Journal Update

I have continued to diary things I've done in my Everyday Journal.  I haven't done much about my word {walk} lately.  However I have included Mary's word study in Thessalonians 1 and 2.

I printed out the 31 day plan.  If you've looked at Mary's page, you will see mine looks a bit different.  That's because I like my calendars to start on a Monday not a Sunday.  I think it's a British thing.

I divided each page into 4 and used one rectangle for the diary and one for the word.  I've chosen one part of Mary's study to illustrate the day.

I have drawn out all the pages up to the end in August.  This way it will keep me committed to the study.  I do have a happy knack of giving up half way through!

I didn't get to do the collages every day which I had mentioned in a previous post.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Setting up my 2020 journal

It took me a long time to decide what sort of journal to use this year and how to set it up.  Was it just going to be a journal for my word of the year or become an everyday journal.  Of course there was the added issue of deciding to change my word.  Fortunately I had changed my mind before I started on the journal.  I bought this Port Red Leuchtturm with squared paper.

The journal comes with pages labelled Content so I left these to be filled in as the year goes on.  The pages are numbered which helps.

I did this year and next year at-a-glance calendars.

Then two double page spreads of monthly calendars.  The January to June is full of workshops and outings already.  Here's the second half of the year waiting to be filled in.

I did a double page listing on the left the online courses I have in my 'library'.  On the right are the courses I signed for this year (but haven't necessarily looked at!)

I printed out the in-person workshops I have booked.  Mary recommended a pad of Newsprint which is much thinner than printer paper.  I was concerned my printer might not like it but it was fine.  It doesn't bulk up the journal like printer paper does.

Two pages for textile groups I belong to and the work in progress.

A year long Gratitude Log.  I found this layout online.

I moved on to double page spreads for Bible verses and quotes about my word of the year, Walk.

A monthly calendar for January.  I tried out using Gelatos through a stencil.

By this time it was already January 13th so to catch up quickly I drew 12 boxes and wrote in each of them for each day.

This is the record of photographs I am taking for the Head, Heart and Hands daily practice.

In our Facebook group, Valerie is currently posting weekly activities or questions relating to our word.  Her first suggestion was a word study.

On to this current week.  This is part to-do list, part diary.

Hopefully you have noticed that I use washi tape, stickers and coloured pens and pencils in quite a simple way to make my pages look colourful and 'arty'.  You don't have to be good at 'art' to produce pleasing pages.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Living Your Word 2020

My friends Valerie Sjodin and Mary Brack, and I share insights through blog posts for creatively living a word of the year. In our Facebook group, we encourage one another by posting questions and prompts to inspire living out a word focus, keeping a journal etc. It is a safe place to ask for prayer and support. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word, you can ask to join our Living Your Word of the Year 2020 by clicking on the link below.

Join our Facebook group: Living Your Word of the Year

On social media: #livingyourword2020

To ensure you get updates from Valerie, Mary & I why not subscribe to our blogs.
Mary:  www.foundonbrighton.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog/
This one: www.newlycreative.com/

Finished!

I'm not very good at finishing projects so I am delighted to say that I finished two Christmas related projects.

Firstly I finished Mary Brack's Advent Words 2017 study and book.

And secondly I finished my December Daily.  At tthe beginning I was going to keep it going right through the month to December 31st.  But in the end decided to finish with Christmas Day.

The last page has the information we put online for the project Valerie, Mary & I are running through 2018.  It belongs here because we were discussing it in the last few days before Christmas.   If you missed it, the information is in my last blog post.

See you in 2018.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

December Daily 2

I showed you my first collection of pages on the blog here.  Here are the next few days.

With the snow coming down on Friday I really didn't know whether we would be able to go to the Open Day at Hilary Beattie's studio - a 100 miles from my house.  However it was a lovely day and we got there and back in good time and had a great time at the studio.

The next day the snow returned and the roads were treacherous.  Church was cancelled.  My car disappeared under 8" of snow.

I don't have a story for December 11th and will come back to it.  The day was spent indoors because the snow had frozen.  Maybe that should be the story!

I put the tree up on the 12th.  According to Facebook's On this Day, I regularly put the tree up on the 12th!  Who knew!

And then the news we had been waiting for!  Our second grandson was born.

In the evening we celebrated Flynn's birth at my church small group's Christmas social. It's so lovely to celebrate with close friends - especially when your new grandson is in Australia.

I'm really pleased that I am mostly up to date.  Only one day to fill in.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

6 days of December Daily

I enjoyed making my December Daily album last year and actually finishing a project.  However I knew we were doing lots of things.  This year I thought I would do it again in order to find some joy in the season.  Otherwise it's just going to be 'just another month'.   And to be honest so far it's been just that.

I prepared the inserts ahead of time with the freedom to move anything that wasn't right for that day.  I have moved several things already.

The reason why and the Advent Words calendar.

Day 1  Naomi had sent me a photo of our grandson playing with the Nativity set we bought last year.  On day 2 we FaceTimed with the family in Sydney.

On day 3 there was a supermoon but I didn't get very good photos because of the clouds.

Day 4 I listed 4 strange Christmas songs that I like.  

Day 5: I wrote about spending Christmas with my cousin who died last month.  And on day 6 I bought some pants instead of Christmas Cards for my church's Pants Campaign.

I'm still trying to work out how to take decent photos of my album.  These were taken in the conservatory to have the benefit of natural daylight and they still needed tweaking.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

December Daily Preparation

Last year I prepared my December Daily book ahead of time and found that to be most useful.  Many of the pages didn't stay the same but it's so much easier each day to see things in the pockets rather than be faced with choices of page layout etc.

I've pretty much stayed with the same colour scheme as last year - black, white, grey and pale blue.  This year there is the odd splash of red.   I didn't order the main kit from Ali Edwards.  Instead I ordered the Mini Kit designed by Paislee Press, the 6x8 Text Album , the 4x6 Stamp Set by Jasmine Jones, the Black and White Journal Card Set, the Religious Journal Card Set, the Chipboard Numbers Set and the Multi-Sized Stars Craft Die.  I've also included some bits left over from last year.

Here are my pages ready to go.  The numbers aren't stuck down yet so I can put them somewhere on the double page layout.

I had a spare set of 8x3" acetate monthly dividers from my One Little Word kit.  The original set I ordered had a fault so I was sent another set.  I cut the months off the top and used them here.

December Daily ends on December 25th but I quite like to do right up to the end of the month.

The month is rushing past and there's only a week until I start filling this in.  Where has the year gone!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice