Category: Bullet Journal

Bullet Journal

Creative Outlet

Karen

Yes. I’m still bullet journaling. And I’m not bored, in fact, I’m pretty fired up about this. I’m having a blast! I’ve found my groove and though it still looks like crap when compared to other bullet journalers out there, I’m okay with that. It works for me, I’m enjoying myself and it will be something fun to leave behind for future generations to make fun of. Ha!

I have found spreads that work for me. Nothing much has changed since the last time I wrote about my bullet journal but let me share what works for me.

The beauty of bullet journaling is that it’s customizable. You can do whatever you want, however you want, it all depends on what your wants and needs are.

After experimenting with many different mediums, I’ve determined that what works for me are stamps and stickers.

I was going to make a video on my bullet journal but honestly, I don’t have the fancy equipment to hold my camera above my desk and I can’t be bothered. So photos it is.

This my cover page for May. I’m digging pictures for my cover page. I find these pictures on Unsplash, in case you’re interested. The only spreads I’m really interested in are: steps,

sleep, weather …

books read that month, world news, (because it’s fun to look back on what was going on in this crazy world) …

and journaling. That’s it. I’m more interested in the journal part of bullet journal and I haven’t missed writing down a day yet, (this year). I use the rolling weeklies inspired by the Plant-Base Bride’s YouTube channel and I LOVE this process. I write my weekly to-do list on the side and every day, at the top of the day, I write down my mood and use an emoji stamp to reflect that mood. I tried using a mood tracker for a while but honestly, I have so many moods I didn’t want to limit myself to four moods and I wanted to know what sort of day I was having that caused that mood.

And that’s it. Though I’m going to add some detailed journaling pages at the end of the months that we go on vacation. Yes. I document those trips here on the blog but there are some things that are too private for the Internet.

Sorry.

But the biggest reason I wanted to talk about my bullet journal is because I stumbled onto a YouTube channel that I’m absolutely obsessed with right now. It’s called My Little Journal.

The reason I’m really digging her channel is because she works in nearly all stamps and stickers and she does a bang-up job of putting her spreads together. She never fails to inspire me and I discovered so many cool resources through her channel. For instance, Studio Calico.

I LOVE clear stamps. They work so much better than the traditional wooden stamps – crisp and clear.

I’ve already spent a fortune on stamp kits.

I bought the road trip set, the camping set, the May calendar set, and the June calendar set.

And yes, I have every intention of collecting all of the months, eventually.

And crap, I just noticed they have a new lake set. MUST. HAVE.

Anyway. I’m having a ball using these stamps throughout my journal and it motivates me even more to continue journaling. In fact, I’ve done so well with my journaling that I’m close to finishing this journal and will need a second journal for the second half of the year. I might break down and buy some Archer and Olive journals next year.

Watch this video from Heba and tell me you’re not motivated to try some interesting stamps in your next spread.

Oh, and I’ve already figured out the rest of 2022’s monthly cover pages – here they are, if you’re interested.

If you buy any stamps, let me know where you buy them, or if you would like to share pictures of your spreads, feel free to drop a link in the comment section! I would love to see what you’ve been up to.

And if you haven’t tried journaling, I highly recommend it. You don’t have to get fancy. You don’t have to buy stamps or stickers – you can do whatever you want. But it’s nice to to have a place to purge your innermost thoughts, worries, and triumphs because it frees up space in your head to tackle other life issues. Journaling encourages you to be honest in a private space. You can be real, raw and true to yourself. It’s quite cathartic.

Anyway. I wanted to share this valuable resource in case you needed some creative inspiration.

Happy journaling!

Bullet Journal

2022 Bullet Journal Set Up Plus January Spread

Karen
Hey! Hello!
I’m alive! I thought I would do a podcast post because it’s late and I’m too tired to write a blog post. Click on the audio file below and follow along. Thanks for listening!
Links mentioned in the podcast:
Book stencil – Looks like her shop is closed for the holidays right now.

Bullet Journal

October 2021 Bullet Journal

Karen

I’ve gotten a little lazy on posting updates on my bullet journal. But to be honest, these past few months I haven’t done a whole lot with my bullet journal. I’ve been keeping track of my sleep, steps, weather and the books I’ve read, but that’s about it. So it felt boring to post anything about it. However, I’ve had a few of you ask about my monthly covers and as always, you’re welcome to use these if you wish. These covers fit an A5 journal. I use Rhodia notebooks, if you’re interested. These are great notebooks if you’re using your journal to write in, not so much if you’re planning on doing fancy artwork or painting in. I like them because they have soft covers and I like the way the paper feels – it doesn’t feel scratchy whenever you write on it.

I am excited for this month’s bullet journal spreads, though. I’m trying the rolling weeklies for the first time and I’m digging them so far. I need something to keep my tasks organized. I’m one of those people that are like, “Oh, I’ll remember that later” and of course, I never remember and it frustrates me. Anyway, Plant-Based Bride gave me the idea for the rolling weeklies, in case you’re interested.

Also, there are a TON of really fun bullet journal stickers and other useful tools on Etsy if you’re looking for stuff for your bullet journal. With the new year coming up, journaling seems to be on a lot of people’s minds and I highly recommend it. Not only do you have something to look back on years later, because let’s face it, like is short and it’s nice to have something to remember the little moments, but it’s cathartic as well. It’s nice to have someplace to write down your thoughts and get things off your chest.

Bullet journaling is what you make of it. You can get fancy, or you can keep it simple, it’s really up to you. There are no rules and part of the fun is figuring out what sort of spreads you want and will work for you and your lifestyle.

I personally use stamps, stickers, and stencils for my journal. I WISH I could draw and get fancy, but alas, that is not my forte. The covers you see, I get them from Unsplash, slap a month/year on them, size them to fit an A5 in PhotoShop and then send them off to Staples to print. They literally cost a few bucks which is worth it to me as opposed to buying a color printer, then the color ink, etc., to do it at home.

Anyway, I’m not sure why I felt compelled to try and sell you the idea of bullet journaling, but it is nice to have some creative outlet in these stressful times.

I wrote in my rolling weekly a reminder to myself to post pictures of my journal at the end of the month so you can see what I’ve done. Nothing earth shattering, but I’m liking it so far.

Peace.

Bullet Journal

July Bullet Journal Cover

Karen

What I wouldn’t give to be on this beach right about now. I wonder if Kevin and I will ever be able to travel again? Because we’re NOT getting the vaccine and if they require a vaccine passport – well, I guess we’ll just stick to traveling the good ole USA.

(Which reminds me – we probably need another trailer update soon).

Makes me sad though. I MISS cruising. I MISS tropical places. Maybe we’ll be able to go back … someday.

July is here – which means time will speed up as soon as the 4th is over and we’ll soon be putting our Christmas trees back up.

I really wish time would slow down. Like – every day is as long as three days. Or something like that. I’m so tired of getting up, working, coming home, sleeping and doing it all over the next day.

You can read about my June here. As far as today – I spent my day completely revamping Dr. S’s clinic schedules for next week. The office is closed on Monday, so Tuesday, I’ll be in clinic with Dr. S, in clinic with Dr. M on Wednesday, Thursday is my catch up and get ready for the following week’s clinics, then another clinic with Dr. S on Friday. Dr. S is on call on Friday so she wanted to go ahead and see a few patients that day since she will likely be hanging out at the hospital anyway.

The day ended with some asshole yelling a voicemail and demanding to call him back – at 4:20 – we close at 4:30 PM.

I didn’t call him back. Screw him. I’m not starting my weekend off being yelled out by some jackass.

I’m also SUPER annoyed with the CEO of our hospital right now. Let me show you why:

Words do not even describe how incredibly annoyed I am with this dude right about now. Shut up?!? Really? Wow. Way to exhibit some stellar leadership skills there, Mr. CEO. So many thoughts … so little time. But let me summarize it for you – just listen to my rants on my podcast and you’ll know exactly how I feel about this sh*t. In fact, we’ll be covering this in this week’s podcast – stay tuned.

*takes a breath*

But I digress. Here are this month’s journal pages.

I don’t know why I’m so fascinated with VW Vans. They’re just so cute. And I am DIGGING this picture, ya’ll. What a perfect little beach getaway van. I’m also digging the color combination this month – aqua and orange. Sand and sky.

Did pretty decent on my steps this month. Save for the days I threw my back out and was hobbling around like an old(er) lady. That sucked.

And just look at those cheesy stencils.

Weather, sleep, stickers and stamps. I got fancy this month. *snort* I did not do that great on my sleep this month. I think I slept 10 hours one day this month. Hence, one of the reasons I’m a walking zombie most days. Now you know.

Zero numbers on my writing tracker. Don’t tell me you’re surprised. I’m not. My day job sucks every last creative thought out of my head – I have nothing left when I get home. But I’m going to continue making these trackers because I will eventually get tired of them not being filled out and I will write something.

Just don’t expect it to happen any time soon.

Trackers – meh. They look a bit better this month but not by much. Still digging my mood tracker. I like to summarize my day. The two days of pain – yeah – I really don’t want to repeat those any time soon.

Side note: I bought a yoga mat and I plan on taking up beginning yoga. I need to stretch my muscles. I don’t want to be one of these sad arthritic old(er) people.

And here’s a pic of a VW Van just because this blog is my space and they make me happy.

I wish I was as talented as this bullet journal artist. I just love watching her draw – so impressive.

Peace out, ya’ll.

Bullet Journal

June Bullet Journal Cover

Karen

May was busy. But ya’ll knew it was going to be. If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll know that we are down three MA’s, (medical assistants) at work this month and one nurse retired. This means I have volunteered to take one of the doctors that lost her MA, Dr. S., along with my normal doctor, Dr. M., and now I am taking care of two doctors. One is a full time job, two is over time.

So, I haven’t really done much outside of work/sleep this month. But let’s be honest, I don’t normally do much outside of work and sleep anyway, it’s just been amped up a few notches this month.

And honestly, it will be like this for me this whole summer.

We interviewed a few MA’s this month, only two, because no one is working right now, they’re all staying home and enjoying the money the government is giving them under the guise of COVID relief which the rest of us working stiffs are paying for, and the fact that there aren’t very many people going into healthcare right now so it’s slim pickings.

The first MA was very young, just out of MA school and had zero experience. We’re not opposed to training on-the-job, but we would prefer someone who has SOME work experience – this girl was green-green.

The second MA was older, a breast care survivor, has worked for the hospital for 29 years and was very sweet. The reason we turned her down … she’s not a quick thinker. She couldn’t answer a few of the interview questions. Even if she gave some bullshit answer, it would have been preferable to, “I can’t think of anything to say.” To me, that is someone who doesn’t think on her feet and this job DEMANDS someone think quick on his/her feet.

Even though we’re short handed, we don’t just want a warm body, we want someone who will be worth the time and training investment – so – it looks like I will be Dr. S’s MA for the foreseeable future – unless they mandate the experimental injectable, i.e. COVID vaccine, and then they will REALLY be hurting for people because I’m not sticking around for that.

But I digress … let’s move on to my May journal spreads. As always, prepare to be IMPRESSED.

My May cover and steps page. I’m not crazy about the color combo this month, but I thought they were a good match to the flowered cover page so …

Weather and sleep – I don’t feel like I did very good on my sleep this month. In fact, according to my Garmin tracker, I consistently only got about 3 hours of deep sleep every night. No wonder I’m a zombie. Also, I had a lot on my mind this month so that probably accounts for that. Also – I was “trying” to write sleep in a fancy font – as you can see, I failed miserably.

Wow – terrible tracking this month. And yes, the journal tracker is correct. I just didn’t have the energy to journal. However, I have decided I am going to sum up the month instead of writing daily every once in a while in my journal so I’ll take that tracker off next month. And yes, the cleaning tracker is correct – I cleaned one time this month. Okay fine, I’m keeping track of deep cleaning on this tracker, not cleaning up after myself and making sure we don’t have to wear swim shoes in the shower clean. Walking tracker is also correct – I was already getting 8-10 thousand steps during the work week, I didn’t want to do anymore.

(Go back to sleep tracker results).

I did something different with my mood tracker this month and I’m digging it. I wrote out a sentence that summed up my day to explain the mood I selected for that day. I will definitely keep this tracker. This also likely explains why I didn’t journal this month, I already summed up the day, I didn’t have enough energy to go into details.

My podcast titles, (pretty proud of myself, didn’t miss a week this month) and zero videos. I swear, I’m working on that part. In fact, I filmed myself three times this past week but didn’t want to post it because I didn’t finish the week and felt like a failure so I will tack them on to this week’s video. (Don’t hold your breath on getting that video – I’m a little wishy-washy on videos – I’m sure you picked up on that by now).

The books I read.

And my writing tracker – against, a colossal fail.

My blog post tracker/idea page. Funny. I write these down and then never look at it again. That’s super helpful!

And I tried something else different this month – wrote down some songs I was digging this month along with headlines that I want to remember/memorialize.

And that’s it! I know I make fun of myself on these journal spreads, and let’s face it, there’s so much to laugh at, but honestly, I’m having fun with them and I figure they will be fun to look back on someday, right?

Bullet Journal

May Bullet Journal Cover

Karen

Sorry, I should have warned you to wear sunglasses for May’s bullet journal cover. But it’s bright and cheery and I feel like that’s what we need right now because the world is dreary and crazy and needs to lighten up. Can I get an Amen?

Anyway – HI! I’m back from the dead. Actually, no I’m not. I was sick for about ten-ish days with a wicked sinus … whatever, but it’s gone now and I’m feeling good. I still can’t smell, but I can taste so we’re making progress. I have no idea if I had COVID. If I did, my symptoms were all in my sinuses and not in my lungs, thank God, but who knows. You can’t trust the tests, you can’t trust vaccines, you can’t trust the CDC because the story changes on a daily basis – all I can do is live my best life. And that’s what I’m doing now.

So I apologize for being MIA for nearly the entire month of April. I just couldn’t bring myself to blog after work – my brain was pure mush. Whatever I had sapped the energy right out of me and I was sooooo freaking tired, more so than usual. However, I really want to stay ahead of the blogging game this month because we’re about to be three MA’s short at work and I’m going to be consistently working three clinics per week, then frantically returning phone calls and working messages, preparing for upcoming clinics and making sure patients are scheduled for appointments and testing after clinics, (i.e. cleaning up clinics), and most likely earning overtime so … it’s going to be a rough month. Probably a rough summer, but whatever, one day at a time.

But more on that craziness as it develops.

Back to bullet journaling. Prepare yourselves for PURE AWESOMENESS:

Peek-a-boo, I see you! Here is my cover page and my steps tracker. I’m actually pretty proud of my steps tracker – I got a lot of steps in this month considering I felt like walking excrement. Notice the construction paper strip on the right-hand side that says steps? Well, that wasn’t my attempt at being craft, that was me covering up one of hundreds of mistakes I make when I put these bullet journals together. I put a piece of washi tape down and then tried to write on it. WOW – it really didn’t work and looked like garbage, so I put that paper down to cover it up. I sort of like it, truth be known. And I really want to put some tabs, or some sort of marker in my journals so I can flip through to past months.

I mean, I say that, but it won’t actually happen because let’s be honest, I don’t really have any interest in flipping back, I’m always a thinking-into-the-future-sort-of-gal. I live in the future, I definitely do not have any desire to go backwards in life.

(Hence the reason I have never, and will never, attend any of my high school reunions. I mean – WHY?? That was part of my life that has been firmly lived and I’m not even the same person I was in high school).

Don’t ask me why I put that funky pattern at the bottom – I was feeling CRAFTY, leave me alone.

Weather and sleep tracker – nothing special here. Moving on.

My habit and mood trackers. Gads, it just makes me sad when I see how empty my habit trackers are. Once again, not ONE SQUARE filled in for my fiction. Which means, I SUCKED at the April Camp NaNoWriMo. *sigh* Ah well, there’s always July.

And though I got quite a few steps this month at work, I didn’t fill in one square on my walking tracker because I’m using the walking tracker for when I am putting on my spandex, (now THERE’S a scary image, eh?), plugging in my bluetooth earbuds and walking either on the treadmill or outside. Which, now that the weather is getting nicer, I plan on doing that.

Any my journal tracker? Yep. It’s that bare. I only wrote it in a handful of times. But in my defense, how many times can I write, “I feel like crap and just want to bury my head under the covers and do nothing” before it gets old? Exactly.

(Side note: I’m pretty sure I got that sinus crap from being forced to wear a mask all day every day at work. Think about it – how can there NOT be some sort of repercussion from wearing a face mask and breathing my moist C02 all day? How?!?)

My mood tracker – no, your eyes are not deceiving you – those are indeed bunnies and squirrels. Yes, I’m a grown-ass woman, hush. But it was Easter month and I had bunnies on the brain. (Clearly). My moods were: happy, annoyed, meh, tired, fed up and sick. I don’t know, there is something relaxing about coloring in something after a long day of work. Anyhoo – I had a lot of annoyed days – which about sums up my working life.

My podcast/videos, reading and writing trackers. Again, sad state of affairs. I did read five books this month but I’m not surprised by that – that is the only thing I had energy for this past month. I only recorded two out of the four podcasts I had planned – again, because I was sick and I lost my voice for a bit as well, so …

I want to post short update videos at some point, that’s what I’m thinking with the videos portion – though to be fair, I do film our Right From Us podcast with my husband Kevin and we did just post a cooking with us video trying out Hello Fresh that I’ll post soon, so I guess technically, I should list those under videos. But I downloaded the TikTok app to my phone, and started another Instagram account for just my blog that I would like to try out. I’m still learning the apps though. And can you only post live Instagram stories? I would rather record them and then put them on my blog, I don’t really want to go live, but whatever, I’ll figure it out. So if you see random videos of me popping up on the blog this month, you’ve been warned.

We won’t talk about my writing tracker. *sad face*

And another very sad tracker – I’m trying to go through and list my blog and Patreon posts for the month so that I’m not sitting down after a long day of work and trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to post about. I’m going to continue this idea and it will hopefully look much better at the end of May.

Okay – I need to jump into the shower and get ready for my hair appointment today. I’m getting my grays colored and my hair trimmed and I’m bracing myself for another $100 bill. It makes me physically sick to pay that much for my hair but I’m too lazy to find another stylist and the one I go to is literally less than two miles away from my house so it’s super convenient. I got spoiled with my old stylist – I loved her, she did a great job and only charged me about $50 bucks to do my hair (though I usually gave her a pretty generous tip). Sadly, her salon couldn’t sustain the lockdowns, (thanks government – idiots) and they closed down last December. I’ve only been to this hairstylist once and she did a great job but wow, she’s expensive. Thankfully, I only go to the salon four times a year, yep, you read that correctly, every 12 weeks, so it’s not THAT bad, I know a lot of people go way more often than that.

Goodbye April and hello May. Be nicer to me, will you?

Your turn – have you been bullet journaling? Share links of your pages or tell me how it’s going in the comments!

Bullet Journal

April Bullet Journal Cover

Karen

Not exactly earth shattering – bunnies = Easter, but I thought it was cute and different and I liked the colors, which I sort of kept to, you’ll see in April’s spreads. I wish I could draw bunnies, but alas, I don’t wish to offend any bunnies out there by trying.

I didn’t journal very much this month. I didn’t have a whole lot to say. *GASP* Quick! Mark that down in your calendars, but really, this month just sort of glided along. We’re still crazy short handed at work but somehow, we’re all making it work because WE’RE THE BOSS, and that’s all I’ve had energy for this month, just surviving work.

Weather has been good. Lots of sunshine and 60-degree days. The winds are coming though, which means tornado season will be upon us soon, but so far, so good.

Our youngest son, Brandon, turned 26 this month. Our BABY is 26 years old. *SIGH* It’s so weird to have children in their m-d to-late twenties. That means, we’re OLD. But I don’t FEEL old, until, I look closely in a mirror and then I’m reminded that I’m no longer a spring chicken.

Just wait, you young whippersnappers out there, you’ll see what I mean when you get to be my age. I look my age but I FEEL like I’m still in my 30’s.

Sort of sucks when reality doesn’t match your inner self.

Anyway …

Here are pictures of my March spreads – prepare to be AMAZED. *snort*

The cover page and my steps. I like the green and black – really pops. Don’t ask me why I put a arrow-thing design on the bottom of the page. I did that with my April steps page, too. All I know is that I have a packet of cool design templates and I’m dying to use them.

So there.

Didn’t do as good on my steps this month. You can really tell when I was off work and/or it was the weekend. I literally sit around all day on my days off. I’m staring at my Kindle or staring at my computer monitor. I do a lot of staring. If I stared a little less I would probably be a lot more productive. But some days, my brain is just, “NOPE.”

Another Earth shattering weather and sleep spread. Again – I don’t know WHY I like keeping track of the weather. It’s just something my brain refuses to give up. I’m old. Aren’t old people supposed to be obsessed with the weather?

Don’t answer that.

And if I were to guess what my average sleep hours? About 7 … ish. I could add up all of those sleep hours up and figure it out but I’m tired and my brain is all “NOPE.”

My habit trackers and my mood tracker.

Let’s all address the elephant in the room, shall we? I didn’t write a damn word or walk a damn step (outside of work) all month.

Yep, I’m a loser.

I also didn’t post anything on my Instagram but who am I kidding? I don’t even like Instagram all that much and I’m changing habits next month to something I might actually accomplish.

As you can see on my mini calendar, (because let’s face it, I’m not busy enough to warrant a FULL size calendar), I was off for a few days, (why does it feel like that happened months ago instead of weeks ago? That can’t be a good sign), Brandon turned 26 and Blake had all of his wisdom teeth cut out this month.

He spent the night with us the night he had them done because you just never know how people will react when put under anesthesia. (We could hardly get him to go home the next day because he was enjoying being babied so much. Ha!)

And my moods … cute turtles, right? However, I hated not having more than four emotions to choose from because let’s face it, I’m a complicated woman and I feel a minimum of 60 different emotions throughout my day and it annoyed me, (see?? Another emotion), that I didn’t have emotions to color in. I mean, sure, I had a lot of “meh” days, and thankfully, not very many sad days and probably too many mad days, but I was also productive, giddy, annoyed, irritated, and every other emotion you can name. So, I’ll be changing that up this next month but I had fun coloring in the turtles.

Hush, it was therapeutic.

Here is my reading tracker, (read 5 books this month, not bad), did three podcasts and worked/finished my Patreon. My writing tracker is pathetic but hopefully that gets better with time.

The rest of my pages are my actual journal pages and of course, I’m not sharing those pages. (Especially now that my co-workers have found my blog and have discovered that I’m an INTERNATIONAL SUPER BLOGGER.)

I try and stay humble but it’s not always easy.

Here’s one of my favorite bullet journal videos from April. I have such a fascination for watching people paint and just be artistic. I envy their talent. I mean, I have to use templates, for Pete’s sake, and I don’t even do that well.

Anyway, enjoy! And please consider supporting your favorite creators by joining their Patreon! It’s only a few dollars per month but to the creator, it’s priceless.