Happy Christmas Eve!

This will be my last planner related post for the year, unless there is a repeat of last year's planner gifting fiasco. We'll find out tomorrow morning.

For the coming year, I'll be working with two Happy Planners. The Mini and the Classic. There will be a lot of decorating in the Classic as this planner will stay put on my desk. As for the Mini, this will serve as my on-the-go planner.

Last night, I started putting together the layout for the coming week in the Mini Happy Planner. Although I don't plan on decorating in the Mini, I decided to add next week's exercise regime and detox plan in it. I also added some stickers that I made from the stamps I purchased from the Sweet Stamp Shop as well as a couple of different stamp sets from other vendors.

Disney's Epcot held its annual Food and Wine Festival.

Five years ago, I experienced the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot. It was an amazing experience as you get to try a variety of foods from around selected countries around this world. They had a Pumpkin Mouse Trifle that was a phenomenon. But I'm not here to talk about the Food and Wine Festival of 2011, I'm here to talk about the Food and Wine Festival of 2016.

When you first walk in through the doors to Epcot, you're greeted by Spaceship Earth and underneath that is the display for the Food and Wine Festival. You'll have to walk to the Pavilion to get to the Festival.

Once there, you can pick and choose where you want to start your food adventure. Since I knew we were going for the Food and Wine Festival, I ate a very light breakfast. We nabbed our first ride before it opened, the Three Caballeros boat ride in the Mexico Pavilion. From there, we headed off into a presentation of China. After we got a few attractions out of the way, it was time to go and sample some food.

Our first food stop was China. We were quite hungry by that point, well, I was. The one thing you have to remember about the Food and Wine Festival, they plates are small. It is the proper serving size, not the American serving size in which is triple the amount we're supposed to eat and the dishes run between $5 and $9 dollars a piece.

In China, we tried the Beijing Roasted Duck in a Steamed Bun with Hoisin Sauce. Michael tried it since I'm a vegetarian. I had a piece of the bread, green onions, and the hoisin sauce. His verdict on the Roast Duck, it was good, however, not as spectacular as he would have hoped.

I tried the Black Pepper Shrimp with Garlic Sauce. The shrimp, I gave to Michael. The noodles were delicious and very flavorful. But as you can see, the plates are small. It's the perfect size since you're able to sample the food and not leave feeling fun that you can't sample other plates.

Hello! It's been a while since I've updated the blog and since it's almost Halloween, I've decided to do  a small post on paper crafting.

Just this month, the Sweet Stamp Shop released the most amazing stamp set named Wizards. I've been quite addicted to Sweet Stamp Shop's stamps as they're super cute and super fun to play with and stamp in my Happy Planner. So, I went ahead and purchased the set with the intention of decorating the week I travel to Florida to visit the new Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios, attend a conference, and visit my cousin who is working for Disney World.

So late last night, I did a little crafting to get my mind off the many maps and ancient texts I have to decipher of the Ancient Near East to determine the factors leading up to the Battle of Qadesh.

I pulled out two of my Sweet stamps, a couple of vintage wood mounted rubber stamps, Memento black ink, acrylic block, and a watercolour pad (I will list the materials I used for this project at the end of the post).

Aloha!

This post is coming to you with love from the island of Hawaii. As a historian, I could give you a full blown lesson on the real history of Hawaii, not the haole version they all want us to know, but I won't. Instead, whilst on my trip, I'll give you guys some tips on restaurants to visit.

We first landed in Kona on October 7 and made our way around the island to stay in the city of Hilo. We could have stayed at our condo/timeshare at Worldmark Kona, but our reservation wasn't until the next day and the reason we flew in early is because of airfare costs. The couple we were traveling with can't travel mid-week and the earliest they can depart was on a Friday. There were a bit of last minute changes, which is one of the reasons why we ended up booking a hotel in Hilo for one night.

If you happen to stay or take a road trip to Hilo, which is only about a two hour drive, take the time to visit Hawaiian Style Cafe. They feature local food in large plates at an affordable price.

We had three different dishes ordered. Since I'm a vegetarian, I ordered the Haupia (Coconut Creme) pancakes. There were two pancakes stacked on top of each other and have taken up the whole plate. It is topped with coconut creme, toasted coconut shavings, and whipped cream. If you're going to order this, I would say share it with another person or two. It's such a big pancake that you can't expect to finish it by yourself.

The next dish that was ordered was called the Mok-A-Saurus. The name of the dish alone told us that it was going to be big. It's the restaurant's take on the local favourite, Loco Moco. This is one of the few versions they had on the menu.

The Mok-A-Saurus is a bed of fried rice topped with Spam, chicken cutlet, kalua pork, hamburger patty, two eggs, and brown gravy. As a pescetarian/vegetarian, this is something I would not order and if I did, I would just be ordering the eggs, rice and brown gravy ... not this meat lover's heaven.

As said, it was quite big. I tried portions of it (without the meat) and it was delicious. It might seem too much with the fried rice and the gravy, but they both complemented each other well. I can't say what it would have tasted like with the meat, but according to Michael, it was heavenly.


Lastly, the other local favourite ordered was the Ahi Poke Nachos. You won't find this on their regular menu, but if you look at the specials, you will find it there. I really can't tell you what kind of sauce they used, what's on top, but from what I saw, the tortilla chips were topped with freshly caught ahi tuna, avocado, tomato, seaweed shavings, green onions, wasabi mayo, and possibly sriracha. I tried a couple of bites.... yes.... I had some meat. I know I said I'm a vegetarian, but I do occasionally consume fish as long as its caught, not farm raised.

The nachos were delicious and also full of flavour. The tortilla chips were crispy and light.

Planners. They're the most gorgeous things ever. Of course, a planner is supposed to organize your life, but there are moments that you just can't help yourself and buy loads of them. For those people, myself included, a planner can be a fashion accessory.

Like any Planner Addict, I'm always on the look out for the cutest planners and cruising through Instagram and Facebook for gorgeous photos of decorated planner pages. I also have a penchant for stationery and office supplies. So, whenever I'm in the San Francisco/Bay Area visiting family, I'm always in search for a cute post-it note or tags.

As far as decorating my diary pages with all those cute tabs and stickers, I generally find it too time consuming. No doubt you have seen photos of personal size planners stuffed with pictures, cute paper clips, keychains, and such. My planner, whether is the personal size of A5 size Filofax Original remains clutter free and here are a few reasons why I keep my planner clean and tidy.

Reason One:
I'm a post-graduate student earning my degree in Humanities and History. I use my planner as a tool to keep my life organized. I've got so much information to sift through that decorating my pages with loads of stickers and washi tape would end up burying all the important dates and information.

I have decorated my planner pages extensively in the past, but after missing a couple of due dates, I've decided to do my pretty planning in a different planner.

Reason Two:
While decorating your planner pages and adding some paperclips to the front flap of your planner can be fun and beautifies it, those extra things you put in your planner does create a lot of unnecessary bulk. Having an uneven surface to write on is one of my pet peeves, so I began to avoid decorating my planner.

Reason Three:
Decorating takes too much time.

When I was decorating my planner, I found that I was using up a lot of time trying to figure out what theme and pulling out my washi tapes, stamps, stickers, and such. Decorating it also takes quite a bit of time.

At the end of the week, I block out fifteen minutes to plan out the next. Having to pick a theme, take out the appropriate supplies such as washi tape, stickers, stamps, etc and the actual decorating takes more than fifteen minutes.

I do decorate in my A5 Filofax and the extent of my decorating is using some planner stamps from the Sweet Stamp Shop, Studio L2E, and Simply Kelly. If I wanted to see something cute in my week, I use one of the larger stamps during the weekend where my days are partially empty. As the day ends, that's when I'll add a random sticker on the day, but not on the current or future days of the week.

So there you have it. If I decorate my planner pages, I keep the decorating to a bare minimum.

I do have an extra planner (which was given to me at Christmas) that I decorate and call it Memory Keeping. I take my week, plug it into this planner and decorate to my hearts content with washi tape, photographs, stickers, and stamps to my hearts content without losing important information as the week I'm decorating had already passed.

Naturally, I thought I'd do a What's in My Bag post since another trimester is beginning in my adventures as a post-graduate student. But after checking my Longchamp Le Pliage tote and finding that my Kipling 100 Pens case and the Carpe Diem organiser is taking up all the room (and this bag doesn't even include my Macbook Pro at all!), I decided to do a What's in My Pen Case post instead. As you can see, I've got three books, iPad Mini, Carpe Diem Planner, research printouts, and my trust Kipling pen case.

Last year I embarked on a challenge called "Listers Gotta List" created by The Reset Girl which I found on Instagram. Unfortunately, as with my hobbies and challenges, this fell off my fun things to do as I've began my first trimester of postgraduate studies. I hadn't planned on continuing with the the challenge until recently (during Christmas), I received a bound planner from a friend who knew I had a penchant for all things planner/organiser and paper related things. Unfortunately, I've already got two planners I'll be working with (an A5 and a personal size). So, I decided to use the planner to memory keep and complete a years worth the Listers Gotta List challenge.

For the first three days of this year, I haven't had much to memory keep. Thankfully, the Listers Gotta List challenge took up quite a bit of room.



First day challenge materials:

1. Steak and BBQ grill images came from the Plan Summer from the Sweet Stamp Shop.
2. Suitcase image came from the Plan Everyday stamp from the Sweet Stamp Shop
2. Heart shaped image came from the Plan It stamp from Studio L2E.
3. Charlie Brown and Snoopy image is a stamp I've purchased in the late 1990s. I can't tell you what brand it is or when I've acquired it as its been too long.

The second day challenge, materials used:

1. Coffee Cup image, Plan To Go from the Sweet Stamp Shop.
2. Family Time and Menu captions, Plan It from Studio L2E.
3. Knife and serving fork image, Plan to Eat from the Sweet Stamp Shop

Third day challenge, materials used:
1. Brenda Walton Alphabet Stamps purchased from Joann's Fabrics.

The inkpads used in all three challenges were the Memento Fast Drying Ink in Bahama Blue, Rose Bud, Dandelion, Pear Tart, Tuxedo Black.

The pens used are the Pentel Energel in .07 Tip and Pilot Frixion Markers.

Happy 2016. With the new year new resolutions emerge and of course, in the planner community, a chance to showcase new diaries, organisers or planners.

In my previous post, I mentioned acquiring the Carpe Diem A5 planner. As much as I would have loved to purchase the Union Jack Filofax Original in the A5 size, I decided against it. After all, I've accumulated quite a bit of Filofaxes over the years. Unfortunately, whilst Christmas shopping at a local scrapbook shop, I came across the Carpe Diem Planner and fell in love with the colour: Robin's Egg, which is a shade lighter than the Tiffany's jewelry box.

My whole purpose on using the Carpe Diem planner was to give my A5 Filofax Original a break from the wreckage of my bag as well as an attemp to downsize what I carry. Last year, during a holiday in Hawaii, I was unable to bring my Filofax as I've already overloaded my carry-on situation with my postgrad books, laptop, and of course, scuba gear. Yes. I've got scuba gear designed as a carry on.

As I retired my Filofax and moved into the Carpe Diem, I noticed the size difference. The Carpe Diem planner is slightly bigger by an inch compared to the Filofax Original and the ring sizes are also bigger. It is also quite bulky. The organiser is made out of textured faux leather/vinyl, similar to that used on the Filofax Metropol. This is one of the reasons why Carpe Diem is inexpensive. At $45 a piece, anyone who is looking at moving into an A5 size can purchase one without burning a hole through their purse, although I wouldn't recommend this as an everyday planner. It's big and bulky. And if you're planning to carry an A5 around, I would suggest in investing in a Filofax. They're slightly higher in price, but you get what you pay for and they've been in the organiser business since the 1920s.

The interior of the Carpe Diem planner is not made out of the faux leather that covers the exterior, but with a black polka dot fabric material. On the front flap, there is a side pocket with credit card slots and the back flap holds a notepad.


The inserts that came with the organiser are beautiful and colourful. However, it is not dated. I like my diary pages to come already dated so I can just go in and plan and schedule in dates without having to figure out which day falls on what. It also saves time in having to date the diary pages. The purpose of having an organiser and diary pages is to facilitate proper time management. With undated diary pages, it takes time to write down each date. Once each date is written, then one can start planning.

It's a cute organiser, but as far as their diary pages, it's highly unlikely I will use it.

Now onto the set up.

The first tab in the planner (I made my own by using heavy duty scrapbooking card stock and some Martha Stewart's peel and stick tabs) contains my information as well as dates and holidays that came with the diary inserts I purchased from Filofax.



The second tab, I placed the foldout month at a glance pages I printed from the iCal app on my Mac. I use these foldout months to see what I've got going on at one glance rather than rifle through each page. On these pages, I use the photopolymer stamps I purchased from Sweet Stamp Shop, Studio L2E and Technique Tuesday. I've also used the colourful monthly dividers that came with the organiser to sort out each foldout monthly calendar.


The third tab contains my diary pages. This is where I record everything from appointments, chores, work, and post-graduate dates.


The fourth tab is where I'll keep my notes. It's basically a memory dump page, but a bit neater than the one I keep in my Personal Domino.

The fifth tab contains all post-graduate university related information. I've also copied the Filofax To-Do pages and placed them in this tab to record my readings. As a post-graduate student of history, I have a lot of reading and research to do as well as writing, so the reading list will help me keep track of all the reading I need to do. I've also added the program information in this tab so I can refer back to it whenever I need to.




Lastly, I've got a blog schedule list which I obtained from Philofaxy. I haven't blogged at all last year and one of my goals this year is to blog as much as I can in hopes on getting on a design team.


The only gripe I had about this planner is that it did not come with a tabbed ruler. The ruler is sold separately and the local scrapbooking store did not carry the ruler not have I been able to find it on Amazon or the manufacturer's website, which prompted me to make my own.

How to do you set up your organiser this 2016?