As a teenager I kept diaries/journals which was something many were doing and continue to do today. I grew out of that phase as I grew older but in recent years I have interest again to do something to some degree. In 2019 while cleaning through my attic I came across all of those teenage journals and I began to read some. I never completed reading them as I came across some painful memories which I had truly forgotten so I stopped reading and burned them all up in fire. It was a good way to release all of those memories away forever.
I see that bullet journaling, other types of journaling, and planning have become hot trends in recent years. I’m not one for planning – I don’t need that type of organization. I’m a well organized person with a good memory for so much and having a yearly calendar on my fridge is good enough for my planning for the year and to keep track of appointments and other fun things.
In 2019 I received this journal-of-sorts as a gift.
I completed the first year of this 5 year journal in 2020. There is one question for each date so beginning on January 1st I will have the same question as I did last year.
It would be good to see how answers change or stay the same from year to year; however, for me, much does not change, really. So I’ve decided to skip a year between answering the questions in this journal and do something different. As of now my thoughts are to complete the questions in the following years: 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028 which will fill the book’s pages.
For the years in-between I want to do something different to record events and oddities on a daily basis. I like the journaling idea with the planner-type of layout. So on a shopping excursion this week I was on the hunt for clearance/discounted items to do something special and different for 2021. Here is what I’ve found….
This 2021 planner was on clearance at Boscov’s (a store) in their bargain room for only $3.99. There were two different 2021 planners and the other one had ‘2021 Planner’ on the cover and this one only lists the year, which I prefer. I don’t want a planner but I do want the structure of dates/calendars and other miscellaneous pages mixed in. This fits the bill perfectly for me.
As you can see I began personalizing my journal. The first day in the book is Monday, December 28th, the day I actually bought this so I did begin journaling that evening (sorry, won’t be showing you that page though!).
Here is the inside first page which I had some fun with already….
Throughout the book there are pages between months and there are stickers in the back of the book for me to use, including the months (as tabs) to adhere at the respective front page for that month (as you can see indicated in the page below).
The designs are different throughout and there are bullet pages too.
After the front designed page for each month is a monthly calendar with areas to write various things…
I really like the spaces for each date so that I can journal whatever I wish and decorate with stickers as I desire….I was thinking that I may search on the internet for a random question of the day from time to time to write into the date and then answer; similar to the ‘one question a day’ journal I kept for 2020.
And throughout there are other various pages included like these….
I’m thinking I may keep track of books I read for the year to see how much I actually complete as well as the movies I see in theatres (if we ever return to theatres!)…
Of course we must have stickers to decorate!
Prior to finding this cool planner for 2021 I bought a few items at Michaels’ craft store (and some were on clearance!)…
The clearance area was hidden in the back of the store and I stumbled across some great finds for journaling 2021…. these ‘happy planner’ stickers say $6.97 but I paid $5.00!
I had seen these notebooks before and I liked them (one has blank pages, another has undated calendars, and one with bullet pages)…I only paid $3.00! I was first thinking of using these for journaling 2021 in a different way; however, when I found the above 2021 binder book I thought I could use these as added pages to my book or whatever else I like…
My favorite color is navy blue so I grabbed a few colorful pens and some washi tape to make my journaling fun and colorful (at least colorful in a blue way!)…I was able to use a 20% off coupon for everything which wasn’t on sale too…
I’m enjoying this so much already even though 2021 hasn’t arrived yet – I am going to decorate with stickers and drawings and notes and lists and whatever else pops up throughout the year. I plan to attach random items/ephemera as well. It will be a cool time capsule. I have so much stuff from my scrapbooking days which I plan to use as well.
Do you enjoy journaling? What are your journaling ideas for 2021?
Wishing you a peaceful and healthy 2021!
For baking the cake I used King Arthur’s cake flour (which makes such a yummy light-weight cake) and whole milk for both the cake and cream filling.
After two adults ate their shares in the first night….
This wallet is small but will hold many items if needed. In fact it is even a bit bigger/bulkier than I prefer. For many years I only carried what is generally known as a coin/card type wallet which held only a few cards and items I needed including some cash and coins. For now, though, I will continue to carry my Splits until it is worn-out.
(I made these prior to receiving the below recipes so they don’t have the same gooey syrup as my Great Aunt has written)
