My design inspiration for the month of June was Black Music Month. I had already decided that I was going to use this theme for June a couple of months in advance. I was bubbling with anticipation to design the layouts for both of my journals using this theme. I had a few ideas in mind but needed something eye-catching for the cover pages.
Fortunately, I saw a painting on the YouTube show Giants which inspired me to do the cover in my monthly journal. I couldn’t find out the name of the artist or get a clear look at the painting, but the view I had from the show was enough for me to create my own version in my monthly journal. I loved the idea of using albums as her afro hairstyle. It easily went with my groovy retro music theme for the month. It made a cool statement and set the mood for the rest of the month in my journal.
The cover page in my wellness journal was inspired by pictures found on Pinterest. I saved a bunch of artwork on my Pinterest account which led me to design the cover page in my wellness journal. The artwork smoothly fits into my retro cool music theme for the month. I love the way the guy is jamming to his music and is in his own world.
The final design is very creative in my humble opinion. I have illustrations of albums, sound waves, cassette tapes, a walkman, a boom box, old school radios, and music notes on various pages of my journals. The overall effect is very retro cool to me. I absolutely love music and each page represents all of the ways I have encountered music in my lifetime.
Check out the layouts below in order to see the journal designs in more detail.
For the month of March, I wanted to use the color green as the main color for the entire month. However, I didn’t want to go with the usual St. Patrick’s Day set up. So I decided to go with succulents and cacti as the main theme for both journals.
I researched pictures, paintings, drawings, and doodles of succulents and cacti on Google, Pinterest, and Youtube. I found hundreds of examples that inspired me to design each page in my journals. On pages that were not hand drawn, I used washi tape and stickers to complete my vision.
It took me several days to complete both journals, but in the end, it was worth it. Both journals look great in my opinion. They each have their own personality, but still keep with the theme. The final designs put a smile on my face everyday.
For the month of February, I decided to go with a traditional February design incorporating hearts on every page. Each page appears to have hearts exploding in a variety of colors. I also incorporated a page for Black History Month in each of my journals. I felt that it was important to remind myself everyday of the many contributions made by Blacks in the diaspora throughout history. Even though I think I went overboard with the heart theme, I genuinely feel that I did a great job of designing both journals for the month. Check out the pictures below.
For Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me a Happy Planner as a gift. In the gift box, she placed the planner, some additional stickers, inserts, a pretty pen, and a card. She wrote a sweet note in the card explaining the meaning behind the gift. She also suggested that I look it up online to get a better idea of how the planner is used.
During my research about the planner, I found out that there is an entire community of people that use these planners in a variety of ways. Of course, some people simply use the Happy Planner in the traditional manner that it was intended to be used. Other people use it as a planner with a creative twist. Designing elaborate weekly layouts to plan their lives.
As I continued to watch video after video on Youtube, I became obsessed with watching each person design their weekly spreads. Many of them came up with weekly or monthly themes in their planners. Sometimes it made me wonder if they even used it for planning at all because they mainly concentrated on making them pretty. Needless to say, I was very impressed with how the Happy Planner was both useful and versatile. It made planning your life both practical and fun at the same time. Not to mention, the planner itself is very customizable. It easily allows you to add or remove the cover and pages to suit your needs.
I had an incredibly hard time deciding how to use this planner because I already had two bullet journals that served the same purpose. I really didn’t need a third planner to do the same thing. Luckily, I came across a video that showed a vlogger using the planner as a memory keeper for the year. She decorated it with stickers and washi tape, then added pictures and captions to the layout. I thought to myself that this would be the perfect way to document my life this year and use up my scrapbook materials in the process.
I instantly became excited about setting up my Happy Planner as a memory keeper. I purchased an HP Sprocket printer and paper to print pictures from my phone, I gathered materials from my scrapbook supplies, and watched an array of videos for ideas on how to get started.
So far, it has been a lot of fun designing the weekly spreads. Sometimes I worry that I won’t have anything to add to each week because my life isn’t really that exciting. Since I have been home sick, I don’t get out as much, but I try to document my life as much as I can. I use pictures from my creative projects as well as my rare outings out of the house when I’m feeling well enough to leave for a few hours. I think each spread has its own unique look. It makes me smile to look back at them each week. I’m hoping I can keep up with this for the entire year and have a lovely album to look back on for 2018.
Below are some pictures of my layouts for January. I plan to update my blog with monthly layouts for the remainder of the year. So be sure to come back periodically for more Happy Planner updates.
Every Mother’s Day, my brothers and I try very hard to make my Mom feel special. We buy her gifts, take her out, spend time with her, and make her favorite foods. We just love making her feel appreciated. Of course, we always want to do something different each year. So for Mother’s Day 2004, I hosted a tea party at our home.
My inspiration for the tea party came from two sources. First, my mother has a nice little teapot collection. Her collection is a mixture of floral, traditional, and Asian. She uses them periodically throughout the year when she is in the mood for tea or has company over. So I thought the tea party would give her a chance to share her love for tea and teapots with family and friends.
AUNT JEAN
My second source of inspiration came from a story told to me by my Mom. Apparently, my mother’s godmother, Aunt Jean, had a vast teacup collection in her china cabinet. Aunt Jean’s collection expanded over the years due to a tradition carried on by her own mother. According to the story, Aunt Jean’s mother would purchase her a new teacup every year as a gift to add to her collection until she had a complete set. Although Aunt Jean had a beautiful collection, she never used them. Aunt Jean always wanted to host a tea party, but due to work, children, and other life events she never had the opportunity to use her teacup collection. Not to mention, she had three sons and no daughters to share the tradition with. My mother was the closest thing she had to a daughter. Therefore, she shared the story with my mom. Who in turn, shared it with me.
About a month before Aunt Jean passed away, she had purchased me a lovely rose covered teacup. Even though it wasn’t my style, I loved the sentiment behind the gift. I also felt special because she decided to continue the tradition with me since she didn’t have a daughter to pass it on to. Of course, this was to my mother’s dismay because she was the one into teacups and pots.
My mother gave me the cup and shared the story behind the gift with me on my birthday. I called and thanked Aunt Jean for the wonderful gift and told her I would definitely use it. After I received the gift, Aunt Jean made my mother promise that she would complete my collection. My mother fulfilled her request a few months later and purchased the rest of the collection for me as a Christmas gift.
A few months later, I was trying to figure out what to do for Mother’s Day. After cycling through several ideas, I finally came up with the tea party idea. I thought it was tragic that Aunt Jean passed away without ever using her teacups. I didn’t want my mother having the same regret. So I thought a tea party would be a great way to use her teapot collection and honor Aunt Jean as well.
Initially, I wanted it to be a surprise party. Unfortunately, it is difficult to plan a surprise party when you live in the same house with the person you are trying to surprise. Ultimately, I decided to let Mom in on the tea party plans. It actually worked out better that way because it gave her something to look forward to and kept her busy with planning. Also, it was a great mother/daughter bonding moment. So it was a win/win situation for the both of us.
The planning process was fairly easy. First, we decided to have the party the day before Mother’s Day in order to give everyone the opportunity to come enjoy the tea party, but still spend Mother’s Day with their own family and friends. Then, we wrote out our guest list and sent out invitations. Everyone on our guest list was eager to attend the party because they had never been to a tea party. So we had plenty of people to entertain the day of the event.
VIGNETTE 1
The next part of the planning process was to come up with a menu that was fitting for a tea party. We had finger foods like cucumber sandwiches, fruit, tea cookies, etc… Additionally, since no two teapots in Mom’s collection are alike, we decided to set up different vignettes for each type of teapot. We also decided to have different types of tea in each teapot in order to have a variety of flavors for guests to try.
VIGNETTE 2
On the day of the tea party, things went as planned. Some of our guests brought their own moms to participate in the festivities. In honor of the moms that were no longer with us, pictures were shared in their memory. My brothers contributed to the event by being helpful throughout the day. They helped set up all of the tables and chairs, greeted guests, and made sure they were available whenever we needed them.
VIGNETTE 3
At the end of the tea party, we gave guests a cute party bag filled with items that my mother loved from her childhood. The items ranged from a set of jacks to old school candy. Overall, the tea party was a success and everyone had a nice time. I definitely would suggest having a tea party for your next Spring event. It’s a unique way to spend time with family and friends.
