Planner

Week 52, The Final Week: Happy Planner Layouts

10:50 AM

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.


As for the Classic Happy Planner, I've gone ahead and decorated. I used a variety of stamp sets, mostly from the Sweet Stamp Shop. Since I'm decorating the next week, I didn't want to use any of the Christmas washi tape on this layout. I would have gone gold, but I didn't have any that were about half a centimetre in width, so thus, I went with the blue theme.


For the materials used in this layout, I have pictures below. I will add a link to the shops I'd bought my crafting supplies in the next few posts. 




Stay safe and have a Happy Christmas everyone!

Planner

The Happy Planner Mini

8:27 AM

It's that time of year again! 2016 is coming to a close and if you're like me, you're going to need a new planner! There are quite a bit of planners out there to choose from. There are some inexpensive ones and there are some that can do quite a bit of damage to your bank account.

I'm a creature of habit when it comes to the things I like and for the last twenty years, I've been using a Filofax. It's a durable brand and the one thing I loved about it was that I can buy a binder and just keep buying inserts every year. But, as Filofax began adding different sizes and style of binders to their collection, I was no longer buying inserts, but buying the binders. The one big advantage to buying the binders was that I was coordinating them with my bags. If I was using my light pink Coach bag, I used my Filofax Personal size in Lavander and so on. It was easy to migrate or move everything from one binder to another. The only downfall to having a Filofax was that I can customize it any way I want it. Meaning, lots of custom inserts such as shopping list, goals, blog post schedule, the diary itself, university information, and so on. It can get quite heavy in my bag. 


So this year, I've decided to do a bit of a change. I've been using my Filofax in conjunction with Mambi's Happy Planner. But with Mambi's release of the Mini Happy Planner, I've decided to forego buying inserts for my Filofax and going with the mini Happy Planner.

The Mini Happy Planner is almost the same size as the personal Filofax binder.


The inserts in the mini Happy Planner come with a month at a glance as well as a week on two horizontal layout. This is what I like about the mini Happy Planner. The inserts come with the month at a glance whereas Filofax doesn't and you'd either have to search for a free printable, make it yourself, or buy the inserts along with your regular diary pages. As much as I love Filofax, their inserts are pretty thin and get quite expensive. The pages in the Happy Planner are made of thick paper and I don't have to worry about my pens bleeding through.


The inserts are larger than the personal size Filofax inserts and they are also lined. 


I've spoken to a older lady at the local scrapbooking store in Sacramento and she did not like the mini Happy Planner as it is made for people who just want to write their appointments in it rather than decorate and it seemed to me she thought it a bad thing. What I tried to explain to her, that in the planner community, we have multiple planners in which we can decorate or just keep appointments. For those who have quite a lot going on in their daily lives such as work, post-gradute university, family, and kids. Having a separate planner to plan everything without decorating it is a tool. For me, the Mini Happy Planner is a tool that is used in conjunction with my iPhone, MacBook Pro, and the Happy Planner. It is in the Happy Planner that I decorate, add my schedule and any other impromptu events that happen during the week.


If you like decorating your planner, but want an on-the-go one where you can quickly jot down things to do, assignments, grocery list, etc., but without all the bulk of a Filofax, then the mini Happy Planner is your best bet. I've always been a Filofax fan, but after getting my hands on the mini Happy Planner, I don't think I'm ever going back .... unless Mambi discontinues it.

I think I'll use my Christmas Wish on having Mambi keep the Mini Happy Planner for a long time to come.

Have a Happy Christmas everyone!!!


Stationery

Papermate InkJoy Review

8:50 AM

For the last couple of years, I've been trying to find a set of coloured pens to use to organise my time better. I started off with Marvy's Le Pen. It's a felt pen and I love the way it writes. It's small enough that I thought it would fit in the smaller pen loop of my Filofax Personal Metropol, but it didn't and the ink bled easily through the page. So, I scrapped that pen and tried to find a different one.

I moved on to to Papermate Flair. The pens were discounted at Staples. It's not a felt pen, so I assumed that it wouldn't bleed through the pages, but it did. They didn't fit in the pen loop of the Metropol or my Finsbury. They also tend to end up leaking and since I don't want blotches of ink in my Coach purse, off to the office they went.

The third set of pens that I tried was the Staedtler Triplus fineliner. It's also a felt pen. I know, it's another felt pen, but I can't resist. I love the Staedtler brands. The one plus side about it is that they fit in the pen loops of my Filofax organiser. I really wish they'd make the pen loops bigger.

Just when I thought I'd have to settle for ink-bled pages in my organiser, a solution came. I was watching the telly and an advert for Papermate Inkjoy pens came on the screen. I looked at the reviews on the pens before I decide to purchase them. Some reviewers said that it doesn't write as smooth, but it is a ballpoint pen. My experience with ballpoint pens is that they tend to clump up sometimes. Despite the negative reviews, I went ahead and bought a pack.


 

I didn't understand all the negative reviews about the pens. I tested pens on a thick recycled notebook paper. Since the pens were medium point, it took some time getting used to writing with it since I normally use fine point pens. After a week of writing with it, the pens write smooth and I love the colours.


I do want to purchase the Pilot Frixion pens since I have the Frixion highlighters. Maybe I'll buy purchase them next year. 

Stationery

New Pens!

9:36 PM

Not many people know that I am a bit particular with my stationery supplies. I love a good bit of stationery and when I discovered Marvy's Le Pen collection, I was immediately hooked.

They have quite a variety of colours and it's perfect for colour coding notes. These are thin felt tip pens and write quite smooth. One of the pens I have, the light blue one have been through quite a journey, meaning, someone had borrowed it, used it to doodle and almost ran away with it.

Unlike the Staedler pens, Le Pen doesn't hold up quite as well and the pen itself is quite thin that it makes it hard to get a good grip to write. Other than that, it's a good pen and the colours are vibrant.



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