New Mocassin Foxy + November Bullet Journal Setup

Good morning friends! Today is a jam-packed day and I’ve got a few things this morning to share – I received a new Mocassin Foxy Notebook from my dear friends at Foxy Fix made specifically for May Designs notebook sizes and want to share that with you, as well as a flip-through of my bullet journal this fall, and walk through how I set up and use my bullet journal now.

Check out the video version of this post – I’m able to show off this soft mocassin leather in ways that photos can’t convey, and I’m able to convey my thoughts about the bullet journal process more clearly in spoken form. Enjoy!

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MOCASSIN FOXY NOTEBOOK

Y’all, this mocassin leather is SO SOFT. Kelly describes it as their floppy leather, and it’s so true. It’s very supple and bends easily – this is up to you if you like that, but you can see how luscious it would feel.  I am curious to see how it holds up as I am pretty tough on my covers.

These “Composition Couture” notebooks are made specifically to fit 3-4 May Designs notebooks (so a derivative of their Compact Size 7).  I find that 4 is the ideal for the shape, as 3 leaves a little gap between the stack and the notebook cover.  For me, I’ve been using 3 notebooks for weight purposes, so the gap is an okay cost. The fit goes for the stack height of notebooks but also the height of the elastics – they sit exactly around the May Designs notebooks which is a nice structural touch.

If you’re on the Foxy site looking for a cover for your May Designs notebooks, always look for the term “Composition Couture” or “Composition FN” – for now the link to this size is on the bottom of the website under “NAVIGATION” –> “Composition Couture” for now 🙂

I’m really excited about the pockets because I’m always stuffing things into pockets – and the layer of pockets adds a little more sturdiness and thickness to the overall cover so it’s less floppy.  As I put the notebook in my bag you can see the cover flex to take the form of wherever it sits in your bag – does that make sense? It doesn’t rigidly hold its shape as it sits in your bag – so keep that in mind.

The gold emboss and stitching are such a nice touch, and there’s a spine reinforcement that adds some structure and shape to the cover.  I’ve added gold edging to my Foxy before, but I like the splash of gold on the front. Overall I’m in love with the color for the fall/winter time and how it feels every time I pick it up.  If you have other questions, leave them in the comments and I’ll answer!

NOVEMBER BULLET JOURNAL SET UP

In the video above, I do a flip through of September and October in my bullet journal – because we often share the beginning, untouched versions of the bullet journal and you can see how it actually was used throughout the months.  Essentially – I mess up a lot, leave things blank a lot, and it’s OKAY 🙂

This month I’ve got a couple staple layouts:

Monthly grid for Instagram challenges and editorial blog calendar.  I often found myself referencing other places for these things and figured I could put them all in one place.  In regards to challenges like the #PlanWithMeChallenge and #RockYourHandwriting, I do NOT do them every day. I take a “jump in when I want to” approach, and just copy down the prompts I am compelled by in case I have time to participate.  This takes the guilt out of it and keeps it enjoyable to participate when I can.

November was written with a Sakura Koi Brush pen, shaded with a light gray Tombow dual brush pen (also used for the numbers), highlighted with a white Uniball signo.  Stamps are from FoxyFix, shaded with a Prismacolor watercolor pencil

Monthly Project Logs for various tasks and projects this month.  My brain works with slightly organized chaos and it shows up with these loose categories.  I often found myself creating a lot of mental lists but they needed to be corralled so these categories were born – I suggest the same for you, if you find yourself trying to figure out a place to put a particular task or idea, it’s time to figure out how to adjust your structure to accommodate it.

The 3 hexagons on the top are my priority projects and the others are focus areas.  I manage a lot of different projects in my work and in my life so this has been helpful even just to process from a high level – it gets me thinking about my overall priorities for the month.  Creating the little steps make each project a little easier to manage and digest.

Stamps are from Foxy Fix

Weekly layout, my bread and butter.  This is a little different because this particular week I was traveling for work beginning on Wednesday.  This is what I love about the bullet journal is the flexibility to create whatever structures you need to live your life – so I adjusted the boxes to reflect the very few tasks I’d be doing Wednesday – Friday and the massive amounts of tasks I’d have in preparation Monday and Tuesday.

I somehow forgot my expense row (usually below the middle Gratitude/Highlight row), but…. oops, c’est la vie.

In the lower right I wanted to highlight 2 useful sections for me.  They’re “follow up” and “Community.” Follow up is more straight-forward and similar to a “Waiting on” section.  I use this section to remind myself to circle back with someone on a task, or to touch base about an upcoming project, signified by my usual task box.  I also use a crude “sand timer” symbol to show that I’m waiting for information or a package from someone which helps me keep track of things out in the ether I’m waiting on.

Community is the title of the class I teach, so it’s a section of its own because, grading.  Perhaps you have a stack of papers to grade, or you have another project with a lot of repeating parts in one step.  Here I write down the students I need to follow up with/reach out to, and the assignments I’m working on.  I added circles to represent each person’s paper so I can track some progress – however slow. (if any of my students are reading this, thank you for your patience and grace, LOL)

In the video I outline some thoughts on my planning process and using the bullet journal as an intentional tool – I talk about that a little bit in posts about productivity, and my planning process balancing doing and being, but it’s easier to explain when I speak.

Want more setup posts? Check out my July setup,  or older throwbacks like April, March, or January.

What are you doing with November’s set up? I’d love to know in the comments!

Yours,

Jessica