Plan With Me June 29 – July 5

Hello! Today, I made some time to plan the coming week. I actually went through and tried to add any stickers to liven up last week and next week too. Planning is such great therapy for me. I like to play planning videos in the background because it makes me feel less guilty for some reason. This time I watched a bit of tattooed teacher plans and Neatly Planned.

Just getting in all those sunny days

For my first step, I went through some weather stickers that I printed out months ago while I was experimenting with sticker designs. I won’t be selling them, but I do need to use them, so I slapped them down for this week. I looked up the 10-day forecast on weather.com and we have “mostly sunny” weather this week, but a couple of days for “mostly cloudy”. So, I put down my sunny stickers first and then laid down a couple of clouds for the cloudy days. Unfortunately, it won’t rain at all, so it will be in the upper 90s all week (meaning it’s really going to feel at least 10 degrees hotter due to the sun and humidity.

I admit that I’m a sticker hoarder. Feels good to finally get that off my chest.

Then, I started on my MAMBI sticker books. I got one as a gift and bought a few more during Christmas clearance at Michaels. I keep wanting to buy more, but I have so many to use already! So, I flipped through every page of every book to see if I could use any of the stickers on any of the days.

I don’t exactly know what will be happening on any given day…

I keep using the pen to cover up some private info that I already wrote in my planner. My daughter’s birthday is this week. Independence Day is this week. We get the kids for a month starting Monday. Big week! It also means that I don’t exactly know what will be happening on any given day because I have to wait for my husband to finalize plans with his family…and then remember to tell me the plans at a time when I’m not completely engrossed in something else and will be able to pay attention. I don’t know about you guys, but I do alot of planning where I can’t actually plan!

I’m actually pretty good at drinking water…*humble brag*

You’ll notice my Hydrate sticker is in my Notes. That’s because I’m actually pretty good at drinking water and am just trying to drink 100 oz each day since it’s extra hot. If I do, then I’ll get to check off each day. I don’t need to follow how many cups I drink each day because eight 8-oz glasses is NBD for me *humble brag* I also do plan to feed the kids dinner each night, but I’m not promising to cook each night and I don’t know how many days we’ll actually be in town next week vs. how many days we’ll be at my in-laws’ farm.

Batman cuts through washi like he cuts through actors. Oh! Ba dum ching!

I almost forgot about washi! My precious, precious washi. As I finished up the last parts of events, I went back and added some flamingo washi to tie in the big pink block I used with the green theme of the week. I didn’t have any Independence Day stickers left, so I just used some cute star stickers and made an area on July 4th to designate the holiday.

Next week is planned! Kinda!

It has been so long since I actually made time to sit down and work in my planner like this. I miss my Big Happy Planner, but this kikki.K planner does work better for things nowadays. What planner do you use? Do you have more than one planner? Do you sit down and plan a week at a time or do you have some other method? Share with me in the comments!

Planning, Etsy Haul, and Giveaway – July, Averie’s Birthday Party, Week of 7.2.18

Hello, interwebz! I have been working on this post for awhile, but have been sick and busy. So, it’s a few weeks late, but you might get something out of it (literally!) I found a birthday scrapbook kit from Tuesday Morning and ordered some stickers from Etsy. Then, I mashed them all together in my planner for the monthly overview and first week of July.

I gathered together all of my stuffs and prepared myself for some epic planning…and then worked on it five minutes at a time throughout the day.

I ordered a few stickers from XOXO Prints on Etsy. I mean, penguins, you guys. Penguins. Also, I wanted to do a mermaid or sea theme for the week of my stepdaughter’s birthday because she loves mermaids and sea creatures so much. XOXO Prints had both! I just love Natasha’s work and these photos cannot do justice to the vivid colors. As a member of the Facebook group, I also got some freebies that I want to hug. I placed all the stickers in the back of my planner on some extra pages to make sure I have access to the penguins as the moods strike my planning soul.

Then, of course, I ordered some Gertie stickers from WilaWalaCo. Jenna recently moved across the country and I was kinda feenin’ for a Gertie fix. When I saw the “Pants Are Evil” stickers, that was it! I had to buy them! I want one for every day of my life. Pants are worse than bras. Pajamas for life!

I also picked up some Gertie stickers to remind me to be creative and track my instagramming. Gertie is the unicorn mentor that I’ve always wanted. Le sigh. I’m a Gertie Gal on Facebook, so I got some freebies with my order. In addition to another sticker to add to my discount card.

The Stickery was recommended to me, I believe, by my good friend, Sarah. The store had great prices on some social media productivity stickers as well as a Christmas countdown sheet that I loved. With these stickers, I might actually be inspired to get stuff done when I’m not dying from stress and the heat! Woo hoo!

First, I worked through the scrapbooking kit and added it to the last week of June, which is when we celebrated Averie’s birthday. There was a little folder and a few questionnaires. I think Averie will both be humiliated and love looking back on these in the years to come. Lilah actually took all of the pictures since I was in no shape to do so. Extra thanks to Lilah for preserving these memories for us!

Then, I started on July. It’s a busy month, and I’m really looking forward to our family vacation this month. I apologize for all of the green boxes, but I’m trying to protect people’s privacy. So many birthdays, doctors, memories, and events this month!

So, I focused on the first week of July next. As you can see from the monthly view, it’s a busy week. We celebrate Independence Day in the U.S. on Wednesday and I’m off work, but I’m also on call and will be out of town. Work is complicated by the holiday. Life is complicated by the holiday. What’s a gal to do? I just loaded the pages with beautiful and happy stickers to remind me of the good parts of each day.

I went in and filled out all the events afterwards and tried to keep it looking semi-pretty. By the end of this week, there will probably be no white left on these pages. Until then, breathe in stickers…breathe out stickers…Wait. Eww.  Gross.

If you have read through all of this, then you deserve an award! This month, I’m actually going to give one of my supercoolreallyawesome readers an award. Remember those XOXO Prints penguin stickers? If you win, then you will get your choice of a full sheet of the coffee penguin, sick penguin, or celebrating penguin stickers. Do you know how hard it was for me to not use these yet?! The contest starts on July 4th at 12 AM CT and ends July 11th at 12 AM CT.  Click on the RaffleCopter link below to enter the giveaway for a chance to lay your hands on some of these cute stickers!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/008275071/?

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Planning – June and Week of 6.4.18

Hello, interwebz! I’ve been a bit delayed in planning. Summer weather is in full swing in Texas, so I wake up with a 50/50 chance of being able to get out of bed each day. Luckily, I was able to get some planning done this week! I prepared my calendars for the month of June as well as the current week.

I gathered all of my materials, including a new Playful Icons scrapbook paper bundle that I got at Tuesday Morning for $2.99! I didn’t really have any specific theme in mind because my brain was a bit fried from the heat.

The paper bundle came with some stickers, and I found a few that went well with June/summer. There was already a lot written on the pages, so I just worked around it.

Then, I found some trim in the paper bundle that I wanted to use as borders. I used my handy craft knife to slice up the paper. I cut over the calendar paper without thinking and accidentally cut the calendar pages. Luckily, the pages are thick, so I didn’t slice all the way through the calendar pages. Lesson learned.

Since I hadn’t used my flamingo washi yet, I decided that it would be the perfect addition to this month. I followed that up with die cuts and some magazine clippings from my collection.

Moving on to my weekly calendar, I knew that I wanted to mostly use stickers. One of my good work friends has a birthday this week, so I spelled his name out in stickers. I left a lot of space and notes stickers to record info on work, health, events, etc. I plopped on some cute stickers with positive messages and was done. I’m looking for daily reminders that, despite my health problems, life is still good!

So, what did you think of these flamingo spreads? Do you prefer using stickers or die cuts and Glue Dots? Let me know if you have any suggestions on surviving triple digit summers in Texas!

Planning – Week of 5.14.18

Hello, interwebz! Today, I have a planning post for you. There aren’t as many pictures as I normally post because I recorded a video of this and took pictures for possible thumbnails. Then, I lost of all of it. Then, I found everything. I don’t have time to edit the video, though. So, I’m going to try to do a June video, but I still wanted to get this one up on the blog.

First up, I wanted to show you an end of the week pic of my planner. I left lots of empty space for doodling, but I ended up being so busy that I didn’t get to doodle. You can see how much I add in here other than just my planned events. I use my journal to track health info, work hours, etc. it’s a record of my life, one week at a time.

For the new week, I kept things pretty simple because I was doing the video. Again, I wanted to leave room for doodling. So, I brought out my washi and stickers.

I had some new mini binder clips that I got from Tuesday Morning. These work well in my planner as a marker for the current week by helping me find the current week when I open up the journal.

Above is my finished before the pen spread. I left lots of space for recording my week as well as any other notes that I needed. I finally got to use my Japanese washi from Daiso. I really could have used a vacation to Japan at that point. That week, exhaustion hit me pretty hard. I think my body was starting to realize that I am back on the day shift and it’s not just temporary. Plus, the temperature outside was getting into the triple digits. I don’t do well in the heat. Exhaustion and migraines have become my two best friends until it starts to cool off in November (I hope!)

Lastly, there’s the end of the week pic. My week was full and I was exhausted. My in-laws were in town (an hour away on the opposite side of the metroplex), so my husband had to drive out there after work every day that they were here to show them where to eat for dinner. That meant that I didn’t get to see my husband much, but I also didn’t have to feel guilty for being exhausted and having a headache all week. I was also oncall, which makes me feel stressed and guilty. That was a hard week and I was grateful when it was over.

Next time, I hope to have a planning video up with the blog post. What do you think about my sparsely decorated planner? What do you do to cope with exhaustion? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Planning – Week of 5.7.18

Ready for another planning post? Cool, because that’s what this post is about! The second week of May is another week with multiple birthdays and a holiday. Needless to say, I’m leaving plenty of space to fill in as needed.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to use any washi this week, but I knew I wanted lots of stickers. So, I just gathered all of my stickers and washi just to see where the wind would take me.

My eye immediately went to a colorful strip of paper that I cut out of a magazine months ago. So, I decided to use that as the color inspiration for the rest of the week. I cut the strip of paper to fit it across the bottom of the right page to add a little oomph since the basic layout was pretty bare.

Some sticky notes were already on the pages to remind me of events. Instead of removing the notes and writing the info directly onto the pages, I left the sticky notes where they were. The colors matched this week’s theme and I am also lazy. I added some pretty washi and everything started coming together.

***I’ve noticed that when I crop my photos, they become blurry. I’m not sure why, but it’s not the camera because I’ve tried multiple cameras. I’ve also edited in multiple apps. If you have any suggestions, let me know so that I can post better pictures!***

Then, it was time for stickers. I wanted to denote Mother’s Day in a big way, so I used a couple of Mommy Lhey die cuts of flowers and a character named Lola to set that day apart from others. I decided to add some stickies and notes for lists and include stickers for writing notes about my in-office work days this week. A few other stickers to pretty up my To Dos and the stickery was done!

Normally, I end with a Before The Pen pic, but I wanted to show you why I like so much space in my planner. After adding daily To Dos, recording my work times to enter in my work time card later, writing my daily health notes, and anything else that comes up, my planner is full!

Now, planning this week is done and I have to go out and live this week. Sometimes, that’s the not so fun part of planning. As much as I like drawing clouds and suns, this week is going to be hot and I already have a headache. I may need to add extra cute stickers to cover up the weather and health info and keep me thinking about happy things this week!

Do you plan holidays with special stickers? Do you record health or other info on a daily basis to analyze later? Anybody else hate the heat (i.e. anything above 70 degrees)?

Planning – May 2018 & Week of 4.30.18

Today is a double planner day. I’m working on my monthly overview pages in my Big Happy Planner as well as the first week of May. I’ve actually been leaving my planner relatively blank and then decorating with drawings as I go through the week as a way to practice art. I will do something similar this week and May is a busy birthday and holiday month. So, I need to leave lots of room for all of the events that I’ve already written down as well as things that may come up later.

First off, I gathered up my planner supplies.

I went ahead and brought my Confetti cardstock since there are so many birthdays this month. I also want to incorporate my crappy school-themed tape since this is the last month of school for the kids before they start summer vacation.

I used the school tape to denote school events. I ended up using just one little cut out from the confetti book.

Now that washi and cardstock was done, it was time to move on to stickers! I used some cut outs to denote time, special occasions, and all the shopping I have to do this month. Then, I used stickers to just brighten up the pages a bit and to remind to me celebrate and appreciate all of the birthdays and special occasions this month. This much “celebrating”can bog me down sometimes. So, I want to remind myself that I’m lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people and to just enjoy my time with them.

Then, it was time to move on to my weekly planning. There was already a touch of blue and yellow on these pages, so I decided to go with that color theme.

Again, I wanted to stay pretty minimalistic to give myself room to record plans, my health trackers, and drawing practices. I basically just blocked out our time with the kids this week. I used some stickers to make things pretty and denote various things from my To Do list this week. Here is the finished product before the pen.

A new month , a new theme! What did you think of my spreads for this month and this week? Do you use the minimalist approach in your planner? Let me know in the comments!

Etsy Haul – Planner Stickers

In case you’re not aware, Etsy is one of the Go To places for online planner sticker shopping. You will find so much one-of-a-kind art from artists all over the world. I tend to try to order from people in the U.S. only because I can’t afford the international shipping prices. I also like finding sticker stores in Texas. If you find a sticker artist that you like, try searching on social media to see if you can follow that artist for freebies and discounts. Their communities are like mini-fandoms and it’s fun to geek out with your fellow planners.

I ordered stickers from three stores for April, thinking I would do a post on them once all the stickers arrived. The last package arrived and I realized this was the last week in April. So, my planning failed me. Had I actually written this down in my planner, I might’ve noticed this beforehand. *sigh* At any rate, here are my stickers!

The first to arrive was from XOXO Prints. I follow this shop on Facebook. The artists and the other followers are friendly and fun. I always love the planner pages shared in the group and was excited to finally get my first order from this shop. The artwork is so beautiful and unique! My stickers arrived in a plain white mailer with a shop sticker on the back.

The pack of stickers inside was sealed well and had shop info in case I had any problems with the product. Even the shop stickers are super cute!

It was hard to choose just a few stickers. I settled on some astrology, springtime flowers, and the springtime penguin & coffee stickers. I also got a free set of Thank You stickers because I’m in the Facebook group. These are high quality stickers printed with vivid colors on thick sticker paper.

The second package was from WilaWalo Co. This is probably one of my favorite planner groups on Facebook! The folks in this group have humor similar to mine and are so funny and creative. I loved the packaging! Shiny and exciting! The inner packaging was a cute green paper bag with white polka dots (!!!) with store stickers. Their butts thanked me!

I’m a Gertie Gal, so I got some freebies with my order. This store also has a sticker card program so you can get discounts after a certain amount of orders. The stickers are so colorful and different. I forgot that this one was for April holidays, but I did remember in time to use these stickers to mark New Kids on the Block Day and National Penguin Day. Thank goodness!

My last package was from Nicole’s Plans. I don’t follow her on Facebook , but she posts in one of my planner groups. I ordered these stickers at the same time as the others and they came two weeks after my WilaWalo stickers, but the processing and shipping times were clearly stated on Etsy. Again, I should have written all of this down in my mo fo planner so that I could have planned better for this post. Blerg. The packaging on this was the most plain, but it was exciting to see my name in beautiful lettering on the envelope.

Finally, someone other than my mom recognizes what a rock star I am! The stickers inside were in a plastic bag that included a cute thank you note. I need to water the plants twice a week and I keep forgetting, so I really need these stickers. I thought it was clever to have a water colored watering can and the sticker size was perfect for my needs.

The best thing about buying stickers from these small stores is how grateful the sellers are for your business. I appreciate their work and they appreciate that. After working in corporate America for so long, it’s refreshing to deal with small businesses where the people are so amicable even though we may never meet in person.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. What did you think of these stickers? Are you going to check out any of these stores on Etsy?

Planning – Week of 4.9.18

This week, I was inspired by Mommy Lhey to do a spread with stickers and stamps. Mostly, I though it would be a good opportunity to use my colored pencils. I also thought it’d be nice to try a non-washi spread. I don’t have much in the way of stamps, but we’ll see what we can do.

I have the stamps that came with my Mommy Lhey November kit, some Hampton Art ink and Recollections acrylic blocks that I got on sale at Michaels, and my collection of stickers.

I started off with the girl. I don’t know if it’s the ink or my lack of skills, but she always comes out a bit muddled. Lhey uses baby wipes to clean off her stamps after each use, so I decided to try that. I’ve seen other planners who don’t clean off their stamps, but the idea of storing dirty stamps makes me want to pull out all of my hair.

The lighter inks seemed to have dried out because I couldn’t get decent lines from them with my little coffee cup. The soda cup in darker ink looked better, but the lines were too thick. I’ll get these stamps figured out one day!

After stamps, it was time for stickers! I used a sticky note, a cut-out from a magazine, and a card from a set of motivational quotes that Christina gave me to make a little weekend collage. At the top is a quote from a set of travel stickers – “How beautiful it is to do nothing and then rest afterwards.” That is how I like my weekends, but it rarely happens.

I used some clear stickers just to add a bit of pop in the layout. Since I need so much space to record my daily health stats and To Dos, I added stickers to designate some notes areas. After filling in some plans, I decided to skip coloring in the stamps. I know from experience that when the stamp lines are jacked, the coloring looks messed up too. So, I’m stopping with the spread as it is now.

Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any suggestions about stamps because I really need help on that 😀

Dollar Tree Haul – April 2018

Christina (one of my best friends) and I are talking about starting a YouTube channel about our various creative endeavors. I considered saving this post for a YouTube video, but I’m not sure when that will happen and I really want to use this stuff! I have already posted once this week, but I’m writing more often than posting and would like to share more current journaling and unboxing posts with you in case anyone reading this wants to look for the things I talk about in my posts. Waiting a month later means you’re less likely to find whatever pens or stickers or special deals I mention. So, I’m going to post every other day until I’m caught up, so to speak.

The rule with stores is that whatever you have in the stores closest to you is probably not as good as the stuff further from you. I’m always disappointed at the two Dollar Tree stores closest to me when I go there looking for specific items. So, I waited until I was visiting Christina to go to one of her Dollar Trees. I was not disappointed! The following Tuesday, I went to the Dollar Tree by where I work and it was even better! I think that I basically proved my hypothesis to be true via strict scientific testing. Or not. Either way, I got some really great stuff that I want to try!

Jot Gel Pens (6) in orange, yellow, green, purple, pink, and blue, .8 mm – 10/10 for pretty colors, 1/10 for smooth writing, 5/5 for grip, 5/10 for likeliness of use since these colors are hard to find in pens, but they’re difficult to use.

Promarx Gel Roller EFX Pens (4) in blue, purple, orange, and pink, 1 mm – 10/10 for pretty colors, 7/10 for smooth writing, 5/5 for grip, 9/10 for likeliness of use because I want to only use these pens now, but I may feel that most documents are not deserving of their beauty and then the ink will dry out and I will cry.

Zebra Ballpoint Pens (5) in black, 1 mm – 1/10 for pretty colors, 10/10 for smooth writing, 3/10 for grip, 8/10 for likeliness of use because I don’t want to use these to write all day, but they will travel well since they are small and do not have caps to lose.

Inc ClipClicks Ball Point Pens (8) in teal, blue, purple, black, pink, red, orange, green – 7/10 for pretty colors, 4/10 for smooth writing, 7/10 for grip, 9/10 for likeliness of use because they travel well and have nice colors, but the plastic feels week and like they will break if pressed too hard.

Jot Felt Tip Markers (4) in orange, pink, blue,and green, .4 mm – 5/10 for pretty colors, 10/10 for smooth writing, 7/10 for grip, 7/10 for likeliness of use since I like them, but I think the lids will be lost and the ink will dry out quickly.

Jot Double-Sided Markers (8) in blue, green, yellow, orange, purple, red, brown, and black, Broadline and Fineline (no measurements) – 2/10 for pretty colors, 1/10 for smooth writing, 7/10 for grip, 2/10 for likeliness of use because they will be fine for lettering practice until they dry up or fall apart. The orange one fell apart on it’s 3rd use. ☹️

Jot Dry Erase Markers (4) in yellow, orange, purple, and pink, Pointed Tip (no measurements) These were for the white board wall calendars, so I tested out writing and erasing. I don’t know if they will be any harder to erase after a month on the board, but they came off easily with just water and a rag this time. The colors are very pigmented, it the tips aren’t as fine as I’d hoped they’d be. At least I got a yellow and orange out of it, though!

I also got a round mirror for the bathroom for helping with makeup, a pretty composition book for collecting and storing mini-watercolor art, planner stickers, sticky note flags, and a lettering practice book.

Man, this post took way longer to write than I anticipated, it it was a lot of fun. I have some other haul posts coming up, so let me know if the written haul blogs are entertaining or if you think they’d be better on video. Let me know what kind of stationery gems you have at the Dollar Trees near you!

Planning – Extra Planner Pages

Last December, I bought my MAMBI planner at 50% off at Michaels. My daughter helped me pick it out and I had no idea how useful this planner would actually be! The reason it was so cheap is that it actually is an 18-month calendar and six of those months were almost finished. So, when I first set up my planner, I just moved the past months to the back, thinking that I would use stickers to repurpose those pages and dividers for the first five months of 2019.

Since then, I’ve read about how other people in the planning community use these spare pages. I thought it might be better to just use these pages as memory/sticker pages. This way, I can devote a whole page to various events and projects this year as well as keeping stickers handy so that I don’t have to pull out all of my stickers just to mark a last minute event on my calendar. If that doesn’t work, I can always change it up again. That’s the beauty of the MAMBI planners!

The first project page I want is for gardening and my other outdoor projects. July is the only month I had tried to convert for 2019, so it already has some date stickers on the page. I’m going to cover this up with scrapbooking paper. I found this great flower pattern in my Candy Retro paper pad that I got on clearance at Michaels.

I’ll use my Fiskarspaper cutter to trim it and then will glue it down with stick glue over the calendar pages. I’m not quite the professional or experienced craftsperson that I would like to be, so I don’t know the best way to measure and cut these papers. I placed the paper wrong-side up on each planner page and marked where I need to cut in pencil. Then I used the paper cutter to do that. It’s not super fancy, but it works.

Now, I just glue everything to the calendar pages. I just use a glue stick on the paper and the calendar pages, lay down the flower paper, press down with my hands, and then use a bone folder to flatten it out a bit more. Easy peasy!

I’m going to use one side to document things I do in the front yard, and the other side to document what I do in the backyard. I took the opportunity to practice my lettering 🙂  Eventually, I’ll make another tab so that I’ll know that this is not my July area of the planner, but I just wanted to get the pages started for now.

I’m adding two planter thingies from the plants I bought for the front yard and hope to add pics later.  I also like the sidebar for notes so I can record dates and other info if I want. Overall, I think these pages look pretty good and will be great memory pages for my outdoor projects this year.

Thanks for reading this post! Let me know what you think about Dr. Frankensteining extra planner pages. Have you ever done planner scrapbooking before?