Bujo Update-January

I think I finally found the perfect planner solution for me. I wrote about it a few months ago, when I was just getting started and now I'm back with an update. 

Bullet Journaling has become my most favorite method for keeping track of my life. I think it's because it's 100% customized to me and what I want to record and keep track of. It's holding me accountable. It's keeping me on task. It's also just fun! 

I'm still going strong with my Leuchtturm Hardcover Dot. And even though inks tend to bleed through the paper, it's been the perfect solution to my planner conundrum. This, for me, works! 

Scroll down to see some of my "trackers". These are the little beauties that keep my on task. I'm not 100% when it comes to updating them all the time. But I try not to beat myself up about it too much. Progress is progress! And 2016 has already been a big year of progress.

For all of you scrapbookers, here's what I'm tracking:

• Class progress
• Creative team assignments
• Blog post ideas
• Layout ideas
• Social media
• Project progress
• Monthly blog posts
• Layout goals
• Maintenance/organization projects

I'll update again in the coming months. I'm only 1/3 of the way through the book so there will be plenty of updates in the future.

cheers & besos,

Fit Introduction

Anyone else with a New Year's Resolution to become more healthy? You too?! Have you stuck with it? Because I'm proud to say I have. We're 3 weeks into the new year and I'm still on top of this whole healthy lifestyle thing. I contribute a great deal of my success to this new class I'm taking: Fit with Cathy Zielske!

I love me some Cathy Z. She's just so charming. So I was super excited to hear about this year long class. If you were familiar with her Move More, Eat Well class, this is the newest iteration of it.

Personally, I'm viewing the class and its' lovely printables as the accountability partner I need to make this healthy life goal a reality. Here's a peak at my pages. If you're in the class with me (which, please say hi!) you'll notice I'm not using all of the prompts. This group felt more manageable to me so that's what I'm sticking with.

I also love that Cathy gave us layered .psd files so the colors in the printables are customizable. Which I think is why I'm loving these so much more! I'm working on another year long project and the color scheme I'm going for is pinks/reds, yellows and blues. So that's what I chose for this project too.

I'm planning to update any progress--and any victories--here on the blog. So you can keep my accountable too!

I'm a little nervous about starting a new month in a different country. But I have a plan and I'm determined to make it stick. I'm trying to set myself up for success. And I promise to keep you updated on the progress!

cheers & besos,

Bullet Journal

Oh man, I've fallen down a well. The planner/journal well. I just live there now. I have all kinds of fun binders and notebooks, expensive and inexpensive ones; large, small. I'm still trying to figure out what works best for me. So I'm paring up multiple approaches all at the same time. 

I love using my Simple Scrapper 2016 planner for keeping all of my creative team and scrapbook assignments and lists straight.

But I'm using a bullet journal for everything else! I discovered this via Kara from Boho Berry. She shared her bullet journal. And I was so hooked! I went to Amazon, bought myself a dot Leuchtturm1917 and impatiently waited for it to arrive.

I'm sharing just a few of my pages below. Everything is pretty simple and easy going. I like that whatever page or tracking I need, I can just create it!

I'm using a few different stamp sets [KP Check it Off][KP Planners gonna Plan][Waffle Flower Calendar][Neat & Tangled Blog Planner][KP/Hero Arts Special Occassion Planner][SC Alyra Alpha] some wash tape and my trusty Pilot FriXion erasable pen. The ink bleeds a bit through the thin paper, but I'm not bothered by it. I think it looks like I'm using this journal! Which is the whole point =)

It's only been a few weeks with the system. But I'm loving it so far. This is the first planner that's been portable enough for me to throw in my bag. So it's super helpful when I'm out shopping or running errands.

If you're interested in seeing more of this, just lemme know! Also, search Bullet Journal (or BuJo) on Pintersest for more inspiration. There's also a great Facebook page that I'm getting a ton of inspiration from: Bullet Journal Junkies! And of course, I drool over Kara's pages and her Boho Berry instagram.

cheers & besos,

2016 Planner

I am a very good planner. I love sitting down, writing out a plan, making checklists and adding timelines, highlighting and crossing things out. That said I may not be the best do-er. Which is kind of ironic. I aspire to be though! My partner will tell you I set unreasonable expectations for myself and my to do lists. I want to do it all RIGHT NOW! Mainly to get the satisfaction of crossing it out on ye old to do list...

I mention this because we've reached my favorite time of the year: planner season! October seems to be the time of year when all of the great new planner and planner products debut. This is just one of the many reasons why October is my favorite month of the year! But I digress...

Last week, I put together half of my 2016 planner system, using a combination of 2015 & 2016 Simple Scrapper planner pages. I totally mixed it up from last year though, and decided I'd try out the larger 8 1/2 x 11 format.

I spend $0 on this planner because I just used office supplies I had hanging around. An old kraft 1in. binder, divided tabbed page protectors and patterned papers from my stash [Two from the Mix Tape Scrapbook Circle kit, Pink Paislee Memorandum Cubicle & Journal Paper, Fancy Pants Office Suite Creative Agenda (fitting!)]

I divided this planner into 5 sections: Calendar, Planning, Lists, Creative Team & Worksheets.

Here's a peak at my Calendar. It's a mix of blog schedule, creative team deadlines, events and upcoming travel. I use a simple black and white paperclip as the marker to find this page.

I do a bit of embellishing but not very much: a few stamps and some washi. Simple simple! Here are the stamp sets I own: SC Agenda Class Set, Kelly Purkey Check it Off, Kelly Purkey Planners gonna Plan, Kelly Purkey Planner Icons. I will say this last set is my least favorite. I can never get a clean stamped image!

Here's a list of stamp sets I want to add to my collection: [Waffle Flower Calendar Stamp, Neat & Tangled Blog Planner, Clearly Kelly Travel Planner, Clearly Kelly Special Occasion Planner]

The Planner section is made up of lots of Simple Scrapper planner pages. This one below is actually from the 2015 set of pages. But I love it so much and use it so often, I printed it for my 2016 planner as well.

You really can't see it in this photo below, but any pages that are meant to be blank, I've printed out a grid (included in the Simple Scrapper pack) to take any additional notes.

The Lists tab includes all of the projects I want to start or finish, the story ideas I have, class that are in progress and key takeaways from various classes or podcasts, etc. (All included in the Simple Scrapper planner pages)

The last two tabs helped me gather up all of my reference materials, like the Simple Scrapper Story Starters I use every month as a Creative Team member. 

The Worksheets section is also where I keep all of the fantastic handouts Jennifer Wilson creates. The one featured below is the Story Discovery worksheet. You can download it for free here.

I'm digging the easy breezy approach this year. If this doesn't work for me, I'll feel 0 guilt as I spent $0 on this project. I wanted to try something different and I'm glad I'm doing this in a low risk way.

But as I briefly mentioned earlier, this is only half of my approach. You'll notice aside from the over arching calendar, that there isn't a daily or weekly to do list. That's because I'm going to try out Bullet Journaling. I've tried so many printables and notebooks and just haven't found something that has worked for me. It's almost like I need to change things up...almost weekly, and with bullet journaling, I think I'll be able to do that!

I'm working all of this out now but will be sure to post an update on this method in the coming months. For now, I'm just happy to have this much sorted. I love how it's working out!

cheers & besos,

Filofax Planner

 I'm so excited to share my planner with y'all!! It includes my hot off the presses Start Fresh Workbook as well as some of the other planner inserts I've purchased from Hello Forever.

I customized this entire thing, right down to the cut files for the page dividers. I loved this mix of patterns! The color scheme I went with was: black, white, gray, nude, blush, gold, kraft, so I picked papers in that theme.

Papers: [Pebbles - Homemade Collection - Florali] [Teresa Collins Designs - Tinsel and Company Collection - Dots] [Teresa Collins Designs - Life Emporium Collection - Striped Wood] [Teresa Collins Designs - Life Emporium Collection - Dots]

The planner itself is the Nude Patent A5 Filofax. I loooooove it! It's just so pretty to look at and hold.

As I mentioned, I used a mix of planner pages. I purchased quite a few from Marcy Penner's Hello Forever shop but didn't end up using as many as I thought I would. The ones I've included here are the: [2015 Calendar-Grey] [Live Add-on Grey] [Work Add-on Grey]. What I ended up using the most was the free [Weekly Planning Guide] go figure!

I also purchased the [Create Add-on Grey] but my brand spanking new Start Fresh Workbook is taking the place of that!

This year, Jennifer came up with a totally re-done and slightly re-imagined workbook that's also a planner. And I have to say I'm in LOVE (picture me with big hearts for eyes) with it!

There are monthly calendars for you to use for your planning. Click this link to see a sample of what they look like.

And the lists feature I love so much is also back. You can see more of one of those in my old planner from last year's Start Fresh.

She revamped the plans portion which is fantastic. I've also included the Hello Forever Blog Ideas and Blog Lists pages in this section to round it out.

So lets talk a little about my pens and things. I have this gorgeous Kate Spade pencil pouch, that 100% inspired this scrapbook page of mine, and which now holds all kinds of goodies.

I went on a bit of a spree at Jet Pens a few weeks ago and bought just about every gray pen that they had plus these little cat bookmark tabs. They were just too cute to pass up! (And they helped me get to my $25 minimum for free shipping. Win win!)

MT's mama gave me the Kate Spade Roller stamp for my birthday. And I picked up that fabulous gold pencil sharpener in Basel earlier this month.

Here's a better look at the pens and how they write. To note, the thinner ones scratched a lot more and didn't glide as easily on the page. (I'm looking at you Zebra Sarasa and Pilot Juice!)

I purchased the following (from top to bottom):
[Pilot FriXion Colors Erasable Marker - Gray] [Zebra Sarasa Push Clip Gel Ink Pen - 0.4 mm - Gray] [Zebra Mildliner Double-Sided Highlighter - Fine / Bold - Mild Gray] [Pilot FriXion Color-Pencil-Like Erasable Gel Ink Pen - 0.7 mm - Gray] [Pilot Juice Gel Ink Pen - 0.38 mm - Gray]

I have to point out that the FriXion's both erase. These things are awesome. I use this Black FriXion as my everyday pen.

This post was so long in coming. But I'm so glad I got it together. I'm so excited to put the planner to use and for Start Fresh to…well, start! It's got a special place in my heart. It was the first Simple Scrapper event that I participated in and why I joined the group in the first place. And now, a year later, I'm a part of the team!

If you're a fan of planning, I'd totally recommend it. If checklists and worksheets give your heart a thrill, this is definitely the class for you! Jennifer is also offering the option for 2 months membership free with the class. It's the perfect introduction if you're interested in learning more about Simple Scrapper and the premium membership.

Maybe I'll see you in class? If you have any questions, please ask! There's a lot of info here and I'm happy to elaborate if you're interested in hearing more about something specific.

cheers & besos,

Please note I am an affiliate of Simple Scrapper/Create More Media. All opinions, words and photos are my own.