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!
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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!).
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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!
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
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,
For the last five months, I have been setting a number of monthly goals which I aim to have met by the end of the month. Today, I thought I’d share my process using my actual list for this month as an example. I also want to explain how I make sure that each of them are SMART, even if the original goal is rather loose and unspecific.
Before I share my goals for February, here’s a quick reminder of what the letters of the acronym SMART stand for.
S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time bound
Now, obviously, all of my goals are time bound as I aim to have achieved them by the end of the month, but how do I make sure my goals meet the rest of the criteria? Well, here’s an image showing my simple goals laid out in my bullet journal and I’ll pick out two of them to consider in detail so you can see my thought process and actions I take to prepare.
My actual goals for February 2025
Image credit: Laura Jones for Keeping It Creative
Let’s take the first one:
Learn how to use my diffuser to create perfect nice curls.
I’ve made this goal specific by explaining exactly what I hope to achieve by learning to use my diffuser. I haven’t just said ‘learn how to use my diffuser attachment’, I’ve also stated what I want to use it for.
My goal can be measurable as I’m currently clueless on how to use the diffuser correctly, whereas when I’ve achieved my goal I should be able to use it to create nice looking curls. I’ll deem them to be nice enough if I would be happy to leave the house for the day with them looking like they do!
The goal is achievable as I have the resources required to work towards it, i.e. I own a diffuser attachment for my hairdryer and I can select video tutorials on YouTube to watch to learn the techniques involved. And, you’ll notice I’ve crossed out the word ‘perfect’ – this was intentional as I’m saying that the curls don’t need to look as perfect as they would when I step out of the hairdressers, but need to look nice enough to show them off with confidence.
The goal is a particularly relevant one for me as my hairdresser has been curling my hair with with a wand or straighteners and, although they look beautiful at first, I’m always frustrated with the way they drop out in less than an hour so, I’ve armed myself with curling gel which should help to hold the curl better. Also, I’ve always wanted to be able to create bouncy curls so this is a good objective.
Now, I know I said earlier that the goal is time bound, but, for me, saying I’m going to get all of the above goals ticked off by the end of February leaves too much opportunity for failure, so, I like to get super specific and dedicate a block of time to each project, activity or task involved in my monthly plan. For example, I might decide that on Wednesday 12th February in the morning, I’ll watch a couple of tutorials on YouTube that have been liked by lots of viewers (more likely to be good quality) and then have a go at curling my hair in the afternoon. I’ll also dedicate another 2 or 3 hours to perfecting my new skill until the curls look nice enough to go out with.
I also want to talk about the very last goal in my list:
‘Do two watercolour exploration exercises’.
I’ve picked this one to explain about, because I had something similar for one of my January goals, but I didn’t achieve it. In fact, I didn’t achieve a single part of it because I wrote ‘Do some watercolour exploration each week, using ideas from Painting Calm’ and, although I did a small amount of watercolouring just before the end of January, it wasn’t using ideas from my new book (which I have barely looked at yet) and it certainly didn’t happen every week!
To be completely honest, my goal was far too ambitious as it demanded a lot of time, something that I didn’t have enough of, especially with all of the other goals I’d set for that month. Therefore, it didn’t fit the achievable element of a SMART goal. So, this time, I’ve reduced what is expected of me, and I’m going to write into my monthly BuJo calendar, exactly when my watercolouring sessions will take place. I’ll also pre-pick the ‘watercolour explorations’ I’ll be doing so I can get prepared before I start. They can also be activities from my new book or ones I see in social media if I fancy trying them instead (they’re specific but not too ridged).
So, for my final goal (i.e. the one at the bottom of my list), although ‘Do 2 watercolour explorations’ might seem a bit vague, it can easily be developed as a SMART goal. It is specific as it states the kind of art I want to do and explains that they’re explorations so basically just me trying out a couple of techniques. It’s measurable as I’ll be able to see the evidence of two exploration style activities on watercolour paper or in a sketch book. It seems to be much more achievable – as long as I don’t get COVID again! It’s relevant, as exploring with watercolour is on my vision board for 2025 and it’s time bound as I plan to do both activities before the end of the month with my sessions identified on specific days (recorded in my BuJo) and time blocks drawn up on the actual day, based on how long I would like to spend doing them.
Final words…
I hope today’s post has been helpful for you and will assist you in turning your simple goals into SMART goals to increase your chance of achieving them. I see so many examples of incredibly unspecific goals when people share their monthly spreads and then, when they come to review their progress, they talk about how they only achieved a small number of them or, more often than not, had forgotten what they had said they wanted to do! As well as making your goals SMART, you should also remember to check back in with them on a regular basis. This way, you can pick out two or three for each week of the month and then outline your plans, first in your monthly set up, and then in your weekly.
I would wish you the best of luck with your goals, but really, what’s required is hard work and paying attention to what matters to you so I’ll just say I hope you’re ready for action and are focused on what you want! Go get em!
Following on from my winter foliage theme for December, I continued taking inspiration from nature and chose winter trees as the focus for my January spreads. With being ill at the beginning of the month, I simply drew up the basics of my layouts and added the decoration later when I was feeling much better.
So, although January is nearly over, I thought I would do this post to show how my spreads turned out and some of the ways in which I use them. Obviously some of the information needs to remain private so I’ve covered a few bits up.
Front cover
As I enjoyed doing my watercolour painting so much last month, I thought I’d give it a go with my front cover for this month. Again, I used cold-pressed watercolour paper but this time, it was from a new paper pad I picked up in Hobbycraft which has quite a pronounced grain to it. As my BuJo is getting very bulky, I needed to scan and print my finished art, but, although it doesn’t look exactly the same as the painted piece, it’s quite close, with the tree looking slightly paler. I also like the fact that you can see some of the grain in the sky. My inspiration for the background was from a photograph which I took early in the month, although I wish I’d had the photo in front of me when I did the sky as mine looks a bit bland in comparison! I opted for a dark brown tree and created a muddy grass ground effect using my fan brush, rather than painting snow.
Gorgeous winter sky. Photo credit: Laura Jones
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it CreativePhoto credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative
Monthly calendar
I wanted to create a watercolour background effect again for some mini tree images to surround my calendar, so I selected some relatively thin paper from my stash and did some trials with it. I also had a go at painting mini backgrounds in the back of my bullet journal but I didn’t like the effect with the coated paper of my Notebook Therapy journal. The paper I opted for was a cream coloured drawing paper which the paint sat nicely on and didn’t cause buckling. When my simple backgrounds were complete, I used four sizes of Pigma Microns in 0.4, 0.2, 0.1 and 0.05 to create different tree shapes. I’d watched various online tutorials on You Tube and the key teaching points were to create lots of y shapes and make the branches thinner the further you went out and up from the trunk. I’m really pleased with the different effects that I achieved. They’re not based on particular species of trees but I did spend a lot of time this month looking at bare trees on my various walks (okay, it turned into a kind of mini obsession ha ha!).
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative
January finances
I kept these pages really simple because I wanted to spend time on other things. Obviously, I’m not sharing information about my income and expenses.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative
Monthly goals
I tried to create heart stickers in Cricut Design Space but the cutting was so off that I ended up having to spend hours talking to a representative from Cricut to get it sorted. I found these mini hearts in my stash and used tweezers to try to get them relatively straight!
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative
If you want to see my evaluation for the month, let me know in the comments and I’ll do a quick blog post about it.
Weekly plans
The first week of my weekly plans is a bit sparse and I couldn’t resist making some feeling like poo stickers to show why the first half of the week is pretty much blank. Some of my dailies are more busy than others and sometimes I run out of room. I also usually do a rolling weekly for general, none day specific tasks.
Meal planning
My husband and I have now got into the habit of doing one of these each week. We peruse our cookbooks, recipe files and magazine cuttings as well as looking online. Then, I write up the plan whilst my husband makes a shopping list and checks ingredient availability in our cupboards. It takes quite a while, but it’s well worth it.
Photo credit: Laura Jones for Keeping it Creative
Final words…
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my January spreads, including how I fill them out. I’ve almost finished my pages for February now so I will no doubt be sharing them very soon, hopefully before the end of the month.
Keeping it creative 