Monday Miscellany

Tags

bomo art diary, montblanc, planners, the telegraph, the well appointed desk, these beautiful pens, tiger pens blog

The Well Appointed Desk has an excellent series on choosing a ring-bound planner. It’s exhaustive and entertaining. It definitely answers any and all questions you might have if you are considering a ring-bound planner.

Miss Elderberry over at These Beautiful Pens introduced her diary for 2015 in this post. Beautiful Bomo Art diary.

And thanks to the Tiger Pens Blog I was delighted to come across this article by The Telegraph on luxury pens. Who knew that Hermes now offers a fancy pen? But as long as we’re dreaming I think I prefer the Montblanc Rita Hayworth. 😉

Flex Planner

Tags

filofax flex, moleskine, planners

Last weekend I had an uncontrollable urge to draw squares. 🙂 So I found myself drawing calendars and grids in two 8×5 notebooks that fit perfectly into my Filofax Flex, which used to house a blank journal and my Zen journal. I still have those but I love this Filofax Flex so much I wanted to use it everyday. I thought I might try this planner configuration for awhile.

I first talked about these notebooks in this post; I picked them up in Edmonton when I went to the Diana exhibit. They fit the Flex perfectly. One of the reasons I wanted to use this is I missed having my financial info with me when I’m at work. So the notebook on the left contains all my banking information.

On the first page I track each bill payment each month. Underneath the sticky is a vertical list of all the bills to be paid. Across the grid I record how much is paid on each bill each month.

On the second page and subsequent pages I will have a detailed transaction list of all my banking. I’m fairly organized but sometimes I can miss the odd bill so I like to have this with me so I can check things when I’m at work.

The notebook on the right is the planner. Here is one of the month pages.

And here is one of the week pages. I had a Moleskine planner a few years ago that used this system of having the weekly calendar on the left hand side and a blank page on the right for notes and lists. I loved that system and have longed to go back to it ever since. The drawback with the Molekskine design, in my opinion, is that all of the months are together in the front of the book and the weeks are at the back. The constant back and forth was, to me, annoying. This way I can have the month layout followed by the four weeks and then another month layout. Perfect!

 

 

My Every Day Carry

Tags

filofax, hobonichi, incowrimo, journal, lula fashion business, monteverde prima, notebooks, parker urban, planners, roots londoner, toffeenut, tomoe river

I’ve been seeing lots of videos and blog posts about what people carry with them every day. So I thought I would do one too. It’s about what I carry with me every day, an update on my planner, and kind of a “what’s in my bag” post as well. Some of these things I’ve talked about in previous blog posts, some stuff will be new.

This is my Lula Fashion Business laptop bag. When it doesn’t hold my work laptop it holds what my purse doesn’t.

Love the purple lining.

I carry my Cadence pens with me.

This pencil case carries lip balm and my phone charger…but no pencils!

My medicine bag, which contains medication, wet wipes, a hand mirror and breath freshener.

I carry my journal with me everywhere I go. The yellow pencil case is attached to the cover of the journal by a large elastic. I found it at a dollar store, believe it or not, and it works beautifully. A few more of my favorite fountain pens live in here. The Monteverde Prima and my Parker Urban are in the pen loops.

And here is my planner! We are still together! You recall I first started using this planner on December 1 of last year. I wanted to use this planner for all of 2014; I didn’t think I would make it this far. I must admit I’ve been feeling the “planner itch” as I’ve heard some call it; I’ve been reading about the Hobonichi Planners at Plannerisms and I feel tempted. One of my InCoWriMo penpals sent me some Tomoe River paper, which is the paper in the Hobonichi Planners, and it is wonderful. But I am going to stick with my Martha Stewart disc-bound system. It’s been working great since December so why change?

So that’s it for my laptop bag. I also carry my purse every day so I thought I would include that too.

My current bag is the Roots Londoner. It is my second leather Roots bag and I really love it. It’s very roomy but if I try to put everything from my laptop bag into this bag it stretches the leather and is too heavy for my shoulder. So I split the weight up between the two.

In the zippered pockets on the front I keep lip gloss and Green Tea and Echinacea Ricola.

My change purse.

My Filofax wallet is a green chameleon. I found it at my local Reid’s Stationers on sale. I can see why lots of people use it as a wallet; I’ve been using it without incident for over a year.

For as long as I can remember I’ve carried a Rosary in my purse. This one I picked up at our local church.

Remember my Toffeenut Planner? I didn’t actually end up using the planner but I do still have the case. I found small notebooks that fit it perfectly so I carry it around with me just in case I need to make some notes that wouldn’t normally go in my Cross journal (like directions or my grocery list).

And finally my sunglasses, which I’m realizing kinda match the color of my bag.

And that’s it! I hope this wasn’t too terribly boring. I’m always interested in other people’s bags and what they carry every day. Would love to see what you carry!

Write it Down

Tags

planners, writing

Great post by Giftie Etcetera about why she writes stuff down in her planner. I am the same way: I need paper. End of story. I’m not afraid to admit there are whole aspects of technology that I do not understand. Nor do I feel the need to understand them. I know I work best with a pen and paper and that’s it. 

So the next time someone comments on my lack of technical prowess I will do what Giftie does; sip my tea and smile.

My Planner for 2014

Tags

diary, discbound, martha stewart, planners

So here is a quick introduction to my 2014 planner. I really want to try to stick with this one for all of 2014. Given my track record that would be quite the accomplishment.

I am staying with a discbound system; see this post for details about my previous Arc planner. I still have that brown binder; I love it and will use it for something else this year.

When I was in Phoenix in October I bought a Martha Stewart Discbound Notebook in black, with a textured cover, sized 6.5″ x 9″.

Two things appealed to me immediately: the silver discs and the elastic cord. Very sharp looking notebook.

I love the silver discs but they are smaller than the discs I was previously using, so I had to remove some sections from my planner setup. The elastic cord really helps to keep it thin.

The front page is almost identical to the previous one, with the flap for documents on the left hand side and the card slots. And of course my favorite fountain pen and letters paper.

I transferred my divider with the attached pen loop (on the left) as well as the calendar page from my previous planner. It’s great having two pen loops.

I bought the 2014 calendar pages. This is the Month on Two Pages layout. She gives tips on gardening and seasonal chores around the home but there is still plenty of room to write.

This is the Week on Two Pages layout and for the first time I’m using a vertical layout. It’s working well so far (the calendar started on November 25). The top three sections of each day are broken into Morning, Afternoon and Evening. The bottom two, blue, sections I use for meal planning and blog post planning.

You’ll also notice I’m experimenting with top tabs for the month tabs this year. The tabs are getting a little mangled in my bag so not sure how long this system will last.

As mentioned previously I had to get rid of some sections to allow for the smaller rings. But I still have my To Buy section where I jot down ideas for gifts or things I’m researching to buy for myself. This section may not get much use in 2014…but more on that later!

My Home section is a must-have so it remains. In this section I keep track of meal planning and finances, as well as personal info like medications my elderly father is on. I added that beautiful picture to inspire me; someday I would like to live in a house with a veranda like that.

Everything else that I’m keeping in this planner now falls in the Notes section. This is where I keep track of my pens and the various inks I have in them.

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I have been using this book since November 25 and so far so good. But it’s early days yet; we will have to see how things go. I can foresee a problem with the disc size; I may want to have more than two months of calendar pages available to me at one time. We’ve all experienced “planner fail” at some point and it could happen to me again too. But I really love this notebook so I’m hoping I can live with it until 2015. And who knows? Maybe it will organize my life in 2015 too.

Would love to hear from you about the planner you will be using for 2014.

My Arc Planner

Tags

arc notebooks, planners

Yes I believe this is the third planner I’ve drafted into use this year, but who’s counting? 😉

You’ll recognize this beauty from my Woven Fabric Arc Notebook post of Aug 25, purchased for and sent to me by the lovely Amanda from arcit.blogspot.ca. You’ll also recognize the book elastic from the Papaya Book of Days post of May 5. I like the pink with the brown and it works perfectly to keep the book closed. I need something because there is no clasp or attached elastic.

I’ve moved into 1.5″ discs. It came with 1″ discs but once I loaded it up the pages were no longer able to move with ease. So it was into the bigger discs. The discs look a little big but they hold so much more.

I keep an Arc pocket divider at the very front, to hold bills I need to pay that day or post I need to send. And since the Arc comes with one pen loop I added a Leuchtturm Pen Loop to an Arc index divider which works really well; I can move the index divider if I want, even to a different book. Not that I’m planning any more planner moves this year!

I keep a blue Pilot G-TEC C4 pen in the loop currently. I plan on moving to a Coleto or Slicci multi-pen as I like having different coloured inks to write with.

I made the small paper pocket on the left and I keep my Hello Kitty stickers in there. I don’t have much Hello Kitty stuff and was never really into it until my friend gave me Hello Kitty bookmarks for Christmas last year. In this photo you can also see an inspiration page with my favorite things on it, including quotes.

My cats!

Halley, William and Gracie. We lost William last year. 😦

I use an Arc zippered pouch for more stickers that I use in the planner. On the right you can see a Day-Timer Yearly Planning Calendar that I liberated from an old planner.

I love this paper and made it into a divider.

Here’s where we start to get into the actual planner pages (finally!). I created this page and the following weekly pages based on a design on limetreefruits.com.

The weekly blocks are laid out along the top of the page. This is the beginning of the week where you can organize the meals for the week, or record what you eat day by day.

Each day is cut, above the to do line, and above the schedule line. So you can flip through each day without losing sight of the week at the top. It really is a nifty system. Limetreefruits.com has free printables of this in a hand-painted, water colour themed design which are incredibly beautiful, just not my thing. I changed the schedule to suit me and also added water and walk tracking icons.

More dividers: to buy, health, bookclub, travel, home and notes. I like to keep note of online retailers who sell certain items and what their shipping terms are. In the home section I keep my menu planning pages and finance pages.

The tea section. I keep track of my daily tea drinking here, for eventual transcription into my silver filigree Paperblanks journal.

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In the back I keep post-its and flags, as well as another Arc pocket divider.

In this pen loop I keep a Post-it pen I found at Target. It has flags in the highlighter cap and the other end is a ballpoint pen.

So that’s it for my planner. I carry it with me everywhere and I’m using it faithfully every day. Fingers crossed it will last into 2014. 😉

Same Time Next Year

Tags

new york times, planners

Thanks to Notebook Stories for this:

A beautiful love letter to a faithful friend who keeps the author on time stylishly.

Image from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/fashion/a-yearly-date-with-the-planner.html?_r=2&

Woven Fabric Arc Notebook

Tags

arc notebooks, notebooks, planners

It’s no secret I love Arc notebooks: in my post on July 28 I talked about the blue leather junior notebook and all the accessories; and in my post on Aug 18 I talked about my travel journal which I made using a green poly Arc notebook. And now I’m going to talk about my new brown woven notebook, size A5, from the wonderful Amanda from http://arcit.blogspot.ca/. She posted how she is always looking for items that are not available in the UK; she is willing to buy items if we are willing to send them to her, and vice versa. She didn’t want the green poly notebook at the time I sent the email, but she was willing to buy and post the woven fabric notebook for me. Plus she had a coupon! And so after a few emails and paypal payments it arrived in my mailbox!

Amanda included a very nice note with the notebook.

The bubble wrap came off to reveal another plastic bag. Good for shipping.

I tore the plastic bag off and could finally feel the notebook. The woven fabric on the front and back is kind of shimmery gold and feels coarse to the touch – but in a good way! The A5 cover is exactly the same size as the covers we can get here in Canada. But the paper is slightly larger – our paper (in the junior size) is 5.5 inches wide, while the paper for the A5 size is about 5.75 inches wide.

I really like the white stitching detail. I plan on making this my daily planner. I got the idea from Amanda, who also uses this style for her daily planner.

This style notebook has the single pen loop, just like the versions available here. I have yet to see an Arc notebook with two pen loops; that would be very handy.

Below is the back cover of the notebook, with the M embossed in brown leather. Nice touch.

I’m absolutely thrilled with this notebook. I will do another post about how I’m using it as my daily planner.

Along with Amanda’s package this envelope arrived from Creative Crafting Corner, with some goodies from Smash: the pen holder, page tabs and elastic bands. My local Michael’s never seems to have these items.

You can check out the woven fabric Arc at the Staples uk page here.

My first Filofax

Tags

filofax, planners

Once you start researching blogs about notebooks and planners, there is no escaping the Filofax craze. There are countless YouTube videos, websites and blogs devoted to the love of these leather planners. I have so far remained immune, because my budget simply does not stretch that far. That said, when I came across an ebay listing for a Filofax Identity Pocket Organiser for $3.99, well I just had to bid on it. And I was the only bidder (!)

With shipping it cost me $10. I googled it and found it on the UK site for the equivalent of $33 Cdn. So a great deal!

It’s quite small at 5.5 x 4.5″; would fit in a purse with no problems. It came with cardboard dividers numbered 1 through 6, alternating in colour from blue, to red to white; address page dividers, with 4 address pages, a single To Do page, and a single Notes page. The black plastic bookmark you can see in the picture, with “filofax” written on the bottom. 

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It also came with the iconic Filofax pull-out colour map.

In the picture below you can see the Notes page and the ruler/bookmark. The purpley looking thing is a plastic insert with an opening at the top, presumably for a credit card. At least that’s the first thing I thought of when I saw it.

I’m very pleased with it although it is super small and I doubt I would be able to fit more than a couple of months into it if I decide to use it as a planner. But it was such a good deal I couldn’t resist. 

Do any of you use Filofax as your planner system? Please share as I’m very interested in them.

For more information:

http://www.filofax.co.uk/
http://www.filofaxusa.com/
http://mylifeallinoneplace.blogspot.ca/
http://philofaxy.blogspot.ca/

Peter Pauper Filigree Journal: Planner for 2013, Part 2

Tags

peter pauper press, planners

I feel slightly embarrassed by this post. I’ve become dissatisfied with my 2013 Planner (read about it here). I admire many of the features of the Episode Planner but my big beef is that it doesn’t lay flat. I have been thinking about investing in a Midori Traveler’s Notebook but I find it hard to justify the expense at this time.

By chance a Peter Pauper Filigree Journal arrived in the mail and I set about making my own planner. Peter Pauper Journals feature beautiful paper AND they lie flat.  🙂

The cover feels like soft leather and it is embossed as you see here.

I added a couple of charms to the bookmark.

I like stickers and like to use them to give myself motivation or to just make myself smile. I added a Blueline clear envelope to the left side of the cover. I picked it up at my local stationery store for $.59! I attached my business card to the fancy paper on the right.

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These year calendar pages are from an older planner from a previous year.

I printed monthly calendars and stuck them in throughout the journal.

The weekly pages. I drew lines with a ruler and left lots of space for each day. I thought about having the week on the left side and a blank page on the right for notes but in the end decided on this format.

I usually do not have as many to-dos on the weekend so I’m ok with the smaller blocks.

I used numbered tabs as monthly dividers and sticky flags for other dividers. I like the small tabs as they do not stick out when the journal is closed. I also used one of my Leuchtturm pen loops.

I picked up these sticky notes and thought I might use them as my re-positionable to-do list.

I loved lined notes. I like the writing to be straight and neat.

I also picked up these fun flower paper clips.

So excited to find Pentel Slicci 0.4mm pens! I first found this type in London in 2009. I’ve been looking for them ever since and have not been able to find them in Canada. So I was so pleased to find a local stationery store carries them: Reid Stationers. They have them in 0.25mm, 0.4mm and 0.7mm, for $3.50 each. I haven’t been to Reid’s in many years, as they are located in a busy downtown area that is a challenge to get to. But I braved the traffic and distracted pedestrians on the Saturday morning of the May long weekend and was able to spend a blissful 2 hours looking at fountain pens, gel pens, ballpoints, Filofax inserts and binders, Leuchtturm notebooks, the full range of Moleskine notebooks and accessories, sticky notes, paper clips…… Heaven!

I stuck extra flags and a few sheets of a pad of sticky notes towards the back.

I made this simple flap to keep extra stickers and my most portable copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (I am never without them).

It’s hard to see in the photo but I attached a glassine envelope (also purchased at Reid’s for $0.25) to the back cover. This can hold anything really but right now I keep some fancy stickies and an extra pen here.

I’ve been using this planner for a couple weeks now and it really works for me. Here’s to hoping I can last the rest of the year with it!