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Bullet Journaling for 2018

It’s the last few days of 2018 – and there are a number of friends who are starting bullet journaling in the new year.  Welcome to the club!  I have found bullet journaling a great way to keep my lists all in one place, rather than having a million half used notebooks all over the house, in my purse, on my desk, and everywhere else.   I’ve been keeping a Bujo for about 2 years – and find it very helpful.  (I’ll do a flip through video once I get January all set up).

One place I found lots of helpful information is from Ryder Caroll himself.  He’s the original creator of the Bullet Journal, and has a site full of lots of information here.  (Link)

Ryder is what is considered a minimal bullet journaler – not full of art, or color, no doodles or fancy layouts.  And that works for lots of people.  However, I use the Bullet Journal as an outlet for my creativity.  I doodle, I play with fun layouts, I add color and interesting backgrounds using watercolors and other items.  They become quite a personal item as you work through them, and as unique as each of us.

Layouts – everyone’s layout fits their needs – so there are as many layouts as there are bullet journalers.   I’ve found lots of resources and ideas on Pinterest.  Everyone sorts their boards a little differently, but if you search for Bullet Journal or BuJo Layouts, you’ll get lots of ideas.  Here’s a great Pinterest resource as well! – LINK 

And let’s not forget Facebook.  There are a million groups out there, good and bad.  The following are some that I’m a member of – I tend to stay out of the conversations and generally use them as resources for layouts, tools, and art supplies.

These are some I recommend:

So, there you go – some good references to get started!  If you have any questions on Bullet Journaling – please look me up on Facebook or stop by the Phynpenni Designs Facebook page and ask!

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Boxing Day

Today certainly doesn’t feel like a normal Tuesday, considering most Tuesdays I’m up and at the office.  We had a bit of a sleep in today, and then started our day.  Charles installed my new arm and monitor bracket that Santa brought, and I was working on finishing up the monkey I’m crocheting and did some planning and organizing.   I have a few things left to do on  the monkey, and he’ll be done and ready to send to Atlanta 🙂  I’ll be taking some photos of him and posting when he’s all done and ready to go.  Right now, he’s sitting here making eyes at me from my desk.  I think he’ll be well received!

I’ll be busy at the office this week – we have a deployment that’s due to go out next week – so, getting all the testing done as well as everything else that needs to go along with it will be my primary focus for the  next few days.

Time to curl up with a book for the evening!

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Merry Christmas!

Here’s to hoping that your holiday is filled with love and laughter, family and friends.

Charles and I had a quiet morning – we exchanged our gifts, and then puttered around a little bit.  I’m setting up my new fitness watch, and he’s playing with his new lens.  (He actually took the new header image for the blog – I just love how winter-y it is – without being snowy and cold!)  I’ll be making dinner here in a little bit, and otherwise, it’s a quiet family day at home.

After dinner is started, I’ll be doing some lettering practice, so there may be some highlights posted if I like what I turn out.

Otherwise, have a wonderful holiday, and I’ll post again tomorrow!

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Ideas and Doodles

Today, I was looking around at some of the crafty blogs that are still out there, and I got the idea to use some of my own lettering as my header, rather than using fonts and stock i mages.  That will make my site ‘my’ site, rather than my words decorated with someone else’s art.  And seeing that the goal of this site is to share my own artwork, I think it’s a good approach.

Last night, I finished the knitting and edging on the sweater that I’ve been working on.  I like it – but if I ever do it again, I’m going to use a more ‘upscale’ yarn than the craft store yarn that I used.  It’s nice, but it doesn’t drape and hang quite like I want it to – so I’ll use a superwash type yarn to make it again if I decide to.  I ordered some buttons from Amazon and they should be here early next week, so once I put them on, and stitch things together – it will be all done and ready to wear.  I’ll take a picture when it’s all done and wearable.  I have to figure out what my next yarn project will be – I have a list of patterns on Ravelry that I have set aside for 2018 – I just need to figure out what it will be.  (And of course, get it to all fit in with my word of the year).

As this blog grows, and through the weeks and months, I’ll be creating the categories that I need to keep things organized.  I don’t want to create a bunch now, and not have anything in them – I only want to make the ones that I need and use.   So,  keep an eye out for that 🙂

Since the end of the year is right around the corner (really  – 9 days away!)  I’m going to posts about my planner plan for 2018.  Both my bullet journal and my mini Happy Planner and how I have it all set up.  A few friends have asked for an overview and instructions on how I use my day to day tools – so I think that’s going to be the focus for a while.   Individual posts for the overall setup – and then monthly recaps and flip throughs seem like the best way to do it.  I also want to try and figure out how to incorporate video into it – because some folks learn and understand better when they have images to look at.

We’ll see where inspiration leads me!

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Change is in the Air…

Wow, it sure has been quiet in these parts! Almost a year since I posted last. I think I’ve been doing more on Facebook and in my paper journals – than I’ve obviously been doing here – but I’m getting the itch to write again – so write I shall!

One thing I have been doing lately is spending some time in the evening doodling and drawing and practicing my lettering. It’s turning out well, so, I’ve got the itch to start sharing it with people. While I do share it on Facebook, I think doing it here will be beneficial as well. So, I’m laying out some ideas on getting things lined up to do here as well as link it to FB, Instagram, and some other social media sites. It’s part of my focus for 2018.

It is that time of year to determine what word is going to guide the upcoming year. It’s kind of a silly project – but I enjoy thinking through what I want to do, what I have done, and what’s keeping me held back from doing the things I think about. This year, the word for 2017 was ‘act’ – and I really didn’t do a lot of acting on the things that I wanted to do. I’m not 100% sure why – but I do know that I am struggling with the follow through on things. (For example, posting on my blog more than once a year).

I’ve been considering that my word for 2018 is intention. What are my intentions for the things I want to do? Are the things I AM doing falling into those things I intend to accomplish. For example – is making so many lists and plans, keeping me from actually DOING the things that I want to do? (Hint: For me, yes, yes it is). So, 2018 is going to be a year of intention for me. On top of living intentionally, I’m going to be focusing on individual mini-projects each month – and work on those throughout the year. I think that will help me ‘eat the elephant’ one bite at a time, rather than feeling so overwhelmed by everything I need to and want to do, that I get completely overwhelmed by it all. It seems manageable, and I’ve got a small group of friends from a local group I help run that are all wanting to do similar things, so we will helpfully keep each other honest.

One thing I do want to do – is keep my blog more for my creative things – my fiber stuff, paper stuff, cooking stuff, and other things that are creative. While the years and years of posts here are mostly about my life, and some of the harder things I’ve had to go through – I really don’t want to dwell on that stuff. Yes, it made me who I am, and it is all in the past, but it’s time to just let it stay there, hide it from folks who weren’t there with me when I went through it all, and do what I can here to start fresh. So, I’ll be looking into that – should be some fairly easy database switches – so I may need to ask Charles for help on that – but I’m sure it can be done.

I’m debating a new name for the blog, new categories, a new template, and a redesign of the whole site all together – but I’m going to do it slow and deliberately – so it’s exactly what I want, and not slapped together in an effort to check something off my list.

So, here’s to new beginnings!