Journal 2020

Last time I showed you this year's journal set up and ready to go.  My last update of my 2020 journal was at the beginning of November.  I'm amazed!  I didn't think it was 2 months ago I last shared my pages.  I have shown you the Advent Words pages that feature in the journal.

I am really pleased that I completed the journal.  I don't always!  I quite often run out of steam either in June or September.  But in 2020 I kept going.  Mostly because it did me good to record what I had done on each day.  Lockdowns and restrictions made it feel as though I hadn't achieved anything, but recording what I had done confirmed my achievements.

I tended to fill in my calendar at the end of the month with what actually happened!

I started trying out new layouts and included to do lists

Another monthly calendar

I started filling in the gaps with Christmas images from a sheet of scrapbook paper

I'm not sure how I managed to have a spare Christmas card without an envelope.  Plus we did our cards before the last day to post.  Unheard of!!!

And lastly a handmade card sent to me by my dear friend Suki.

Most of December seems to have been taken up with Simply Create. I've still a few videos to make for it.  This week I'm going to concentrate on monoprinting.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

More Advent Words

I introduced you to my Advent Words project in this post.  You can find the original project on Mary Brack's blog.

Here are some more of my pages:

Day 6

 

 Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Days 13 & 14

We're over halfway through Mary's Advent Words study.  I'm really enjoying it.

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

Advent in my Word of the Year Journal

I decided to do Mary Brack's Advent Words in my Living Your Word of the Year Journal. I went through and glued pages together as the Leuchtturm journal pages are so thin. I had just enough pages left to get all the 24 word pages and my diary pages to completely fill my journal. I had a Thermofax screen made of this shape in 2019.  In my journal I used acrylic paint through the screen on every word page. I used Pan Pastels for the colour.

I really struggled to find any gold and silver paint despite having enough paint to open a shop!  I eventually found some gold paint but had to use copper instead of silver.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

 

 Day 5

 

 

 

Thanks for joining me today

Bernice

Reviewing my Word of the Year 2020 Journal

Last month Valerie Sjodin published an excellent post with a video on her blog.  Do go to her website to view it.

It got me thinking about 2021 even though it's 2 months away!   Valerie recommended a journal and I immediately bought it.  I know that she will have done her research so why not take advantage of that, saving me the time.  Mind you, I do have lots of time.  But that's not the point. I immediately ordered a Wordsworth & Black Journal with a turquoise cover.  To be honest it may well have been the availability of the turquoise cover that settled the matter.

In my last post I showed you how I have used this year's journal.  I'm not a bullet journal sort of person - it's somehow too rigid for my purposes.  I have begun to feel that even what I have been doing is slightly too rigid - quartering the page and recording what I do.  Most of the recording has been to prove to myself that I have done something each day during this very peculiar year!

As you read this, England is back in lockdown.  Not quite as severe as the one in April & May but not far off.  So plenty of time to consider how to record 2021.  And maybe try out some different page layouts in the rest of my 2020 journal.

Way back in 2011 and 2012 I was following Julie Fei Fan Balzer's Art Every Day and used a Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook to record my days.

Looking back at it now I am amazed I kept up.

I don't think this is what I'm looking for in terms of next year's journal.  It needs to be somewhere inbetween.  Not as free and easy as the AED journal but not as rigid as this year's.  I haven't been able to work out what that looks like yet.

I went through this year's journal and looked at what themed pages I had used and which worked well and which didn't.

Some pages I'm going to ditch like the 2022 calendar at a glance, and the list calendars which showed 6 months at a time.  In this year's journal I had 2020 at a glance and 2021 but hardly ever looked at them.  I think I've become too reliant on my phone.  At the beginning of 2020 I had bought a vertical planner so I could see easily what I was committed to.  I had done the same in 2019 and it was really useful even though it didn't ever make it onto a wall, which had been my intention!

Some of the pages like the gratitude log and descriptions of booked workshops I think I will incorporate into each month rather than have separate pages for them.  Always supposing I get to any workshops!

Looking back at this year's journal I was reminded that it took me the first 12 days of January to decide what I was going to do with my journal and had to play catch up.

So maybe it's just as well that I've already started thinking about next year!

What about you?  Are you going to keep a journal next year?  If so, what format works for you?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Another Journal Update

I haven't posted about my journal for a couple of months.  Life has continued much as before, apart from our trip to Norfolk.  My calendar is mostly empty apart from zoom calls.  Each month I have drawn out the calendar on the page.  Previously I would have written in what was going to happen but in the last months I have filled in the calendar at the end of the month with what actually occurred.

August

I tried a new layout with a to-do list and a done box.

September
I went back to quartering the pages.

October

Well done if you've waded through all those photos.

Now, to have a go at answering Valerie's questions about how the journal has worked this year.

I hope to share my answers with you in my next post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Journaling 2021 with Valerie Sjodin

I bought a 2021 calendar this week.  Now I'm wondering why.  What will I put on it?  The two in-person workshops I have booked in January may yet get cancelled.   The one I was planning to do in mid-November has been cancelled!  But this is life currently, so we just have to make the best of it.

My friend Valerie keeps a journal each year which focuses on a particular word.  As you know I choose a wrod of the year also.  Although it's still only October Valerie has started to think about what she will be doing in 2021.  I thoroughly recommend you looking at her latest blog posts about this.

How to plan and organize a Word of the Year Bullet Journal

and

Choosing a Word of the Year

Next week I'll update you on my 2020 journal so far.  And show my answers to Valerie's questions.

 Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Journal Update

My last Journal Update post was in July.  Seems a very long time ago!

I'm pleased to say that I completed Mary's Thessalonians Word Study.  Here are the pages to prove it!

I decided I was going to do 31 days of doodles - one a day through August.  But actually I didn't start until I finished the word study.

I still did 31 days, although sometimes I did 3 days at a time to catch up, finishing on September 5th.

They're not very exciting but at least I finished my challenge.


Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice