February 29, 2020 – Write From Karen

Well, hello March!

Spring is around the corner. Are you ready for the bugs to come back? (That’s always where my brain goes – screw the pretty flowers – IT’S BUG SEASON! GAH!).

I thought I would share my March spreads – I warn you, they’re ugly. Remember, I’m not an artist so any “artsy-fartsy” component you see is from a stamp, stencil or a sticker.

My three S’s.

I was going for a “girly” theme this month. Actually, what prompted this theme was the beautiful dress stamp I bought from Hobby Lobby. You’ll see the stamp on the monthly spread below.

Ready to bleach your eyeballs? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

See the pretty dress stamp? I freaking LOVE this stamp. It’s so girly and decorative. Which is a little confusing to me because I wouldn’t classify my style as girly but I can appreciate pretending to be girly.

I tried the vertical calendar spread this time as opposed to the vertical numbering spread from last month. I have decided that I like the full calendar spread better – it gives me more room to play around with my three S’s.

The next spread is my weekly spread:

I’m digging the format of this weekly spread. I notate the weather in the small boxes on either side and then it gives me room to write my thoughts from the day in the bigger boxes. So far, I’ve kept up. I keep the book by my computer so it takes just a moment to jot my thoughts down each night.

Again, not the most aesthetically pleasing, but I’m having fun and it’s working for me so … meh.

Here’s my brain dump and step tracker. The step tracker is my only habit tracker I do, though I do have a pixel mood tracker at the beginning of my journal (and obviously not as nice as this picture). It’s more important to me to track my moods and steps than anything else. I sort of like how these pages turned out. And I’m really digging the brain dump pages. I find that writing out the thoughts, the things that are troubling me, really does help purge it from my brain. I’m not crazy about the stencil lettering, but again, just trying different things here. I’ll get better at it. (I hope!)

I think these pages are cute, too. I love the huge ball gown stencil, that was fun. However, I bought Crayola’s super tip markers and though I like them, the colors, at least this one, its almost too brash. I prefer the Tombow colors more, but the Crayola super tips are cheaper so I’ll force myself to like them more. lol

I’m also doing well with my questions. I’m using these pages to type out private messages to our boys and putting them in small stamp envelopes and then gluing them to the page. The boys have no idea I’m doing this and will have a bit of a surprise when I’m dead and gone and they look through my journals.

The blog page is where I jot down ideas for my blog because I’m super bad about seeing/reading an idea for my blog and then promptly forgetting about it so when the mood strikes to update my blog, I have zero ideas.

Lastly, I created a quotes page. Again, just experimenting here. I love quotes and they really do inspire me. If this looks like gobbedly-gook to you, (because it is), it reads:

“I”m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more luck I have.” by Thomas Jefferson.

Moral: There is really no-such thing as luck. The things that happen to you are a result of hard work, or believing it to happen.

Again, I’m having SO MUCH FUN with this bullet journal. I WISH I had known about this method of journaling years ago. I like how it’s a mixture of a planner with a journal. I think it’s interesting to read about the mundane tasks and day-to-day happenings in people’s lives so I’m hoping whoever reads this when I’m gone is also interested in my mundane.

I have finished my April spreads and am now working on my May spreads. I want to try and work ahead as much as possible, stay ahead of the game, so to speak, to free myself up to focus on outlining my novel and teaching myself calligraphy. Which I’ve started, by the way. I haven’t gotten very far and it’s a bit of a challenge since I’m left handed, but I WILL master it because it’s something I’ve wanted to learn for years and I think it will be fun to incorporate that into my journal. (Ever since I wrote down my yearly goals, I’ve felt pressure to COMPLETE THEM).

Here are a few March videos that have inspired me. As I’ve mentioned, I watch A LOT of bullet journal videos. Not only for ideas, but it’s relaxing to watch someone else create. I WISH I was half as talented as these people. But you know what? It’s okay. This journal is ME.

I also really enjoy watching true artists decorate their journals. I’m so jealous of their talents!

And this one gets the prize for the most creative spread:

Oh, I’m DEFINITELY doing a version of this board game theme at some point. I LOVE board games.

And if you’re not artistic, like me, and/or you’re not interested in spending a lot of time on the artsy-fartsy aspect of the bullet journal, here is a good video to watch to help you get started without all of the fancy art aspects of this: