Let's draw a Mandala

Hey Everyone,

thanks for stopping by once again :)

Ever since I can remember I've been absolutely in love with mandalas. Coloring them in is one of the most meditative and relaxing activities I can think of. But at a certain point I decided, coloring them in wasn't enough for me anymore, I wanted to draw them myself. This insight came to me a long while ago. Since then I tried different techniques but the results never really satified me.

Then a couple of weeks ago, I started to follow Kara from Boho.Berry on YouTube. I was browsing her YouTube videos and came across this awesome tutorial on how to draw a mandala. Check it out on her blog right HERE...

Of course I had to try that myself. And I must say, I definitely love the results :) Here are three mandalas that I created:

Diameter about 16cm, colored in with IKEA felt pens

I also documented the process for this one:

I drew this one right into my black Moleskine Journal.
Diameter about 16cm, colored in with colored pencils.

Diameter about 18cm, colored in with water colors.
I wanted this one to turn out a bit rainbow-like.

So who else loves mandalas :)

Yours
Uta

Lanybook Bullet Journal

Hi everyone,

today is all about notebooks and bullet journaling...

A couple of months ago my sister gifted me a Lanybook. I'm not sure whether you ever heard of that brand up until now. I hadn't until I was holding mine in my hands. You can compare it with the hardcover Leuchtturm1917 I would say. Of course it's slightly different but in the end, all those notebooks, may it be from Moleskine, Leuchtturm1917 or Lanybook, are somehow similar.

So the Lanybook I'm holding in my hands is from the "The One II" collection, light-blue cover, A5, grid. I made a quick Amazon.de search and found out they cost about 18-19 €. Here are a few impressions...

There are a couple of nice details like the texture of the cover, the tiny little metal thingy on the front, the brand name on the elastic and the slightly different back pocket.

Not long ago, I decided this Lanybook should become my first ever Bullet Journal. Not for my private planning but for work. So while staying at home for a whole week due to a really bad cold that kept me mostly on my couch I took some time (of what I had plenty at that time unfortunately) and took care of the setup.

First thing I did was gently breaking the spine using instructions from THIS VIDEO.

Afterwards I created the first sections which I'm going to show you know. I will skip the Index which is the very first thing in my Bullet Journal and start right with the content.

So on the first pages you can find a 2016 calender. It's followed by monthly overviews of all the twelve months. As you can see, I tried to keep things simple. No fancy washis, no stickers, just ink and a tiny bit of color here and there.

After that there's my so called Future Log. Every page of my future log is divided into three sections, on per months, where I can note down task that don't fit into my current weekly spread.

Then we have the monthly setup where there is one line per day of the month like in the original Bullet Journal system. And on the right page there's the setup for the first week.

Now this is my very first Bullet Journal as I mentioned at the beginning. The setup is mostly based on what I saw other people doing and using. I'm not sure whether it will work out for me. Quite the contrary, I'm sort of 100% sure I'm going to change a couple of things during the next few weeks and months. I'll keep you posted on that :)

Alright, that's it for today. Does anyone of you have experience with bullet journaling? If so, how's your process? What do you like, what did you try that didn't work for you at all? Let me know :)

Yours
Uta

Snail Mail

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure whether I ever mentioned it but I'm a huge snail mail fan. Every now and then, I take the time to decorate the envelops or craft some myself. Let me share some of my latest creations with you...

A couple of days ago I decided that it's time to throw away most of the magazines I collected over the past few years. I mean, let's be honest, they are just standing there on the shelf taking up space and getting covered in dust. I can't remember the last time I actually reread any of these.
So before actually throwing them in the garbage bin, I went through all the pages and magazine covers and cut out little bits and pieces that I thought would make great decoration for my journal, my planner or even some envelopes. I also ripped out whole pages to turn them into envelops like these:

As you can see, I am a regular reader of Flow Magazine :)

On the other hand I simply used plain white envelops and added a bit of color here and there. This is one of these:

Looks kinda familiar? Well, I simply used on of these envelopes.
I had to cover the ship-to-address with a sticky note :)

Now if you feel like crafting some lovely envelops yourself but don't know where to start, check out my tutorial right HERE... :)

So who else loves snail mail?

Yours
Uta

#PlanWithMe

Hello everyone,

today I'd like to do a quick "Plan with me". Okay, it's probably not going to be a quick thing but nevertheless, I'd like to share how I plan with my lovely daily planner that I introduced to you a couple of weeks ago. Be warned, I love to color code :)

So let's get started...

➽ GENERAL SETUP
At the end of a week I begin setting up the following week in my calendar. I usually start with a general setup by sort of dividing every page into sections:

• Cleaning plan - Monday til Sunday
• Ideas for breakfast, lunchbox and dinner - Monday til Friday
• Pilates and gym workouts - Tuesday till Friday and Sunday
• TO-DO/PLAN - Monday til Sunday

➽ SPECIALS
What follows is the special stuff, like birthdays, appointments, etc.
Things I take care of at the beginning of the year when setting up a new planner:

• Birthdays - noted in the header section of each day
• Gratitude Log - I keep a gratidute log in my journal and try to fill it with one entry per week so I set myself a weekly reminder in my planner (Sunday)
• Blog - This is yet another (mostly) weekly reminder (Wednesday plus last day of the month) which helps me keep track of my blog posts.
• Jobticket - I have an annual ticket for the local transport system which I need to renew at the end of each months.
• Cleaning Schedule - The place where I live has a cleaning schedule. Every four weeks, I have to clean the stairs outside my appartment. Of course I have a reminder for that in my planner, a little stamped broom icon in the top left or right corner of the page.

Things I take care of at the beginning of a month:

• Backup - My job requires me to be on standby for 24h about every other week. I usually note this down in the header section of the respective day.

In addition to that I note down appointments whenever they come up of course.

Now let me show you how pages in my planner look like when in use or actually used:

You can see, my TO-DO/PLAN section is filled. I note everything down there that I would like to accomplish on a specific day. Things that are mentioned in brackets are nice-to-have and not obligatory.

In addition to that, I add a weather icon on every page which represents the weather around noon. This is mostly for fun.

Alright, that's it so far. How are you planning your days/weeks/months?

Yours
Uta

Baby Blankie!!!

Hi everyone,

of course besides all that planning and journaling I'm doing lately, I also find the time for some crafting and crocheting. The last crochet project I finished recently was this rainbow colored baby blankie for my cute little goddaughter :)

I used Rico Baby Cotton wool for this project. This is a 50% cotton and 50% acrylic yarn blend.

The squares were made based on a pattern from this book which I bought at TK MAXX last year:
Crochet - The complete step-by-step guide, Essential techniques, More than 80 patterns

I originally planned to use the joining method from the book as well but didn't really like how it turned out so I made a few tweaks here and there and finally came up with something more pretty. If I find the time I'll do a seperate post on this joining method later this month.

Alright everyone, that's it for today.

Have a great evening!

Yours
Uta