It’s been a couple of hectic months, but I’m finally back to setting up fancier bullet journal spreads! I love fall and I’ve been thinking about doing this Gilmore Girls theme for awhile, so I felt like November was the best opportunity to combine a little bit of both.
To see how to create these easy monthly spreads step by step, watch my November Plan With Me setup to see easy, aesthetic and minimal spreads for beginners to get ideas to plan and track for the month!
Here are inspiring bullet journal layout ideas that I’m using to set goals and to get organized in August. To keep it consistent, I relied on the color palette from the cover page as well as the different references to the show. While the pages are still pretty minimal in design so I don’t overwhelm myself, the color palette also helps tie things together. My YouTube video has a list of supplies I used.
COVER PAGE
To me, it was a no brainer to have the cover page be Luke’s Diner’s logo. It’s such a symbol of the show not only because of the location that it represents, but the coffee cup also makes you think of all the coffee moments in the show. I tried so hard to find a font that was similar to the one Luke used as a reference, but I just kind of winged it based on how he made his letters on the sign. I did get a little concerned that given how much ink I put on the page would cause it to bleed through, but luckily it didn’t! This Denik notebook has 100 gsm paper, which while not the thickest, still holds up pretty well to these water based pens. To make it more fall themed, I doodled different leaves around the sign and filled them in with different fall colors including green and brown. While leaves do turn these brilliant bright hues, you still see a mix of some green leaves that haven’t turned yet and browning leaves from ones that have already fallen.
For my calendar spread, I went in and started filling out the centers of my daisies. If you remember at the end of season one, Max Medina sends Lorelai a thousand yellow daisies, which looked so pretty on the show. I actually really liked him as a match for Lorelai, and was always a little sad she turned him down. I also first saw that actor in this mini series called the Tenth Kingdom before I ever watched Gilmore Girls, which I remember loving both the show and his character, so I have a soft spot for him! I actually found the daisies a little challenging to draw because they’re not perfectly symmetrical and have a lot of petals.
I’ve been enjoying these small rectangular boxes for my calendars lately. I put in key events at high level like birthdays or appointments and then in my weeklies I can add in the full details. I like being able to see all of my important dates at a glance quickly – the visual aspect is really important for me to get an assessment of the month. I literally envision a calendar in my head when I’m thinking about what’s coming up in the week or the month for myself. I referenced a serif font I found on Dafont that looks similar to the Gilmore Girls logo font. I actually couldn’t find the exact font for this either so I looked at one that looked similar to Garamond to me. It’s pretty classic, so it was easy to replicate.
HABIT TRACKERS & DASHBOARD
Plaid is of course a big part of Luke’s uniform, so it had to be referenced here. I saw mochibujo create a plaid pattern last year in her journal, and I’ve wanted to attempt it ever since! It was easier than I thought to do, but I do not make the straightest lines even with the ruler. These pages are blank so they don’t even have the dot grid to rely on, which I’ve become very fond of. It’s so much easier to make boxes, lines, or tables with the dot grid to rely on.
When I was nearly done with the habit tracker page, I realize that I extended the plaid pattern way too far. It was only supposed to be a 2 inch border, not cover the entire page. But, it was too late, so I just decided to leave as it is on the habits page but make sure to keep it at the border only for my dashboard spread. You can see how busy it gets when I extend the pattern across the whole page. In hindsight, I also would’ve chosen a lighter orange since this was brighter than I intended.
Since I took up room for the tracker headings, I cut up little slips of paper to write down the headers and paste them in. I took my Tombow glue pen and added the glue to the backs of the headings. I actually don’t like this glue pen and probably won’t buy one again in the future – I don’t think it’s tacky enough and it’s hard to dispense the glue from the pen. I do like the idea of it though because it’s useful for small things like these or corners.
My dashboard page is where I keep my monthly regular tasks, things to buy, various tasks I need to do this month, and I usually use a fourth box for my blog but I’m switching it out for home interior tasks. I’m trying out Notion for all content planning, which is why I didn’t include a content planning spread like I have in my previous videos, such as August. I’ve been moving around my content schedule a ton, so it doesn’t really work in this hard copy journal format anymore – it’s easier to switch things around digitally.
NOVEMBER IDEAS & FAVORITES
Onto my ideas and favorites pages. These ones are much simpler looking in comparison to the plaid one. Since it’s just a brainstorming page, I kept it super free so I could jot down whatever I wanted where I ever wanted. My ideas spread has umbrellas, which references the secret society Logan introduces Rory to, the Life and Death Brigade. They have some initiation or event for the group, and jumping off a high scaffolding in formal wear with umbrellas. It does look cool and fancy but I never understood the point of the stunt tbh, but Logan is so charming, I totally get Rory being swept away in it. I didn’t include their motto, In Omnia Paratus, but I totally should’ve! This page is simply to catch any content or creative ideas I have so I can keep them in one place.
Then I moved onto the right side for my favorites spread. This is a page to keep track of things I’m into the month as well some key events or memories. I drew a couple of dragonflies in the top-right which references the Dragonfly Inn that Lorelai and Sookie open together. I saw some pictures online where the inn’s sign had purple butterflies, which is why I made them purple.
I’ve been using the same layout structure for each of these favorites spreads, which is definitely inspired by Monday Morning Designs, and it’ll be cool to flip through them at the end of the year. I like the varied shapes of the boxes so I can put in different sized things in them, but it also gives me some structure because I left it totally free in 2020, and then I didn’t know how I wanted to fill up the page and make things come together cohesively.
WEEKLY SPREAD
I’ve had some horizontal weekly spreads in the last few months since I find them easy to create, but I wanted to switch it up and bring the vertical layout back. I used this in my June setup. For this weekly spread, I drew a coffee cup and a few books. The Gilmores love their coffee and Rory is depicted as a huge bookworm, so both needed to be included.
I like these vertical spreads because after some trial and error, I try not to add too many tasks to each day. I find it overwhelming and then I don’t really get things done. Instead, I try to put down 3-5 priority tasks I need get done that day. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to write in the days of the week, so I kinda winged it and took my brown marker and wrote the numbers out really large. On the left hand side next to the sections, I gave them titles – the top section is for events and then the bottom two thirds is for tasks.
The right side of the spread felt so empty for me, and while I love having a lot of negative space, it needed something. I brought back my trusty washi tapes and put a couple of overlapping pieces. It’s my go to when a page feels empty and I feel like it always adds the perfect accent.
And that’s it! This is my setup for November. I’m excited to getting back on track with my spreads this month. I hope this jumpstarted you to put together your November bullet journal spreads or inspired you to start a new (or first!) bullet journal to stay organized and keep track of things in 2021! You can also Pin this blog post for safekeeping. 🙂 Be sure to check out my other blog post for fun and easy ideas for bullet journal themes! You can also see my 2021 bullet journal setup too!
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