Tag: Blog

Life Style

Decluttering 7 Things for 7 Days

bookishluna2 Comments

Hello and welcome to a decluttering post, I have done some cleaning and decluttering things in the past. I have not made a post on the topic in a while, but I wanted to get back to it for a few reasons. The first and main reason is that I felt that a lot more clutter has found its way back into my life. Now, my living situation has changed in the last year so it could be because I have less room so everything seems more cluttered, but either way I notice it and I am not particularly happy with that. The second reason is that I really would like to just keep things around me that I use or need to operate the things in my life.

So, I was scrolling around YouTube with this in mind and I came across a video by The After Work Channel where she did a 7 day declutter challenge where she got rid of 7 items per day for an entire week. I enjoyed her video and it inspired me a bit because I thought I was going to have to tackle something like I had in the past, but this idea was a bit more accessible for me time wise and with the space I have. I can easily find 7 things that I am no longer using for a week. So, I did it and here are the things I ended up getting rid of and to hopefully move back towards a more minimalist space that I had.

Day 1

  • 5 skeins of dk yarn I am not going to use
  • 1 ruler where it has a wonky edge
  • 1 pencil holder I don’t really need since I have a pen container in my desk.

Day 2

  • 13 socks, did a little extra and got rid of all my socks without a match

Day 3

  • 2 boxes of razor heads, there was only one in each box anyway
  • 1 comb, don’t use it really ever.
  • 1 spray deodorant, does not work well.
  • 1 pill organizer, don’t need it.
  • 1 hand sanitizer, was leaking everywhere!
  • 1 glasses plate, I don’t keep my glasses on there anyway.

Day 4

  • 1 heel cream, don’t like the smell.
  • 1 pack of makeup sponges, I apply my makeup with a brush.
  • 1 bottle of toner, toner breaks me out every time.
  • 1 peach makeup pouch, I don’t need it. I was using a different pouch to hold everything anyway.
  • 1 shaver, never opened or used.
  • 1 bar of soap, I don’t like bar soaps.

Day 5

  • 8 bottle of nail polish, they were all colors that dried out.

Day 6

  • 1 broken thumb brace
  • 5 pack of money pouches, from my cash wallet days when I was learning to budget
  • 1 eyeshadow pallet, I never reach for it and I always use my single shade anyway,
  • 1 coin purse, I thought I had lost it, turned out it fell behind my night stand.
  • 1 pack of emery boards, I use a glass file now.
  • 2 pairs of eyebrow scissors, they were starting to rust and I am not using anything rusty.
  • 2 nail files, I use a glass file and do not really like the metal ones personally.
  • 1 perfume sample, I didn’t love the scent and I have one I love that I use daily.
  • 1 pack of post-it tabs, not really large enough to be of use to me.

Day 7

  • 1 apple watch box, I need to stop keeping boxes forever.
  • 1 apple watch strap box, I really need to stop keeping boxes for years and years.
  • 1 pair of broken head phones, these were over 10 years old.
  • 4 packs of alternate ear buds, why did I keep all of the options of they didn’t work for my ears?
  • 1 old iPad cover, kept to make sure a newer one worked before tossing it. It’s time has now come.
  • 1 budget notebook, the layout didn’t work for my current needs.

Outcome

Did I meet my goal of getting rid of 49 things? After looking back at everything, yes I did! I ended up getting rid of a total of 65 things, that means I got rid of an extra 16 unused items. I realized pretty early on in this week long challenge that doing a certain area of the house or room was more helpful than just walking around the house picking 7 things. It led me to really take a look at what I had in that category and get rid of everything I was not going to be using. This led me to get rid of more than 7 things on a lot of the days, because I didn’t just stop after the 7 items were found, but continued to work through that area.

Sign Off 2020

Sign off, thanks for reading!

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Reading Challenges

Reflection | 2020 Goals, 6 Month Checkin

bookishluna8 Comments

Reflection

Hello everyone and welcome to my 6 month 2020 goals check in. I cannot believe that wee are halfway through 2020 already. Anyway, I am going to keep this short and sweet and just get into the goal. The thing is I wanted to give you a bit of a heads up. I am writing this blog post in advance so my numbers might be a tad bit higher in real time.

The List

  1. Read a shortlist: Man Booker 2019
    • The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, Not really excited about this one…
    • ✔️Ducks, Newburyport  by Lucy Ellmann
    • ✔️Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
    • An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
    • Quichotte by Salman Rushdie Owned
    • 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak Owned
  2. Read 50 books, 55 books read. 
  3. Read all backlisted books, 46 books in all. Down to 10.
  4. Read 30,000 pages. Read 20,068 pages so far. 
  5. Read 16 nonfiction books. Read 8 so far. 
  6. Read 16 books from the library. Read 7 so far. 
  7. Read a book from each continent
    • ✔️North America: The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
    • South America
    • ✔️ Europe: Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
    • Asia
    • Australia
    • ✔️Antarctica: The Magicians by Lev Grossman 
    • Africa
  8. Read a book recommended by Joe Hill or Stephen King
    • The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
    • Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman Purchased 
    • Brutal Youth by Anthony Breznican
    • Frankenstorm by Ray Garton
  9. Read a Shakespeare play a month, you can join the fun by going to the goodreads group 2020 Shakespeare Challenge Group.
    • January: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
    • February: Othello
    • March: Hamlet
    • April: Macbeth
    • May: The Taming of the Shrew
    • June: Twelfth Night
    • July:
    • August:
    • September:
    • October:
    • November:
    • December:

Reflection

  1.  I read two of these books and did a review here:Reflection | Reading a Shortlist Vol. 1. I picked up two more I am veery excited to get to. Two I still need to buy or get from the library. One I am really not looking forward to it The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I read the first book and I did not like it at all. I am technically a little behind on this one, but I am not too far behind.
  2. Did it!!
  3. I only have 10 more books to go, so I am very excited about that, I thought I was going to have a lot more left on my TBR.
  4. I am more than halfway to my page goal, yay! This is always the goal I am more worried about since I can’t just read short books, manga, or graphic novels to just pump up my numbers. I need to put in the reading work for this one.
  5. I am exactly at the halfway mark for reading 16 non-fictions books. I am really happy to be on track for this one. I have been really in the mood to learn lately and I feel like I will have this goal done very soon.
  6. With everything going on with a pandemic, my library was closed for a very long time so I was not able to borrow from them too much. I could request ebooks, but the ebook waits have sky rocketed since that is the only option for many people. I am not too worried about this goal though since I am not too far off.
  7. I am halfway through this one so I am very much on track. I also have the 3 books in mind I am going to be reading. So, I think this is another “win”.
  8. I picked the book I am going to read and purchased it, I just need to get my butt in gear and actually read it.
  9. As for this year long challenge I am very much on track. I was kinda worried I would have given it up at this point.

How are your goals going?

Have you decided to change any of yours or introduce new ones?

SignOff12:17

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Bullet Journal Jottings, Writing & More

Bullet Journal | May 2020

bookishluna7 Comments

Bullet Journal

Hello and welcome to my May bullet journal post! This is an exciting one, I started a brand new notebook this month so I have more to share than just my monthly spreads. This is going to bit of a long one, so I am going to just get into it!

Items Used

Archer & Olive A5 Garden Sliter Dot Grid notebook

SAKURA Pigma Micron Pen Set  01

So, here is my new bullet journal. This time around I went for basic black and this one has a snake on the cover. One thing I love about these notebooks is the fact they have simple decoration on the cover. To me it gives off a classic and elegant vibe.

The first page of my notebook s always a general dot grid spread. I have used this n my last three bullet journals, it is really helpful when setting up new and old spreads. I always forget how many spaces go across my page and the halfway mark so this is very helpful.

This time around I decided to add a movie tracker. This spread is inspired by cyrus.serendipity14. All I need to do now is to add all the movies I need to watch. On the second page I added a TV tracker.  This tracker is inspired by @birdybujo on Instagram. I like how simple it is, at this point Outlander is the only show added. Also, you will notice I doodled herbs and plants on each page, this will continue throughout. I thought it would be a good way to tie everything together. On these pages I have rosemary and basil.

This time around I am trying to be more away of my spending and ordering online. I have a few goals this year for myself so I want to get everything in order. This wishlist and waiting on is inspired by  bulletjournal.com. Just like the previous pages, I really want to keep everything simple with these spreads because a lot will be added later on. On these pages I added lavender and sage.

Now these two spreads are a little more involved. On the left I am adding a health centered spread to track measurements and weight. This is inspired by @bulletjournalnoob. I need to still add some gray to differentiate the lines, but I am still searching for my gray highlighter. On the right I decided I am going to draw a book for all the books on my owned tbr shelf, this is inspired by @bujoandbee. I added a few plants that are a zz plant, monstera, and thyme.

On the lefthand side I wanted a way to keep track of all of my crochet projects. I decided to make a tag for each one. On each will be the start and end date, pattern, who it is for, and yarn used. On the right I put a monthly spread layout  from emerald lotus divination. I am planning on doing this spread every month so I wanted to keep it on hand to make things a bit easier. On these pages I doodled a string of pearls and oregano. 

This is a bill tracker I used in my previous bullet journal. It is really helpful when you pay your bills you can just mark it and you don’t need to worry if you forgot. I also add what date it is due and what I pay it with. On this page I attempted to draw mint, not sure how I feel about it, but I am still glad I tried.

I have had a tracker for my followers for this blog and my twitter for the past two bullet journals, but I changed the layout this time around, I was inspired by @penspapersplanner. I just do it for every five new followers, nothing fancy. I am not much of a numbers person, but I like marking it. On these spreads I drew chives.

I will be completely honest, I took the easy way out on this spread. I just photo copied  from previous bujo because I loved how well it came out the first time I didn’t want to mess it up.

On the left I migrated by temperature blanket tracker, I have very much behind and I really need to get back to it. Maybe you will see it in my next crochet update, my latest update you can find here: Crochet Talk | April 2020. On the right I photocopied a moon doodle from the book Muse with the Moon by Jo Cauldrick. It is the perfect reference I needed to keep track of the moon and the phases in order. On this page I doodled cilantro.

I love buddy reads and I love keeping track of them. I decided to continue with a buddy reads tracker and I also just migrated my top reads of 2020 spread. I left it blank when I took this picture so you all can be surprised at the end of the year. On this page I added basil.

Now onto the monthly spreads. This spread was taken by @littleolivebujo. I really loved how simple and organized this monthly introduction was. I loved the idea of monthly goals and a place for bigger events and the such. On this page I doodled some thyme.

Now, you mostly likely know I am studying Korean if you have been reading my blog regularly. I ended up taking this study spread from @jeannestudies. On the right I am keeping track to random expenses that come up. I kept these simple because they are going to be very full of information soon enough. I added rosemary and chamomile to these spreads.

My TBR and pages read spread is the one I used last month, just migrated over. I figure if it works, why change it up? On the right is where I am going to take notes and record my monthly spread that I noted earlier. I left a lot of open room so I have a lot of room to reflect and revisit as the month goes on.

This month my weekly spreads are a bit different. I added a few trackers on the sides that include habit, weekly, hours sleep and weather. Unfortunately I pinned this a while ago on Pinterest, but the link is now broken. I don’t remember where it came from so if you know who did this please let me know! I want to give them credit. On this spread I added thyme and dill.

What theme are you using this month?

What do you have planned for May?

Sign Off 2020

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Let's Talk

Blogmas | Let’s Talk | What I Want From Blogging

bookishlunaLeave a comment

LetsTalk12:17

Hello and welcome to this little discussion post! Since it is nearing the end of the year and my wordpress renewal went through I wanted to take this time and reflect on what I truly want from blogging and to check in and see if my motivation for it has changed since I started writing and posting on here.

So, when I first started blogging I was still in college and I had a very different way of life. A lot of the people I went to school with loved to read, but no longer really had the time to read due to our heavy reading loads. My degree was reading and critique heavy, so it is understandable that a lot of my peers didn’t want to pick up a book over reading a text and determining if it biased and how and if sources are right and so on. I on the other hand went to books to relax and still read a decent amount, but not as much as I do now.

I started to blog because I saw other book blogs online and I wanted to jump in on the conversation. I wanted to chat and gush about books I loved and hear what others had to say about their favorite reads of the year, month or in general. I feel like this is why a lot of us started our book blogs, if I am wrong please feel free to correct me.

Now, many years later and out of college my life has changed a lot. I actually have more time to read if I feel like it, I don’t pressure myself to read. If book blogging every did that to me I would honestly walk away. Reading in my hobby and how I enjoy my time, if anything stops that from happening outside of the dreaded book slump, Hello November 2019 Slump I am looking at you, I would stop. Now, I still am here to talk books and hear about others gush about books. I still want to talk to bloggers, I even started a twitter since I started blogging and I am on there all the time.

But, the question is, do I want more? The honest answer is yes. I would love to start a book club or a podcast of sorts. I feel like these would support my overall goal for blogging, connecting and talking books with awesome people. I know reading a blog is not always doable and bookclubs and podcasts are a wonderful alternate option. I also want to have more discussion posts like this, sometimes just reading information about what a person is reading or doing isn’t always inviting to comment on, but preficit it by saying “Let’S Talk”, it seems way more inviting.

Overall, I just want to find new ways to connect to you, my readers and fellow book lovers.

If you blog what do you want out of blogging? Have you ever blogged?

Do you still blog or have you stopped? If you stopped what were the reasons? 

SignOff12:17

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Bullet Journal Jottings, Writing & More

Bullet Journal | New Bujo & November Set Up

bookishluna11 Comments

Recs

Hello and welcome to my new bullet journal! I am so excited to be sharing with you how I decided to see it up and the spreads I migrated over. It is really interesting how over time the spreads you need change, that is just the most wonderful thing about bullet journals, they change with you. Anyway, I don’t want to write a huge introduction because I have a ton of pictures to share!

This time around I decided to stick with an Archer and Olive A5 notebook. The main reason being the page quality and I really enjoy the fact that the pages are crispy white as well. I personally do not use an index so not having page numbers is not a big deal. What I need is good quality paper, good binding, a pen loop, and roughly enough pages to get me through 4-6 months. This note book has all of that for me, a nice bonus is the beautiful cover. I found a Tombow marker in the shade 837 that matched the cover pretty darn well and I am using that during the set up as well as November.

I am not a big number person, but I love to celebrate milestone. I had this page in my previous bullet journal and I updated it normally towards the end of the month. As you can see I already needed to update a few since creating this spread. I do have an instagram, but quite frankly instagram normally just stays the same and it is more for me than anything.

These spreads I feel like are going to be used and reference a lot over the next few weeks. I decided to put my buddy read picks and order for Jenna, Amy, Reg and myself because if I don’t write them down I never remember. It is also a fun memory. Underneath this I have decided to start to watch the Outlander series instead of just reading it. I decided to put a little progress tracker because I don’t watch a ton of TV so I tend to forget my progress in shows if they aren’t on netflix or prime since those services keep track for me. On the right I just redid my 2019 goals spread that was in my previous bujo.

I decided to also keep my grid spacing page as well as my period tracker. I did not add the 1/2 and 1/4 points because it was a lot of work that I never really references because my spreads were never broken up like that. Having the number of boxes across and down is more useful for me.

Next and one of my more important spreads is my TBR. I have a box on the left of each title which tracks whether I have started, read, or unhauled/DNFed a book. On the right of the book title there are four boxes with checkmarks. These are codes for audiobooks since all of these books are already owned via print or ebook. A means it is available on audible, S means it is available on Scribed, * means I own it, L means my library has it. This is all for reference so I can decide which books to listen to on my commute to and from work.

I have added a new Read 5, Buy 1 to this bujo, but I am putting this on hold until the new year because I tend to get books for the holidays and it would throw this off a bit. But, I love being prepared so I added it now.

Now we are on to November, I was one again influenced by Plant Based Bride over on youtube. She shared this printable on the left and I just loved the cozy feel and on the right I used more of her doodles to decorate a shelf above the monthly calendar.

Next I have my habit tracker, which is a layout I have been loving over the past few months. This month I decided to track sleeping 7 hours or more, meditation, reading, vitamins, tidying, and nature time. On the right I have a social media tracker to track when I am meant to post on my blog, but I will also mark when I upload to instagram. On the bottom you can see my blog post tracker. On the left is the date, PWS is from my previous bujo, which means pictures, write, schedule. Just so I can track my progress and stay on top of my posts. I really loved doing this last month so I am looking forward to using this again.

So this month I am going back to my old book tracker, I have realized I don’t really care how many pages a day I read, but more so how long it is taking me to read a book. So, if you have not seen this spread before. On the left I will use a color that represents a book and I will color in the blocks next to the days I read that particular book. You can see this filled out in my post called Bullet Journal | May 2019. On the right I used another one of Plant Based Bride print, I thought it was a nice reminder to do things that make you happy and feel good inside.

Next up is my TBR, which I talked about in my TBR post, TBR | November 2019. If you have not noticed already I decided to use the N from the first page of the month as a guide to decorate the titles of each page. I thought it would help tie everything together.

Those are my weekly spreads. I decided to try something new again. I was watching Plant Based Brides November set up and I thought it looked so functional and simple and for me that is the best when setting up my weeklies as of late so I can focus on the items on the page instead of the fluff.

Anyway, this is my new bujo and my November set up! I hope you enjoyed this little peak!

What theme are you using this month?

What do you track on your habit tracker?

SignOff12:17

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Bullet Journal Jottings, Writing & More

Bullet Journal | August 2019

bookishluna16 Comments

Recs

Hello everyone! Today I am going to give you a peek inside of my August bullet journal. Like the past few months I am really inspired by plantbasedbride’s theme. This month I took from her watercolor ocean  vibe. I am really feeling the deep blues and greens, not sure why because blue is not my most favorite color, but I am going with it. I also changed up my weeklies for the first time in the last few months, I hope it works out well. Anyway, here is my bullet journal!

The image on the left I fell in love with. I did some googling and came across Let’s Make Art  she has an entire kit you can buy or you can use her print out and paint along with her if you have paints already. It is so cute and I loved how she shared her talent. As normal I have a mini calendar on the other page so I can have a quick reference for the month.

I really have been loving this new social media calendar I have been using. It really is great to be able to see everything in one place and visual see when I past because lists of dates don’t really work for me. I added a little quote with my stamp set on top of a water color water image I came across.

Here is my favorite spread of the month, my NEWTs page. I wanted to take a bit of inspiration from Book Roast and her first OWLs bullet journal tracking page. I loved the look of used roughed up parchment. On the left I printed out my desired career and put it down as a little bit of inspiration and motivation and on the right I placed the NEWTs grade I need. I didn’t write in my books from my TBR, which you can find here:___. The reason is because sometimes I don’t stick to a TBR, so I decided I would write in the book title when I read a book that meets the NEWTs requirements. I had a lot of fun doodling the castle and the fancy HP font for NEWTS.

This page is just like I have every month. It works really well for me so I don’t want to change it. I did add a bit of color to tie in the water / ocean theme. On the right I draw a physical representation in the form of spares or rectangles for the days I read a particular book. These books are color coded based upon the color that is assigned to them on the key page.

This is my new weekly spread. I decided that I did not need an hourly breakdown for the upcoming month and I didn’t want to have wasted space and waste my time making something I don’t need. I put all of the days on the left hand side and on the right I left open for notes and reminders. I did put a mini calendar on the top corner and highlight the week I am currently in. It gives me a good visual perspective as to where I am during the month.

This month I also decided to redo my blog kanban board. I found that I needed to redo the order of the steps. I find that it is best for me to write my posts first and then take the pictures. I also gave myself a little more room the blocks are larger and I left a page blank.  On the left side I decided to leave it blank to hold the tabs for the days I need to brain storm topic idea. It is a nice visual for me to see empty tabs with dates waiting for my attention.

What Bujo spread is the most used by you?

Do you track your reading outside of goodreads?

SignOff12:17

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Reading Challenges

Reading & Blog Goals | 2019 Mid-Year Check In

bookishluna22 Comments

Reading Goals NEW

It is mind boggling to think that we are already halfway through 2019. It feels like it only just begun if you ask me. I almost totally forgot that I needed to do another check in on my year long goals. I felt like I had all the time in the world. Turns out, I only have another 6 months to meet all of these. If you want to see where I was. 3 months ago, you can see my previous check in here; Reading & Blog Goals | 2019 First Quarter Check In.

Divider 2

-My Goals-

  1. Read all of the short listed books for the 2018 Man Booker Prize
  2. Read a book set in each of the 7 continents
  3. Read 50 books
  4. Read 30,000 pages
  5. Read at least one book per month from the library
  6. Read 12 non-fiction books
  7. Read a book recommended by someone I look up to
  8. Read my classic of 2019, War and Peace
  9. Take part in 2019 Beat the Backlist
    • My backlisted books are here.

Divider 2

-My Updates-

  1. I recently did an update post on this goal in particular, Revisiting | Reading a Shortlist. To summarize I have read/DNFed 3 books out of the 6 on the list. If you want to see my reasonings and such, please look at that post I go into a lot of detail.
  2. At this point in the year I have read a books that take place on 4 of the 7 continents. I am still working on South America, Asia (already have a book picked), and Australia. If you have any reconditions from these continents please share!
  3. As of writing this June 10th, I have read a total of 38 books, I am very close to reaching this goal.
  4. At this point in time I have read 16851, so I am once again in pretty good shape and on track to hit my goal!
  5. So far I have read a book from the library for Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, and Jun! So I am sticking to this one for sure!
  6. I am happy to report that I am ahead of schedule on this goal, I have read a total of 11 non-fiction books this year. So, more than 25% of my read books are non-fiction. It is my most read genre.
  7. So, this goal I am a little on the fence about, I tried to read a book reccoemnded by Megan Mullally, Milkman, but I ended up DNFing it. So, I kinda did and kinda didn’t meet this goal? I am going to maybe try one more from this list since I only need to read one.
  8. So, reading War and Peace is progressing slowly, but surly I am currently on Book 7 out of 17 sections. I am a little behind, but I plan on catching up over the summer when I will have more time outside taking care of my plants.
  9. So, beat the backlist I have been keeping track of in my monthly wrap ups, As of writing this I only have 9 books still to read from 2018. I stared with 34, so not to shabby.

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-Bujo Spreads-

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How are your goals progressing so far?

Have you changed any of your goals?

SignOff12:17

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Bullet Journal Jottings, Writing & More

Bullet Journal | June 2019

bookishluna20 Comments

Recs

So, this month I was so excited to be starting a new bullet journal. I don’t know about you, but I get super excited about starting a new one. It feels like a fresh start, a sweet breeze, or a clean slate. I can take all the spreads that have worked for me and leave the ones behind that I either don’t use or out grew. It is nice to see it evolve and grow as you do. Well, this time around I will admit I was heavily inspired by the Plant Based Bride over on youtube and her blog, http://plantbasedbride.com. I really enjoy the feel and simplicity of her bullet journal and I have heavily taken inspiration along with the spreads that have worked for me to create this new bullet journal.

Divider 2

My last bullet journal was a Rhodia goalbook, I HATED it. The pages fell apart just from erasing it, the paper was awful and I will not be buying a new one. Also, their customer service is horrible. I filled out a from and reached out on twitter and they said they would contact me twice and they never did. Not how you handle a situation as a company. This time around I am trying a new company, their notebooks are a bit pricy, but I was lucky enough to get it as a gift from my wonderful BF. I am trying an Archer and Olive notebook.

Before I moved into my new notebook I decided to make a list of the spread I wanted to keep and the ones I wanted to add. Here is a bit of a peak into the spreads I wanted to keep for this bullet journal, as well as add.

Keep

  • Crochet hooks ✔️
  • Weight-loss Tracker ✔️
  • Yearly Reading Goals ✔️
  • War and Peace readalong tracker ✔️
  • Twitter tracker ✔️
  • Blog tracker ✔️
  • Seasonal Bucket List ✔️
  • Grid spacing ✔️
  • ARC Tracker ✔️

Add

  • Period Tracker ✔️
  • Crochet Project Tracker/Wishlist Just Bright Ideas ✔️
  • 5K Training Progress ✔️
  • Owned TBR ✔️
  • Buddy Reads ✔️
  • Study Tracker ✔️

-General Spreads-

This layout is very helpful for me when I move into a new bullet journal, especailly when the brand is new to me. This lets me quickly see where 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 in either direction as well as how many boxes are in each page.

I tent to only keep a bullet journal for 4-6 months, so I only bother putting 6 months ahead so I can easily see how many days are in each month. I also left an area on the bottom incase I wanted to add a particular note for a day. On the other page I updated my eARC/ARC tracker page. I can easily see when a book comes out and if I have reviewed it. In this bujo I only added the ones I am still working on.

While I am not in blogging or on twitter for the numbers, I find it fun to track them. Seeing all the people I can connect with or who want to read my work is motivating in a way.

Alright, these two pages are totally new. On the right I added a different layout for my War and Peace reading this year. This year I decided that I would read W&P on the right hand side I write what sections I should read each month to finish on time. On the right I am writing when I actually end up reading it. I also added a little progress bar at the bottom. On the right I decided I wanted to keep track of all the books Reg, Jenna, Amy and myself read together. I added a bit of a starry night because I messed up, but I really did love how it came out.

Here is my reading challenge tracker, the same as it was in my old bujo. On the right I started writing my seasonal bucket list. I am still thinking up ideas, if you have any suggestions let me know!

I decided I wanted to track my studying my writing in the topic as well as checking off if I actually do study. I am trying to become a bit more structured. On the right I am tracking my period, I find myself needing to track it more now so I figured having an over all picture in one place would be helpful.

If you did not know this year I am really taking the time for myself and my health. So, I have been doing my best to make healthier decisions and lose some extra weight. I really loved the spreads I had in my other bujo so I migrated them over. I took the layout on the right from Forever Good Life.

A bit of a continuation, I am currently doing a 5K training app. I wanted to track my progress through the program as well as the km per week I am running/walking. On the right I wanted to keep track of the crochet hooks I have so I did some googling and found this spread from paperandinkco.heidi on instagram.

On the left I decided to give myself a space to write all of my “dream” crochet projects. I also decided to implement a kanban board for my blog posts. I picked this up from Plant Based Bride, as I said in the start of this post I found a lot of inspiration from her.

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-Monthly-

This is my dashboard page and a bit of a monthly overview. I really enjoy having this monthly overview each month and I wanted to continue with it.

This is my normal book tracker that I have been using for MONTHS and I just love seeing what books I read and on what days. It is a great overview picture of my reading habits without using a habit tracker, which I realized are not for me because I don’t look at them for days and then have to do my best to remember when I did what.

Here is a bit of a view of my other reading tracker. I color in a block for each chapter that I have read. It is almost like a goodreads for my notebook when it comes to progress.

I wanted to try something new for my social media page. I decided to draw a mini calendar and highlight my blogging days, but I want to also color in when I post on instagram. I will see how this format goes instead of a list. On the other page is my TBR, pretty simple and straight forward.

Last month I used this weekly spread and I really loved it. I had to resize it a bit for this new notebook, but I still really like it. It made organizing my day really easy and gave me a clear view of my week. I will be adding some quotes as I move through the weeks, but I also left room to add doodles if I want to as well.

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Well, there you have it, my new bullet journal and my June spreads, what do you think? Have you ever used a notebook by this brand before? Are there any notebooks you think I should try in the future?

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Reading Challenges

Reading Goals | 2018 Recap

bookishluna12 Comments

Reading Goals NEW

I cannot believe this year is coming to a close soon and it is time to reflect on the goals I set for myself back in December 2017. It feels like so long ago, but at the same time this year felt like it flew by. A few times this year I checked in with my goals, but I have not done so since the first half a the year. I honestly kinda lost track of my goals because one large one I realized was not going to happen. I will get more into that later in this post.

Earlier Posts

Reading Goals | 2018, Reading Goals | 2018 | 1st Quarter Review, and Reading Goals | 2018 | 2nd Quarter Review.

DividerThe Goals

  1. Update my blog post headers
    • I loved designing so I want to introduce a few new headers and give myself that time to be creative.
  2. Read 50 books
    • Every year I set my reading goal at 50. It is an average of a book in little over a week and I tend to not stress out about it.
  3. Read 30,000 pages
    • I though this page goal would be fun.
  4. Try new things
    • This year I want to experiment a little outside of what I normally post, spice things up a little bit.
  5. Complete the 2018 POPSUGAR reading challenge

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My Reflection

  1. I did this as soon as the year started and I am very happy with the graphics I created. I also like the fact that I made them in a way where I can change the background images if I ever feel like it and it would not be too much work.
  2. I am happy to say that I read more than 50 books this year, in fact I read 105 as of 12/9.
  3. Once again I can say that I read more than 30,000 page throughout the year. I ended up reading a grand total of 36,985 pages as of 12/9.
  4. This year I felt like I tried some new things on my blog such as posting about My life, DIYs, and Cooking as well as doing a few fun series such as _____ Picks my books, Annotating my Bookshelf , and introducing discussion posts. All of which I had a ton of fun doing. I know in the new year I want to do another round of Annotating my Bookshelf.
  5. This one is where the problem came in. While I love the idea of the pop sugar challenge, it really is not a good challenge for me. There are a 52 prompts and while I did do a majority of them. I am a book reader and I honestly have no interest in reading nordic noir currently. While my goal was to read 50 books, why would I pick a challenge that would assign me 52 books. On top of that a majority of the books on this challenge I did not own and this year I really wanted to read some of the books I had on my shelf the longest. Which I did and now the longest a book has been on myself has been 19 months, less than two years. So I was happy to give up on this goal because it did not line up with my other goals, which were a priority to me.

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Overall, I am very happy with how I did with my 2018 Reading and Blog goals. I achieve the ones that were the most important to me and I am proud of myself for putting aside one that really did not benefit me in reaching my other goals. Goals should be realistic and reachable. While I come up with my 2019 goals, this is going to be in my mind.

How did you do with your 2018 goals?

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Reading Challenges

Reading Goals | 2018 | 1st Quarter Review

bookishluna12 Comments

Reading Goals

Since the third month of the year is coming to a close, that means it is time to check in with my yearly goals for my reading and my blog. I cannot believe that we are already a quarter of the way through 2018. I feel like this year is just flying by. Anyway, without further delay here are the updates on my 2018 goals!

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Update my blog post headers

I am happy to say that I have redesigned all of my banners and post headers. I love how them came out. This is one is a check!

Read 50 books

Currently I am ahead of schedule on this goal by 7 books. Woohoo!

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Read 30,000 pages

I am currently at 6519 pages. So that means if I continue on this path I will have 26,076 pages by the end of the year. So while I am making great progress I need to up my reading a bit, but I will admit this does not include books I am currently in the middle of so I might actually be on track. I guess we shall see.

Try new things

I think I am doing good with this one as well. I have started a few new series on my blog. The first being Operation Find a Hobby where I try a bunch of different hobbies to see if I like them or not. I also started a series where I have others pick out the books I add to my TBR.  If you wanted to see what I have tried so far or added to my TBR I shall link them below.

Operation Find a Hobby

Operation Find A Hobby | Introduction

Operation Find A Hobby | Embroidery

Operation Find A Hobby | Puzzle

_____ Picks My Books

Haul | Bookseller Picks My Books

Haul | Boyfriend Picks My Books

Complete the 2018 POPSUGAR reading challenge

I would say that so far I am doing pretty good with this goal. I have 16 down and only 24 more to go according to my spreadsheet.

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How are your 2018 goals going?

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