(relaxing music)

(bell dings)

- Thank you to Squarespace
for sponsoring today's video.

All right.

We're back.

This feels so weird.

If you missed my break video,

then you're probably like,
what do you mean you're back?

I didn't even miss you.

That's fine.

If you didn't miss out on
anything, then hello again,

but I did take some time off YouTube.

I'm back now.

It was very refreshing.

I definitely needed that time.

And I did just want to say

before we get right into everything,

thank you guys for always
supporting me and my decisions.

And especially on that video,
it was really nice to see

all of the supportive
heartwarming comments

and hearing your guys' stories

about taking care of
yourselves and taking breaks.

So if anything, if that
video encouraged you

to also take some time for yourself,

then that's also a plus for my break.

I'm gonna do my March plan with me

and my March bullet journal setup,

which feels weird because
literally the last video

on my channel was the February setup.

I just re- uploaded the stream that I did,

which also was really fun.

I did like the entire plan
with me live on Twitch

and that was like the most
viewers that I've ever gotten

on a Twitch stream before.

So thank you to everyone who tuned in

or enjoyed watching the real-time spreads.

It was definitely different vibes

from like my normal plan
with me videos, but very fun.

So maybe in the future,
we can do more of those.

Let's just get right into it, honestly.

Like I've taken three
weeks off of YouTube,

so why delay it anymore?

Let's get started.

Hi, friends.

This is voiceover Amanda.

Just wanted to quickly pop in and mention

if you haven't seen in the
news, there has been an increase

in violence against the Asian community,

particularly towards the elders,

due to racist rhetoric
around the COVID-19 pandemic.

So because of that for a whole
week, starting February 27th,

which is tomorrow a hundred
percent of the profits

from ShopAmandaRachLee Dotted Notebooks

will be going towards
Asian communities in need.

So if you want to buy a notebook,

support the cause, I'm
going to link it down below.

It also happens to be the
notebook that I'm using right now.

Okay, that's all, love you.

Back to the regular voiceover.

If you've been watching my
channel for a while now,

then you know that we have a
little tradition every March,

which is to do a green plant-ish theme.

So of course, I'm not
gonna break that tradition.

We're five-year strong so far,

so of course I had to do a plant theme

and surprisingly, in
all of the March themes

that we've done, I've never done

like a full-on houseplant theme.

And I figured this would be
the perfect month to do that.

The inspiration behind
this theme was actually

my real life house plant,
my little fiddle leaf fig

that's in the corner next to my coach.

You guys see it in my videos
all the time, but you know,

it's kind of a wonder how I've managed to

keep that plant alive for so long.

And me and my friends
like to call him big boy

because he's grown quite a lot.

I'll put a comparison picture
of what my fiddle leaf fig

started and how it is now.

So yeah, I kind of got
inspired by that house plant.

And also, I found a lot
of pictures on Pinterest

of actual beautiful spaces
with a lot of plants,

almost like a greenhouse,

so I wanted to emulate
that on my cover page

and just draw a whole
lot of plants in pots.

It was actually kind of
fun to draw all of these.

I know it might not seem like
it because I'm drawing a lot

but these doodles are super easy to do.

So I didn't really even plan
out the actual leaves too much.

I mostly just, you know, planned out

where I wanted the pots
to be with my pencil.

And then with my fine liner afterwards,

I went in and drew random leaves.

But if you guys want a tutorial

on how I draw each type of
plant, I can definitely do that.

But pretty much what I was doing is just

looking at pictures of real life plants

and trying to doodle them
really quickly and loosely.

I wasn't too focused on making it perfect.

And then my favorite
part of this cover page

was that I included hanging
plants from the top.

So I drew a lot of like hanging vines

and I drew this shelf at the top

where I could put smaller potted plants.

And I think it turned out so cute.

I know that there's a lot
of green leafy doodles

and themes out there, but I
really tried to make it my own

by just adding a ton of
varieties and playing around

with the different sizes of
pots and plant varieties.

So when you're doing this,
if you want to recreate it,

I encourage you to
experiment with your doodles,

try different plant varieties,
look up actual pictures

of plants and leaves, and
it's really fun to experiment.

And the good thing about
plants is because, you know

they're natural, it's in nature,
nothing's ever too perfect.

So, you know, even if you
quote, unquote, mess up

it kind of just looks more natural.

So I hope you guys have fun
drawing plants this month

if you're drawing them with me.

Another fun thing about
this theme, I think,

is that I actually only
used one green marker

for the coloring part of this cover page.

I wanted to keep it really simple.

So I used one Tombow Dual Brush Pen

to roughly fill in the leaves.

Really.

I promise you guys, if
you saw the realtime clip

of me coloring this in, it
would be like 30 seconds,

because I was just scribbling.

I did not sit in there
and, you know, try to fill

in every individual
leaf to make sure it was

within the lines.

That'd be way too tedious.

So I just did strokes of color.

And I kind of liked that look

with just the single accent color.

It actually really reminded
me of the very first year

that I bullet journaled, 2017.

A lot of my themes from
then were also similar vibes

where there's just one
accent color, really loosely,

you know, colored in and just, you know,

with some fun doodles all around.

In order to add a bit more dimension

to that single green
color marker that I used,

a few times I would actually
layer the green quite a lot

to make it look a bit darker,

but it was just that one marker.

So you'll see that sometimes
I go over like the center

of the leaves with some added strokes

and it just gives you that dark green

to light green gradient

without using multiple green markers.

So I just went in, colored
the rest of those leaves.

And actually I just realized,
I lied to you guys earlier.

I did not technically use
just the one green marker.

I realized I went in
with like a light gray

for some you know, shadows,

but honestly it didn't really add much,

so you could probably go without this.

On the other side of the spread

is where I'm drawing my monthly overview,

so I have a calendar.

I've been shying away recently

from doing a full two
page calendar spread,

just because, you know, I
was on break last month.

I'm still kind of easing
into things a bit.

So I figured this size
calendar would be perfect.

And then just underneath
I'm writing out any events,

meetings, to-do lists
things that I need to do

for the month.

And since this theme really reminded me

of my old school bullet journal,

like my bullet journal from 2017,

I decided to bring back
the drop shadows, guys.

You guys know, if you
watch any of my old videos,

I was a big drop shadow guy.

So I thought I'd bring
those back because you know,

we love a good drop
shadow in this household.

Other than that, I kept it pretty simple.

I just wrote out this month
underneath the calendar

which is where I'll list everything,

and then drew a few potted plants up top,

like the header was a shelf
and another potted plan

at at the bottom, just for fun.

Oh, I also used some washi
tapes in kind of a fun way.

So this is the ShopAmandaRachLee
Dark Neutral set.

We actually restocked the washi tapes,

in case you guys were wondering.

So I'll link those down below
if you guys want to grab a set

before they run out again.

And what I did was I
actually put the washi tape

on a few of the pots,
just to a couple of them.

And then I took my X-ACTO knife

and lightly scored around the pot.

You could kind of see
the outline underneath,

so I made sure to follow that.

And then when you peel back
all the edges around it,

you're left with the
washi tape that fills in

the center of the plant pot.

And I thought it was just a unique fun way

to use washi tape.

It also adds a nice pattern
and pop to any design.

Next up, of course we have my trackers,

and I'm starting out
with my habit tracker.

So I'm writing a simple
title with my brush pen.

By the way, of course this
is the Tombow Fudenosuke

Hard Tip Brush Pen.

I use this pretty much
throughout the entire spread.

Both for the doodles and for the writing.

You guys know, I love it.

This is my go-to pen.

So if you're curious
as to what else I use,

I'll link it down below.

And then I added some hanging
plants next to it at the top

just for some added little doodles.

For the mini calendars, I
used these calendar stamps

that I had.

A lot of people ask me where
I got these calendar stamps.

I got them as a gift,

but I believe you can find
them on like Ali express

or Amazon.

Just search rubber calendar stamps.

So I just put those on one
of my acrylic stamping blocks

and stamped out the calendars.

I kinda messed up in
there a little slanted

because I just refuse to
plan anything out apparently,

but that's okay.

You know, you just gotta go with it.

Things happen in your bullet journal

and it's for you anyway.

So accept your mistakes,
as Bob Ross would say,

there are no mistakes, just
happy little accidents.

And I think that's kind of the mindset

that I'm going into a
lot of things nowadays.

So yeah, I had initially had six calendars

and then I decided to add a
couple more at the bottom.

I just have these drop
shadowed, rectangular headers

up top where I write out what
habits that I'm tracking.

So I'm talking about,
you know, watering plants

taking my vitamins,
doing my vocal exercises,

because recently something
that I've done over my break

is start vocal lessons.

It's been a fun little
hobby for me to pick up.

So it's just stuff like that.

And then next to it,
I have my mood tracker

and for this, because my fiddle leaf fig

in real life was the
inspiration behind this theme,

I decided to draw my
little plant baby again

and this was the habit tracker.

So each leaf represents day
and I'll be coloring it in.

According to my mood.

I mentioned this I can't
remember when I mentioned this,

but I'm starting to get
into the habit of drawing

the darker colors as my happy mood.

I used to do it the opposite way,

where the dark color
represented, you know,

a dark, sad mood.

But then someone in my
comments section pointed out

that it stands out a lot more

when you flip through the darker colors.

So in order for things to stand
out more in a positive way,

when I flip through my bullet journal

I want the darker colors
to be the happy days.

I feel like I didn't
really explain that well,

but hopefully you understand
what I'm talking about.

While we're here talking about
moods and how you're feeling

just wanted to check in with
y'all and see how you're doing

during all of this chaos, the pandemic.

I hope you're setting boundaries

and making sure you're
taking care of yourself

and doing things for you.

I feel like while I was on my break,

I really got to figure out
how I'm feeling recently

without it being tied into work.

So that was definitely a huge plus

of me taking my break and
interesting to separate that out

because a lot of times I
feel like my feelings and,

you know, I've mentioned this before.

A lot of times I equate my value to work

and how productive I am

and I'm really trying to stop doing that.

It'll definitely be a
long-term thing where I need

to figure out how to untrain
myself from that thinking.

But that's kind of been
what I've been thinking

about recently and
checking in with myself.

So I hope you guys are doing
the same and doing well.

All right.

So moving on to the next page,
which is my playlist spread.

I discovered a lot of great
music during my break,

because I kind of had
nothing better to do,

besides watch a lot of dramas and movies

and listen to music on Spotify.

So I did create a big playlist

of all the songs that
I've been loving recently.

So if you want to check that out,

I'll link my Spotify playlist down below.

Honestly, it might be one
of my favorite playlists.

I've been shuffling it
on repeat a lot recently.

So I'll link that down below

'cause I didn't include all the songs

from the Spotify playlist on this spread.

There was just way too many.

I just kind of included some
of my top faves on this spread.

And I thought it was really cute.

I printed out the album
covers in little squares

and then I made it look like
they're sitting on shelves.

And I also made the
album covers kind of 3D.

And in between them, I added,
of course, more potted plants.

Funnily enough, in my real life bedroom,

I am going to be putting up
floating shelves like this

so that I can display
more decorative things

like plants and actual music albums.

So I've already ordered
the shelves from IKEA,

and I'm going to be putting them up soon.

So hopefully it turns out
as cute as this spread.

Anyway, I'll just list out
a few honorable mentions

since I didn't actually write out the name

of the artist or the
album title on the spread.

So first we have Raveena's new single.

I love Raveena.

She's one of my favorite
artists of all time.

Her music is just very chill
and magical and dreamy.

And it's great.

I also discovered this fully
animated bunny who releases

like pop songs and it's
kind of incredible.

APOKI.

I also, oh!

Recently my friend Stephanie Poetri,

came out with a song, "IRL"

and I'm actually included
in the music video.

So that was kind of a
cool thing that happened.

Go check her out.

She's very talented and yeah,
there's just so much great

awesome music that I've
been discovering recently.

And it makes me very happy.

I feel like, especially
while I'm journaling

I love playing this playlist.

It's like the perfect
vibes and you guys know

I love music so much and
it just ties so nicely

into journaling and drawing and self care.

So, I just love it.

Anyway, moving on.

Oh, of course I added
more of those washi tapes

with a couple of the potted plants.

But then next to it, I
have a very simple spread.

If you watched my 2021
Bullet Journal Set Up video,

then you'll know I
created a package tracker

for me to track, you know,
when I purchase something,

whether the item has come in or not,

I've actually filled that up
already, which is I don't know,

that's kind of embarrassing to say,

but I filled that one up that was

at the beginning of my bullet journal.

So I decided that maybe moving forward

I'm gonna do it monthly
and maybe, you know

a shorter little table.

I don't know, I'm experimenting with this.

So that's what I have there.

I have a little tracker with
the columns that have the name

of the item that I ordered,
whether it's been sent or not.

And then I check off
when I have received it.

And then underneath that,

I have my monthly shopping list as well.

And the individual headers
say things like, groceries

household items, and other.

Finally we have made it to the
first weekly spread of March,

which, by the way is extremely satisfying,

because the first week of
March begins on a Monday

and you guys know I make my weekly spreads

start on a Monday.

I know some people do Sunday out there.

I respect your preference,
but it ain't me.

I love a good Monday start to the week.

And March begins perfectly on a Monday.

Anyway, so I'm doing this vertical layout.

You'll see I'm drawing
out this horizontal line

up top that looks like a shelf,

adding more of those potted
plants, but then underneath it

is where I'm doing the
actual weekly spread.

And for this, I divided
the columns out into three.

I just referenced my grid spacing guide

at the beginning of my bullet journal.

And I think it's eight
dot spaces, each column,

like the width.

I know a lot of you guys asked me,

about Docker spacing a little bit,

but honestly I just referenced
my grid spacing guide a lot.

So yeah, I have this
green header at the top

and I just divided it out
into three, really simple

just draw those vertical lines.

And then for the weekend I split the page

up in half that way.

You'll see I'm dividing
out the columns also

with a line at the top.

And that's where I place my weekly events

like any meetings or things
that I need to do for that day.

And then underneath it is where
the actual task list goes.

To finish off this weekly
spread, I drew some black circles

and then used my white gel
pen to write the numbers

on top of the black circle.

Wrote out the days of the week,

just in simple capital letters.

And I filled in some of those plant pots

with the washi tapes again for an accent.

And I also use the
washi tapes as a divider

for the weekly events and the tasks.

And that was pretty much it

for the first weekly spread of March.

I like this spread
because it gives me a lot

of planning space for the week.

Before I flip through the entire
March bullet journal setup,

I wanted to talk a little bit

about today's sponsor Squarespace.

From websites and online stores

to marketing tools and analytics,

Squarespace is the perfect
all in one platform

to help you build your online presence.

As you guys know,

my personal website amandarachlee.com

is run on Squarespace and
I've never had an issue.

It's always super to use the platform,

you just drag and drop things.

And they even have a ton
of designer templates

to help you out.

There's so many awesome features

for you to take advantage of.

For example, if you're
showcasing your portfolio

or a gallery of your work,

you can display all of your images

in a customizable gallery

that makes it look really professional

and they just make it super easy for you

to import photos from various
social media platforms

as well.

And if you ever do need any help,

they have 24/7 customer
service at your fingertips.

So if you guys have been
meaning to build a website

or maybe update an old one and you want

to try out Squarespace for yourself,

head to squarespace.com/Amandarachlee
for a free trial

and for 10% off your
first purchase of a domain

or a website.

Thank you again to Squarespace
for sponsoring today's video.

They're a great friend to the channel.

So little doodles, go check
them out if you need a website.

All right.

So here's the final flip through

of my March, 2021 bullet journal setup.

I really like how this one turned out.

I just feel inspired to fill
it out and be productive.

And the plant doodles
were just really relaxing

and fun to draw throughout the month.

So that was it.

Amanda's great return back to YouTube

after her three week break.

It really wasn't that big of a deal.

I'm sure some of you guys didn't
even notice that I was gone

but I hope you guys of
course enjoyed today's video.

Seeing my March 2021 bullet journal setup.

As usual I wanted to showcase
some of your recreations

from last month.

Even though I didn't post a normal

February plan with me video,

I did stream it.

So a lot of you guys still recreated it,

which was really nice to see.

And of course, if you
want to see how the rest

of my setup plays out,
all of the weekly spreads

come tune in on Twitch every Saturday

at 11:00 AM Eastern time, I
create my weekly spreads there.

Live, realtime and it's very chill.

There's low-fi music and coffee
and good vibes all around.

I feel like I'm talking really fast.

It might be because I
haven't been on camera

in a while, but anyway, hope
you have an awesome day.

Keep doodling.

See you in the next one.

Bye guys.

(chill music)