So the great thing about the challenge this year is that there are two versions!! At first I felt hesitant having a second version but I think really it’s a great idea because this way if you have an established planner set up there is no need to disrupt anything. If you are unfamiliar with the challenge please be sure to check out years past because it has been going on since 2014 and each year more and more people are joining and coming up with some amazing ideas and have seen some great improvements!!
So for the second version it focuses on more of a project and you can interpret that however you would like. I personally love creating journals that have everything all in one also known as a omnijournal or a commonplace book. I love the idea of having what is in the news, daily chronicling and notes about anything and everything. I also thought that I would create lists and do my brain dumps in there as well. It’s just a great way to time capsule your life. I did this, kind of, a few years back and I love having it on my shelf and looking back through it. With this set up I don’t need to disrupt my planner setup and I’m creating a wonderful keepsake. I decided to call this the fauxbobujo. Fauxbo- is the name I made up when I came up with the my own version of the hobonichi and using the Miguel Ruis journal to do this, and the bujo is for my own spin on the bullet journal.
Week one has been wonderful and I have been in LOVE with my setup and what I decided to use to do my work in. I decided to go with a leatherology junior pad folio that I had 
purchased a while back from amazon. The reason I went with this because I have a minor obsession with zip cases. I want to be able to carry this around with me wherever I go and so having it be a zip I know I won’t lose pens or anything else that I stuff in there. The notebook that I chose to go with is a Baron Fig. This notebook I had purchased several years ago. It was a kickstarter company and their mission was to come up with the perfect notebook. I would agree that it’s the perfect size and works well with all media. The only thing with watercolor washes is that the paper can pill if you use too much water but otherwise it is able to take fountain pens and really anything else I have tried. 
The inside pocket I have kept very simple. I placed a bullet journal stencil in there because there are so many cute icons in there that really come in handy whenever you want to point something out or use in a journal page. I also just threw in some sticky post it notes because they are great for quickly jotting down ideas or a list to later come back to and really make sense of it in my fauxbobujo. I love post it’s to help capture quick things you are thinking so that you don’t forget about them later!
I have a relatively simple setup to represent the month. I do not use this for planning or anything like that it’s really to jot things down to commemorate the month. I like to remember when things happen, even little things like a doctor appointment or a really fun day at the pool. For me this keeps a really wonderful time capsule that I can look back on and really enjoy the memories. Time goes by so quickly and days can feel like they blend into one another so having this helps me to capture those moments forever. Some of the things that I love to capture in my journal are new recipes. It’s just a great way to keep them as well as fun to see what I was cooking and when. I love following Jenny Penton and she has a blog with so so many wonderful recipes that ALWAYS turn out great!
This Lasagne recipe was so incredibly delicious that my husband thought it was restaurant quality. The one thing that is better is that you know exactly what you put in it and using the freshest ingredients makes it so incredible!!
Sometimes I don’t always color the pages and will come back to them to color. I made the mistake of using a paper mate flair and so when things splashed onto it somethings got smeared but I quickly realized this issue and moving forward I’m using my carbon ink. 
I added a cute coral reef drawing from one of my daughters favorite books. She loves anything and everything under the sea but especially all the different coral reefs and I wanted to capture that. Here you can see that I used some watercolor and the pages crinkled beautifully and I love how they feel but again too much water will pill the paper. No bleed through and the paper dried very quickly. The colors also don’t show their true vibrancy but it’s ok it’s the moment that is captured and what I wanted the most. We went to a birthday party for my cousins daughter and it was so much fun because they had a petting zoo. My daughter of course had an immediate connection to the turtle and chicken so of course I had to draw them into my journal. 
I left these sketches in black and white for now but I may come back and color them in at some point and time. I like to leave things sometimes in their simplest form and then other times I want to come in with color and make things come to life. I also decided that I wanted this journal to come with me everywhere that we go this month so I took it with me to the beach. I’m still relatively shy when it comes to drawing in public. I feel so ‘naked’ and exposed so I am still really getting use to it but I am trying to venture out and do this more and more whenever I can.
I managed to do two quick sketches just to capture the day. It’s hard with a toddler running around but when my husband took my daughter into the water I felt like this was a great opportunity to catch some moments. Oh the page next to my beach sketch I had just come in from walking Hankie and I just absolutely love the summer symphony. I love all the little critters outside that make all the beautiful sounds I could listen to it all night long. Whenever the locusts sing out I just feel like summer is really hear and I love and am so thankful for all the little critters that make summer so wonderful.
Planning things out for the summer can be really fun and enjoyable. What I decided to do was draw some suitcases and backpacks and list out what I want to pack up in each. The beauty of doing this in a bullet journal style is that I have the pages numbered with the index in the front. This index is such a vital tool because I can so quickly and easily find what I am looking for. You can of course use tabs which I am still tinkering with the idea but for now the index is providing me with the perfect way to navigate my notebook!!
This is what my first week has looked like so far. I will continue to update on my Youtube channel as well as on here with more upclose photos. Are you taking part in the challenge? How is it going for you?
