Bullet Journal 2019

Hello and happy new year old friends! I think I was MIA for all of 2018 so I apologize for that… life throws you new routines and unfortunately I just didn’t get around to publishing any content. However, I’m kicking off 2019 with some new goals and I really hope I’m able to share more here on my blog, on my YouTube Channel and on Instagram.

For 2019, I took a look at my current planning system and asked myself, “what would I change if I could?”…

Overall size. The A5 paper size gives me just the right amount of real estate for my weekly layouts, but by the time I add the rings and the big leather binder I end up with a pretty clunky, heavy planner to lug around in my purse. I want to carry my planner with me but my purse was starting to feel like a briefcase!
Paper Thickness. I use 32lb copy paper in my ring-bound A5, which is a nice weight for writing and for some light inks, but it doesn’t hold up well for other mediums (watercolor, darker inks, some brands of dye inks, etc). I have drawers and drawers full of beautiful inks that I bought for card making and I hardly use them because they aren’t “planner friendly”
Layout flexibility. A lot of the time, I am loyal to a beautiful, clean, simple vertical Week-on-2-page format – which is why I have always LOVED these inserts from Plan2Create (and still do!). But sometimes my creative juices yearn for a little more peripheral space for decorating, painting, stamping etc… and some weeks call for more or less functional space. I wanted the option to switch it up on the fly.
List/Notes pages. I am always “jotting stuff down”. Whether it is a grocery list, ideas for upcoming projects, packing lists for a trip… I just think better when I put my thoughts down on paper. I tried to create sections for this in my A5 but I never seemed to use them. So I’d end up with loose sticky notes, legal pad pages, and other flyaway notes tucked into my A5 with all the thoughts that had spilled out of my brain that week. I wanted a better way to incorporate those into my planner.

I watched a jillion YouTube videos (go check out Planning With Kay, Eclectic Scribbles, AmandaRachLee and many others) and found that so many of these needs could be met by Bullet Journaling… and when I stumbled across the Archer & Olive Dot Grid Notebook, that finally sealed the deal! I ordered it right away and this is why I love it:

** COMPACT: roughly half as thick and much smaller overall than my A5, without sacrificing much layout space

** GORGEOUS! Her designs are beautiful… looks at these botanicals!

** DOT GRID BACKGROUND: Subtle gray dots help to keep writing, stickers, and grids straight and aligned while leaving total flexibility on how I want to set up each page

but you guys… it is THE PAPER that makes this baby shine!

Thick, bright white, super smooth paper – perfect for stamping, coloring, ink blending, watercoloring, painting… you name it. The creative possibilities are endless! I have so many ideas tumbling around in my head I just can’t wait to get started!

I did a mini-review of this beautiful notebook and a flip through of my first few setup pages in this video: