Subscriptions are one of those things I just have to try out. A mysterious surprise of a product category I already know and love? Sign me up. So when Erin Condren announced the launch of the new Seasonal Surprise Box I only lasted about an hour before hitting purchase.
Let’s lay out the details before diving into the good stuff. The subscription is a quarterly released box for $35, but contains over $85 worth of goodies. Each box is geared towards the holidays and season of the upcoming months. Plus it comes in a reversible box which is just too cool.
The products themselves are better than I could have ever expected. Everything inside is either a sneak peek of products yet to be released or exclusive subscription only goodies. Exclusive products are always a nice touch to make a subscription worth while and this box is packed with them. First are two exclusive monthly sticker sheets for February and March. A nice variety of stickers from St. Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day. There is also an exclusive Floral Ink Snap-in Dashboard to write daily to-dos or shopping lists. My favorite exclusive addition has to be the note cards for Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day. I’m a sucker for stationery and it’s such a thoughtful thing to include to encourage subscribers to send out more snail mail to loved ones.
The box also includes sneak peeks of future released products. The subscription feels like a special club to see new products before anyone else. The Lips Flair Pin got me particularly excited as I have quite the growing collection of enamel pins. I’m a proud owner of all the pins Erin Condren has produced so far so having this one before it goes on sale is an added bonus. There is also a new Coloring Book as well as Colorful Dual-Tip Markers included in the box. The Dual-Tip markers are my favorite markers Erin Condren has released yet. With a fine and medium point tip they’re incredibly versatile and have a really great color range.
The $25 coupon blew me away. With the box being $35, the coupon basically made it only $10. Something that definitely didn’t have to be included in the box to make the subscription worth it, but a really awesome gesture to encourage subscribers to get more organized. As an extra bonus there is also four sheets of Heart Gift Labels. Perfect for snazzing up a Valentine’s Day present to a sweetheart or making any gift a bit more special.
As soon as I opened the lid of the subscription I knew it had me. I’ll definitely be purchasing the next one after seeing the amazing variety of quality, unique products in this first one. No corners were cut and no expense spared to make this box and you can definitely tell. Products were carefully chosen and I felt beyond special opening the box and seeing all of these curated products just for me.
If you missed out on this first subscription box, the next one is a must.
I recently started bullet journaling in my Erin Condren journal and felt it time for a check in. Plot twist. It’s not going well. I’m pretty sure the first time I even touched the journal in weeks was to take this photo. Yikes. I’d like to say that I think 2017 will be better, but I highly doubt that. Bullet journaling just isn’t for me.
There are a few reasons actually. It’s hard for me to keep up with something every single day. The good thing about planning is I can check what I need to accomplish, but I don’t have to actively contribute to it on a daily basis. And if I’m having a particularly busy weekend I won’t look at my planner at all. Bullet journaling demands a bit more attention than I’m able to get it.
I’m also not very artistically inclined. Sure I can design a sticker like a pro, but when it comes to putting paper and pen together it’s a hot mess. If I were to truly pursue bullet journaling I’d have to develop a lot more talent than I currently have. I guess I could fumble through it and that be the journey itself, but I don’t have a lot of spare time in my day to devote to something that just doesn’t seem to be going well.
So my first bullet journal update is to say that I’m giving it a rest. I do have a few plans in the works for my organizational method for 2017 however that are definitely more my speed. Plus it includes some non-Erin Condren materials which is always a shock when it comes to me and planning.
I very rarely travel with my planner these days, but if I do I have my system down to a science. I keep all of supplies in an Erin Condren Carry All Clutch (cheaper option), including my planner itself.
Planner cases are super stretchy so you can really pack things in there. I keep my supplies separated from the actual planner to avoid unnecessary scratching and wear. Everything I tote around with me goes into another, smaller Erin Condren pouch that slides nicely into the case without any trouble.
On average I tend to keep a variety of different pens all serving different purposes. Isn’t that always the case with planner addicts? A million and one pens all for a different use. I personally prefer black. I’ve dabbled with other colors in the past, but I’m a black writing utensil girl through and through. The fine point sharpie is to write on the laminated dashboards in my planner. The sharpie won’t smudge or come off on its own so it’s the perfect tool to write removable to do lists. In order to remove the sharpie from the dashboards I have a dry erase marker and a travel package of Kleenex. It’s a snap to cover the sharpie with the dry erase marker and wipe everything off with a tissue.
The sharpie pen is for writing on the planner itself. It doesn’t bleed through between the pages so if I’m not writing on a sticker this is the only pen I’ll use on the actual planner. It also works great on the stickers themselves. If I want a thicker stroke and bolder line on stickers it’s all about the Papermate Ink Joy Gel pens. Damn are these fantastic pens. They do leave a shadow if written directly onto the planner, but I use them for literally everything hand written.
As for other bits and bobs I always have a pair of scissors on hand mostly because I find I need them for random things throughout the day. I don’t think I’ve ever actually used them for on-the-go planning purposes, but it’s nice to have them just in case. I always have a few sheets of Blobby around too because he’s just too cute to miss any opportunity to use one.
I’m a no-fuss kind of on-the-go planner girl. Travel planning however is a different story…
I finally caved a few weeks ago and dove into the somewhat confusing world of bullet journaling. I spent a good couple of days poking around Pinterest boards learning more about the organizational style. I did just as much research trying to find the perfect, reasonably priced notebook to use before deciding on an Erin Condren dot-grid journal. I’m a sucker for a good Erin Condren journal and thought the larger style would work great for me as I fumble through my first few layouts.
While I was doing my research on bullet journaling there were a handful of layouts that really caught my eye. The main one that really persuaded me into giving this whole thing a go was a mood tracker. A whole year’s worth of moods simplified into daily boxes. At an end of a year there would be a colorful spread of the year’s moods. I had to do it. As soon as my journal arrived I quickly created the first layout, not too concerned with quality. I’m by no means going to devote a whole Instagram to my amazing spreads to have the world fawn over my artistry. I have little to no talent with pen and paper when it comes to creating anything of substance. I know over time my spreads will get better, but I really wanted to try bullet journaling just for me.
Ultimately I plan on using mine as more of a memory keeper and less of a planner so these types of tracking spreads will work perfectly. I want to track all the books I read and create a page to write down happy thoughts. After the end of every month I’ll create a memory spread while working on doodles and hand lettering.
I’m definitely just getting into the world of bullet journaling, but so far it’s been a relaxing, creative journey. There is tons of room for personalization and creating a system of organization that works on a much more personal level than most planners. Sure it’s a little daunting to stare at a blank page and try to decide what to make of it, but that’s what makes it fun too.
It’s definitely not how to throw a good party, either. Now that the wedding is a solid week behind me it feels like I’m finally out of the whirlwind and can reflect on the whole crazy experience. There’s one big thing I took away from the planning process besides the fact that the wedding guests are really the worst part of the wedding. Let me drop some knowledge on you.
If you make the wedding a celebration of the two of you, it’ll be a huge success. At some point in the planning process I stopped carrying about making it the perfect event. I just wanted to have people I enjoyed around me as I started the rest of my life with my favorite person. Everything about the wedding turned to be about Alex and I. It wasn’t about the type of cake or how smoothly one event transitioned to another. We wanted everyone to be a witness to our love. And the day couldn’t have been more magical.
I remember crying half a dozen times during my wedding day out of sheer happiness. There were many things that went wrong that day from most of my bouquet being dead to the ring bearer refusing to go down the aisle. Yet people still tell me it was one of the mos amazing weddings they’ve ever attended. To me it was the perfect little fairy tale. All because I stopped stressing about the failed chocolate-dipped pretzel party favors and focused on my love for Alex.
It seems like a no-brainer, but there’s nothing like a laundry list of things to do all the while people keep trying to add randoms to the guest list to distract from the real point of the wedding. No matter what, if you focus on the love between two people, the rest really doesn’t matter in the end.
If you’re rocking a packed schedule, it may seem like a daunting task to take a few minutes to sit down and plan, let alone decorate your planner. But taking the time to figure out what’s going on can really help ease the workload stress and make you more productive in the long run.
Plan ahead. As soon as you know of an upcoming event or date, put it on a sticky note in your planner. That way you already have the time blocked off so you won’t overbook yourself. Plus putting it on a sticky note means that if the plans change, you won’t have to cross anything off and clutter up your planner.
Schedule in time to plan so that you make sure you do it. A busy schedule deserves some attention to sort everything out. That way you can start every day with a clear understanding of what you need to accomplish without missing or forgetting anything.
Create daily to do lists, but create them for every day of the week ahead of time. Sunday night create a list for each day of the week and start delegating tasks to certain days. That way you won’t try to sprint through everything on Monday and burn yourself out by Wednesday. There will be clear daily tasks and things will seem a lot more manageable.
Develop a system that works for you so when things get really hectic, there’s almost no thought needed for the planning process. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, something as simple as color-coding will do.
Don’t compare your planning style to other people. You’ll stress yourself out more and find yourself spending way too much time envious of other peoples’ spreads rather than focusing on your mountain of work. Planning at the end of the day is a personal experience, not a competition.
Be willing to change things up if something isn’t working anymore. A planner layout that worked for you last year may not work for what you’re doing this year. Understand that planning styles change depending on what’s going on in your life. Be open to trying something new to ultimately make things easier.
Above all, don’t think you’re too busy to plan. Planning will be your saving grace when things get hectic so don’t write it off at the first sign of trouble.
