Keeping it creative

Monday Matters: 6 activities to boost your cognitive function and increase your brain power

Posted on Apr 14, 2025Apr 11, 2025 by Laura

Cognitive functioning refers to the mental processes that we use on an everyday basis to gain knowledge and develop comprehension. It includes our ability to think, learn, remember, pay attention, perceive, plan, communicate and problem solve. As we get older, our brain function can deteriorate, but the good news is, there are lots of activities that we can do to help prevent that decline. Today, I’m sharing six styles of activity that are great for boosting your brain power and are super easy to incorporate into your daily routines.

Puzzles and games

As well as being a calming and mindful activity that reduces stress, doing puzzles or playing games is great for giving both sides of your brain a really good workout – the left being associated with logical thinking, and the right being linked to creativity, intuition and imagination. Regularly doing a range of different types works to improve memory, spatial awareness plus analytical and logical thinking.

There are so many different types of puzzles and games that it would be impossible for me to list them all, but here’s a few that come to mind:

crosswords
wordsearches
jigsaw puzzles
sudoku
Boggle
Scrabble
riddles
logic puzzles
anagrams
Wordle (one of my favourite games to play on my tablet right now!)
tangrams
Rummikub
Angry Birds 2 (I’ve been playing this daily for about 6 years so had to include this one!)
Snakes and Ladders
Monopoly
Arrow-words

Whichever you choose, it’s important to make sure that they provide the right amount of challenge but aren’t so difficult that you lose interest in them or they become a chore rather than something fun to do.

Learning new skills

Just because you’ve left formal education behind, doesn’t mean that you should no longer consider yourself a learner. Last year, I wrote a couple of blog posts encouraging life long learning – this one discussing the key benefits and the second part offering ways to learn something new each day. Skills you might like to develop could include cookery, flower arranging, drawing, hand-lettering and calligraphy, painting, photography, gardening, self defence, playing an instrument, speaking a foreign language, papercrafting, Tai Chi, yoga, Pilates, upcycling, creative journalling, sewing, basic first aid, mindfulness, self-compassion, productivity, positive thinking, aromatherapy, money saving, goal setting and goal getting.

There are lots of different ways to learn such as taking a face-to-face or online course, reading a book or watching You Tube videos to name a few. You could also learn from a friend, family member or colleague who has good knowledge of the subject. Assisting someone else also helps the person playing the teaching role too as it strengthens their understanding and develops their communication skills.

Doing creative activities

Once you’ve developed the basic skills involved in a creative past-time or hobby, you can put them to good use in a range of different ways. You might use your watercolour skills to paint your favourite animal and then frame it in your home. You could use your gardening knowledge to create a vegetable patch and then use your produce in your home cooking. Or you might make some bright and colourful new cushions for your living room using your sewing machine instead of buying some from the store. Whatever creative pursuit you engage in, you’ll be giving your brain a great workout in so many ways by using your imagination, planning out your project, expressing yourself in different ways, solving any problems that arise, making decisions, changing your mind or your approach, paying attention to the little details and so much more.

Dancing

I hadn’t given this much consideration before, but during my research for this post, I found several scientific studies which had explored dance as a way of improving cognition (as well as being fun exercise to get you or keep you fit!). I do several Zumba classes and Dance Fit each week when I can and love them both. It can be a real challenge learning the steps, keeping in time with the music, paying attention to and following the instructor (especially when you get tired towards the end) and making sure you don’t don’t crash into anyone else in the class!

At my gym (Everyone Active), there are also special classes for older adults such as Forever Fit and Zumba Gold and both of them are very well subscribed! Of course you don’t have to have a gym membership to enjoy dancing – just put on the radio or other source of your favourite music and bop around the room!

Meditation

Incorporating a daily meditation practice into your morning and/or evening routine can enhance cognitive function in a number of ways. This non-judgmental and intentional awareness of the present moment helps improve attention and concentration as you spend time focusing on your breath, bodily sensations, sights or sounds. It has also been shown to increase the thickness of the prefrontal cortex in the brain, leading to better executive functioning by improving memory, problem solving skills, decision making and the ability to easily switch from one task to another as you go about your day.

Visualisation

This is a simple visualisation exercise you can do first thing in the morning after breakfast. Basically, you pick an activity that is on your to-do list or part of your plan for the day which you’ve done at least a few times before. Then, you close your eyes, and you visualise yourself doing your chosen activity. So, for example, if you’re heading to the supermarket that afternoon for a few bits and pieces, you could go through the actions involved in your mind and picture yourself doing all of the steps that are involved. Try to remember every part of the process in detail, right from locating and putting your shoes on, donning your coat and picking up your keys, all the way to carrying your bags back and unloading the items to your fridge, freezer and cupboards.

Final words…

I hope you’ve found this week’s Monday Matters useful and it has helped you to think about quick and easy ways in which you can give your brain a good workout each day. Let me know in the comments which of these you already incorporate into your routines and which you’d like to give a go in the future. Remember that if you enjoy doing an activity and find it beneficial, you’re most likely to keep it up and make it a habit.

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, Hand lettering, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, productivity, Setting goals and intentions

Setting up my Bullet Journal for April 2025: April showers, umbrella theme

Posted on Apr 2, 2025 by Laura

I hope you’re all enjoying the sunshine if you have it and making the most of the warmer Springtime weather. This month, for my BuJo, I’ve opted for an April showers and umbrellas theme. It’s something I did before back in 2021 but my set up is quite different so I don’t mind repeating it. I’ve used coloured markers (Tombows, Crayola Supertips, Pentel sign brush pens and Pigma microns) for all of the doodles and I tried to stick to some kind of colour palette to make the pages cohesive, although I deviated at times! I hope you enjoy seeing my set up and don’t forget to let me know what theme you’ve chosen for April in the comment section.

Front cover

After writing a small title using a blue Pentel brush pen, I filled the page with different umbrella doodles using a combination of oranges, pinks and blues. I then added raindrops to finish things off.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Two Page Calendar

I like to draw up a nice, big calendar so I can add the main events of the month straight into it. I also like to put reminders in such as when I need to order my medication and when our hamster, Aggie will be getting her monthly full cage clean (an event that my husband and I always look forward to – not! ha ha!).

I enjoyed adding umbrella doodles in the surrounding spaces and some more raindrops.

Monthly finances

I always like to keep track of my finances each month so my outgoings don’t exceed my income. I fill in my spending each week so the task doesn’t become something too onerous. I remembered that I had a stencil sheet in my collection which had an umbrella outline as part of the shapes, so I used this to create uniform images across the bottom of the page. I used a Tombow and the Pentel sign pen to create a sketchy feel to the colouring as I didn’t want it to be too perfect.

April goals

I decided to try to limit the amount of goals I set for this month as there are a few from March that I’m still working on. I picked out eight which I still think is a few too many, but some of them are relatively quick ones such as planting our chard seeds outside and trying out a couple of new plant based recipes.

Final words…

I would share my first weekly, but I haven’t got around to decorating it yet and I’ve added some personal information to it which would need blocking out. I might share the weekly plans on Instagram at a later date – you can find me here if you want to see my content.

I had fun doodling lots of umbrellas this month but I really must remember to be careful not to smudge the marker colours as I had to use some whiteout pen to hide a couple of smears! This is part of the joy of being left handed – can anyone relate?

That’s all for this month. Wishing you an amazing April,

Blogging, crafting, intentional living, journalling, lifestyle, memory keeping, reflective journalling

Currently… Life update March 2025

Posted on Mar 20, 2025Mar 24, 2025 by Laura

It feels like it’s quite a while since I did a life update and with signs of spring emerging, including the sunshine which is currently streaming through my craft room window, I thought I’d do another one to share what’s going on for me right now. Before I start my next paragraph, I’m going to open a new window (on my computer rather than in my room as it’s still pretty chilly today) and look back at my last similar post to see how things have changed.

Currently reading…

…a family mystery called The Midnight Hour by Eve Chase. The book, which is mainly set in Notting Hill, London, swaps between two timelines – (one in the late 1990s and the other, the present day, twenty years later) and tells the story of Maggie and her little brother Kit. It’s the second book I’ve read by this author, and, although it’s not a total page turner like my usual murder mystery and police procedural books generally are, there are a few twists and turns and the storyline is holding my interest well. Unfortunately, it’s taking me a good while to finish any of my books at the moment as when I clamber into bed at around 10.30pm, I’m usually so tired that I can barely keep my eyes open to read a couple of chapters.

This year, I’ve got into audio books and although I haven’t purchased the above one on Audible, the next novel I have lined up was only £1.99 on Kindle and then £2.99 for the accompanying audiobook so good for my tight budget. Plus, it’s set in the USA, so I figured it would be nice to hear some of it read in an American accent. For my first audio book, Geneva by Richard Armitage, I read the whole thing on Kindle and then listened to the audiobook, whereas for my second read, I alternated between reading bits and listening to bits and I think I’ll probably do this for my next read too.

Currently loving…

…addictive word games. I’m a real fan of any kind of word game and a couple of months ago, I was introduced to Wordle and have loved playing ever since. The app, which I have on my mini tablet, features a web based word game where you are given six chances to guess a five letter word. Each time you guess a letter correctly, it turns yellow if it’s in the word but in the wrong location or green if it’s in the correct place within the word. There’s a daily puzzle which I enjoy doing straight after my breakfast to get my brain going and I also regularly compete against other players to be the first to get 25 points by guessing in as small a number of tries as possible. A good understanding of word patterns is put to use as you play and I find it great fun, particularly if I manage to guess the word within a couple of attempts.

Currently making…

…infusible ink projects to get more use out of my Cricut EasyPress 2. One of my goals for this year is to make a number of infusible ink and iron of projects using Cricut Design Space, my JoyXtra and my Easypress 2 medium. I’ve had a blank tote bag for a while now and also bought a set of 3 cosmetic bags in different sizes. I made a little bag for my niece last year but I wanted to do some designs for myself. This week, I’ve added a design to the tote bag using a gorgeous deep purple galaxy infusible ink paper. It didn’t turn out perfect as the ink didn’t completely transfer properly the first time, so I had to re-do it by trying to line the sheet up again, but it’s okay and I love the positivity of the sentiment.

I’m not sure that the photo shows off the colours and the sparkles too well but I experimented with hanging the bag in different locations and this was the best I could do without resorting to using my DSLR camera and Photoshop.

Currently working on…

… completing the initial chapter of my Marie Kondo Tidying Companion workbook. This was one of my goals for February but I didn’t realise how time consuming it would be. At the moment, I’m taking lots of photos of the storage we have upstairs and downstairs in out home, plus lots of snaps of the before of our home. My final task, when I’ve cropped and stuck in all of the photographs, is to pencil in a tidying timeline, set some intentions and record how I’m currently feeling about the process of decluttering my home.

Currently planning…

…a big garden tidy up, setting seeds, chitting our seed potatoes ready for planting and adding some more spring colour to our beds. I put my back out doing some (supposedly helpful) stretches in bed last week and it’s just starting to get back to normal after having to take co-codamol regularly for a number of days. Next week, my husband and I are hoping to schedule in some time to do some gardening jobs including clearing up brown and shrivelled leaves from the beds, mowing the lawn (which disgustingly is currently covered in bird poo from visiting woodpigeons) and cutting back various dead bits of plants. The council will soon be starting brown garden waste bin collections so we want to make the most of our payment for this service. I also want to get some new primulas to add a bit more bright colour as some of ours got killed off last year (who knows why!).

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my mini life update and it has inspired you to reflect on all of the things that you have going on right now. If you don’t have your own blog on which to share your “currently…” you could maybe try make a few notes in a journal under your own headings that you can look back on in the future to see how your life changes over time and with the seasons.

Wishing you a wonderful springtime,

creativity, journalling, memory keeping, reflective journalling

Creating my February highlights pages in my new journal

Posted on Mar 7, 2025 by Laura

Over the years, I’ve tried lots of different ways of creative journalling in Traveler’s Notebook inserts that I’ve purchased or made myself. I’ve loved completing different pages and layouts but I’ve often found myself trying to record too many different things in far too much depth. This has meant many collections of photos and ephemera in various bits and pieces of storage which never got journalled about (I didn’t even get started on them), half finished pages (often with photos and decor stuck in with spaces to journal about events and experiences and numerous blank pages (where I’ve penciled in what is to go on there) left to fill in later. It’s also been the case in the past that, during periods of bipolar illness, I’ve struggled to get motivated to do any journalling when depressed or taken on too much when I’m high, leading to tonnes of half finished or barely started creative projects.

Although my bipolar disorder is better managed now, and my mood is much more stable, I still wanted to find a way to record things whilst at the same time ensuring that journalling does not become too onerous a task. I think I’ve now found a method that works and I’m excited to share what this looked like for February this year.

In January, I started a new TN wide journal insert as a memory keeping project for 2025 (and if it continues to work for me, beyond this). Each month, I intend to create a double page spread with the main highlights on including events, trips out, purchases and general happenings. I set up the pages at the beginning of the month with a background paper and the title and then work on filling it in just after the particular month has ended. Today I’m sharing my pages for February which I’ve just finished this week and a little explanation of how I set about doing them.

Monthly Highlights Journalling

The idea of doing monthly journalling came from Kelseyleigh over at My Abiding Journal on YouTube. She’s been doing summary spreads of each month for quite a few years now and I’ve picked up lots of tips and ideas from watching her videos so I definitely recommend subscribing to her channel and watching some from the archives as well as tuning in to the livestream of her process which offers so many ideas and the opportunity to purchase stickers to use if you join her on Patreon.

Personally, I’ve not joined Kelseyleigh’s paid tiers as I like to make my own stickers and ephemera using my Cricut machine. However, she has some lovely ideas for each month of the year and I think her members get to suggest ‘bucket list’ items for inclusion on her sheets.

A few tips for success

As well as picking up some tips from Kelseyleigh, I’ve also developed my own systems for collecting bits and pieces, photographs and ephemera. As a Canva Pro and Cricut Design Space user, I’ve also got into the habit of designing a set of stickers each month too. Here’s what I’ve learnt so far and what is working for me:

If you want to have a background to your pages like I have, it helps to choose a simple patterned paper and adhere it prior to doing your journalling. I’ve also found that adding the letters of the month using small stickers that I create using Cricut Design Space helps in seeing how much space you have to work with. If you don’t have alpha stickers, you could try hand lettering a title, stamping the letters or use a letter stencil, depending on your craft supplies and how you want your pages to look.
As you engage in different activities during the month, think about photos you could take (or source) which would provide a good record in your journal. For example, I’ve screenshot and then cropped online images of items I’ve purchased if I want to include a very small photograph of a product that I’ve been excited to buy. I’ve also tried to consider photos that I could take which aren’t too busy so as to be able to shrink them enough to add as part of multiple photos on my dedicated two page spread.
Throughout the month, consider items that you could stick into your journal (tip ins) for example a business card, parts of some packaging, your menu choices when you go out for a meal, a section of a leaflet or map etc.
Use a small envelope to collect mini photographs, patterned paper, tip ins (e.g. maps, business cards, packaging labels as mentioned above), stickers and ephemera for the month and store it in the back pocket of your BuJo or other planner.
Create a notes page in your journal or on your phone to store information about events and happenings you want to record, ideas for captions, stickers you want to add to fill spaces on your pages and any other creative thoughts you have during the month.
Create a folder on your phone to add any photos you want to use in your journalling. This means you don’t have to spend ages searching your photos, screenshots, downloads, uploads and other resources when the time comes to work on your pages.
Use Canva or the PicCollage app to add small photographs that can fit together to create a single image to print. I have a 4×6 and 6×4 inch template on Canva for this purpose as that’s the size that my Canon Selphy prints at.
Consider purchasing an instant photo printer such as a Selphy, Instax or Sprocket so you can easily add to your photo collection and make mini versions of images you want to include. Check online reviews for the pros and cons and different price points so you can choose the right one to suit your needs and budget. I have a Canon Selphy which I’ve been using for years but you might prefer photographs that have a sticky back so you can put them straight in to your journal without needing to cut them out and add adhesive.

My February highlights pages

As I’m currently trying out the monthly recording system, I’ve picked out a notebook that I had already made and which fits in to my Carpe Diem Traveler’s Notebook that I’ve been using for journalling for a few years. So far, I’ve found that not everything I want to record will fit into the double page spread in my TN wide insert but I want to trial using this size for the full year to see if I always have too much stuff to include. It’s helping me to decide which are the main highlights and is good at making me condense things down or just let a photo do the talking (wholeheartedly embracing the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words). I may, in future use a larger blank notebook but I need to make sure that I’m still able to fit in the time at the beginning of the next month to create the pages.

Final thoughts…

One of the main problems I’ve found with creative journalling is wanting to document all of my life in detail using photos captions and lengthy bits of writing. Although I love working on my pages, it’s impossible to cover everything and trying to can lead to lots of overwhelm and feeling like you can’t keep on top of it. Creative journalling should be an enjoyable experience and if it starts to stress you out, I think it’s really important to do some self reflection on why. Although I’ve only done January and February so far, the pages were a pleasure to work on and only took a few hours to finish. My only issue now is you decide which highlights to include and which to miss out.

If you’re struggling to keep up with your creative journalling and feel like you’re always behind and desperately trying to get up to date, monthly highlight journalling might be a good way forward. Also, there’s nothing to stop you doing an extra couple of pages if you want to document something like a wedding, birthday, holiday or other special event in more depth before returning to a double page per month.

I hope you’ve found today’s post useful and it has helped you to see the benefits of doing a monthly summary if you have minimal time to work on your spreads. If you would like me to share future finished pages please do let me know in the comments.

bullet journal, Bullet journaling, creativity, goal setting, intentional living, lifestyle, planner girl, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling, Setting goals and intentions

My Spring 2025 Bucket List

Posted on Mar 5, 2025 by Laura

Late last month, I sat down at my desk to create a list of ideas for what I want to do over the course of spring with a view to writing a bucket list for the season. When I’d finalised things, I set to work on a two page spread in my bullet journal which contains all of my planned activities, a sticker image or two to represent each one and some general springtime flowers. Today, I’m sharing the pages I created in the hope of inspiring you to make your own Spring bucket list. I’ll also discuss how I went about choosing what to include.

My finished Spring bucket list BuJo spread

How I went about choosing my bucket list items

I started the process of choosing my items by looking at my vision board for 2025. This helped me to focus in on things I want for the year and I picked out using my Cricut Easypress to create some projects and using the principles of Kaizen to discover why I haven’t made much progress with tidying and organising my craft room. You can see above how I added these to my bucket list.

I also thought about things that I wanted to achieve last year, but, for whatever reason, didn’t get around to or didn’t have much success with. In 2024, we bought a wide shallow pot to grow rainbow chard in. We planted seeds and grew some leaves but we didn’t really maintain them and also never used them in any recipes. For this reason, I’ve added homegrown chard to the bucket list and a picture of some nice colourful leaves to remind me of my intention.

Next, I considered creative pursuits that I want to do more of and remembered that I loved exploring with my watercolour paints. I hope to do more painting so I added ‘Do another watercolour exploration or two’ to my list. I’ve tried to keep it realistic and doable by only stating one or two activities this spring as I tend to add too many items and then struggle to get them all ticked off in the given time.

There are also a few activities on my list which I like to do every year or each season such as decorating our home, doing a seasonal jigsaw and collecting photos, ephemera, caption ideas and tip ins for my creative journalling. This year, I’ve bought a gorgeous Garden Allotment jigsaw puzzle which I couldn’t wait to get started on and have already made good progress with. I’ve also started to change our home decor to add spring related accents, including a few new ornaments which I purchased over the weekend. Towards the end of the season, we will be going on holiday to Portugal and, whilst there, I will be planning which aspects of the trip I wish to document in my journal so this has become part of my bucket list too.

Finally, I turned to Google and Pinterest to provide inspiration for other items to add to my list. I searched ‘Spring bucket list ideas for adults’ and selected some activities which appealed. I included some which I think would be fun to do such as baking bread and playing an outdoor game. I’ve already seen a frisbee in a National Trust shop which reminded me of my intention to do something I enjoyed as a child but I’m keeping my options open until the sunnier and warmer weather comes.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my spring bucket list as a creative double page spread in my bullet journal. If you haven’t yet had a go at writing a seasonal list, I thoroughly recommend it as a way of making sure you get the most out of the coming months. It’s also great fun creating decorative pages and looking at a colourful layout (especially with doodles or stickers) can help keep you motivated to try new things and revisit favourite activities.

Let me know in the comments if the idea of creating a bucket list appeals and feel free to add your Instagram or other details if you share yours on social media.