Setting up My December Journal: Video

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Today I am easing my way into the holidays.

The Christmas spirit is just settling into my heart and I thought it would be the perfect time to set up my art journal for December. The idea here is for me to have a creative space to come to and create and relax in during the month of December.

I am using my kit and plan to keep everything in the box so I can carry it around with me and make art in little snippets of time.

It’s not just going to be just for art either. I might make lists of some of my favorite things, books I have read, movies I have watched. The idea is for this to be a creative space for me to rest and recharge in during the holiday season.

I also made a list for you of ideas and prompts for what you may like to do in your own journal. You can download it by clicking on the image below.

I hope you are having a wonderful start to your week. Much love!

 

 

Until next time…

 

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

My First Ever Art Journal Kit! Unboxing Video

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I am so excited to share with you my first ever art journaling kit! I have wanted to curate my own art kit for years and I am so excited to have one for this holiday season.

This kit has everything you need to take part in December Daily, memory keep those holiday plans, decorate your planner-you name it. You can check out the video below for all that’s included. I only have a few of these kits available but you can buy them on my shop here.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Book Club: What I Read in October & Novembers Reading Plans

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Hello everyone and welcome to another book club post.

I have lots of books to share with you so I’ll just dig in!

For October as part of the “Spooktober” and “Victober” challenges I read:

“The Portrait of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde

“Silas Marner” by George Eliot

“The Haunting of Maddy Clare” by Simone St. James

“We’ve Always Lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson

I really enjoyed all these books and thoroughly enjoyed “Silas Marner” which was a surprise for me. I am now on a hunt for more books by George Eliot that I might like so if you have any recommendations please let me know!

I started but didn’t finish “The Other” by Thomas Tryon. I read the first few pages and just wasn’t able to form a visual or really understand what was going on. Since I had so many other books to read I just let that one go. I was unsure of that book from the beginning anyway so it wasn’t that hard to DNR it.

My books for November are a pretty large pile but I am also picking some smaller books in an attempt to make up my book count. I really want to hit my reading goal of 52 books this year.

I am taking part in 2 challenges. One I think I made up and the other one I learned about from Mark at Book Time with Elvis on YouTube. He’s co-hosting a reading challenge called Dr. No-vember and the challenge is to read a spy book that takes place during the Cold War. The book read is “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold ” by John LeCarre and I also picked up “Call for the Dead” in that series. With any luck I will be able to get through both of them.

Next up is “Rizzio” by Denise Mina which is a really short book that I already finished but I’ll tell you about it during my November wrap up. This is a work of fiction that tells the story of the horrible death of David Rizzio the secretary of Mary Queen of Scots.

“The Benevolent Society of Ill Mannered Ladies” by Alison Goodman is another book I am listening to on Audible. The performer is fantastic and I am enjoying every minute of it!

On my Kindle I have “Scraps of Paper” by Kathryn Meyer Griffith that was sent to me for a review so I really want to get that read and my review up as soon as I can. I will be sharing my review here, on my channel and on Goodreads.

I am planning to finish “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley this month which is another book I’m listening to on Audible. Am I the only one getting loads of digital credits on Amazon while doing my holiday shopping? It’s a great way to get some free books on Kindle and Audible!

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe was suggested to me by my library. I love his poetry and I am looking forward to reading these short stories.

And last up is “A Treacherous Curse” by Deanna Raybourn. This is part of a series I stared in the summer and I am really enjoying. It’s another lady detective series (I swear it’s not all I read) and it has some very unique story lines and some very likeable characters.

So there you have it a rather large pile of possibility for the month of November. How are you doing with your reading goals this year? Do you have some big plans for November reading? I would love to hear!

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Plan with Me: Personal & Business Planning

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Happy Monday everyone!

I hope you had a lovely weekend and your week is off to a great start.

I thought it would be fun to do a little plan with me session. So many of you seemed to enjoy my Happy Planner Haul so I thought it would be nice to show you how I use my planner to organize my week.

It seems only fair to say I am not a super planner in that I don’t plan out every bit of my day and keep to those plans. I like to think of my planner as a container of possibilities where I write down the things that need to get done and the things I would like to get done and try and make space for both. I think it’s why I like the boxes of my Happy Planner-they are perfect little containers of ideas and things I want to do.

I am using my Classic Dashboard Layout in the video and my new sticker sheet that I shared in the haul video. I love to start out by adding color usually with washi tape but sometimes I use highlighters or markers around the boxes too. Then I add some stickers before writing down my to-do’s. I saw Elisa at the Scrappy Wife do this and I really liked it. I have found that decorating a bit first let’s me know how I am feeling about the upcoming week and helps me to gauge my expectations. Adding the color and stickers also gets me excited for perhaps some of the less interesting activities that fall within a week.

Once I have decorated a bit I add in any appointments. My husband I use a shared calendar to keep track of all our appointments which really helps so we don’t double schedule something. Once I add in the appointments I then write down any things that need to be done on a certain day in the next row of boxes-like returning library books or something like that.

I am trying something new this week and I am adding my business to-do’s relating to the content I create and share both here on the blog and my channel to the third row of boxes. I used post-it notes to show when something would air and then worked backwards to see (based on appointments) when I needed to record, edit etc. I really like how this worked out and I am excited to see how it goes.

Then I add any to-do’s that aren’t day specific to the far left corner, add some more stickers and call it a day. How about you? What planner do you use and how to you plan out your week?

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you have any questions or comments let me know!


Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

 

Happy Planner Haul/My 2024 Planner

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I hope you all had a wonderful October and a fun and spooky Halloween if that’s your thing. Our Halloween was spent…

Today I am sharing with you all a Happy Planner Haul. I have picked out my planner for 2024 and along with it some new sticker books and a notebook that was on sale. If you would like some Happy Planner goodies you can use my affiliate link here and receive $10 off an order of $50 or more.

First let’s talk sticker books! I love to decorate my weekly spreads. It’s a calming way to set up for my week and gives me something fun and inspiring to look at when I am checking off to-do’s. I have shared in the past that I am not someone who keeps a full calendar and runs around crazy with lots of “to-do’s” but of course life has a few have-to’s that are important to keep track of. I am also trying out adding a paper business planner to my planning system. I currently use a digital planner which has worked well for content creation but as I am launching my creativity shop this holiday season I think I might want to keep track of everything on paper. I am trying things out with an extra insert in my personal planner and will see how it works out before investing in another planner just for that.

The first sticker book I purchased was “Beautiful & Brave” which is really pretty with soft colors and inspiring quotations. There are 478 stickers sized perfectly for my Classic Sized Planner.

Next up is “Bookish” a sticker book dedicated entirely to all things reading. I had to get this one and you are a follower of my Book Club updates or my Booktube Channel you may know why 🙂 I always watch the video before I purchase sticker books. Usually I am pretty happy but once or twice I have received a sticker book that wasn’t at all what I thought so watching the flip through on the product page is helpful.  Seeing this one in person hasn’t disappointed and I am excited to come up with some fun ways to use these stickers.

I also had to pull in my love for all things gardening and plants so I picked up the “Don’t Stop Growing” and the “Garden Flowers” sticker books. Perfect for adding a little color to those grey days of winter but also to decorate the spring spreads when they come.

The last sticker book is “Woodland Seasons” which coordinates with the planner I purchased. I just love woodlands and mushrooms, foxes and all things that remind me of an enchanted wood. This one is going to be used a lot I am sure especially with the remaining month of fall.

That brings me to the planner I purchased-I picked up The Woodland Seasons 12 month Classic Planner. It has a vertical layout and metal discs. I was completely unaware it had metal discs until just now when writing this post and I have never had a planner with metal discs before. They are really nice! The planner is absolutely gorgeous and I am so excited to start it. If you are woodland lover this may just be the planner for you.

Lastly I picked up a Classic Size Dotted Lined Notebook called “Mail Call.” It has 3 dividers dotted lined pages and a really sweet cover. It was on sale so I picked it up figuring I could use it for filler paper for my planner or on it’s own.

So that is everything I picked up. I have a video below showing the items in detail if you are interested. If you have any questions about anything feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer. I would love the hear about your planning system too so feel free to comment that down below as well.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante

Book Tube Newbie Tag: Part II

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Hello everyone! Welcome to another bookish blog post. Last week I shared my BookTube Newbie tag and one of my kind viewers pointed out that the video cut off. That seems to happen to me a bit. Not sure if I am uploading when tired or not but instead of re-uploading the whole video I thought I would just share the part that was cut off.

For all my lovely blog readers I wanted to also give you a bit of an update on my October reading goals. You may remember I am taking part in Victober and Spooktober and having a lot of fun while doing it. If I am being honest I am enjoying Spooktober more than Victober. I read 2 books off my Victober list which, if I am being honest feels a bit like school reading. I have enjoyed what I read though so that’s something even if I haven’t found a new love in Victorian literature.

I have only finished 1 of my Spooktober books so far but I really enjoyed it and I am listening to my second on audiobook. I also finished a book that carried over from September so all in all October is going well reading wise. How about you? How is your reading going?

I hope you are doing well and getting into the cozy fall feels.

Until next time…

-Michele, aka The Dreaming Dilettante