Bullet Journal for 2017

I’m going to warn you right now that this is text and picture heavy…

A year ago I started bullet journaling and I really enjoyed it. I don’t think that I was more productive, but I definitely was more organized. I also loved the freedom to create in it and to use it as a diary. I have kept a diary since I was really little. I have books and books of unfinished diaries and basically anytime something disastrous happened in my life, from actual disasters like when my dad passed away from cancer or I got my heart broken to not actually disasters but it was to me like when Nick Carter got his first girlfriend (shut up, I was like 15 years and it was a big deal because he was the love of my life!!!) I would need to end it and then start a new diary. I’m pretty sure this was the only year that I finished it all the way through!

Anyway. In the year that I have been bullet journaling, I have changed a few things from my original setup. Including……my brand new Leuchtturm1917 lime green journal! I thought I would switch it up and try out the Leuchtturm1917 this year. I love this a lot because the pages came pre-numbered and index pages already set up and most of all I LOVE THE COLOUR!! Though in terms of paper, it’s not really that different from the Moleskin – there’s still some bleed through.

The first thing I did at the back of my journal was set up my monthly pages from January to July. Because I do shift work where every two weeks I work am shift and then the next two weeks I work pm shifts, I like to and need to know when I’m working so that I can make plans. This is one of my most useful things in my bujo. Last year I did a full year but I ran out of space and had to re-do the last half of my monthly pages. This year I did only half the month. I really liked the morning/afternoon/evening/tasks and goals columns, so that I’ve kept the exact same. I still needed to know what shift I’m working for the rest of the year and to be able to plan for the future, so I added two things: a quick calendar for August to September and also a Future Dates log.

The last month, I started doing a weekly 2 page spread set up so that I could see and plan out everything that I had to do and this ended up being really helpful to me, so I brought this over into 2017. I left one side to plan my week and the other side to plan my meals. I’m also trying to pick back up some of the Chinese that I learned years ago, so that’s what the squares are on the bottom of the meal planner. I pick a word that I want to learn for that week and every day I practice a little. Hopefully I’ll pick up some new words and phrases before the end of the year!

After that I start my daily pages. I usually have a to do list for the day, some times I doodle in it, sometimes I journal in it. I’m currently following the Dawn Nicole Designs year of colour challenge, it’s been fun trying to figure all the colours and stuff that I can do.

Finally, these are the things that I have added for me:

The first thing is a resolutions page of sorts. I haven’t really figured out what else I want to accomplish this year. I know I want to learn or re-learn some Chinese and my horoscope said that I should really focus on my mental health this year and to learn to meditate. Other things that I think will go up is to save an x amount of money each month. I just need to sit down and sort that out. And probably to try to read and art more and tv less.

Another thing I have added for myself is a vacation tracker cause otherwise I am not going to remember what I have taken and what I have left! Though even though I have a tracker, I always end up with extra vacation days – not that I’m complaining 🙂

Kensi is a butthead and I’m having issues getting her to eat over the last year or so. The vet doesn’t really believe me, so I’ve been tracking her daily meals so that I can bring it with me for her yearly check up coming soon. I also have a tracker for her weight which isn’t shown here. I mean, she’s fine and is playful and everything, but no matter what type of food I have tried on her (and I have tried what feels like every brand of food – I also have a tracker for that!), she eats a few bites here and there and then leaves it. So I thought that I would keep track of that for them to see what I’ve been doing.

And the final thing I’ve added is a tv schedule since I have so many shows I am following and I don’t remember when most of them are! 

So that’s my bullet journal for this year! I’m sure it’ll continue to change and evolve as I move into my second year of journaling. If you’ve stayed with me til the end, thank you 🙂 If you bullet journal too, let me know in the comments; I love checking out how other people have set up their journals!

Dream Journal

I don’t think that I have ever written about my obsession with dreams. From a young age, I have obsessed over the meaning of dreams, I had a few books from before the internet was a thing in which I would look up dream meanings and I even did a course on dreams in high school. It started when I began to realize that I would dream of something and then days, weeks, months, or sometimes years later, I’ll have this deja vu feeling and I’ll know that I have dreamt of this exact moment. I’m not quite as obsessive as I used to be, but every once in a while, I get such an interesting dream, I have to write it down, research the hell out of it to see if there is some deeper meaning.

The Dream:
Last night I had the best weirdest dream that Tony Stark (the Robert Downey Jr. version) was trying to kill me and he had thrown poisonous gas at me. I was staggering around, dying, until President Obama found me and went all bad ass hero and threw me into the passenger seat of his car and then cutting in and out of traffic, raced me to the White House where he had a team of doctors ready to save me.

The Meaning:
There seems to be a lot of meaning for poison out there in the dream world, but a lot of them seem to go back to the fact that if you are dreaming of poison, it means that you are in a poisonous relationship or in a poisonous atmosphere and should pay attention to the person who is poisoning you and/or the environment that you are in. It could also mean that some painful influence is going to immediately reach you.

To dream that someone is killing you is supposed to be an indication that you are perceiving a threat, or there is stress or a struggle that you are going through in your life. Or it could be an indication that you are feeling hurt or betrayed by the person who is killing you.
Furthermore, to see the killer in your dreams suggests a part of your emotions that has been cut off. The killer could be a manifestation of the things that you hate about yourself. Or they could be someone or something that is making you feel threatened. It is suggested that you examine the real life people and situations that most resembles the characteristics of your killer.

I also wanted to know if seeing a celebrity in your dreams had any meaning. Most of my research has indicated that the celebrity is a symbol of the characteristics or accomplishment or lack there of that we have attributed to that individual celebrity. Having dreams of people are harder to define as each dreamer perceives the same person differently, so this is very dependent on how you feel, or think about the celebrity.
Funny enough, I found one site that explained that if you dream about President Obama, it is a symbol that one wants to live a more honourable and highly respected life, that their life is going to be influenced by a great amount of change. To dream of a president in general is an indication that the dreamer needs to be more assertive or  diplomatic in their endeavour with others, especially in a professional grouping.

Finally, to dream of being saved means you need to look at areas of your life that requires saving. If in your dreams you are saved, this is a good omen that you will get the help you need, as long as you ask for it. Sometimes dreaming of being saved could also mean that there are areas in your life that you are ignoring.
There was also a little about someone who comes to save you who is supposed to, and this represents an expectation and perhaps your expectations are too high and you should consider if you’re asking too much of that person.
Another website said that to dream of being saved means that the person who saved you really cares about you. I highly doubt President Obama cares about me as an individual considering the fact that he doesn’t know me! But that was funny to read. But it also said that dreaming of being saved could mean that you may require immediate attention to your health or that you are under a lot stress because of someone or something and that your dream is a wish to resolve these issues.

If I take all of these things into consideration, it does make a little bit of sense based on what I am going through right now in my waking life. Anyway, sorry for the long post, but if you’ve made it to the end, I hope you enjoyed this post 🙂

Bullet Journal Set Up

I had the day off yesterday so what better way to spend the morning then to finish off my bullet journal for 2016? I have been heavily researching the Moleskine vs Leuchtturm1917 debate. It seems like the Leuchtturm1917 is the favourite. Since I have already been using the Moleskine for my journals for awhile now, and I have no qualms with it, I kept to the Moleskine. The only difference is that I went with the sketchbook one hoping that the pages would be thicker. No such luck. I’ll see how this year goes with it and if I don’t like it, I’ll try out the Leuchtterm1917 next year. I can’t believe I’m talking about next year when we’re just starting 2016!

I like to colour code my things – purple for me, red for work, etc. While I put a colour code index at the top of my monthly pages, just to make it easier for me, I put initials on the bottom of my coloured pens so I don’t keep having to double check with the colour index.

My first page was the Index page. I switched it around and put the item first and then the page numbers that correspond with it after. Some of the items, like my food log, will be on many separate pages and this is easier for me to keep track of where they all are.

Next came my future events. There was a post about this on the Bullet Journal/Library page (Future Log: The Alastair Method) that I really liked, so I went ahead and used  that for my own journal. The original way of just leaving empty space felt too restrictive to me.

After that I started my monthly pages, I saw that some people do these a month at a time as the new month starts, but I decided to do all my months together since often I need to plan things way in advance and I like knowing and seeing what free time I have (or don’t have).
I also really like Boho Berry’s set up for mornings/afternoons/evenings so I borrowed that too!
I don’t know if you can see it in the August page, but there are a few dates that I know that I will be taking vacation time. Those dates, I coloured it in lightly so I don’t have to write down ‘vacation’ over and over again.

A lot of people also had some sort of goals/resolution page and I wanted to incorporate that into my journal. Help me remember what my goals are for this year and hopefully stick to it. I covered my resolutions up since some of them are quite personal. A couple of my less personal ones:

1. Instead of buying new books (with the exception of Meg Cabot’s Mediator series coming out February 2016!!), I’m only going to read all the books on my bookshelf that I haven’t read. Which I have way too many of!
2. Get back into yoga
3. Drink more water!

Finally, I have my food log and my weekly log. The weekly log for obvious reasons. I wanted to keep a food log to make sure I was getting enough protein. Since I started my vegetarian (sometimes vegan) diet, this has been the one thing I have been concerned about.

My daily log will come after this. I’m excited to start this bullet journaling experience. I kind of started in December just to see how things will play out, if I’ll like it and so far it’s working out. I don’t know where this will lead to or if it will lead to anything at all. However, this is how I’ve basically been keeping my agenda, there’s just more room to be creative and to change things to make it fit me and my life exactly.

Will update with how this goes!

 

Brush Hand Lettering

Since I started working on my bullet journal, I have become obsessed with the art of hand lettering and specifically with the brush pens. I said that I wasn’t going to go out and buy myself a set of brush pens, but at the same time I can’t really practice without them. I was at Michael’s on an unrelated matter and they were just looking at me! They weren’t expensive, so I thought why not?

The only thing I have an issue with is that they wore out pretty quickly during practice. I don’t know if that’s the way all brush pens work. Or if these were just a bad brand (Pigma Brush). Or because the material is cheap. But I’m a little disappointed. There’s a whole community out there, so a little research before I decide on buying another brush pen to practice with.

I started writing with them right away, but then I realized I had no idea what I was doing and had to start from the beginning.

These are some of my practice pages. You can’t really see it cause the pictures are tiny, but the black pen started to flare on me. I’m obviously not really very good at it, but practice makes perfect right? I need to learn the arm movement thing and when to use lighter pressure to get the thinner lines.

Slowly, I’ll get there! But for now, I’m having so much fun!

Bullet Journal

Today in my random wandering of Pinterest, I came upon this thing called a bullet journal. Apparently this has been going on for awhile? I mean I’ve been sort of doing something similar in my agenda. I make lists and notes and add in lots of post it notes with different lists and project plans I have since I never have enough room in the agenda. That or it spills into the the next day. I doodle a lot and keep a lot of my mementos in there. Like ticket stubs to movies, or like this year my bff took me on a scavenger hunt, so I have mementoes from that, or from the Supernatural convention that we went to. But it’s not enough. I’ve been looking for a better way and bam! it just falls right into my lap.

My coworker saw me looking this stuff up and now she’s all into it. She LOVES it because every single day of her life is made into several lists on post it notes. She even makes lists for me on things that I need to do during my shift. She’s excited to start AND she just bought a book from Indigo today. I told her I wanted to buy a sketchbook, I have a lot of past diaries that I write in in sketchbooks and it also has some of my sketches. She’s not very creative, so she doesn’t really care about that component, colour coding is about as creative as she gets!

I’m so excited to try this out. I have a notebook that I’ve been using to keep my journal and notes in right now. So I’m starting December in my note book to work out the kinks. I just ordered my notebook and I’m excited to start it out in the new year! I’m picking up a lot of tips from Pinterest and Googling and certain people who have taken the original concept and made it work for them; I’m planning on incorporating them into my own bullet journal as well as adding my own thing into it. It’s so hard when you see so many great ideas and you want to add them ALL into your own. I love the flexibility of this though, so I’m sure whatever I have set up now is not going to last and it’ll continuously evolve as I evolve and grow.

Will update more when I start 🙂