We Live In A Broken World :(

Omg.

I have no words to describe how I have been feeling over this past week. My heart has been slowly breaking; breaking for the people who died, their families, Christina's friends and families, the world.

There are just bad people in this world, and they see things differently to us. They can do things without being in their right mind. They can do things because their religion requires it. But they can also do things purely because they want to hurt, and to kill. And it breaks my heart that so many people, who had so much to live for and so much to do in their lives murdered in a place of safety.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about, on June 12 a gunman stormed a gay nightclub in Orlando and gunned down as many innocent people as he could.  Around 50 people were killed and about the same number seriously injured. Two days prior,  at a concert also in Orlando,  22 year old Christina Grimmie was shot whilst signing autographs after her performance.  (You might remember her from The Voice in 2014) after committing the act,  the gunman was tackled by Christina's brother,  and then proceeded to kill himself.  Christina died in hospital later that night.  

I don't live in Orlando, not would I classify myself as a fan of Christina,  but I am still so heartbroken over the deaths of all these innocent people.  My prayers go to their friends and families,  and I am grieving with them and the rest of America from the other side of the world.

Just imagine what would happen if everyone in the world was a little bit nicer.  

Lots of love,  Little Robin

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Quick Update On Me and My Ex (if anyone's interested)

You will probably see this as a completely random post, but I just thought that someone out there might benefit from reading this. Also, it's something I'm quite proud of, and it makes me very happy to think about. If you read my last 'Let's Talk' post, you will know that just less than a month ago, I broke up with my boyfriend of 9 months. It was very sad for both of us at the time, but if you want to know more about it then click here.

Since school went back however, we have become even closer than before and are now 100% comfortable around each other. He's still the only person outside of my family that I feel like I can completely trust to keep a secret, and apparently he feels the same about me. I don't really know why I felt the need to write about this and put it on my blog, but I guess just to prove that even though a relationship has ended, it doesn't mean you can't be close friends with them. I've always been terrible at being friends with guys, because when I was younger I only every had girls as friends, so if I can do it, anyone can!

So that's all for today, and I'm sorry if that was completely random, but I just wanted to share it with you all :) See you next week!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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The Text Tag

Hello everyone! The other day I was tagged to do The Text Tag by Rose from It's Looking A Bit Mitty which, if you haven't realised already, is what I'm going to post today. So without further ado, let's get into it.

The rules:

- Thank the person who nominated you/give a link back to their blog

- Answer the original 6 text-themed questions

- Add a typography/word related question of your own for those you tagged to answer

- Tag at least 6 bloggers and let them know

- Include these rules in your post

Here are the questions:

1. What is your favourite letter of the alphabet?

Probably 'S', but I'm not too sure why. 

2. What are three words that you love?

Tenacious, vague and oxymoron

3. What are three words that you hate?

Moist, equipment and deadline

4. If you were to create a word, what would it be, and what would it describe?

Interspicious - describes someone who is afraid of the supernatural, even though they don't believe in it.

5. What are your three favourite punctuation marks?

;  !  *

6. What are your three favourite fonts?

Glass Antiqua, Lustria and Julius Sans One

Specific question from Rose for me:

What/who inspired you to start blogging?

I started blogging because I wanted to be able to say what I wanted without being judged, and at the time I probably just wanted something to do!

So, here are the people I tag:

Martin - Martin's Virtual Blog

Jenni - In My Own Little World

Hayley - Reflections of Me

Noor - A Little Bit Of Sunshine

Envy - Lost In Translation

Gwen - The Blueberry With T-Rex Arms

My question for you:

What's a word/words that you think is often misunderstood and gets used in the wrong context?


So there we go! I hope you enjoyed today's post and are having a great day wherever you are in the world :)

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Let's Talk: Breakups

This is something that the majority of people will have to deal with at some point. It's painful. It's sad. It's what I'm going through right now. 

Yep, the other day I broke up with my boyfriend of nine months. And even though it was me who broke it off, it is still painful for me, and I think lots of people don't understand this - I broke up with him so that must mean that I feel absolutely nothing for him at all and I've completely moved on. No! That's not how it works at all. Yes, I did break up with him and one of my reasons was that I didn't feel the same way about him anymore. But that in no way means it wasn't painful for me. I still care about him, but more as a friend than anything else. 

All of my friends have been really supportive of me and my decision to break up with him, which is so important to me since I was worried they would all talk behind my back and think it was stupid for me to "throw him away". But (as far as I know) they haven't, and the few that I told before I actually did it, managed to keep it a secret and not leak it to the whole world. 

Something you do need to be careful of if you're going to tell someone your plans to break up with your partner is to make sure that they don't leak it! Because if they do, it will eventually get back to the person in question, and there is nothing worse than finding out you're going to be dumped by someone else. So that is an area you always need to be aware of. I told one of my really close friends a few days beforehand to get her opinion and all that, and when I told her my reasons she was really supportive of me, and even agreed with me! But before I told her, I stressed to her that if she told anyone, or hinted that she knew something but she couldn't say what (something that she is quite guilty of a lot of the time), I would know that it was her because I had only told one other girl who is currently in Japan, so I would hunt her down and kill her in her sleep, etc. etc. But she kept her mouth shut like the good friend that she is and even came and gave me a long hug after I did it (which is very rare, since she hates giving/receiving hugs).

Breaking up with someone can be so hard, because you can be seen as 'the bad guy' and you're hurting someone you really care about, but the worst thing you can do is lead them on. I was pretty guilty of doing this, because we go to the same school and we have classes together, so, like the coward I am, I actually waited until the last day of term to break up with him! Brutal, I know. 

What I found was that the hardest part wasn't the actual break up, it was getting up the courage to pull him aside and say "Can I talk to you?" It felt so surreal, like I was walking in a dream - it was super weird and really terrifying. I couldn't even get the words out! I just stuttered for a bit until he realised what I was saying. 

This was my first relationship, and it was an important part of my life. I loved my boyfriend for a long time, even though I knew he wasn't the one for me. I mean, I'm 15! I'm not exactly looking for someone to get married to just yet. I still care about him a lot and I want to be friends with him again, but I'm not sure how long I should leave it. Any tips?

Well that's all for today, sorry that this wasn't a very happy post but I needed to get it out of my system. See you next time!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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IT'S ALL OVER!!

Downton Abbey is over, can we just take a minute to MOURNE THE LOSS OF THE MOST AMAZING SHOW EVERRRRR!!! (If you can't tell, I'm heartbroken) 

That's all for now, bye!

Lot's of love, Little Robin

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Let's Talk: Internet Drama

Internet drama. It's something that you can't escape from if you have anything to do with the Internet. Sometimes it can just be a bit annoying that you are getting loads of notifications about something really not worth arguing about, sometimes it can even be funny that people find it so important to prove their point. But there are also times when it passes the line and just becomes mean and rude.

Like all social media platforms, blogging can bring on heated comments about copied content, offensive wording or just someone looking for an argument. And in my experience, girls are usually more likely to engage in online arguments and fights, simply because we prefer not to do it face to face or have a fist fight (like more guys probably would), and it is so easy to say things through a computer screen. Things can be said that would never be said face to face - it's easier and it doesn't feel as if you're actually saying it to the person because you can't see their face.

As an example (I won't use any names, but most of you probably know who I'm talking about), the other day I was reading a blog post which I was quite interested in, but when I went to leave a comment, I found that there were already 21 other comments. This wasn't odd in any way, but when I read these comments, I found that all of them were from the author of the blog and one of her readers. Basically, the author was being accused of copying content without asking, etc. etc. in a very rude way. So, I re-read the post, but there was nothing in this post that had been copied - there were similar ideas, but I had already seen plenty of bloggers with the same ideas, so... what was this person's problem?? She clearly wasn't the only one to have this idea, so it obviously hadn't been copied from her - it was a great idea anyway, of course someone else was going to do it.

Anyway, the reader who had posted these comments had clearly just been looking for an argument, and she'd gone about it in a really rude way, which I could tell hurt the feelings of the author (of the post).

You don't always have to have the last word in an argument, the best thing is to just let it go and move on, because internet drama is usually just wasting everyone's time.

So I just wanted to post this because I feel like people can be ruder online than in real life, and they just need to wake up and realise that it's just not worth it. Also, if anyone knows who I'm talking about, please don't mention any names in the comments because I don't want to offend anyone or start another argument. Thanks :)

Lots of love, Little Robin

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The Stresses of School Life And Where I've Been

So, you may (or may not) have noticed that i haven't blogged for about a month, which I'm sorry about, but the work load so far this school year has just got to me and I have had barely anytime to do anything other that homework and study. I'm hoping that this will ease off a tiny bit (although I highly doubt it) because I don't know how long I can keep this up.
I just feel physically and emotionally drained.

If you live in Australia you will probably know that for the first 6 weeks of term, year 11 students have to undergo 'rigorous testing' which will give us all out estimated WACE scores for year 12. This means loads of tests each week and LOTS of study!

Here's some of what I wrote in my little journal:
"Sometimes I feel like everything is piling on top of me, like bricks. As i take one brick off, two more get added on. So I just give up and stop trying. I sit at my desk for hours, thinking about the mountains of work I need to do, but I never actually accomplish anything. Once things get too difficult, I quit. I set goals for myself, but i don't have the self-control to achieve them - I just skip over the work and go straight to the reward."
(If any of you understand how I feel, please let me know because I feel like I'm the only one right now, and it doesn't put me in a great mindset).

Anyway, that's it for today because I'm still very busy, but I will try to blog once every week (lets see how long that stands for!) Thanks for reading, and I'll see you in my next post!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Albany Adventures!

Hey everyone! Today I thought I'd give you all a bit of an update on what my week has been like.

Well, I have just spent the last 5 days down south in Albany, and it was extremely beautiful and picturesque. However, it was also freezing cold! Especially as it is the middle of summer in Australia, this was a bit of a shock to all of us - but then again, it's always cold in Albany.

The camp we stayed at was right by the beach, but I didn't end up swimming in it (because it was so cold and windy). The camp itself was protected from the strong winds from the ocean by a large hill, so it was kind of weird walking over the hill and feeling this rush of noisy cool air come straight at my face! Some of my fellow campers braved the wind and chose to tackle the waves with their boogie-boards and surfboards, but I just used my friends as wind breaks because I'm a huge woose when it comes to cold weather.

I did get a chance to swim at a much more protected beach though. A large group of us happy campers took a surfing lesson which was tiring, but definitely my favourite part of the trip. All those professional surfers make it look so easy, and I can barely stand on the board with waves that only reach my knees! How do they do it?!

Before we left to go back to camp that afternoon, we drove up to the lookout - the view was breathtaking. Unfortunately, my phone had recently died so I couldn't take any photos!

Whilst we were staying down south, we also took a long (and I mean long) hike through the bush to 'Bold Head'. The walk was basically 3 or 4 small mountains strung together that jut out into the middle of the ocean. Whilst the walk there and back took a grand total of seven hours to complete, it was so beautiful and I got a few photos of that walk.  

During our stay in Albany, I shared a room with two of my friends, and the brother of one of them was in the room next to us with his friend. As the week progressed, we began a prank war. Technically they started the war by putting dead crabs in our beds (not very pleasant, I can tell you!), but we retaliated by spraying their room, clothes and sleeping bags with perfume and deodorant. This wasn't our greatest comeback, considering that next they would surprise us with live crabs, and even a frog! This didn't go down well with us at all, and so we sneaked into their room that night with markers and drew on their faces! Not the best set of pranks in the history of prank wars, but it would have to suffice.

So that's all for now, and I hope you enjoyed my photos and my rambling on. 

Also, school goes back in THREE DAYS!!! Yaaaaaaaayyy *sarcastically waves hands in excitement*

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Unknown Bloggers Challenge

So I was nominated by the lovely Nabila to do the Unknown Bloggers Challenge (not too sure why it's called that), and because I love challenges I decided to move it up to the top of my post schedule!

The Rules:

- This is a challenge. Therefore, those nominated are challenged to do it. 

- Nominate at least 5 followers with less than 100 followers etc.. etc., etc.

Questions:

Cute blog design and no button or a button and no design?

Definitely a cute design because it would motivate me to blog more and attract more followers. Also, I don't have a button anyway (I couldn't figure it out haha)

Why do you blog?

I blog because I love to write, and I have since I was little. It also gives me something to do when I have an hour or two to spare.

Favourite type of post to write?

I love posting about my things that I buy when I go shopping (which happens way too much! whoops...), but I also enjoy writing my Let's Talk series, which I post once every month. My first one was 'Boyfriend Dilemmas' and the second was about over-protectiveness. I find this series really fun because it's all about expressing personal opinions, which can help some people reading it (mainly me!)

Favourite type of post to read?

I love reading short stories because I love getting a look at the creativity of some bloggers, and I'm always looking for a book to read, so a blog post changes it up an bit and is a bit more convenient (I can just read off of my laptop instead of going to the library - I know, I'm very lazy!)

How/when do you think of a post? Do you have a schedule?

I used to post whenever I felt like it because I wasn't organised and left my school work until the last minute, which meant I had to do that instead of blogging. Recently however, I have adopted the idea of a schedule and I LOVE it! I feel so much more organised (even though school hasn't actually gone back yet) Now I post every Sunday, unless it slips my mind, in which case I will put the post up first thing on Monday.

So there we go! All my questions are answered, but now it's your turn.

Here are my questions:

If you could spend the day with any celebrity, who would you pick, and why?

Ugly and live forever, or attractive and die in a year?

What's the weirdest thing you have ever done?

Are you a morning or a nighttime person?

Quit school at 16 and get a terrible job, or do an extra year (plus uni) and get an amazing job?

Why did you start your blog? (I just feel like I should include a blog related question!)

And there are the awesome people that I tag:

- YaliSafiya from Yali's Lovely World

- Ashana Lian from A Fantasy Writer's Blog

- Rose Thorn from It's Looking A Bit Mitty

- Amelia Grace from Amelia Grace (who would've guessed?)

- Gwen from The Blueberry With T-Rex Arms

- and anyone who has under 100 followers and wants to!

So there you have it folks! There are my answers to Nabila's questions, now it's your turn to answer my questions! Yay! 

Thanks for stopping by to read my blog, and I'll see you in my next post.

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Boxing Day Sales

I know that Boxing day was a while ago, but I didn't get around to writing this post until now, and I like posting about what I bought so I'm gonna do it anyway :)

In the past Boxing day has always sort of slipped by me and I never took any notice of it. It's always been that day where everyone wishes Christmas wasn't over and burns off the calories from the day before. But this year, a friend invited me to go to the City with her for the Boxing Day sales (which I didn't even know existed!) I am a bit of a shopaholic and will never pass up a shopping spree, so off we went with our purses full of money to fill our closets with clothes we don't need.

So I thought I'd show you what I bought, because I haven't done a post like this for a looong time.

Valley Girl

(This is one of my favourite stores ever!)

At the moment I have a tiny bit of a weaved shoe obsession, so when I saw these I fell head-over-heels in love with them. They're platform healed shoes which is always a bonus for someone like me who is kinda short.

Usually, I only buy clothes that I am 100% sure about, but this was one of those times when I acted on impulse. I do really like it, but it's a much more formal dress than the other things I bought, so I won't get to wear it as much.


Supré

This is one of two skirts I bought from Supre, and I think it's adorable. It's a short black and white checked one, but it's shorter than it should be because the only two they had left in the shop were a Large (L) and an Extra Extra Extra Small (XXXS)! Luckily it's just long enough to wear!

I love the pattern and the colour of this skirt because honestly, who doesn't love tartan? It's longer than the other skirt, so I'm much more comfortable to wear it (it's also less likely to get blown up by the wind!)


Dotti

This top is a bit of a staple, especially for me because up until recently I owned nothing black (a great help when I'm performing and I can only wear black!) Also, it's a halterneck, which makes it look more interesting than just a pain black top.
(In the photos, the top is tucked into the skirt, but when it's un-tucked it goes to just below my hip with small slits on either side)


London Rebel

Finally, my favourite purchase of the day. Again with the weaved platform shoes, but these aren't heels which means I can wear them more casually (or I could dress them up I guess). I am absolutely in love with these shoes and I wear them everywhere!


Again, thank you guys so much for taking time out of your day to read my blog, it really means the world to me. See you next time!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Things to do when you're BORED!

I'm currently in the middle of Summer holidays, which should be the best 6 weeks of the year. And it is... until the day after New Years. Then there's just nothing to do. All the exciting stuff like Christmas, Boxing Day sales (next post) and New Year is over, and now there's nothing. It suddenly becomes an impossible mission to gather all your friends together to have a movie night, or organise a shopping trip. Everyone goes on holidays at the same time or has work, so you give up and just binge watch Netflix until school goes back. 

Well, I've devised a list of things for you to do that will help to kill some time when there's nothing else to do. So let's get started!

Bake brownies

So this seems like a really simple one, but I find baking brownies so fun to do. They're super easy and quick, and they taste AMAZING as well. Here's my favourite recipe if you want to try it out:

Ingredients 

- 125g unsalted butter

- 200g dark chocolate, chopped

- 3/4 cup brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

- 1 cup plain flour

- 3 eggs, lightly whisked

- 1/2 cup dark choc bits

Method

Step 1: Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a 20cm square cake tin with non-stick baking paper

Step 2: Melt butter and chocolate together in a medium saucepan over low heat. Stir in brown sugar and vanilla.

Step 3: Add flour and eggs and beat with a wooden spoon until well combined. Stir in choc bits.

Step 4: Pour into prepared tin and smooth surface. Bake for 40 minutes until set. Remove from oven. Cool in tin for 5 minutes then transfer to wire rack. Cut into squares to serve.

YUM!

Re-decorate your room

I'm planning on completely redoing my room in the next few weeks, and I'm thinking of doing a DIY room decorations post around that time (that way there will be something interesting to decorate my room with!) So if you're planning on re-decorating, check that out for some inspiration.

Sort out your closet

This is something I feel like I need to do quite regularly because instead of folding my clothes and putting them away neatly, I just shove them in any available space in my closet and slide the doors shut so that no one can see it. So if you're like me and you're not very organised, this can be a great way to pass the time and clear your head a bit at the same time.

Re-organise your bookshelf

I used to do this all the time when I was little. I would pull all the books off their shelves and sort them into alphabetical order, genre or even by personal preference. It is certainly very aesthetically pleasing, but I would not recommend this if you are more of a half do-er. Because if you are, you will get halfway through, take a break and never finish, leaving heaps of books scattered all over the floor. 

Go to the beach

Again, very simple, but also great fun. Grab a few friends and take a drive (or a walk, depending on how far you live from the beach) to a sunny spot by the water where you can lay down your towels and relax. This can be a great way to catch up with old friends you haven't seen in a while whilst splashing each other in the water and hopefully getting a great tan!

Go back-to-school shopping

This can seem like a scary thing to some people, but hear me out. I'm not talking about buying textbooks and calculators (even though you have to do that eventually). No, I'm talking about cool stationary, snazzy notebooks and trendy pencil cases. I find this the most enjoyable thing about
back-to-school, and there are some super cool stationary stores out there. My favourites are Typo and Kiki-K. Here are some things I bought recently:

So there you have it! A few different ways to pass the time during the Summer holidays (or any time really!) when you have nothing else to do. I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any different ways of passing the time, please let me know because I can't buy cool stationary forever!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Let's Talk: Overprotectiveness

As girls, I think we have all experienced this in some shape or form, at some point in our lives, especially from our parents. We always want a bit more trust, a little more leniency, because as we grow up we want to be more independent, but sometimes our parents just wont let us do what we want when we want to. Our brain then turns this into, "they wont let me do anything", "they don't trust me", etc. when in reality, they are doing what they think is right because they have more experience than us. But we are younger than them and have less knowledge of the world, so we register this as unfair.

However, I'm not saying that our parents (or whoever else fits into this context for you) always know better and are always right. Because, they don't. We are all human. We all make mistakes. They might think they are doing the right thing in restricting your freedoms more than you want, but sometimes they are wrong, and this is another situation which we constitute as over-protectiveness.

The truth is that they may not be ready to let you grow up just yet. I especially get this a lot, because I am the oldest child in my family, and I am also a female. This means that I am like the guinea pig because my parents have never done this before, so I am more likely to be overly protected than my brothers. I get restrictions (like no social media for example), but when they are my age, my parents will probably loosen the reigns a little because they know what to expect.

Also, like I said, I am a female, so I am stereotyped as weaker. Many people think it is sexist to protect women over men because we are all equal, but I don't feel like this is completely true. Yes, we are all equal and we shouldn't be separated or anything due to our gender, but it is human instinct for men to protect children and women. It's the way they're made. Feel free to disagree with me on this (because this series is all about opinions), but most men are physically stronger than most women, it's not just people being sexist. Yes, there are many women who are much stronger than men, but for the majority of the time, it is the other way around.
But I'm not completely understanding of my parents decisions. When I asked them if I could go to the movies with my boyfriend, their instant reaction was no. And after 6 months, their answer is still the same. Now I don't know about you, but I find that a bit over-the-top. If my brothers were in my position, I'm pretty sure my parents would be fine with it, because they are supposedly more capable of looking after themselves.

So that's my opinion on over protectiveness, but let me know what your opinions are on the matter, and if I said something that you don't fully understand (it was hard to put all this in writing, so I'm not sure how well I went)
Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog, and I'll see you next time!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! First of all, I know I haven't blogged in a while, but I've been a bit busy (busy being lazy) and honestly I just forgot about my blog for a bit. Oops... But what better way to start fresh than a fresh new year? 

It's been a great year, and I can't wait to see what 2016 will have in store for me! 2015 brought on new adventures, new friends and, of course, the creation of this blog. That's right, Little Teen's Blog has just had it's 1 year blogaversary! In 12 months I've gained 20 followers which is more than I ever expected, so thank you to all of you who've clicked the follow button or commented on any of my posts - it honestly makes my day. 

Anyway, as we all know, I had the great privilege of travelling around Europe earlier this year, which was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. Whilst I also learnt a few German words, my main takeaway from my trip was the new friendships and bonds that I made. My greatest memories of the whole trip wasn't really the walking tours and performing in amazing venues, even though they were all great fun too. No, my greatest memories are playing Uno on our hotel room floor, getting lost in Munich with some of my friends, making daisy chains and flower crowns, and eating way too much ice cream! It was the little things that stood out the most for me, and it makes me a bit sad that I didn't even notice how precious these things were at the time, and that I will never have experiences quite like that again (the first time is always the best!). 

Another amazing moment this year (which I never got around to blogging about) was much more recent. A few weeks ago, I was given a spare ticket to go and see Ed Sheeran performing live! It was hands down one of the best nights of my life. The atmosphere was incredible, we had amazing seats, and it was my first concert ever, which made it all the more exciting. I lost my voice by the end of the second song and I had 'Sing' stuck in my head for the next week, but I could not get over the fact that I was seeing the real Ed Sheeran - not watching a video or listening to a CD! And of course for his last song of the night he played 'A Team' and everyone turned on their phone torches. It was the most beautiful sight, and it gave me goose-bumps. So thank you to Ed for an amazing night!

Now let's look at my New Years resolutions from last year:

- I will always remember to send a card to my sponsor child on time, not after it is supposed to arrive on the other side of the world.

Haha... oops.

- I will blog as often as I can for as long as I can.

I personally think I achieved that, because even though I would have liked to blog more often sometimes, my life has been getting a lot busier lately (I'm going into year 11 next year, which means I wont have a life for the next 2 years, I'll just be studying!)

- I will keep my room clean(ish).

I kinda did... but I kinda didn't

- I will read more books instead of always playing the sims.

I gave away most of my books this year and Sims is addictive, so... (also, I forgot this resolution even existed!)

So overall I don't think I did too well. But maybe this year will be different (famous last words). Here are my New Years resolutions for 2016:

- I will get straight A's in my mid-year and/or end of year report

- I will get a job

- I will blog once a week unless I have a genuine excuse (like exams etc.)

- I will pass my driving test and get my P plates

So there we go! That's my plan for this coming year (hopefully I'll do better this year than I did last year!) Also, let me know if I should do a post on what I got for Christmas or if there are any other posts you want me to do.

Thank you for reading, and I will see you next time!

Lots of love, Little Robin

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