It's Planner Time!

HiHi!

I don't know if any of you know this, but I love planners. Well, actually, I love notebooks in general. (I have an unhealthy obsession with paper. I tend to buy notebooks and then never use them. LoL) The planner I blogged about a few months ago (this one) was meant to be my personal planner, but as my to-do lists for work got more and more complicated and I was using more and more post-its all over my desk to keep track of it all, I realized that something needed to be done. So, I turned my planner into my work planner (which I can't show you unfortunately, because of some confidential stuff that's been written in it) and then started my hunt for a new planner.

I originally was going to make a new one, just like I made the other one. It took me about a week and I set up a new planner (with the same formatting, taking inspiration from the Erin Condren Life Planners) except that I was using an 8.5x11 paper size. Then I went to print it. Because of all the color pages, I realized that it was going to be quite on the pricey side to print it out as I wanted it. So I started to print the month-at-a-glance pages in color and the weekly pages in black and white since I was planning to use stickers to decorate anyway. So...taking into consideration the number of pages (there were well over 100 pages total) plus the cover, plus binding, plus the paper (since I had used almost all of my cardstock stash on the last planner), and the ink...it was still going to be pricey. I think I had it estimated at almost $45. Way closer to the price of a Life Planner than I wanted.

Back to the drawing board!

I then started to look at other planners. The Plum Planner...DayRunner Planners...planners I found at Wal-Mart and Target...I looked at a ton of them. I even considered giving in and getting a Life Planner. But then I saw this post on the Ben Franklin Crafts blog about custom planner inserts for the Happy Planner and realized that the planner I wanted could possibly be closer than I thought.

Because I live in Hawaii, shipping is always relatively crazy. Not only the cost, but also the shipping time. I had come across the Happy Planner by Me and My Big Ideas (MAMBI) several months ago and had always thought that maybe it may be a good alternative to the Life Planner. But the price still made me take a moment to think. When I came across the blog post, I immediately wondered if my local HouseMart Ben Franklin Crafts store carried it. I commented asking if it was available in the stores and to my surprise, I was told that yes, the stores were now carrying the Happy Planner. A few days later, off I went to see if the location nearest to me had it in stock.

And they did!

While I was trying to decide which one I wanted (they don't carry all of the different designs, just a few...I think there were four when I was there) one of my former co-workers (I used to work at BFC a few years ago...if I hadn't mentioned that before) said that they were going to be having a 20% off sale on Sunday with a coupon. Coupon? 20% Off? I like Sales! She went to get a coupon for me and I happily went off, deciding that I was going to get the planner.

And...

(Photo credit:  Me & My Big Ideas)

This is the one I settled on...after contemplating for three days at home and then another 45 minutes at the store. (Hey, I'm relatively indecisive.) Although I loved all of the other ones, this is the one that had the most copies left, which to me meant that it was the one that the least amount of other people already had. Regular price was $33.95...slightly more than on the MAMBI website, but still pretty reasonably. And I got 20% off. Can't really tell you how much I paid because I bought a bunch of other stuff (not planner related) that day as well. 

I've had it for about a week now and I love it. No, I haven't written much in it yet (I need to get used to having a personal planner again) but I have decided that stickers are needed to spice it up a bit. However, I'm completely a cheapskate (must be the stereotypical Chinese blood in me) and I don't want to spend a lot of money on stickers. Some of those stickers in shops on Etsy are pricey! (I totally get that it takes a lot of time to design the stickers and then to print them and cut them out, but $5 for a half sheet of stickers?) There also weren't a lot of downloadable stickers that I really cared for. The majority of the stickers are designed for the Life Planner. The Happy Planner boxes are slightly longer. 

So I decided to design my own. 

Ta-Da! These are just experimental stickers. I have another sheet of little boxes with New England Patriots helmets on them so I can mark game days as well as full boxes to write down the bills I paid that month, but I cut them all up before I could take a picture. The sheets on the left are washi-type strips that are in three different sizes (the smallest being header size and the largest being full box size) and the ones on the right are full box checklists and a few more washi-type stickers. I was worried that they weren't going to fit right, so I decided to try them out in one of the months that I wasn't going to be using:

Pretty good, if I say so myself. I showed these to some friends who have the Happy Planner and they asked if I'd be able to design other washi-type sheets with additional sizes along with game day stickers for other teams. Sure. Why not? I'm slowly working on those designs for them and want to also have them available to other people when they're done. (I tend to work on sticker design late at night when I'm not playing Tsum Tsum on my phone, haha.) But I'm also looking for other ideas for stickers. There's going to be a separate post on my whole sticker journey and what I'm planning to do with them (how I'm going to offer them to others and things like that) because this post is getting a little long. I just wanted to let you know what I've been up to. If you have any ideas for stickers, please leave them below!

I have a few other posts that I'm planning on doing soon. Honestly, though, I'm a little surprised I found enough time to sit down and write this long of a post for this. I have NaNoWriMo that I haven't started yet (great...I'm already a day behind) and I need to work tomorrow but this is something that I told myself I needed to do. (I should have written it in my planner. Haha.)

See you soon!!!

~Jeni

Work-In-Progress Wednesday: My Planner

Hi Guys!

So I've decided to rename Wednesdays to Work-in-Progress Wednesday where I'll just share with you a project that I'm working on. This week is something that I've been working on for a while now (since I moved back a little more than a month ago) and is always going to be a work in progress.

This week's WIP is my planner. I've used a planner to keep track of what I'm doing for the past few years and typically I just purchase one already made or make one using a composition tablet, a ruler, and a few pens. Unfortunately, I had inadvertently put the planner I had been  using into the container with all of my stuff from my apartment and I really couldn't find one that I really liked for a reasonable price. I wanted one of the Erin Condren Life Planners but I couldn't see shelling out $50+ for a planner. So I decided to make my own. Using the images of the Life Planner that I found online, I based my planner pages on the Erin Condren ones. The planner is approximately 8"x10" and printed on a lightweight cardstock (I'm not positive of the exact weight because I had an unwrapped stack in one of my paper drawers in my craft room) using my ink jet printer. The covers are laminated with just my little personal laminator and then I had it coil bound at OfficeMax for around $4. It took about 2 weeks for me to set up June through December (I'll set up January through May later) and a couple of hours to print it out. Right now there really isn't anything fancy about it. I'm going to add some tabs for the months later but for now it works.

 I use just a regular ball point pen to write basic things, like birthdays, important things I need to remember, and things like that. If it's something I really need to remember, I'll color the box in with colored pencils. The image above has a birthday party, my brother's birthday, and the day I pay my bills colored in. Fun stuff that I wanted to remember, like lunch dates or things that I need to be aware of, are written in with a marker. The container with all of my stuff arrived this month so I had to make sure I was home for that.
Unfortunately, I was in a little bit of a rush when I set up the months, so the boxes aren't completely even, but it doesn't make too much of a difference.

 

Each week is on two pages. This is just one side. Each day is separated into three sections:  To-Do, Work, and Other. When I was working, I found that having a separate area to put my work tasks for the day helped when I was looking at my planner. I highlight things in different colors, like personal stuff (laundry, etc.) in blue, errands in pink, and blog posts in green. Sometimes I use transparent tape in different colors to highlight things I want to make sure catch my eye. Most days, if I'm running errands, I'll use a sticky note to make a list for myself to make sure I don't forget anything. 

 And that's about it. I think the total cost was around $20 only because I had to buy a new color ink cartridge in the middle of printing. I love it because it's completely customized to what I wanted and what I need. There are a few note pages in the back if I need them but I don't know if I will since I always carry a separate notebook for just random ideas. 

If you have any questions or comments about this planner or how I made it, feel free to ask. I know it's not as fancy as some others, but it works for me. I wanted something simple and I like it. 

See you tomorrow!

~Jeni