Decorating as you go...my thoughts...

Last week was a bit of a first for me...I decorated as I went rather than decorated before hand. The main reason for this is that the week before I was poorly and I really couldn't be bothered to decorate, plan or do anything in my planner. Then when I started to feel well again I realised that my pages were bare, empty and boring. It then occurred to me that I could do a little experiment and decorate as I went rather than decorate in advance. I have never done this before but seen that many people do and it looks quite nice.

The main reason that I don't do this is that I like to share my page decoration with you here on the blog and also on instagram. I share so much of my life already in vlogs and journals that I don't always feel comfortable sharing my planner pages with personal appointments in etc. Then it came to me...you see I usually just use my camera phone for instagram photos, snap and upload. Boom! But I figured that I could decorate as I go and then take a photo and edit out the bits I don't want to share and then upload to instagram. I don't know why I didn't really think of that before.

I do like to see a nice clean page with just the decoration on but then it is also nice to see what people do with their pages as the week goes on. What do you prefer? I would be interested to know which you would prefer to see so that I know what to share with you :D

I am also a major scribbler! I don't mean to be but it is a habit of mine. I do rather love to scribble something out when it is done as sometimes I find that if it is just ticked off you can still see it. With a black line for it my brain doesn't see it. Weird huh! Again that is one of the reasons why I haven't shown my pages once the week is done as a lot of it has scrubs out on which is also another reason why I don't keep my inserts (until now. More of that to come!).

So let's get on to the pages shall we...

Products Used
Planner: Paperchase Dreamscape Planner
Planner Inserts: Paperchase Won2P
Stickers: Elephant stickers given to me in a RAK
Hole Reinforcers: Purple Chevron from Annie's Paper Boutique
Tape: Purple scotch impressions (dark purple). Other tape unknown.
Flower / Zigzag: Unknown collection from Nikki Sivils scrapbook

So I started the week with some writing on my pages and at the beginning of Monday I decided to use / add my hole reinforcers. This was the very first time I have used them and they were really great. I didn't line my chevrons up though, I wasn't that bothered but other people may like too. At the end of the day I then added an elephant sticker. At this point I was like "what the hell am I doing". It just felt so very wrong to me! My pages looked naff and I was very much wondering where I was going to put my decoration. I know get a grip huh! #plannerproblems but seriously I was just wondering how people do it. Where / how do they fit it in. I have always decorated first and then written around it not vice versa.

OK so let me fast forward you a couple of days...What you can see below is the second half of the week. I use to do lists as well as my daily pages. With to do lists I have a master / ongoing list of things I want to or need to do but are not day critical. I then move tasks either on to my daily pages or onto a to do list for that week or day. Below is a to do list that I used for a couple of days at the end of the week. See what I mean about being a scribbler!! At least I don't feel so bad when I ditch the to do list as it is just all sribbles!

I did have an overall idea of what colours and products I was going to use for the week. When I first pulled my elephant stickers out I also pulled my tape out and I kept them together on my desk. After each day was over I added some embellishment / decoration in to my day. I managed to squeeze it in. You know I actually like the overall effect. I have far more decoration than I would normally have because I didn't have to worry about going minimalistic in case I had loads to write later in the week. Nope I could just write away and not worry about space. Kind of liberating in a way and not at all cluttered.

So I started the week thinking "what or why" and finished the week thinking "I am so going to do this next week". Crazy huh! Just goes to show you that you don't know unless you try. And I am going to give it a bit of a try. I am slightly out of my comfort zone giving you an insight into how my crazy mind unfolds through the week but I will get over it. Please just be prepared that some weeks might have loads of stuff blurred out if I am not happy to share. I am not saying I am going to adopt this way forever. I am going to take each week as it comes and see what happens.

As a side note, we didn't have much on this weekend so that was OK but I really hate inserts that have a smaller weekend space than week. Bug Bear of mine! I only used these inserts as I was poorly and didn't have the energy to print some of my own off. I think I will for next week though. The paper is nice just the layout / design of the inserts are not my thing!