My Planning Favourites

I get a handful of comments asking me what I use in my planner on a regular basis and where they are from, so I thought I'd do a little post of all my current planning favourites to use :) 

Most of the things I use have been kindly sent to me through pen pals and RAK's (random acts of kindness from a Facebook group). I live in the countryside where there are close to no stationery shops... It's very hard for me to find things like washi tape, stickers, project life cards, sticky notes and so on; so when people send me them I am ever so grateful! ❤

These are my current favourite washi tapes :) The first top three on the left are from Sainsbury's and they come in a pack, the next four are all from eBay, and the last one on the right is from Wilkinson's. The bottom left was sent to me (it's actually deco tape, not washi), the next two are from eBay and they came together, the next two are from Wilkinson's, and the last 9 are all from eBay (there are 10 all together but I used one up).

These all were sent to me except for the middle bottom 3 Martha Stewart sticky notes which I purchased from a lovely girl called Jessica on Instagram who kindly offered to buy and send me them from her local Staples store (as I live over an hour and a half away from the nearest one, and they didn't have any). I am not sure where all the others are from, but you can find the little talk sticky notes on eBay in a variety of designs.

More of my favourite sticky notes. The top set were from WHSmith, the middle left set were from eBay, all the rest were all sent to me through penpals and RAKs (I love the bottom middle and right two so much, I wish I could find more!).

These are great sticky flags! The first and second were sent to me and the revision tags I bought from Staples (in the UK). The first ones are my favourite, I would love to get the other colour set too :) I use the first set for mainly little reminders and appointments, and the right set for college assignments.

These cuties aren't sticky notes, but I usually stick them in my Filofax using some clear tape because I absolutely LOVE them! They were kindly sent to me from a lovely person on Instagram who couldn't use them in her smaller Filofax and offered them to me! I'm so sorry I cannot remember your name but thank you so much :)

These are just some of my favourite papers which have been sent to me as I cannot find any of them anywhere. I use them for to-dos in my filofax, and I also use them in my penpal letters :) They are just so cute! Sadly I don't know where to find any of these :(

I got into using project life cards when some of my penpals sent me a couple from 
America, and I just thought they were so cute and handy for keeping quotes, notes, to-dos and reminders in my filofax! So I bought my first pack from theideaowl on Instagram for a great price, this is the seasons* set :)

 I don't use tabs on a regular basis, but these are my absolute favourite tabs to use. They are the Martha Stewart and Avery line which is sadness now discontinued (it was incredibly hard getting my hands on them, especially the right set!). The left and middle sets I bought from Jessica on Instagram, and the right set I bought from a kind seller on Amazon who set up a special order for me when I emailed them and pleaded to have a set :D

My favourite pens to use are the papermate inkjoy 1.0m set which I bought from Staples but you can get them pretty much anywhere including Amazon and eBay for really good prices. I highly recommend them!

So that's it for my current favourites to use in my Filofax. I love stationery and I am so thankful for every person who has sent me something because you have helped me out so much, and of course made me super duper happy!! :)

My Week #11 - #17

I haven't really been posting a lot on my blog because at home I don't have constant internet access, so I do apologize. So here is a catch up of the last several weeks :)

week #11

week #12

week #13

week #14

week #15

week #16

week #17

If you want to know where I got anything shown just comment below :)

Patent Red Compact Filofax Review

I recently won this beautiful patent red compact Filofax from an Instagram giveaway by paperedhearts. I've never had a personal or compact Filofax before so I was pretty excited to get it! I've set it up to suit my needs and I'm going to give it a try to see if the size works for me :) It's definitely looking good so far! Thanks Jennifer :)

Jennifer kindly made me this beautiful personalized dashboard!

This is in the first tab, the general Filofax information pages.

The diary pages (week on two pages) are in the second tab. I took January to March pages out to save space. It's so nice to have a transparent ruler!

In the third tab are the to do pages; it only came with 2 pages which is a shame but I can always pick up more :)

Under tab four are the Filofax pages (2 pages of the white and coloured lined pages, blank paper, and graph paper)

Under the fifth tab are the contact pages, and there is nothing under the 6th tab.

So that's the set up so far, I'm not sure whether I'll keep the dividers in but I'll see how it works out. It's such a beautiful Filofax and I really want to make use of it :) I'll just share a few personal 'negatives' with the Filofax (for others these may or may not be a problem).

There are slight gaps in the top rings (shown above) but it's not a problem :)

The pen loop is quite small so you can't fit a lot of pens in there.

This is the size of the Filofax once I had taken a few pages out and had set it up as shown above. Even though it's compact size, it can fit quite a lot more inside.

The size difference of the patent red compact and the A5 pink Finsbury.

 I'd love to hear if you have moved from A5 to personal/compact size and how you've found the smaller sized pages and less room? How it's worked out for you? Which do you prefer? I think I will always be an A5 size person but it's a nice change :)

Charlavail Buttons Review

Copyright to Charlavail

I bought the 4 pack buttons from Charlavail's bigcartel shop and I thought I would do a review on them for others who are interested in buying her products. I've been a fan of Charlavail for a few years now and I loved the buttons so much, I knew I had to have them :)

They took roughly 7-10 days to arrive from Florida to England, which is pretty reasonable. She had hand written a cute thank you note on the envelope which I thought was sweet (I love when sellers put a thank you note!). 

Here is a close up of the buttons and their positive messages :) I am going to pin them on my new backpack when I get it. Overall I would definitely recommend Charlavail's products, the buttons were very reasonable price with shipping, and the buttons are great quality!

Check out more of Charlavail and her art on her Tumblr and Instagram.

KiddyQualia Review: A5 Lined Rainbow Paper

I was in need of some more lined paper for my Filofax and decided to go with KiddyQualia's A5 36 sheets planner lined notepaper from etsy. I purchased the notepaper on February 15th and they were dispatched on February 23rd, I received the order on the 3rd of March. On the order it says she usually ships within 4-6 business days which is reasonable.

So this is what I received along with the line notepaper: a Ben Franklin quote, heart glitter stickers hamster sticker, bear sticker, and rabbit stickers. I really like when sellers/shops include a little thank you note or gift with your purchase, it makes it feel more special :)

These are all the lined notepaper colours, 2 pieces in each colours so 18 colours in total. They are a lot more sturdier than the Filofax notepaper, and the lines are slightly darker and go right to the edges of the paper.

A close up of the KiddyQualia blue lined notepaper on the left, and the Filofax blue lined notepaper on the right.

Here is the light and darker green pages from KiddyQualia in my Pink A5 Finsbury

The 36 pieces of notepaper don't take up too much space in my Filofax, and are quite pretty to view when the Filo is closed.

So overall I am happy with the purchase from KiddyQualia, and I would purchase from her again. The paper was £3.07 and the shipping was £5.52, with an overall price of £8.59. The only thing that slightly put me off from purchasing more was the shipping prices, but next time I will definitely email her about possibly combining shipping so I can get more for my money. The quality of the paper is a lot better than the Filofax paper, the colours are brighter, and the lines are darker and easier to see. I will definitely be buying her notepaper instead of Filofax notepaper from now on!

Have you ordered from KiddyQualia? What was your experience like?

Handwriting Training In My Filofax

I wasn't planning on doing a post about this as I didn't think people would be very interested, but I seem to have been proven wrong! Several people have requested to see my handwriting paper to help me train to write neater and in different styles. I only did this recently but it's already proving to be a big help as I can easily flick to the page when I feel my handwriting skills are slipping and I need a reminder in how I want to write >.<

So the first writing is called DigitalLove and it was from DaFont (this is a wonderful website filled with thousands of free fonts of all designs). I loved the simplicity of the font, the upper and lower case is the same design which was very handy as I didn't have to write two alphabets down.

The second writing is called TakeMeAwayBabe and is also from DaFont (FYI: I get all my fonts from here). Again this font is very simple, with the upper and lower cases are the same. I tend to mix both designs of DigitalLove and TakeMeAwayBabe together in order to create more of a personal handwriting style.

The third writing is called KG Eyes Wide Open and is also from DaFont. I wanted to find a neat and easy to read elegant handwriting which I could use as my 'fancy' handwriting (thank you notes etc).

The fourth and fifth writings are from a lovely lady called Suusi (WinterVictorian/Quiet Feather). She has one of the most beautiful, interesting, and unique handwriting styles I have ever seen! I am lucky enough to be her penpal and receive beautifully written letters from her. She posted a photo of her handwriting on Instagram which showed both her upper and lower case alphabet, and that is where I copied it from and got the inspiration. I mainly write my m's the same as her, but I still cannot master the e and s!!

This is the IG photo of Suusi's handwriting in both upper and lower case

So, do you use anything similar to help you practice your handwriting? It's a great and easy tool to help you practice and improve :)

My Favourite Pens + Papermate Inkjoy review

I know a lot of Filofax and Stationery users have their favourite pens and pen makes, so I thought I would make a post about mine. I only recently found what pens were my favourite, and I've also seen a few other Filofax users comment about how good these pens are too.

First up are my Papermate Inkjoy 100 1.0mm assorted pens which I bought from Staples last August. I bought them for a great price of £2.32 (the cheapest I can find on eBay is £3.35) and was very happy with the quality of the pens. I have never used the Papermate brand of pens before these, and they definitely made me a fan!

This is a review of all the pen colours. They write very smooth and don't smudge easily. Personally I find my handwriting changes with each pen I use, but these pens make my hand feel very comfortable and I tend to write neater with these pens. You don't have to press hard for the ink to come out either. The colours are bright but easy on the eye. I would definitely recommend these pens to everyone as they are very cute, easy to use and are a great price for 10 pens. And the pens fit inside my A5 Finsbury pen loops!

My second favourite pen is the Papermate Inkjoy Quatro 4 fun multi-colour of pink, purple. blue and lime green. I bought this pen from Morrisons for I believe £3.50 (but the cheapest on eBay is £3.34) Again this pen is very comfortable to use and my handwriting is generally always neat and easy to read with this pen. I am currently using it in my food diary (pink for the date, blue for the times, purple for what I eat, and green for how I feel). 

The above is the colours in writing. They are very easy to write with and are very smooth, the ink doesn't seem to dry up too quick so you don't have to check they work before writing. You don't have to push down hard for the pen to come out. When I bought this, it was an impulse buy in a "Ohh I've never tried these before but I've heard some good reviews on them so I'll try it out" way, and it definitely paid off! I am very happy with it and would recommend it. The only thing is the pen does not fit into the A5 Finsbury pen loops!

So what are your favourite pens to use?