Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

I do love a good bit of stationery and it seems like there are a whole community online of fellow stationery addicts. I’m not quite ready to drop £75+ on a designer planner and shed loads of stickers, but I did want to dip my toe in the planner addict world. So  I decided to place an order with the much more affordable Personal Planner UK and share with you my first impressions.

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

The defining feature of Personal Planner is that everything is customisable. I decided to go for the A5 size for £22.90 including shipping. You then choose the cover design, there are lots of options from a plain colour, patterns, images or your own photographs. I decided to go for the gold dots with the date in black and a black elastic. When it arrived I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t gold foil (although I think it does say this on the website), but I still like it. I think it looks quite Kate Spade-like. I added my name to the top using my label maker which I think finishes it off well. I might use some gold foil nail polish to pick out some of the dots to add an extra dimension.

The planner is covered with a thick protective plastic which is slightly textured. The inner covers on the front and back are a sturdy card so should hold up well.

Personal Planner Review

The inside cover has a little bit about the origins of the company which is quite a nice touch. The facing page is customisable – you can put your contact details, a motivational quote, fill it with emojis… I decided to keep it simple with my blog name (and a couple of anchor emojis of course) and leave space to stick a picture. I decided to pop in a card from a Lucky Dip Club box just using blu tack so I can switch it out when I get bored of it.

Personal Planner Review

There are a number of layout choices to decide between. You can go for vertical columns, squares, or a horizontal layout like I have. I went for the weekend split into two, but you can also get it separate with thinner weekdays. I went for this layout as it’s similar to what I’ve had in diaries in the past, but I’ll see how it goes. You can opt for plain paper, ruled or striped. I went for striped as it’s a bit more subtle than fully ruled but I can’t write straight without some guidelines! You can also go for the timetable option with time stamps if you need an appointment style diary.

Personal Planner Review

You also get options for three modules. I went for dinners, training and ruled on the facing page, but there are lots of options including to do lists, exams, graphs or leaving it blank. Plus, there are daily details you can add in such as weather tracker, work schedule (great for shift workers) and workout details. I left this option blank as I didn’t think I’d personally use any of them but I can see them being useful for others. I would love for them to include a water intake tracker in future – I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t say they need to drink more water and I would find this so helpful.

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

Another neat feature is the dates option. You can choose to have holidays and national days for your country automatically added, plus you can add personal dates such as birthdays, anniversaries and other memorable dates. You can choose to add them as a one off, or an annual event so that when you log into your account to make another planner, they are already there. I really like this feature and I love that you can choose to have ages added to birthdays. Very helpful for little ones and to make sure you don’t miss any milestone birthdays.

Personal Planner Review

In the interest of everything  being customisable, you can even chose the colour of the plastic movable ruler. Probably not that essential, but handy as a bookmark and at least you can match it to the rest of your planner if you’re so inclined. I just went for a clear one because I’m boring!

Personal Planner Review

Personal Planner Review

The final decision is what goes on the inlay and back pages. This was a fairly easy choice for me. I wanted a month overview at the start of each month so that I can have an at-a-glance view of my blog posts for that month. I also wanted the 2016 and 2017 overview which I find helpful for planning things like annual leave. Lastly I added lots of lined pages for list making. Other options include pages for teachers to plan their timetables, an address book, and fun elements like colouring pages or sudoku.

Personal Planner Review

Lastly, you also receive a movable plastic pocket which I popped in at the back to store some planner stickers. I got these water tracker ones from Dook Plook Designs on Etsy.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this planner. It reminds me of my high school one that I always found helpful! The order time for these is up to 2 weeks. I did receive mine quicker than that, I think it was 10 days. If you’re looking to order one for the New Year, I would do it now. However, you can choose to start the diary from any date so don’t worry if you’re a bit late to the party.

I’m looking forward to starting this soon. I’m also after some more cute stickers, if you are a planner addict and know some cool suppliers, please leave me their links below.

Book Lovers Gift Guide

Christmas Gift Guides 2015 | Bookworms

My second gift guide for this year is for all the bookworms out there. I have definitely become more of a book lover in the last year – I used to be as a kid, then fell out of the habit until my commute has reminded me of the joys. Bookworms are great to buy for as they tend to have an Amazon wishlist the length of their arm. If you can’t get access to this, or want something a bit different, here are some suggestions.

Book Lovers Gift Guide

Top row left to right: Book Lover Literary Print (£24.95); Penguin Clothbound Classics (£11.99) and Rebecca VMC 1973 (£5.99); So Many Books! Bookends (£15.95); Jane Eyre Candle (£9.99)

Your first port of call should be Not On The High Street, they have sooo many bookish themed gifts, you really won’t go wrong. I love this Little Women quote print; Ironically, it’s hard to buy a bookworm an actual book – what if they already have it? My best advice is to go either for a classic such as the lush Penguin Clothbound Classics, or one of their favourite books in a beautiful edition. Even if they already have the book they will appreciate the effort you have gone to to find them a special ‘display’ one; For the person with the giant TBR pile, these bookends are ideal; A book themed candle is a fun option. This Etsy shop has bookish options such as Jane Eyre, The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia.

Bottom row left to right: Paperback perfume (£15.00); Dainty Jewellery (from £4.20); Moleskine Book Journal (£10.75); Shakepeare Insults Mug (£9.99)

For the person who effuses about the glorious smell of new books, you need to get them this perfume from the Library of Fragrance; Or you can go down the more subtle look and pick up a piece of jewellery loosely inspired by their favourite book. I was thinking an arrow for The Hunger Games, a moon for A Song of Ice and Fire (for Khaleesi of course), a star for The Fault in our Stars or an owl for Harry Potter; For the listmakers, this offline version of Goodreads will go down well; And finally a mug covered in insults. At least if they hate it they can tell you in a verbose way.

Again, I hope this has been helpful. Let me know if you’re thinking of picking any of these or similar gifts up.

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

Lucky Dip Club | Birds of Paradise

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

This month’s Lucky Dip Club was a riot of exotic birdies and colour. This subscription service continues to go from strength to strength, now with monthly guest contributors and the introduction of a charm club. A club within a club, I love it! It’s £15 a month and goes on sale at 7am on the 1st of each month.

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

The guest contributor for March was Hollie Harris who designed super cute 70s style bird hair slides. I’ve seen people on Instagram rocking these in purple, blue, red, brunette, blonde hair and they all look fab!

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

Yey! Stationery! I love this summery to-do list. I like the very eighties design too.

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

The charm of the month is a classy silver swan. It came on a necklace chain with the bracelet separate so that you could wear it while you build up the charm collection. I thought this was a really sweet gesture and didn’t expect a necklace too.

We also received a personalised Pink Flamingo Motel keyring. I saw @littlestlass on Instagram had turned hers into a necklace and I just had to copy!

Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise Lucky Dip Cub March Birds of Paradise

Lastly we got to get our paper craft on with an origami set. I made the flying bird from the instructions supplied plus a swan and a rather dumpy looking penguin. So much fun!

The next box is themed around April showers with the theme of “Raining Cats and Dogs” and features the amazing Gemma Correll. Cannot wait for it!

20150228_151129

#HillarysCrafternoon with Joe Blogs

#HillarysCrafternoon with Joe Blogs

Last weekend I headed up to Birmingham’s Custard Factory to spend the afternoon doing some crafting courtesy of Hillary’s Blinds with Joe Blogs and The Crafty Hen. Using fabric from the new range at Hillary’s we were shown a couple of beginner’s sewing projects.

#HillarysCrafternoon with Joe Blogs

First up were some notebook covers. I selected a bold blue and white patterned fabric, as I liked the painterly quality of the print. The project itself was really simple – a few folds, couple of stitches, some hot glue for the button detailing and you’re done. Now most bloggers love their stationery so this project definitely appealed and it had the benefit of inspiring confidence in our crafting  abilities.

20150228_151129

#HillarysCrafternoon with Joe Blogs

The next project was a bit trickier. This time we were making a stuffed bird. I choose a yellow leaf pattern for this (I think it’s called Isra Linden) and a contrasting grey geometric pattern for the belly. Mine frayed a bit when I was stuffing it but I’m happy to call that one ‘feather detailing’. I don’t think I’ll be joining the leagues of master toy makers any time soon, but it’s good enough to become a cat toy! The kitten hasn’t managed to undo all the stitching yet so I’ll take that as a win.

#HillarysCrafternoon with Joe BlogsPhoto courtesy of Joe Blogs

At the end of the day we were able to take our craft projects home with us (with instructions if we wanted to DIY at home again) along with a really cute tote bag made from Hillary’s materials – mine is the red version of my notebook fabric – and some other goodies.

It was a really fun day and superbly organised by Joe Blogs. The tutors from The Crafty Hen were really friendly and happy to help crafters at all levels of skill. Big thanks to everyone and to Hillary’s for having us. Alongside the Birmingham crafternoon they also hosted events in Cardiff, Newcastle and Glasgow and you can read all about their adventures on their blog here.

Lucky Dip Club February Lovehearts and Lipstick

Lucky Dip Club | Love Hearts and Lipstick

Lucky Dip Club February Lovehearts and Lipstick

I do love Lucky Dip Club days. As you most likely already know the score with them now I’ll just skip straight to the contents.

As February is the month of love (Valentine’s Day being slap bang in the middle and all), the theme was “Love Hearts and Lipstick”. The collaboration was with LaLaLand so featured a personalised pencil from PopCult Pencils. It also included a glittery pout badge, washi tape with sweet slogans, a love letter necklace and a patch DIY kit.

Lucky Dip Club February Lovehearts and Lipstick

The necklace is so dainty and pretty!

Lucky Dip Club February Lovehearts and Lipstick

I made some nautical themed patches with the DIY kit. Not perfect but I like them. I’m enjoying doing some basic sewing so I might try and get some more practice in and learn a few more techniques.

‘Til next month, S.W.A.L.K!

Big Pop Club March Box

Big Pop Club | March Box

Big Pop Club March Box

Big Pop Club is the newest subscription box on the scene from illustrator Ella Masters. I managed to get my hands on the very first one so I thought I would share the contents with you lovely readers.

Promising illustrated goods in Ella’s unique style, Big Pop Club is a monthly dose of tats, beards and old school joy. It includes a monthly illustrated calendar and other items such as tote bags, tea towels, patches and stationery.  Subscriptions open on the 1st of each month and are posted out (in letter box friendly boxes) before the end of the same month. This one was £20 plus £3.50 postages, although now you choose from three sizes – £25.50 for large, £19.50 for medium and £15.50 for a mini box. I’m not sure what this means for contents in terms of how much exactly you get in each box – I’m guessing that the one I have would be classed as “medium” but I could be wrong on this.

Big Pop Club March Box Big Pop Club March Box Big Pop Club March Box Big Pop Club March Box

The March box was circus themed and included a fortune-teller tote bag, a notebook illustrated with a sweet circus elephant, some temporary tattoos, a colouring sheets and felt tip pens and a ‘Big Pop’ poster/calendar. There was also a couple of pompoms in the box which Tilly promptly ran off with!

I think it’s a really great selection, I love the bag and the notebooks are always handy to have. I also really like the poster, just need to find somewhere to hang it now.

The April box is themed “Cats with Tats” which sounds ridiculously fun. Subscriptions are now open.

Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns

Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns

Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns

Hey! So you know the deal with Lucky Dip Club by now right? A monthly subscription service delivering cute paper goods, DIY kits, jewellery and personalised items through your letterbox to put a huge smile on your face. The February box launched at 7am on Sunday 1st and sold out within an hour. Wowzers! So think of this post as your super advance warning for March. Set your alarms now if you want to join the club.

Anyway, the January box was themed “Valley of the Unicorns” with the slogan “Dream Big” (great advice from the creator Leona who has certainly been successful in pursuing her dreams). It was packed with pastel-unicorn-magical-goodness.

Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns Lucky Dip Club | Valley of the Unicorns

A new feature for 2015 is a monthly collaboration with a maker – this month was I Love Crafty who made us a super cute pink iridescent unicorn brooch. I love this new development as I’m sure I’ll be introduced to lots of great new indie makers throughout the year and possibly gain a few new favourites.

Lucky Dip Club never fails to make me smile, and it’s certainly upping my stationery collection – deffo a good thing! Roll on next month :)