What's In My Bag?

Hi everyone! 

I thought for this post I would let you see my every day carry and show you how I use the two planners that I take with me wherever I go. I always have fun seeing what people carry in their bags and wallets- I think it reminds me of summers with my sister when we would spend our days spying on our neighbors :)

Right now my go to bag is a DKNY black Saffiano Leather tote that I bought at TJMaxx. I love this bag! It's big enough to carry all my every day planner supplies and other essentials and still has room for me to throw in a water bottle or a snack for my daughter.Here's what's in my bag:

1. My black Midori Traveler's Notebook. This is what I use for all my personal planning and has the main calendar for the family. It currently has three inserts. The first is the 2016 monthly calendar on 2 pages from Midori. I use this to write down all upcoming events. The second insert is a Midori grid insert that I use as a bullet journel. It's in this book that I plan out each day. I generally fill this out the night before but occasionally I'll fill a few days out at a time particularly if I have alot of things coming up that I don't want to forget. In these cases I keep some blank space after each day where I can fill in additional tasks as needed. I draw an empty circle by the heading for each day and I color that in only after I have finished all tasks so I can quickly look through the book and identify if there are days that have outstanding items that need to be followed up on. My last insert in this book in my journl where I record information that I will likely want to refer to in the future- lists of books to read, Christmas card lists, gift ideas, inspiring quotes etc.

The inside of my Midori Traveler's Notebook.

2. A second travelers notebook that I made myself out of turquoise leather. This notebook only contains two inserts. The first is a grid bullet journal ordered from My Life All In One Place. In this insert I keep lists of ideas for my blog and for dashboards I want to design. I also keep notes on articles that I read. Because I just started my journey into blogging I feel like I have so much to learn and I like to take all my notes in one place where I can easily refer back to them. The second book is a Midori 2016 weekly insert. The left side has the days of the week where I write down the specific actions that I took that day regarding my artwork, social media, blog or Etsy shop. The right side is a grid where I list out specific actions that I have identified to finish that week and I check them off as I finish. If I do not finish an identified task I export it to the next week if it is still relevent or draw a line through it if it is no longer needed.

My art and blog planner.

3. A Kipling pouch (AC7376) in black. I love this pouch because it has two sections and zipper closure. It also has a wrist strap which I attached to the strap of may bag for extra security. On one side of this I carry my checkbook, stamps, debit card, ID, receipts and other papers I need . On the other side I have my pens (Two Hi-Tec Coleto pens- each pen has 4 refillable ink cartridges so I have 8 different colors with me when I'm on the go. Two Pigma Micron pens- .03 and .05. A Zebra 0.5 stainless steel mechanical pencil. A Pentel Clic retractable eraser), lipstick and lip balm.



The inside of my Kipling pouch.

4. Faux leather document envelope from Target. This is how I carry whatever dashboard designs that I am currently working on. I think it's important to have these with me wherever I go. Inevitably on the days that I leave this home to save space in my bag I end up with time on my hands that could have been used for drawing.



I've learned from experience that is best to always carry supplies to draw.

5. Thrown at the bottom of my bag you will find my iPhone 6, EpiPen  and keys.

There you go! Now you know what's in my bag.If you have any questions about what I carry or if you would like to share what you carry leave a message below. I'd love to hear from you!

The Art & Science of Coloring

One of my hand drawn A5 dashboards with a coordinating bookmark. From Left to Right: Original drawing; Drawing colored in with markers and gel pens, Back of dashboard embellished with washi tape and stickers.

I feel as though scientific research is finally catching up with my life.

When I was growing up doodling in class was frowned upon and without that outlet I spent a lot of my time fidgeting and daydreaming.  I would sharpen my pencil or go to the bathroom as often as possible for some relief from the monotony of class. Its now been found that doodling actually helps to improve focus and recall. If that wasn't bad enough, during my teen years I began getting increasingly irritated by the sound of normal, everyday noises like other people chewing or breathing. Understandably the people in my life were perplexed and assumed that I was looking for attention or just trying to be difficult. The discomfort I felt drove a wedge in my relationships with family and friends. There is now a name for the anger and distress that is triggered by these sounds, it's called misophonia and finding out that I was not the only person affected by this was life changing. Finally, in the past coloring was considered to be just for kids. Now it is believed that coloring is not only enjoyable but has positive benefits for adults.  I can't help but to wonder how my childhood and adolescence would have been different if this information was available to me, my parents and my teachers. I revel in this new knowledge as I doodle my way through meetings, explain to people its not them its me as I turn up the music during mealtimes and draw and color in the evenings as a way to unwind and center myself.

The following is an excerpt form an article in the Huffington Post written by Elena Santos from

10/13/2014

When coloring, we activate different areas of our two cerebral hemispheres, says psychologist Gloria Martínez Ayala. "The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors. This incorporates the areas of the cerebral cortex involved in vision and fine motor skills [coordination necessary to make small, precise movements]. The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress."
In simplest terms, coloring has a de-stressing effect because when we focus on a particular activity, we focus on it and not on our worries. But it also "brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress." This leads us immediately and unconsciously to welfare, exposes the specialist.

One of my favorite things to do at night is to sit and draw after my husband and the kids have gone to bed. I sit on the couch with the cat on my lap and a draw whatever comes to mind. Recently I've been drawing pictures that I can then color in and laminate to use as dashboards in my Heidi Swapp Memory Planner.

Here's my method for coloring:

First I color in the background areas with brush pens. I often use Tim Holtz distress markers. I love the fact that they all coordinate with one another which makes it easy to ensure I use colors that work well together. Recently I have also been using Tombow dual tipped brush pens. I love  these as well and feel like the brush tips on the Tombows are more durable.

 

I use gel pens for details and accents. The pens I am using currently I got from my mom for my last birthday, I believe that she bought them at Costco.

I add additional detail with a white gel pen. The only one that I use is the Signo Uniball which I use it a lot. A LOT. The pen writes smoothly and has the best coverage I've found. For me the key to using it is to almost float it over the paper rather than pressing down. I've also found that when the pen stops writing smoothly if I write on the back of my hand or on a piece of shiny magazine paper for a second or two it will start working again (not sure why this works but it does).

After I'm satisfied, I embellish the back of the dashboard with washi tape and stickers. Then I have the dashboard and marker laminated, punch holes, and insert them into my planner.

I've been having so much fun creating designs for dashboards I decided to open an Etsy shop and make them available for others. You can visit my store by simply clicking on the SHOP icon at the top of my blog page or by going to Etsy and searching for Jen's Whimsey. I currently have 4 designs available for a5 planners and if you click on the Promo Code banner at the top of my webpage you can get two designs for the price of one.

My Conversion to a Ringed Planner

My planner with a laminated copy of the family Christmas card  used as a dashboard.
The little trailer paperclip is from Shining Star Boutique on Etsy and I LOVE it!

 
I did not make the decision to get a ringed planner lightly. In fact you could say that I actually came to this decision kicking and screaming.

Since getting my Midori Travelers Notebook a couple years back I have been a Travelers Notebook purist. I love the simplicity and versatility of the design and the ability to throw it in my bag and have all the information that I need at my fingertips. I would sketch in my notebook and use different colors for coding  but other than that I prided myself on the fact that I kept things simple.
The lure of a ringed planner started when I joined an online planner group on Facebook and then started browsing Instagram. In the beginning I scoffed at how other people used what I felt was an excessive amount of washi tape and stickers. Then I went to my first planner meetup and became friends with the other ladies (Hi Monica, Sarah, Charanya & Kim!) Once I saw their planners in person and began talking with them about the benefits of multiple planners my attitude began to shift. I knew my plan for a minimalist one planner system had fallen apart when I found myself stopping by Michael's on my way home from work and browsing planner options online.

Target Dollar Spot- the perfect way to decorate a planner on a budget!

I did decide that for 2016 I would continue to do all of my planning in my Midori (a post about how I make that system work for me will be coming soon) but that in addition I would purchase a ringed binder to use as a memory book where I could document the day to day life of my family. I do believe that all of us have an important story to tell- even if it seems mundane at the time- and that there is value in documenting our experiences. The thought of keeping up with a traditional scrapbook seems overwhelming but a binder where I  can simply jot down key events and add in photos sounds manageable and enjoyable.

Me using washi tape and stickers!! Pages don't have to be time consuming to put together.

I purchased my planner at the beginning of December and as you can see by the photos I could not wait for a January start. One of the things I love the most about this system is the ability to customize it for my needs so I was able to quickly switch things around and add December in.
Of course no system is perfect and over the last month I have come up with a few hacks that I use to print photos for my planner and to protect the pages. I will write about those and give directions in upcoming posts!

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to learn about the systems that you use or answer any questions that you may have about my system.

Jen

Celebrating Christmas in my Memory Planner.

Washi and stickers!

One Doodle at a Time

January 17, 2016 - Jennifer Herrmann

For December I did the challenge that was posted by @insidemyplanner
on Instagram. You can see other people's doodles by searching #decdc15.

Life gets busy. With kids or without, married or single, CEO or aspiring artist it can sometimes seem impossible to get everything done. I have always been of the mindset that I can do anything I want but I can't do everything- or at least not everything at once. There are only so many hours in the day and if I spend my time and energy on one thing then other things are going to suffer. I think that is actually an important part of life- determining what is important and then aligning my time and energy with that.

In December I came upon a Daily Doodle challenge on Instagram. The first day was fun- I counted out the squares to make the little boxes, drew in a banner, colored in the border and caught up on the days that I had missed. The second day I only had one little doodle to draw. It didn't seem like enough. I had to stop myself from going ahead and finishing up the week. But (for the most part) I did the challenge the way it was intended- one little doodle at a time. I started to treasure the ritual of sitting down once a day and creating something small and seeing how those small moments built on top of one another to create something bigger.

I wasn't expecting it but I ended up learning something. It's not all or nothing. Of course I'm not the first person to figure this out! I've heard it a million times but now I feel as though I've really taken it to heart. Slowing down for the doodle challenge helped me to find a balance.

Of course this was a very small project but I decided to see if this method would hold true in other aspects of my life. I've always wanted to start a blog so I got started and did one small thing every day. One day I would look up an article on how to get started. Another day I would decide on a domain name or color scheme. I tried to do at least something every day but also gave myself permission to take a break if that was what I needed to do. One foot in front of the other. One day at a time.

One month later and now I'm here! And you are here with me! I have a blog set up AND I've posted my first entry. I'm exited to make this blog part of the ritual of my life- to watch it grow and develop. And I'm excited to have you on this journey with me. I'd love to hear from you.

Jen

For January I'm doing the challenge posted by @passion.themed.life and can be
searched on Instagram with #PTLDoodles. Obviously sometimes I still get
a little ahead of myself....