Planning and journaling – Page 2

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Setting up my Bullet Journal for June 2025: Portuguese ceramic tiles theme (AKA azulejos)

Posted on Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

This June, I’ve gone for something completely different for my monthly BuJo decor. Usually, in the Summer months, I opt for bright colours and seasonal things such as fruits, butterflies, ice cream and beach holidays. However, this time, I took inspiration from our recent trip to The Algarve in Portugal and decided on a Portuguese ceramic tiles theme. Although a range of colours appear in these traditional items, the most popular by far is dark blue on a white background. The designs can be incredibly intricate but I opted for simple patterns as I really wanted to add cute swallows somewhere in my theme but at the same time, ensure I hadn’t set myself too much of a drawing challenge!

The Front Cover

I created my two tile designs on dotted paper from my Claire Fontaine pad and then traced them using pencil so I could create a repeating pattern and keep the images looking almost the same. They’re not exactly identical but this is in keeping with the hand-painted look which the traditional ceramic tiles would have. I then decide to outline the squares with a light sand colour Tombow. The June title was hand-lettered using my darkest blue Tombow and I went over it twice to intensify the colour. As I didn’t have a very dark blue Tombow, I had to make use of my Crayola Supertips which made it quite difficult to be precise with the colouring as the pens are quite thick and not super pointed. I think the tiles turned out okay but I’m not sure if the tile outline is impactful enough and I’ve been debating using a darker colour.

Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative

Monthly Calendar

I worked on a few more fairly simple tile designs for the spaces around my calendar, again using tracing paper to copy the images multiple times. I opted for a darker surround, but, as a dark yellow is quite often used in addition to the dark blue on azulegos, I thought it made them look more vibrant but still similar to the actual Portuguese tiles.

Finances – income and expenses

My usual financial information record with a Portuguese tile sticker I made using an image from Canva.

Monthly Goals

I’ve been setting monthly goals for a while now and like how they keep me focused on what I hope to achieve. I used both my vision board for 2025 and my seasonal bucket list to help me choose specific goals and I have some printables which I got from Etsy to help me map draw up action steps. I also use my monthly calendar and weekly spreads to record when I will work on each of the goals to ensure I meet with success.

I got some washi and PT tapes from The Washi Tape shop last month and decided to add a few motivational phrases on the pages. I love the different messages but I wish they were pre-cut like some of their other collections.

Final words…

I hope you enjoyed seeing my various spreads for this month. I don’t think I’ve ever done a theme with such a small range of colours before and I’m certain I’ve never used blue shades as the main focus of my palette at any time of year. I’m still not sure I’m happy with the front cover but I guess I’ll have to live with it as it’s done now! Let me know your thoughts or suggestions if you have any.

Wishing you a joyful June,

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

My Summer 2025 Bucket List is good to go…

Posted on Jun 1, 2025Jun 1, 2025 by Laura

This is my second year of making seasonal bucket lists and, so far, I’ve managed to make them all quite different. I’ve been looking back at Summer 2024’s spread in my bullet journal and quite a few elements of it were related to our holiday in Wales. This year, however, we’ve had our main trip last month and we haven’t decided where we might go for my birthday in August yet. Today, I’m sharing my finished Summer 2025 bucket list spread in my current BuJo. I’m starting to work on the items already as I follow the meteorological times, beginning on June 1st and finishing on August 31st rather than the astronomical calendar. And, although we had a bit of rain earlier, it’s bright sunshine and blue sky out there now so it certainly feels like the summertime has arrived.

Creating my bucket list and turning it into a bright and colourful spread in my BuJo

Last year, I went into detail about how I develop my list and then turn it into a double page board in my bullet journal and you can read all about my process here. This time, as I’ve noticed there tends to be quite a bit of ink transferal, if I use lots of black, I opted for a lovely, bright pink for the bucket list items. It’s still really easy to read and hopefully, I won’t spend the season erasing smudges!

A couple of items that I chose are common to most of my bucket lists, such as doing a seasonal jigsaw and reading a book set in the particular season but the rest are all something new and different.

Final words…

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my Summer Bucket List spread and it has inspired you to create your own. You don’t necessarily have to make it a creative exercise – just writing one on plain paper and putting it up somewhere prominent such as on a cupboard in your kitchen will be enough to help you make the most of the season. You could even turn it into a family activity where you each contribute some ideas of seasonal favourites or things you’ve always wanted to try. And if you get a bit stuck, you can always turn to AI to generate ‘Fun things to do this Summer’ or your own show me phrase.

I would love to see your finished lists if you would like to share, so feel free to upload it to Instagram and tag me in your post with @ljdesignsne

Hope your Summer is great fun and you create lots of happy memories!

art, Bullet journaling, coloured pencil, creativity, goal setting, planner lifestyle, Planning and journaling

Setting up my bullet journal for May 2025: Primrose / primula theme

Posted on May 5, 2025May 5, 2025 by Laura

This month, I’ve again taken inspiration from our garden. A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to add more colour out the front of the house, so we went to the garden centre to look for a set of six bedding plants that should come back year after year. I opted for primroses (AKA primula) as there was already one out there which pops up each spring and was obviously set before we moved in over a decade ago. After the flowers had settled in – they went a bit floppy when we first installed them – I took some macro photos to use as inspiration for my spreads. It’s taken me ages to sketch out, draw and colour in all of the images but it was such a lovely, mindful activity that I found it really therapeutic. As I write this, it’s the 2nd May and I still haven’t finished all of the decor but I have drawn up my calendar, finances, goals and first weekly so I can actually fill in events and tasks. I hope you like my finished pages and they inspire you to give florals a go to practise your drawing, colouring or maybe painting skills.

Front cover

The calendar was the last page I finished and took me a long while to complete. I used a photograph of a plant pot of primroses for reference which I found on Google. I used mainly my Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils and blended a few shades together to get a nice peachy colour. I also used my blending pencil to mix up the colours and to create a smooth appearance. I also used my Sakura Gelly Roll pen in a size 10 to draw lines inside of the Pigma Micron as the actual primroses had a very thin white trim.

Monthly calendar

I added the decor to my calendar second, after I did the image for my finances record, and, as it had taken me such as long time to finish that one, I opted for a more sketchy appearance to the primroses you see here. I held my fineliner really lightly and tried to create a slightly wobbly appearance so the plants looked more natural. I’m really happy with how they turned out and the colours look so cheerful. I made good use of lots of my coloured pencils and also used my blending pencil to blend out any harsh lines.

Finances record

As well as the pack of six small primrose plants, we also purchased a much larger one for our back garden. The flowers are a lovely, pale pink but I didn’t have a coloured pencil which matched so I’ve gone for more of a peachy colour. I initially did just the flower in the centre but decided there were too many leaves and not enough floral bits so I added the other two and made them a little more washed out so the central one stood out.

Monthly goals

Last month I (yet again), picked far too many goals to be in with any chance of achieving them all. So, for May, I’ve really, really restricted myself and opted for just 5 (go me!). And, I’ve already achieved one of them as I made bread for the very first time yesterday!

Rather than adding some more primrose illustrations, I opted to add some stickers to make the set up much quicker. Some, I’ve made myself and others are from my ever increasing stash (you can never have too many stickers – right?). However, I have just started a new BuJo this month and a not to do goal of mine is to add plenty of my own illustrations straight into my notebook rather than overloading with stickers and making my journal super bulky (my orange one would barely close by the time I finished it!).

Weekly plan

I’ve been using this same style layout for quite a few weeks now and it really works for me. It gives me enough room to write events and add a few to dos underneath each day. I can then add a small illustration at the bottom if I want to, or use the full space for recording. This week, I’ve done some small primrose illustrations but I may not do any next week as I have lots of sessions at the university so I’ll be super busy.

Final words…

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog today. I hope you like my finished spreads. I think they look really colourful and provide a great reminder of our new plants and all of the other bright colours of primrose which you can get. The flowers seem to be thriving at the moment but as we haven’t had any rain for weeks, they require daily watering as the soil is getting so dry. I’m hoping they’re going to stay looking good for a least another month and continue to make me smile each time I get in and out of my car!

Wishing you a marvellous May,

Much love,

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.

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,

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.