(gentle music)
- Thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video.
Hello doodles, it's Amanda, welcome back.
How are you guys?
How have you been doing, what's up, what's new?
I can't tell whether time is moving slow or fast.
All I know is that all of a sudden it is time for me
to do my October plan with me.
So I wanted to implement something a little bit new
for this month's planning with me video,
just because I feel like these videos
are like my monthly check-ins with you guys.
So I was thinking the other day that it would be nice if
at the beginning of each plan with me video,
I can tell you guys about my goal for the month.
And you guys can also comment down below your goal
for the month whether it's like a big goal or a small goal.
And then in the next plan with me video,
the following month I can check in with you guys again
at the beginning of the video,
let you know whether I've completed my goal
and also set a new goal for the following month.
And it can kind of be like our way
to keep each other accountable.
It doesn't have to be anything serious.
It can be like a small goal,
but I think it'll be fun to just, you know,
encourage each other in the comments of these
plan with me videos for our monthly goals.
In my previous plan with me video
I mentioned that I wanted to be working out more,
eating healthier, and I definitely think I achieved that.
I worked out twice a week every single day
for the past month.
So round of applause for me,
and I'm very proud of myself for that.
But to my goal for this coming month, which is October,
I think is going to be to make more of an effort
to reach out to friends, check in with them,
maybe hanging out with them,
going on like quick walks, coffee.
I feel like I'm the type of person where if I don't actively
encourage myself to reach out to friends,
then I can definitely kind of close inward on myself
and be like oh my gosh, like,
who would want to hang out with me?
Everyone's too busy, yada, yada, yada.
But usually that's not the case.
Usually you just have to be the one to initiate sometimes.
So yes, that is my personal goal for October.
And I want to know what yours are.
I just feel like these monthly plan with me videos
are a good opportunity to do that.
I have blabbed on enough.
I'm really excited for this month's set up.
Without further ado let's get on with my
October, 2021 bullet journal set up.
Last month I promised you guys that is going to do a theme
that had very fall, warm, cozy vibes.
And of course I am delivering.
So this month's theme is a library slash reading
slash book theme.
My main inspiration for this was looking at pictures
of reading nooks and libraries on Pinterest.
I always love looking at people's houses and rooms
and interior design on Pinterest,
but specifically I really love looking at what people do
with the extra spaces in their houses like
that aren't bedrooms or kitchens or living rooms,
kind of extra rooms that you can pretty much do whatever in
and when people are able to have the space to do something
like a reading nook or a library I just love it.
It seems so lovely and cozy to just cuddle up
and I don't know, read a book,
drink a cup of tea on a rainy day.
I would love to be able to have a space like this
in my apartment,
but currently I live in a one bedroom apartment
in downtown Toronto.
So that's not going to be possible for awhile,
but hopefully one day I can have my very own space
that is dedicated to being cozy
because how amazing does that sound?
But anyway, yes, I'm obsessed with looking up pictures of
like libraries and reading books on Pinterest.
So I wanted to create that on my bullet journal cover page.
So as you can see I've drawn a picture of an armchair.
I have a little coffee table and also of course,
a very large bookshelf in the back.
And I wanted to kind of illustrate it in the same style
as the lo-fi theme that I did a while back
because to me it gives off the same cozy vibes.
So I did that.
I have to mention, like I mentioned in the lo-fi theme
video it does seem like a lot of drawing,
but actually if you break it down,
drawing this type of stuff is super easy.
I recommend you pause on my video if you're trying to
recreate it because a lot of this stuff is just simple,
basic shapes, like the bookshelf.
It's just obviously a lot of rectangles.
Probably the hardest thing to draw is the armchair.
So if any of you are scared or overwhelmed
to try to recreate it,
I promise if you break it down into simple shapes,
you can do it.
I know a lot of you guys are up for the challenge,
I believe in you guys,
but I do really love the way that this cover page
turned out and you'll see later the colors that I ended up
choosing are very warm, cozy.
I went for a lot of like brown, tan, beige tones,
as well as a like sage olive green,
which is one of my favorite colors right now.
And to me it just screams fall.
So another reason why I chose to do this theme is because
personally I've been getting a lot more into reading lately.
I will be the first to admit
that I was never the biggest reader.
I never used to enjoy reading.
I would've much rather have spent my time watching a TV show
or a movie because I'm a very visual person.
But I have recently rediscovered the joy of reading.
I remember being a really big reader when I was a child,
but then I kind of like phased out of it.
And now I feel like I'm getting back into reading
and there's actually a fun cute little story
as to how that happened.
And I thought I would tell it as you guys are watching me do
the rest of my quote page.
Right now I'm just coloring stuff in with my markers.
So we have some time for me to tell my story.
But basically when I was in Vancouver,
I did a little park meet and greet.
It was kind of like a busking session
where I played some music with my friend Jennifer
and I just invited any little doodles who were free that day
to come out and hang.
And one of my viewers came and she was an author.
She actually gave me her book to read.
She signed it.
She said that my videos helped her meet
her writing deadlines for her publisher
and that she bullet journaled a lot.
And it was just such a sweet moment.
I don't know what it was about that moment,
but it just made me realize like, wow,
my videos and what I do actually helps other people
and affects other people's lives,
which is a very cool thing to realize is like a very
concrete thing to see like this book.
And obviously the author is so talented, she's so amazing.
And she probably would have finished the book
even if she hadn't watched my videos,
but just the fact that I could be a small part
of that project indirectly is very cool to me.
And it was really special that our paths could cross
in that exact location and time for us to meet in person.
She gave me the book, it was signed.
I went back home to Toronto and obviously I saw this book
and I was like, you know what, I have to read it.
Like I can't not read this book that a viewer gave me.
So I read it.
And it was such a cute, quick little read.
It was, it's called Made in Korea by Sarah Souk.
And it again very quick and easy read, really fun and cute.
And I think that was one of the main reasons why it was so
enjoyable to me is because it was such a quick read.
Which before the major deterrents for me reading was just
that it took up so much time and I'm always kind of on
a fast paced schedule.
So it inspired me to look up more books that were quick
easy reads like that.
And I also got the help from some of you guys on Instagram
with some book recommendations.
So yeah, I've been getting a few more books in my,
in my collection and reading a few more.
That is that my fun little story.
I think it's cool that a little doodle author was the reason
why my love of reading that I had as a child
has been kind of reignited.
Who knows maybe there are also some other little doodle
authors watching this right now.
And if you are, please leave your,
the name of your book in the comments,
or if you have any other book recommendations for me
or other little doodles, leave them down below.
I feel like we're all similar minded people.
So I trust your guys' book recommendations.
I know I rambled over most of this spread,
but as you can see, I'm doing a quote page.
I drew a little doodle of a stack of books.
There's a book that's open and then above it,
it just says chapter 10, because October is the 10th month.
I also added a lot of paper scrapbooking elements
throughout this setup.
As you can see, of course, using some old book pages
that obviously go really well with this theme.
I think the text on the book pages kind of adds
some dimension and texture to the illustrations,
which I think looks really nice.
And that paper that you saw on the quote page was actually
some handmade Japanese paper that I got from a small store
in Toronto called Hanji.
And it has these really beautiful dried leaves
and flowers in it.
Currently I'm doing my monthly calendar page.
For the title I used my rubber alphabet stamps
to give it that printed text look.
I always get so many questions whenever I use these
rubber alphabet stamps.
So I'll link them down below
in case you are curious about it.
But for this monthly calendar spread,
I didn't do a full two pager.
I just did a half page where I have the calendar at the top.
And then I'm just listing out events in the bottom.
Mostly because recently I've been finding that I want to add
a lot more kind of sub notes to individual monthly events.
So for example, if I have an appointment on a certain day,
but I also want to remind myself to bring something for that
day or something that I need to do for that specific
appointment then I have been wanting to add that.
And if I confine myself to a small box that I normally use
in the two page spreads,
there's not really as much space to add those
sort of footnotes for the events.
So I've been trying to toy with the idea of doing this type
of spread more often so that I'm able to do that.
I just put the events title on the side there
so that I can list it out at the bottom.
And then I also just doodled
a little stack of books as well.
And other than that I'm just adding the splashes of color
with those neutral brown shades,
as well as using the light neutral grid tape from the shop
AmandaRachLee light neutral basics set.
On the other side of the spread I created
a monthly dashboard is what I'm calling it.
I just had these little modules and ideas of things
that I wanted to note down for this month,
but I didn't want to make full pages for any of them.
So the top one I have this book and inside the pages
I'm listing out the books that I'm currently reading
for the month.
Currently I'm reading One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston,
sorry if I'm mispronouncing that.
And I have a couple other that I've been planning on reading
hopefully by the end of the month.
And then on the other side of that book illustration
I have TV shows that I'm keeping up with this month.
I have been in a big as you guys know K drama kick.
So I'm currently watching Hometown Cha Cha Cha.
I've been wanting to start a Squid Game,
and also I've been finishing up a couple other shows
that I have never gone around to finishing for this month.
You'll see as I continue drawing that the other sections
on this dashboard page are sectioned for my monthly goals.
And then also at the bottom I added a package
or a shipment checker for things that I've
purchased this month and I'm waiting on.
I wanted to add a little section for that to help me keep
track of it.
I've done this in other months before
and it's been really helpful especially when I'm
waiting on specific things.
And I just, you know, sometimes I lose track in my mind.
Anyway, that's everything for the spread.
What should we talk about now that we're just waiting for me
to finish this up?
I never know what to talk about in these voiceovers.
Oh, I guess I never talked about this on my YouTube channel
or in an official video yet.
But if you have been seeing on Instagram
or YouTube shorts or Tik Tok,
something really exciting happened last month
and may be continuing on into this month as well.
If you haven't seen it,
I was a part of a YouTube Canada campaign,
which basically put billboards of Canadian creators
all across Canada.
One of the biggest placements was in Dundas Square
outside of the Eaton Center in Toronto.
Which if you don't know where that is
it's kind of like Toronto's smaller version of Times Square.
They have all these billboards up and now if you go there
right now, my face is up there, which is so crazy.
When I went to go see it for the first time
I had someone filming my initial reactions.
So I posted that on my channel if you want to see it,
but it was a very, very cool moment.
And I'm still kind of overwhelmed by the whole thing.
But I did just want to say thank you
because obviously you guys,
and you watch my videos over the past eight to nine years,
are one of the main reasons why I, you know,
I'm still doing this and why YouTube picked me
for this campaign so thank you.
And yeah, if you want to go check it out,
I'm across Canada on billboards.
I don't even know where some of them are,
but some people have been sending me pictures.
Quick interruption before I show you guys
the rest of the spreads,
I wanted to talk quickly about today's sponsor Skillshare.
If you guys don't know what Skillshare is yet,
it is an online learning community
with thousands of inspiring classes for creators.
You can explore new skills, new hobbies,
or just deepen your knowledge
and experience with something that you already love.
There's classes on illustration,
design, calligraphy, lettering.
I even have my own classes on Skillshare.
They're exclusive, they're kind of fun.
Just saying, if you want to see more of me,
that's the place to do it.
But even if you don't take my class,
I'm sure you'll be able to find something else
that you're interested in on their platform.
Even though I teach classes on Skillshare,
I also am a student of Skillshare.
I take a couple of Skillshare classes.
Especially when I'm feeling uninspired.
Currently I'm taking a class called Find Your Style
by Andy J. Pizza.
And it's all about unlocking your creative,
artistic identity and finding your art style.
And what I love about Skillshare is that it's curated
specifically for learning.
There's no ads.
I feel like the classes are definitely more in depth than
anything that you would be able to find on other platforms.
And there's always new premium classes
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So you'll always discover something new to learn.
There's such a strong community on there as well.
You can connect with other people who are taking the same
classes as you and encourage each other.
And it's honestly us very similar community
to our community the little doodles,
which is why I know you guys will love it.
Skillshare was kind enough to offer my subscribers
a very special deal.
If you are interested in trying it out,
you can click the link in my description box down below.
The first thousand of my subscribers to click that link
will get a one month free trial of Skillshare.
So definitely get on that.
You guys know we love Skillshare on here.
So anyway without further ado,
I will get you guys back to the video.
Next step, I'm doing my habit trackers.
This month again I opted not to do a mood tracker
because I didn't feel like doing one.
But for the header of the habit tracker,
I used the book page as like a background
for the habit tracker,
which I also did on like some old kind of cream paper
to make it look like book paper.
By the way, these book pages are not from a new book.
It was from an old book that I thrifted at a thrift store.
And I looked it up to make sure that it wasn't like
a special edition book or anything like that.
So don't worry, I'm not ripping out pages from a new book.
It was kind of like an old damaged book already.
So yes, any book lovers out there?
I'm sorry, there was a book harmed in the making of this,
but I tried to make sure that it was not a, a special one.
For the habit tracker calendars I just drew
these small rectangles with simple headers in the,
those neutral colors.
I also blocked off all those grid sections on the inside
for me to fill out when I'm doing the specific habits
and the habits that I'm tracking this month are
reading of course, to go along with the theme,
but also just in general I'll probably add this
to my habit trackers moving forward.
I also have the usual suspects like working out,
taking my vitamins, doing my vocal exercises.
What else do I have, stretching, stuff like that.
And then at the bottom of the page,
I filled the empty space with some book doodles.
So I drew a stack of books with some books leaning on it.
And then I also drew some books at different angles.
So I have some that are half open.
Some of the pages fully open.
It was really fun to draw these.
I think book doodles are a cute doodle to do
because they're quite simple to draw,
but they look really nice and cozy
and you can really customize whatever you want,
depending on your color palette.
Of course I went with my neutrals,
but if you chose a different color palette,
all you have to do is change out to the colors
of the book covers.
(gentle music)
So the next spread that I'm doing
is my monthly playlist spread,
which I've missed doing because I didn't do one last month.
And the theme for my playlist this month
and the songs that I'm sharing are definitely very chill,
cozy songs that are kind of softer songs
that you would be able to listen to while reading,
because personally I know some people might not like this
but I like to have very soft,
low key music while I'm reading.
Just because it gives me some background noise
and it can't be anything too upbeat
or the lyrics can't be the focus
or also just end up focusing on the music
and not on the book.
So I've kind of compiled some songs that I personally like
to listen to while I'm reading or even while I'm drawing
or journaling or stuff like that,
just because it helps me focus.
It's kind of similar to the whole lo-fi thing,
which you know I love.
But recently I've been really really into listening to
Bossa Nova and jazz, which is the genre music
that you're hearing right now for the background music
of this video.
And as you can hear with your ears,
it is so relaxing and it definitely gives you the vibe of,
you know, being in a nice little cafe reading.
So there are a ton of YouTube mixes that have some really
good, you know jazzy, Bossa Nova, lo-fi type mixes.
So I'll link some of those down below in case you're curious
as to what I listened to when I'm doing stuff
like reading or journaling.
So I listed those out.
I also have a couple of songs that have, you know,
softer vibes as well.
So I put that on the left side of my playlist spread.
So I'll link everything down below.
Basically what I'm trying to say,
I know I'm all over the place in this voiceover,
but I basically have Spotify songs that I listen to.
Some of them have lyrics, some of them don't.
And then I also have some like YouTube mixes
that are longer, they're like hour long mixes.
And those are for when I want
a more uninterrupted stream of music.
So I split up my playlist spread with that.
Anyway, I don't know why that took me so long to explain.
One of my current favorite YouTube mixes to listen to
is by cafe BGM channel,
which is the same channel that did
the cafe Bossa Nova jazz mix versions
of the studio Ghibli songs that I shared like a year ago,
but this specific video does that same thing,
except for Nora Jones songs.
Who I love already her music as it is
is very jazzy and relaxing.
But the Bossa Nova jazz versions of the songs
are even more relaxing
and perfect to listen to while you're working.
So definitely recommend that one.
Everything will be linked down below in case you're in need
of some nice relaxing music to listen to.
Okay, we're almost at the end of this set up here,
but this next spread is basically just a brain dump page
except it is specifically for anything related to do with
the 2022 doodle planner launch.
I know I've been mentioning the doodle planner here
and there in videos as I've been working on it this year,
but we're coming up on the end of the year.
And I can now say that November is when the 2022 doodle
planner will be released.
I can't give any more details on the specific date,
but just know that it is coming.
So I'm very excited for you to see it
because I worked so hard on it this year.
I made a couple changes to it
that I think you guys are going to love.
And it's just, it's been very fun.
There are definitely a lot of things that I need to plan
in relation to the launch.
Like taking specific pictures,
there's a lot of organization things
that I also need to keep track of.
So I am in definite need of this planning space,
which is why it's just two blank pages
with a couple of doodles.
But yeah, get excited.
Oh, I wish I could say more,
but you guys will find out more about it soon anyway.
Alright, lastly we have the first weekly spread of October.
I kind of messed up.
I didn't, I don't know what I was doing when I was doing
this weekly spread but I was just kind of going
based off of, you know, what I had previously done.
This weekly spread you'll see that the numbers are actually
for the last week of September.
It kind of is like half and half,
half the last week of September,
half the first week of October.
Technically it should have been a September spread
because there are more September days, but I don't know.
My mind just automatically just went to it in October.
So I guess we ended the September theme a little bit early,
which is fine.
Just means that we'll have more weekly spreads
with the book theme.
So for this layout,
I opted to do a spread that has a weekly events sidebar
on the left side.
As you can see I drew it to make it look like a bookshelf
because the weekly events sidebar,
taskbar always kind of looks like a bookshelf to me anyway.
So I thought it was perfect for this theme.
I drew eight shelves on my bookshelf.
The top one has some book doodles in it.
And then the bottom seven are for where I'll put my weekly
events and appointments for each specific day.
For the actual daily task boxes,
as you can see they're all on that right side,
but I split the page up vertically into thirds.
I believe the size of these daily boxes are 12 by 12
with one space in between.
I wanted to keep it pretty simple
so the header is just a solid block of those neutral colors
that I've been using with just the title of the day.
I left some space for a doodle and a quote, but yeah,
this layout is the layout that I used to do quite a lot
back in the day when I first started bullet journaling.
And I feel like I've come back to it.
Especially recently I've had a lot more like events
and appointments as things are picking back up
and kind of going back to real life.
So I've been really liking having that events taskbar
or sidebar on the side,
just so that I can kind of have a visual
of what my week looks like.
And then those daily to do tasks are more for more of the
repetitive mundane task list items.
The only other thing that I did for this weekly spread
is filling those empty spaces
with a couple of quick book doodles.
So I have one at the top that is the book open
with some reading glasses and a pen.
And then at the bottom I drew a book stack.
I think these book doodles look really cute
with this like loose illustrative style.
It definitely gives it more of that
like vintage kind of handmade scrapbooky look to it.
I'm also using a thinner fine liner throughout this setup
than I normally use.
Normally I'll use my Tombow Fudenosuke hard tip brush pen,
which is obviously a little bit thicker
for outlining or I'll use like 0.3 or 0.5 fine liner.
But this time I used 0.2 because I felt like it gave,
gives it more of like a pencil sketch type of vibe,
which I think went with this theme really, really well.
So yeah, that's it for this weekly spread.
Again, sorry that it's kind of like a September week.
That was my bad, but again that just means we get
to have fun with this cute book theme for an extra week,
which I am not mad at.
Alright guys so we are done.
Here's the full flip through
of my October, 2021 bullet journal setup
with our reading slash books slash library theme.
I loved the setup.
I think it was also fun for me to make.
Definitely very relaxing as I listened to jazz.
And it has me ready for fall cozy season for sure.
Alright guys, so that was it for my
October, 2021 plan with me.
I hope you guys enjoyed.
Of course as usual while we're closing off this video
here are some of your recreations from last month over here,
look at them.
They're so cute and beautiful and lovely.
If you guys do recreate any of my spreads,
whether it be this month's previous month's,
I always love looking through them
and seeing all of your recreations.
You can tag me on any social media platform.
Recently, I've been seeing a lot of recreation's
on Tik Tok as well.
So you can tag me there.
If you do want to see how the rest of my spreads
for this month turn out
I do weekly live streams on Twitch.
I do my weekly spread.
It's a really fun time.
You can chat, hang out with other little doodles.
And I feel like it's a good way to also see how
I create my weekly spreads because it's real time.
So it's a bit more chill than these videos.
And it's just a great way to start off your weekend.
So come join us.
Twitch links, all of that over here.
And I think that is pretty much it.
I talk a lot in these videos.
I just realized how much I talk.
But that's, you know, what can you do?
You guys have a lovely day, week, month,
and I will see you in the next one.
Keep doodling, bye.
(gentle music)