My Newest Obsession: Bullet Journaling

Hi All!

So who out there is in LOVE with the bullet journal system?! I am absolutely smitten with it. I have always loved planning but tend to get side-tracked and don't use it every day. Then all of those empty days/pages really bug me. The great thing about the bullet journal is that it is not preset up and you just pick up where you left off.

The bullet journal was created by Ryder Carroll over at www.bulletjournal.com. If you have never heard of it, you should most definitely check it out! I have told my entire family about it and while most do not appreciate planning as much as me, can still appreciate the ingeniousness of this system.

Not only is it a great system but the bullet journal community (yes it is so popular it has a community) is super friendly and full of great ideas on self-improvement, time management, and all other "good to know" information. As will all things, you tend to find your favorite people to follow and admire their works. My favorite bullet journalists are Kara Benz over at www.bohoberry.com, and AmandaRachLee on youtube. Both of these bullet journalists have youtube channels but I should warn you to proceed with caution. You will get sucked down a youtube binge watching session of all of their gorgeous creations.

Another warning I feel like I must tell you about is that if you have the slightest draw to office supplies, you will soon fall down the rabbit hole of all the amazing supplies like pens, markers, watercolors, etc that are used by various people in their bullet journals to make them gorgeous. One thing to note is that if at first you get overwhelmed with all the "artsy" looks of the bullet journal, remember that not everyone decorates them and even refer back to Ryder's first video of how to get started and why they are so great for anyone, regardless of artistic talent. That is all I will get into about supplies because that deserves its own post to do it justice. :)

So now I will share a few pics of my bullet journal. I started in a small cheap notebook from Michaels in May to see if I liked the system and then upgraded in July to my current journal that I absolutely love.

 My journal is a Leuchtturm1917 dot grid in purple and is the A5 size.

Here is a picture of my index. It is the basic index that is pre-printed in the Leuchttrum and I just fill it in. It is very important to index since the bullet journal is an analog system.

Next we have the yearly log. I just did another basic set up of a 6 month view. This allows me to note any birthdays or anniversaries that are coming up. This portion of the bullet journal is helpful in keeping those events that are way in the future jotted down so they are not missed or forgotten.

Monthly layouts are usually what follow the yearly log and are set up each month. I will say this is where I deviate from Ryder's layout. I prefer to see my month in a calendar view. I am just a visual person and need to see it this way.

Then comes any monthly trackers you would like to incorporate into your journal. This month I decided to try a couple new ones. The "Gratitude" is supposed to be either a doodle, a word, or sentence of something you are grateful for each day. The idea is by the end of the month you can see a full page of things you were grateful for.

The mood tracker is just a way to gauge how you are feeling during the month. I plan to color in a ring each day and then draw over the colors a mandala. If you are not sure what a mandala is, do a quick search on youtube or pinterest. There are so many tutorials on drawing them yourself if you are into that.

Next come my weekly spreads. This is also a deviation from the original bullet journal idea. I like looking at my weeks in a quick glance. You can see that each week may look a little different. In July, I tracked weekly but decided to go with one big tracker for the month of August. I try to meal plan so I find that doing that in my weekly spreads are the most beneficial. And then you can see my primitive doodles. For August I went with a  cactus theme because here in Texas it is HOT and DRY.

Last comes my daily pages. I set these up each day and as you can see, some times I don't do every day and that's ok. I am starting to try to doodle a little more so if I have some blank space, I just fill in with a doodle and they are fun to look back on.

You can see that my daily pages have a lot of different elements so I plan on making a future post about all the different areas in each spread but now I just wanted to give an overview.

I hope you enjoyed taking a trip in my bullet journal with me. I am sure you will see lots of updates from me here since it is now my newest obsession.

New Beginnings are Always Exciting

Hi All or as we say in Aggieland HOWDY! This is my first blog post on this new adventure I am taking so let me start off by introducing myself.

My name is Emily Hyvl (pronounced Hee-vil.) I am a mom to two beautiful little girls, Elaina 2 1/2 and Adeline 13 months, and a wife to my amazing husband, Delbert.

I am a graduate from Texas A&M University with a degree in Wildlife and Fisheries. I now currently work at A&M as a Business IT Analyst. (betcha didn't see that coming huh?!)  The story behind that is I met my husband my last semester in College. He is actually from the Bryan/College Station area in a little town called Snook. We instantly fell in love and I chose to stay here. We live on about a 130 acre farm just outside of town.

At my first professional job after college, a co-worker introduced me to the world of crafting and I was from then on hooked. I basically love all things crafty from knitting, crocheting, sewing, vinyl decals, making custom shirts and onesies, deco mesh or yarn wreaths, scrapbooking, cardmaking,  or any other type of papercrafting.

By the time my first daughter was born, I had accumulated quite a bit of crafting supplies. When we started to fix up her nursery, we realized I needed somewhere to store all my stuff so we made this amazing purchase!

While it took longer than I want to admit, we finished out the inside and now it is my crafting getaway, or she-shed, or studio....I'm still trying to come up with a name to call it.

My husband has a large and loving family who are always getting together to celebrate something so I am usually always asked if I can make something. Every event someone asks why I don't try to open my own business and I just finally ran out of ideas. I mean look at this blank canvas of a space I have to create in?!

So that brings us to date. Here I am starting my new endeavor, not knowing where this will lead but optimistic about the future and all the exciting new things I know are in store for me.