Get Hooked

Writing inspiration and motivation

I’m sure you’re aware, but finding inspiration for writing is always hard to find. Sometimes you sit down and say, “I’m going to write so much of this story because I really want to finish it.” And then you suddenly are really interested in anything BUT writing. Like that scratch in the wall is just so fascinating. Well, at least I have that problem anyway. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, and I think I have worked out some solutions that can help with actual inspiration and motivation for writing your story, or essay, or what ever you have to write. Some of these tips can be applied to other things too, but for the sake of this post, I am going to aim them all for writing purposes only.

Tip one: Have a friendly environment. This may mean you have the dreaded task of cleaning your desk, (something I dread a lot) but when you sit down, you may feel like your mind has been decluttered too. So, to prove that you can clean your desk, no matter how bad it is, I did it just for this post.

A project for another day is to sort out my paper stationery tub, and you might be wondering where I got the tub; I recycled an old washing machine pod tub.

To clean my desk, it took me 20 minutes, almost to the dot. I also swear that I just didn’t dump everything somewhere else. I actually put them in their rightful place. I do admit though, after the second photo was taken, I did put my other notebook down, and my lanyard, my water, and I thought of the bright idea to reorganise my books which are sitting above my desk, so now there is a whole stack of books on my desk now. But it isn’t as bad as it was before. It’s cluttered, but it’s neat clutter. *While I was searching to see if there is a word for neat clutter, I came across an article about why a clean office space is beneficial* I’ve rambled on long enough, let’s move on.

Tip two: I highly recommend that at your desk or in your office, you have books that will boost your Motivation, Inspiration and Creativity, or as I call it, MIC. (That’s a new thing I’m starting, spread the word) For this, I would recommend ‘642 Things About Me, Young Writers and Artist’s Edition’ or any other edition you want for inspiration. I know that this book is designed for kids, but I see no shame in anyone of any age using it. I would also recommend ‘Hirameki’ for creativity and the ‘Usbourne Creative Writers handbook’ for motivation.

Tip three: I found this tip on the internet, but set a really, really low word count goal. So be like, ‘Today I’m going to write fifteen words and then I’ll be the best writer in the world.’ And when you write fifteen words, you have achieved your goal, then you write more, so you end up with 50 words. It’s a psychological trick that makes you brain think that you have achieved a goal, boosting your motivation. I mean, you did achieve a goal, but not a very big one.

Tip four: When you are writing, and you don’t know what to write next, don’t just sit there and wait for an idea to come to you. I can almost guarantee that by the time an idea comes, you won’t be bothered to write it down. So what I suggest is this. (I’ll give an example, rather than just trying to explain it.)

‘The prince came face to face with the dragon. He wielded his sword to banish the dragon forever, but the dragon knocked the sword out of his hand. The dragon was coming towards him and….’

[The prince somehow manages to escape the dragon]

Now you know what is going to happen, but you just don’t know how to write it and you can keep on with the scene after. Doing this, it keeps your momentum going and it saves you time from staring into space waiting for a good way to write the scene.

Tip five: The final tip is to never, ever edit while you write. A lot of the authors I have met all say this, and I had never tried doing that before. After every sentence I would edit and re-write and stress about the sentence structure, and then delete it. But I tried to just not edit at all, and I was impressed at the difference it made. If you are someone that edits all their work after two sentences, I highly recommend that you just keep writing and edit later, and see the difference it makes.

This concludes my first writing help post, and I hope to make more like this in the future.

Thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you in the next post!

New years presents. (To myself)

Please Note: I am not sponsored by any companies mentioned

So, I’m guessing that you are probably asking, “What on earth is a New Years present? Why didn’t I know about that?” And that’s probably because it’s something I just invented then. This year, I went to see the New Years fireworks in the nearest city. (Which isn’t that close.) And I was just wandering around the city and I thought to myself, why don’t I check out Kikki.K? And surely enough, I was at the checkout with 8 rolls of washi tape. Which sound like a lot, but in my defence, it was the Christmas ones and you get four rolls in one box, and they were on sale. Only $5 for one pack. Which in reality is quite a good deal, and it’s just over $1 per roll.

Of course, the washi tapes were made in China, and I’m not expecting the best quality, but I’m excited nonetheless. In one of my (many) dream holidays, I go to Japan and go to all these stationery shops, with real, authentic washi tape.

Overall, I am very excited about these washi tapes and I can’t wait to start incorporating them into my bullet journal.

Also, what’s your favourite place for Washi Tape/ stationery? Is there anything you recommend?

Thank you for reading and I’ll talk to you in the next post!

Please Note: I cannot guarantee that the Washi tapes mentioned above are available at your local stationery store

The best journal for bullet journalling

I haven’t exactly been bullet journalling for a long time, but long enough to know what kind of journal is the best.

Obviously, everyone has their own preference on journals, and there has been a big debate on which one is the best. To pick the ‘best journal’ I think it is practically impossible. However, I do know that there are some journals that are just so good, they will seem close to perfect. In this blog, I will be reviewing a journal that is the best one for me. (Please note that I’m not sponsored by any company, and that this is all my personal opinion)

THE SCRIBBLES THAT MATTER JOURNAL

This is the one I own, in purple. The colour in the photo is a little bit off, but it is fairly similar.

This is my absolute favourite journal I have ever had the pleasure of owning, and using. The Scribbles that Matter (STM for short) journal has everything that I have wanted in a journal. It is a dotted journal, with a loop to go around the journal, the paper is really good quality so a variety of pens can go on it without it bleeding through, it has a pocket at the end of it, it comes with two bookmarks and it even gives a space for a key. (As in a bullet journalling key.) And if you’re vegan or just environment friendly, it is made of vegan leather.

There are so many things that I love I’m about the STM journal, but I definitely love that you can use so many different pens on it. It does show through a bit, but that is because I tend to hold down really hard on the pen, so the fact that that’s how much shows through when I hold down hard really says a lot about how good the paper is.

One thing I didn’t know when I received the STM journal, is that in the middle, it had a cross, which make halving the page, or doing Dutch door spreads so much easier. In fact I think in the very near new year, I will experiment with all sorts different spreads, because next year is going to be a year of possibilities, and to remind me of this, I wrote it in my 2020 bullet journal spread.

In the affirmations section, I used washi tape.

The STM journal has a pen test page at the end as well, which I think is a nice touch. I used Tombow Dual Brush pens for this, if you were wondering, and I will be making a post about them later on.

As you can see, there is some ghosting here, but it shows up worse in the photo. You can also see at the bottom of the page, that it is numbered, so that it makes using the index easier.

I think this is a nice touch to add to a journal, having a mindfulness page. I haven’t actually seen any other journal do this, which is what makes this journal so amazing.

The STM journal has a key for all your bullet journalling needs, and it also has three pages of the index, so if you like to use an index as a guide, I highly recommend the STM journal.

Overall, the Scribble that Matter journal definitely has the win for me, and it is just so perfect in every way. I definitely think that the price is quite good considering how many pages you get, (200) and how good the quality is. I definitely recommend the STM journal to anyone looking for that *perfect* journal, or just a good bullet journal.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you in the next post!

My 2020 bullet journal setup

As I’m writing this, 2020 is literally in less than two days, and although I am fairly late on the boat, I thought that I would share my setup for my 2020 bullet journal.

Unfortunately, I haven’t finished my January spread yet, so that won’t be included. In the future months, I’m hoping that I can share my spreads before the month actually starts. So, this is everything from my 2020 bullet journal. Enjoy!

I also wanted to write more, so I made a page dedicated to the stuff I post, so I can keep track of when I sent something.

Next year, I decided to challenge myself to bake at least one thing each month.

This is all I have for my January spread. For this I used Tombow dual brush pens, colour number 673.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you in the next post!

Washi Tape

Washi tape. The holy grail of stationery. Trust me. There is something so beautiful and calming about it. They come in so many different colours, sizes, lengths, patterns, and… well you get the idea. There is one main rule on this blog, we respect everyone’s stationery addiction, and we don’t judge, because you most likely have a stationery addiction too.

I must admit that I am guilty of scrolling through Etsy for extensive amounts of time, looking at all the deals that are on, and seeing that it is 50% off, with free shipping, with five stars and lots of reviews, and there is only one left. But there are so many different washi tapes on there, that you just want to buy them all. Because who doesn’t need a large amount of washi tapes from an obscure town in Ukraine? Anyway, the amount of will power you have to have to stop yourself from buying washi tapes you don’t need is unbelievable. So far, I have managed to contain myself enough so that my wallet doesn’t hate me, and I have grown quite a collection. It isn’t the biggest in the world, but I am quite happy with my collection, and I very much enjoy using them.

This is my collection of washi tapes. I also have three other Christmas ones. The really small thin ones are just numbers, dates and times. (Please excuse my wool stash in the background)

I actually have multiple funny washi tape stories if love to share with you, but I’ll only share one with you now;

For Christmas this year, I received a roll of washi tape. And as I’m sure as you guessed, I was over the moon. When I looked at the pattern closely, I saw that the nine was printed upside down. My first thought was “Oh that’s ok, I can use it as a six instead.” Only to realise about thirty seconds later that, no. I couldn’t use it as a six. And I think that I am more embarrassed that it took me as long as it did to realise I couldn’t use it a six than I am annoyed at the fact that I can’t use that number. But I’m sure that my inner Mr Squiggle will emerge and I’ll find a use for it in one way or another.

The Cursed Nine Washi Tape™️ (any ideas with what to do with it?)

This concludes my tangent on washi tapes. What’s your opinion on washi tapes? And what stories do you have with them? Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you in the next post!

If you are wondering, I’m pretty sure that all of these washi tapes are mt washi tape. However I cannot guarantee all of them are, and are available in your local stationery shop.

Get Hooked

“Blue is the only colour which maintains its own character in all its tones.”
-Raoul Dufy

This is a blog mainly about crocheting, and quite often, bullet journaling. There are also other tabs for you to check out too, but they won’t be the main purpose of this blog. I hope that this blog will inspire you to try something new and creative, and that you will learn something new.

Welcome to my new blog! I’m so glad that you have found it, and I hope that it will help you in someway or another. If you aren’t a crocheter, please stay tuned while I prepare a beginners guide to crocheting. Or maybe you are more interested in bullet journalling, well you are in the right space as I am going to update you with my bullet journal, and bullet journal inspiration.

I am hoping that in the future, I will be able to put even more creativity inspiration on here, for drawing or writing.

Please bear with me as I am new to this, and I am still trying to work out how to use this website. I will update this as soon as I can, and, if you want, you can follow me to be updated whenever I upload something. Of course that is completely up to you, and I will talk to you in the next post!

What is a bullet journal?

In this post, I will explain the purpose of a bullet journal, how they are useful, and hopefully persuade you to give bullet journalling a try.

The main purpose of a bullet journal is to get your life organised in a neat way. You may need a bullet journal for work, school, or just your everyday life. Bullet journals (commonly called “bujos'”) can be used by super busy people, or people who have a fairly empty schedule that would like to get more things done in the day to be more productive. I’m sure that if you google a bujo, it will come up with so many things for busy, and not so busy people.

You can start a bullet journal whenever you want, and make it as fancy, doodle-y or minimal as you want. The most important thing is that it actually helps you with organising things or keeping up to date when things are due, and that it works for you. In another post, I will explain how to start a bujo, but right now we are just focusing on what they are. You can tailor it to your needs, which is what makes it such a good system. You can track your habits and keep on top of your chores with a bullet journal, which is really good thing for a healthy lifestyle. and all you need is a journal and a pen, and get started writing down everything that you need to do.

I can happily conclude this post that having a bullet journal does actually help you keep on top of your schedule, and that I highly recommend that you watch some bullet journalling videos on Youtube. I suggest that you watch AmandaRachLee’s videos, or just take a look at her Instagram just for a bit of an idea of what a bullet journal is, or maybe even some inspiration.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you in my next post!

(Please note that this is my first ever Blog post, so that if it is poorly written or that there is any problem, I am very sorry and please let me know. Thank you!)