A New Bullet Journal for a New Year
Hello friends,
And welcome back to 2026 on the blog...
A new year usually means a fresh new start, and it was quite lucky for me that my current Leuchtturm 1917 notebook containing my weekly Bullet Journal (BUJO) spreads was due to finish at the end of 2025. This not only gave me an opportunity to buy a new Leuchtturm 1917 dotted notebook (in the colour Dusty Rose), but it also meant I could decorate it with a bunch of new stickers, with this notebook's theme being "witchy".
After carefully looking through my embarrassingly large sticker collection, I found some stickers which fit the theme, and placed them strategically on the front and back of the notebook's covers.
With that done, it was time to decorate the front section of the notebook, before starting on the first weekly spread of the year.
I've tried many different bullet journal set ups over the years, but this weekly set up works the best for me in terms of seeing the week as a whole, and to make sure I accomplish all my tasks for the Crafty Gardener blog, my small business Hearth and Oak, and for my upcoming 6 week online flower farming workshop with Floret Flower Farm.
On the left hand page are my weekly goals, weekly habit tracker, and general to do list (remembering things like upcoming birthdays, specific household tasks, and also to book vet appointments etc).
On the right hand side are the days of the week, showing appointments, boring stuff like putting out the rubbish, cleaning and washing, and also tasks to do each day. I like using the SMART goal framework, with goals being specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. It means I actually get tasks done, and not procrastinate.
With everything written in for the coming week, my first weekly BUJO spread was ready for the first day back at work for 2026. Not a fun thing to think about after two weeks on holiday, but at least I had a head start for the coming year first thing on Monday morning...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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My Fountain Pen and Ink Set Up
Hello friends,
As someone who loves stationery, I'm aware of the plastic waste that comes with buying pens. I decided to invest in some refillable fountain pens back when I lived in Wellington, and since then I've refilled them many times with ink.
The fountain pens I chose to invest in are the Lamy Safari Fountain Pens, with Left-Handed nibs, and refillable converters. I bought 4 of them so that I could always have one pen in black ink, one pen in bright pink ink, and two others with varying colours depending on my mood. The reason why I chose Lamy fountain pens, is that they are one of the few fountain pen manufacturers who supply left-handed nibs, and they have parts available if the pen needs to be fixed.
When my hubby mentioned to a work mate that I was buying my first fountain pen, I was soon inundated with many samples of fountain pen ink to try, and some big bottles of colours that they weren't very fond of. I was grateful for their generosity, and since then I have not had to buy much ink at all for my fountain pens.
Occasionally I have a fountain pen clean out day, and I disassemble all my fountain pens and soak all the parts in a big tub for about an hour.
After rinsing all the pen parts until the water runs clear, I leave them to dry.
The next step is pretty fun, as I get to reassemble my pens, and then choose which inks to put into them. The pen ink I choose regularly are Lamy Crystal Ink Obsidian and Lamy Crystal Ink Rhodonite. My two other favorite colours are Private Reserve Arabian Rose, and J Herbin Poussiere De Lune (which means moon dust in French).
My fountain pens are currently filled with these colours, and in a couple of weeks when the pens are empty I get to have the fun of choosing ink colours all over again.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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A Home For My Stickers using My Cottagecore Apothecary Jars
Hello friends,
You know how sometimes you fall in love with something you've seen, and you need to buy them all, and in all the sizes available, but then when you get home you're not entirely sure what to do with them, yeah well that's me with the many apothecary jars I bought about ten years ago.
Back when we were living in Wellington, I saw the apothecary jars during one of my many visits to Pete's Emporium in Porirua, and I knew straight away I needed them in my life. But then when I got them home I wasn't entirely sure what to do with them. Over the years I've filled them with various different things, including dried herbs and flowers, and Christmas decorations, but it never seemed to be the right thing, so I gave up and put them away in storage.
But while I was renovating my craft room I found a pile of them in a cupboard, and thought now was the perfect time to use them. And I finally found their new home with my huge stationery sticker collection. You see I also have a problem with buying and not using stickers, especially because I put them away somewhere safe, and then forget to use them. I was so happy and excited about this exciting mashup, that I got started on this project straight away. I separated my stickers into different collections and then got to work.
First up was my apothecary jar sticker collection, which was quite serendipitous...
Next up was my collection of cat stickers. And because I am a crazy cat lady, I do have a lot of cat stickers.
And then of course there is my book sticker collection, which usually includes also cats, tea pots and flowers...
And I also have a huge collection of nature stickers including leaves and mushrooms and cute woodland animals, so they also had to find an apothecary jar of their own...
And don't even get me started with my Scandi christmas themed stickers, which I also have a lot of. I mean who can resist stickers featuring hot chocolate, snowflakes, reindeer and gnomes...
And then there's all my witchy stickers. You put moons and starts and cats and other witchy things on a sticker, and it's like take all my money...
And with all that done, I have a whole set of apothecary jars filled up with lots of beautiful stickers. I laid them all out along the windowsill behind my computer desk in my craft room. And now whenever I'm at my desk I can look up and see both my beloved apothecary jars and stickers.
Already I've found that I've been using my stickers more often now that I can see them. I hope to decorate all my diaries, journals and notebooks with my beloved stickers from now on. Do you have something small like apothecary jars and stickers that bring you joy? I'd love to find out.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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