#onebookjuly2014
life
planner
#OneBookJuly - Setup and Halfway Through
12:00 AM
The Challenge
For the month of July, Rhomany's Realm has issued a challenge to all planners, notetakers, art journalers, anyone who uses a book to help organize their life in some way! Her challenge is to use one book and one pen ONLY for the entire month!Now, I have tried my planner (Family Plus), and while it works okay - it isn't perfect and I tend to forget to use it. I think my problem is I want too much to be captured in it and I don't have the slightest idea how to organize it. Nonetheless, I set it aside, along with my two composition notebooks, and my art journal to take on this challenge. I am currently loving the Hobonichi style books that I am seeing everywhere. So I made a trip to Walmart to see what I could find that might work for the month. I found this great "Notes" book that is by Blue Sky Imagination. Inside it has graph paper on the left side, and lined paper on the right. I also chose a Bic Multicolored pen, as my pen of the month. It has black, blue, red, and green, which I thought would help me for color coding Important Stuff (red) and Bills (green), along with just giving me a bit of variety.
The Setup
Now I love the month on two pages that is in the Family Plus planner. It gives me a great place to put in birthdays and important things that need doing throughout the month. So I definitely wanted to include something like that. So I decided to sketch in a month and color coded with little Avery dots so that I can see at a glance what is going on. This helps, especially, with my work schedule, because it rotates every two weeks. I love being able to see at a glance if I work a Tuesday or if it's my day off that week. I also tiped-in the month on two pages from the Family Plus, so that I could record Project Life moments that I definitely wanted to get into my albums.
I also really like the week on two pages, but it doesn't give me enough room for notetaking (hence why I have two other composition books that I use). So I kept the pages of my One Book as daily pages and tiped-in the week on two pages from the Family Plus, so that they can fold out and I can see the whole week. I am using these sections to help keep me on track for my blogging! That way it's not taking up chunks of my daily space and I can see the whole week, including what projects I need to get my butt in gear and work on!
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| Here you can see what I mean by my week on two pages folding out! |
Day One and Two
Above, you can see my day one and two. I did some doodles about how we went to the Eye Doctor, Atty had a blast playing with her balls outside, and our Bubba cat went missing after a huge storm on the 1st! :( I also have a tip-in for the July Counterfeit Kit and it's individual parts that the Balboa kit has in it.
Day Three and Four
On day three and four, I have included some more doodles about our meals, my nice hot bath that I managed to sneak in while my daughter was sleeping, a product list for a layout I did (because, I seriously never remember those things). I also included a gas receipt on the back of the Project Life card that I just used some washi tape to attach.
Day Five and Six
On these days, I honestly wasn't feeling very creative. I have a couple post-it notes on layout ideas and just some notes about our day (like it rained when we were going to go swimming) and that Jamie has now named Sundays - Sanitize Sunday (the day when you do all those deep cleaning chores that you put off all week long). Thankfully, I only have to participate in those every other week due to my work schedule ;)
As you can see, I'm trying to include some doodles and sketching for variety, but most of my notebook is full of journaling and ideas. I don't do a whole of doodles and sketching to begin with, but I always really want to! This is a great way to get in some practice and just have a bit of play on the days that I feel like it or have some extra space. I am loving having a confined space to fill each day, but that same space gives me plenty of room for more than just one line about our day (which is all the previous planner setup really allowed).
I can definitely see this setup continuing past the end of July. In fact, I bought some grid composition notebooks so that I can setup in something just a tad bigger and easier for me to write in. Plus, I feel that the composition notebooks allow for me to create art journal pages easier than this current notebook setup. Do you use a planner currently? I'd love to know how you keep it organized! I'm constantly looking for new suggestions for how to make my planner work with me, rather than trying to work around my planner!
Day Seven and Eight
On day seven, I included a receipt from my lunch that I just taped in with some washi, along with an attempt at a train. Atty loves watching the trains go by the house and we often see at least a couple every evening during our outside playtime. Day eight is mostly about food. Jamie surprised me with lunch and brought me some yummy Taco Bell, and then I highlighted what we ate for dinner (Mine vs Atty's).
Day Nine and Ten
I was really short on time these days! I only had a couple seconds throughout these days to work on my journal so I just jotted some quick notes on post-its with the intention of returning to doodle and do the writing, but it never happened. On these days, we mainly played with bubbles, which Atty is officially in love with!
Day Eleven and Twelve
I completely missed doing anything in my journal on day eleven! In my defense, it's my late day to work, so I often don't get home until after 9 pm. However, I'm probably going to use it as an art journal page and see how this paper holds up to that sort of thing. On day twelve, we spent most of the day going around to local animal shelters trying to find out if Spartan had showed up anywhere.
Day Thirteen and Fourteen
These two days show the beginning of Atty's recent teething trauma. Poor little girl, she has already gotten so many of her teeth in such a short time span. It seems like she has been teething for the last six months nonstop! Some weeks are better than others. This week was definitely a hard one. Even when we went through our nightly routine, she didn't want to go bed and we ended up cuddling on the couch most evenings watching a movie and falling asleep until Jamie went to work! Day Thirteen we watching Hercules (the animated Disney version) and she was super lovey and gave kisses to the baby in the mirror at the end of her Peek-a-Boo Book that we read every night before bed. Day fourteen, we watched The Little Mermaid. It was so cute, because she would get up and dance and sing whenever the songs came on!
Day Fifteen and Sixteen
On these days, I focused mainly on just journaling, since Atty was especially fussy due to her teeth bugging her. I talked a little bit about our breakfast on day fifteen, and, on day sixteen, we attempted to watch Hercules again (because we both fell asleep within the first half hour earlier in the week). Within 5 minutes she was snoring on the couch next to me!
As you can see, I'm trying to include some doodles and sketching for variety, but most of my notebook is full of journaling and ideas. I don't do a whole of doodles and sketching to begin with, but I always really want to! This is a great way to get in some practice and just have a bit of play on the days that I feel like it or have some extra space. I am loving having a confined space to fill each day, but that same space gives me plenty of room for more than just one line about our day (which is all the previous planner setup really allowed).
I can definitely see this setup continuing past the end of July. In fact, I bought some grid composition notebooks so that I can setup in something just a tad bigger and easier for me to write in. Plus, I feel that the composition notebooks allow for me to create art journal pages easier than this current notebook setup. Do you use a planner currently? I'd love to know how you keep it organized! I'm constantly looking for new suggestions for how to make my planner work with me, rather than trying to work around my planner!
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