The first quarter of this year has zoomed by. At work, we're starting the most anticipated time of the year where everyone gets their Appraisals done, and find out whether they're doomed or doing well. I think the question on most people's minds is definitely, "will I get a pay raise?", especially in a city like Hong Kong, where money is king.

Personally, the question I find myself thinking about the most at this time of the year is, what should my new goals be? What skills should I develop?

I realize again and again that my greatest strength and downfall is my ability to get hyped up and enthusiastic about learning about a new thing, then failing to commit to it till the end. Do you guys have this problem? Also, how do you find time to do all the things you want to do?

I'm determined to complete these by the end of April:

• HTML5 & CSS lessons (Codecademy)
• Adobe Illustrator lessons (Tutsplus)
• HK food video

Pinch me if I don't ;)

-Apple

Easy DIY Gold and Black Wall Clock

This will probably be the easiest DIY ever, I wanted a wall clock for my place but I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars on it. I spotted this plain IKEA plastic clock, the RUSCH for $12.90 which was a great deal. The clock is not the best made and is pretty plain so I knew that I wanted to jazz it up a tad.

Firstly, choose your colours and style, I wanted a gold and black theme and I knew polka dots is where I wanted to go. You could also use spray paint, or line the edges. This paint is one that is suitable for wood, plastic and ceramic surfaces.

I cleaned and dried the clock of any dust then added the dots to the clock sporadically, and left it to dry.

Once your paint is try, hang your 'masterpiece' up ;) easy peasy, and looks great anywhere too!

For the Girl Who Should Believe in Herself

So here I am, bringing up something that seems quite simple, but I think we all forget to do this. We forget about ourselves. Myself especially, I to say the words, have always lacked self belief. If you ask me to back and support my friends and family, I would wholeheartedly do it, yet I would never give myself that support. Oh dear mind, why must we treat ourselves so badly, yet others so well. We should do both, they should go hand in hand. 

Being older and wiser and all that crap, mostly it's life lessons (through work), I realised that I should need to give myself the benefit of the doubt and know that I'm fully capable of taking control and just getting shit done. For most of my life, I've always looked as myself as possibly a follower not a leader, that I couldn't ever do things on my own. However, circumstances have definitely changed, I've been learning that you only limit yourself. I've been so self conscious all my life that I would never do a good job, or that I shouldn't be the one in charge, that eventually it would be easier on myself and whatever I was doing to just do the damn thing. As humans, you get stuck in your own box and end up limiting yourself, but step outside it, bit by bit and you'll get to realising that you can definitely take control.

Self- belief is a struggle, it's definitely not something you'll wake up one day and have. It's a learning process, push those doubts that you have at the back of your head and ignore those people that say you can't. You definitely can. Start with small things, then work your way up, soon enough you'll be girl bossing it. That's my goal anyways.

'She believed she could, so she did' 

-Sophia x

*For the girl posts are a series of posts dedicated for the girl, because sometimes we need a nudge in the right direction.