Well, it's New Year's Eve!
Karma says hi.
I've been getting ready for the new year. Several months ago I ran across someone using Journaling Sage writing prompt stickers on youtube. Seeing the 365 day journaling prompt stickers was what sparked my wanting to do writing prompts in 2016. You may recall how I planned to use up some terrible for fountain pen journal refills I had for the writing prompts. As the new year approached I finally lost the debate with myself and ordered the stickers from her etsy shop in the UK.
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Meanwhile, I have been struggling for many months with a daily journal that I can't use my beloved fountain pens in...and, quite frankly, I came to the conclusion that life is too short to write on crummy paper. I miss my fountain pens too much to give them up for probably an entire year--awk!
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I did have this one small exacompta refill (5 X 7 with clairefontaine paper good for FPs) so I decided to use that for the writing prompts for 2016. And I actually ordered three new journals--one I have never written in with FPs, though. An Exacompta (a little larger 5.5 X 8), a QuoVadis Habana (my favorite!), and a Leuchtturm medium lined journal. I am using a Leuchtturm 1917 for my bullet but have never used fountain pens in there--only frixion erasable pens. (I know--my weirdness never ends!)
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Anyways, I figured whichever journal came first I would start out the year using that one for my regular daily journaling I've been doing for several years. The Exacompta came first...and I am so disappointed. It has really wide lined paper. :( You'd never know it to look at me but I am a devotedly narrow girl. *sigh* I will use it, of course, because the paper is such good quality--but I won't order one again unless I can get blank pages. I couldn't find any blank ones when I ordered it on Amazon and not sure they make them with blank pages--some brands don't.
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Regardless, I am all set for 2016. Spent all day yesterday getting my bullet journal ready and the night before that I painted the prompt sticker page for January.
That's the cool thing about these. They are on a matt paper and you can color them if you want to. I got out some watercolors and had a good time. Left them to dry overnight and then peeled away the outside--FUN!!
I've had some questions as to how I have adapted the bullet concept to fit my life. You will probably have to click on these to enlarge them. My first monthly page is a daily chart for the month. I saw this online someplace and loved that idea. Then you don't have to rewrite the same things over and over all month long.
I was drawing in the grid for a few months and thought--this is way too time consuming! So I made up a graph for 31 one days, print them off, trim them down...
...and tape them in each month with some double-sided tape.
I happened to have gold month stickers and used one for January.
As I mentioned, I only use frixion pens in my bullet (and my fauxdori and Franklin covey planner). I make too many mistakes and plans are changed too often around here. This way I can just erase! I use the frixion highlighters for the same reason.
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I keep the bigger frixion pens in the pottery mug on my desk and keep the skinnier ones in the pen case on an end table right next to my chair and the fauxdori.
After I tape in the new monthly grid and get that set up, then I get the rest of the month ready.
Have a new set of calendar stamps. Which I stamped wrong this first time--LOL! Forgot to put the "S M T...." stamp over the top before the month. I'll remember next month. These are just perfect, though!! Now I don't have to search online for small calendars I can print off any more!!
Here's what the monthly page spread looks like all ready for January (added some washi tape on the tops of the pages). The second page for the month is a monthly goal list. On the right hand side I make a column with the little calendar on the top and then under that I keep track of who I am writing to/owe letters to--birthday cards and thank you cards go on the bottom of the column.
Then I split up my month into four "weekly" spreads. The beginning of the month and/or the end will be smaller or larger, but I find this works the best for me. I have so many, shall we say, less productive days that I learned right off the bat that a daily bullet was not for me. I was constantly having to bump things to the next day and the next day...too much rewriting. I do enough bumping when I have a whole week--LOL!
I divide the pages there at the bottom so I have a section to write down if there is something for a specific day--a visit, appointment, etc.
And I do color code with the pens and highlighters. Still haven't totally got that down yet (have so many colors to choose from), but have the main areas color coded. I'll likely have it all figured out by the end of this year.
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This bullet system developed for me over this past year. That is what I love about bullet journaling--you can adapt it any way that works for you and change it whenever you need to. I stick lists in here and there...and it is all indexed. Been one year of using the bullet and I am loving it more now than when I started because I have altered it to fit what I needed and what works for me. I still look at videos and blogs sometimes to see what other people have come up with. You never know what I might want to try in the future.
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My fantastic deal arrived, though! This rug I had in my cart off and on for months. (I'm sure I'm not the only one who is a cart-juggler--LOL!) It had been as high as $39 at one time, but had been bouncing around about $30 lately...when it suddenly dropped down to $11.12!!! No lie! So I snatched it up.
It was rolled very tightly and kind of folded or smashed down so it is not going to lie flat any time soon, but I do like it. Kind of in the same color scheme as the other two rugs I have in here. (It would be so boring if they were all the same print, right? LOL!)
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Karma approached that rug like it was going to leap up and bite her.
She finally got brave enough to step on it.
Karma never seems delighted with change anymore. When she was a kitten, yes. But she grew out of that pretty quickly and turned into an antisocial, stick in the mud, old lady cat that sleeps half her life away--ROFL! (And I love her dearly, the old poop.)
The cream colored rug is now in the pantry--along with the shoe mat. I like it. I'm hoping extra rugs will maybe prevent as much kitty litter traveling into the kitchen. ;)
I caught Karma resting on the new rug later on...
...but you can tell by her ears that she just wasn't sure about the entire situation.
She didn't even look comfortable in her attempt to lie on it.
But she has to lie on everything she possibly can that is brought in here...so she forced herself. I'm sure it will become easier with time. ;) ;) What I put her through, eh? ROFL!
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See that clump out there right on the edge of the patio?
Yup! Was a clump of grouse.
Karma missed them that time.
Sawing logs.
Well, I am going to have to have something set up to play with just in case I do manage to connect with the Ringing in the New Year event tonight. Maybe just paint some more journaling prompt stickers or do some zentangling or something. Sounds like it could be fun. But I don't want to be doing anything complicated.
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Also need to set up my new year's eve celebration paraphernalia, too, so it is ready to go for the last thing I do tonight. Candles, angel cards, the goal list, burning bowl, Tibetan bell, a few crystals and such. I do love that ritual. Contemplating the old year and welcoming the new. Was quite a roller coaster year in 2015! I am still draggy and easily too sore...but am getting back to my pre-move self little by little. (I hadn't felt that rough since I was trying to finish college.) This is going to be a fabulous year--can just feel it!
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Well, I have to go make preparations!
See you soon in 2016!! :):)
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“Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book.
Write a good one.”
Brad Paisley
