BuJo: May 2018

From a galaxy far, far away... comes a BuJo theme! Yeah. Couldn't pass up this opportunity to have a theme for a month. Especially when that theme is Star Wars. I may have to do it again next year. It'll be interesting to see which characters I choose for those ones. Such a fun theme. More themes in the future? Only time will tell.

BuJo: April 2018

Weekly blog posts... what are those? Hahaha. At least I'm blogging, right? Here's another month come and gone in the world of BuJo for me. The end of April ended up being really crazy with the unexpected death my Aunt Cheryl. The reason for the photo of my spread being me sitting in an airport.

April was just another month of experimenting with art. I wanted to try something new every time. Although the third week was my quickly done spread. I had to get it done in two hours or so. Otherwise work would've been torture. It turned out well for the circumstances. Good looking things can come from quick work. =) And then the last week had to be inspired by the latest Avengers movie. Just had to be.

BuJo: March 2018

Another month all finished and still no weekly blog posts. At least this month I have a better excuse. I've been working really hard on making some things to take to the Market on the first Saturday in April. And because of this I've decided that my Etsy is going to go live again! It's terrifying and exciting at the same time. My goal is to get it really going as of April 9th. Here's working towards that goal!

The layout for March didn't really change from February and January. I'm really liking this layout. It seems to work for me and I can spare some pages for other layouts. Thankfully this time I actually remembered to get a picture of the completed mood tracker. With it being March, clovers seemed the most appropriate. And instead of me drawing 31 of them, I decided to use each leaf on 8 clovers. So much easier and still a nice effect.

I love Gudetama. So lazy...

Galaxies and "The Greatest Showman"? Don't mind if I do.

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

No journaling here on the days. Things started getting busier.

Now with this spread I decided that I needed a complete change around. I had to experiment. Having the dates laid out vertically was boring my brain. So turning them horizontally helped break the monotony. Finally got to add some more drawings, too. The three weeks prior had to be quick and still be aesthetically pleasing. This time I actually had a little more time to add some more extras. So glad I was able to.

Remember, you can find me as @mule_designs on Instagram. Be sure to follow me! I'm really excited about some of the stuff coming up in April. There is a lot more artistic stuff being created. I'm loving it! Hope to see you there!

BuJo: February 2018

January and now February is done and gone. Still need to get working on blogging in a consistent manner. Someday... maybe... lol.

As you can see February doesn't look much different from January except for color scheme change. I neglected getting a photo of the heart mood tracker finished and filled. Oi. Consistency is something I definitely have to learn. The themes for the weeks was fun to come up with. I hope you enjoy them! You'll see that my weekly habit tracker became larger. I learned in January that I needed to keep track of more things. They were either slipping out of mind or easier to neglect with them written down. I'm glad I added them back.

I got my hands on some cat washi tape. I HAD to use them.

PyeongChang 2018 Olympics! Olympic ring and medal colors inspired.

Soohorang, the Olympic mascot.

Valentine's Day spread. Easy and fun to do.

Seriously been dreaming of the beach. I'll be going on a Disney Cruise this year. Can't stop dreaming of it!

As usual, you can find me on Instagram as @mule_designs. Happy creating; hope to see you there!

BuJo: January 2018

January of this year in my BuJo has been quite the learning experience! And a good one at that. One of the things that makes BuJo-ing so appealing to me is the flexibility. There are features that I have kept and features that I have omitted from the 2017 version. And there are several changes. If you remember, I would have four pages dedicated to my monthly spread and monthly trackers. The big changes here is putting that mood tracker with the monthly spread. This way I'm able to change the days into something different every month. This month is Soot Sprites surrounded by konpeito. Love these guys!

So that leaves my huge monthly habit tracker. I decided to try a go at keeping it divided on the weekly spreads. I like thinking about each set of habits during the months instead of during a whole month. It allows my brain to go, "Okay. This week wasn't so good but next week will be better!" It's helped me take control of them. You'll see I omitted two in later spread due to adding them to daily tasks instead. That was mainly for negating redundancy. And another I changed was taking out the sleep tracker. At first it was a good idea. I thought it was helping. But then I realized I was stressing myself when I wasn't able to get that much sleep. It ended up being my personal double-edged sword! I wouldn't sleep as sound and be more tired the next day. Ironic, huh?

Of course the most obvious change is the fact that I can change my layouts at will. The size of my Scribbles That Matter (and quality of the product) allows me to experiment more. I can use all sorts of things that I wasn't able to before. I can now use heavier markers, stamps, and in general just be more artistic. This is something huge for me. I don't get the chance to draw as much and do art anymore. This is my personal release throughout the week. So relaxing.

I had to go crazy with my birthday this year! It's a big number for me. This was kind of a happy accident in some ways. The "30" on the upper picture blead a little bit after trying to blend my Tombows. I must've gone too crazy. But I'm glad because I was able to use some more washi tape along with my HP Sprocket to create the journaling for the day of. I love looking back at it.

"Bacon pancakes, makin' bacon pancakes. I'll take some bacon and put it in a pancake!" - Jake the Dog

And here's all those tiny konpeito filled up. So cute when it's all done!

I'm looking forward to seeing how my BuJo evolves throughout the year. Should continue to be fun! If you want faster updates on this, follow me on Instagram @mule_designs. I'm trying to get better at that, and I hope to see you there!

Blah Blah and BuJo 2018 Set-Up

It would seem that my biggest problem with having a blog is consistency. I need to giving this blog more attention than I have been. I seriously neglected it last year. It's something that I need to set a time for each week to make a post. And I'm not talking about sitting there in front of the T.V. while working on said post. It has been clear to me that that doesn't work at all. I get so distracted and I know that I'm not doing this blog (or any readers if you're out there) any justice at all. I'm sorry for that. I need to make an effort and that needs to start now.

I had finally posted this Tuesday all the pictures on my bullet journal of last year, 2017. I ran into a problem while doing so. I had found that I wasn't very consisted--at least I'm consistent in this problem--with taking pictures. I started to take pictures of monthly layouts and once I started to do video flip-throughs, those pictures never happened. This would explain the lack of pictures in some of the months of last year. I'm hoping to remedy this problem this year.

So now, 2018.

This actually begins with 2017. When I had started doing my BuJo I didn't have much in the knowledge of what kind of journal to get. A lot of what happened with my choice was because I already had a journal that I had started as a regular journal. I didn't have money at the time so I decided to use what I had. The brand is Piccadilly. I don't really recommend it after using it for all of last year. I found out quickly that the quality of the pages weren't all that great. I couldn't use many of the pens and markers I had. Also the size of the one I had didn't allow me to be as creative as I wanted. It worked at first but then I slowly realized that I needed more space.

So after doing my BuJo I naturally went through social media to find more inspiration. I at first found Boho Berry. She was very good for helping me get some inspiration for my BuJo. And then I also looked for things about planners. This is how I ran into QuirkyHeart. This is where my creative desires for my BuJo blossomed. I found a new way to design my BuJo that spoke more to me as a creative person. One day on Instagram I saw that she was testing some journals. I know that she personally uses Rhodia, but I really wanted to get a Scribbles That Matter journal. And I'm really, really glad that I did.

My Scribbles That Matter journal has allowed me to get a lot more creative with my layouts and to use more of my markers and pens than I could before. There's so much more space for everything. It has been nice to use a good quality journal. I recommend it to spend a bit more and go for it. You're going to have it for the rest of your life anyway, might as well make it a nice one.

So to start of the new journal for the new year I knew that I needed to write in the calendar year. I wish that I had done that for my last BuJo. I eventually had a printed insert that I used quite a bit. This time I decided to write it in. I thought that I would get some stamps to do this part for me, but it actually wasn't that bad to write out all 365 days of the year. Actually having it divided up evenly was the hardest part for me.

I also knew that I needed a place to write down important dates. I didn't want to use a huge note sections on each of my monthly layouts. I wanted to use that space for some creative endeavors. So making this spread has already proved to be very useful. I had thought that there wouldn't be much to put on here, but I was proven wrong very quickly. I mean, having those important birthdays is such a life-saver. The family continues to grow. Perhaps when the day I get married (whenever that is, haha) this will be even more important then.

And then there are some yearly goals and trackers that I wanted to put at the beginning on the journal. I'm actually missing a picture right now for this. There is a page dedicated to losing weight, and I haven't had the chance to weigh myself and put pictures in it, yet. I swear I'm getting to it... Right next to it is a movie list of movies I want to see. So once I get the weight one done, I'll put them on here.

What I do have here, though, is some yearly goals and a reading tracker. I made sure to leave space for goals. I know that as I'm able to complete these goals, I'm going to have to write some more in. I have plans--as you can see--to find and apply for a Master's program. Once I do that then I will need something else. The reading tracker is where I begin to show my creative side in this journal. I learned from my last BuJo that having pre-drawn books on the shelves didn't work so well. This time I decided to add some things to the shelves that tell a lot about me. I love Disney. I collect mugs and love The Nightmare Before Christmas. I like cats. I'm a BYU alum. I'm a Slytherin. Then as I actually finish a book I will drawn it on the shelf. Right now I think this will work for me. Now to actually have the time to read... That's another challenge.

I'm really glad that I decided to get into bullet journaling. Setting and making goals has allowed me to feel like I'm actually getting somewhere. My goal in writing about it is to inspire others to have that same feeling of accomplishment. I know that it's a great motivator in helping me become who I am meant to be, and I know it can do the same for you.

BuJo: December 2017