Choosing the right planner for you

Spirals and Binders and Travelers OH MY!

choosing the right planner for you

Its funny I have always been a "crafter" and moved into a plannerd and the obsession with having lots of planner supplies is in full swing because that is typically how I roll. I go in with all guns blazing when I start a hobby. Much like crafting I had to have all the tools and sometimes would buy something just because I was new and others had it so I surely needed it once I figured out how to use it that is! So now my craft room runneth over! I slowly started mixing in with the planner crowd and less with the crafting crowd. Although my love for both still continues I have found a way to merge the two loves.  I decided to make paperclips and then my obsession with planners and all things planner related kicked in. BOOM i was hooked and BOOM I had an Etsy shop. 

Today's discussion is a bit of a run down of various planners and if I own one I will give my opinion but maybe if you are new it will give you some insight as to what planner would work best for you. Everyone talks about "planner peace" to me this is a fictitious state in which most planners will never achieve because most of us its not so much about finding the one planner that will "complete us" its more of a collection. Much like buying a beautiful designer purse because you just love purses, planners can be that same for many people. You might have the same planner in multiple colors or sizes even. Personally for me I like big planners and I cannot lie! I can't deal with the small ones although I think they are cute and could serve as a wallet and thus be dual purpose. Lets break down the 411 on planners.

Spirals:

These are much like a large notebook but depending on what brand you buy you can sometimes select the layout you want for your weekly spread. I love these planners because I use notebooks a lot to doodle, take notes etc. so my spiral planner is something I can use for all those things PLUS it keeps me organized. I personally love Limelife planners. They have so many different weekly layouts to choose from that you are bound to find what you want. There are add on's such as "meal planning", "social Media"etc. I have both of these add on's in my planner. They now have a teacher planner as well. You can customize your cover and the owner is so sweet even if something doesn't say you can customize it she will go the extra mile to do something requested if she can. I like to support small woman businesses and this is definitely one of them. Also awesome side mark here there is a place you can go to print off a sample of each weekly layout so you could play with it and see if it truly going to work for you. The con is that you cannot remove the pages to decorate or write so sometimes the coil gets in your way. I do like being able to fold it over like a notebook but again certain days of the week are hard to stamp or decorate because you are close to the spiral. Now there are several companies out there selling spirals like Erin Condren, 1407 planners, Plum Paper Planners and more. I have owned an EC and for me personally the Limelife is much better quality and much more customizable. Paper quality is excellent. Stamping in the planner is great because of this. But keep in mind there are many inks that work best when stamping in planners so do your homework on that. I let my daughter have my Erin Condren when I got my limelife so I don't have it here to take a pic.

Most of the sizes are close on these planners. Roughly 7 x 9"

Here are the links to check them out:

Price Points: 

Limelife Planners $55 plus add on's 

Erin Condren $50 and up

Plum Paper planner $31 plus add on's
Happy Planner $24.99 (not exactly a spiral but it falls between spiral and ring)

Ring Binders:

I have owned the daytimes, filofax, webster pages, simple stories, Kikki K ring binders. They come in multiple sizes depending on your needs compact, personal, A5.  I personally am a Kikki girl. All of the ones listed are great planners and many are coming out with so many colors, and designs that I will continue to own them as well! (remember I am obsessed now) My Kikki K is my favorite planners. I only have a small amount of them but the ones I have I love. The quality is wonderful, I love the colors they offer and the styles inside the planner with the pocket configurations. I do love the new webster pages coming out and the simple stories as well so for me most ring binders will work for you it is just a matter mainly of your budget. IF you want leather binders filofax and kikki both have excellent quality. If you are vegan several of the companies have a more vegan friendly materials. Alway check your rings when you get one to make sure they are tight. The nice thing is you can remove the pages to decorate so that the rings don't get in your way. 

Sizes: Compact, Personal, Medium and A5

Price Point: (starting prices can vary depending on size. I will be going by A5)

Filofax $67 and up

Kikki K $70 and up (watch for sales!!)

Webster Pages $45 

Simple Stories $45

**watch for sales and clearances for some great deals on all of them

Travelers 

I always thought that these were more for journals but there are so many people making inserts for them that have more of the calendar aspects to them or other books to track various things. Then you can still get the grid paper notebooks, lined notebooks and you can have multiple books within your cover so you can go to town with this! Its a great item to take with you on trips so you can doodle, journal or keep track of your life. You used to see these mainly made out of leather but now so many companies are making their variation of these. They come in a variety of sizes. They can be called midori's, fauxdori's, sewdori's and many many more! They can be leather, fabric and a variation of faux leathers and materials. They come in various sizes also. You can easily make your own if you watch youtube and also make your own inserts. So this can be a fun project or help if you are on a tight budget. I just bought my first one the other day and it was a fabric one and it is so cute! So you can really show your personality by buying or making one with fabric that speaks to you!

Sizes: Passport, Pocket, Personal, Regular, Wide, Extra Wide

Price can range from $30 and up depending on materials and size. 

I am no expert but hopefully this little run down helps a bit.

Now for a bit of eye candy! Did you know that Mrs Bimbles has a sticker subscription now too! SAY WHAT!! Here is a pic of all the stickers I received from the subscription. I mean what a good variety of stickers right!

Sticker subscription

A5 Planner Box

 Thank you for stopping by and hope you found some of the information helpful!

Brighten your day.

My Travelers Notebook / Fauxdori Set Up & Contents

Well as you know my little Travelers Notebook and I have become the best of friends of late. Our relationship has been growing stronger and stronger every day. When I first knew about midori's or travelers notebooks I really didn't get what all the fuss was about. Maybe I wasn't doing it right or maybe I just hadn't found the right one I am not sure. I dabbled in a couple and wasn't massively digging it. I then went on to the fabric ones from Love Neen and Lyra & Co (both on Etsy) and I loved those but only for sketch books and journals. But since I have been using my TN from Websters Pages it has been a match made in heaven. I know, I know, I have been going on about it lol!

Anyhooo I have been meaning to share my set up with you and you lot have been asking but it's been a tad busy round here but Ta Da! here it is!

As you know one of the things that sets the Websters Pages TN's out from some of the others is all of the nifty pockets on the inside. I am not really utilising them for anything much. All of my loyalty cards and debit cards are in my purse and so these pockets are just getting filled as time goes on with bits and bobs like stickers and photos. I kinda like that it grows and changes organically though. The first insert that I have is a week on two page diary from Travelers Times on Etsy. The cover is a plain Kraft and so I have collaged mine with bits of scrapbook papers, stickers, enamel dots and the like. I love how it looks and how it is a collection of things that represent my personality.

Next up I have another insert, again from Travelers Times that I am using for my 'You' planner. My word of the year for 2016 was you or Me if you prefer and that is all about encouraging me to spend more time on myself as I often neglect me. This just helps me to keep track of that to make sure I am doing something. The covers of this insert are made using scrapbook paper and greetings cards that I received. If you want to know more about my word of the year you can watch my video:

I also have a journal inside which I use for thoughts and feelings, ya know 'dear diary' stuff as well as documenting my life with photos and bits. I don't do any messy art journaling in there though. This is the sort of clean, dry stuff I do on the sofa of an evening.

I also have a fourth notebook and my watercolour palette for on the go needs. You'll get a much better look at those though in the video.

And so that is my set up and everything that is housed in my travelers notebook. I hope that gives you a bit more of an insight into the inner workings of me and also gives you some ideas for what you can use yours for too.

Planner peace & decorated pages

Well I always thought I had planner peace. In fact no I am sure, 100% sure that I did in fact have planner peace with my personal ring planners using the Websters Pages week on two page inserts. It made me happy and it worked. Really worked. Of course I only used this for my 'home life' and all work and blog stuff is in another planner or two. So if you are blissfully happy why change? Why rock the boat? What if it didn't work?

Well those are easy to answer....I changed because I received my Websters Pages Travelers Notebooks and I fell in love with them. Previously I had used fabric fauxdori's as journals only but when the WP ones arrived it was certainly love at first sight and I wanted to move my whole life into it and apart from work stuff which is still separate, this is what I have done! If I fall out of love with it I can always go back but for now it makes me very happy.

I promise I will do a set up tour soon. I know I have been promising but things have been very busy in the Brim household with one thing or another and then to top it off I got a cold which took me 'out of service' for nearly a week. I was gonna film today but I thought I would save that for another week so you can enjoy without hearing me sniffing! In the meantime I thought you would like to look at my decorated pages for the past few weeks as I realised that I haven't shared any pages here on the blog for such a long time!

The Spring 2016 Websters Pages Color Crush Planners Showing!

Wanna see what the new Spring 2016 Websters Pages Color Crush Planners look like? Yeah I thought you would! I can tell you that they are absolutely delish and you are going to love them. They are not released until Spring but don't worry about missing out, just head on over to Facebook and join 'Mrs Brimbles Happy Place' and also 'Color Crush Planner Love' and you will get to find out when they are available to purchase. For UK peeps I will be stocking them!

My Planner so far this year

I realised that I have been neglecting my blog for a little lately and I haven't posted many photos of late. My lovely Design Team have been keeping the blog active which I am really grateful for. I have no excuses, I have just haven't blogged lol! I've been around on other platforms mainly instagram and Facebook and of course YouTube.

For a vast proportion of last year I was doing a weekly planner page decoration post which I realise I have not posted for ages so I thought I would do a bit of a show of my pages from this year so far. Since I divided out my planners last year I have been really into page decoration big time this year and I can see myself continuing on this for the foreseeable future.

So if you have missed my posts elsewhere, here is how this year has looked so far. I have consistently been in my White Websters Pages Color Crush planner although I have a feeling this may change in February!

The above photo is a screen shot froom my planner set up video and that was week one. Then going forward...

 

 

2015 Planner Page Decoration Flip Through

I thought it might be fun to do a flip through of all of my inserts from 2015 so you can see my style and how they were decorated!

January Planner Set Up

I thought I would do a little show and tell of my planner set up for January:


I am using the January 'These are the days' journal cards in my planner this month. I loved using them last year and I kind of tailed off in the later months of the year but I felt like using them again.

I am using the month card to track any fitness I do and I reward myself with a little smiley sticker every time I do something!

I keep my little stickers in a pocket bag which I hole punched and added in. It works really well as not only does it look pretty but it also means they are really handy and easily accessible!

I am also using the little 'resolutions' card to remind myself what I want to do. Here is it before I add mine to it. Not because it is secret or anything but because it looks nicer without my handwriting on! I did embellish it a little with washi tape and a sticker because, well, it was fun ha ha!

Next week is looking Brite!

Next week is looking very bright. Rainbow Brite he he he he!! You know I love her because she appears so much in my planner and I also still have my doll and sprite from when I was a kid in the 80s. I love that they are bringing her back too!

Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Yellow with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Blue with white clouds from Doodlebug Designs. Yellow with stars is from Cath Kidston and the red is unknown.
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: Made by Craftin Chaos on Etsy.
Stickers: made for me by a friend. Little strip stickers are from Handcrafted by Sheree on Etsy.

Planner Decorating!

Now that Halloween is over I felt it was time for a planner change over so I thought I would do that and share with you what I went for. Obviously it had to be 'pimped' a bit too, I could just leave those pockets empty now could I! I also wanted to share with you my page decoration for the week.



Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in Yellow with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: Amy Tangerine strips booklet (orange flower and yellow spot) from my shop. Orange stipe from Websters pages. Orange dot unknown.
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: Fox made by Craftin Chaos on Etsy. Wooden paper clips "Autumn" from my shop. Pumpkin clip made from the Apple Cider tin pins in my shop.
Stickers: Fraggle Rock stickers made for me by a friend. The other stickers used are the Apple Cider stickers available in my shop
Note Cards: My pretty week
Dashboard: Made by me but no longer available.

**None of the links are affiliate links although some of the links are for my own online shop**

Pumpkin Picking? - This weeks pages

I really enjoyed doing my last 'plan with me' video or as I like to call it 'decorate with me' so I thought I would do it again this week. I am a bit late in sharing this weeks pages as it has all been a go-go what with vlogtober and all that so please forgive me for sharing them late. I will try and get back to sharing my pages like I used to do, earlier in the week!



Anyhooo these are my pages:

Products Used

Planner: Websters Pages Color Crush Planner in White with matching folio
Planner Inserts: Websters Pages week on two pages
Washi Tape: All from my shop
Pen: Target $1 spot
Paperclips: made from the bade flair buttons in my shop
Stickers: Bunting and weekend banner stick from HandcraftedbySheree on Etsy. Polka Dot Flag from PinkHedgehogPretties on Etsy and all others from my shop

**None of the links are affiliate links although some of the links are for my own online shop**