Recently I’ve posted a bunch of food inspirations, which were a delicious form of autumnal season. Today I would like to share with you some other inspirations – this time it’s a blogpost from What I eat in a day series, a budget friendly edition! While creating those recipes, I really tried to choose the products that are not really expensive but no worries, even though I used some basic stuff, it was still really delicious so let’s jump into those recipes!

Creativity is usually associated with art, being an artist and creating in general, and if somebody asks you if you are creative, you will analyse your artistic side of personality. But if we carefully look into this term, I think we will find out that creativity is much more than “just” art. 

The truth is that even our everyday activities can be creative – how? Well, for example when you cook something in your kitchen and you invent a meal with different ingredients and as a final result you have something delicious, flavoury and beautiful. Or when you decide what to put on and you choose an outfit for the day – because we don’t always wear the same outfits, don’t we? 

Creativity can be noticed in a lot of parts of our life. Apart from well-known art, it can be found in science, because if a scientist hadn’t been creative, maybe we wouldn’t have had as many inventions as we have right now? Creativity is also a way of looking for a solution to solve a problem, creating some scenarios based on our decisions and also chains of causes and results. And as I mentioned above – it’s also our everyday life, beginning with our cooking, through rearranging our house, ending with a talk, as answering is also a way to be creative. 

There are a lot of fields of creativity and therefore many possibilities to be creative – of course, looking for your own form of creativity can be a long process, especially when we overlook some activities we think are too usual to be creative. Each one of us is individual and so the creativity we have inside of us is different, which is really beautiful and interesting in my opinion! 

I have a special task for you – take a look at all the things you are going to do today – how do you cook, how do you talk with others, what’s your outfit for toda? Put all those things on a sheet of paper. Then at the end of the day add your passions to this list. Take a look at it consciously – a big part of those things is a form of your own creativity! Surprised? 

with love

Basia 

About three years ago I stopped buying calendars – I couldn’t find the best one for me which would have a layout and be organized how I wanted. Basically there wasn’t enough space for my notes or I didn’t like the design of it. That’s why I started to create my own diary– my version of bullet journal with everything that I wanted to have inside and with the layout I liked.

I decided to share with you my ways to organize the week and some tricks I use in my diary so I can see properly what needs to be done or what I’ve planned for each day

When I open my diary, the left side is for studies, the right side is for the rest. It really helps me to write down what must be done for university but also what I need to do in my house or what I need to buy and all the stuff like this. I use the vertical system so each day has its own level and so it’s easier to see what’s planned for this day – university stuff and other tasks. 

When I plan my week I use a bunch of different colours so every category has its own colour in my diary. This system helps me to separate different tasks like blogging stuff, work tasks or weekly meetings so they don’t mix together and I won’t forget about anything I planned. Obviously, the red colour is reserved for special and really important tasks! 

I really like this feeling when I can mark something as done – this simple symbol put next to the task brings me motivation and helps me move forward with all the things on my to do list. When there’s something that I didn’t finish, I put an arrow next to it so I know that’s a task for the next day. 

I’ve already talked about it earlier, in the post about concentration and staying focused. Usually I try to make a detailed to do list so I can see properly what needs to be done and I know how to organize my day!

Every season isn’t only about the changes in nature but also in my kitchen. Autumn is really magical and full of a lot of wonderful flavours which can warm up or create a very cozy ambience in the house, especially when you bake something. That’s why in today’s blogpost I decided to share with you some of my favorite recipes for breakfasts and cakes, so this blogpost is going to be quite sweet!

- 2-3 tbsp of oats

- 1 tsp of chia seeds

- ½ of a cup of milk, I used oat milk!

- ½ of an apple or just a small one

- 1 small plum

- 1 tsp of peanut butter

- a pinch of spices: cinnamon, cardamon, ginger powder or simple some gingerbread spice

- toppings: pumpkin seeds, almond flakes, coconut flakes

First I put oats and chia seeds in a little pot, add oat milk and simmer gently until the consistency is quite smooth. Then I cut an apple and a plum into little cubes and put them on a warm pan with a little bit of hot water. I fry them until they are nicely roasted. You can also add a little bit of honey on the pan so those fruits are more caramelized! Then I add spices to cooked oats. I put everything into a bowl and decorate my oatmeal with toppings and peanut butter. Cheers!

First I peel the carrot and grate it (or blend it! If you have a quite strong blender). As it was in the previous recipe I put oats and chia seeds in a little pot, add grated carrot and oat milk and simmer gently until the consistency is quite smooth. Then I add spices to cooked oats. You can also add a teaspoon of honey so it’s sweeter! I put everything into a bowl and decorate my carrot cake oatmeal with toppings and peanut butter. I also add some chocolate drops on top. Enjoy!

As always I would like to say that you can add whatever you want or have in your kitchen. Let those recipes be an inspiration for you guys so you can explore new autumnal flavours and create your own version of those oatmeals :)

[I decided to divide this post into two parts so it's easier to be understood.]

For over three weeks I have been seeing the leaves changing their colours out the window, I’ve been adding a pinch of cinnamon to almost all of my meals, especially to my morning oatmeal, and putting a sweater on me almost every day. Since the beginning of October I have noticed some changes in nature and in my everyday life, which helps me really feel the autumn!

This time of the year has more than just one face, for some of us it’s time for pumpkin cakes, a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows or a pumpkin spice latte. But for others it is a time of melancholy and nostalgia, time of rain hitting the window, of hiding under the blanket and escaping from reality with a good book or another episode of the series.

No matter how your autumn looks like, let’s talk about all of its aspects and sides.

V. A warm cup.

5. Gorący kubek.

W moim pierwszym jesiennym poście znajdziecie trzy przepisy na rozgrzewające napoje. Każdy z nich potrafię pić hektolitrami – świeżo przygotowany gorący kubek kawy, herbaty czy naparu imbirowego jest idealnym sposobem na rozpoczęcie dnia albo na rozgrzanie dłoni i ciała od wewnątrz, zaraz po wejściu do domu z zimnego dworu. Wygrzewanie się pod kocem w piątkowy wieczór z włączonym filmem i takim gorącym kubkiem w dłoniach jest najlepszym rozpoczęciem weekendu.

To tylko kilka moich jesiennych inspiracji, a raczej rzeczy, które kojarzą mi się z jesienią i którymi wypełniam moją codzienność. Jestem ciekawa, jak Wy zaczynacie i przeżywacie jesień! Koniecznie dajcie mi znać w komentarzu :)

with love 

Two weeks ago I started my third year of studies, online. With the beginning of the first class I had a throwback to last semester, which was also online, and to my problems with concentration. I started to think about what I can do to be more concentrated during all the classes and stay as focused as possible to really take advantage of this online university. I knew I had to create a method which would help me to get into this mode of concentration and would decrease the possibility of being distracted by something around me. I decided to talk about this with one of my friends and today I’m going to share with you some ideas which can help you to concentrate easily!

I’m a huge fun of creating to do lists and writing down all the stuff that needs to be done, because it makes it easy to plan the whole day. A to do list can be done in two different ways – really detailed, so you write everything you have to do, for example number of pages of a book that you want to read or exact chapter you want to make notes for. Another way is this more general, which means that you write kind of a title like maths, mails, offerts… The way you write it depends on how many tasks you have to do, so you can choose the one which makes your plan clean and easy to understand! And also,checking things as done gives such a nice feeling of satisfaction!

II. Designate time.
In the past I was trying to designate time for one every single task so on my to do list I marked exact hours when I wanted to study or to revise for exams but it didn’t work for me so I stopped doing it. What I can recommend is to put just an information for how long you want to do one thing, like for one hour or two hours. It works much better for me! Second thing which is important is to really stick to the time you give yourself for one task – first way to do it is by setting an alarm, especially if this thing can be finished in every moment. Another one is to have a watch, which gives a flexibility to finish your task earlier or a little bit later if you feel like you want to have it done properly.

2. Wyznaczyć czas.
Kiedyś wyznaczałam sobie dokładny czas na daną czynność i na mojej liście pojawiały się konkretne godziny, w jakich miałam się uczyć, ale różnie to wychodziło, więc ostatecznie zrezygnowałam z takiej metody. Teraz zdecydowanie częściej wyznaczam sobie samą liczbę godzin, co sprawdza się u mnie lepiej. Drugą ważną sprawą przy wyznaczaniu czasu jest jego egzekwowanie. Można sobie nastawić budzik, jeśli zadanie do wykonania jest możliwe do przerwania w dowolnej chwili. Można też pracować z zegarkiem w ręku i pilnować czasu, ale w bardziej elastyczny sposób – tak żeby w razie potrzeby go przekroczyć albo skończyć wcześniej. 

III. Take care of your space.
Clean space is a base – it’s almost impossible to work and stay focused with a total mess around you. When my desk needs to be cleaned up, first I tidy it up before starting my studying time. Well, there is something about a cleaned space that helps to concentrate more easily – having no material or mental distractions is the key.

3. Zadbać o przestrzeń.
Porządek to podstawa – z chaosem wokół siebie trudno jest skupić się na pracy. Zazwyczaj, gdy na moim biurku panuje bałagan, to najpierw zabieram się za sprzątanie, a dopiero potem siadam do swoich zadań. Coś w tym jest, że czysta i zadbana przestrzeń pomaga w skupieniu – brak rozpraszaczy odgrywa tu ważną rolę. 

IV. Distractors must go away.
Talking about distractions – it’s better not to have them around you while working. My biggest distractor is my phone. Even though I have all the notifications switched off, sometimes I still grab it to look for something an then I fall into all those conversations, messages and stuff. That’s why I try to put it somewhere so I won’t see it. Sometimes behind me, sometimes under a pillow and sometimes I in a different room. I think that it’s the best way to stay focused for a long long time!
4. Pozbyć się rozpraszaczy.
Mówiąc o rozpraszaczach – najlepiej się ich pozbyć na czas pracy. Moim największym rozpraszaczem jest telefon. Nawet jeśli mam wyłączone powiadomienia, to czasem sięgam po niego, żeby coś sprawdzić i od razu wpadam w wir odpowiadania na wiadomości… Dlatego staram się usunąć go z pola widzenia. Kładę go za mną na parapecie albo po drugiej stronie pokoju na komodzie, czasem chowam pod poduszką albo w ogóle wynoszę z pokoju. To chyba najlepszy sposób na porządne, głębokie skupienie! 

V. Having a goal.
Having a goal helps to get into working mode. No matter if there are any difficulties or if the task is really complicated or time consuming, the vision of having something done and reaching the goal can be really motivating! This goal can be created just for this day, like mark all the tasks as done, but also can be something for next couple of months or even years, like preparing for the final exam or writing a book by the end of the year.
5. Wyznaczyć cel.
Mając wyznaczony cel, znacznie łatwiej jest podjąć jakiekolwiek działanie. Niezależnie od trudności, poziomu skomplikowania czy czasochłonności zadania, perspektywa osiągnięcia celu potrafi być bardzo motywująca. To może być coś wyznaczonego tylko na dany dzień, albo na dalszą przyszłość, jak na przykład dobrze zdany egzamin końcowy, czy napisanie książki do końca roku. 

Working on a method that suits you is a process – for some people it is a very fast process, others need more time to do it. Personally, I’m still in this process of looking for the best method for me and sometimes I still have problems with staying focused, especially when I’m tired and or not in a mood to study, those days exist too! But I’m trying my best and still going on this way to finally achieve my goal.

The beginning of October is a beginning of the true autumn – leaves start to change the color, I start to wear sweaters and comfy scarfs more often and for the Friday evening I prefer to stay at home with warm tea and a good movie.

I. Coffee with cardamon and cinnamon.

As I’m a huge coffee lover, I like to change the way I prepare it for every changing season – in summer I make it with ice to cool me down, in autumn I prepare it with some spices that fill me with this amazing feeling of warming up. In my version I use cinnamon and cardamon. They can be added either to a cup with already prepared coffee or to a coffee machine or to a French press so those spices can be nicely mixed with coffee. You don’t need to add a lot of them, little pinch can already give a lot of flavours!
This kind of homemade cinnamon coffee with some steamed milk can make you smile in the morning.

1. Kawa z kardamonem i cynamonem.

Będąc prawdziwym smakoszem kawy, uwielbiam dostosowywać ją do każdej z pór roku – latem robię ją z lodem na ochłodę, a jesienią z przyprawami, które wypełnią od środka przyjemnym ciepłem. W mojej wersji jest to cynamon i kardamon – obie te przyprawy mają właściwości rozgrzewające. Można je dodać bezpośrednio do kubka z już przygotowaną kawą, albo wcześniej do kawiarki na sitko, lub do french pressu wraz z sypaną kawą. Wystarczy dosłownie szczypta, by móc poczuć smak tych przypraw.
Taka domowa cynamonowo-kardamonowa kawka ze spienionym mlekiem czy napojem roślinnym potrafi umilić każdy jesienny poranek.

For as long as I remember I always loved handwriting and writing in general – in notebooks, in journals, diaries, calendars… I could give you a lot of more examples. I always prefered fountain pen then just a pen and every single time when I had to change the pen refill I did it with patience and solemnity, as if I carried a pen made with glass. This love for fountain pens I got after my father who was a huge pen lover and he had a great collection of them with a beautiful Mont Blanc which I use only for special occasions like wish cards or letters.

I have the feeling that handwriting is less and less popular and it disappears with the development of the new technologies. The whole world gets digital – our grocery list is written on our phones, instead of writing a letter we write a message, instead of having a notebook for university we have our laptop to write notes on it. I’m not saying that everybody does this but this change to more digital world can be easily noticed.

Mam wrażenie, że pisanie ręczne powoli zanika, jako że cały świat staje się coraz bardziej zdigitalizowany – listę zakupów zapiszemy w notatkach w telefonie, zamiast listu wyślemy maila albo napiszemy smsa, zamiast ręcznych notatek mamy plik na laptopie. Nie mówię, że wszyscy tak robimy, jednak można zauważyć te zmiany w społeczeństwie.



Ja natomiast nadal mam sentyment do ręcznego pisania, wysyłania listów i pocztówek, prowadzenia dziennika, czy robienia notatek na studia w zeszycie, dlatego postanowiłam rozwijać się w tym kierunku i zapisać na warsztaty z kaligrafii organizowane przez Paperiadę w Poznaniu. Paperiada jest studiem graficznym prowadzonym przez Adę, która zaraziła mnie swoją miłością do pięknego pisania i kaligrafii. Swoją drogą, z tymi warsztatami wiąże się śmieszna historia, bo wybierałam się na nie od dwóch lat i za każdym razem, kiedy Ada je organizowała, ja akurat nie mogłam wziąć w nich udziału, aż do teraz!

For four hours of said workshop I realized that calligraphy is not just a beautiful lettering but also a huge school of patience and perseverance – not every letter is easy to be written and an expression practice makes you master is really true here. I also thought about calligrapher profession that was never really popular but how precious it was and still can be! When I got back home after this workshop my mom told me that my great grandfather had been a professional calligrapher so now I’m continuing a family tradition with calligraphy and something that I’m treating as a new form of meditation and a passion was his profession.

Przez cztery godziny trwania warsztatów i nauki pisania każdej litery uświadomiłam sobie, że kaligrafia to nie tylko piękne literki, ale też ogromna szkoła cierpliwości i wytrwałości – nie każda literka była łatwa do napisania, a dojście do perfekcji wymaga dużo czasu i praktyki. Pomyślałam o zawodzie kaligrafa, który może nigdy nie był wielce popularny, ale jaki musiał być cenny!
Po powrocie dowiedziałam się, że nieświadomie kontynuuję tradycję rodzinną, bo mój pradziadek był kaligrafem i to, czym zajmował się na co dzień, ja traktuję jako nową pasję i formę medytacji.


I think that all of those craft professions are coming back because something which is handmade and not in bulk is much more precious and you can really see that work and a heart of creator in it. One of my visions for future is having a small business with handmade wish cards, in which I will use my new skills, I mean calligraphy. Maybe this idea is quite crazy but why not? As I wrote before – society changes and of course it uses a lot of new technologies on a daily basis but on the other hand I’m really motivated to learn more and one day write a wish card for my customer.

Myślę, że takie rzemieślnicze, tradycyjne zawody wracają powoli na rynek pracy, bo coś, co jest robione ręcznie, pojedynczo, a nie hurtowo, jest moim zdaniem cenniejsze i widać w tym pracę i serce twórcy. Jedną z moich wizji na przyszłość jest założenie działalności zajmującej się tworzeniem kartek okolicznościowych na zamówienie i wykorzystanie w niej mojej nowej umiejętności, czyli pisania kaligraficznie. Pomysł jest dość szalony i trochę niepewny, bo tak jak pisałam wcześniej – społeczeństwo się zmienia i korzysta głównie z form elektronicznych, ale z drugiej strony jestem zmotywowana do tego, by ćwiczyć kaligrafię i pewnego dnia wypisać urodzinową kartkę na zamówienie.

PS Special thanks to J. who is the author of all of those beautiful photos, check out her instagram!