Fear not, though, because I am back now and intent on bringing you as much joyful, creative deliciousness as possible this year. There’s a lot of horrible stuff going on in the world right now and, sometimes, I feel like posting about my cakes and crafts is a bit… silly? Or just unhelpful? Or maybe even inappropriate? However, I saw a post on Instagram recently that said it’s important to allow space for both outrage towards the big issues (of which there are many) and appreciation for the small joys of everyday life (of which there are also many). It really resonated with me: I feel that the small joys allow us to maintain hope for better times, while the outrage spurs us to help bring those better times about. So, I will continue to share my small joys with you, in the hope that some of them can become your small joys and we can maintain hope for a happier, less hateful world together.

With that, it’s time to get back to what I do best: unhinged creativity by the bucketload. First on the blog for 2026: my annual fusion of bullet journalling and knitting… the Knitting Journal!

Every year, I make my mum a Knitting Journal, where she can plan out her upcoming projects and make notes on her current knits. This journal is purely for planning: I’ve seen some amazing journals where people make these gorgeous, scrapbook-style spreads for their finished projects (and I’m OBSESSED), but that’s not what we’re going for here (truly, that would just be time away from knitting for Mum, which is never her aim!).

I’ve shared her previous two Knitting Journals here on the blog: you can find the 2024 version here and the 2025 version here, if you want to check them out. Today’s post, though, is all about the updated 2026 version!

Table of Contents

• Journal
• The Brief
• Equipment
• Initial Pages: General Planning
  • Cover Page
  • Project Ideas
  • Yarns to Try
  • Stash-Busting
  • Present Ideas
• Monthly Spreads
  • Project Overview + Monthly Calendar
  • Project Notes
• Christmas Planning
• Final Thoughts

Journal

I’m trying a different notebook brand for my journals this year: Tiefossi. For my mum’s Knitting Journal, she picked the Moonlight Melody notebook in the Light Blue shade.

It’s always a risk trying out a new notebook (I’m specific about what I like!), but I really loved using this one! The dot-grid pages are thick (and numbered!), the notebook has an elastic closure, pen holder and back pocket AND the design of the cover is so lovely. The best thing about the notebook, though, is that the centre of each page is (discreetly) marked with a +, while the centre of each side is marked with a short line. I was a little suspicious of these markings at first, because I was worried that they would be too visible on the finished spreads, but they really disappear into the designs (even the simple ones, like I’ve done here) and I can’t even BEGIN to explain how HELPFUL they are. They really sped up the whole setup process for this journal and it was so luxurious not having to constantly measure/count as I went. I did notice, however, that one of the other Tiefossi journals (the purple version of the Gold Vintage Dot Grid Notebook) I purchased did not contain these markings, so maybe this is only a feature in certain notebooks?

The Brief

My personal, bullet journal style tends to include lots of decoration and lots of designated sections for organising all of my thoughts. My mum, on the other hand, prefers to be less restricted by small boxes and detailed tables. Her knitting journal is, first and foremost, meant to be practical, so I’ve kept the decoration to a minimum. In fact, the main decorative feature (using a different colour for each month) is also a practical choice, because it helps her to navigate through the journal super easily (though, of course, it also looks nice, so really it’s a win-win!).

The journal is split into monthly sections, with a few more general spreads at the beginning for overall planning/notes. Each monthly section contains a Project Overview, a Calendar (not strictly knitting-centric, but useful nonetheless!), a blank page and 3 pages of Project Notes (with each page split into 3 sections, for a possible total of 9 projects overall).

Equipment

I decided to use coloured pencils to create this setup to make the whole thing feel really fun and creative. For each month, I picked two similar shades of coloured pencils in rainbow order (so January was two shades of red, February was two shades of orange etc.).

The only places that I didn’t use coloured pencils were the Monthly Calendars. For these, I used my Sakura Pigma Micron 05, in the shade Black. This was just because the calendars are quite small and I wanted to make sure they were super clear and functional, so I needed finer, crisper lines (and numbers!). Everywhere else, I used coloured pencils for the decorations, lines and lettering.

Initial Pages: General Planning

To differentiate the initial, more general pages from the monthly sections, I used a select rainbow of coloured pencils (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink) in all of the spreads.

Cover Page

The Cover Page is super simple, but it really sets the vibe for the rest of the setup: I’ve gone for a simple, block capital font with an uneven baseline (for fun! For whimsy!), along with some little heart and star doodles (again, for fun and for whimsy!).

Project Ideas

Next up, we have a Project Ideas spread, which I’ve split into three sections: Sweaters, Gifts & Other. If this were me, I’d have this spread split up into an extensive, comprehensive list of categories (you guys have seen my wish list spreads, right?!), but the more minimal, open vibe with fewer categories is what works best for my mum!

I’ve used these two-line wavy borders all throughout the setup (always using two different colours/shades for each border). Not only does this look pretty fun and add a little extra decoration, it’s actually pretty quick to set up, because you don’t have to get a ruler out!

Yarns to Try

The next spread is the Yarns to Try spread, where Mum can keep track of any yarns that she’s interested in and would like to try knitting something with at some point. I’ve split this spread up into 4 sections: Fingering weight, DK weight, Worsted weight and Other (i.e. the three yarn weights Mum uses most, plus a space for all the other weights, just in case!).

Stash-Busting

Like all knitters, Mum has an extensive stash of yarn leftover from previous projects (and purchased yarn that is yet to be knitted into new projects!), so reducing that is always one of her goals (because, obviously, that means she can buy more yarn!). I’ve left this Stash-Busting page really open, with just a border around the edge of the spread, so she can jot down any notes/ideas she has on the topic of stash-busting in whatever arrangement she feels like.

Present Ideas

Just like with the last page, I’ve left the Present Ideas spread super open, so Mum can use it in whatever way she would like. Here, she can keep her notes on knits she would like to make for specific people. This will be particularly useful around Christmas (always a busy knitting season!), but also throughout the year, as friends and family celebrate their birthdays.

Monthly Spreads

Into the Monthly Spreads now and I won’t show you every page because, aside from the colour/calendar changes, every monthly setup is identical! Instead, you can see the rainbow progression of colours in the image above and I’ll use January to show you the individual pages in each monthly section.

Project Overview + Monthly Calendar

The first double-page spread in each monthly section is the Project Overview + Monthly Calendar. The right-hand page features the monthly heading (so, here, that’s January) and a (pretty small, but as big as possible!) grid-format calendar. As I mentioned earlier, the calendar’s not a strictly knitting-centric addition, but it’s helpful nonetheless!

The left-hand page is split into three sections: Ongoing Projects, Projects to Start and Miscellaneous Notes. It’s nice to have some space to map out the (knitting) month ahead, so that’s what this is.

Project Notes

Each monthly section contains a further two double-page spreads, featuring a single, blank page at the start (for assorted notes, sketches, reminders etc.) and three pages for Project Notes.

Each Project Notes page is split into three sections horizontally. Each section corresponds to a different project. This is where Mum plans out individual projects: here, she’ll write out yarn ideas, needle sizes, which pattern size she plans to knit and any notes on her gauge. She fills these sections out ahead of time, so she always has a bank of projects all figured out, ready to knit immediately. This way, she’s never left with nothing on her needles!

Christmas Planning

In the December monthly section, right at the end of the journal, there’s an extra Christmas spread (because Christmas always requires a lot of planning!). For this spread, I used red and green as my two coloured pencil shades (because what’s more festive than that?). This festive spread is split into two sections: Christmas Presents and Christmas Cards.

Both sections are laid out in a rough table format: in both tables, the left-hand column is for the name of the recipient. Then, in the Christmas Presents table, the right-hand column is for the present Mum intends to give, while, in the Christmas Cards table, it’s for the address the card needs to be sent to.

Final Thoughts

As the years go by and I make more of these for my Mum, I’m definitely getting a better idea of how her mind works and how she likes to organise things (which is very different to how my mind works and how I like to organise things, I’ve discovered!).

My goal this year was to keep everything as minimal as possible, not in terms of decoration, but it terms of layout: while I prefer lots of specifically-labelled boxes to slot my thoughts into, Mum prefers a big, open space to write down all of her thoughts. I think I achieved that pretty well this time around!

I think the coloured pencil theme I went for brings a lot of fun and whimsy to an otherwise pretty minimal setup. I love using coloured pencils in my bullet journal because there’s no chance of them bleeding through the paper (though, they do, unfortunately, sometimes transfer a little to the opposite page…). Using coloured pencils also meant I had a huge range of shades at my disposal, which really helped me to add dimension to the spreads by using a two-tone colour palette each month.

It’s a bit of a labour of love to set up a whole year’s worth of a journal at once, but it makes me very happy to help Mum plan the hobby that brings her so much joy and peace, so it’s definitely worth it!

All in all, I’m really pleased with how this Knitting Journal turned out!

Gemma

xxx

If you’re new here, Blogmas At Home is my annual festive series here on the blog, where I share daily posts full of festive fun & creativity throughout Advent! Christmas is my all-time favourite holiday, so I’m always practically overflowing with seasonal ideas to share with you guys. This is the third year of Blogmas At Home (big wow!) and I’m so excited to celebrate the season with you!

A little note before we get into today’s post: if you want to make sure you don’t miss a single DAY of Blogmas At Home this year, you can sign up to my newsletter! You’ll receive an email notification every time I release a new post, so you won’t miss a thing. The sign up link is in the side bar, right over there (—->)!

It’s become a bit of a tradition that my first Blogmas post of the year is my December bullet journal setup and this year is no different! Today’s post is all about my final, monthly bullet journal setup of 2025 (can you BELIEVE it’s the end of the year already?!).

Naturally, when deciding on a theme for my December setup, I headed straight to Pinterest (you can find my account here!). I saw this pin, which depicted a bunch of festive border design ideas and the one with the red berries really caught my eyes: it just feels so fun and Christmassy, but still very elegant and pretty! I decided to base my setup this month on that border, so I’ve used it copiously throughout, along with lots of torn kraft paper (my FAVE) and my beloved alphabet stamps.

Because it’s the festive season, I’ve included a few special spreads this month: the basic setup follows the same format as my typical monthly setups, there’s just a little extra, Christmas whimsy!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Advent(ish) Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• Christmas Day + New Year’s Eve
• December Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To make this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Sakura Pigma Micron: 05 Black.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 990 Light Sand.
• Crayola SuperTips: Dark Red.
• Alphabet stamps and black ink pad.
• Glue stick.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Ruler.

Cover + Quote Page

Recently, I’ve been moving away from quote pages in favour of slightly more ‘useful’ spreads (specifically, my ‘Things to Look Forward to‘ pages!). However, as I’m sure you know by now (or at least, can tell!), Christmas is my favourite time of year, so, honestly, I don’t really need reminders of how exciting life can be: it’s just a universal truth that once the Christmas lights go up, fun is to be had! Because of this, I did opt to include a Quote Page this time around: nothing fancy, just a little ‘Sleigh bells ring’ moment!

Honestly, this first spread was super easy to create (as was most of the setup, really)! I drew the borders with my Sakura pen, added the berries with the red Crayola and the leaves with the beige Tombow, then stuck in some torn up brown paper. I stamped in the lettering and that was it!

Monthly Calendar

I had a lot of fun making this Monthly Calendar, even though stamping in all of the dates was… a little labour-intensive (and the dates actually take up most of the calendar boxes)! Also, if you’ve noticed where I messed them up… no you haven’t.

To get the torn edges on the calendar section itself, I folded along the lines I wanted to tear, smoothed the creases down really well, then repeated that process, folding the paper back the other way and smoothing it again, so the crease was really well-defined. This meant that when I gently tore the paper, the the paper naturally tore along the crease I had made, which kept the section really uniform (which is useful, for this style of calendar!).

Advent(ish) Calendar

I completely forgot to add a heading to this spread, but it is my Advent(ish) Calendar spread! I’m calling it an Advent(ish) calendar because it includes the days after Christmas too. I plan to use this in pretty much the same way as my beloved Daily Sunshine page from my previous setups: each day, I’ll write one fun, (likely festive) thing that happened. This time around, though, there’s the added fun (read: effort) of having to locate the right date first!

Weekly Spreads

Into the Weekly Spreads now and I’ve kept the layout the same as the previous months— it’s just been working so well for me! I’ve trimmed down the central pages in this section so that, no matter which week you’re on, you can always see the task lists on the far left and right.

I used my corner rounder to soften up the edges of the cut pages: they can be pretty sharp, so I am hoping to minimise the risk of injury as much as possible!

Each internal spread is dedicated to a single week. I’ve split each one into 8 sections (2 down, 4 across) and used the spare section for the weekly subheading (which helps me to navigate through the setup and know which week I’m actually on).

To separate out the other 7 sections, I used that same berry border I’ve been using throughout the setup. It’s a bit more full on here, but I just love how pretty it is!

At the top of each daily box, I stamped in the first letter of the day of the week and the date itself.

Christmas Day + New Year’s Eve

This Christmas Day & New Year’s Eve spread is fairly minimal: just that same, berry border all the way around and a piece of kraft paper stuck in for the heading (or here, I guess, the footing!). I want this spread to have a scrapbook-y feel: I’ll fill it in after the respective days with photos and notes and little mementos, so that I can look back on all of the festive fun!

December Review

Finally, we have my December Review page! This includes all the same content as usual, but with the same berry border and torn kraft paper vibe as the rest of the setup. I’m particularly fond of how the ‘December Playlist’ subheading follows the shape of the torn edge in that top left-hand corner!

As always, I have spaces to note down my favourite songs from the month gone by (here’s betting they’re all Christmas songs), the year-end ATP & WTA (tennis!) rankings and my favourite memory from the month (here, indicated by a smiley face, because how on earth was I supposed to fit all of those stamped letters in that tiny space!). The blank space on the right-hand side is left blank, so that I can stick in a fun polaroid from December later on.

Final Thoughts

I’m so thrilled with how this setup turned out: it feels super festive, but also really soft and elegant (plus, it uses torn kraft paper, which is one of my favourite things to include in my journal!). It was surprisingly quick to set up: I didn’t worry too much about being perfect but it still looks really neat and precise, which is magical!

I do wish my number stamps were slightly smaller, because they do rather take over the monthly calendar boxes, but I can’t quite justify buying more stamps: guess I’ll just have to make do!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my December bullet journal setup for this year and that you’ve enjoyed the first day of Blogmas at Home 2025! I can’t wait to celebrate this festive season with you. See you back here tomorrow?

Gemma

xxx

My November bullet journal setup started out life as my October bullet journal setup (which never actually came into existence, as a result of the aforementioned lack of enery). I had an idea for a setup inspired by one of my favourite knitting projects: my Pumpkin Strange Brew Sweater, with colouring pencil ‘colourwork’ designs and kraft paper accents. By the start of October, I’d just about managed to finish the layout & coloured patterns, but hadn’t gone beyond that and made the setup, you know… functional.

Around mid-October, I figured I’d be better off putting my energy into my November setup, rather than finishing off the October one. It seemed a waste to leave all of that colouring/effort behind, so I decided that I would just convert my October setup into a November setup: the pumpkins aren’t quite so relevant, but November’s still autumn here in the UK, so I think it still works??

Anyway, enough chit-chat! Let’s get into the setup…

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page + Things to Look Forward to
• Monthly Calendar
• Autumn Bucket List + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• November Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Colouring pencils (brown, orange and green).
• Kraft paper.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Glue stick.
• Sakura Quickie Glue pen.
• Alphabet stamps + ink pad.

Cover Page + Things to Look Forward to

For my Cover Page, I decided to fill the whole page with the colourwork design. Admittedly, this took a rather long time, but I think it really sets the scene for the rest of the setup. I used the alphabet stamps to write the ‘November’ heading on a piece of kraft paper and my brown fineliner to add a ‘stitched’ border around the edge (I was on a bit of a fibre-craft theme this month), then stuck that in over the top of the colourwork design. I really love how this turned out (even if it was pretty labour-intensive to make)!

Alongside my Cover Page, I included a spread that I’ve been really enjoying in recent months: my Things to Look Forward to Page. On this page, I can jot down all the fun things I have coming up throughout the month, so that I can check in on them from time to time and get re-excited all over again. Fun!

Monthly Calendar

To protect my sanity, I opted to draw just the chevron pattern from my colourwork design as the decoration on most of the other pages in this setup, and for my Monthly Calendar I opted to place it near the bottom. For the calendar itself, I stuck in little squares of kraft paper, then wrote in the dates with my brown fineliner (the alphabet stamps I was using sadly do not contain numbers). Finally, I stamped in the ‘November’ heading vertically, down the left-hand side of the page.

I had actually already set this spread up back when the setup was still in its October phase, so I had to add a few more kraft paper boxes to the end of the month to fit November’s layout (which is why there are 5 blank boxes in the top row… needs must!).

Autumn Bucket List + Daily Sunshine

Next up, we have my Autumn Bucket List and Daily Sunshine pages. I used a similar chevron pattern to decorate these spreads as the last spread (only with two stripes this time, rather than three), placing this decoration at the top of the left-hand page and the bottom of the right-hand page.

I plan to use my Autumn Bucket List page to jot down some of my favourite autumnal activities that I don’t want to miss out on before this season ends and the snowy, festive season begins! Autumn is my favourite season and I feel like I’ve missed a lot of it these past two months, so I really want to capitalise on the last of the cosy reds and golds!

My Daily Sunshine page serves exactly the same purpose as usual: each day, I write down one thing that happened that brought me joy or was just, in general, very sunshine-y. I’ve opted for a grid format this month, though I usually prefer a vertical format (it gives me more space to waffle!), so we’ll see how that goes.

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and I’ve used my classic layout again: trimmed down central pages, leaving a section on both the far left and far right exposed. In those exposed sections, I put my ‘master task lists’ (i.e. tasks I need to do, but don’t necessarily have a specific date for), so that I can refer to them easily throughout the month. The internal, trimmed-down pages then house my daily task lists, separated out into individual weeks.

I used a long piece of kraft paper for each of my master task lists. This means that no matter which page of the weekly spread section I am on, there is always a kraft paper accent to the spreads, so I was able to tie this section into my theme with minimal glue-ing in & effort.

For the weekly spreads themselves, I decorated the right and left side of each spread with that same two-stripe chevron design, though this time I drew it going vertically down the length of the pages and added some additional dots of colour to the pattern.

For the daily task lists, I split each spread up into 8 sections (4 down, 2 across). I used my brown fineliner to draw a ‘stitched’ border around 7 of the sections, leaving the final section plain, so that I could use it for the weekly subheadings, which help me to navigate through this section of the setup.

Finally, I used my alphabet stamps to add the weekly subheadings. As I mentioned, this particular alphabet stamp set doesn’t include numbers, so I had to write those in with my brown fineliner. It doesn’t look amazing, but I was kind of losing the will to live by this point, so I let it slide.

November Review

Finally, we come to my November Review spread! The layout of this one is exactly the same as in its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘November Review’ heading (here, stamped onto pieces of kraft paper) and a big space for sticking in a polaroid at the end of the month. On the left-hand page, I have sections for noting down the ATP & WTA (tennis) Top 10 players, a favourite memory and my 6 favourite songs of the month.

I also recreated the full colourwork design from the Cover Page on the right-hand page of this spread, just to really tie it back to the theme (and because I think it will make a great backdrop for the polaroid!).

Final Thoughts

I really love this spread and I’m so glad I opted to carry on with it instead of letting it go to the bullet journal graveyard when October got too overwhelming to finish it off. It was quite labour-intensive, but I think it’s really functional, autumnal and nice to look at, which is exactly what I need in a bullet journal setup this time of year! Admittedly, it probably does suit October slightly better than November (mainly because of the pumpkins), but what’s a girl gonna do? Sometimes life just gets in the way.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my November bullet journal setup!

Gemma

xxx

I opted for a super simple design this month: something really minimal (in fact, I actively challenged myself to be as minimal as possible, because, if you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I am many things, but minimal is not one of them), quick to create and easy to use.

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• September Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Sakura Pigma Micron black fineliners.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pen: 990 Light Sand.
• Ruler.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.

I meant what I said about being minimal this month!

Cover Page

I did some research on ‘minimal bullet journal spreads’ on Pinterest before diving into these spreads (mainly because of my aforementioned lack of inherent minimalism). I particularly liked this design, so I tried to replicate it for my Cover Page this month, using my Tombow pen in the shade Light Sand as the accent colour, instead of the green shade in the original design.

Monthly Calendar

To keep my Monthly Calendar as minimal as possible, I only separated the grid out horizontally, omitting my usual vertical lines. I have to say, I don’t love doing this (I’m a major waffler, so I need strict boundaries to keep my notes in check!), but it did make the process of setting this spread up much quicker! I used my Tombow pen to highlight the horizontal lines, wrote the dates on top of those coloured lines, then added the SEPTEMBER title at the bottom of the page.

Things to Look Forward to in Autumn + Daily Sunshine

Next up, we have two spreads that I have recently (re)introduced to my monthly setups & am still loving: my Things to Look Forward to page and my Daily Sunshine page!

The Daily Sunshine page is exactly the same as its previous iterations: just a vertical calendar format where I can write in one positive thing that happened on each day.

The Things to Look Forward to page is a little different this month, because, instead of being ‘Things to Look Forward to in September‘, it’s ‘Things to Look Forward to in Autumn‘! There’s a couple of reasons for this: firstly, I knew I had a lot of things happening in September that I was not looking forward to (just general life stuff: appointments etc) , so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to scrounge enough fun things together to make this page the encouraging, fun addition to my journal that it’s supposed to be. Secondly, autumn is by far my favourite season: I get so excited in the run-up to it and I just love every second of it when it comes, so I figured a seasonal version of this spread was more appropriate this time around!

Weekly Spreads

Now we come to my Weekly Spreads, for which I’ve used the exact same format as recent months: I’ve trimmed down the central pages in this section, so that there are two spaces, one on each side of the spread, that are visible no matter what weekly page I’m on. These spaces house my master task lists, where I note down jobs that I need to do, but don’t necessarily have an assigned day for yet.

I added a vertical stripe of colour down the left-hand side of each master task list, using my Tombow pen. In this stripe, I can add little checkboxes alongside each individual task, so that I can easily tick them off as I complete them.

As always, I used my corner rounder to soften up the corners of the cut pages. I like how this helps these pages fit in with the rest of the journal (which also has rounded corners!), plus I feel less at risk of paper-cuts this way, so it’s a win-win!

I opted to use the same layout for each of my Weekly Spreads this month, to speed up the process. I divided each spread into 8 sections (4 down, 2 across), and used 7 of the spaces for my daily task lists. I then used the remaining space for the weekly heading (which helps me to keep track of which week I’m on!).

As I’ve done throughout this setup, I used my Tombow pen to define the different sections, then wrote the corresponding dates/days of the week over the top.

September Review

Onto the final spread in this setup now: my September Review page. The content and basic layout of this spread is exactly the same as its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘September Review’ heading and a space to stick in a favourite polaroid from the month. On the left-hand page, I have sections for writing down the ATP & WTA (that’s tennis!) Top 10, my #1 memory and my 6 favourite songs from the month (or my ‘September Playlist’).

As with the other spreads in this setup, I’ve used my Tombow pen to highlight the different sections, then used my Sakura fineliners for the headings and extra decorations. For this spread, that mostly just equates to a few extra lines and some little doodles on the playlist section!

Final Thoughts

Okay, so I’m not a minimal person— we’ve established that! I’m pretty happy with how this spread turned out, though: I used every ounce of my self-restraint to keep it as minimal as possible (admittedly, that self-restraint slipped a little with my doodles on the final spread, but… oh well) and I think this definitely qualifies as a minimal setup, right?!

It may not be my usual style, but this setup was exceedingly easy to create, took almost no time to make AND is super functional, which is just what I needed this month with all of the life-induced chaos. All-in-all, yes, I do generally prefer a more detailed setup, but there’s a time and place for minimal and this month was definitely that!

I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my September setup! It won’t be too long before I’m posting again about my October one (and isn’t that a scary thought…)!

Gemma

xxx

I ended up scouring Pinterest for inspiration (if you don’t follow me on there, you should! I’m forever pinning delicious-looking recipes and crafty inspirations: my username is gemmaathomeblog!). In my scouring, I found myself really drawn to the simple floral patterns, particularly this one, which reminded me of a cute, patchwork quilt! I figured this would be a great starting point for an August setup: it has a summer-y, bright(ish), pastel colour palette, with a gentle sense of cosiness brought about by the patchwork vibe.

This, then, is my floral/patchwork bullet journal setup for August 2025! Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• August Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Coloured pencils (dark pink, pale pink, yellow, blue and green).
• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Ruler.

I wanted this setup to be really soft and gentle, so I opted to use coloured pencils throughout. I also used a brown fineliner, instead of my typical black, just to reduce the contrast and soften everything up even more. I ended up using the fineliner a lot throughout the setup, including to fill in lots of letters and scalloped borders, which took a very long time. If I’d thought ahead, I would definitely have using a thicker brown pen for this!

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover Page this month, I really wanted to create an eye-catching, patchwork design, similar to my inspiration photo, that filled the whole page. I alternated between blocks of colour and plain, white blocks that contained flower doodles, using the same five coloured pencils throughout. I put the ‘August’ heading in the bottom right-hand corner of the design, placing one letter in each square. I also added a scalloped border all the way around the edge of the design, using my brown fineliner. I love the pretty, cosy finish the border gives the design and I think it really helps to neaten up the (otherwise pretty messy) edges!

I decided to include a Quote Page this month, alongside my Cover Page, because I wasn’t quite sure what else to do with the empty space here. I’ve not been quite so into including quote pages in my setups in recent months, but I think this one is simple and pretty, plus it sits nicely alongside the more eye-catching cover page. My quote this month is from Taylor Swift’s song, ‘august‘, because, well, of course!

Monthly Calendar

Into my Monthly Calendar now and I wanted to create a patchwork-style grid layout here too, in a similar style to my Cover Page. However, I don’t love writing in pen over sections of coloured pencil, so I opted to just draw the outlines of the block colour grid sections, instead of colouring them all in. It’s not quite as eye-catching as the cover page, but it’s definitely more functional!

Just like with the previous spread, I wrote out the ‘August’ heading in a messy, bubble-style font (painstakingly drawn and filled in with my brown fineliner), added a scalloped border around the calendar grid and added a handful of flower doodles down the right-hand side of the spread, to help tie it into the theme even more.

Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine

This was a new spread combo for me last month and I LOVED using it so much, I just had to include it again this time around! On the left-hand side is my Things to Look Forward to in August page, where I can jot down all of the exciting/fun/interesting things that will (or might) be happening in August. I don’t sit down and fill this out all in one go— I just note things down as they come to me, so it’s very low pressure, but still a really fun and positive spread!

On the right-hand page is my Daily Sunshine page, which, if you’ve been here a while, you’ll recognise as one of my classic spreads. Essentially, at the end of each day I just write down one positive thing that happened: it can be anything! This helps me look back on each day with a more positive mindset (having to find a good thing even on the worst days will have that effect). It’s also so nice to look back on these spreads and relive all the lovely memories from the months gone by! I’d been having trouble keeping up with this spread recently, so I left it out of my journal for a few months there, but I reintroduced it properly last month and really held myself accountable for keeping up with it, which seemed to work, so I’m glad to have it back in my life now!

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and, as always, I’ve trimmed down the central pages (and used my trusty corner rounder, to minimise the risk of paper-induced injuries!) to create spaces on the far left and right-hand sides of this section. In those spaces, I put my general task lists, so that I can see them throughout the month, no matter what day/week I’m on.

The first 3 days of August run from Friday-Sunday this year, so I opted to just lump them in with the first full week, which cut down the number of spreads that I needed to set up. Therefore, the first weekly spread contains 10 daily boxes, while the remaining 3 contain the usual 7.

Throughout this section, I (painstakingly) drew scalloped borders around every large box (including the two task boxes). When it came to dividing up the daily boxes, I used the same coloured outline technique as my Monthly Calendar.

For the dates in the daily boxes, I drew one flower doodle in each box, then wrote the corresponding initial of the day of the week and the date itself right on top of those doodles, in the centre of each one.

I forgot to leave space for the subheading on the first weekly spread (oops!), but, on the others, I just used my brown fineliner to quickly write in which dates each spread spanned, then added a couple more flower doodles for good measure.

August Review

Finally, we have my August Review page, which has pretty much stayed the same (in terms of content/layout, at least), since October 2023! I guess that it’s been working for me, because that’s a looonnnggg time.

As always, the right-hand page features the ‘August Review’ heading (here written using a combination of the bubble-style font and a basic, lowercase font) and a large space for me to stick in a polaroid at the end of the month. This month, I decorated that space in the same way as the Cover Page, sketching out a patchwork-style design with my coloured pencils.

On the left-hand page, I have some smaller boxes (all outlined with that same, scalloped border). These will house the ATP/WTA (that’s tennis, for those who aren’t major nerds) Top 10s, my #1 Memory from the month gone by and, at the bottom of the page, my favourite songs from August. Usually I leave space to write in 6 songs, but, just because of the way this layout worked out, I only have 5 spaces this time around.

Final Thoughts

I really love this setup— it’s so fun, sweet and cosy, but still bright and summer-y: it’s exactly what I wanted (but didn’t know I wanted) for this month’s setup.

It was a bit of a pain to set up, mainly because I decided to use a fineliner for the ridiculous amount of scalloped borders and bubble fonts (very silly of me), but also because it involved a hefty amount of colouring! The colouring though, was actually quite calming: it was a bit like using a colouring book: very mindful! The fineliner-ing was less mindful, mainly because as much I love the Uni Pin fineliner, I find it SO unbelievably uncomfortable to hold?! You have to hold it a certain way to get the best ink flow but, in doing that, your finger rests just where the sharp edge of the pen is. Overall, not a pleasant experience. I’m seriously considering looking into other brown fineliners when this one runs out, just to avoid the pain!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my August bullet journal setup! Let me know what you think of it!

Gemma

xxx

Wimbledon is synonymous with a lot of things: grass courts, Pimm’s, all-white outfits and, most significantly, strawberries! I’ve done some pretty explicitly ‘Wimbledon’-themed bullet journal setups in the past (see my July 2023 setup here on the blog) , but this year I wanted something a little more subtle, so I decided to really embrace the strawberry vibe and make a whole setup dedicated to the fruit!

After the rather… labour-intensive… process of my 2025 Mid-Year Bullet Journal Setup, I desperately needed something quick and easy for this month and this might just be my quickest and easiest bullet journal setup yet! It uses just 5 pieces of equipment (3 pens, 1 pair of scissors and 1 corner rounder, to be exact) and I set the whole thing up in one speedy sitting. The dream!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine
• Weekly Spreads
• July Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To make this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Crayola SuperTips, red & green.
• Sakura Pigma Micron black fineliner, size 10.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.

That’s it!

Cover Page

I saw this bullet journal page on Pinterest recently and really loved how the strawberries were drawn, so I wanted to mimic that style in my own setup. To draw the strawberries, I doodled some slightly rounded triangle shapes with my red Crayola SuperTip, added some leaves with the green SuperTip, then used my black Sakura Micron pen to doodle the outline over the top. It was so easy and, as an added bonus, they were supposed to look wonky, so I didn’t have to worry about making them perfect!

For the Cover Page, I doodled a wave of strawberries right across the double-page spread, then wrote the ‘July’ heading in the space at the bottom right, using my Sakura Micron. I had initially planned to add a ‘Things to Look Forward to’ section on the left-hand page, as I did with my June Setup, but I really liked how this spread looked as it was: super clean and minimal, so I opted to leave that section out and give it its own page later on!

Monthly Calendar

Onto the Monthly Calendar now and I’ve used my classic grid layout (where each box is 6×6 dot grid squares). Instead of drawing out all the lines, I opted to just mark the corners of each box using my Sakura Micron, which really did help to speed up the process. I added a tiny strawberry doodle to the top right of each box, then wrote the corresponding dates over the top (this was a slightly less speedy/minimal decision, but I think that it does look kind of cute!). To finish off this page, I added some more strawberry doodles around the edge of the calendar, plus the ‘July’ title at the bottom.

Things to Look Forward to + Daily Sunshine

Now we come to the aforementioned Things to Look Forward to page! I kept this page super simple, just putting the heading in the middle (using a mix of fonts, which I LOVE doing!), then adding a couple of strawberry doodles for good measure. I’ll fill the blank space around the heading with little notes of all of the things I have to look forward to in July: I did this last month and really enjoyed having it there, so I wanted to include it this month too!

Alongside that page is my Daily Sunshine spread, which has been M.I.A. for a few months, but is back now! I’d been having trouble keeping up with spreads like this that require consistent, daily input, so I took a little break from it to relieve some of the (completely self-inflicted) pressure. I’m determined to get back into it though and, so far this month, it’s been going well! Each day, I write down one positive thing that happened: a little ray of daily sunshine. This is a great mindfulness exercise, plus it’s super nice to look back at and see a whole cluster of positive things in one place.

Weekly Spreads

Into the Weekly Spreads now and, as always, I’ve trimmed down the central pages to make room for master task lists on either side of my daily boxes. I used my corner rounder on the trimmed down pages to soften them up (and reduce my risk of paper cuts, because I have a deep, irrational fear of paper cuts…).

Much like with my Calendar spread, I just marked out the corners of all of the boxes in these spreads, as opposed to drawing out the full lines. I think this is perhaps more effective here than in the calendar, because the boxes are larger and more spaced out, so the pages look less overcrowded.

For all of the headings/subheadings in this section, I used a combination of a block capitals and a cursive-style font, both written using the same Sakura Micron pen. I love combining fonts like this: I think it adds interest and makes everything look just that little bit more fancy!

In each daily box, I added a large dot of red/green (alternating the colours as I went) using my Crayola SuperTips. I wrote the corresponding initial of the day of the week and the date itself over the top of those dots, using my Sakura Micron.

On the final weekly spread, I included the first 3 days of August, just because I quite like being able to see the whole week at a glance, even when it falls across two months.

July Review

The final spread in this setup is my July Review page, which contains all the same elements as its previous iterations in recent months.

On the right-hand page, I have the heading (written in that same combination of fonts, using my Sakura Micron) and another cascade of strawberry doodles. This leaves me plenty of space to stick in a polaroid from the month: the strawberry doodles decorate the page in the meantime and will still peek through around the polaroid, decorating the page later on too, even when it has been filled in!

On the left-hand page, I have my typical 4 sections: ATP & WTA Top 10, #1 Memory and July Playlist. The tennis top tens are just for fun, because I like to look back at them and see how they’ve changed over the year. The #1 Memory is a fun way for me to sum up the month gone by and the July Playlist allows me to keep track of my favourite songs throughout the year (I have space to jot down my top 6 songs from the month!).

To tie the left-hand page into the rest of the setup, I’ve used the same Sakura Micron to write all of the headings and mark out the boxes, added more strawberry doodles and used my red and green Crayola SuperTips to highlight the different subheadings throughout.

Final Thoughts

This setup was so unbelievably easy to create (and actually very freeing— as I said, the strawberries are supposed to look messy and imperfect, which means, excitingly, you have to be messy and imperfect when you doodle them!). I love the minimal vibe it has going on: it’s clean and modern, but also fun and whimsical (strawberry doodles have that effect), which I think is such a fun, unexpected combination.

I realise I’m posting this setup quite late in the month (naturally, I fell behind), but it’s nice because I can also tell you how functional I’m finding this setup: as I mentioned, I have actually been keeping up with my Daily Sunshine page so far and I’ve found the clean, minimal vibe super conducive to effective planning and organising!

All in all, I really like this setup (and I like it all the more for how easy and speedy it was to create!). I hope you do too!

Gemma

xxx

This time around, I’ve gone for a vaguely eclectic theme that I’m dubbing my ‘ransom note, high school notebook, scrapbook-style’ theme (a super concise and punchy name, right?). It’s basically a fun amalgamation of different papers, stickers and (rather painstakingly) cut-out letters/numbers from a newspaper, all stuck into the pages of my journal. In other words, it’s organised chaos (and I’m kind of obsessed with it).

Let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

• Journal
• Equipment
• Nameplate
• Cover Page
• Future Log
• Tennis Schedule
• Appointment Notes
• Wishlist + Prescriptions
• TV + Reading Trackers
• Blog Planning
• Final Thoughts

Journal

I’ve been using the dot grid notebooks from Coral and Ink for my bullet journals for a while now. A while back, I bought a few journals in their B-Grade sale (where they sell slightly damaged/imperfect journals at a discounted price) and have been using them ever since! This is my last journal from that haul, which means I’ll have to buy a new journal for 2026 (in fact, I’m thinking of getting an extra large journal with enough pages that I won’t have to set up these initial pages twice throughout the year… if I can find one!).

This particular journal has a pale green cover with a little golden motif of a pretzel (yum) and some flowers (not yum, but very pretty!) on the front. It has gilded edges with a pretty flower pattern, plus an elastic closure, two ribbon bookmarks, a back pocket AND a pen holder. I really do love these journals: the pages are super heavy duty, so you don’t have to worry too much about your pens bleeding through and the vegan leather covers are really durable.

Equipment

For this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Sharpie Ultra Fine Point permanent marker, black. This is great for using on paper that you stick into your journal because it dries super quickly + doesn’t smudge/ghost, but I wouldn’t recommend writing directly onto the pages of your journal with it, because it does tend to bleed through.
• Kraft sticky notes.
• Purple lined + coloured paper.
• Assorted stickers.
• Newspaper (I used a copy of Waitrose Weekend, which contains a really good range of fonts!).
• Alphabet stamps + black ink pad.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Sakura Quickie Glue pen.
• Glue stick.
• Ruler.

Nameplate

I figured I’d start as I meant to go on with the Nameplate in this journal, so I made up my name using an assortment of letters that I had (rather painstakingly, I admit) cut out of an old copy of Waitrose Weekend. I found the most efficient way of doing this was to cut out whole words that were written in fun/nicely-sized fonts, then cut out the individual letters as and when needed (this makes it easier to find the letters when you need them!). I used my Quickie Glue Pen to stick in all of the letters (though I used a regular glue stick for sticking in larger pieces of paper throughout the rest of setup, because I’m not that patient!).

I also added a little cluster of stickers to this page, for extra decoration, and an exclamation mark, to help infuse the 6 months ahead with a sense of fun and excitement (that should work, right?). If you’re wondering why the second ‘m’ looks weird and are suspicious that its really just an upside-down ‘w’, you would be 100% right.

Cover Page

Onto the Cover Page now and, instead of a Quote Page alongside it (as I usually do), I decided to add a small space to write out some goals on the left-hand side. I’ve never been great at setting (and sticking to) goals, so I’m trying to keep this section very minimal: just 5 clear, attainable, but still slightly ambitious, goals. I actually haven’t worked these out yet, but I will! Either way, it’s probably more useful than a quote that I’m unlikely to look at again, so it works out!

Future Log

My Future Log is up next, which is basically a year-long calendar, squished into two double-page spreads. I like to include the 6 months that my journal focuses on, plus a further 6 months after that, because I often get sent appointment dates quite a long way in advance and I like to be able to keep track of them. In this journal, then, the first half of the Future Log focuses on July-December 2025 and the second half focuses on January-June 2026.

So that I’d only have to stick in the letters for the Future Log heading once, I opted to use a Dutch Door-style layout for this spread. To do this, I trimmed off the very top of the right-hand page (and used my corner rounder to soften up that cut corner, because I value the intact skin on my fingers).

For each month, I made a tiny, grid-style calendar using a piece of kraft grid paper (technically, I used grid-pattern sticky notes, but that’s just what I had). This was great because the sticky note grid was much smaller than the dot grid of the notebook, which made it much easier to fit everything into this spread! I also used a long strip of purple lined paper for a vertical calendar for each month. Again, the lines on this paper were thinner than the ones in the journal itself, which also helped me to use the space more efficiently. I used my black fine tip Sharpie to write in the weekend dates, because I like to be able to see at a glance when my beloved rest days are taking place!

This combination of calendar styles/layouts is my favourite way to set up a Future Log: the mini grid calendar helps me to visualise the structure of the month, the vertical calendar gives me plenty of space to write in any events and the highlighted weekend dates really helps me to keep track of where I’m at!

Tennis Schedule

Ah, into the most niche section in this setup (and a longtime favourite spread of mine!): my Tennis Schedule. This spread is an absolute menace to set up, spans 3 whole double-page spreads and is ridiculously nerdy, but I love it. Essentially, it’s just a place for me to keep track of what tennis tournaments are taking place when/where and record which player won each one. It sounds ridiculous, but I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to just whip out this spread whenever someone asks me which tournaments are coming up next.

The setup of this spread is on the more complicated side, but, essentially, I’ve just trimmed down the two central pages (and rounded off the corners, of course). The ‘2025 Tennis Schedule’ heading goes on these two trimmed down pages, then the schedule itself goes onto the (trimmed down) double-page spreads on either side.

For the schedule itself, I’ve used the same table-style format that I always use for these spreads, where the left-hand side focuses on the ATP (men’s) tour and the right-hand side focuses on the WTA (women’s) tour. The week number goes down the middle (this time around, written on some star stickers!), then the date that each tournament begins goes on the next column out on each side. The tournament locations go in the next columns, then the names of the winners will go in the outermost columns. As always, I use a simple rang of symbols to indicate the level of each tournament: a full circle is for Grand Slams, a 3/4 circle is for Masters 1000s, a 1/2 circle is for 500s, a 1/4 circle is for 250s and a star is for other assorted tennis events (including group events like the Davis/United Cup and year-end events like the ATP/Next Gen Finals).

Overall, my Tennis Schedule is stupidly complicated and downright unhinged, but I love it and I could never let it go.

Appointment Notes

Next up, we have my Appointment Notes. Previously, I’ve only allowed a single page for this section, but I have found myself reluctant to use it in case I fill it up too quickly and run out of space (which is, I know, counterintuitive)! This time around, then, I decided to give it a full, double-page spread, to encourage myself to utilise it, because I do think it will be helpful to keep notes (however brief) of the things that I discuss with my healthcare team, what decisions have been made, test results etc.

This spread is basically just a table of 3 columns: the date of the appointment, the appointment itself (i.e. which doctor/team), and a much larger space for notes. I haven’t sectioned off any rows because I don’t know how much space I’ll need for each appointment.

Wishlist + Prescriptions

Now it’s time for my Wishlist + Prescription pages, or, as I have been fondly thinking of it: my ‘What I Want vs What I Need‘ spread.

My Wishlist is on the left-hand page. I like to separate this out into categories, so I’ve done that here by using little squares of Kraft paper (again, of sticky note origin).

My Prescription Tracker is on the right-hand page. I’ve talked about this spread before, because it really is invaluable for keeping track of medications! I’ll put the initial of each medication in the stars along the top, allotting one column to each medication. Each mini table represents one ‘counting of the medicines’ event (and honestly, it is a bit of an event!) and I’ll put the date of each event on the hearts alongside the tables. From there, I just fill in each box: the number of tablets I currently have, the number of days that equates to and the date on which I will run out (I literally Google ‘x days from today’, using the number from the second row, which greatly speeds up this process!). Filling in this spread does take a bit of a time, but it is important to keep track of these things to make sure I never run out of important medication, so I try to just fill it in any time I get a new stock of my prescriptions.

TV + Reading Trackers

My TV + Reading Tracker spreads aren’t essential planning features, but I do enjoy looking back through my journals and seeing what I was watching/reading at each point in my life, so I like to include them anyway!

For my TV Tracker, I’ll write the name of the show I’m watching in the left-hand column, then draw as many little circles in the right-hand column as there are series of the show. As I watch each series, I colour in the respective circle, thus keeping track of where I’m at in the show. It’s a little ridiculous, but a lot of fun to look back on!

For my Reading Tracker, I put the ‘number’ of the book in the far-left column (I like to see how many books I’ve read in any given year, so I usually roll this number over from the first 6 months of the year). In the next column, I put the title of the book, then the final two columns are for the date that I start/finish the book. I mainly use Storygraph to keep track of my reading habits, but I like to transfer that information to my journal too, so I can look back on it more easily!

Blog Planning

The final spread in this setup is a more general spread for Blog Planning. I like to have a space for notes/ideas, but I wasn’t quite sure what I needed out of this spread, so I decided to keep it simple and create a few different spaces for my notes, without labelling anything specifically. We’ll see what it becomes as the months progress!

Final Thoughts

I’m kind of… obsessed with this spread? It was a menace to set up: I was very sick of cutting up and glueing in all of the letters (and trying to find some of the more elusive letters!) by the end of it. I did, however, very much enjoy sticking in all of the stickers (so easy! so fun!) and just chaotically sticking in paper, watching as the pages went from bland and sad to messy and fun and pretty.

I was worried about this setup looking too ransom/blackmail note-y, but I think all of the purple/kraft paper/fun stickers give it much more of an early 2000s, teen movie vibe, which I’m definitely happier with!

Overall, this was a labour-intensive setup, but I’m really happy with how it turned out and I think that all of the spreads will be super useful!

Gemma

xxx

This bullet journal setup ended up with a slightly strange hybrid of themes, but I actually think that they come together really nicely to form a super summer-y, happy setup. I’ve used a combination of asters, wavy line work, gingham patterns and confetti doodles to infuse this setup with some sunshine-y joy and, despite the fact I had no set plan going into it, I’m surprisingly pleased with how it turned out!

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• June Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Tombow ABT Dual Brush Pens: Pale Yellow (062), Periwinkle (603) and Purple Sage (623).
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder (this is optional, but I like to round off the corners of the pages I trim down, to minimise the risk of sharp paper-induced injuries).

Cover Page

Throughout this setup, I used my Tombow pens for the majority of the doodles/decorations. I used Pale Yellow to add all of the gingham designs and draw the centres of the asters, Purple Sage to draw the aster petals and then the fine end of Periwinkle to add some little lines to define the centres of the asters. I used all three Tombow colours for the confetti doodles, then used my Sepia fineliner for all of the text and the lines, which I kept purposely messy and wavy (which, as an added bonus, massively speeds up the process!).

Typically, I include a quote page alongside my Cover Page, but, recently, I’ve been struggling with using quotes in my monthly setup: they’ve been feeling a little like something I include because I always have, rather than being an intentional addition. This month, I decided to use that space for something else instead: a list of things to look forward to in June! I’m someone who loves looking forward to things, so I think that having a list here full of all the exciting (big and small) things coming up this month will be a really positive addition to my journal.

Monthly Calendar

A Calendar spread is a staple in my monthly bullet journal setups: it really helps me to visualise the month ahead and keep track of any events/appointments. The Future Log at the start of my bullet journal is my main calendar, but it’s laid out in a vertical format (so I can fit in a whole year’s worth of events more easily!), so I find it helpful to add in a spread each month with a more visual, grid format too.

For this grid calendar, each box is made up of 6 x 6 dot grid squares. I added a little dot of Pale Yellow to the bottom right corner of each box, then wrote the dates over the top of those dots using my Sepia fineliner.

Weekly Spreads

Now we come to the Weekly Spreads, where I write my daily to-do lists. This is the section of my monthly setups that I use most frequently: it really helps me plan out my days and gives me a good overview of each week as it comes.

I’m still using my favourite layout for these weekly spreads, where I trim down the central pages of the section (and round off the corners!), leaving spaces on both the far right and left that are visible no matter what week you’re on. I use those spaces for my ‘master task lists’: tasks I know I need to do at some point, but don’t necessarily have a specific date in mind for yet.

There isn’t much space on the weekly spreads themselves, so I opted to incorporate the gingham design into the master task list sections instead. Admittedly, I’m not sure how legible my task lists will be when written on top of this pattern, but I did want to include the gingham design somewhere! I guess we’ll just have to see…

To save myself some time, I included 8 days, as opposed to 7, in the first and last ‘weekly’ spreads (June started on a Sunday and ends on a Monday this year). I often do this, just so that I don’t have to set up as many pages (less effort and less time needed: it’s a win-win!).

June Review

Finally, we come to my June Review section. This is a spread that I like to include in every monthly setup: it functions as a kind of ‘wrap-up’ of the month, which I find really fun to refer back to.

The format of this review spread is exactly the same as its previous iterations: on the right-hand page, I have the ‘June Review’ heading and a large space to stick in a polaroid from the month gone by. Then, on the left-hand page, I have spaces to note down the ATP & WTA Top 10 players at the end of the month (still have the tennis bug, apparently!), as well as a space to write down my favourite memory from the month.

At the bottom of that left-hand page, I also have six spaces to write down my favourite songs from the month. I find this particularly fun to check back on, seeing what songs have consistently been in my top 6 and remembering the memories/experiences associated with each one. To add an extra bit of whimsy to this section, I added a different, random doodle to each of the yellow dots in these sections.

Final Thoughts

This was another super quick and easy bullet journal setup, which was exactly what I needed (seeing as I started (and, thankfully, finished) this setup on 1st June!).

I have to say, I think this spread turned out SO summer-y and joyful: the gingham design makes me think of picnics, the asters are super pretty and remind me of the lovely gift from my dad, and the confetti adds a sense of celebration and fun. I’m not usually a huge fan of lemon yellow, but I really love how it looks with both of the purple shades here: the spread feels very sunshine-y and sweet.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my June bullet journal setup. Hopefully, next month, I’ll be a bit more prepared and not end up making my July setup in… July!

Gemma

xxx

For my theme this month, I was inspired by the menus that I designed for my brother’s wedding at the end of April.

I used a similar bow/ribbon motif to the menus throughout my whole setup, and the same two shades of blue coloured pencil for all of the text/lines throughout (I’m not kidding— no pens were harmed in the making of this setup). This was a super simple, super quick and easy setup (which is JUST what I needed after a busy April), though it was also kind of a lesson in not attempting to do cursive lettering with blunt coloured pencils (your girl was STRUGGLING), so, you know, there’s positives and negatives.

Anywhooooo, let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• May Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

I only used 5 pieces of equipment to create this setup (I really meant what I said about keeping things simple this month):

• Light blue coloured pencil.
• Mid blue coloured pencil.
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder (this is optional, but I like to minimise my risk of paper cuts as much as possible when I’m trimming down pages).
• Ruler.

Cover + Quote Page

For both the Cover and the Quote Page, I leaned pretty heavily on the menu inspiration, placing two bow motifs in opposite corners on the page, just like in the original design. For all of the bows throughout this setup, I used a single line of the light blue pencil to sketch out the bow shape, then added a thicker version, using the darker blue pencil, over the top.

For the Cover Page, I wrote ‘may’ in the centre of the page, first in the light blue pencil, then over the top in the darker blue pencil, just like with the bows. I used this same, cursive lettering style throughout the setup (though, as I mentioned in the intro to this post, with varying degrees of success).

For the Quote Page, I experienced my traditional, monthly Quote Panic, where I can’t decide what quote to put in my journal, despite unfailingly allocating a whole A5 page to it. Then, I remembered that my birthday is in May, so I thought a nice quote to commemorate that would fit right in. Admittedly, ‘another year on’ could sound a little morbid/morose, but, I swear, that wasn’t intentional. I actually set this page up last, and, having successfully talked myself out of adding any non-bow decorations to ALL of the other spreads, I finally caved on this one and added some hearts. Naturally, I regret it.

Monthly Calendar

I used my standard format for my Monthly Calendar this month (i.e. a table of 6×6 dot grid size boxes, with one box per day). I drew it out with the two shades of blue coloured pencils and intentionally made my lines a little wavy, to give the whole thing a more ribbon-y feel. I sharpened the darker blue pencil as much as I could without breaking the nib, then used that to write in the dates in the upper left-hand corner of each box. Finally, I added another bow to the top left and another ‘may’ heading (though a slightly less neat one here, that looks more like ‘mayo’ than ‘may’… No worries though, mayo is an important condiment that deserves to be honoured).

Weekly Spreads

For my Weekly Spreads, I’ve gone for the same layout that I’ve been using every month recently, where I trim down the central pages (which house my daily task lists) so that, no matter what day I’m on, I can always see my master task lists (which sit on the far left and right-hand side of the section).

For the daily task lists, I used the same style of line-work that I did for the monthly calendar: just wavy lines in the two shades of blue.

I also added the dates into the top-left corner of the respective boxes with the darker blue shade (again, with the pencil sharpened to within an inch of its life…).

With the remaining space on each Weekly Spread, I added a subheading (just to help me find my place easily throughout the setup). For this, I wrote out ‘may’ in the same lettering style that I’ve used throughout the setup, followed by the dates each page spans, in a simple, sans-serif font, written with the darker blue coloured pencil.

I wanted the master task lists to stand out a little bit more than the daily tasks lists, so I added bows to the top of each box and drew in thicker, more ribbon-like lines with the darker blue pencil over the top of the single line of lighter blue pencil (just like with the bow motifs I’d already drawn). I like the way this ties in the bow theme, while still using up only a small amount of space.

May Review

Finally, we have my May Review page. As always, the content of this one has stayed pretty much the same as my previous iterations: on the left-hand page, I have spaces to note down my 6 favourite songs from the monthy, keep track of the ATP/WTA Top 10s (your girl still can’t shake the tennis bug) and write out my favourite memory. On the right-hand page, I have the ‘May Review’ heading and a space to stick in a polaroid.

In terms of decoration, I used the exact same style for the right-hand page as I did for both my Cover and Quote pages, drawing heavily on the menu inspiration, with the two bows in opposite corners. However, on this page, I moved the heading to the top of the page, so that I would have space to stick in my polaroid. On the left-hand page, I filled most of the space with the boxes, drawn in that similar, ribbon-like style with the two shades of blue. I used the rest of the space for the subheadings, which I wrote in that same, two-toned, cursive style, to add an extra bit of prettiness to this side of the spread too.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I’m actually really happy with how this spread turned out! It’s definitely one of the simplest I’ve done (and the quickest— I think this whole setup only took me about an hour from start to finish, which is SUPER fast by my standards). Sometimes I felt like I absolutely nailed the cursive lettering, sometimes I definitely did NOT, but I guess that’s just the nature of the beast. As I mentioned earlier, I don’t think coloured pencils are quite the best tool for neat lettering, so I guess I fell at the first hurdle anyway…

My favourite thing about this spread is definitely the monochrome blue thing it’s got going on. I was worried it would be too much blue, all in your face, but I actually think it’s really striking, while still being gentle and feminine, so I really like it!

So that’s my bullet journal setup for May 2025! I hope you like it— I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx

April, though, is another story (new month, new me and all that). I’m back to my usual bullet journalling ways, with a proper (albeit still relatively simple) setup, vaguely inspired by 70s-style line art, but mainly just an excuse for me to pass some time by colouring.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

Table of Contents

• Equipment
• Cover + Quote Page
• Monthly Calendar
• Weekly Spreads
• April Review
• Final Thoughts

Equipment

To create this setup, I used the following equipment:

• Uni Pin Fine Line pen: 0.5, sepia.
• Coloured pencils (for reference, I used the shades Yellow Ochre C050, Sea Green C380 and Pimento C540, from a much older version of this set, which is crazy expensive and not at all necessary for this setup, but very nice all the same).
• Scissors.
• Corner rounder.
• Circle stencil (specifically, I used the 30mm diameter circle stencil from this set).
• Pencil.
• Ruler.
• Eraser.

Cover + Quote Page

For my Cover + Quote Page this month, I opted to go for a pretty minimal, but still quite striking design, with this big line art detail and block capital heading. To make the line art, I sketched out the design with pencil first (using the circle stencil to map out the rounded shape of the corners), before adding the colour (coloured pencils, after all, cannot be erased if you go wrong…). To make the block capital heading, I drew the outlines of the letters with my brown Uni Pin pen, then (rather painstakingly, I must say), filled each letter in with the same pen.

It took me a while to decide on a quote for this month, but I eventually settled on this lyric by Ed Sheeran. I’ve been listening to Subtract again recently, and I just though that this quote had the perfect, sweet, springtime vibe that I wanted for this month.

Monthly Calendar

As usual, for my Monthly Calendar, I’ve opted for a simple grid format (where each box is 6×6 dot grid squares). I drew out the grid with that same brown pen, then wrote in the dates with the same pen. I also added a thin, drop shadow border to the boxes, just to help them stand out and add a bit of dimension to the spread. I placed the ‘April’ heading on top of the line art design on this spread, but I’m not super happy with how it looks… I definitely prefer the contrast of the brown text against the white page— I think it gets a little lost among the other colours here.

Weekly Spreads

Into my Weekly Spreads now and, as I’ve been doing in all of my setups recently, I’ve trimmed down the inner pages so that my master task lists on the left and right are always visible, no matter what week I’m on. I used my corner rounder to soften the corners of those trimmed pages, partly because it fits with the vibe of the rounded line art, but mainly to minimise my risk of paper-induced injuries!

For the line art in this section, I tried to make it so that, no matter what page I’m on, the line art flows seamlessly from one side of the spread to the other. This took a little extra time, but I do think it looks really neat.

I added drop shadows to all of the boxes, just like with my Monthly Calendar, to help them stand out on the page. I also added some simple lines to the daily task boxes and page headings, just to add a bit of extra detail.

My daily task boxes aren’t huge this month (serves me right for all of that extra decoration at the top of the pages), but they’ll still be helpful for jotting down events and appointments, especially considering I have all the extra space for listing general tasks on the left and right side.

The last three days of April fall at the start of a new week, so I opted to include smaller sections for the first four days of May on my final weekly spread too, just so I can have a clearer picture of the whole week, when it comes.

April Review

Finally, we have my April Review spread, which, as always, features a large, empty space on the right-hand page for me to stick in a polaroid from the month gone by, then more specific boxes on the left-hand page for me to fill in at the end of the month. These boxes are pretty much the same each month: I have one to list out the tennis top 10s (ATP & WTA, respectively), because I like to see how they change over the course of the year, one to write down my favourite memory from the month and one to note down my favourite songs from the month (I like to narrow this list down to six each month, so I’ve split that box up in advance). I ran out of space for a subheading for my music choices, but I’ll remember what it’s for!

Final Thoughts

I really like this setup— it was super easy to create, but the process was also quite mindful (it was basically 90% colouring, which was very fun). It’s simple and relatively minimal, but it doesn’t feel minimal (which is good, because I’m not a very minimal person). I continue in my belief that drop shadows make everything better, and I think that this setup really supports that hypothesis!

I have had a few issues with the coloured pencil sections transferring to the opposite page while the journal is closed, but it does come off pretty easily with a gentle erasing, so it’s not the end of the world (just a little annoying). I would have liked to include more colours in my line art— perhaps some more earthy browns or oranges, to really give these spreads more of that 70s vibe, but I didn’t want the line art to be too fussy (with thinner lines) or too dominant (with more thick lines) on the spreads, so I had to narrow down my colours a little.

I should also definitely get a brown pen with a thicker nib, because filling in all those block capitals and drop shadows with a 0.5 size fineliner was… not the most efficient use of my time, but it looks good, so I can’t really complain!

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my April bullet journal setup (especially after the March setup was MIA…). I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Gemma

xxx