Keep It Together // June 2020

Hello All! It's time for Keep It Together! :) Woohoo!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Planning:

Right now my planning is just little sketches of fairy houses, and lists of projects I want to start soon. I've been learning about planning by phases of the moon, so I've been making notes on those topics, and my intentions, etc. 

Documenting:

I started working more in our garden journal, so we can keep track of what we plant, how it goes, etc. I decided it would be fun to do little sketches and paint them in the book so I have a visual to go with the notes. I like how it turned out, just a bit of fun to add to all of the facts that will eventually go there. :) I just used water color and black felt tipped pen!

That's pretty much it! 

What's Next?!

I've been trying out some new crafts, and the last few months reading a ton. I'm excited to dig a bit more into my goals and add more to my wonder manifesto later this month and as the summer goes on! :) Right now, going with the flow is really important for my self care!

Do you garden? If so, do you keep a garden journal?

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!


XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Keep It Together // May 2020

Hello All! It's time for Keep It Together! :) Woohoo!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Planning & Goals:

I'm starting on a garden planner/journal. I'll share that next month! This month I wanted to show a cool art journalling technique with you guys!

Documenting:

I haven't felt much like documenting or journalling. Back in February, I think, I decided to learn a bit about the wheel of the year, and some of the traditions behind each section, or sabbat. I wanted to live this year very seasonally, so I sketched and watercolored the wheel of the year into my "wonder manifesto" / goal / journal / scrapbook for the year. It's not perfect. One or two sections are oriented the wrong way, and I figured out too late that my pen smudges... BUT I like it! :)

I GOT NEW BRUSHES! I HAVE BEEN USING THE SAME ONES SINCE HIGH SCHOOL (I WILL KEEP USING THEM!) BUT I BOUGHT MYSELF A BIG SET FROM TARGET AND I AM VERY EXCITED IF YOU COULD NOT TELL! - these were $20 from Target. This is not an affiliate link.

Scalawag is impressed. He also tried to eat one... so... take that with a grain of salt.

Watercolor Technique

Last night I played around with some more watercolor techniques that I want to carry into this book at some point. It's super super simple, I had not done it since HIGH SCHOOL.... So I wanted to test it out with good water colors. You can do it!

Water Color Salt Technique


Materials Needed: 

paper
water colors
brushes
salt

1) water color something - A dark sky is an easy one!

2) sprinkle salt on your water color painting before it dries - you can play around with different sizes of salt if you want. Table salt, kosher salt, etc. etc. TIP - more or bigger salt works better for darker colors.

3) let dry - it will look like this before it dries!

4) gently scrape off the salt granules

this is obviously a different painting, but it was the best example of how it looks!

5) admire

Here are some finished products.

I'm excited to use chunkier salts and brainstorm what I want to put in my journal!

What's Next?!

Just trying to figure out my "new normal" like everyone else. 

Have you ever tried watercolors? If so, have you tried the salt technique?

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!

XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Keep It Together // April 2020

Hello All! It's time for Keep It Together! :) Woohoo!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Crazy Times:

Things are crazy right now. No one knows what's happening and we're all just doing our best. I'm wrapping my head around the world every day, and trying my best to go with the flow. Taking it one day at a time, as my therapist says... easier said than done!

Planning & Goals:

As we are at home now, and planning to stay home unless necessary until further notice... now is a GREAT time to work on a lot of our goals. LOL!

There are so many things that we wanted to do at home this year, and now we've got so much time to do it!

I wrote down some goals for spring at the beginning of the year... some of these cannot happen now.. like attending events, or planning vacations, BUT the other things can certainly be focused on!

In the back of the planner there are a lot of spots for writing goals and breaking them down into chunks. I've started using these sections for my gardening plans and tracking. Putting little leaves by the seeds that I've planted and chunking out tasks to keep on top of the garden prep. So far it's going well, and I'm having a blast with my little seedlings! It makes me feel like I have a little control over something, including our food! :)

So far I'm also using the planner to write down inspiring ideas or quotes that I see. I draw a little flower or heart next to them so that I can see them easily when I flip through my planner. I'm also finding myself adding lists of movies to watch, recipes to make, and random project ideas that pop into my head. I don't know about you guys but my brain is spinning with ideas and thoughts at ALL HOURS right now. Trying to get as many on paper as possible!

Documenting:

Well, now is the time to scrapbook, isn't it? I haven't felt drawn to it, but with being at home so much I might try to get some paper together and see what happens. Now seems like a good time for art journalling... so many thoughts and feelings to get on a page.

Honestly, I haven't been feeling very moved to scrapbook. I have been thinking of re-organizing what is messy... and maybe making some gifts for people. But I can't share them here just yet because someone might see it! I am also very overdue on my last YouTube giveaway album. :/

What's Next?!

Just trying to figure out my "new normal" like everyone else. 

What would you like to see here, on youtube, or on Instagram?

What are you planning to do during your "new normal"?

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!

XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Keep It Together // March 2020

Hello All! It's time for Keep It Together! :) Woohoo!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Crazy Times:

Things are crazy right now. No one knows what's happening and we're all just doing our best. I'm wrapping my head around the world every day, and trying my best to go with the flow. 

Planning:

As we are at home now, and planning to stay home unless necessary until further notice... now is a GREAT time to work on a lot of our goals. LOL! There are so many things that we wanted to do at home this year, and now we've got so much time to do it!

In the back of the planner there are a lot of spots for writing goals and breaking them down into chunks. I've started using these sections for a few of my 2020 goals. :) 

So far I'm also using the planner to write down inspiring ideas or quotes that I see. I draw a little flower or heart next to them so that I can see them easily when I flip through my planner.

Documenting:

Well, now is the time to scrapbook, isn't it? I haven't felt drawn to it, but with being at home so much I might try to get some paper together and see what happens. Now seems like a good time for art journalling... so many thoughts and feelings to get on a page.

What's Next?!

Just trying to figure out my "new normal" like everyone else. 

What would you like to see here, on youtube, or on Instagram?

What are you planning to do during your "new normal"?

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!

XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Keep It Together // February 2020

Hello All! It's time for Keep It Together! :) Woohoo!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Planning:

This year I've been thinking about goals and planning differently than in the past. On a whim during Black Friday I picked up this planner from Moorea Seal's 52 Lists line at Target. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use it, but I love that it has more intention setting and reflection built in to the planner and the weekly spreads. So far I am really enjoying it!

It allows you to set intentions for the week and ideas on how you'll make the next day 1% better than the day before. You have a grateful thought for each week day and reflections at the end of the week. 

In the back of the planner there are a lot of spots for writing goals and breaking them down into chunks. I've started using these sections for a few of my 2020 goals. :) 

I realized that a few of my images were REALLY hard to see last time, sorry about that... so I'm putting in a clearer copy of the full-year goal section.

So far I'm enjoying this planner, mostly for reflection purposes. It's been helpful to think about my days and little ways to make the next one better as I go, rather than after a whole month has passed.

Documenting:

Refresher: This year I have done a different method of goal setting. I purchased a PDF from Victoria Smith's Mojo Lab to reflect on 2019 and set intentions for 2020. It is called creating a "wonder manifesto". It's new agey, which I love. I really enjoyed the questions and the different approach to setting goals and intentions. It focuses more on what you want the year to be like, and your life to be like, and THEN setting the goals, rather than setting goals just to set them, or in areas you think you should set them. Ex: I always feel like I need a relationship goal for me and KC. But at this point, I just want to focus on other things, because we're doing well and setting a "1 date per month goal" is basically what I end up with each year, and it makes us kind of tired. LOL So I'm skipping that this year. I also realized along the way that I don't really WANT a life that some of my old goals would be associated with. And continuing to make goals of that nature would be counter to the daily life I'd like to live. So, it's really been helpful and a great relief to complete the process. 

Once you do the reflection, you make a physical version of your wonder manifesto, values, and goals. I chose to do mine in a Traveler's notebook because I have a little stash that needed used, and because I would like to add journaling related to the manifesto and goals as the year goes on. This  allows me to keep working in the same insert, and to add more inserts as needed.

If you are interested in doing one as well the PDF is $18 and available, here. This isn't a plug, I just really found it helpful and wanted to share. :) 

Here are a few more peeks at physical manifesto that I created. 

What's Next?!

I'm hoping to journal as the year goes in my wonder manifesto album, and decide what else to do from there. I have kept some notes for January and February, but not done any journalling yet. I still need to do a giveaway album from my YouTube channel, so I will probably start there. :) 

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!

XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Keep It Together // January 2020

Hello All! It's the first Keep It Together of 2020! :) Woohoo! We're so excited that Rebecca Jo is joining us as a co-host from now on!

I am excited to post today with Lauren at Shooting Stars Mag and Rebecca Jo from Knit by God's Hand for our Keep It Together linkup!

If you're new here, this is our linkup for all things planners, memory keeping, and journalling. Please feel free to join us on the third Thursday of the month with any posts that fall into those categories! :)

Planning:

This year I've been thinking about goals and planning differently than in the past. On a whim during Black Friday I picked up this planner from Moorea Seal's 52 Lists line at Target. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use it, but I love that it has more intention setting and reflection built in to the planner and the weekly spreads.

It allows you to set intentions for the week and ideas on how you'll make the next day 1% better than the day before. You have a grateful thought for each week day and reflections at the end of the week. In the back of the planner there are a lot of spots for writing goals and breaking them down into chunks. So far I'm enjoying this planner, mostly for record keeping and reflection purposes. One of my goals this year is to keep our schedule light! :) 

Documenting:

With everything that December brought I am even more behind on my 2019 documenting. I plan to finish my October Daily, but am unsure if I'll do retroactive November and December Dailies or not. December was kind of a blur or sadness and fear so I'm not sure how much I want to document it, to be honest. We shall see.

ANYHOW, this year I have done a different method of goal setting. I purchased a PDF from Victoria Smith's Mojo Lab to reflect on 2019 and set intentions for 2020. It is called creating a "wonder manifesto". It's new agey, which I love. I really enjoyed the questions and the different approach to setting goals and intentions. It focuses more on what you want the year to be like, and your life to be like, and THEN setting the goals, rather than setting goals just to set them, or in areas you think you should set them. Ex: I always feel like I need a relationship goal for me and KC. But at this point, I just want to focus on other things, because we're doing well and setting a "1 date per month goal" is basically what I end up with each year, and it makes us kind of tired. LOL So I'm skipping that this year. I also realized along the way that I don't really WANT a life that some of my old goals would be associated with. And continuing to make goals of that nature would be counter to the daily life I'd like to live. So, it's really been helpful and a great relief to complete the process. 

Once you do the reflection, you make a physical version of your wonder manifesto, values, and goals. I chose to do mine in a Traveler's notebook because I have a little stash that needed used, and because I would like to add journaling related to the manifesto and goals as the year goes on. This  allows me to keep working in the same insert, and to add more inserts as needed.

If you are interested in doing one as well the PDF is $18 and available, here. This isn't a plug, I just really found it helpful and wanted to share. :) 

Here are a few peeks at physical manifesto that I created. 

What's Next?!

I'm hoping to journal as the year goes in my wonder manifesto album, and decide what else to do from there. I still need to do a giveaway album from my YouTube channel, so I will probably start there. :) 

Please feel free to linkup with us below! We'd love to see what you are up to!

XO,

Alexandra

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter