I LOVE the crinkliness of the watercolor pages, the embossing gives the page texture, and I embrace the ghosting whole-heartedly. (Nanami has a fix for "show through", if you're interested.) 
​

One of the very first things I do when I get a new notebook is to designate four pages in the very back for a Pen Test. It doesn't matter that I've tested the same pens in another book that is exactly the same, I do it again anyway. This serves 2 purposes:

1.) I use new pens I didn't have when I obtained the first book and
2.) It breaks the anxiety EVERYONE usually feels about first writing in a blank book.

​Pen Tests let you know just how much ghosting there will be and if any of your pens will bleed through. Here are my pen tests for 2019.

I also run a water brush over all the writing to see if the water and ink from the pen will cause bleed through. It looks like I'm golden with every pen, so far. The next thing I do is a book blessing and protection. 

While I do the first two, (and during the last month or so), I thought about what my word or quote of the year 2019 will be. Last year's was adopted in April,
​"The magical and the mundane are not separate."

I skip 4 pages for the INDEX. This was one of the ideas I found in the Bujo community that made me want to try it (along with collections). Last year's experiment taught me that the FUTURE LOG is an amazing tool for the DIY Bujo-er. All your important dates are in one place; easily accessible. I draw in my weeks and months as I go so this is the best place for me to pull all the information from to populate my monthly calendar and my weeklies.

​Last year's future log (left) and this year's (right.)

The next four pages after the future log are the ones that cover Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Holidays. I tried to combine these in a practice book, but quickly ran out of space. As my mom says, "Ohma... You have too many friend."

I start marking (in pencil or with post-its) what my collections pages are going to be. I may start a few pencil sketches for them, but I definitely start working on the first month. The CALENDAR with space to write is the most important part of the month for me. It's like a mini-future log just for the month. I've taken to doodllng in holidays which I love doing. Drawing in miniature is so very fun.

Keep checking back. I'll be posting often as the year progresses.

"After the Pen" in the journaling community means what does a plournal look like after it has been used for the week. Here are mine for ​May 2018.

"Use natural lighting," they said. With natural lighting you can see every bump and warp of the page from watercolor use and every line from the pages underneath. Still turned out pretty though....

It all started with the crayons, right.? Our love of coloring in things and drawing things and melting things.... As a calligrapher, Crayola broad-tipped markers are one of my first loves. The colors and the diversity of lettering styles I can create are amazing. Yes, I know they're not lightfast. Yes, I know they are not archival. But, according to Crayola.com, as of May 2017, they do meet the standards of being acid free. And of course, they are so very affordable. 

As of December of 2017, I went from being a mere person carrying around a planner to a full on 'Bullet Journal' - er-ish. More like a planner/journal person or as one of my favorite online people called it, a PLOURNAL-er. 

What's the difference between what I do now, than what I did before?
Before, I would buy a pre-printed planner and fill it in as colorfully as possible.I started with a daily I had gifted to me once a year, then into a weekly which worked awesomely for work with multiple appointments, to a personal monthly calendar with pages for journaling. One of the things I found in a sojourn across the web, was something called a collection. 

This idea, to me, was AMAZING. It was so simple... just track the books you've read in a year... or the shows you've watched, or the movies you've seen, or the podcasts you've listened to, or the advice (good or ill) you've been given... Track it. TRACK IT ALL! But all on the same page in your journal. Whoa!

From there I learned about '*Bullet Journal' - a sort of DIY planner/journal. Its key is the future log and 'bullet' pointed tasks you can migrate to make your busy-ness more productive. Follow this link to the video by Ryder Carroll, who organized the system in the first place.

I have always been a person who takes a lot of notes. When I'm meeting with clients, if I have a meeting for church, if I am studying or researching for something upcoming. I like to write out synopses of my days, record awesome things that have happened or just jot down thoughts I may have had. So I adapted everything (it's a deep, dark hole, the "*BuJo" - Bu-llet Jo-urnal -  community) to something that would fit with what I was already doing and what I wanted to add.

​Further down the rabbit hole brought me to an article about ZIBALDONES. Zibaldones are catch-all books started by Venetian merchants in the late 1400's. 

Zibaldones are what I WANT to carry because its already steeped in history. I LOVE HISTORY! But I like order, too... So I've decided to make sure I have a table of contents, my collections, and everything else under the sun.

I consider everything from December (of the year 0001) until now, practice;  getting a feel for the method (and madness) and as of March 8, 2018, I fully dived into the community. Here are some practice pictures and the big one on the bottom is my new, official, monthly spread for March.

I am absolutely in love with this hodge-podge system AND it integrates my creativity far too well with the rest of my life. Expect many more doodles and drawings and artsy monthly calendars. I also plan on some pen reviews. I am on the hunt for an everyday writing pen to replace my current one. I recently discovered the ink is not archival quality... and as other lovers of history will tell you... that is pretty damn important. I LOVE IT!

* 'Bullet Journal' and 'BuJo' are both copyrighted terms and belong to Ryder Carroll and http://bulletjournal.com/
​** Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

I participated in my first challenge ever. It was very fun. I was able to dust off a hard bound empty book I have loved forever. The challenge was put on by:
tinyrayofsunshine.com/rockyourhandwriting

Check out our corresponding websites for the challenge each month:
Kara - bohoberry.com
Dee - decadethirty.com
Jessica - prettyprintsandpaper.com
Kim - tinyrayofsunshine.com