SUPPLIES

• Notebook
• Acrylographs
• Calliographs
• Your pen of choice
• Scissors

Make sure to use my affiliate code PLANWITHEMM10 to save 10% at Archer and Olive.

TV AND FILM

I’m a huge TV and movies gal. We watch a movie each Sunday and watch a TV episode or two over dinner each night. And over time, that adds up to a whole lot of content consumed. But more than that, I think about all of the snacks consumed, the weird jokes made, and all the kitty cuddles on the couch.

So we’re documenting it! I started by creating the outline of a film reel with a black calliograph. Then I just added white squares with a white acrylograph to create the appearance of holes in the film strip. Super simple, just 7 lines and some squares!

Then comes the fun part: documenting it all. I lettered in the titles of the shows and movies, but you could also add film posters, ratings, or reviews! If there are too many, I recommend picking your absolute favorites to document.

MY MONTH IN AUDIO

We’ve covered video, but now let’s talk audio! This was inspired by @alltheradreads’s spread on Instagram - check it out because it’s just GORGEOUS. This got me thinking about audio statistics and Spotify Wrapped. Tracking the songs and artists you listen to can give you a ton of insight into your emotions, important events, and more. For me, I always listen to the set list of a band on repeat before I see them, disco music when I’m happy or unmotivated, or lo-fi music when I need to focus. You can track this manually or use something like receiptify or stats.fm to get exact numbers.

We’re also extending it to audiobooks! Y’all know I’m a huge reader and I always have an audiobook on for a long commute or walk around the neighborhood. It seemed fitting to also track the stats for these. While I could get more complicated with it, here I’m just tracking the total time spent listening. Websites like Storygraph will add this up for you, and you can divide by the speed you listen on if it’s different from 1x.

Here you can document things like time spent, genres, your most listened songs and more. I embellished it with a doodle of some headphones and some fun lettering. You could also repeat this at the end of the year a la Spotify Wrapped and see how your monthly favorites stack up over the year. 

MONTHLY LISTS

First movies and TV, then audio, what’s next? How about everything else? Make a list of categories that excite you and then slot in what you did in the month that fits it.

Category ideas:

• Watching

• Reading

• Moving

• Eating

• Playing

• Listening

• New

• Highlights

Then from those categories, we’ll make our list. I created a border with swatches, then made titles with coordinating swatches as well. From there, we list away! Often this serves as a time to reflect on the month and see if there are any adjustments I want to make for the month ahead. If you want to create your own monthly lists with ease, check out my printable!

Find an empty category? Consider removing it or making plans for a fun activity for it for the next month. 

PHOTO JOURNALING

A classic way to recap your month is with photos. These spreads are vibrant, full of memories, and joyful to look at. The hardest part is remembering to take the photos in the first place! I created a recap spread for my Sweden trip, full of photos I took in Stockholm. I took these on my phone, then printed all of these with an at-home photo printer. They turned out to be the perfect size to border my A5 spread. Then it’s journaling time! You can describe the photos, add ephemera from the month, or doodle to your heart’s content. I’m excited to add more to my Sweden spread over time, but I think it’s a really great start (and most of the time, that’s the roadblock).

And voila! We’ve documented our month, reflected on how we spent our time, and had a great time doing it. You can also check out the associated YouTube video for these spreads and check out this blog for more monthly recap ideas.