September Plan With Me 2022

Before I can start talking about my September Plan With Me, I first need to recap what happened in August.

Closing off August, I look back and think holy smokes a lot happened within a short period of time. At the point of writing this post I’ve managed to create my first ever shop (www.shopcreatewithcait.com) where I plan to sell bullet journal support and resources to help channel creativity and organization. Yes, I just plug in my shop, and it mission statement into the blog post. Shameless plug (heehee).

But in all seriousness, getting my business up and officially running full time feels good. Since starting bullet journaling the fear of failure has outweighed my desire to start a business. No more! Getting started was hard. Continuing to go forward less. I built up enough momentum that I just keep on keeping on and crushing the goals I’ve set out to do. I’ve reached out to companies and got an opportunity to create classes to teach journaling and organization.

Coming into September I want to continue moving in the right direction. Building and executing goals. I’m in the “You are a Badass” mentality and am going to ride that wave!

September Plan With Me

Last month I had the first ever theme vote on my YouTube channel and since it worked out so well thought I would bring it back again. This month Dragonflies were voted, and although I provided the suggestions to choose from, I was also like hmm okay what to do… not ideal.

That is when it happened I was scrolling on Instagram and another creator, daisyvibestudio, created a painting with lily pads and dragonflies. Then when I was up at my girlfriend’s trailer and all the dragonflies were by the water, I thought okay this is a sign to do the dragonflies over the water for my theme. Right away it got me thinking of doing the theme a little more subtle than themes I’ve done.

Supplies

Book

Archer & Olive Notebook 192 pages (use code “createwithcait10” for 10% off)

Paint Supplies

Winsor & Newton Gouache Paints

• Primary Red
• Permanent Yellow Deep
• Permanent Green Middle
• Ultramarine Blue (Darker Blue)
• Primary Blue (Lighter Blue)
• Ivory Black
• Zinc White

Detail Brushes

Paint Pallet

Canson Watercolour Paper XL

Pens and Markers

Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen, 2-Pack (soft brush)

Tombow Dual Brush Pens Grey Scale (N89)

Sakura Pigma Micron Pens (08, 03)

Acrylograph Collections (Jewel and Cool Fall) use code “createwithcait10” for 10% off)

Other

Scissors

Crafter’s Tape

Cover Page

I pulled out my gouache paints in what feels like forever. I think the last time I sat down and used them was for my April coffee theme, NOPE actually it was for my May mushroom theme. I find a peace in painting. I get so hyper focussed on what I’m doing that it drowns out everything buzzing around in my mind. This cover page was a little… okay a lot… out of my comfort zone for sure. Whenever I tackle any artwork, I always find it easier to breakdown a piece into manageable bite sized items.

• What shapes make up the image?
• What are the main colours? How can you simply them?
• Start from the back and layer things up
• And pencil guides are your friends!

I started with the water because that item was going to be the furthest back. Anything else would be layered overtop and cleaned up with the other colours I am using. To create the water, I mixed in the following colours at about this ratio:

Water = ¼ green, ½ white, 1 dark blue, 2 light blue, ¼ black (adjust as necessary)

Working from the back to front, the next thing to paint were the lily pads. This is the one part of the piece that I was the most stressed for, I’m not going to sugar coat it. So, thinking of my steps above here is what I came up with.

A lily pad is just a Pacman with veining through it. To make the shadows, think of it like adding a drop shadow to a letter. By breaking things down this way make it a little easier for my brain to process and not become too overwhelmed by getting to the end product.

To create the colours for the lily pads, I kept it simple using 3 green tones. The ratio below started as my base. I then either added white/yellow to lighten, or black/green to darken.

Lily pads = 1 yellow, ½ green (add white/yellow to lighten, add black/green to darken)

Being that the lily pads were layered over top of one another, I first started from the back with the darkest colour and moved forward with the lighter ones. To add depth to the piece I came back overtop with either a highlight or shadow on or around the lily pad.

To make this a little easier think of where the sun would be in relation to the lily pads. I thought my sun was overtop to the bottom left corner. Throughout painting this piece I would move my hand from the bottom corner to the lily pad I was painting the shadow for to help provide a visual. You may feel weird at first like I did but it worked so I’m not complaining!

As dragonflies were the theme, here is where they make a subtle introduction just flying around. I needed something to contrast the green and blue colours so I looked at their complimentary colours, and went with a salmon tone.

Dragonfly = ½ red + ¼ yellow + 1 white (add white for the wings, add red for shadows)

I finished off the page with some green dots and that was it! I honestly can’t say how proud I am of this page and how easy it really was by just breaking down the different elements. Going forward I really want to challenge myself more to try what I think are harder concepts because this one turned out AMAZING!!

Monthly Calendar

Each month I find small improvements in my bullet journal and adjust it based on the needs that I have in the stage of life I’m in. I think that is the thing I love about bullet journaling is that I don’t have to have the same spreads each time or be the same as anyone else.

What I’ve noticed using my business/goal pages from my August plan with me is that I really don’t need something HUGE to write out the things are happening in the month. So, I thought why not give that a try this month when planning out my actual calendar. On the left page I put in a small calendar with room to write down on underneath the personal task list.

On the right page I needed a hub for my personal goals, monthly to do list and what’s up next month. There needs to be purpose to my pages or I won’t go back to them at all, which is what has been happening to my monthly calendar pages for the last couple months. Because I get satisfaction in checking items off, having the goals and task lists next to my monthly calendar will hopefully add an incentive in going back to my calendar page. Could it be a total fail. Yes. But if I don’t like it I can add in a different spread or just wait until next month when it can be changed.

Project Management Overview

This is becoming my favourite page in my bullet journal, especially now that I have a lot of projects in the works. I will officially be using this spread in tandem with another notebook specifically dedicated to managing projects.

I would be LOST without this page. I did change somethings up this month in comparison to last to make it work all the better. This quick overview shows this months projects, deadlines, and business to-dos. Not everyone will have business projects to keep track of but it can easily be morphed and used for house projects, student assignment or even staying on top of your personal goals.

For me these first two spreads are all about being functional and less about being creative and painted with designs. That is where the next couple of spreads come into play.

Reading Challenge

For the last couple months, I have set a reading goal for a certain number of pages. With tracking the number of pages I’ve noticed that I tend to read in bulk. Meaning that I will spend hours on hours reading over the weekend but not really if ever during the week. Now I’m not saying that’s an issue, but if I’m being honest with myself I would rather have a habit built to spend time during the week reading as well.

I kept the colours the same as before for inside the circle but because I wanted to make things easier on myself when filling it in daily, I ended up using some Archer & Olive Acrylograph paint pens for the legend underneath.

Don’t get me wrong I LOVE my gouache paints but it’s unrealistic for me to be pulling them out and putting them away each day… if I even end up putting them back (messy desk = stressed Caitlin). Plus if I’m looking at my goal for this tracker it’s to stay on top of it and fill it in daily!

Self-Care Check-in

Looking back on August I got a lot done. During August however, I felt stressed and didn’t think that I was performing well in all the aspects of my life.

This month I want to check-in on different categories of self-care: physical, emotional, social and professional. These lists are not made to be checked off in its entirety. Instead, it is to give me a starting point on the areas that I need to improve upon and focus on next month.

Having these categories written down with specific goals, I know I’ll be more mindful and likely to take action to get the check-box ticked off.

If you are trying to figure out what self-care categories to use, you can also look at spiritual and psychological aspects of your life as well. I personally didn’t add in these categories but feel free to if it’s applicable to you and your self-care goals.

Gratitude Log

This is an oldie but a goodie. I honestly have loved incorporating these memory spreads into my journal each month. What I’ve been doing recently is going back and reading what happened throughout the month and what I was grateful for.

Regardless of what time I write what I was thankful for during the day, it puts my head in the right space. If I write out my gratitude in the morning, I find I start the day in a great mood, remembering what was great from the day before. If instead I write right before bed, it takes away the negative headspace if the day didn’t go to plan or let’s be real if I’m a little stressed out.

Because I’m writing down a line a day, I always want to keep this page simple looking. So, on the left side of the page I ended up painting in a dragonfly and lotus flower around some lily pads. I haven’t done a page like this in a while but was really feeling motivated and inspired this month to try out something new.

Reflection Trackers

Last month I tested out dividing my reflection log into 2 different categories: fitness and weekly review. I LOVED having the spaces broken up because it allowed me to focus on one of my goals (getting healthier).

Food wise I would say I’ve done a 180 turn on. I am consuming WAY more veggies and really feeling the difference bloat, energy, and weight wise. What I need a little more work on is the getting out and exercising part. For me that requires intentional planning and putting aside time from work. Which coming from a workaholic me, has been very difficult.

I’ll be curious to see how my self-care check-list influences this months fitness reflection. Really the goal is to get better, so whatever the outcome is, I’ll be happy that I’m writing things down.

On the other hand my weekly review reflection has been perfect. I would maybe like a little more room to write out everything going on in my life but think I’ll see how this month goes and re-evaluate next month.

Weekly Spreads

This month I am sticking with my block scheduling layout, but with a twist. Instead of jumping into the week and leaving a small amount of room on the left for daily goals/tasks, I am dedicating an entire page to a weekly overview.

Classic me must have a mini calendar but other than that, there’s nothing but changes. To stay on top of work projects I NEEDED a weekly overview for my shop, YouTube, blog, and Instagram. Under each section is where I will be filling out what needs to be accomplished that week in order to make deadlines outlined under my business overview page.

At the top of the page I have a tasks box. This is going to be dedicated to any other projects I have on the go or tasks that need to get done during the week on a personal level that has no due date.

The rest of the spreads function pretty much the same as previous months. I write out the title for each day and leave loads of room underneath to write out the tasks and times for each day. This I’ve found to work best for me now but that doesn’t mean things won’t switch up ever again… who knows!

Up This Month

It is a fresh start to my Instagram I am switching thing up and showing what the spreads, I create look like filled in. Less pressure to stay on top of getting everything photographed before the month starts, AND I want to show you what it looks like to actually use a bullet journal.

If that is something you are interested in checking out, click the button below and follow me over on Instagram

The blog will have a new post each week that correlates with the YouTube posts for now, but I do want to start writing some other posts about bullet journaling, organization and getting creative in general so if there is something that you’re interested in please let me know below!

• Cait