Preparing for a New Year

 

This is the new journal

I have not been updating much on my Bullet Journal, but I do kind of still use it actually. And as we're getting closer to the end of 2017 it is time to think about how I shall continue this habit for next year. I've barely used 2/3 of my current bullet journal, and I would use even less as I'm going for a more compact layout now compared to last year.  So in spirit of not tossing away a book with 100 of empty pages I decided to do surgery on it and turn the empty pages in to the next years bullet journal (as I calculated that I would barley need 100 pages for that one). Sure, the numbering doesn't make much sense now, but I never paid any attention at all to those tiny numbers at the bottom of the pages It has been a very fun project and it is now finished, I can now start planning out the coming year in it (yes, I am way to excited about starting new calendars).

Spent hours making this golden pattern on the inside of the book (it's in the back as well). And i also made a little pocket for stuff, which I will probably not never use because I've yet to use the pocket inside my current journal. But hey, it's pretty and makes it looks a bit more professional than DIY I guess.

It's a bit crooked but I think I will love this journal no the less. It is also nice to have a smaller journal as it will take less space in my bags which will make it more likely that I'll bring it with me every now and then. 

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month. By a coworker I got informed about this to me unknown challenge, where you're write a novel of 50.000 words during November month.

I used to write lots of poems back in my teenage-time and on my drive there's lots of unfinished stories that I really want to write on. And there's one story in particular that I want to write. So I signed up for this challenge and three days in I'm already struggling to keep up, hurrah. But It's been great non the less. And it is fun doing something creative besides drawing.

There's a whole community and all attached to this challenge. If you sign up you can track your progress and get badges. I'm a sucker for achievements.

The story I'm writing is rather difficult to describe, mostly because it's very personal. It could be described as a biography inspired by my teenage-years but written from other peoples points of view as a reflection on the relationship they had to this teenage-girl. It's very much a fiction however, with few resembles from actual reality. I only have about 20 chapters planned which might be a bit short as I'm currently trying to write one chapter every day and that will probably not reach 50.000, but I'm sure I will figure something out along the road. And it's not like this is going to be published or anything, so it is totally okay if it falls short.

Good luck to everyone that's writing this month!

Inktober

October has passed and with it has also the inktober challenge, were you're supposed to draw an ink drawing every day in the month of October. This year has been the third year that I have done this challenge and so far it's been the best in the aspect of keeping up with the daily drawings, even if my Instagram might not agree. I've finished 16 drawings and still have another 6 that are sketch but yet not finalized. I'm planning on finish them during November, with ink of course. So in "total" I made 22 drawings out of 31, not to bad considering that I'm not even used to sketching on a daily basis.

Not all of the drawings have yet made their way to Instagram, where I usually post my arty stuff. It's mainly because I always stay up very late to finish the drawings and don't want to post pictures then as I have coworkers following me there and I don't want them to tell my boss I'm staying up way past my bedtime and not being a responsible adult (yes I know that's a rather strange dilemma I've created and not very reasonable in the real world, but that's just my brain). The other reason is that I don't like the quality of my camera on the phone so I just don't feel like the photos showcases my drawing well enough, which makes me feel a bit sad. I am thinking about saving up for a new camera, one of those cool ones with WiFi so that I could either upload directly to Instagram or just store them on my drive where I can easily access them from my phone to edit and post.

Inktober has inspired me to try some other challenges, but these are mostly sketching which makes it so much easier. Some of the challenges that I'm considering to do are "30 day diary illustrations", "100 sketches of ..." and "30 days of Outfit of the day". I think they will develop me a lot. Especially that last one since I can't draw clothes at all and it's something I really want to do.

But before I'm undertaking any challengers I'll give myself a bit of a break during November as I have plenty of other projects that I want to do. I'm trying my hands on writing with the NaNoWriMo-challenge (more bout it in the next entry), want to redo the 30 days of yoga, finish crafting my new bullet journal, I need to mend and fix lots of clothes for Australia, a secret thing and I also really want to do some doll customization as I've recently become addicted to the Dollightful channel on YouTube. So during this weekend I'm planning on searching in Second Hand shops for toys that I can repaint, as I'm trying to be environmental and also dolls are very expensive. I have lots of difference idea that I want to do, so I'm going to see what I can find in the shops and go from there.