Today, as I write this blog post, I have the window in my craft room wide open and a large bottled of iced water on my desk to sip from. The weather has finally improved after days of rain, and the sun is peeping out from behind the clouds. I was beginning to think the summer was over but it appears to be back, for a brief time at least judging by the forecast! August is almost here and it is one of my favourite months as my niece and I share our birthdays on the 3rd (which coincides with factory shut down week so my husband can take some well earned time off from his office job), plus we celebrate our wedding anniversary (17 years on the 11th!). As we will be busy making the most of holiday time next week, I started working on my spreads super early, this time, choosing a seasonal theme of ice cream and ice lollies.
Cover page
Once I had decided on the theme, I spent some time searching Google for pictures of bullet journal spreads that others had shared, doodles of ice creams and lollies, plus photos of some of my childhood favourites and different types of cones. I then printed off lots of examples for inspiration for my spreads.
For the cover, I opted for some brush lettering in the centre of the page with just a simple hello August. I wasn’t happy with my first attempt, so I practised on my pad of dot grid paper then cut out the title when I was happy with it. The slim border around the cut out is created using mint green ink on a finger sponge dauber which I lightly pressed all around the edge. One the lettering was sorted, I then penciled in a range of ice creams and ice lollies before using a 0.2 Pigma Micron to outline and a 0.05 to create the cross hatching for the cones. Finally, I used Tombows and Mildliners in pastel colours to complete the doodles.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar page
The calendar pages features my usual 6×6 grid spaces boxes with a pop of colour for the dates. I enjoyed creating the doodles for these pages and I’m pleased with how they turned out. I messed up once so I covered the mistake with a sticker I created using a Google image.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances and habits pages
Although the beginning of August is likely to be expensive for our joint finances, I’m hoping to keep my personal spending relatively low so I’ve made my outgoings table even shorter than last month. This left a big space at the bottom of the page, so I filled it with some habit trackers. Recently, I’ve started going to bed really late and by the time I’ve read my Kindle for a bit, it’s gone midnight. Because of this, I’ve been sleeping in and not getting as much done with my day. So as not to put too much pressure on myself, I’ve set myself the target of being up by 8.30am for August which will still be a bit of a challenge but hopefully doable. The rest of the habits I want to instill are related to my goals for 2023.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
That’s all of the pages I’ve created for August so far and when I draw up my weekly plans, I will probably keep them fairly minimal. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my designs and I look forward to seeing other creations and theme ideas as they are shared.
Wishing you all a fun-filled August with lots of opportunities to create happy memories,
Journalling is the act of writing down your thoughts, feelings, actions and experiences on paper or in digital form. There are many different types of journalling practices and for today’s Monday Matters post, I’m going to share ten popular ones, most of which I’ve tried and benefitted from myself.
What are the benefits of keeping a journal?
The particular benefits of keeping a journal depend on the style you choose but can include:
a reduction in stress or anxiety
increased productivity
better time management
a place to record daily life
a tool for organising your priorities, your routines or your to-do list
clarification of your thoughts and feelings
a place to think about and solve problems
a way to get to know yourself better (becoming more self aware)
a chance to see negative thought patterns and behaviours
a safe space to explore your emotions
a place to express yourself in writing and improve your writing composition
an opportunity to get creative
somewhere to track your progress or achievements over time
improved sleep by getting your worries down on paper and out of your head
a place to note down important ideas or things you want to remember
Diary / personal journal
A personal journal or diary provides a space to write each day and is usually kept private due to the nature of the content. You can include whatever you like inside such as summaries of events or places visited, how you have felt today and why, lessons learnt, relationships, thoughts or worries. Depending on how much flexibility you want in terms of how much you write, you could choose a between a range of sizes (from pocket to A4 size) with printed diary pages pages, a long term ‘line a day’ style or a completely blank lined or unlined notebook which you can add the date to and fill in with as much or as little detail as you like.
Gratitude journalling
Gratitude journalling is the practice of writing down what you’re thankful for each day and can take just five minutes first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening before bed. I used to create a double page, two lines a day spread in my bullet journal which I filled in at the end of each day, but now, I use the gratitude space in The Five Minute Journal morning section. A lined notebook would work just as well and if you choose one which is really pretty and has nice, smooth paper you’re much more likely to reach for it. It’s up to you what you write but here’s a few ideas:
something good that happened today / yesterday
a person in your life which you’re particularly grateful for
a challenge you’re facing which is helping you learn
a helpful resource – a magazine article, a podcast, a non-fiction book, a YouTube video etc
a positive change in your life
something that brightened your day
hobbies and interests which you’re glad to have
personal strengths, abilities and skills you’re grateful for
something in your life that you tend to take for granted
something new that you’ve treated yourself to
Bullet journalling
The bullet journal system (or BuJo for short) was created by Ryder Carroll and is a way of organising your life in a single notebook (either an analogue or digital version). There are so many benefits to using a bullet journal including increased productivity, better time management, tracking personal progress and growth, helping you work towards your goals, stress reduction, keeping lists which you can refer back to and use again, better self awareness, a place to get creative if you so wish, great for instilling and monitoring habits, a space to record your ideas, helps you see exactly how much you’ve achieved each day / week / month and so on. A comprehensive guide to The Bullet Journal Method is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle and is well worth a read if the idea of becoming more organised appeals.
Morning pages
Writing morning pages is a journalling exercise which involves putting pen to paper first thing every morning and writing whatever pops into your head without editing or censoring. The idea is that, each day, as soon as you wake up, you sit down and fill exactly three A4 sheets with whatever comes into your mind. The writing doesn’t have to make sense, be correctly spelt or punctuated. It isn’t read afterwards either. and is for your eyes only. Done regularly, this type of journalling promises a cathartic and ritualistic practice which is designed to increase confidence, clear the mind and pave the way for greater creativity.
Prompted journals
If you need help with what to write in your journal, prompted journals are a great place to start. There are lots of different versions available at a range of price points. Some offer daily practices and include sections such as gratitude, self care, top priorities for your day, feelings check ins, nightly reflections and so on. Others, such as the Five Minute Self Care series, can be dipped into as and when and you can flick through and choose a prompt for your writing.
Memory keeping journal
This is one of my favourite types of journalling as you can create pages about literally anything that’s happened in your life. Looking back through one of my traveller’s notebook inserts from last year, I have journalling and photos from when we went away for my dad’s 80th and my mum’s 70th, a few pages about a National Trust property we visited, some journalling about our fancy new microwave and how smart it looked in our kitchen, an introduction to Millie the hamster and photos from when she was a little baby, photographs of my new haircut and the curls my hairdresser created, a day trip to York where we walked along the wall and had some tasty vegan and veggie foods (complete with our menu choices), and finally a trip to Brimham Rocks. I’ve been keeping this type of journal for about 6 years now and they’re so lovely to look back on and re-read. I even hand make the notebooks using my own choice of pretty paper for the covers.
Travel journal
This is another type of memory keeping journal which is used to document holidays and trips. I’ve been keeping these for a few years now and even create my own handstitched notebooks for the purpose. Whilst I’m away, I collect bits and pieces to stick in such as maps showing walks we’ve taken, business cards from restaurants, tickets from places we’ve visited, postcards to remind me of scenery, art exhibitions we’ve been to or particular historic buildings, packaging and brochures. I also spend a few minutes each evening briefly recording what we did that day, how I felt and anything amusing that happened.
What you record in your travel journal is entirely up to you but I like to start with our travel information such as dates of the holiday, modes of transport, flight numbers, journey times, hotel bookings etc. I then include photographs, memorabilia and bits of journalling for each day of the trip and then finish with a summary of the holiday on the final pages of the notebook.
Art journal
If you’re not too keen on expressing yourself in written form, another great way of articulating your thoughts and feelings or getting creative is to keep an art journal. Any size and type of notebook will work but thicker paper is best to avoid bleed through (where your work seeps through to the other side) or ghosting (where you can see your work through to the next), You can also choose any type of material to practise with such as pencil, crayon, markers, ink, paint or paper for collage style layering, or you can combine a few of the above to create a mixed media piece. There’s no right or wrong way to do it – the key is to experiment and enjoy the process.
Reading journal
If you’re a bookworm, keeping a reading journal is the perfect way to record what you read and when, your thoughts and feelings about the book as you read, chapter summaries (particularly with non-fiction), any quotes you’d like to remember, an overall evaluation when you finish and a star rating to show how much you enjoyed the book. If you use an app such as Storygraph, you can even include reading focused graphs and charts too.
Garden journal
As some of my readers will know, I started a gardening journal in the spring of this year. One of my goals for this year, with my husband’s help, is to keep on top of our back garden (weeding, deadheading, pruning, tending, planting etc) and create a bright and colourful space which is a haven for wildlife. Obviously, it’s a work in progress, but my journal has helped me with recording to do lists, planting schedules, week-by-week planning, pest control, seed setting and seedling transplanting and so on. It’s also been a place to keep printed versions of articles I’ve read and tips from the various websites I’ve visited. If you’re a keen gardener or want to become more green-fingered, a garden journal is a great support and place for recording information which reflects all of your hard work. You can find out more about the benefits here.
Final words…
I hope that today’s post has inspired you to give journalling a go and reap some of the associated benefits. I would love to know which type of journal appeals the most and why. I’m also keen to know if anyone has tried Morning Pages and found them beneficial. I like the idea but, as an experienced teacher, I’m not sure I could write something without a care for spelling, grammar and punctuation, let alone three whole pages of A4!
This month in my bullet journal, I’ve cheated with the décor again and bought a couple of sets of stickers to make things quick, easy and colourful. I was so impressed with the quality of the gardening themed set, that I chose to purchase from the same shop LunarLucie on Etsy. I ordered in plenty of time so that they arrived before we headed off to Norfolk on holiday. I managed to create the cover spread which I shared on Instagram but the calendar and financial pages had to wait until we returned which is why I’m only getting around to sharing them today.
Front cover page
The style of this month’s cover is very similar to the one from June but I used all of the stickers from the tropical summer holiday sheet and a few from a tropical flowers set which complemented the others beautifully. The designs are so lovely and I’m really pleased with how the page turned out. I wasn’t happy with my lettering so I used some dotted grid paper to practise, then cut it out to stick in the centre.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar page
I had plenty of tropical flower stickers left so use these to decorate and then filled in the spaces with sparkles.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances
I want this month to be a low spend one so I made my expenses section shorter. This left me with room to add a few financial affirmations in the space at the bottom.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my spreads for this month. I haven’t drawn up any weekly spreads yet but they’ll be pretty minimal in terms of decoration. I might just create a running task list as the only events on my calendar for this week are my usual exercise classes.
Over the years, I’ve kept various records of plants we’ve put in our garden, and I’ve saved all of the plastic information cards that come stuck in the pots when you buy them. I’ve also made notes in my bullet journal and even drawn plant ID cards for some of my favourite purchases. However, these resources are in an array of different folders and notebooks and often I can’t locate what I need when I want to check something. So, I decided I would like to keep a garden planner / journal and I found the perfect folder when I visited one of my local garden centres and asked my husband if he would like to buy it to give me for Christmas. Of course, any notebook or file would have done, but as someone who adores beautiful stationery, this one provides the motivation to use it regularly and has lots of different papers and pockets to put things in.
I’ve been using the folder since the very beginning of Spring 2023 and so far I’m finding it a really useful record keeping tool. I’m also hoping that by documenting everything garden related, it will help me to feel a real sense of achievement and begin to recognise that all of our efforts are paying off (even when I feel like it’s a constant battle to keep on top of the weeds or a few of our plants aren’t looking their best).
What is a garden planner and journal?
A garden planner and journal is a paper based or electronic place to store everything related to your outdoor spaces and even your houseplants if you so wish. As well as making you super organised it can provide, for example, a place to keep track of what you’ve planted and where, journal space to evaluate what has worked and what hasn’t, pages to record and plan seasonal tasks, list of to dos (AKA jobs for the weekend!), photo showing different parts of your garden over time so you can see and celebrate your achievements over the months and years. You can customise your records to suit your needs but you might include details of your soil in different parts of the garden, information about your various plants and notes on how well they have done depending on their location, ideas you have collected from magazine and online articles, issues you’ve had with some of your plants such as garden pests or poor growth, labelled sketches of flower beds or the garden as a whole, lists of your seed purchases and even a garden wishlist – the possibilities are endless.
Why should I keep a garden planner and journal?
In a nutshell, keeping a garden planner and journal, which you regularly write in, will make you a better and more efficient gardener and enable you to get so much pleasure from your space no matter whether it’s a few containers on your balcony, a tiny plot or a vast amount of land which keeps you constantly busy. Here are my top seven reasons why you should start a garden planner and journal today:
It helps you remember what’s where
Drawing a labelled sketch of the different parts of your garden such as flower beds, vegetable sections, corner plots, rockery etc helps you to remember exactly what you’ve got and where things are located. It can also provide information such as the particular colour or variety of plants.
I’ve also created a list of containers (size, colour and location helps here), what’s in each and when the plant grows and flower so that I know what’s going to pop up when and also, if it doesn’t come back, I can record and evaluate accordingly.
It’s a good idea to sketch your garden each season so you can see what’s in flower at particular times, which veggies are currently being grown and where your evergreen / deciduous shrubs and trees are. Then you can add in your annuals and assess whether there are any gaps which you want to fill.
You can create and maintain weekly and monthly plans
If you love your garden and want it to look good, you need to regularly dedicate time and energy to gardening. My planner contains weekly overviews for each season where you can record particular jobs that need doing each year and also ‘Jobs for the Weekend’ pages for running task lists. It’s really satisfying ticking them all off and it helps us to see what we still need to do and estimate how long each job will take. These task lists can then be revisited next year.
I like to go on reliable websites like Gardener’s World and RHS plus other UK based sites to look at what I should be doing each month and then handpick jobs specific to our garden. I also follow a few UK YouTube accounts for ideas too. You could even keep a list of useful websites in your journal somewhere too.
A place to log new additions to your garden spaces
All gardeners love going to local garden centres and nurseries to choose new perennials plus annual bedding plants for instant colour. You can record all of these in a list, stating where they were purchased and how much they cost, plus key information front the plant labels. getting new bits and pieces for their garden whether it’s a perennial plant, a new pot, a comfortable bench or chair and cushions, so And your new additions list doesn’t just have to be a space for greenery, you can also record new pieces of furniture such as a gorgeous new bench and bright cushions or a little potting bench, atmospheric solar powered or mains operated lights, new paths or replacement gravel, patio slabs, hanging baskets, rockeries, storage spaces such as a little shed or a box to put soft furnishings over winter, and wildlife friendly pieces such as a pond, bug hotel, hedgehog house or toad abode! Then, when you can’t recall how long you’ve had raised bed, you can check your records instead of trying to establish how long it’s lasted from memory.
A good chart to have in your planner is a record of seeds which you plan to set, when and where e.g. in trays indoors or directly into prepared veg beds or outdoor pots, how many to set (usually dependent on size and desired crop), date to set and germination times. You can also include a section for any notes, so, for example we find that our two courgette seeds for the two large plants we want don’t always germinate so we tend to put a couple in each plug or create more plugs.
You can find examples of seed charts on Pinterest for you to draw up (preferably on gridded paper), or, if you’re pushed for time, you can purchase printables on Etsy.
Helps you track progress over time
The other week I found some photographs of my husband sitting out in our back garden a couple of years after we’d moved into our house. I decided to print them out as there’s a huge difference between how the space looked then and what it looks like now less than 10 years later. The transformation is amazing and if we didn’t have a photographic record, I don’t think we would be able to fully appreciate all that we’ve achieved. You might not have photos from a decade ago (or maybe you do?) but why not start recording now and see how your space has changed in one, two or even ten years?
A useful spot to record successes, challenges + complete failures and reflect on why
We’ve been developing our garden for over ten years now and have had many successes but probably just as many failures. Some of the failures are permanently stuck in my memory, like the fact that every time we have tried to grow lupins, no matter where we got the plants from, the ended up covered in aphids which made my skin crawl! Likewise, some of our complete successes still take pride of place in our flowerbeds such as the beautiful, long lasting and colourful geums. However, there are many more triumphs and disappointments that I wish I’d written down and reflected on. Here’s a list of aspects of gardening which you might like to make a few notes on:
garden pests – what specific plants they’ve eaten, when they eat (daytime, night time, particular times of year, following particular weather etc), thoughts about why they eat e.g. slugs and snails love to munch on our dahlia so this year we’ve potted one up, covered the soil in grit and placed it in the front garden porch away from other plants and it’s doing much better
plant diseases and treatment e.g. our hollyhocks get rust every year so I inspect them early on and removed infected leaves quickly and dispose of them
plants which don’t like the conditions – too dry, too wet, hate clay soil, not enough sun/shade etc and whether they are to be moved or just dug up
weather related challenges (e.g. storms, continuous rain, dry spells etc.) and how specific plants coped
seed germination failures – dates planted and when replacements set or when new seeds purchased and set
weed related issues e.g. we have a huge problem with celandine and it’s a constant battle to get rid of them, I spend 10 minutes every day on their removal and I’m glad when they die back by mid May
I’m sure you probably have many more ideas but hopefully these are enough to get you started.
A place to dream, make wishlists, include inspirational images, identify your short and long term goals and make plans of action
If, like me, you have a beautifully, colourful and well maintained garden on your vision board for the future, it’s a good idea to have a section in your journal to include wishlists, inspiring photographs, goals and action steps and maybe even a written explanation of what you want your dream garden to look like and how you want to feel when in it. You can then check in regularly with this section of your journal and see how well you are progressing with your goals. You can also note down things from your wishlist to look for next time you go shopping to one of your local garden centres.
Final words…
As you start your record keeping, remember that your file doesn’t need to be perfect and will most certainly evolve over time. You might want to start by simply taking a few photos of how your space looks now and then making a few notes of some of the plants which are located in each section. Or, if you like drawing and creating diagrams, you might take some squared paper to draw different parts of your plot and label the names of plants currently growing there. I can also recommend colouring in the plants that are currently in flower so you can see the balance across your plot.
Then, on another occasion, you might make a basic to do list (try Googling garden jobs for June and your specific location) for the month and tick tasks off as you complete them. You could even add a few jobs that are already complete or underway to get some easy and satisfying ticks by the end of the week.
I hope you’ve found today’s post useful and it has inspired you to give this form of planning, record keeping and journalling a go. Let me know what you choose to do first and how you get on.
At the moment, my husband and I are busy working on our garden to get it looking neat, tidy and full of colour for the summer. I’ve recently started keeping a gardening journal which includes before photos of the front and back gardens, lists of jobs for the weekend, planting plans and records of seeds set and plants added to the borders. I wanted my theme for June to be bright and cheerful, with easy to set up pages so I decided to order some deco stickers from Etsy for the month. So far, I’ve picked out one sheet of watercolour garden related images and have used them to decorate the cover page and my calendar. I also used some icon stickers for my first weekly spread and will decide if I want to order further stickers to decorate or if I want to do some basic sketches for the rest of the weeks.
If you’re looking to create decorative but quick pages for your bullet journal, stickers and washi can be great options but obviously do incur an extra cost. They’re also great choices if you’re not keen on drawing or need to save time. You can literally type your chosen theme into Etsy, filter to UK sellers only if you need the sticker sheets quickly, select a design sheet which suits your personal style, and then, as soon as they arrive you can get to work planning out where to put them in your spreads. I found that the most frustrating part was creating my grids and lettering and then having to wait for what felt like ages for delivery but the sheet was made to order so had a lead time of two weeks.
My front cover
I used one of my new Tombows in 991 to add the title to the centre of the page and then created a loose border using a 0.4 pigma micron pen. I then added stickers around the title and placed washi plus some circles to fill in the spaces at the top and bottom.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Calendar pages
This is my usual 6×6 grid space calendar layout and I chose four Tombow Dual Tip pens which I tried to match to the stickers. I knew that the colours might not be exact as they can differ on your screen to IRL but I didn’t mind as long as they were close. As I was running short on stickers by the time I’d finished the cover page I added a quote on some kraft grid sticker paper and matched it with a strip on the edge and then used various sparkles to fill in the gaps.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Finances
The layout of my finances spread works really well for me so I use the same design each month. There was a little space at the bottom to add a small amount of decoration using a piggy bank sticker from EllenBeeMakes on Etsy, a hand drawn little calculator and some words which I printed on sticker paper.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Weekly calendar and rolling weekly to do list
I decided to do a double page weekly for the first calendar page as I have quite a lot planned and needed more room to write. This means that my rolling weekly task list is over the page but I don’t mind flipping back and forth.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my spreads for the month of June. I don’t regularly use stickers to decorate my pages as it would be fairly costly but it is an effective way of setting up quickly and painlessly. I still managed to mess up a few times – once by smudging pen (the joys of being a leftie) and again by dripping cherries and berries squash on one of the pages (planning is thirsty work!) but my white Posca paint pen and some washi fixed those pretty well. Overall, I’m pleased with how everything turned out and I’m looking forward to using my pages.
