Greenville, where my uncle and his girlfriend, who we stayed with, live. We stopped at a Pizza Hut and ate a salad or two each from the salad bar before heading to their house and settling in for the next few days.

EXPLORING | Michigan - Day 2

We were originally going to go to Art Prize on Day 2, but my dad had injured his knee a week before we left for Michigan, and it was hurting him pretty badly. It was also drizzling outside and cold and rainy, so we decided it would be best to just chill and take a rest day. My uncle is a HUGE comic book nerd (in a good way!!) and him and I sat and read comic books and watched Marvel movies most of the day. In between the movies and comics, we went to a really good family restaurant for breakfast, explored a really cool cemetery, we got really bad customer service at an AT&T store, ate some really good Italian food, I played with his two cats and two dogs, and we drove around a really nice lake they go to all the time. It was nice to have a rest day in between the long road trip there and walking around Grand Rapids to look at Art Prize.

ART PRIZE | Michigan - Day 3

We were so glad we waited until our third day to go to Art Prize. The weather was a complete polar opposite of the day before. Low to mid 70's, bright sunshine, slight breeze. We couldn't have asked for a better day to go to Art Prize and walk around Grand Rapids! I was very surprised by how Grand Rapids, the city itself, looked. I always imagine bigger cities to be like Chicago (dirty, crowded, etc). But Grand Rapids was impressive! All nice and clean, even with a lot of people there it didn't feel crowded, and the buildings were just plain cool! I wouldn't mind living there, I love walking through big cities, and this one was one of my favorites so far! There was art plastered EVERYWHERE. We went into bars, hotels, restaurants, museums, everywhere had artwork. Even parks! There was a guy riding a bike around the Art Prize paths that he had made into a big fish, too. I wish I had gotten a better clip of it for the video, it was pretty cool looking and actually moved like a real fish!

I wish they had some different t-shirts, but I got two for myself and one for Austin. Unfortunately, the one for him didn't fit, so now it's a sleep shirt for me that stays at his house. Art Prize was such a fun and cool experience. If the drive wasn't so long and the traffic wasn't so horrible, I'd definitely go back more often! My work's headquarters is actually based in Grand Rapids, but by the end of walking around the big city none of us felt like searching out the work building, haha.

HOME BOUND | Michigan - Day 4

The way home was pretty uneventful. Lots of traffic, not as bad as the way up, but still a lot of traffic and construction. The way home always seems to take less time than getting there. Dad made some special stops on the way out of Michigan so I could get my usual magnet! I was so bummed not to find any Art Prize magnets ANYWHERE, so I settled for a simple Michigan one and a snowglobe with a moose in it. The clouds were crazy cool on the way back, so there's a lot of footage of that and traffic. Other than that not much happened. We got home Sunday in time for my dad to watch Sunday night football and catch the ends of some of the afternoon games, haha.

Overall it was a very fun trip! We got to eat a lot of good food and see a lot of amazing art! It was fun exploring a new city and I'm so glad I went on this trip even though it almost didn't happen. In the future I hope to go back. I'd like to explore Greenville's adorable downtown area more and I could stay in Grand Rapids all day! 10/10 would recommend for anyone interested in art, or not interested at all. It was really cool to meet the artists and learn new things!