-
(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
-
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-
For example, if you're
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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-
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So if you guys have been
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-
or maybe update an old one and you want
-
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-
head to squarespace.com/Amandarachlee
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-
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-
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)