• Home
    • Home
    • About Me
    • Privacy Policy and Disclosures
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Search & Blog Categories
  • Get Inspired
    • Get Inspired
    • Inspiring Words & Quotes
    • My Muses – Favorites & Inspiration
    • Challenges
    • Product & Book Reviews
  • Get Creative
    • Get Creative
    • Start Handlettering
    • Handlettering Fun Styles
    • Tutorials & How-To
    • Creating Art – Watercolor, Painting & Drawing
  • Start Planning
    • Start Planning Here
    • Planner Spreads & Themes
    • Plan With Me Archives
    • Organization
    • Habits & Trackers
  • Find Your Happy
    • Find Your Happy
    • Random Holiday Archive
    • Journal Prompts & Ideas
    • Health Journey
  • Shop
    • Shop
      • Lost password
      • My account
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • Orders
  • Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
    To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Pinterest
    • Etsy
    • Facebook

Chocolate Musings

Set your goals - make the plans - artfully create your life - live it beautifully. Grab the good chocolate and find your muse.

  • Home
    • Home
    • About Me
    • Privacy Policy and Disclosures
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Blog
    • Blog Archives
    • Search & Blog Categories
  • Get Inspired
    • Get Inspired
    • Inspiring Words & Quotes
    • My Muses – Favorites & Inspiration
    • Challenges
    • Product & Book Reviews
  • Get Creative
    • Get Creative
    • Start Handlettering
    • Handlettering Fun Styles
    • Tutorials & How-To
    • Creating Art – Watercolor, Painting & Drawing
  • Start Planning
    • Start Planning Here
    • Planner Spreads & Themes
    • Plan With Me Archives
    • Organization
    • Habits & Trackers
  • Find Your Happy
    • Find Your Happy
    • Random Holiday Archive
    • Journal Prompts & Ideas
    • Health Journey
  • Shop
    • Shop
      • Lost password
      • My account
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • Orders
Home » Get Organized & Start Planning » Planner Spreads » Page 6

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme – May 2019 Plan With Me

April 28, 2019 Leave a Comment

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #minimalist #blackandwhite #bulletjournal

Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme – May 2019 Plan With Me

Have you ever had something you really wanted to try, but never did because you were afraid you wouldn’t be good at it? Practically everything I do starts as that thought in my head. This time it was drawing flowers. I really wanted to draw flowers. Outline drawings, watercolor paintings, floral wreaths, you name it, I want to create flowers. But I collected flower drawing & reference books instead of trying. I chose floral wreaths for my bullet journal theme this month and I’m happy to say that April showers bring May flowers!

I went a little flower doodle crazy and I’m super thrilled with the way they turned out. It gives me so many ideas for the future. In a way, this whole month is minimal. I love how elegant it looks and how it turned out. I hope you find some inspiration in my floral wreath bullet journal theme this month.

Watch the Plan With Me for Some Oh-So-Satisfying Flower Doodles

What’s in My Planner This Month:

I skipped the monthly welcome page (gasp!) partially because I stared at some blank pages and didn’t know what to do at first. The other part was that I was trying to conserve pages as I thought I could get two more months out of this journal, but I realized that I neglected my brain dump pages and review pages, and those pages are essential for keeping me organized and motivated, so I got a new notebook instead of trying to cram another month in the journal.

Circle Monthly / Calendar Wheel

If you’ve been around my blog in the past, you might have noticed that I like circles. The May monthly calendar doesn’t disappoint. Built around a partial floral wreath, I created a circular May monthly log. Then because I wanted a miniature calendar, I added a flip-out page which also has color codes. Thinking I would only use the flip-out for the monthly, at first I was pleased with the idea. Then I realized I can use it for all the weeklies to follow and now I’m a little giddy. I love it when something good turns into something fantastic.

The only thing I wish is that I would have kept the colors muted or not used as much of them. So use only a stripe of color instead of coloring the box in. I don’t think this will be the last of floral wreaths, a flip-out calendar or color codes. So, there’s always next time!

  • Flowers inside the monthly calendar wheel + Habit Tracker Vines | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocMusings #bulletjournal #flowers #floral
  • Floral Wreath Bullet Journal Theme | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocMusings #minimalist #blackandwhite #bulletjournal
  • Monthly Flip-Out Mini-Calendar and Monthly Color Codes | ChocolateMusings.com #flipout #planwithme #monthlycalendar

If you have only a few calendar items, the monthly log either in horizontal or vertical format (like mine for last April or December) or this circular format (also known as a calendar wheel) is a really fun change to display significant dates and a high-level overview for the month.

Habit Tracker

Instead of my usual circle habit tracker, I decided to go with a block format. Just so I didn’t have two facing circles across from each other. My favorite part about this page is the leafy vine wrapping around the words. Using a Tombow Brush Pen, I was able to get the thick and thin lines just like you see in calligraphy. Unlike the calendar facing page where each line on the flowers is the same width, the brush pen gives a little more character. I’m excited to track my habits this month!

Intertwining Floral Vines Habit Tracker | ChocolateMusings.com #floral #flowers #bulletjournal #habittracker

Weekly Flower Wreaths

I LOVE floral wreaths. Flowers wrapped around a circle – what could be better? Creating floral wreaths was the inspiration for the entire month, and my goal was to make each day different. #missionaccomplished

I used different pens and pen thicknesses on each of these pages. My favorite: Micron 02 .30mm and Micron 03 .35mm. I also tried a black Papermate Flair pen and a .50mm Micron pen.

Tip: if you decide to watercolor the flowers, make sure you use an archival pen (like the Micron pens, not the Papermate Flair pen) if you ink before watercoloring. Otherwise, your black outlines will blend with your watercolors. And make sure the ink is completely dry before watercoloring. You can use the Papermate Flair pens after the watercolor is absolutely dry.

  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
  • Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly
Minimal Weekly Bullet Journal: Floral Wreaths Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #floralwreath #bulletjournal #weekly

Miscellaneous Pages

Social Media Planning

I added a new page to the month – a social media planning page. Believe it or not, I have a lot more images I want to share each month than I post here or on my Instagram page. I create something a little special for Random holidays like Pick Strawberries day or Waffle Day and it never fails, I forget to share them!

All the Things

My journal page/memory keeper spread for the month. I love filling in details of the adventures we have as a family, what I learned & created for the month and other good things.

Seeds of Thought

The last page in my monthly pages is my brain dump page. I love coming up with names for brain dump pages that tie to my theme. For instance, February was a pirate theme & I called my brain dump spread “X Marks the Thought”. So this month, I called it “Seeds of Thought”.

I’m so excited to track and do all the things for the month of May. I love creative planning/bullet journaling because I can customize it and use it as a learning tool each month. I think you might see florals in the future. The moral of the story is, don’t let your mind convince itself that you can’t do whatever it is you want to do before you’ve even tried it.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas & inspiration to dress up your planner or bullet journal and try drawing some flowers & floral wreaths.

Wishing you joy and creativity every day - Tricia

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me 2019, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, 2019, Bullet Journal, bullet journal theme, Circle, circles, doodles, floral, floral wreaths, flowers, may, plan with me, planner set up

April Plan With Me Citrus Recipe Art Inspired

March 31, 2019 4 Comments

April Plan With Me - Recipe Art Inspiration | ChocolateMusings.com #planwithme #video #lemons #thyme #watercolor

April Plan With Me 2019 – The Inspiration: Citrusy Water Infusion Recipe Art

After a couple of months taking a break to refocus, I’m excited to show you my planner setup for April. The inspiration this month’s plan with me: Recipe Art I’m completely obsessed with the idea of taking old family recipes and doodling the various elements and creating a visual recipe card.

This month I took that idea with a modern twist – each of the spreads for April are different fruit & herb water infusion recipes. I’m happy to say that it resulted in bright colors and mouth-watering blends. While researching the combinations, not only did I choose beautiful colors, but I look forward to trying these flavor combinations.

  • blackberry + sage watercolor bullet journal weekly inspiration | ChocolateMusings.com #crayola #watercolor #minimal #weekly
  • blackberry + sage watercolor bullet journal weekly inspiration | ChocolateMusings.com #crayola #watercolor #minimal #weekly

When I showed my husband, he looked excited and asked me when I was going to sample the recipes.  It’s an excellent opportunity to get back on track with my weight loss goals. Diet Dr pepper is my vice. I’m looking for a way to break its grip and cut the soda. Flavor-infused water sounded tempting and delicious all in one!

Watch the April Plan With Me video below and make sure to subscribe in the lower corner of the video!

Fun characteristics from this month’s plans:

In addition to bright, citrusy colors, and recipe inspirations, I’m excited about several different items featured throughout the month. After looking at some pictures of herbs (my friend Amy (@PurplescapeDesign) also did a challenge a couple of months ago featuring herbs), I tried to include their distinct characteristics and colors as I painted them. In the video, I mention the mint leaves, and if you look carefully at the mint leaves, it’s almost like they have a leaf within a leaf.

If you notice the way I painted the thyme leaf, I used the tip of the water pen and pushed down, leaving a leaf imprint. I discovered that trick a few months ago with some Tombow Dual Brush pens. I plan on showing you the specifics of this technique in a later post.

Lemon Thyme Bullet Journal Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #inspiration #bulletjournal #bulletjournaltheme

Circle Habit Tracker on Tracing Paper

The circular habit prints.  Using tracing paper, I printed a circle habit tracker and taped it over top of a large cut section of a painted orange. Since the paper is partly transparent, you can see the detail of the orange through the tracing paper. I did this in February too, and it’s going to happen more and more because I LOVE the look.

Note: If you try this at home – PLEASE be very careful with printing on tracing paper and DO NOT print using a laser printer – it will probably melt the paper and ruin your machine. I still have some kinks to work out to make it perfect, but I’m pretty excited.

Transparent Habit Tracker - Print, Paste & Mark | ChocolateMusings.com #habittracker #bulletjournal

Monthly Overview + Habit Tracker

I combined my monthly page with the habit tracker because I rarely referred to the monthly page by its self. I like the overview of the month, but I live mostly in my weekly plans. So I created a small monthly calendar with room to write out dates or monthly to-dos or notes below the calendar.

By the way, if you’ve never used a habit tracker before, I was skeptical, too. But once I started, I never stopped. It’s like it unlocks a secret magical will to improve your life one day at a time. And if you neglect it one day, week, month, you have the power to try again the next month.

For the longest time, I tracked ‘doing dishes’ because this household chore was a struggle every single day. Eventually, after several months, I created a steady habit and haven’t tracked it since, and I still do the dishes. I don’t like them, but I do the necessary evil thing.

Citrus Recipe Monthly Bullet Journal Inspiration | ChoclateMusings.com #monthly #planwithme #bulletjournal

Painting With Crayola Markers

If you’ve seen my other plan with me videos, you’ll already know that I LOVE painting in my journal both with watercolor and with Crayola Markers. It’s one of the reasons I tried out every notebook I could get my hands on and why I finally fell in love with my current notebook, one by Archer & Olive. If they had an affiliate program, I’d join in a heartbeat. The paper is 160 gsm (which means it’s very thick) and is so beautifully white instead of ivory or cream. Their paper can handle watercolor paint – most notebooks soak the paper and then bleed through to the other side.

There are two main reasons why I prefer painting in my journal with Crayola Markers:

One – They have so many colors! Two – there’s no paint texture left after painting with markers, so I can write over it with any marker or pen that I want.

A bonus reason why I love painting with Crayola Markers: I use less water on the page, so there’s less overall wrinkling and buckling.

Want to learn to paint with Crayola Markers too? Click to read my blog post – it’s really easy and you don’t need a lot of supplies to start adding pops of color to your planner.

  • watermelon + mint weekly planner spread| ChocolateMusings.com #crayola #watercolor #minimal #weekly
  • Raspberry Orange Bullet Journal Weekly | ChocoalteMusings.com #bulletjournal #weekly #theme
  • Basil Lemon Blueberry Infusion Recipe Weekly Theme | ChocolateMusings.com #inspiration #bulletjournal #bulletjournaltheme

Minimal Weeklies

As you can see, I didn’t include a lot of boxes or separated areas on my weekly layouts. I am trying some new layouts, but they’re all pretty minimal. One thing I added to most of the weeks was a line dedicated to each member of my family. My kids have ‘specials’ at school. They rotate classrooms or activities and need to bring or wear different items each day. In an attempt to be a well-put-together mother, I jot down each of their specials so I’m better prepared for wardrobe or equipment requests each day.

Large Space for Journaling/To-Dos

One reason why I’ve stuck with bullet journaling as my planner for so long (it’s now about 3 years since I started using a bullet journal to keep track of my life!), is the flexibility and creativity it offers. Last month I added quite a lot of journaling to each page and loved it.

Creating pages with minimal outlines allow me more flexibility for the needs of the week. So if I have a lot of miscellaneous to-dos, I have space to fill the week with these items. If, instead, I have a lot to record (more than just fits on my “All the Things” journal page”) the space on the weekly easily accommodates. If I need to add more space for journaling, as I did last month, I literally tape in a page or a section of paper so it lifts like a flap. Washi tape for the win!

Lavender Journaling Page | ChocolateMusings.com #inspiration #bulletjournal #bulletjournaltheme

I love sharing my plan with me videos & monthly planner set up. I hope I’ve given you some ideas and inspiration for adding function and fun to your planner.

Let me know what you think of my April Plan With Me in the comments below. I’d love to know which flavor infusion do you want to try.

Check back later this month for how to create flavor infusion doodles!

4 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Creating Art - Watercolor, Painting & Drawing, Get Creative, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2019, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, Bullet Journal, Circle, circles, inspiration, minimal, plan with me, recipe art, water infusion

Ideally Planned: Year, Quarter, Month Week & Day – How To Create Your Own ‘Ideal’

February 25, 2019 1 Comment

Ideal Year Month Week and Day | How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

Ever since reading the 12-Week Year by Brian Morgan I think less in 12-month calendar time increments and more in quarters or months. I started questioning why I have to live off of someone else’s designated quarters. So I set up my own quarterly calendar. Ideally planned is what I call it. It fits me, and my life. I’ll give you a break down of my ‘ideal’, but my ideally planned life will not fit yours. Customize to your heart’s content.

My Year in Quarters

The future log in my planner happened to break it out perfectly by section:

Spring Quarter: February, March, & April

Summer Quarter: May, June, & July

Fall Quarter: August, September, & October

Winter Quarter: November, December, & January

Ideal Year Month Week and Day | How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

How It Worked Out

My kiddos go back to school the first week of August, so that month doesn’t really feel like summer. I never feel ready to start a new year right after December and the whole slew of holidays beginning the end of October through December, so that’s why I figured I’d align the quarters and start a new year in February. The Chinese do it, so I think I’m in the majority. To clarify – it’s not about being in the majority. It’s about making things fit the way I need them to fit into my life.

One thing led to another, and I created an ‘Ideal Year, Month, Week & Day.’ It was very eye-opening how much time I have, and how much time I…don’t have. If you want to set priorities, I highly recommend creating an ‘ideal’ plan. Start with your ideal day and work backward. Or start with your ‘ideal year’ (things you do during certain times of the year) and work forward.

Things I do in the different Quarters of the Year:

  • Spring: Refresh my house by cleaning, decluttering, setting goals, planning for family vacations
  • Summer: Family Vacation, Back to School Planning
  • Fall: Plan for next year’s calendar year, Recipe Revisions
  • Winter: Focus on What Matters

There’s something about the promise of blossoms and blooms that renews my energy and love for life. As I figure it out, I will add miscellaneous house cleaning tasks. But I haven’t gotten there, yet.

Ideal Year Month Week and Day | How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

Monthly Planning

If there were a weak link in my ideally planned spread, monthlies would be it. I love how planning out your ‘ideals’ shows you your weaknesses and what you can improve. To figure out my ideally planned month, first, I’ll start with a list of things to do every single month. Then break them down and assign them to specific days or weeks throughout the month.

For instance: on the last Sunday of the month, I back up photos, videos and do general digital upkeep on my files. New blog post out on Sundays & Thursdays, Newsletter 3rd Friday of each month. Plan for the next month when there are 2 full weeks left in the month. On the 1st of the month, I do an inventory of statistics.

A cleaning schedule breaks out nicely into monthly and weekly plans. From a financial standpoint indicate bill-pay days and paydays.

Ideal Year Month Week and Day | How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

Ideal Week Plans

Of course, these plans ebb and flow with life and may change from week to week. This is the reason why my plans are ‘ideal.’ Knowing where to focus my efforts for family or cleaning on any given day when I have a small slot of time to get all the things done.

The other day, I listened to a radio host breaking down the hours in the week. If there are 24 hours in a day x 7 days per week =168 hours per week, subtract 8 hours per day for sleeping (who gets that much sleep in a day on a regular basis?!), remove the hours at work (typically 40 hours) and you have 72 hours left. My goodness, that sounds like a lot left over.

It got me thinking about what occupies my time. In my case, I have three kiddos, and they require (and I intend to give) a lot of time. Self-care time (including showers and getting ready), dinner prep, travel time and a myriad of other things. So if I could block like items together (even more than I do, already), it’s possible to conserve precious hours and minutes.

What do you do on a particular day of the week? I find that I get more laundry done if I assign it to a specific day. I clean my bathroom regularly if I know it’s Wednesday.  Adding recurring events like my son’s scouts on Thursdays helps me to not over-plan that evening.

Ideal Year Month Week and Day | How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

Ideal Day Planning

This section was a HUGE eye-opener. I realized how much time I don’t have. So I have to choose what I want to do. Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize. If it’s not that important, reconsider. Time is a precious element every single day. Visually organizing my days, weeks, months, and years showed me just that. And emphasized how important it is to prioritize.

How to Make Your Own “Ideal” Plans

Not sure where to start? I recommend starting big and working down. Map out your year. Do you change batteries in your smoke detector in the Spring? When are your family vacations? Do you seem to always clean your house in the spring or hold garage sales when the weather turns nice? What about holiday shopping? Do you wish to have that all said and done by the end of October so you can enjoy the holiday season without the stress? Well, that’s a good thing to plan.

How to Make Your Own Ideal Plans | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #idealday #idealweek #bulletjournal #bujo

Ideal Year Plans

Ideal Year: Recurring events or tasks throughout the Year – for me I broke it into quarters.

However, you might break it month-to-month. For instance, if you have kids, do you shop for school supplies in August or July?

Ideal Month Plans

What tasks do you need to do each month? Can you assign them to a particular week or a specific day? Make a list of all the things you do. Cleaning, bills, tasks. See where it all fits in. You can make a calendar view here or add a second section where you list the days numerically. 1st & 15th – paydays. 5th, mortgage due. Etc.

Do you have recurring events? Include those so you can plan around those items.

Ideal Week Plans

What days do you feel stretched too thin? Are you scheduling too heavy on those days? What can you prioritize? For instance: if you have dance and soccer on Tuesdays for your kids and you’re gone from the moment the kids get out of school to the second they go to bed, scheduling laundry on that day is probably not a good idea.

Do you have any other recurring tasks to do during the week? Figure out what those recurring items and pencil them in. Move them around until it makes sense. Ideally planned is another word for ‘makes sense in my life’. At least in my opinion.

Ideal Day

Now, this is where things get real. List the hours in a day and plan out the big things first. Sleep, work, commute. Then start adding the smaller items around those scheduled chunks of time. Dinner prep and eating dinner seem to take up a good part of the time.

After the smaller ‘have to’ tasks appear on your day, start prioritizing. It’s not about how much time you have, it’s about how much priority you give the things in your life. I wanted to schedule more time for developing my business but saw that I took away time from my kids. I know they are a high priority and had to make a choice. Kids won out. Efficiency just became more important than ever.

Need help getting things done? Set a time to do a certain task. And include it in your habit tracker.

Check out my list of Mid-Month Habit Check Posts Here – there are so many things in my life I’ve improved by keeping a habit tracker.

What gets measured, gets managed - Peter Drucker

Side note: I saw someone on Instagram who planned their ideal day and left nearly 4 hours to sleep every night. If that’s ideal to you, by all means, miss out on those precious zzz’s. But sleep is a huge part of my self-care regimen, so I schedule it out. I discovered when I scheduled my sleep, I made an effort to go to sleep then.

What is Ideally Planned – Really?

For me, ideally planned is not all about fantasy and the perfect life, it’s about the realities that we deal with regularly and how to map it out so life does not overwhelm us on any given day. Creating an ideally planned life allows you to map out your life on paper and show you where your strengths and weaknesses are. Any day life doesn’t overwhelm me, is an ideal day. You’ll have to define what ‘ideal’ means to you.

1 Comment
Filed Under: #InMy10Minutes, Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Organization, Planner Spreads, Start Planning Here Tagged: Bullet Journal, ideal day, ideal month, ideal week, ideally planned, life questions

Weight Loss Tracker – Update #3 Giving Back Markers & Life Lessons

February 7, 2019 1 Comment

Weight Loss Tracker – Update #3 Life Lessons When you lose at losing.

Here’s an update on my weight loss tracker progress. I honestly never expected to regress in my progress to lose weight. But it just goes to show you that if you’re negligent in your daily practices and momentary decisions, one piece of delicious fudge turns into a pan of fudge. And one M&M turns into a bag. It’s the small-every day steps that affect our overall life versus a wide chasm.

A little summary of the incentive:

Every so often I measure my progress using my tracker in my bullet journal (this planner is an A5 Scribbles That Matter Dot Grid Notebook). As I lose weight or reach a milestone, I get to ‘earn’ Tombow Dual Brush Tipped Markers based on my progress. If I go backward, I have to give the markers back and re-earn them.

The motivation is to keep up the progress and not slip back into old habits and choices and make a permanent change. If I permanently change, I permanently get to keep my markers.

Emotions run high in this update. If you listen in my voice, in the video below, I had to gain my composure, not just because I lost markers, but because I had to admit to myself that I wasn’t focused and thoughtful about my weight loss.

Hit Play to Watch the Video Below – Don’t Forget to Click ‘Subscribe’ in the right-hand corner to subscribe to my channel!

 

Weight Loss Tracker Update - What to do when you don't 'lose' | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #bulletjournal #weightloss #tracker

Progress Update:

Last time, I earned 16 markers! I was so excited – and it was over Thanksgiving! However, I ignored my intuition and ate way too many sweets and other seasonal foods over the month of December. So I gave back 6 markers.

No, I didn’t put all my effort into eating right and feeling healthy through December and over New Years, but I’m not going to beat myself up. My mom and dad were here past the holidays, and I ate worse than I wanted to. I ate M&Ms like they were going out of style. Are they going out of style?

Weight Loss Tracker Update - What to do when you don't 'lose' | ChocolateMusings.com @ChocolateMusingsCreates #bulletjournal #weightloss #tracker

Lessons Learned

Like I’ve learned from Bullet Journaling – you don’t have to start on January 1 to succeed. You can start any day of the week, any month of the year any year of your life. I’ve also learned that my Bullet journal helps me be accountable, which is necessary to improve. Which means I report regardless of improvement or if I take a step back.

So if you want to try something or start something, don’t worry if the New Year came and went without you boarding the bandwagon. Get your team of horses together and drive your own bandwagon. Do it when you want, but make sure you do it.

I guess that’s why I called this a journey, and not a plane ticket. There’s going to be set-backs and rocks and potholes and flat tires. If you lose at losing, don’t give up. Straighten your hair, brush off the dust and get back on your journey, it’s not a fast track, but the process is worth it.

question mark - chocolatemusings.com

If you’ve gone through a weight loss journey – what did you do to keep yourself motivated?

~Tricia

1 Comment
Filed Under: Blog, Bullet Journal, Find Your Happy, Get Organized & Start Planning, Habits, Health Journey, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, accountability, Bullet Journal, weight loss, weight loss journey

Pirate Planner Theme

February 3, 2019 5 Comments

The Inspiration for this Month’s Bullet Journal Theme: Pirates

I’m so excited to show you my planner set up for February. I use the different spaces in my planner to learn and try new techniques and styles. The pirate theme this month in my bullet journal was so much fun and opened the door to many ideas and styles. Overall, I am so pleased with the outcome. By the way, after months of seeking the perfect notebook, I love this notebook by Archer & Olive.

I’m a fan of finding inspiration and then adapting to my own needs or tweaking until I can make it my own. I learn visually so I find inspiration all around me. What I’d like to do is show you my inspiration for my monthly spreads to help inspire you!

Watch the unfinished version of the flip through below.

Pirate Theme Bullet Journal Cover Page Ahoy Matey! | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

Table of contents

  • The Inspiration for this Month’s Bullet Journal Theme: Pirates
  • Cover Page Inspiration
  • Monthly Calendar
  • Pirate-Themed Bullet Journal Habit Tracker
  • Pirate Theme Weeklies in My Bullet Journal
  • Collection Pages
  • Brain Dump Page/Idea Log

Cover Page Inspiration

Inspiration for this adorable boat welcome page: I have to admit that it came from Baby Shark’s related videos on Amazon Prime. My two-year-old is obsessed with this song, and I occasionally turn it on and watch it with him. Then they sing counting songs and other silly lyrics. There is a counting song that shows cute little boats and inspired this cover pate.

In June 2018, I did a cover page that I love to this day. Palm trees, flipflops, coconuts and a sign pointing the way to June. I added a little homage to my favorite cover page this month. Complete with a giant red X marking the spot – because that’s where you find the buried treasure!

Here’s a link to my June Plan with Me Playlist on YouTube

How to Watercolor Paint with Markers in Your Bullet Journal | ChocolateMusings.com Step-by-Step Tutorial + Video

Monthly Calendar

Using the idea of masking off areas like I did in July 2018 I used sticky notes to ‘mask’ off areas and paint/draw over them.

This result turned out beautifully. I love the look of old-looking parchment paper and the ship’s wheel. They really add a fun twist to the pirate bullet journal theme I was going for. Since I’d been dying to paint with some ink, and the Iridescent Coppery Plate Gold added such a subtle shimmer to the pages.

Below you can see how I blocked off the squares so I could draw out the design ‘behind’ the monthly calendar squares.

Here’s a link to my July Plan with me on YouTube.

Pirate Theme Monthly Calendar | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo
Sticky Notes Mask in my Bullet Journal Pirate Theme | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

Pirate-Themed Bullet Journal Habit Tracker

If you could see me now. I am so EXCITED about this page and the possibilities and ideas that came from creating this page. My bullet journal pirate theme is not about plundering and pillaging, it’s about seeking treasure. Rare gems in my life to make me happier. And when something works PERFECTLY the first time I try it, that’s exciting stuff right there.

Pirate Theme Habit Tracker Compass Rose | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

First of all: I LOVE circle habit trackers & other circles in my planner (read my blog post on how to create circles in your bullet journal) they’re just so well rounded (sorry/not sorry about the pun).  So when I created this page, I wanted it to be like a compass rose and then add the goals to the center.

Once I drew the compass rose & painted/colored it in, I didn’t want to cover it up! So I created this circle tracker on my computer. After resizing it on the screen once or twice, I printed it out. Viola! It was THE perfect fit. No adjustments needed. But I printed it on white paper so I still couldn’t see the compass behind it.

Enter: tracing paper.

Side Note: Don’t try printing on tracing paper with a laser printer since those use heat to adhere the toner to the paper and the tracing paper will likely melt and ruin your printer.

But I knew my inkjet could handle thin paper (I printed on a dictionary page one time as an experiment). It printed beautifully. Since I designed it on the computer, look how even those lines are!

I think this is going to happen more in my life. I better stock up on tracing paper.

Pirate Theme Compass Rose Habit Tracker with Transparency | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

Pirate Theme Weeklies in My Bullet Journal

Oh, I had so much fun creating each of these weekly spreads: Treasure chests, Gems, Telescopes, & Bottles, oh my!

  • Pirate Theme Treasure Chest Weekly | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo
  • Pirate Theme Weekly Telescope and Hat | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo
  • Pirate theme Message in a Bottle Weekly | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com

The biggest intimidation I had was the gems. I left this page as the last to do. Ok, let me explain. No…there is too much, let me sum up. (Thank you Princess Bride for that quote.) I’ve wanted to draw gems FOREVER (over a year – isn’t that forever?), and I found a Skillshare class that taught very simple ways to understand light and dark through transparent objects like gems. But I never did the assignment.

Finally, after a year of avoiding the assignment, I included gems on a weekly and just made myself do it. There’s room for improvement – for sure! But isn’t it always the first step that’s the hardest. I can’t wait to try more. Also, the white highlights are my favorite.

Pirate Theme Weekly Gems and Pearls | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

Collection Pages

Every month I include a journaling page that I call “all the things.” Where I record memories and other items that I did throughout the month. More circles on this page – this time in the form of pearls. Soft, subtle colors add a bit of fun to the page.

In real life, I never liked pearls before I wore them. When you wear real pearls, you know. They are heavy, but not burdensome, and warm to the skin. I love how they make me feel (I feel beautiful when I wear them). So including pearls on a page that I jot down beautiful memories is immensely appropriate in my mind.

I feel like pirates would love pearls – which naturally makes them perfect for my pirate bullet journal theme.

Pirate theme Journal Page Pearls | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com

Brain Dump Page/Idea Log

X marks the thought! I love new names for brain dump pages, and I love brain dump pages in general. There are too many thoughts in my head to try and keep them in there. I found that this page is 100% necessary so I can organize and review all the thoughts and ideas. Every six months or so I will review past brain dump pages and see what ideas I missed in the past. It is one of my most used and underutilized pages. I think I will make an effort to review the concepts more often and work on developing the ideas even further.

If you hate the name ‘brain dump’, check out this post with over 150 + different names for brain dump!

Pirate theme Treasure Map Brain Dump | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com
question mark - chocolatemusings.com

What’s your favorite page? I’d love to know what themes you’ve tried in the past!

Bullet Journal Pirate Theme | @ChocolateMusingsCreates ChocolateMusings.com #pirate #bulletjournal #bujo

5 Comments
Filed Under: Artsy Planner Spreads, Blog, Bullet Journal, Get Organized & Start Planning, Plan With Me, Plan With Me 2019, Planner Spreads Tagged: #BuJo, Bullet Journal, Circle, circles, monthly ideas, pirate theme, theme ideas

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • …
  • 18
  • Next Page »

About Me


Hi! I'm Tricia, the creative behind ChocolateMusings.com, I know how it feels to lose your inner muse. After years of darkness (which I call the dark ages of my life), I found my inner muse hiding in the forgotten corners of my soul, I vowed never to lose sight of her again.

Bullet journaling helped reignite the passion for art and living life again while organizing my days. I also discovered modern calligraphy and watercolor. Since then, my use of the bullet journal system has evlolved and I call it 'creative planning'. Here on the blog, I show you how to use your planner to ignite your inner muse and explore creativity and art while staying beautifully organized and living a joyful life.

I invite you to grab some good chocolate and dive into my musings. Let’s ignite your inner muse.

Read more on the about me page. You can also find my policies and disclosures here.

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest
  • Etsy
  • Facebook

Cart

Browse Products

  • Large Marker Modern Calligraphy Guide Booklet | ChocoalteMusings.com #handletteirng #brushlettering #moderncalligraphy Workbook #1 Basic Strokes Modern Calligraphy Workbook for Large Markers $15.00 Original price was: $15.00.$12.00Current price is: $12.00.
  • Be Great in Act as You Have Been in Thought Be Great in Act as You Have Been in Thought $10.00
  • State Outline - Washington State State Outline - Washington State $10.00
  • Shark silhouette Wall Art Printable | Chocolate Musings.com Shark Silhouette Wall Art Printable {Various Colors} $12.50

Search ChocolateMusings.com

Categories

What Do You Want to Do Today?


 

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2025

Copyright © 2025 · Exquisite Damask Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

 

Loading Comments...