My journal and most of my supplies got here! Since tomorrow is the beginning of August, it’s the perfect time to get started.
I got a Paperage recycled dotted grid notebook with a natural kraft brown cover so I could stamp the cover and note the dates on the spine. Hopefully by a few years from now I’ll have a modest stack of these boys in chronological order.
Stamps! I’m using these for the headers and things so my spreads can have a little extra bit of visual interest without me having to worry about coming up with creative designs, which frankly I don’t want to spend my time doing.
These are the spreads I’ve included at the front of the journal so far. I’ve got a wish list I’m going to organize alphabetically by author, that way when I’m perusing bookshop or library shelves I can know what to keep an eye out for based on where I am. I’m putting a key at the bottom of the last page so I can highlight titles based on genre, and track books that are a top priority, those I’ve purchased, and those I’ve read. The goals section is just to help me keep a handle on the different areas I’m working on in my life — because I tend to hyper-focus on one project at a time to the detriment of everything else in my life, until I get completely burned out, and then abandon it for something else I’ve been neglecting. And never come back to it. This is the big thing I’m hoping the bullet journal will help me fix. Aaaand I’ll fill out the key and index as I write.
Here are the stationary supplies I’m using!
Pens! I’ve got a black Muji for my regular writing, these cute multicolor cat pens for different headers, and a gel pen to add gold accents and lettering.
Highlighers – Zebra Mildliners, and some aesthetic pastel pens for when I wanna go for an extra soft look.
This adorable ‘delicious pine nuts’ eraser (lol) wasn’t very functional, but I’m hanging onto it because it’s sooo cute and it’s too late to return it haha. I replaced the animal erasers with these tea-scented ones that come in this pretty packaging. They smell so nice! And they actually work! I’m into it.
Some of the post-its and sticky tabs I got. They’ll help me transfer notes from what I’m reading into the journal.
This set of correction tape packaged to look like different flavored milk bottles! These might be my favorite thing here. They are very cute and satisfying to use.
Washi tape for decorating and adding some scrapbook materials.
The other thing I worked on today was my new filing system to help me track my haiku submissions. The more I write and send out, the harder and harder a time I’m having with my digital filing system that I’ve been using in google docs. I think it’ll help me a lot to be able to comb through them physically and compare poems side by side to select them for submissions and, perhaps someday, a full length poetry collection.
Plus they look so gorgeous written out on the cardstock notecards!
I’m going to use color coded highlights and borders around the numbers to denote important information for sending pieces out to journals, such as the ‘tier’ I rank the poem in against my body of work, whether the haiku has ever been posted on social media, the season of the poem, and whether it is a traditional haiku or a senryu. I’m also going to sort them into sections based on how experimental they are.
So! That’s where I’m at! It’s been a productive day, but now I’m beat. Tomorrow I’ll finish setting up my bullet journal and hopefully actually start filling it out! It’s crazy that tomorrow is both the start of a new month and a Monday isn’t it? It seems the fates are telling me to DO THE THING and FINISH SETTING UP BY TOMORROW!
I’m optimistic.
small seasons 