Chapter 1

It all began when I encouraged my friend, Sam, to bullet journal. Neither of us had done bullet journaling before, but we were always into stationary, notebooks, pens, and planners. I followed some bullet journaling accounts on Instagram and had encountered it on Pinterest so I knew that the customization was what Sam was looking for in a planner. So she started bullet journaling, fell in love with it, and encouraged me to start my own.

We went to Michael’s one evening and I bought her recommendations for a practice bullet journal. I got a few fine liners and a few brush tip pens, a ruler, pencils, and a big eraser. I choose an A5 size Michael’s brand dot journal.

Then I winged it. Yup, I didn’t find a tutorial, or follow an article or template. I just put pencil to paper and created a two page monthly spread for November 2018.

November 2018: Here’s the step by step in photos below….

Chapter 2

Now, it is March and I LOVE my bullet journal and I could not be more thankful that I made the leap from a planner to dotted pages! I get to be creative but organized, colorful but custom, too much but just enough. My favorite thing about it though, is that it is “practice.” Let me explain: Sam suggested that I just get a starter journal to practice in before spending more money on a really nice bullet journal. The idea of a practice journal is a place to work out my style and preferences, test my pens, and rip pages out when I am not happy with them- stuff I wouldn’t want to do in my “real” bullet journal. I love that my bullet journal is only “practice.” It frees me from my own expectations. I don’t have to have beautiful “instagram worthy” spreads. I can just have Aubrey-worthy spreads in my “practice” bullet journal. Someday, I will probably buy a nice dotted notebook with soft, thick pages, and a sturdy cover, but that journal will just be “practice,” too.