I came across bullet journaling in May from this video, Bullet Journal and wondered at the simplistic beauty of it. So I thought I would try it in an old journal and it worked really well.  It organised us in a way that we had never as a couple been organised before, we have been married 27 years and I have no idea how we have bumbled along so far without this in our lives. We are, as the Americans might say, now on the same page.  And whats more is we seem to get much more done, not just in a domestic way, but in pleasure seeking ways too. It is everything you want it to be because you are not constrained in any way by space or ideas, they are all of your own.

I have tried in the past the more decorative approach of bullet journaling, but I prefer the simplistic bullet points that it gives, I have my Erin Condren to pretty things up in my life and to play with stickers, washi, photographs and postcards of our days out, the bullet journal for me is a simple way of organising and keeping track of our lives and the things that need to be done and that we enjoy.

I’ve just set my new bullet journal up in a bright orange (a girl has to have a bit of fun) Leuchtturm 1917 A5 in graph paper using my Cross fountain pen in Prussian Blue ink from Diamine.  The Leuchtturm doesn’t bleed with a fountain pen although it does shadow slightly, the reviews make interesting reading between a Moleskine and Leuchtturm’s online.  But before I go on, you can set up your own bullet journal in any notebook with any pen.

First you need to set your bullet journal up, see the video above for that, it is simple and just takes moments. I’ll show you some of my pages, These are ‘things’ that we are aiming to do in August. And these were our plans for yesterday. This is what I want to keep track of this month, some are for health reasons, some financial, some domestic, its simply what I want it to be. We are eating vegan about five days a week, (why vegan? because otherwise we will add half a pound of cheese) and I wanted a place that I can store ideas that I know I can knock up in half an hour when we get back from a long day.  These are all tried and tested and quite yummy. And then just a few ideas that I’ll add to on things that I would like to do one day.

See simple, I just wanted to share, its really changed our lives and in such a good way.

Usually when I travel to Islington I alight from the tube at Angel and go straight to Loop and not much further apart from to the pub for lunch and to be honest I am really happy with that plan. But I knew there was more there to explore, now I haven’t photographed everything because there is too much, but a few things that caught my eye, its a great place to just wander for the afternoon after wool or knitting books have been purchased. Heading down Camden Passage colourful items for sale are placed in the street ready for your inspection giving this area very much a trendy market feel.  And if I were heading home for the day the temptation to pick up a piece of spanking fresh fish would be greatfrom Moxon’s fishmongers. I must say it smelt extremely fresh, just the ozone from the sea. We had a little look in Home and Pantry as we tootled along, it was a very cute shop. And of course we couldn’t not stop at Loop, the holy grail of gorgeous yarns. Just look at all the pretty yarns, I picked up a knitting book I’d had my eye on for a while, Botanical Knits 2 by Alana Dakos and then I trotted off happy as could be to continue with our adventures. Look at this cute shop, such fun. We found a gorgeous park to eat some lunch as I’d carefully packed some home made pasties for lunch. And then we found a pub, The Queens Head and we felt like we had entered a time warp and hopped back a century or two, fortunately the beer was still good. And the fireplace was incredible. It dated back to the 17th century and depicted the Greek myth of Diana and Actaeon. After refreshments we carried onto the Polish pottery shop, I love this pottery and could spend serious amounts of money on it, its such a fun kitchen styled pottery.  Having finally decided on a pretty lasagne dish, which I will photograph with a lasagne in one day we headed home.  And even then pretty things caught our eyes as we trundled towards the tube, one of which I just had to photograph, a lovely little basement garden, so pretty and unexpected. The owner came home as I merrily snapped away, doesn’t that always happen, and showed us a glimpse of her back garden which was just lush.