Heyo!
July is here! We are officially halfway through 2022. How’s the first half of the year for y’all? Too fast? Too slow?
It has been fairly slow for me since I have been dealing with anxiety and depression from the beginning of the year. Some days are meh, while others are bearable. In a way, Bujo helps me deal with my mental health issues when I can’t talk to a friend by giving me a creative outlet.
Look back at the past month
From where I am, June marks the start of the rainy season, the gateway to summer. The whole month was exceptionally humid and I did dare not go outside during the morning when the sun is high.
Looking back at my goals and tasks for the month of June, some of them remain unchecked. Since quitting my job last May, I have been with my kid 24/7 and we are still adjusting to a new life with each other. I guessed what spiked my anxiety in June was my worrying about how to entertain a 2-year-old inside the house while finding myself time to focus on my side hustles. My kid would prefer to play outside but most days, it was too hot outside that it’s so painful to be out for more than an hour. I reached the end of the month of June looking back that I have not checked the things I wanna do for myself, such as produce artwork and write more blogs.
The "silver lining" for last month was that I was able to decorate every weekly spread. It was fun trying to use all the stickers that I have and incorporate the theme “Bubbles” each week.
Here are some samples of my June weekly spreads.
On this month...
Continuing what I planned for myself last month, I have brought into this month the unchecked goals and tasks. It’s time that I learn how to be more flexible and work under more pressure and distraction :p
Last month, I have included “Merch Purchases” in my monthly spread but that wasn't working for me and I ended up buying more. Therefore a spreadsheet would work better than writing it down in the tiny space of my monthly spread. I have replaced that with “Events”, where I note birthdays (friends, family, and anime characters), merch release dates, and anime-related events.
I’m also trying to get my groove back in terms of drawing so I made a goal to dedicate at least 1 hour to drawing every day. That 1 hour can be used when I work on projects or just practice drawing (anatomy, background, etc). I put this on my habit tracker in my weekly spread to keep track of my 31 hours of drawing goal for the month. So far, it’s working as I was able to work on 2 artworks since the month started.
What’s in my Events section?
July 3rd, Nanami Kento’s birthday. Nanami Kento is a character from Jujutsu Kaisen. As I have previously stated in my June Bujo Blog, I am obsessed with this anime and love this character so much. In fact, he is one of the most loved characters due to him being a husband-material. I planned to make a birthday art for him on his birthday but life had other plans for me so I’ll just share a previous artwork I did of him with a shameless self-insert.
July 7th, Tanabata. Tanabata, or Star Festival, is an annual celebration of the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi in the Milky Way. It is celebrated by writing one’s wishes on a horizontal paper called “tanzaku” and then tied on a bamboo tree. It is believed that when the sky is clear on the night of July 7th, the two deities are able to meet on the Milky Way thus making the people’s wishes written in the tanzaku come true. If it rains, they are not able to meet and no wishes would come true.
July 23~, GoUta Kami Kami Festival. It is a small artist event on Twitter and Pixiv where Gojo Satoru x Iori Utahime (Jujutsu Kaisen) shippers are encouraged to draw them with the concept of “kami-kami” meaning “biting”. (The announcement is only in Japanese.)
Out of the 3 events I have noted in my BuJo, the last one is the one thing I look forward to the most. Aside from being able to express my love for the GoUta ship, I am also able to draw both of them. Hopefully, I don't go into my uninspired fit and not make anything at all. Fingers crossed.
My July BuJo Set Up
Monthly spread.
I totally forgot to make a cover as I was trying to save space. I only have a few more pages till I finish this notebook and I want my 2022 to be in one notebook. If you haven't guessed already, the theme for this month is a fusion of constellation and Tanabata or Star Festival. I also chose dark blue and yellow as the main colors and used a bunch of my star-themed washi tapes and stickers.
Week 24 and 25 Spread.
For efficiency, I tried to do a 2-week setup in one spread. I wasn't aware that this setup existed so when I searched for inspiration on Pinterest, I was pleasantly surprised. I enjoy it more this way since I save space and I can plan or note things for the incoming week.
Many months into doing Bujo, I still am experimenting with the setup and spread that would work for me. It's mostly fun times and a great way to enjoy playing with stationery. I feel like I'm at that stage where I am close to knowing what works and what's effective in terms of organization and planning.
To those who are using Bullet Journals, do you decorate them or go the minimalistic route? What part of your BuJo that you like the most? Let me know in the comments.
That's it for now.
Remember, creativity is contagious. Pass it on.
Let's be nice to each other.
See you at the next one.
I'm crimsonowl, a random otaku in the blockchain, creator of ArtPark CryptoArt Community, an artist-in-progress trying to make a living out of art, an NFT artist, a crypto blogger talking about anime, art, and everything in between.
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