My DIY Passport Sized Traveler’s Notebook

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello! This June I am going on a week long trip to Sayulita, a small surf town in Mexico. Which has renewed my obsession with the traveler’s notebook (TN). Actually, two events, in particular, have had me pining for a passport sized traveler’s notebook. Number one, my passport came in the mail, and number two, my current wallet started falling apart. And have you seen these traveler’s notebook wallet videos?

After binge-watching the before mentioned TN videos on youtube, I finally decided to DIY one for myself. I experimented with some leftover canvas drop cloth I had on hand first, and then I made this one from Kraft-tex. It’s a very durable paper that acts like fabric in that it won’t tear and is machine washable. It’s often used as a substitute for leather, but the feel of Kraft-tex is definitely more paper like. I hope to eventually own the real deal traveler’s notebook in camel (it’s on my wishlist!) but until then this DIY will be a great substitute.

I have four inserts in here: my passport (which I’ll be taking out until our trip), traveler’s company refill 004, a six-page card holder, and a blank notebook. I hope you enjoy this flip-through in photos!

First is my passport, then the first half of refill 004 with space for two cards. This is where I’ll be keeping my driver’s license and debit card, but I’ve replaced them for privacy here.

Turning to the other side of the page is a full-length pocket where I just stuck the paper that came with the insert for now. Tucked underneath is the flap that secures the six-page card holder I found on Amazon. It works well in the passport TN but is just slightly wider than the other inserts.

Next I have a blank notebook that I made out of tomoe river paper and a zipper pouch (the other half of refill 004). The pockets on the inside of the cover will be great for stashing receipts.

And that is my DIY traveler’s notebook! To make the cover I followed this tutorial but sized down slightly to passport size. Here is a peek at the cover drying before I put it together:

And now for a closer look at the inserts I purchased:

Below is the TN I made out of canvas drop cloth and Pellon interfacing after seeing this mini tutorial. The cover turned out too stiff for my liking, especially since canvas is already fairly thick. If I were to do it with canvas again I would omit the Pellon and find a thinner, more flexible option for bonding the two pieces of fabric together.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of my new wallet. Have a happy day! 🙂

Peek in My Bullet Journal – March

March 2, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello, and happy March! It has been so unusually warm this winter that my grandma’s peach tree bloomed early. The blossoms were so pretty that I had to take a small branch home with me. More than just the trees are blossoming though, there are crocuses, daffodils, and my absolute favorite spring flower, the snowdrop. That is what has inspired my March spread, snowdrops and of course a cozy cup of tea!

I am keeping my read scripture and exercise checklists probably till the end of this year because they are working so well. As you can see I’m still working out what I’ll be doing for fitness this month, but knew I wanted to plan in some rest days. I think I was getting too burned out before. On Sundays I had a hard time fitting my yoga in since we go to church and have dinner at my in-laws every week, so I picked that day to rest on. I am thinking for the other days I’ll plan on yoga with a few HIIT workouts sprinkled in. I’ve been trying out a HIIT workout app called 8fit, and am really enjoying it so far!

I love this quote I found on Pinterest; “If you get tired learn to rest, not to quit.” I wanted it to be a reminder to me this month because there are a few things I didn’t get done that I wanted to in the last few months, and I’m feeling a bit discouraged about it. We’re still trying to move into our camper, I’ve been wanting to do more on the blog, etc. I have to remind myself not to quit, take a rest, and keep moving forward!

For my daily/weekly spread I was inspired by Olivia’s tumblr. I really loved her layout with goals for the week and the little calendar at the top of the page. I’m going to try out this page format for March and see how it goes. Olivia makes the sweetest pages and I just love her style! Check out her tumblr blog for more loveliness!

That’s all for now and have a happy day! 🙂

Writing Valentine’s Day Letters

February 14, 2017February 16, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello! A few days ago I sent out a few Valentine’s cards and letters. I love sending mail around the holidays, and it gives me some inspiration when I’m picking out my stationery and ink. For all correspondence with my pen pals in February I’m using pink parchment paper and pink or red inks. I loved how they paired together for a very feminine and romantic vibe.

The ink I am using here is Noodler’s Black Swan in Australian Roses, which I have in my Jinhao pen. (A great starter fountain pen because of its affordability!) Also pictured is the Noodler’s Ahab pen which is currently inked with Noodler’s Burgandy, another reddish-pink ink for February writing.

I also used my sealing wax to add a little extra special touch and found a few vintage cards in my stash that went really well with my soft, feminine valentine’s theme. I really like sealing my letters with wax, I think it gives such a lovely old fashioned feel!

Have a happy Valentine’s day!

Peek in my Bullet Journal – InCoWriMo Tracker

February 11, 2017February 15, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello! I decided to participate in InCoWriMo (International Correspondance Writing Month) again this year, then promptly forgot about it until a week in. I’ve been playing catch-up ever since, so after seeing Boho Berry’s lovely AND free tracker I was inspired to copy it into my own journal. 😉

I also really liked Megan’s tracker over at Page Flutter because it included her recipient’s addresses. So I turned my tracker into a two-page spread because I always run out of room writing addresses down!

Have a nice day! 🙂

Peek in my Bullet Journal – February

February 4, 2017February 4, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Happy February! I know I’m a little late posting, but that seems to be the story of my life. . . Anyway, I hope you all still enjoy this look-through of the February pages in my bullet journal. I went with a theme of roses because of valentine’s day, and I wanted an excuse to doodle flowers even though it’s still winter here. This is also the first time I’ve used watercolors in my bullet journal and the ink of my pen bled a little. I think it turned out okay, but next time I think I will put the color down first, or make sure the pen I’m using doesn’t bleed.

I’m so excited about our camper move (which was supposed to be last month), so I wrote it in the bottom of my monthly log. Hopefully, this will remind me to keep preparing for it and finish all our downsizing. (Which I need to accomplish in the next two weeks!)

I really liked this checklist layout, which I also used in January. It really helped me accomplish my goals of doing yoga and reading the bible every day.

I continued the roses theme onto the next pages in my weekly layout. I use this spread mostly for to-do lists, meal planning, and to keep track of any events/appointments. Since the first week of February started on a Wednesday I had lots of extra room for a notes section (normally that’s where my weekend would go).

Well, that’s all folks. Have a happy day! 🙂

2017 Bullet Journal

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello and happy new year! I hope everyone has had an inspiring start to their year. Today I am sharing my bullet journal with you. I previously played around with bullet journaling in my little personal planner. I fell in love with this journaling system so I’m now using a dedicated bullet journal.

Late last year I learned how to make books using the secret Belgian binding technique. It is very simple and creates a really neat book that’s front cover can be folded back onto itself. I tried it with some board, scrapbooking paper and embroidery thread I had laying around after consulting several tutorials (here, here, and here). I printed dot paper onto HP premium choice laserjet paper, which is a nice thick paper that can handle a lot, including fountain pen ink! For my next journal though I want to try using the Staples sugarcane paper, which I’ve also heard good things about (It’s also cheaper AND more environmentally friendly). You can find directions on how to print your own dot paper here.

Now that I’ve given you the details of my journal lets dive in shall we? First are the supplies I use to create my pages. So far these include a pilot G2 gel pen, a 01 ZIG millennium pen (I’ve had this pen for a long time, but just recently started using it a lot), a pencil, eraser, ruler and a set of 10 Staedtler triplus fineliners. I’ve also just ordered a set of these muted pastel highlighters which I’m really excited about! All you really need to start though is a notebook and a pen.

I added this pocket to the back of my journal so I could store receipts, but I actually use it more for other things, like my little ruler. I stuck some index cards in there as well because I plan on using one to write down my bullet journal key on, and another for passwords.

To start out my bullet journal I left a few pages blank to use as an index then made a year overview, and used Ryder Carroll’s method of the future log. I started out with very simple layouts then sort of went back to embellishing my pages with illustrations. I really love the minimalist look in bullet journals but have also been really enjoying drawing whimsical doodles. I think for now this is going to be my ‘practice’ journal where I’ll be doing a lot of experimentation.

Maybe I will eventually develop a style of my own to settle on, or maybe I’ll keep jumping around to different styles. That is the fun of a bullet journal, you can do whatever you want with it! Also, those sticky notes are temporary, I have just written the basic bullet journal layout along with some other ideas for my pages down. However, I can definitely see myself using that blank page before the index as a dashboard to stick notes and reminders on.

I am skipping a lot of last years pages, but I do want to share a few collections I made that I plan on continuing to use into the new year, like my capsule wardrobe planner and Flylady’s cleaning routines. These are collections I am going to be referencing for a while.

Finally, on to my newly made pages to welcome in the new year! This is the first real cover page I’ve made and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Instead of doing a word of the year I decided to pick a verse that I want to meditate on all year, so I chose 1 Corinthians 16:14. It’s a good reminder for pretty much every situation I’m going to encounter this year. Then I wrote down a few goals and also a quote for the year. Most of these goals are for the year but a few will be only for January. Realistically I don’t think I could keep up with exercising every single day, so after January that will probably be modified to 3x/week!

Lastly, I started my monthly log for January and created some lists to help me meet my goals. It really helps motivate me to accomplish things when I can check off a box! I also had a lot of fun doodling the little winter scene for January’s heading.

And that’s all! I hope you enjoyed this quick tour of my handmade bullet journal.

Have a happy day! 🙂

P.S. interested in the January challenges I’m participating in? here is where you can find The Read Scripture Plan and Revolution: 31 Days of Yoga. Both are free!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 24, 2016December 24, 2016 - aneila Leave a comment

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful and cozy time tomorrow celebrating with your family. I wanted to share what I sent out for Christmas this year to my pen pals. So here they are!

I rescued this vintage Christmas card my Grandma was throwing out, and I just think it is so pretty!

In love with these Peter Pauper Press snow globe cards. They were already a good price originally, but I found them for half price at Books-A-Million.

I sealed my letters with these cute sticker seals that came with the planner I got from DokkiPaper. Inside I placed a sheet of thin onion paper to protect and keep any fountain pen ink from smudging. I thought it added an elegant touch too! The ink I used was J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor, which is simply stunning!

I still have these envelope addressing guides from my high school graduation announcements! They came in really handy to help keep my lines straight.

Choosing a fountain pen color. The J. Herbin Emerald of Chivor ink sample won out this time. Yes, I used a sample to write all my Christmas cards, and I didn’t run out!

I even used the ink on the envelopes, although the paper was more porous and all the sparkly bits sunk into it. I still like how well the color matched. I also played around with doodling little wreaths and vines to decorate my envelopes. And although it’s far from perfect, I’ve been practicing my handwriting, and was super happy with how these turned out!

Have a happy day and a merry Christmas!

On Giving Homemade Gifts

December 12, 2016January 7, 2017 - aneila Leave a comment

Almost every Christmas I really enjoy giving handmade gifts. The reasons that I love to do this are:

It is friendly on the wallet (but often feels like a much more expensive gift).
It feels more meaningful.
It is easy to personalize each gift to the recipients.
It’s fun!

If you are a DIYer, crafter, or artist you should definitely give it a try! Here are ideas of some of the things you can make and give.

1. A Set of Handmade Cards

Browse Pinterest for card ideas or come up with your own. You can make cards with scrapbook paper, stamps, stickers, washi tape, etc. Or if you are good at doodling, drawing, painting or illustrating come up with your own designs from scratch and all you need is card stock and your art supplies. Shayda Campbell on Youtube was a big inspiration for me this year. Here are a few cards I came up with to give my mom, mostly inspired by the paper I had. I stacked them and then tied them up with baker’s twine before wrapping.

2. Handmade Book/Journal

If you really want to put a lot of time and love into a gift, make a Journal! This really isn’t too hard of a project, it just requires a bit of time and care. If you’ve never done bookbinding before check out Sea Lemon’s channel on Youtube. She has a lot of wonderful, simple videos for the beginner and even has a playlist full of tips and substitutions for tools you may already have in your house.

To make the journals below I used the tutorials here, here, and here!

3. Handmade Bath & Body Products

These can be super simple and easy to make. I love the Humblebee & Me blog for recipes because I know they’ve been tested and she has a lot of information about different ingredients for the person who really wants to go deeper. The recipes I used for the products below though are here:

peppermint foot scrub/soak (2nd recipe in video, with tea tree oil eliminated because I didn’t have any)

lavender vanilla linen spray (using lavender essential oil and vanilla fragrance oil as scents)

mint and pine salve, similar recipe here

jojoba beard oil (I substituted peppermint essential oil for the fragrance)

pink rose clay bar (This face mask in a bar is absolutely wonderful, I kept a few for myself!)

4. Handmade Pantry Goods

Finally, another great gift, of course, is handmade or hand-grown food items! home canned jams, jellies, baked goods, etc. My sister’s fiance (along with my husband) is a spice loving fiend. He’s also a big griller, so I decided to put together a set of spicy food items for him. This year we grew a hot pepper variety mix in our garden. The seeds were actually given to my husband as a gift from my sister. I love a gift that keeps on giving. 😉 Anyway, I dried the cute little chiltepin peppers from our garden and paired it with homemade salsa and grilling mix.

My husband and I also roasted coffee to give people. It’s something we’ve gotten into this year and really enjoyed, so we wanted to share it with others. It’s really not all that hard or expensive, we just use a popcorn popper and a cheap heat gun from Harbor Freight. (Which did melt when we first used it so if you try this at home remove the plastic guard first!) the way we do it is a two person process with one person holding the heat gun and one person stirring the beans. You can do this on the stovetop, but the heat gun really gives you a nice even roast. Here is more information on roasting your own coffee using different methods, including in the oven!

(Photos of coffee below by Jordan Baker.)

Wrapping Your Handmade Gifts

Again I got inspiration from Shayda Campbell (I love her style!) for these handmade gift tags, and learned how to make DIY kraft paper bags here. For one of my gifts, I just used a plain brown paper bag and wrote Merry Christmas across it in cursive to dress it up a little. I really liked how these turned out and think the yarn added such a nice cozy touch under the tree on Christmas morning!

Have a happy day! 🙂

CHRISTMAS CARD GOALS

December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 - aneila Leave a comment

Hello again! I really have a hard time staying on track blogging. My activity sort of comes and goes in spurts, and I really wish I could be more consistent! Anyhow, today I finished writing some of my Christmas cards, which I’m really happy about!

December is a great month for snail mail because of the holidays. They’re a wonderful excuse to send mail to people you normally wouldn’t. It’s also when I’m most motivated to do a lot of crafty things. So I’ve been getting motivated to finally implement a few ideas/goals I’ve wanted to try out with my snail mail. This year I want to:

Send Christmas cards to each of my pen pals. ON TIME!
Send Christmas cards to at least 10 people who need encouragement (I like to use the Sunshine Snail Mail FB group and The World Needs More Love Letters)
Get more creative with my envelope design.

The cards pictured above were handmade by my sister. They are so unique and beautiful, yet would be simple to make on your own. (To make these all you need is some scrapbooking paper, glitter glue, gel pens, and a glue stick!) If you haven’t sent out your Christmas cards yet I would encourage you to try something new this year. Maybe try one of my goals listed above, make your own cards, or reach out to family or friends you’ve lost touch with.

Good luck in your Christmas card adventures and have a happy day!

PLANNER TOUR

August 15, 2016September 23, 2016 - aneila Leave a comment

Last week I shared my bullet journal with you, which is inside this planner. Today I want to show you the rest of my planner, which honestly I’m still trying to figure out. Here’s why: I have three planning/journaling systems. 1) This small personal sized planner 2) my Target planner, and 3) my traveler’s notebook. I like all three of these planners, but they are all very different and I’m still trying to figure out what to use each one for.

I am thinking of transferring my bullet journal into my traveler’s notebook once I run out of dot paper. Then I’ll probably use this planner as my address book, and for other long-term information. The Target planner will be for my traditional calendar (although I may get rid of that since the bullet journal has a calendar in it as well), blog planning, travel planning, and random notes. I will do an update when I have my set up figured out!

I made my dashboard and page dividers by laminating paper then sticking project life cards or other art I found online and printed out as decoration. I used thin paper (not cardstock) from the flow book for paper lovers and Scotch single sided self-seal laminating sheets I found at the store (probably Walmart or staples, I can’t remember). They aren’t perfect, but I like how they turned out.

This is a free printable from Wendaful Designs. I thought it was pretty and is a nice overview of the year.

I really like how this paper has such fun color descriptions! This one is “Let the grains flow through your fingers sand.” I think it adds a quirky touch!

Here is the beginning of my bullet journal. You can check out my previous post for a flip through.

I created this monthly calendar which you can download below. I really wanted a simple/minimalist insert and since I couldn’t find anything I made one! I probably won’t be using these pages anymore since starting a bullet journal, but I thought I’d still make them available to any of you who might be interested in them.

Download Monthly Spread

(Note: These pages are created to fit into a personal sized planner. Print “two to a page” and as many months as you need. I also included some basic lined paper to use for notetaking at the end.)

And I also made some weekly pages, which I accidently cut the edge off. Whoops!

I don’t have these pages ready to share in pdf form yet. Leave a comment below to let me know if you’re interested in my weekly pages and I’ll try to make them available!

Next I was trying to create a capsule wardrobe and so printed out worksheets from into mind and unfancy. Then I just printed at a reduced size so it would fit in my planner.

Lastly, I have a zipper pouch and clear page protector which I’m storing mini note cards, washi, and some Christmas stamps in.

Happy Planning! 🙂