OMG pals!!! Here it is - the 2020 bullet journal update!!! Be excited because I sure as hell am.

So, I made some changes this year. Firstly, I've got an entire new journal. There wasn't enough space in my last one to make it a satisfying end so I thought hey, let's start a new one. Plus, the yellow cover was getting very grubby, and I was really ready to move onto something else this year. I was going to get a new Leuchtturm but I'll be honest with you, I've been slightly disappointed with them recently. The paper of them is rather thin and I was noticing my pens were just bleeding through the paper way too easily, so I went on the hunt for a new brand with thicker, better quality paper but not too expensive.

Lo and behold, I landed on this beautiful lilac one from Stationery Island. It's still A5, still dotted, but the paper is 120gsm so feels more like card than paper, and feels very smooth and lovely to use. I also got my hands on some black paper too which I've been wanting to play with for so. long. and I really think I've surpassed myself with this spread. I've also really dialled things back this year and taken it right back to basics - I haven't put anything in there I won't use, for example my goals, memories and ideas pages just went to waste last year and while they're nice to have there's no point having them without using them so I've ditched them and literally just put in a year at a glance and a future log and I'm really, really happy with how it's turned out and I hope it'll be much more productive to me this year. I kept it really simple with a black, white and grey theme and didn't overcomplicate anything too much. The idea is that all those other bits, the more emotional, personal stuff is going in my new journal, and this is purely to keep me organised this year.

For my January spread, I've gone for some kind of star/flower theme, I really don't know what it is, I just started doodling and didn't stop but I do love how it's come out. Again, super simple and just the pages I'll actually end up using so just my calendar and expense tracker. I did add my habit tracker in again, which I haven't used in ages but I think I'm going to try again with it and see what I can do. Then just heading straight on into my weekly spreads and that's pretty much it.

I sort of fell out of love with bullet journalling at the end of last year but I'm really hoping I can stick with it this year and make it something I love doing again - organisation and time management is high on my list of priorities this year so hopefully my bullet journal will keep that going and be a healthy and wholesome way of keeping myself in check!!

~ products used ~

✨ Stationery Island lilac a5 dotted journal

✨ Tombow dual brush pens

✨ Tombow fudenosuke soft tip brush pen

✨ Pigma Micron fineliners (0.3mm, 0.5mm and graphic pen)

✨ Crayola supertips

✨ Uniball white gel pen 0.3mm

What do your 2020 bullet journals look like?

October Bullet Journal

Good afternoon!! Yes, you'd be right in thinking I'm back on the bullet journal grind again, I haven't done an update in agessss but I definitely want to share this with you - I recreated yet another Amanda Rach Lee spread and I'm just so happy with how it came out, I love it so much.

My title page is, like I said, a recreation of Amanda Rach Lee's, with the moon phases as the main theme, I've not done a monochrome theme since I started bullet journalling and I really like how it came out! 

My calendar is once again the normal spread I like to go for, I like this way of doing the monthly log and again love the monochrome white on black theme - it's very spoopy and Halloween-y and I really love it! I changed up my stats tracker again because dedicating a whole page to it made me a bit depressed but I liked tracking all my stats and not just my YouTube so I made it a bit smaller and popped it in this section instead. I've also ditched my monthly goals - I think it's a bit detrimental to me too so not going to keep with that.

So what did I do with the extra space, you ask?! Well, I kept my content ideas page and used the extra space for a schedule as well, attempting to keep on top of content and making sure I actually update my socials! It's just a trial but we'll see how it goes this month and if we can carry it on!

I did pretty much the same for my expense tracker as always - I still am planning that post on how I track my finances at university, don't worry! Once again used the white on black theme and loved it as I did all the rest.

I spoke about how I changed my weekly spread up ages ago but I'm still using this layout, I love how much space it gives me on each day but also some space in to jot down things going on and things going on the week after just in case. I also ditched my water tracker as honestly it was just making me feel bad about how much water I don't drink - maybe not such a good thing but I'm definitely going to get it back on track soon!

Aaaaand that brings us to the end of this month's layout! I reaaaaally love it so hopefully it'll motivate me to actually use it properly and effectively this month - it's a busy one so will definitely have to stay organised.

Product list:

- Leuchtturm 1917 dotted a5 journal

- Tombow fudenosuke pen (soft tip)

- Faber Castell ecco pigment pen 0.3mm

- Uniball white gel pen

What do your bullet journals look like this month?

Em xx

June Bullet Journal Update

Hello!! I finally did my June bullet journal!! A...week late...but it's here and it's pretty and I'm going to show it to you now.

So for this month's theme I went for this cute little lavender design - those of you who've been around for a while may remember this is a recycled one, I did a lavender theme in March 2018 but I just love lavender toooo much and figured it's been long enough since that one! I actually found this design on Pinterest and just loved it too. I used the Tombow dual brush pen in 623 and two Crayola Supertips for this one. For the calligraphy I've actually gone back to the Tombow fudenosuke brush pens (the soft tip one oo-er) which I didn't think I would do since I discovered the Pentel fude touch pen but I guess here we are? I figured out how to use the Tombow ones properly and I'm loving the amount of small dainty calligraphy I can do with the hard-tip.

(Late) March Bullet Journal Update

Hello pals! As a quick break between now and my second Brexit post (can't overload you with politics or I'll lose all my followers...*sips tea*) I thought I'd show you a rather late March bullet journal post. I did this a while ago but life has been somewhat hectic recently, to say the least, and I only got around to taking these photos yesterday! But it does mean I can have a long chat about how I've been switching up my bullet journal a little bit this month...

My title page was inspired by Amanda Rach Lee once again - she just has the most beautiful designs and I love trying to recreate them - trying being the key word there because my artistic talent is, to say the least, nada.

My calendar layout is very simple as always, I don't like overloading it and I've taken off the YouTube tracker as I've started doing something a little with my tracker for my stats. I have also got rid of my habit tracker as, while it's a good idea, it's not very good for me as I hold myself to way too high a standard and end up getting pissed at myself unnecessarily and focusing on things that just don't really matter that much.

So when I say I've mixed up my stat tracker a little bit, I mean I'm tracking them all now. It's only a trial because I do tend to get very hung up on my stats - one of new affirmations is that numbers on an app don't define me, so we'll see how well this goes. But as you can see, I've set very small goals that I hope are achievable, and I'm just trying my best to take small bites and take a step back from being too hard on myself. I've also added a brain dump page for anything I wish to pop on there.

This is just a cute quote page again a recreation of Amanda Rach Lee's. On the other side is my random notes page for one of my massive projects I'm working on right now!

So this is going to come as quite a surprise! I've started actually changing my weekly spread up! I realised again my meal planner and water tracker just wasn't working for me anymore and I needed way more space for planning and to-do lists, so instead I've been experimenting with a few different layouts. The first is a Dutch door spread which is a really cool idea with the half page in the middle, meaning each day can have a half page rather than a third, giving much more planning space. I also still had space for my weekly events list too. The second I went with a much simpler layout with four sections on each, and then a bit sectioned off for events. I like both but might trial them again to see what works better. 

As always, here's a list of all the products I used...

- Crayola Supertips (basically all the green ones)

- Tombow dual brush pens (#133 and #192)

- Pentel fude touch sign pen

- Pigma Micron fineliners (0.3mm)

- Pilot G2-05 gel pens

- Uniball white gel pen

- Leuchtturm 1917 a5 dotted journal

What do your March bullet journals look like?

Em xx

2019 Bullet Journal Update

Ahhh it's here!! My blockbuster bullet journal 2019 setup. I had so much fun doing this, so I'm just going to hop straight in or I'll ramble forever and heck do we have a LOT to get through. I decided not to get an entire new bullet journal this year because I'm hoping this will take me to the end of this academic year and then I can start a new one next academic year as yes, I still have ONE of them left!!!! Who knows what we'll do after that though. (read: I'm not thinking about it)

I hugely used AmandaRachLee's video for this setup- we all know how much I love this girl, her style is just up my street and I will forever credit her with the reason why I got into bullet journalling, calligraphy and how I discovered an artistic side of myself I'd never seen before. So my 2019 title page is just very simple, hello 2019 in calligraphy and some big block capital letters. While Amanda's is all in black and white, I decided to put some colourful accents into mine in my favourite colours. I did a year at a glance between this and the next spreads but decided not to photography it because it's just not that interesting...

So the next two spreads are taken up by my future log. The point of the future log is to have the entire year written out in front of you, meaning you can pop in important dates each month and when it comes to your monthly logs you can refer back to this and see what you've got going on this month. I split my pages into three like Amanda did, did my titles in solid calligraphy and then a little calendar so I can colour in the dates of important things and write them down next to it.

These next two spreads look really cute in my opinion!! This is where I deviated from Amanda's video since I didn't want all the pages she had, so I've done a goals page like she did, but made it much smaller as I have quite a few less goals! I still liked the idea of splitting them up into categories, for me it makes them less overwhelming. If you want to read about my 2019 goals pop over to my last post!! The next is just my memories, so every time something good happens I'll write it down here and hopefully will have a full page by the end of the year!!

This spread is my ideas pages - YouTube and blogging is going to take off this year, I'm going to make absolutely sure of it, but I wanted to start brainstorming early. So every time I have an idea for a post, I'll write it down here and when it comes to my smaller monthly lists I'll refer back to this and see what I can still do.

And then we come onto my January spread!!! I used the same theme of snowflakes that I did for my December 2017 spread, but jut a bit simpler and toned down this time.

My calendar layout is pretty much exactly the same as always - I love this spread and this is where I pop all my things for this month in, and then when it comes to doing my weeklies I'll refer back to this. This is why the system woRKS, kids. As you can see, popped in a few cute snowflakes here and there and we're good to move on.

Again, habit tracker and ideas spreads exactly the same as always, I feel like these work so well for me at this point there's no point changing it if it's working? I put in this quote too to fill up some empty space which I really love.

And then my same as always boring weekly. I just love this layout, it just works for everything I need and while I've tried so so many weekly layouts I always find myself coming back to this one as it just has everything I need. I do also have my expense tracker on the next page but I'm thinking of doing an entire other post about how I track my finances etc etc so look out for that if it's something you're interested in.

And that's it for my bullet journal this year and for January. I love it so much and I think in the last part of 2018 I really cracked the system and how to use it properly so I think 2019 is going to be a much more organised year for me. Plus, when I have really good, pretty spreads I always find it motivates me to actually use it more!! 

Bullet Journal Products:

 - Leuchtturm 1917 dotted a5 journal

- Tombow dual brush pens (772, 837 for the pinks and 553 for the blue/lilac)

- Pentel Fude Touch sign pen (best. calligraphy. pen. ever.)

- Pigma Micron 0.3mm fineliner

- Pilot G2 07 gel pen (yes, I have moved on from my beloved 05)

What do your bullet journals look like this year?

Em xx

December Bullet Journal

This month's bullet journal...is a mixed bag. I'm not quite as keen on it as I was on November's but hey ho, I tried my best and thought it only fair to give you a sneak peek like I always do anyway!!

Again I used AmandaRachLee's December bullet journal video for inspiration, I really loved the hanging bauble idea she had for the title page so I did the same - I actually cut mine from white paper first though since I find Crayola Supertips bleed though Leuchtturm paper reeeeally easily and makes it so hard to do anything on the next page. I also used silver accents instead of gold but the effect still works well in my opinion.

I kept my calendar layout really simple this year, very different to last year's extremely busy and all over the place layout! December this year also spans six weeks rather than five like most months, so that also limited my space. I didn't put in my monthly goals section like normal since I just don't use it, but I used the space to do another little ornament doodle, write December in some fancy lettering and then did a big ol' "tis the season' at the bottom. My growth tracker is still there as I really want to upload more this month so tracking my progress is very helpful.

The next two spreads are very normal for me, my habit tracker which I STILL am terrible at filling in!! And then my video and blogpost ideas lists. The weird little squiggle on the habit tracker page is supposed to be fairy lights but they didn't turn out quite that way. It looks kinda cute if you don't look for too long I suppose!! I wanted to have a bit of winter in this month's spreads too so added some snowflake doodles and used more of a wintery colour. Also, here's a sneaky peek into some of the content I've got planned this month!

And then onto my very plain, very ordinary weekly spread. As I said in my last post, this layout doesn't really change and I really do love it like this - it just lets me see everything really well and it just works the best for me and my needs every week. The meal plan helps me eat properly and then if I have a weekly events list on the side I can just glance at that for what's on each day, and then that saves so much more space in the daily parts for to-do lists - as you can see, I'm a bit chocka at the moment with assignment prep and a chalkboard commission I'm doing so it really is working perfectly for me at the moment.

Aaaaand that's the end of my December bullet journal!! I know it's not as exciting as other months but it's perfect and simple enough for me, and as always here's the list of the products I used to create this spread:

- Faber Castell Ecco Pigment 0.3mm fineliner

- Crayola Supertips 

- Pentel Fude Touch sign pen

- Faber Castell silver PITT artist pen

- Leuchtturm 1917 dotted a5 journal

What do your December bullet journals look like?

Em xx

November Bullet Journal Update

It has been a hot minute since I posted a bullet journal update on this blog, and to be honest it's been a hot minute since I posted at all - my plans to post more in October kinda went out the window, huh? Writing for me is funny because sometimes I'm really in a productive mood and other times I just have no ideas and nowhere to start and no pictures, but I'm slowly getting through that.

This month's bullet journal actually turned out surprisingly well - I used AmandaRachLee's video for inspiration on the designs and colours, and the fact I treated myself to three new Tombow dual brush pens seriously helped out. I gave myself basically an entire afternoon to work on it yesterday and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

I entirely messed up the photos for this and took them all vertically - I left my camera in Manchester (I'm at home for reading week) and had to take them on my phone - I love how they came out but didn't realise until now they'd look a bit weird in a blogpost as they're vertical!! Oh well, you can still get the point I guess 😂

My title page is honestly the cutest thing ever - like I said I followed this Amanda Rach Lee video and put my own style on it and I just love it. I sketched it all out in pencil first, did the outlines with my Faber Castell Ecco Pigment 0.3mm fineliner (which I seriously need to replace) and then filled them in with my new Tombows which are 026 Yellow Gold, 947 Burnt Sienna and 192 Asparagus. I think this combination of colours is possibly one of my favourites, it's so cosy and gives me a lot of vibes and now I'm just chatting shite about colours? Love a good ramble.

I kept my calendar layout the same as always, just 3x3cm boxes and then the header which I drew a cute little scarf for, All the calligraphy on this page is with my beloved Pentel Fude Touch pen which is actually finally running out of beans, it needs replacing and breaks my heart but it means I could also treat myself to a few new Tombows and a different colour too so am I really complaining?! Just so you know as well, I draw everything freehand after measuring out the box sizes with a ruler - I don't bother using a ruler for straight lines as I quite like the sort of homemade/hand-drawn look that freehand straight lines give and I feel like I've mastered the art of not needing a ruler at this point which is a pretty cool talent I must say. Again I put my November growth tracker at the bottom for my YouTube and also did some more leaf and acorn doodles around the calendar.

My habit tracker is much the same as always, exactly the same layout as I just find it works for me. I used the 026 Tombow for the calligraphy at the top and outlined it with the Pilot G2 gel pen and that's the same pen I use to write in my journal as well. Back at it again with the acorn and leaf doodles, and then for my video/blogpost ideas page I used the same little scarf doodle for the title and it's just split in half between the two. Giving you a little sneak peek into some stuff I've got planned for November too which I'm excited about!

I am going to do an expense tracker as well, but I messed up the title really badly so I'm going to redo the page when I'm back in Manchester and I'm planning to do a separate post on how I track my finances and keep within my budget at university.

And this is my first weekly spread!! My ("slight" perfectionist) dad got a bit annoyed because he thought I should've put this week in my October section or split it up into two but then that messes with my page order and everything so instead I just decided to put the whole week in November's section. This weekly spread layout is a very standard one for me now, after a lot of trial and error I've discovered this works the best and suits all my needs during term time as I've got enough space to write a decent to-do list in each section, and then all my weekly events such as uni, appointments, meetings etc go in my events section to save space. I also have a water tracker which I'm terrible at filling in, and a meal plan section which obviously has a big ol' N/A through it this week as I'm at home so don't have to think about it, thank god! But it's a key part of my bullet journal during uni because otherwise I just don't eat properly!

As you can see, my to-do lists are HUGE this week as it's reading week so I'm catching up on notes and lectures and making sure everything is up to date, as well as starting to think about my end of term assessments, so it's all a bit hectic!! But it's also nice to find time just to sit and create, and at the end of the day that's what's going to motivate you to look at it more right?!

As always, here's a list of all the products I used to create these spreads...

- Leuchtturm 1917 A5 dotted journal (I have it in yellow)
- Tombow dual brush pens in 026, 047 and 192
- Faber Castell Ecco Pigment 0.3mm fineliner
- Pentel Fude Touch sign pen
- Pilot G2 gel pen 0.5mm
- Faber Castell PITT Artist pen in 251 silver


What do your November bullet journals look like?

Em xx

May Bullet Journal

Weeee it's time for another bullet journal update!! You'd be right in thinking I didn't do one for April since I kind of messed up my colour scheme and calendar a little bit and just generally wasn't too keen, but I absolutely love how May's turned out, so let's jump in...

My colour scheme was a little limited, as I mentioned in this post I've been stuck at home for a week longer than planned, so left pretty much all my pens up in Manchester, so was restricted to my pastel highlighters and that was about it! But, the blue was perfect for May so I decided to go for a blue scheme with these cute little yellow and blue flower doodles. As usual, I used my Pentel Fude Touch sign pen for the 'hello' and then the block caps and cursive font for the 'May'.

March Bullet Journal Update

I may be writing this post the moment snow begins to fall in a minus one Manchester and this may be a very spring orientated layout but hell, we're going to go with it anyway!

So yes, the time has come for another bullet journal update. I didn't do one for February as it was a bit of a weird month and I had absolutely no motivation to do anything pretty or nice, but luckily it was the opposite recently so I sat down on Sunday evening and actually put some effort into my bullet journal. As I say, I picked a very spring theme for March with all the lilac and lavender and flowers everywhere but it's very very pretty! For the title page I just did a lavender wreath with Crayola Supertips in a lilac, purple/pink and green and the Tombow Fudenosuke soft pen. 

2018 Bullet Journal Update!!

Happy New Year boys and girls!! Hopefully you've had the best NYE ever and are as ready as me to kick ass in 2018!!!! (hahahahaha who am I kidding I'll kick ass for like a day and then give up, let's be real here) but anyway...

It's here!! Finally!! I've been waiting for most of December to do my bullet journal for 2018 as I've not really ever started it properly from the beginning so I was sooo excited to do it! So without further ado let's go for it as this is a long ass post!!

My title page I kept super simple, I went for this light blue/purpley colour which is the Tombow dual brush pen in 553 which I also used for my accent colour in January which we'll get into later. I wrote out this little "let's make it a good one" as well, and I really love the minimalistic look of this.

My next spread is my 2018 At A Glance, which is just every month written out on a page so I can quickly flip back to this any time I need it. For 2018 in general I chose yellow as my accent colour given that it's my favourite colour. On the opposite page I did my goals and bucket list for 2018 but I kind of messed up the calligraphy which you can kind of see a little bit, plus I want to do more of an in depth post/video about my 2018 goals so I'll save them for that.

December Bullet Journal Update

WOO 24 DAYS TO GOOOO

Today I thought I'd give you all a lil bullet journal update because hell have I gone ALL OUT for December - it's snowy and Christmassy as heck. I took a lot of inspiration for this month from AmandaRachLee who is one of my all time favourite bullet journal YouTubers. So let's dive on in...

September Bullet Journal

Hello my darlings!!

Slightly different post today, I don't think I've ever showed you guys my bullet journal! I've only really got into it recently, I used to do a modified version of it which was a little more art journally, but I got given a new Moleskine for my birthday so I thought when August began I'd make a proper go of doing it. I've been watching videos for so long and have been wanting to get started for ages but just never really had the motivation so I spent a few months practising my calligraphy and handwriting and things, and when we went to America I got a bunch of new pens and things so this month is pretty good!

I want to just reiterate that even though you see all these insane bullet journal accounts on Instagram and on YouTube, you literally don't have to do any of this stuff to have a bullet journal, the entire point of it is to organise your life in the way you want to, and honestly having something pretty that I've worked hard on guilt trips me into using it so much so it works well for me, but it is pretty time consuming so really all you need is a notebook and one pen. The entire website and original video can be found here explaining how to do it and I'll link a few of my favourite YouTube and Instagram accounts on the end of the post if you need some more inspo from people who have been doing it longer than me!! So onto my bullet journal...

I chose an autumnal theme for September, some people choose like one thing to do for the month like clouds or waves or flowers or leaves etc, some choose colours to base it around but I like doing more seasonal themes, so September is autumnal, October is going to be Halloween, November winter and December Christmas. That's as far as I've thought though!! So I was thinking rust colours, dark greens, leaves, acorns, pine cones, all that good stuff. My title page basically incorporates all of that, very nice. I'll put an entire list of supplies I use at the end of this post too for those who are interested!

This isn't that interesting or pretty but I thought I'd chuck it in anyway, me and my mum did a MASSIVE uni list on the plane on the way to America and while I plan to do a huge post about my uni shopping list, I thought I'd put it in anyway. It's possibly the messiest list ever but I keep thinking of new things to add to it randomly, the joys of going to uni! The IKEA trip is happening today so expect some more. Might do a haul video if my mum doesn't think it's too weird!!

So onto my calendars. I used to do this personal events list and then a square calendar on the opposite page but I just never used the square one so replaced it instead with my workout schedule. I'm not too keen on the colours of this, I wish I'd used more browns rather than oranges but I kinda went a bit ham haha. I also have my YouTube growth tracker on there too which I love so much, it's so good to see growth when I can actually keep it active!! I also do my monthly goals list but I did cover it up bc they're kinda personal lol. This is a perfect example of why bullet journalling is so good - you can put anything you want into it, and if you don't like it the next month, you can just get rid of it. It's so good.

I think this might be my favourite spread from this entire month. I did a new layout for my mood tracker this month, using this circle instead of a graph. I LOVE this so much, gives me so much more room to be creative and do some doodling. My habit tracker I kept the same because I like colouring in the squares haha. As you can see, I've not been very good at it so far but to be fair to me, I have been in America and flying back and recovering from jetlag but I plan on using these in earnest the beginning of next week, the habit tracker really helps me keep myself accountable and keep myself on track and working on everything. 

Again a spread I LOVE. I do a video ideas and blogposts page every month because it's good to have them all in one place, and a highlights page is so good and so much fun to look back on at the end of the month and remember all the good times. Lil sneak peek into some upcoming videos and posts there too. Any other ideas you have, hit me up.

So this is my first weekly spread, I decided to change it up and do sections instead, because I feel like with uni work coming up life is going to get very busy and I'm going to need much more space to organise myself. The calligraphy is so shaky because it was one of my first times using my new Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen and it's a lot harder than it looks! But, practise makes perfect.

And the last double page spread I've done so far is just my swatch page of my Supertips and my other most used pens. I do love this because it gives me one place to choose a colour to use so it's so useful. Plus it just looks really pretty and I am actually so proud of my calligraphy in this, see I am getting better!!

So that concludes my bullet journal for September! As promised, here's a list of the products I used this month...

♥ Crayola Supertips (for colours and video and blogpost title calligraphy)

♥ Faber Castell Ecco Pigment 0.3mm fineliner

♥ Tombow Fudenosuke calligraphy pen (I have both soft and hard tips but I prefer the soft!)

♥ Pilot G-2 0.5mm pen (this is a rollerball gel so much better than fineliners because the tip doesn't wear down and get thicker the more you use it!)

Other products I love are...

♥ Frixion pastel highlighters

♥ Stabilo pastel highlighters

♥ Stabilo pastel fineliners 

♥ Tombow duo brush pens (pastel colours)

Yes, I have a slight addiction to pastels. Please leave me alone.

And also as promised, here's a list of my favourite bullet journal accounts and YouTube channels (some of these are also studygrams, also great for calligraphy inspo and motivation):

♥ AmandaRachLee (honestly my all time favourite)

♥ Miss Louie (also does fab fashion videos)

♥ fridaynightstudies

♥ peachystudies

♥ bonjournal

♥ procrastinate_create

♥ mildlineurs

♥ lauriewrites

Okay I'm done now!! Have fun with the bujo porn, I could spend hours scrolling through Instagram and Pinterest haha! Hope you enjoyed my own bullet journal and maybe got som inspiration from it, I'll do another update at the end of the month so you can see the rest of my weekly spreads and my finished mood/habit trackers which I WILL keep up. I almost need a habit tracker for my habit tracker ffs.

See you soon gals!

Emilia xx