Back To School Throwback Posts

Hello world

We are in the back to school season  and as such, I am sharing some old posts that were featured on the blog. They are still very useful and they can be of good help. Click to read on each topic.

Simple Hairstyle Ideas

Study Break Ideas

Buying The Right Tertiary Education Forms

What to Wear On Your Matriculation

Great But Not-So-Great Things About Going Back To School

Making The Grade Outfit Idea

Cool Nail Arts For Back to School

Best Tech Accessories for Back to School

All the best in your new school year. Much love from the Marietta DeGrant Blog

Reasons Why I Prefer Cooking To Eating Out

Hey world!

Last time I was talking with a friend and we were talking about how some guys tend to buy food outside than to cook. Also, it was not too long ago that I was told of a lady who had cooking utensils and food, but didn’t like to cook.

Really, nigga?

Well, I don’t really blame her, because I don’t really know her reason for doing that. I thought of myself. I actually don’t consider myself as a good cook as compared to my mother, but I am hoping to get there, where I’ll get A+ in cooking than in shopping.

Oopsie!

Well, the only reasons why I’ll ever eat out would be

1. I’m new to a neighbourhood and I’m trying to adjust myself and unpack

2. My gas is finished

3. I’m sick and there’s no one to cook for me, so I need a food booster like waakye or kenkey.

4. I’m on a date

Those would be the only reasons, and I cannot imagine myself eating outside if I have food and gas.

Here’s to the reasons why I prefer to cook than to eat out.

a. I want to become a better cook and I know by cooking, I’ll be getting there one cooking session at a time. I know there’ll be days when you would be feeling lazy and all that, but on that lazy day, I’ll just put on some music and use my not-so-bad dance steps to cook.

b. I want to avoid complaints.

If I eat out, it gives me the opportunity to complain about how bad the food tastes. When I cook, and I eat my bad food, I can’t complain, I caused it.

c. I would get left overs

When you cook, the left-overs would serve as breakfast on busy mornings.

p.s. is it just me, or left-over foods are the best?

d. I can learn to garnish and take pictures of it. Who doesn’t like the sight of her own garnished foods?

It is the opportunity for me to try new recipes I have pinned on Pinterest and watched on YouTube. Sounds fun, right?

Let’s Chat: So, what about you? Do you prefer to eat out or cook your own meals at home?

Busy Days and Sunshine

Hey World!

My weekend was great! How was yours?

These days have been hectic. I need not to complain. One of the major things I learnt in life is not to complain. Reasons being that

11.       No matter what you do, problems will still exist.

22.       It tells other people that you have problems. For instance, complaining that you are hard up or you have headache to random people.

33.       You should be grateful for where you are. People want to be where you are.

My days have been very busy, and I have been trying to find peace and sunshine in those busy days and speaking of sunshine, literally, the sun has been coming to work earlier in the mornings, and doesn’t seem to go home early. The weather is literally HOT. I don’t know why. Now going out is literally, a problem.

Since I have been very busy and drinking tons of water (which I think it’s a plus), I have been trying to create my own sunshine of happiness. (Even though, moody days are sometimes cool).

Attitude of Gratitude

I try to take some little time to think about the things I am grateful for. I sometimes write it down and reflect on them. The list contains names of people, my talents, my health, the life lessons, my work, school and even things I cannot express.

Play Games

I don’t know why I did that last month, but I downloaded games that are meant for children and I played with it. There’s no harm in that. In fact, it brings out the inner child in you.

Beach Babes

The beach is a relaxing place, except for the fact that sand gets between your toes. Go to the beach and have a conversation with the sea. Think about the future and see how great it will be.

(Life Hack: Rub baby powder on your feet before walking on the beach to prevent sand in between your toes.)

Life is short, so live in the moment. Life is like an ice cream. Enjoy it before it melts.

Let’s Chat: What do you do when you have busy days, yet you want to create your own sunshine?

Served on a Plait Mood board

Hello world!

No, the title is not wrong. Today we are talking about plaits, as in braids, hair talk. So, it is served on a plait, get it?

I made a mood board of plaits/braids. I love every single one I took from the internet. These braids are most appropriate for school, especially in the tertiary institutions. So, if you are going back to school, you can do one of these.

I love the one in the middle. Looks like you are wearing a crown.

Which one is your favourite?

Study Break Ideas

Hello world!

This is the first post of back to school. Use #BTSMarietta as a way to share ideas and inspiration for students who would be going back to school soon.

I am a firm believer of study breaks. I go through it every time I am studying, whether alone or in a study group. I feel study breaks are really important in our lives as students.

I used to do my study breaks wrongly. Those days, study breaks means, checking social media and ranting over there, checking how my former mates are faring and reading blogs. As time went by, I got to have effective study breaks. To tell you the truth, I somehow still go online, but we are not perfect. But today, I want to share with you five study breaks ideas I began to adapt.

Go for a walk. This is one of my favourite way of spending my study break, especially in the evenings. I am already a walker, you understand what I mean?

Take a quick shower. Taking a quick shower makes our body cool and our mind refreshed for new ideas. That’s why some people get ideas in the shower. *wink*

Tidy up. This could mean, laying your bed, tidying up your study desk, removing washed clothes from the lines and folding them. This is very useful. It’s also one of the things I love to do during study break.

Eat a snack. This could be nkatie burger or a boiled egg. Not a heavy meal

Stretch. This is the easiest to do, and the one that takes the shortest time. Stretching makes our muscles to relax, and it feels good also.

Do you know of any effective study break ideas? Let us know in the comments, or use #BTSMarietta to share across social media.

Life Lately

Hi! I went missing in action (M.I.A) a little bit. But I am back and will hang around for a long time.

Yes! A very looong time.

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It’s time for me to catch up with my favourite blogs, novels waiting for me in a suburb of the city and so many other things I want to tell you about.

UEW NUGS Excellence Awards.

If you didn’t know, yours truly won the excellence Awards for Best Student Writer. My head wants to explode because I am writing this. I am one step moving there. Being a writer, and inspiring others to do the same.

Aboakyer 2016 + Exams

Ugh… I don’t feel like talking about this, because I did not get the time to celebrate, but I did a little bit of it. Exams started before the festival, so there was no desire and no time to observe, but anyway, there is always next year.

Moving On Up

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I can’t believe I am moving to the city and will come back to my adventurous town after the New Year. It looks very far far away, and I’ll miss the people who make me desire for an adventure. I’ll miss the people who annoy me, make me laugh, give me a shoulder to rely on. I’ll miss the mood of the town. We finish writing our papers and doing presentations last Friday, and we wanted to take a group picture of group selfie with our friends and mates, but it rained and everyone scattered and were running in the rain. Hopefully, no one slipped, hehehe xx. We have already started missing everyone, and the life.

Blogging Awards

Coming Friday is the Ghana Blogging and Social Media Awards, and I am now freaking out. I haven’t picked my dress yet, and haven’t decided what I will be doing and all, but I am excited to be attending. I hope to make new friends, and drink like an executive, with my legs crossed, and with me, swirling my drink in my glass. 

What have you been up to?

A Day in the Life #2

Hello! Everyone and happy Monday. I am so happy April is running a little bit faster. I mean, it’s been 11 days since the DKB and AJ prank. (Please, allow me to still talk about it. I know it’s over, and past, but hey I haven’t said anything about it yet, so let me still say it. Hehehe xx.)

By the way, AJ is a good actress, she SHOULD be in the movie industry.

Back to today’s post. You know, as I type this post, I am thinking about my “a day in the life” posts. I actually love writing things like this because it is so easy for me to write it. It’s something I have been doing since I began learning to write, just that, I do them in my diaries and journals and it is recently I started doing videos of such (I don’t share the videos online).

Such stuffs about my life is easy to produce. But there is one problem. It is not as exciting as you expect. I don’t live a luxurious life and I don’t have super exciting life. I am the wake-up-go-to-class-eat-kelewele-laugh-all-day kinda girl. Yes! Just a student who is trying to build an empire and is doing it underground.

But if you want to still read about a day in Marietta’s life, go on ahead.

A Day in the Life as at Wednesday, 6^th April, 2016

04:40am/05:07am: the two alarms go off. I lay in bed, turn and turn and turn for about 15 minutes

05:30am: went for a walk

06:20am: personal morning devotion

06:40 something: shared blog post link on all social media

Past 07:00am: Washing

08:00am: get ready and playing UB40’s I Got You Babe over a hundred times. It reminds me of the movie The Little Rascals Saved the Day

After 8am: Ate breakfast twice. Don’t judge.

10:30am: lectures

After 13:00: class was over and clouds began to gather.

14:48: Removed clothes from the lines + Lunch time

After 15:00: watched Like Stars on Earth to write a movie review on the blog. Coming soon, so watch this space.

18:30: Bath time. The weather was so good for moisturizing and a good hot beverage

19:27: Bed time. Don’t judge, I don’t normally sleep at that time but I needed to sleep.

See you in my next post.

FRIDAY VIBES

What makes my Friday the best?

Well, I guess when you have class early and by 11am or 12pm, everything is over and you rush to your home and scream TGIF. Yes!

What makes up the Friday vibes?

The drinks

The sweets

Kelewele after 8pm

Messy hair (Just because you have your hair-do on Saturdays)

Comfy clothes (on the bed to watch a movie, cartoon, or seasonal movie)

Family and friends coming home for the weekend (and catching up with news and planning on where to spend the weekend)

Unlimited internet (those of us who use the internet after 12am)

Music (the weekend is the only time I get to play music super loud)

Marietta DeGrant? ..... Present, please!

Hello world!

Good morning!!!

How are you all?

I miss this place! And I miss you!

I’m back! Back for good. I don’t think I will ever go on blogging break, again because I felt empty.

Oh it feels so good to be back!

So since this is the first post I am writing after I went on break, why don’t we do some life updates, huh?

On Campus Teaching Practice

We have started our pre-internship seminar and on-campus teaching practice and there are lots of mistakes we are making. We laugh at our own mistakes, after all, life is short. It is not easy to be a teacher. I feel teachers are unique, have great talents and should be blessed. I for one, I have problem with standing in front of people to talk. I have what I personally call, audiencephobia. It’s very pathetic but I hope it gets better time after time.

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Holiday Vibes

For me, Friday 4^th March, was the beginning of my holiday lifestyle. After the on-campus teaching practice, I rushed home to get ready for Saturday. That was the day my friends and I went to Aqua Safari Resort at Big Ada. The place is beautiful and peaceful. I hope one day, we all get time and money to go there again to visit and enjoy the place to the fullest.

The Rehab Centre

Disability is not inability.

One Wednesday, we visited the Accra Rehabilitation Centre. There, we learnt that everyone has a disability. If a blind man can read and interpret the braille with his fingers, but you can’t, your inability to do that is a disability. But you can learn it, therefore it’s not an inability.

Am I making sense??? Never mind.

Everyone is talented even those with special needs. Yes!

Best New Blog and Best Blogger

You know what? My blog was nominated as Best New Blog and Best Blogger. OMG!!!! I couldn’t believe it! Like seriously! I knew I was part of the long list of nominees, but when Blogging Ghana tweeted me that I was part of the shortlisted finalists, I was flabbergasted. I am in the same category as Ameyaw Debrah, the man I look up to. ……………..

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Actually, I am too excited to write.

So go here to vote for The Marietta DeGrant Blog as Best New Blog and Marietta DeGrant as Best Blogger. Read instructions carefully to vote

Eeee.

20^th March

A lot of activities went on on the 20^th of March. First of all, it was Palm Sunday, and it was the crowning of the 174^th Anniversary of the Relief Society of the Church I attend.

After, there was a birthday party of a great man. When the party ended, I got dressed to go watch the movie premiere of a two cast movie, Once in a Lifetime. I wrote the review of the movie here.

Easter Break

This Easter was a me-time holiday for me, I did not go out much and I did a catch up on movies that I have been piling up since after Christmas. At least, I did relax with a can of malt and that ginger drink they call lamojin.

Bad Hair Journey

My hair is in a poor state right now, and I am so upset about it. Now, I am reading lots of hair stories and posts like Cara’s own and others.

That is all the updates I have for you now. Anyway, I will never ever go on a blogging break again, unless I am ill, or travelling or something……..

See you soon.

Ps. Don’t forget to vote oo. Go here to vote for The Marietta DeGrant Blog as best new blog and Marietta DeGrant as best blogger. Confirm the link delivered in email to verify before you vote.

I still can’t believe I have been nominated. Wish me good luck!

Imperfect Sons and Daughters

We are all imperfect, in one way or the other. I am imperfect, yes, I know.

This post is for all those who feel imperfect, and who want to live their dreams.

I was chatting with one of my close friends. He’s one of my close friends. He’s amazing and has marvelous ideas and talents and dreams. We were doing the usual WhatsApp chatting (I was trying to catch up with life happenings since I have been off for some time). We were chatting about how things have been slow this year but most importantly, he told me of how parents expect their children to do better office work. He wants to be a big time IT/ showbiz man, probably like Bola Ray, but from the look of things, they want him to do office work, or do some teaching job.

Hmm.

I remember when I was in secondary school, I met people who did not want to be in the Science class. They wanted to read Visual Arts, Business, General Arts, but their parents wouldn’t let them glow in their interested programme.

What a sad world.

I have met girls who were future artist, fashion designers, business women but they were in the wrong class. It’s one thing having it as a talent and using it for fun (like my friends telling me I should have been in the General Arts class because of my flair in story writing and poetry), but it is another thing having it as a passion you want to pursue in the future.

I am currently reading a novel about a father who didn’t want his son to be a footballer because he sees it as a thing for dropouts.

Have you ever seen the Bollywood movie, 3 Idiots? There was a student who wanted to be a wildlife photographer but his dad wanted him to be an engineer.

What is wrong with being a successful photographer?

I hate it when elders prevent people from following their dreams. It’s so sad. I am glad to have parents who want me to pursue what I want to what I want to pursue.

But in spite of this, I am an imperfect daughter. I don’t do things to their expectations. When I was younger, I used to see myself as a different girl, a different human being who likes to wake up, not doing things to their expectation, come back to my room and pour out my feelings in my journals in the form of poetry or in my diary.

Apart from being an imperfect daughter, I have an imperfect hair, imperfect talking (I talk way too fast, my words ran over each other) and imperfect study skills. (Yeah, that’s right). Add imperfect eyes.

We still love our parents and elders, no doubt about that. We love you because you care about us and we are ready to pamper you when we start to get money.

Any imperfect kid out there? Let’s form a group and I will be your leader?

Ps. I don’t know what happened, but the way I wanted to write this post is not how I just wrote it. I don’t know why, but if you did not understand it, it’s ok, and don’t worry about it. It’s all about living the dreams we want to live, and to make us aware that office jobs is not an answer to becoming successful.

Making the Right Choice (Tertiary Forms)

This post is purposely for those who are about to buy tertiary institution forms.

That time has come again, where students don’t know what tertiary institution forms to buy and which courses to choose. Don’t worry, I’m here to give you a tiny little bit of help. At least.

Alright, before you decide to buy the tertiary institution forms and fill, here are some tips.

Always check out the media for information

Be on the lookout for any information on sale of university forms, especially in the print media.  Mostly, the public university have their sale advertisement in the newspapers, and the private ones, have theirs on the TV and radios, but check both to be certain and sure. You can also ask from the post offices for more information.

Have enough money

Perhaps, you want to buy about one or two or more forms, you need to save enough money for that purpose.

Also, before purchasing, get to know the institutions that offer the programme you want to read to avoid buying unnecessary forms and waste of money.

Know your passion

What course do you want to offer? What are your passion and talents? Search for schools that offer what you want to study. You also need to have other options (Choices), at least 3.

What’s your grade?

Before buying forms, check the course’s cut off point aggregate (aggregate of high school final exam grade). You might consider writing WASSCE remedial if you feel the grade is not really good for the programme you want to read. For matured students, they write entrance exams. Make sure you study hard to pass your examination.

Seek help

If you need advice, you might want to consult your parents, teachers or any elderly person in your dream field, to help you with your choice of school and courses.

Go for workshops

If you are still in doubt of what schools to buy and what to read, attend workshops that help students who are now entering into tertiary schools choose the right career choices.

Now that you have bought the forms, what is next?

Make your particulars ready

Some schools request for your passport sized photographs, birth certificates, WASSCE cert and other stuffs, when filling the forms. Make those particulars ready to avoid rushed situations.

Now that you have submitted your forms, lay back and have faith.

Success in all your endeavours.

Gari Saved My Life

Sometime ago, I was so exhausted and famished from long lectures. I could barely walk back home.

There was some good news and some bad news.
The good news: Lectures was over
The Bad news: I have no food at home yet.
Bummer!
So, I had to get some fast food.
Thank goodness for gari.
I took my mug, poured some gari, added milk, sugar, some groundnuts and water, mixed all up and ate.
That was my almighty "Gari soakings".
My life saver.
Gari is a fast food which mostly has no attractive package but it is patronized by every Ghanaian. Gari can be used for 3ba, gari and shito (GariShit), gari fortor and other meals.
We thank goodness that Gari can be a fast food when you are on the verge of fainting.
Have faith in gari.



A Day In The Life

Sorry I haven't been updating. I am so busy trying to adjust to life, and make my schedule more free. How can you if you have so many reading assignments to do?

But my favourite days are Wednesdays and Fridays. I get to rest well and have some quality me-time. You know I don't joke with my me time .

I have been reading a lot of  'A Day In The Life ' blog posts and watching the videos and shows, and I have been inspired to write my own.

A day in the life as at Tuesday 06/10/2015.

04:40am : First alarm goes off. I was so deep in my sleep, I heard it in my dreams. The funny thing is I thought it was part of the dream, so I did not immediately wake up. I normally make a decision here,
whether to obey this alarm or snooze dismiss and wait for the second one. I choose the latter.

05:07am: Second alarm goes off. I gracefully obeyed it and TRIED HARD to have my morning devotional.

05:38am: I checked out my planner to see what I had for the day. I added more tasks.

05:40am: Workout. Pop Sugar's 20- minute power plank workout. To tell you the truth, I could do less than 10 minutes. After I went to lie on my bed

06:03am: .......you know, those personal hygiene stuff; brushing my teeth, bathing etc.

07:00am: Playing with my phone. Typical

07:20 something am: Preparing breakfast

07:40 something am: Breakfast time.

08:00am: Checking out technology news. I read about Twitter considering the idea of getting rid of 140-character limit.

08:15am: Working on my E! Online Ghana post.

08:42am: Getting dressed for my 9:30am class at North Campus.

09:30am: Trends in Education and School Management in Ghana. He spoke of a quiz. My heart skipped 4 beats. I was NOT ready. Fortunately, it was postponed.

11:30am: Closed and went back home with my friends, then prepare supper, freshen up and get ready for the next class. I had salad for lunch, which did not satisfy me.

13:48: Class had already started (1:30pm). I was now leaving home but I met a lady with adorable twins. I couldn't help but smile and ponder it in my heart.

14:06: Class had started. Thank goodness, the T.A did not see me enter late. Research Design and Data Analysis

15:58: Class is dismissed. Yay! I can have an early supper because I was famished!

16:30: Catching up on emails, messages and notifications in order to stay on top of things. Plus supper, of course.

17:30: Freshen up to get ready for church.

19:00-20:00: At church. (Lesson: God's only begotten son in the flesh). After church, a friend told me that I had reduced in size. Hahahaha.

21:00: Catching up on social media, working on an E! Online Ghana post, study for the next day's quiz. Writing plans for the next day in my planner.

21:38: Skin routine, then jump to bed for some leisure reading.

22:40: *clap*clap* Lights out!
It was a good night.

But this has been the most uninspired day of the month, I guess.

Do you have to "A Day In The Life" post, I would love to read it.