Author: Daysha

About Daysha

Founder of Cosmic Century Living. Peering through the fog of a Red Bull binge. Ironic Trekkie and Whovian. Fluent in typo.

Subscribe Feeds

Halloween Can Be Every day! 7 Ways to Make Every Season Spooky Season.

Posted on by Daysha

I’m a big fan of Halloween, and I’m always looking for ways to make “Spooky Season” a year round event. So, I made a fun little gallery of ideas that I’ve used in one form or another in the hopes that it might spark some inspiration for other spooky-minded ghouls out there! One thing I didn’t put on the list by mistake was “watching my favorite spooky YouTubers.” Consider it the intention under regular spooky movie watching…

What are your favorite ways to keep the Halloween spirit alive during the very-much-not-Halloween seasons? I’d love to hear them in the comments!

As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

My Kids Love These Adorable Themed Chore Charts – and Yours Will, Too! [with Free Printable Charts!]

Posted on by Daysha

This post’s printable template is brought to you by my kids’ inability to stay focused on their daily routines in the face of, well, anything. How many times must I repeat the same questions about clean teeth and pajama locations before it becomes a habit without need for a nagging parent? Well, I’m afraid I will never find that answer, but I will settle on a nearer-term goal instead: accountability.

During one of my nightly Pinterest scroll sessions, I came across several project ideas for helping kids remember their chores. Some were super-detailed magnet boards, some were simple lists with clothespins that moved when tasks were completed, and others were everywhere in between. Regardless, the “pinner” ideas were inspiring for my gradually worsening attempts to corral my young kids into some sense of order morning and night. All that in mind, I came up with a simple cutout concept with pockets to put little game-type pieces into whenever a chore was done.

My kids love to count down days to special events and visit their garden to check in on every fledgling seed for growth status, so I took a gamble that being able to move a little cutout icon into a pocket when they finished a chore would help improve their memories immensely. It might even be fun! Behind the scenes, they certainly had very strong opinions about what they wanted their personal charts to look like, so there was some built-in excitement to boot!

Included in this free printable PDF file are four themed charts, one blank chart, four sets of themed icons, and two sets of chore labels (one color, one for DIY coloring). The rainbows, dinosaur, and space charts are pretty self-explanatory; however, the raindrop one was chosen by my second eldest as a “meditation” concept. She’s very into nature sounds and listens to nature music playlists when going to sleep or sketching in her art pad.

While the themes I included were based on my kids’ tastes, the concept should be pretty flexible outside of what’s in this printable. Any small clip art should be suitable for the pocket pieces, and the blank chart can either be cut out and taped to a scrapbooking page or designed and colored as-is.

Chore Chart Construction Guide

1) Cut out the chore labels, the little clip art drawings that match the chart theme you’re using, and a 1.5″ x 6″ rectangle from some extra paper. (Any paper will do, cardstock is best).

2) Tape the bottom and sides of the chore labels where you want them on the designated spaces on the chart. (Note: Make sure you only tape the bottom and sides so that it makes a little pocket where the clipart tokens can slide inside.)

3) Tape the rectangle bottom and sides on the bottom of the chore chart. The rectangle serves to hold the little clipart tokens when not being used. (Note: Again, make sure you only tape the bottom and sides so a little pocket is made with the rectangle.)

There is a short video at the bottom of this page that serves as a guide for how they come together and are used. Hopefully everything is easy peasy!

If you use these charts for your kids’ chores, I’d love to hear how they work out for you! As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

The Time Teacher | A Short Time Travel Story by DJ Ferris

Posted on by Daysha

My favorite topic to write and learn about, by far, is time travel. Actually, I think most of the stories I’ve worked on over the last decade (or two…) have time travel as either the basis for the plot or as a key element of one of the main characters or plot points. One of the great things about writing, I’ve found, is that it provides a fantastic outlet to express my theories about such things in a way that doesn’t garner an immediate glazed-over expression. I also don’t have to take time out of my day-to-day to acquire a PhD and multimillion-dollar lab to further explore the things I want to explore.

Writing is a win-win when you think about it!

This story in particular is part of a much larger series that was inspired by a lot of adventure stories most 90s kids I know were attached to in our younger days. The Indiana Jones franchise and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are probably the most recognizable bits, I’d imagine, but in my heart of hearts, Dr. Who is really my ultimate hero. My favorite is the 11th Doctor (Matt Smith), but the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) was a very close second for a while. While reading The Time Teacher, you might be able to pick up on that fact if you’ve ever seen Dr. Who episodes from their seasons.

As always, thanks for reading. Enjoy!

– Daysha

P.S. If you prefer to download the PDF version to send to your eReader of choice, you can head over to the shop link or use the download option in the widget below.

Ms. Winby and the Gunky Knife | A Short Cozy Mystery by DJ Ferris

Posted on by Daysha

This was my first attempt at a cozy mystery story, and I honestly think it’s fairly entertaining! When I wrote it years ago, I was much more critical. However, I recently reread it to do the formatting and e-publishing for this website, and I had forgotten enough of my plot to be able to just enjoy it with reader-eyes only. Maybe that’s the trick to writer overthinking? Perhaps.

Note: Yes, it’s a very silly story, and Ms. Winby is meant to be a very silly character.

I might continue on with Ms. Winby’s little mysteries for practice towards longer books down the road. I have so many big stories swirling around in my brain that want to be typed into life, but I still lack the confidence to throw everything else aside to work on them solo. Confidence might not be the right word, either. Whatever it is, I am absolutely set on writing them – it’s just a matter of when.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this story. As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

P.S. If you prefer to download the PDF version to send to your eReader of choice, you can head over to the shop link or use the download option in the widget below.

Radio Waves | A Short Science Fiction Story by DJ Ferris

Posted on by Daysha

I have published another one of my stories from a few years ago! It’s a very short science fiction story about a girl that is overtaken by her curiosity after seeing an old man sitting on a bus with a vintage radio in his lap. As if in a trance, she starts to follow him and stumbles upon even more strangeness with where he leads. No spoilers!

This one was inspired by my commuting “adventures” while working in New York City and living in Connecticut for a while. My train went into Grand Central Station via the Metro-North Rail. If you’ve ever been there, you probably know how inspiring the architecture and atmosphere can be for just about anyone, never mind a writer or creator type mind.

Over time, I realized that I could never assume a thing about anyone I was walking aside on my way anywhere or sitting next to on the train. I also had coworkers showing me the countless ways into and out of the station whether underground or through buildings and so forth. I met so many people from every walk of life I could imagine (if they were talkative, of course!), but alas, the experience became a bit over stimulative after about six months or so of crowd fighting. I started putting in headphones for my entire walking and riding journey, and little stories would play out in my head based on my observations. This story was one of them…

Radio Waves is a very quick read, but I think a fun one. I hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for reading!

– Daysha

P.S. If you’d prefer to download the PDF to send to your eBook device of choice (still free!), click here for the shop link or use the download option in the widget below.

A Matter of Taste | A Very Short “Science Fiction” Story by DJ Ferris

Posted on by Daysha

I wrote this story a few years ago to try my hand at flash fiction. After reading about how nearly impossible it is to get published even in a niched periodical, I was very intimidated by the thought of spending a million hours writing a book no one would ever read or even be interested in reading. To help overcome this feeling and also practice in the meantime, short stories and “flash” fiction became my go-to whenever a story idea would strike. If things went well with one of them, my plan was to flesh them out into a fuller work one day. In a way, I’m still in that frame of mind, but each time I finish a story, I find the sense of completion very satisfying, and the time commitment required to do as much works very well with my personal life full of my job, my family, and my semi-homesteading journey.

For this work in particular…

In my mind, I saw two men working on an asteroid together who were having a silly argument. I wasn’t really sure what they’d talk about, so I let them fight it out through my fingers. (Is that a weird thing to say?) Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the quick read!

Thanks for reading!

– Daysha

P.S. If you prefer, this story can also be downloaded as a PDF file via the shop page or use the download option in the widget below.

Printable Home Planners: A Fun Spooky & Cosmic Twist on Organization [with Free Printable Planner Sheets]

Posted on by Daysha

If you’re anything like me, you probably already have a gazillion organization tools at your fingertips via your smart phone whether it be the built-in calendar, a personal journal, specialized apps, etc. Why in the world would anyone use a printed home planner in the year 2024? Let me inspire you…

Trust me when I say that I’m a snob about storing and providing information in an electronic format (please don’t hand me paper anything!). Despite being an early adopter of palm pilots, keychain SD cards, and cloud computing before it was called that, I still kept running into the issue of…(drum roll)…other people that were NOT so high and mighty about this same conviction.

Yeah, I’m talking about my husband. But! I could easily adapt that sentiment for many other non-techies in my life or perhaps the miniature not-allowed-to-be-techies in my life, i.e., my children. It’s actually not totally fair to pin my need for non-electronic organization tools on anyone in particular because there is another – far larger – looming obstacle in my desire to become Borg: human biology.

It’s Science. No, Really.

My working life is about as close to living online as I can get without being a professional streaming gamer, but I still run into the need to grab a spiral notebook and organize my thoughts…on paper…all. the. time. These darn hands just need to be doing something physical in order to connect properly with my creative mind signals for whatever reason. Although I’ve been working for decades (decades!) to train my brain to use a screen for all that sort of stuff, it still says “goobleygookaboragorkapotus” after a while. Once I’ve relented and pulled out some recycled tree-stuff, all is well again. (Insert exasperated Jackie Chan meme here.)

Apparently, this is a known thing in science, and it’s more than just an organization hang up. Working with one’s hands is also good for overall well-being. So, using a printed home planner is not just helping my family understand our schedule and task lists every week (instead of forgetting to check Trello before asking me what’s for dinner for the 42nd time), it’s also helping me stay calm. As goes mom, so goes the house, no? Plus, I get to make something cute. Form meets function, baby!

Okay, so I already published the homestead planning sheets that I made a couple of years ago (and actually use to this day!), but lately I’ve been wanting to add a little more fun to the graphics that appear on it. The older ones were inspired by a Victory Garden community pamphlet that I found on Archive.org, and I still love the little family doing some farming while WWII-era B-series bomber planes are flying overhead. Since Victory Gardens are still a huge influence in the modern homestead community, I want to keep them around as a tribute.

That said, I have some other interests that also influence my home and garden styles such as, you know, cosmic and spooky stuff. I figured if I was redesigning a home planner that has been so useful for me in order to broaden the inspiration it channels, there might be others with similar interests that might find my planner useful, too. So, here it is…or rather, here *they* are! Yes, I made several!

Cute Printable Home Planners for the Win!

These free printable home planners have several versions available as downloadable PDF files, both colored and line drawings:

  • A kitchen witch holding up a book of spells and recipes
  • A spooky pumpkin-head figure in a graveyard with a skeleton popping up under the moonlight
  • A cute couple coming home after a trick-or-treating Halloween party
  • A cosmic gardener growing planets and stars in her garden

I encourage mixing and matching the different versions to maximize the fun and inspiration despite the possible drudgery of task planning you’re facing. And hey, if you’re still wedded to using electronic formats for everything (admittedly, I do this a lot, too even after citing research in favor of prints), the PDF file can be easily imported into any notetaking app like GoodNotes, Noteable, the iPad Notes app, and so forth. There’s many a week where I will start off on GoodNotes with my “hopes” for the week and print out the planner to put on our family clipboard in the kitchen in lieu of using a physical pen for everything.

Well, I hope you find these home planner templates helpful and useful! Let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas you’d like to see made available in the shop. I’d love to hear your ideas and give them a go!

As always, thanks for reading!

– Daysha

Time Travel with Yarn: Vintage Space Comic Designs [with Free C2C / Tapestry Crochet Pattern Grid]

Posted on by Daysha

Today’s project is inspired by the amazing photos which continue to be released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Launched on December 25, 2021 after decades of development, Webb is now the world’s largest and most powerful space-based telescope in operation. With its four onboard instruments, scientists will be able to study the very early days of our universe, the ways stars, planets, and galaxies form and evolve, and obtain spectroscopic data on the atmosphere compositions of exoplanets.

Webb’s first full-color scientific images and findings released on July 12, 2022 marked the official start of its formal science work. If you enjoyed the amazing images and space facts made possible by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope is probably going to blow your mind. Personally, I can’t wait to see the exoplanet data that comes out. I love dreaming up life and landscapes on other planets, and I imagine I’ll have content in the future that’s inspired by the same (décor, stories…garden projects??!!).

“Galaxy M51 (MIRI image),” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
“A Massive Cluster is Born (N79),” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
“This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar,” taken by NASA’s James Webb Telescope.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

A quick review of history seems to show that space has always inspired humanity, thus the golden era of our rocket age is unsurprisingly ripe with all sorts of retro visions of what our future might look like. Perhaps one of the most recognizable images of a “vintage” or “retrofuture” rocket, in my opinion, is the one designed by Belgian artist Georges Remi for his famous cartoon adventurer named TinTin. Its missile shape combined with a red and white checkered coloring seems to be a classic reference point in popular culture whenever rocket history is being discussed.

A Brief History of TinTin

Remi, better known under his pen name of Hergé (a play on his initials “G.R.” said backwards with a French pronunciation of “R.G.”), completed twenty-four stories involving TinTin the reporter which comprised many historical events in its plots during its run from 1929 to 1986. However, the pictured space technology contained in his two moon adventures are likely some of the most recognizable images from the series and evoke a nostalgia for the era they represent even from those not familiar with the series more specifically. In other words, many people recognize the TinTin rocket without knowing anything else about it. It has become that iconic. SpaceX’s Starship rocket that’s hoping to ferry humans to the Moon and Mars in the coming decade is even possibly inspired by the TinTin rocket! (Elon Musk tweet-confirmed something to that effect, but I’m no good at searching on X/Twitter, sorry.)

Here’s a very early self-designed crochet project of mine. I had so many ideas for a retro-themed rocket inspired by TinTin, but in the end, I just made a giant applique of sorts.

The apron ties were a last-ditch effort to make something useful out of it after every other concept fell through. There are a bunch of little pockets in the back for dowel rods to tuck in and keep the rocket fins straight. I think I was going for a Halloween costume at one point? Who knows… It gets to stay in my collection for memory’s sake.

According to biographical accounts of his life, Hergé did an incredible amount of research and had many discussions with involved scientists to make sure the rocket trips in the Destination Moon (1950, 1953) and Explorers on the Moon (1954) stories were as accurate as possible to what was being designed for future space travel in the day. That said, reading and watching in modern times, where real trips to the Moon are decades old and astronauts regularly ferry to orbit for long stays on the International Space Station, TinTin’s adventure almost seems commonplace with all we take for granted now.

It further reminds me of how far humanity has progressed in the “final frontier” considering Hergé’s stories came out nearly two decades before Neil Armstrong first set foot on the Moon in 1969 and several years before the first satellite (Sputnik I) made it to space in 1957. While there are definitely details in TinTin’s adventure that turned out to be incorrect as far as space travel goes, I will say it’s quite a relief that astronauts don’t actually black out during launch and landing like the Destination Moon crew did.

Project Time! C2C Crochet Vintage Space Comic Rocket Pattern

What would a C2C or tapestry crochet tribute to the retro rocket age be without a nod to the classic comic book rockets from science fiction stories? I took to my pixel software and put something together that would capture its overall vibe in blanket format, but I ran into a hiccup: I didn’t have the right colors in my yarn stash!

What would a C2C or tapestry crochet tribute to the retro rocket age be without a nod to the classic comic book rockets from science fiction stories? I took to my pixel software and put something together that would capture its overall vibe in blanket format, but I ran into a hiccup: I didn’t have the right colors in my yarn stash!

Since I’d been on a neutrals kick for my house decorations, my options were limited to shades of tan, grey, and a bit of black, so that’s what my finished project looked like. My husband claimed it for his chair in our room – a success overall in my book.

For the pattern itself, though, I did do my best to use nostalgic and fun colors. I’ve also included a couple of bonus grids in case a whole blanket set is in mind based on the retro rocket age. It’s definitely on my gift list this holiday season for any rocket lovers in the family and friends circle!

Note on C2C / Tapestry Crochet Patterns

I have not included any instruction or tutorial directions on how to do C2C (corner-to-corner) or tapestry crochet in my pattern file. My abilities in this area are limited, and there are so many amazing crochet instructors out there that can lead you through these techniques much better than I could. The video that I used when originally learning was put out by The Crochet Crowd, so I can personally recommend it. However, a simple search on YouTube or your favorite search engine is sure to lead you to many excellent teachers all the same who I’ve learned other things from in crochet.

I hope you enjoyed this little tribute to the retro rocket / space comic book age (that’s a thing, right?). This project was fun for me to make!

As always, thanks for reading!

-Daysha

Reflect, Learn, Grow: Looking at Last Year’s Gardening Journey and Planning for 2024 [with Free Printable Garden Journal!]

Posted on by Daysha

Guess what time it is…

It’s SEED STARTING SEASON!!!

That’s right my fellow gardeners – time to break out those catalogs and allow your dreams to do their happy dance in your planning notebooks. Oh, the colors! Oh, the flavors!

Allow me to be a bit candid, if you will… It’s been a struggle for me to adjust to gardening where I live. I spent most of my adult life growing plants in the 6-ish hardiness zone and had nearly perfected some hacks to get the season off to a great, early start. (Hello, greenhouse with a heater!) Then, I suddenly found myself gardening in zone 8b 9a! Specifically, the gulf coast portion of Mississippi.

At first, this prospect excited me because, without a “real” winter to kill everything, I could technically garden year-round! Couldn’t I? Well, no.

The first wall I ran into was bugs. I mean…not just bugs, but O.M.G. BUGS. Warmer weather means that nothing really dies off in the soils and trees here – things just sort of hibernate. And, if it’s a warmer winter, they barely even do that! Hungry bugs and hungry gardeners are going to run into some conflict to say the least.

“The first wall I ran into was bugs. I mean…not just bugs, but O.M.G. BUGS.”

The next wall I ran into was the Sun. Yes! That nuclear reactor in the sky which is ultimately the source of all energy and chemical life on Earth had a big lesson to teach me. When it’s out….it…is…OUT. Up in the mid-west and northeast where I was accustomed to gardening, my heat loving plants would lap up the 80 and 90-degree rays in July. But, in Mississippi? They literally just wanted to die most of July and August. The gardener in charge (me) also had no desire to be in 100-degree heat with 100% humidity, either. So, instead of year-round gardening, I was best off expecting early spring and early fall to be my go-to timelines for success.

Finally, the literal tilt of the Earth had something to show me about my “year-round” gardening delusion. Just because the sunlight reaching my region was hotter than other regions, that didn’t mean I’d be blessed with the satisfactory number of sunlight hours I needed for my plants. In other words, I was still getting winter darkness even without the winter temperatures. As reiterated in my biology classes, a good number of plants rely on the number of daylight hours to trigger their internal growing systems. This, of course, was rather inconvenient for me and the kinds of, say, onions I wanted to grow and so forth.

“Experimental” Seasons

The first gardening season I took on in Mississippi was spring, and right out of the gate, I was making mistakes in leaning on my 6B routine. I got my seed babies into their trays inside, set them up with warming mats and grow lights, and promptly watched them become leggy. Okay, I thought. This has happened before. I had assumed the sun blasting into my kitchen for half the day would supplement my seedlings’ needs.

Wrong. Apparently, the Sun moves across the sky during the course of the year, and what it did in fall and winter would not be what it would do come February through my kitchen window. I knew about this celestial factoid, of course, but I also was running on autopilot with bad training data fed from my memories of the last warm season of which there are now three for me to sort through in 9a vs. one (ish) in 6b. A 70-degree day in February is much different than a 70-degree day in November, according to my plants and other things/people with better garden sense than me. Also, the tree in front of the window had grown most of its leaves back, and the leaves block the sunlight that had been unobstructed in the winter.

I really think this one was on the tree. Hmph.

I’m not sure if I’m sparing you the boring details of the rest of my stumbles or sparing my dignity of the recount, but I’ll just say that the rest of that season was filled with little one-off “you should know better” mistakes like those. Oh, and the bugs waking up in spring really, really, really like bean and tomato sprouts, and bug netting does not work. Side note: Amish Paste tomatoes will put out handsomely even if you plant them too close and grow a jungle!

The second gardening season was that fall, and I decided to try my luck at fall veggies plus potatoes. It turns out that southern fire ants really like mounding on potatoes and pumpkins, and hurricane season (which also coincides with early fall around here) doesn’t like me growing greens anywhere but my Aerogardens. I don’t know if it was the torrential rain flooding my pots or the saturated air that offended the germination sensibilities of my seedlings, but those suckers wouldn’t grow taller than a thumbnail. Seriously!

You know what I could grow, though? Cucumbers. I grew more cucumbers than my entire family could eat or can in just a tiny space next to the porch that was highly neglected. In all of my 6b garden days, any sort of squash-ish vining plant was my white whale because of the dreaded powdery mildew. That scourge got my plants every time (if the rabbits didn’t beat it), and the pickle-lover in me always died a little inside every failed season. Not anymore. You’d think that a humid place like the gulf coast would have a huge mildew problem, but…mother nature works in mysterious ways, I guess.

So, garden season number two taught me that I could be a pickle farmer someday. I think there’s a market for that? I don’t know. I really don’t like canning very much, so that career venture is probably out of the question. Oh, well. We will, however, have every variety of pickle in the fridge and pantry for as long as we stake out this 9a region!

My third gardening season was this last winter, and I tried the potatoes again (in pots this go-around) along with Raab, cabbages, more lettuce, and carrots. Would you know that nothing would grow in those pots? I was so frustrated. Every Zone 8b/9a account I followed on social media was telling me to plant, and I was listening diligently. I used fresh organic potting soils, and I was very careful not to neglect anything per usual. Zippo. Nada. Not a thing grew. It didn’t matter if I seeded them direct or used starter trays.

Okay, well, the potatoes grew until we had a hard frost one random morning where we didn’t cover them in time. I’ll take that one as my fault (I still would like a word with the weather people around here, though).

The rest of the failures may have been the seeds. Some were older packets, and the rest were purchased off-season and marked for the following spring. Is it possible the seeds weren’t matured enough for planting yet? I’m not really sure if that’s a thing despite having taken college courses that should have taught me as much. I find that my internal dialogue turns into an Agatha Raisin narration if I wander down that questioning rabbit hole – my inner snob defensively argues it couldn’t have been my fault. What a notion! Oh, well, again.

A New Season in a New Year

Now, it’s time to get ready for the 2024 spring season, and I’m honestly very mixed on how I feel about my garden plans. On the one hand, I know I should be done with my “sit back and see what happens” approach to learning about gardening down here, and I know that a little more TLC + neem oil would probably go a long way towards more garden success. On the other hand, I know myself to be very much a Libra in that if I can’t make something efficient and a natural, enjoyable part of my day, I’m just way too lazy to give it much effort. Interpretation: I always start garden season strong, but the weather and bugs have great veto power over my stamina.

It is what it is. I am who I am.

I do love gardening enough to want to continue trying to overcome the 9a obstacles I’m facing. Thus far, I have decided to abandon the pots for vegetable use and hand them over to flower seeds. If I can’t eat what I’m growing, I should at least be able to collect things that beautify my house and have something to smile at when spending time at the back window.

I also have several Aerogardens in my kitchen which will keep my lettuce supply going enough to not worry about those particular frustrations on the porch. Further, my dad bought me a GreenStalk vertical planter for Christmas, and I’ve got my sights set on using it for salad tomatoes. I figure, if it’s really as worthwhile as all the Instagram and YouTube influencers say it is, I’ll have wild success and buy a porch’s worth of them come their Black Friday sales in November.

The cucumbers will definitely still make a show – naturally! Our pickle supply is pathetic right now, so I’m looking forward to that along with applying a bit more patience to growing peppers that can spice up the pickle jars. The bugs (hee hee) aren’t big fans of those seedlings, and if I wait long enough before mourning my ineptness at growing peppers before they’ve had a chance to take in the summer, perhaps I’ll have another good garden win on my score board.

Oh, and perhaps my most exciting garden plan this year…. Wait, you know what? I’m going to save that plan for another blog post. You’ve read long enough, I’m sure! And I’m very grateful for it. So grateful, in fact, that I’m dropping this printable here for you:

FREE PRINTABLE – Garden Journal Template

If I’m being completely honest, I have a million journals that I started with some grand plan in mind. I’m always thinking of story ideas, researching interesting history or science tidbits, or trying to gather my thoughts on particular topics (aren’t we all?). As an organization-minded person (please don’t look in my car), I always think I need yet another new journal to sort out that “one thing” over everything else. You can probably guess the outcome of this effort – journals, journals, everywhere!

So, I’ve moved into a new era – single template pages over new bound journals! I have found that just printing off a few cute or useful sheets that are relevant to what’s on my mind in the moment is far more effective to getting my thoughts worked out and organized than starting a whole journal I end up abandoning in two weeks like clockwork. Instead, I just pop the sheets into a binder as I’m done with them, and if they become journal-worthy, I given them their own binder.

If that sounds like something that could work for you, then I’ve got a template for your collection! Here’s a Garden Journal sheet for planning out the next season. It’s what I’m using to nail down my successes and failures over the seasons to plan my garden this year. If you use a digital notebook, then it’s even easier to use by importing into your app. (I also use Goodnotes for things like my family’s Victory-Garden-themed weekly planner – free to download as well!)

I hope this Garden Journal template is useful to you! Let me know in the comments if there’s any other type of garden or journal template that would also be useful to have.

As always, thanks for reading! Talk to you soon!

– Daysha