I can't believe I have been blogging for two years now! It has gone by so quickly. I have learned a ton about blogging this year, and I reached some milestones! I can't wait to see what the next year has to hold for my business. :)

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you reading this because you are the ones who made all of this possible. :)

My bullet journaling posts are definitely the most popular and I really enjoy creating them and showing all of you, my spreads!

I have learned so much from blogging! If you are thinking about or want to start a blog, then just do it! If you start now, then you can decide if you even like blogging. Also, your blog doesn't need to be perfect when you start it. You learn so much more from actually posting on your blog, than from reading a post on how to post. What is holding you back from starting your blog?

I have learned about blog design, how to set up a post, social media marketing, SEO, guest posting, email marketing, (I need to work on this one!) and more. Blogging is changing all of the time, so you can always learn something new. :)

If I had never started blogging then I never would have started doing flat lay photography, which is something I really enjoy doing.

This is not my first blog... Surprise! This is actually my fourth blog, one which never even was made public because I thought it was too hard. Blogging is hard. Most people think you just write a few words, snap a picture or two and then click publish. There is so much more to blogging than that and that is what makes it so fulfilling (to me at least). There is always something new to work towards.

If you enjoyed this post, read these ones too!

• 1 Year Blogiversary + Giveaway
• How I Created my Blog Planner
• How I Store + Carry Around my Bullet Journal
• How to Bullet Journal Even When You are Super Busy

I bought this mini backpack off Amazon for around $20 and it is really handy for carrying around my bullet journal. It has multiple pockets on the inside and on the outside and it is just the right size for my bullet journal. It is large enough for carrying multiple journals/books in case you use multiple journals to stay organized.

I would buy a bag which is just the right size for your planning supplies because if it is too big then you will be less likely to carry it around. So buy something on the smaller side.

Inside my mini backpack, I have my bullet journal (Of course! 😊) and I have a pen case with a few of my supplies.

I bought the pen case from Michaels for around $10 and I really like that it has a hard feel to it. Do I carry around all of my bullet journal supplies? Nope!

Inside my pen case, I have...

• My Black Sharpie Pen (My primary writing instrument)
• 15 Zebra Mildliners (I use them for color-coding)
• Washi Tape (I have two rolls in my pen case right now)
• A Small Pink Stencil (Yes, pink is my favorite color! You can probably see that very easily!)

If I want to put my bullet journal things in another bag, all I have to do is take out my bullet journal and my pen case and I am good to go. It makes it really easy if I want to use my mini backpack for something else too.

I do not carry my bullet journal around all of the time because there are some places where I know I do not need it, but if I do, then my backpack has everything I need to bullet journal.

Ideas for Carrying Around Your Bullet Journal

1. Picking a Bag

If you want to switch out the bag you carry it in, then have all of your supplies in your pen pouch and then you can easily place your bullet journal and your pen pouch into whichever bag you want to use.

Make sure that all of the supplies you are planning to carry around with you will fit. If you have more than one bullet journal, you will want to make sure that the case you pick will hold them.

If you use more than one pen in your bullet journal or you want to carry around other supplies, then I recommend using a pen case to store all of them. If you only use one pen, then you don't necessarily need a pen case.

2. Picking a Pen Case

After you have your bag, it is time to decide whether you need a pen case or not. You can also decide to just carry around your pen case and your bullet journal without a bag, but then you have to remember two things instead of just one.

This is where you decide what you want to carry around with you. If your bag has lots of pockets, then maybe you don't need a pen pouch because you can store your pens and accessories in the pockets.

Some pen cases are big enough to hold your bullet journal too, but they usually wouldn't have handles. You just have to decide what will work for you! What works for someone else might not work for you because everyone is different. :)

Decide if you are going to pick out a certain number of markers, pens, washi tape, etc. every month and then leave the rest for decorating at home. Or you can carry around your favorite markers. You can also do like I do and carry around your color-coding markers with you.

Just don't carry around everything if you know you don't need some of those accessories.

In Conclusion on How to Store + Carry Around Your Bullet Journal

Hopefully, you now have an idea of how you are going to carry around your bullet journal. Everyone is different, so pick something that you think will work for you. If one way doesn't work for you, then try another way because you may decide you want something a little different. That is fine. :)

At first, I kept my bullet journal on my desk, and now I keep it in my mini backpack. Maybe you don't even need a bag to carry around your bullet journal because you always plan at your kitchen table. That is fine too!

If you like this post, then read these ones next.

• How to Bullet Journal Even When You are Super Busy
• A Pretty Bullet Journal for Under $10
• Mini Bowknot Backpack for Under $20
• Using Crayola SuperTips in my Bullet Journal

If you have a second, then sharing is really appreciated.

You have probably heard about Zebra Mildliners before! They are really popular in the bullet journal community because of the pastel colors the highlighters come in. They are on the more expensive side, but they are dual tipped. The design of the Zebra Mildliners are so cute!

I don't know where to start. They are super cute, come in lots of colors, and they are dual tipped. Well, I bought them because I wanted some pens for my bullet journal that I could use for color-coding and highlighting things. (If you want to see how I am color-coding, then look at the picture above. I have the colors above the index, and then the coding on the right side of the page.)

I wanted markers that had chisel tips because I didn't have any in my marker collection yet. 

I bought the fifteen pack on Amazon and they were under $20, only a little over a dollar for each marker. The design of the Zebra Mildliners is one of the aspects I love. If the marker doesn't look cute, aren't you less likely to buy it?

Honestly, the design was one of the biggest reasons as to why I bought them. They don't look like they are dual tipped, but they are, which I think is a big plus. Mostly, I am probably going to be using the chisel tip.

Let's start with the pros. :)

• They come in a lot of colors.
• The markers are cute! :)
• They are dual tipped: chisel and pointed tip.
• They are small enough to carry around easily.
• The plastic case they come in folds into a marker stand. (I am not using it because to me it is a little bit bulky, but if you want these on your desk, then it folds into a stand you can use.)
• Looking at them, you wouldn't know they are dual tipped. (I don't know why I like this, but I do.)
• The ink is smooth, and the colors are mostly pastel (Some of them seem to be a little bit too bright to be considered pastel.)

The Cons of the Zebra Mildliners

This year I am trying to get more into the habit of carrying my bullet journal around, so I bought a cute pen case to hold my essentials in. You will see how I carry around and store my bullet journal supplies soon! :)

I think that for the price point, they are a little expensive, and if you are on a budget, then the Crayola Super Tips are a better buy (They come in a 50-pack for under $10). If you want markers with chisel tips though, then I would totally suggest these because they are not in the original bright colors, but still make your handwriting stand out.

The design of the markers is super cute (I feel like I keep saying this. 😂) and they are easy to store because of their size. 

Read these posts too, if you liked this one!

• Using Crayola Super Tips in my Bullet Journal
• A Pretty Bullet Journal for Under $10
• How I am Goal Setting for 2020 in my Bullet Journal
• How to Bullet Journal Even When You are Super Busy

Do you own Zebra Mildliners? Are you planning on buying them? Thanks for reading. :)

If you have a second, sharing is really appreciated.

Woohoo! My first plan with me of the new year! I know I didn't make a monthly bullet journal layout in January, and I am going to explain that in a minute. For this month though I am using my new bullet journal and I am trying out a totally new set up, which I am really liking! :)

By the way, I got the inspiration for this layout from #12 on this post (No longer available). If you are new to my blog and have never read one of my posts before, then I recommend scrolling to the next heading, which says, "February Monthly Bullet Journal Layout" because you will have no idea what I am talking about in the next few paragraphs.

Why the New Bullet Journal?

Okay. I had better start from the beginning, if you read my blog often, then you may remember that I said in this post I was going to use my rose-gold ring-bound planner for my monthly layouts and I was going to use this new traditional style bullet journal notebook for my collections.

Well, things didn't go exactly as I had planned. For a while now, I have been feeling like I haven't been using my ring-bound planner as much as I wanted to. Back when I bought it in 2018, I was using a more traditional planner set up, with the exception that I made the pages myself. Then in around June 2019, I started wanting to use a bullet journal again. I love the creative side of bullet journaling!

I was also getting bored with the rigidness of my calendar set up, and I didn't have enough time to redesign a new one every month. So, I started making bullet journal layouts in my planner (See a sample here. I am pretty sure this is the first one I did). I enjoyed it so much that I started making monthly bullet journal layouts and weekly ones too!

But then it started feeling like a chore, having to make a new layout every week. First, I had to print it out, and then I had to cut and hole punch it. It got to be too much work. The holes didn't line up sometimes and the rings got in the way when I wrote on the left side of the page.

The perks of using a ring-bound binder to bullet journal just didn't outweigh the cons for me. Using a ring-bound planner for bullet journaling is supposed to make the system more flexible because you can add and remove pages and include sections. You can also use the planner for a long time because it never fills up.

I realized that realistically I couldn't remove pages whenever I wanted unless my two-page layouts were front and back. If they weren't, I would have to remove two pages to remove a two-page layout, and then it would remove two layouts that were on the back of those pages.

I also wanted to start carrying my bullet journal around, but I felt like my ring-bound planner was too bulky and I thought things might fall out or it might get scratched.

I decided for 2020 I wanted this to be the year that I really complete my goals! I did okay last year, but definitely not super well so this year I decided I wanted a new start and the best way to do that (for me at least) was to get a new journal and start fresh.

When I received my Minimalism Art Journal I loved it! I started adding collections to it. The smooth paper with perfect-colored dots (Not too dark or too light) and the sleek design makes it easy to carry and I need to mention the larger pages, which are a nice plus. My idea was that I would use my new journal for collections and my planner for planning layouts. Then I realized how much I liked my new journal and I have decided to use it full time.

Unfortunately, I am going to stop using my rose gold planner for now even though I love it because it is not working for me. I always think it is important to use a system that works for you at the moment. Hopefully, I will find something else to use it for and who knows, later I may go back to it. The reason why I didn't make a January bullet journal layout, is because I had not decided what journal I wanted to put it in.

That took a lot longer than I thought it would to say, so now let's get right into my new bullet journal monthly layout.

February Monthly Bullet Journal Layout

For 2020, I have decided to take things slowly and start with a more minimalist approach. I am not going to make any weekly layouts for this month, so I don't have to feel pressured to create a new layout every week. I also felt like I was wasting space (and pen ink!) on my weekly layouts because I would write down almost the same tasks every day.

My monthly layout for this month is also simpler than my other ones because I have it only on two pages instead of four.

I am not tracking any habits this month or using a gratitude tracker because I don't want to feel pressured to have to write something every day, and then forget once and then feel like I didn't reach my goal.

I set 21 goals for this year, which is less than last year because I want to achieve every one or almost all of them. This is also why I am not concentrating on habits right now.

At the top of my first page, I have my February header with a super cute little heart! Under that, I have a mini monthly calendar. Down the side, I have a list where I can write down places I have to go to and holidays, etc.


Below that, I have a goal column, where I write five mini-goals. These will help me get closer to reaching my 21 yearly goals. Below that, I have my monthly blogging schedule. Don't look, unless you want to know the posts for the rest of the month! And you might have noticed I got Zebra Mildliners, which I am planning on doing a review on soon! :)

Plan With Me February Bullet Journal Layout

On the other side of this layout, I have a running to-do list at the top. At the bottom, I have a "next month" spot and a "highlights" square. I want to make sure I fill in my "Best of 2020" layout this year.

Overall, I am really excited to start fresh with this new notebook and new layouts, so I can better work towards my goals. :)

Read these posts too!

• A Pretty Bullet Journal for Under $10
• How I am Goal Setting for 2020 in my Bullet Journal
• How to Bullet Journal Even When You are Super Busy
• Layouts to Add to Your Bullet Journal for the New Year