Hi guys! Hope you all had a great holiday;) I’m super excited to share my 2019 bullet journal set up with you, because I feel like now I have the hang of the bullet journal system and can have a bit more fun with it. Last year was my year to experiment, and now I know what I like and can keep a more effective journal! If you’re new to the bullet journal, feel free to check out my 2018 bullet journal set up, because I explain things a bit more in-depth. Otherwise, let’s get right into my 2019 set-up!
Oh, about supplies, I’ve been using the Tombow Fudenoske Brush pen, as well as some Micron Fineliners and Crayola Super Tips. You don’t need any super fancy supplies to bullet journal, but these markers really help when it comes to calligraphy. You can find them on Amazon.
This year I’m using the Leuchttrum 1917 bullet journal. It’s hardcover and has 249 pages- which means I get 20 pages per month! Like last year, I wrote 2019 on some washi tape and stuck it on the front for some added decoration.
Last year I didn’t really use my index very much, so even though this journal already contains one, I don’t think that I’ll be using it. This means that the first couple of pages in my journal are my key and title page. I definitely simplified my key, because I didn’t use many of the bullets and colours that were in my key last year. also, I’m trying to keep the first pages of my journal pretty neutral, since each month I have a different theme and colour. So for my title page I wrote “Dear 2019, I’m ready” in black, silver and grey.
Onto my future log/year at a glance. As you can see, I have waaaayy more room than last year to plan out any future events! This is because I used four pages instead of two. The bottom was looking a little empty, so I decorated with some washi tape. I really want to get more crafty with my bullet journal this year, by using washi tape, paper, and even printing out pictures. I experimented with this in November and really liked the way that it turned out.
Next, I drew out a space to write the goals that I have for 2019. The opposite page is titled “This Year”. I haven’t filled it in yet, but basically I’ll just write some resolutions that I have for the new year, as well as some things that I’d like to do this year. There’s also a spot to write down one word that I want to be my focus in 2019. I love doing pages like these, because they allow you to look back on what you want to accomplish and help you get focused.
For the final two pages of my set-up, I have a vision board and a quote page. I recently made a vision board on a large poster and hung it up in my room, but I wanted to make space for one in my journal so that I could look at it at anytime. Basically, a vision board is just a spot to paste images of things and people that inspire you, and things you want to work towards. Throughout the year, I’ll add more pictures. I also wrote a sort of mission statement on the other page, and I think that I’ll add some more quotes around it because It’s looking a little empty. Hopefully these pages help me to stay inspired this year!
That’s all for my 2019 set-up! I’ll be posting my January set-up separately, but don’t worry, it’ll be out pretty soon. I hope that you liked my spreads and feel inspired for a whole new year of bullet-journaling!
Hello everyone! This post is going to be a bit out of the box for me- don’t worry, I haven’t switched over to travel blogging. Actually, in social class right now we’re doing a project where we have to write a blog post about two different countries and give our opinions on which one we think is better to travel to. So I was like YESSSSSS, might as well hit two birds with one stone and get a project and a blog post done at the same time. I don’t know how this is going to go, but bear with me here.
The two countries that I picked were the UK and Greece, which are places that I’ve always wanted to go, mostly because of their super cool history. I’ll be comparing their tourist attractions, places to eat, weather, culture, currency, and yes, I have to do a little bit on both of their economic systems because this is a social studies project. For each country I’ll also figure out what it’s best library is and let you guys know. You can’t go vacationing without a good book! Anyways, I hope that this gives you a little bit of travel inspiration.
The UK
Best Library: National Art Library, London
The United Kingdom has a crazy amazing history, and because of that there are so many cool things to do there. The Tower of London, Stonehenge and the British Museum are all sites that will transport you back in time, and there are many castles and palaces such as Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace or Hampton Court if you are interested in the British Monarchy. Even if you don’t like history, the Chester Zoo and the Eden project, which houses an extraordinary variety of interesting plant species, offer unique experiences.
Onto places to eat! (My favourite part). Fishers is a restaurant on London’s High Street serving fish and chips, a must-try when visiting the UK. Tom’s Kitchen is another fairly inexpensive place to eat in Chelsea, serving English comfort food. If you’re up for something a bit more international, there are many Indian and Italian establishments in the London area, including Taste of Nawab and Emilia’s Crafted Pasta.
The high season to travel to England is the spring and summer months, when the weather is the warmest. However, the winter in the UK is still fairly mild. This week, the temperatures range from six to twelve degrees celsius, although there usually is a fair amount of clouds and rain.
The United Kingdom’s culture is largely dominated by its historic past. Shakespeare’s plays are still being interpreted by different stage groups, and the English monarchy is still a big part of the country’s identity. People in the UK enjoy watching soccer, which is believed to have originated in England.
In terms of currency, the UK uses pounds sterling, with 100 pence making up one pound. One reason that people may be opposed to visiting the UK is the difference in value between our dollar and the pound, but honestly, I think that it is definitely worth it to visit a place of such historical significance.
Finally, like Canada, the UK is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that the reigning king or queen acts as head of state, and the head of government is an elected prime minister (currently Theresa May). It’s economy is mixed, but it does lean toward market values. Most services are privately owned, except for healthcare and education. However, companies that provide water, gas and postal services are tightly regulated by the government. This gives the economy a balance between government involvement and individual freedom. Resources in the UK, which includes oil and gas, are owned mostly by private businesses with some government involvement. Manufacturing goods isn’t a major contributor to the economy, but foreign trade is very important to it. Overall, I would say that the UK has a healthy economy, mixing private businesses with government involvement to ensure the well-being of its citizens.
With numerous beaches and historic sites, there is no shortage of tourist destinations in Greece. This ancient country really fascinates me with its temples and age-old cities. The Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens is probably one of the most popular attractions in Greece. It is an ancient temple that was dedicated to the goddess Athena in 447 BC. Santorini, an island off of the Greek mainland with iconic its blue and white buildings and red beaches, is another great place to visit. And if you’re interested in ancient Greece, Delphi is a UNESCO world heritage site and holds the ruins of the most important temple of Apollo in Greece, where pilgrims traveled to hear prophecies over a thousand years ago.
I absolutely LOVE Greek food. Tis Theatrou to Steki is a restaurant in Athens that looks like it has some absolutely amazing things to have for lunch. They don’t have a full menu, but rather let you pick individual dishes to share. Kalamaki Kolonaki is another place which has great souvlaki (meat skewers) and salads. Little Tree Books and Coffee is a cafe/bookshop (we need more of these in North America) that serves affordable coffee and pastries.
Greece has very hot summers and wet, mild winters. I would say that the best time to travel would be May through June, when the temperature is usually in the mid-twenties in degrees celsius. This makes for great beach and sight-seeing weather!
Greek people are very family-oriented and often gather at their local coffee shop to talk with members of the community. They enjoy the arts, such as theatre, and, as in the UK, soccer is a popular sport. Greece has a rich history that is still evident in its culture today.
The euro is the currency used in Greece; they switched over from the drachma in 2002. Unfortunately, one euro is equivalent to 1.5 Canadian dollars, but it is still less of a jump than the pound, which is worth 1.7 Canadian dollars.
Greece is a parliamentary republic; their president is elected by parliament, but his or her role is mostly ceremonial, as the prime minister is head of state and holds the power. It’s economy relies on exporting crops such as olives, melons and grapes, and other resources like marble and crude oil. The party in power, SYRIZA, is very left-wing, and so Greece right now is leaning more towards being a mixed economy rather than a market economy. They have public healthcare and education, but many students attend private tutoring after school, as public schools aren’t the best. The economy has recently suffered from recession because the country has a lot of debt to pay off. In 2016, the Greek government was 372.12 billion US dollars in debt. Because of this, there is a fairly high unemployment rate, but Greece’s economy is slowly growing.
So….. Which Country is the Better Travel Destination?
Honestly, I think that Greece has more to offer than the UK in terms of vacationing. In addition to great sight-seeing opportunities, there are plenty of beaches and amazing weather! Going to Greece would be the perfect mix between a relaxing vacation and an authentic travel experience. I think that in the UK your trip would be all about seeing the tourist attractions- which isn’t a bad thing, but if you want to take a break somewhere in between you wouldn’t have as many options. Our dollar is worth more in Greece as well, so you’ll definitely get more bang for your buck. In terms of traveling and getting to know a different culture, going to Greece would definitely be a more immersive experience than going to the UK. England is very modernized, and shares many of the same traits with Canada. I don’t think that traveling there would give you the same sense of being somewhere new that Greece would. In addition, the food in Greece would just be amazing. I’m sure that the UK has some great restaurants as well, but you can’t beat fresh caught calamari! Oh, and they have lots of chickpeas there, so I would fit right in;) To summarize: Go to Greece!!
I hope that you guys liked this post. I don’t know if I’m totally sold on the whole travel blogging thing yet though; that was a lot of research! Next week I’ll be sharing my 2019 Bullet Journal Set-Up, which I’M SO EXCITED FOR! In the meantime, have a great holiday season!
Hey guys! I’ve had some people asking why I haven’t posted my December Bullet Journal Set-Up yet- I’ve been either super busy or super lazy. Sorry about that. But today I have the time and motivation to share my December layouts with you! This month my theme is Elf, the movie with Will Ferrel. It’s my all time favourite Christmas movie, and I thought that there’s a lot of fun stuff I can do with it bullet journal wise! Hope you guys like my spreads;)
TITLE PAGE
My title page is cute but simple: a drawing of Buddy the elf (I decided not to include his face because I couldn’t draw a decent human face if my life depended on it) and on the opposite page I drew his hat with a quote from the movie that says, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear”. That’s another great thing about this theme- there are so many awesome quotes that I can use!
CALENDAR
This is my monthly calendar layout. Every time I write the word calendar I second-guess the placement of the e and the a. Anyways, here I drew sort of a north pole scene with snow and a little log house. I also included Leon the snowman and Mr. Narwhal from the movie. Oh, and I decided not to make a sixth row in this calendar because I needed the room for other stuff. Instead, the last Monday of the month is split into two.
MOOD, HABITS, GIFT LIST and GRATITUDE
I had some problems with this page. At first I was going to do something really cool with the mood tracker, but I just couldn’t figure out the logistics. So I did what I call a mood line- I’ll just write down the date somewhere on the line everyday. Kind of like a number line. Did I just compare Bullet Journaling to math? Ugh. On the opposite page, I have my gratitude spread (which is the same as always) and a handy dandy gift list. Which will be useful when I actually figure out what I’m going to get for people.
WEEKLY SPREAD
This is my first weekly spread. Nothing to fancy, I just had a bit of fun with the quote on the side. I always leave room to write down any homework or tests coming up. If any of my next weeklies look cool I’ll tweet them out for you guys. (@mydayisbooked)
And that’s December! Just to let you know, though, I’m super excited for the end of this month so that I can start on my spreads for the New Year. I might’ve started planning them in September. But I’ll post some super cool stuff before then, too. See ya!
Today is the one year anniversary of mydayisbooked.com! I have a super neat post to share with you guys today, but first I want to thank everyone who has supported and followed my blog in the past year! You guys are awesome:)
I started making this advent calendar a few years ago, and I really love it. Instead of getting a candy everyday, you have to complete an act of kindness or treat yourself to a favourite winter activity. This is a great concept because it invokes the true spirit of Christmas- giving! You make can this calendar as fancy or as minimalistic as you like; I love to get super creative with it! Down below I have laid out the instructions and materials that you’ll need, as well as some ideas to get you started;)
DIY No-Candy Advent Calendar
Materials
25- 31 envelopes (I used ones that are about 16.5 by 9 cm, but any size works)
25-31 index cards (or cut up pieces of card stock)
markers, crayons, stickers, pens, anything you need to decorate your calendar!
Directions:
Number the envelopes from 1-25 (or 31, depending on how many days you want your advent calendar to cover) and decorate them however you want! I drew a kind of christmasy drawing in the corner of each of mine, which took a little while, but it’s totally worth it! **You can reuse the envelopes from year to year to save time**
2. Once your envelopes are finished, take out your pieces of card stock or index cards. On each one, write an act of kindness or winter activity that you want to do in December. Here are 25 ideas that you can use in your calendar:
Call your grandparents
Bake cookies
Build a snowman
Write 5 nice comments on social media
Make a gingerbread house
Shovel your neighbour’s driveway
Leave a nice note for someone
Compliment someone who you wouldn’t usually talk to
Donate money to a Christmas charity
Give food to a food bank
Make Christmas ornaments
Send a letter to a friend, wishing them a merry Christmas
Do some extra chores around the house
Express gratitude to 5 different people
Watch your favourite Christmas movie
Make a gift for your teacher or a friend
Wear your cosiest sweater
Make a holiday playlist
Go ice skating
Make your favourite breakfast
Bake a new recipe
Look at Christmas lights
Make treats for your pet
Make hot chocolate
Read before the fire (my personal favourite!)
3. Fold each piece of card stock in half and spread them out randomly so that you don’t know which activity is written on each one. Then put one in each envelope and seal it. This way, the activity that you do each day will be a surprise. If you know that you’ll only have time to do a certain thing on the weekend, then you can make a pile of weekend activities and fill your weekend envelopes from that pile. Also, I like to use sticky tack and hang each envelope on my wall for a cool Christmas decoration, but you can display them however you’d like.
Spread out the pieces of card stockPlace each one inside an envelope
I hope that you enjoy this calendar throughout December! It’s super fun and easy to make and spreads lots of holiday cheer;) Thanks agin for making my first year of blogging so awesome!
Hey peoples! I hope you’re having a great weekend;) To help you prepare for the coming week, this recipe falls under the “freezable” category, and I’m so excited about it because it is absolutely delicious! I would eat this curry for lunch every day if I could, but I force myself to ration it for days when I don’t have time to make anything else. That’s another great thing about this recipe; if you mix in about a cup of grains such as quinoa or barley (my personal favourite), you can freeze it and have a full meal that heats up real easy in the microwave, no cooking required. Also, this recipe is super easy, despite the long cook time. If you’re in a rush, you can cut the sweet potato into smaller chunks so that they cook faster. Finally, when the curry is finished cooking I use a potato masher to mash it up a little bit. This creates a thicker texture. Scroll down for the recipe.
Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry
Serves: 4-6
Total Time: 70 minutes
Ingredients:
1 tbs avocado or olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 large sweet potato, cubed into 1 inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tbs curry powder
1/2 tsp chile powder
1/4 tsp cayenne (or more, if you like your curry nice and spicy)
1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup water (optional)
juice of 1/2 a lime
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cooked grains, for serving/freezing
Directions:
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add in the onions and cook until translucent, 5-7 minutes.
Add in the garlic, cumin, curry powder, chile powder and cayenne and cook, stirring frequently, for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture is very aromatic.
Pour in the tomatoes and chickpeas and sir. If the sweet potatoes are all covered by the tomato mixture, then you do not need to add water. If they aren’t, I suggest adding the water so that they cook faster. You can also add the water if you want to thin out your curry.
Let the curry simmer for about 40-60 minutes. You want the sweet potatoes to be soft, but not mushy.
Once the curry is done simmering, squeeze in the lime juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Then mash it a little with a potato masher until desired thickness is reached. This step is optional.
Add in the cooked grains, then cool completely before scooping into sealable plastic bags and freezing. It should keep for about 3-5 months in the freezer.
Microwave and enjoy!
I hope that you enjoy this recipe! It’s not going to be the last curry recipe that I post- I absolutely love curry! Have a great week;)))))
My Day Is Booked 