Planner Review: Filofax Patent Compact Organizer in Duck Egg

Hey everybody! I know a lot of planner geeks (including myself) love to hear reviews on different planners to find out which planner is best for them.  In honor of my Duck Egg Patent Filofax's One Year Planner-versary tomorrow, I have decided to give a little product review on it and how it's held up over the years.

Size
I bought my planner in the compact size, which I thought I wouldn't be a big fan of because it limits the space that you would get from a personal planner, but I was delightfully surprised.  Despite the smaller, this planner is very good at storing lots of goodies and is the perfect size for when on the go.

Price
This planner is actually a very decent price, especially for anyone just starting out in the planner community.  It is 47.25 US Dollars or 32 Pounds, which I believe is pretty reasonable especially since it has a high quality finish on it.

Scratches/Dirt
Sadly, because of this planner's finish, it is very prone to scratches and dirt.  Although mine has held up very well over the year, it still quite a few scratches and smudges, so I recommend storing it in a cloth bag when not being used (which I sadly didn't do).  Therefore, if you are the type of person to just throw your planner in the car, your purse, or etc. without delicate handling, I do not recommend this planner for you.

Pockets
This planner is intended to be very slim, Filofax definitely optimized the space and fit quite a few pockets including two credit card holders, a flap pocket, and a one vertical pocket in the back of the planner.  Some look for as many pockets as possibly, but I really like the amount of pockets in this planner.

Overall Opinion
Overall, I really love this planner and I totally recommend it to anyone.  The color is exactly how pictured and is perfect for me.  It is a great price and if treated with care, it will last forever.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this new segment.  Make sure to comment below!

A Hint to my Future Giveaway...

As most of you know, I have promised a giveaway when I reach 100 followers on bloglovin', and I felt to give ACTUAL some motivation to do so, I should definitely show you a little hint to what you'll be winning!

When I reach 100 followers, I will be giving away a Anchors Ahoy Pocket Organizer from Paperchase, not to mention a ton of other goodies along with it!  So if you'd like a chance to win this ADORABLE little planner, make sure to follow me below!

Follow me here!

Good luck and thanks for reading!

My Zebra Pens Giveaway Winnings!

Hi everybody!  Recently I entered a giveaway on the blog She's Eclectic for these super cool Zebra pens in celebration of National Stationery Week, and to my surprise, I won!  In my giveaway prize package, I received a variety of different pens, such as ink, ballpoint, and even one fountain pen!  So here's what the pens I won, and a little review of them:

Z-Grip Smooth Ballpoint

These pens are amazingly smooth!  Even the first time I tried to write with them, the ink flowed so perfectly!  The color is great on them, and they are perfect for color coding in planners.

Z-Grip Funky Brights

I L-O-V-E the pattern on these! They are a super cool spin to my planner, and although they don't have as great as a flow as the Smooth Ballpoint, they still are perfect for my color coding.

Z-Grip Flight R

This pen has a fantastic flow as well!  It is great for regular handwriting in your planner and writing in general.

Zebra Sarasa

This pen probably has worst flow out of the rest the pens, but it is still great in general.  It writes with minimal stopping, but it is very inky which I love.

Zebra Fuente

This is for sure my FAVORITE out of all my pens. This is my fountain pen and it has a great nib! This pen I now keep in my planner and it is my main pen!

So just in case you wanted a visual on how the pens write, here is a little visual on it.  As you can see, all these pens write very well, so I recommend any of them.

And if any of you are cursive lovers, here's a sheet of the pens written in cursive.  The starred ones I recommend the most for cursive.

Thanks for reading!  I'd like to thank Amanda for hosting this giveaway and make sure to check out Amanda's blog here!

Week of 5/25: Decorated Pages!

Hey guys! Lately, I have been lower of stationery supplies than I'd like to be *tear falls down cheek*, so after trying to find an alternative to washi tape and sticker, I have been using old cards! That's right, birthday and holiday cards from brands like Hallmark.  I have found that most cards have very interesting edges and appliques, which makes great for my weekly planner page decoration. Here's my pages decorated with old cards:

I really love how it came out! One of the cards had this very lovely scalloped edge which I thought acted as a very nice trim for my pages.  I also used part of the card to make a bookmark and I thought this also added a nice touch and brought it together.  In place of stickers, I used appliques from the card (the butterfly and the flower).  I also used the remaining parts of the card to make borders on each day.  Overall, I am pretty happy with the idea, and I will be trying it again in the future.  Make sure to comment and tell me what you think as well as any ideas you may have for my planner pages (I love hearing from everyone!) Thanks for reading!

A Giveaway in the Making...

Hey guys! I'm gonna keep today's post short.  If you already didn't see on the side of my website I have just started a bloglovin' account.  Now because I want to be part of affiliate programs as well as sponsorship programs, one of the things they require is to have a certain amount of followers in order to be considered for the program.  My goal is to reach at least 100 followers on bloglovin' in the next month or so.  Now because you guys are the best readers EVER, if I reach my goal I will be hosting my first giveaway *throws confetti in air*!  Think you can do it? Just follow me below or on my bloglovin' button to the left! Good luck!


Follow my blog with Bloglovin!

An Interview with Sachiko from Filofax Love

Hi guys!  Today I am excited to have one of my favorite planner geeks today, Sachiko the blog Filofax Love!  And here she is!

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Hi!  My name is Sachiko and I'm originally from Japan.  I got married to my British husband at the end of 2009 and moved to the UK in early 2010.  I love designing & creating inserts like dividers & refills for Filofax organisers, and I run Cute Organizing on Etsy!  I'm currently 7 months pregnant and I really have no idea what my life is going to be like in a few months time, but of course we're very excited!

    

 

1. What planner/planners do you have? Are there any you want to get?

I have several Filofax organizers in Mini, Pocket and Personal size (Saffiano, Malden, Finsbury & Charleston).  I haven't got any plans to buy a new one at the moment, but if I see something I really like I know that I won't be able to stop myself getting it lol!

    

 

2. What planners are you using at the moment?

My favourite model has always been Finsbury and my current main Filofax is Pocket Finsbury (Antique Rose)!  I tried to use the Personal size last year, but the Pocket size works best for me.

 

    

3. What are your favorite planner brands?

I used to love Japanese Hobonichi Planner, but my current favourite is Filofax!  

4. Where do you draw inspiration from for your planner?

New ideas just come up in my head sometimes, but I often get inspirations just by looking around at Filofax-related stuff on the internet :)

5. Do you any favorite planner bloggers?

I follow many blogs, but I check Facebook groups and Instagram more often these days as I really love looking at images of other people's planners, desks, handbags, etc!

6. What are 5 things for your planner that you absolutely can't leave the house without?

-Pilot Hi-Tec C (0.4)

-Sticky notes

-Bic ballpoint pen 

That's it!

 

    

7. What is the current theme for your planner pages?

My pages are looking pretty messy with just black ink and orange highlighter at the moment!  I used to love decorating them with washi tape, lots of stickers and doodles, but I also like this simple messy look!

8. What would you describe your planner decoration style as?

I don't decorate my pages anymore (I still use stickers & frixion stamps, though!) - they're more like to-do lists I refer to each day :)

9. How did you first discover your love of planners?

I started using a planner when I was 16, that's when I started living in Texas.  My cousin sent it to me from Japan, and I remember writing everything in that planner.  It's probably still at my parents' house- I must check it when I visit Japan next time!

10. What is your favorite thing about Live. Love. Planners.?

I've just been introduced to your blog, and I really love that you put up lots of images!  Hope you keep up your great work!

Etsy Shop: cuteorganizing.etsy.com

Blog: http://filofaxlove.wordpress.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cuteorganizing

Instagram: http://instagram.com/sachiko_filofaxlove

Twitter: https://twitter.com/cute_organizing

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/cuteorganizing

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Thank you so much for the interview Sachiko!  If you are interested in being featured in an interview on Live. Love. Planners, send me an e-mail at beth.dewald@gmail.com!  Thanks for reading!

My View on Using Multiple Planners

Whether it is blogs, social media, or from other planner geeks themselves, you'll see an abundance of people with more than one planner.  Some will interchange them, using them one at a time, while others will them all at a time.  As a person with multiple planners (my Filo and my Fauxdori), I believe in using multiple planners at one time. Here's why:

One planner equals limited space.

When I first received my Filofax, since I had no other planners I had tried my best to include all important parts of my daily life in my planner.  Even then, the space of my compact planner limited the options of my planning and I hated having to be contained in a way like that.  That's why I chose to make a Fauxdori for my blog planning to help open my space.  Even though now I have two planners, I'd still like to open up my options by getting more planners.  Do I believe in using to many planners at once?  Yes, even though it helps to "opening up" my planner, I think that it can be hard to manage them all at once.

Thank you for reading! Make sure to check out tomorrow's post!

Week of 5/18: Decorated Pages!

Hey guys! Over the weekend, I took a trip over to Hobby Lobby with my friend Stefanie and we went all out and got a planner haul!  I bought quite a few things, including a Pocket Pages kit, a Heidi Swapp kit (*drools*), and a We R Memory Keepers Journaling Card Pad.  With all these supplies, I decorated my pages for this week, are here they are!

This week, I used the following supplies:

• Stickers from this Heidi Swapp kit
• Paperclip made from stickers from this Pocket Pages kit
• We R Memory Keepers cards from the Albums Made Easy Collection in cut out Pocket Pages sleeve from this kit
• Washi tape accents from here

I hope you enjoyed this post! Thank you for reading!

An Interview with Anna from Mrs. Brimbles!

Hi everyone! Today I am excited to have one of my favorite planner geeks here today, Anna from the Mrs. Brimbles blog! Here she is!

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Hi everyone my name is Anna although most people know me online as Mrs Brimbles which is a nickname which, well, kinda stuck. So I am probably mostly known for my YouTube channel where I talk about all things planner related on Fridays as well as for my Etsy shop where I sell printable inserts and my art dashboards for ring bound planners and my online shop for the monthly stationery and planner subscription boxes - The Brimbles Box! Beth asked if she could interview me for her blog and of course I said yes! I love her blog and one of her newest fans. She very kindly sent me some questions and here I am with my answers.

1. What planner/planners do you have? Are there any you want to get?

I have more than I *NEED* but far less than I *WANT*! It is terrible, once you get in to the planner World you start discovering all of these planners that you never knew existed. I don't use all of my planners at once, I do have several on the go but not all of them. I change my daily planner around and swap in and out of them like other people do with handbags!

I have two A5, three pocket and the rest are all personal size.

I love all the ones that I do have but I would really like to get the Heidi Swapp Memory Planner as well as the Heart of Gold Planner from Marion Smith Designs.

2. What planners are you using at the moment?

Currently I am using my white Color Crush planner from Websters Pages as my daily. I also have the following:

• A5 Black Filofax Finsbury: Journal
• A5 Turquoise pantent Filofax Domino: FluffyFax
• A5 Hot pink pantent Filofax Domino: For my online stationery shop / Brimbles Box
• Personal red Original Filofax: Christmas planning
• Personal Ultra Violet Filofax Domino: Housing old inserts

3. What are your favorite planner brands?

My favourites are for definite Filofax and Websters Pages but then I can't really comment on the other brands as I have never used one before!

4. Where do you draw inspiration from for your planner?

Mostly from my head! My mind is always whirring away and I am always thinking of new things. My planner is very much a tool for keeping me organised and on track but I do also like to use it as a creative outlet. I don't use stickers much in my journals but I do go to town with them in my planner!

I also love browing on instagram and Pinterest, there are so many wonderful accounts but it can sometimes get over whelming especially if you are new to it.

5. Do you any favorite planner bloggers?

I have loads, some of the ones right at the tip of my thinking are:

Hey Charlie, Chelley Darling, Philofaxy, She's Eclectic

6. What are 5 things for your planner that you absolutely can't leave the house without?

A pen. Basically that is it as everything else is just a nice to have not an essential for me. If I never decorated again it wouldn't bother me. Second on my list is sticky notes as I do like to jot little notes down and mini to do lists.

7. What is the current theme for your planner pages?

Whatever is going on in my head at that particular time. I really don't put much thought or effort into it. I use whatever is at hand, i.e. if I have just bought something new or I rifle through my sticker box and grab something that takes my fancy right then.

8. What would you describe your planner decoration style as?

oooh I don't know that is a tough one, I have never really thought of it as a style before, to me it is just my planner and an extension of me. I wouldn't say I particularly have one although other people may disagree.

9. How did you first discover your love of planners?

Back in school actually. We were all issued with a school planner (of course I decorated mine which I got told off about!). We were to record our homework in it, track our attendance etc. It started my long time love affair with keeping myself on track.

10. What is your favorite thing about Live. Love. Planners.?

I love Beth's friendly, chatty writing style as if we were having a chat in the same room!

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit more about me and if you are interested in seeing more of me, here is where you can find me...

 

Thank you for asking me over Beth, it was really fun answering your questions and good luck with your new blogging venture!

All photography supplied and taken by Mrs Brimbles. Links are not affiliate links.

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If you are interested in being featured in an interview on Live. Love. Planners., send me an e-mail at beth.dewald@gmail.com! Thanks for reading!

My DIY Fauxdori!

Hey everybody! Sorry I didn't post yesterday, but as you can see from the title, I was busy working on my new Fauxdori!  What is a Fauxdori?  It is a mock-up version of a Midori Traveler's Notebook, which is a leather cover with a set of strings inside the can hold multiple notebooks at a time (and are interchangable).  I have always thought this was a good idea, and over the web I have seen many planner geeks making their own or buying it from someone else, so this weekend I put my sewing skills to the test and decided to make my own Fauxdori!  Here's the end results:

The front cover with an elastic band

 The inside with strands of thick embroidery thread

 The back side

The spine of the Fauxdori

If you have seen other Midoris of Fauxdori before, most of them are made from very thick leather and usually have a very large, curved spine, but since mine is made of fabric, the spine is a lot thinner.  Also, the elastic band is very loose. This is because I wanted to be able to have it fit a lot of inserts in without breaking.  Since this is my first Fauxdori, I'm going to try making other ones with other methods, so if you have any tips for me, please comment below!

An Interview with Becky from Planner Fun!

Hey everyone! I am glad to say that today, I won't be the only one writing!  Today we have our special guest star Becky from Planner Fun!  I love Becky's organized and fun style, and I adore the printables she designs. So without further ado, here's Becky!

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Hi, I'm Becky and I'm a 40 something year old (okay, okay, I'm 49 - y ou made me say it), Christian mom to two boys ages 12 and 14.  I spend my days homeschooling, making planner forms (and other printables), and sometimes I crochet.  My hubby and I have been married since 1993 and we enjoy our family time with the guys, eating out, and occasionally taking impromptu day trips.

1. What planner/planners do you have? Are there any you want to get?

I have an older, brown leather, zippered Day-Timer that is 8.5" x 5.5".  I bought it over 15 years ago and it is still in great shape.  Eventually I would like to try a Filofax but for now I am quite content with my Day-Timer.

​​2. ​​What planners are you using at the moment?

F​or Christmas my hubby gave me a ​red Day-Timer Organizer​ (also 8.5" x 5.5"​​).  This particular one has a soft, flexible cover which I love and a magnetic tab instead of a zipper.  I am enjoying it very much!​

​​3. What are your favorite planner brands?​

Well, you would think Day-Timer, wouldn't you?  :)  I just haven't tried any others up to this point.  Like I mentioned, I'm wanting to try a Filofax at some point, but  I am mainly interested in just planner binders as I like making my own inserts too much to stick with just one thing for any length of time.

​​4. Where do you draw inspiration from for your planner?

​Facebook groups and websites where other planners share what they are using and what works for them.  I often find inspiration from Pinterest as well. ​

​​5. Do you any favorite planner bloggers?

​Yes, Kristy at Giftie Etcetera and Patty at Homemakers Daily are two bloggers that I read regularly.

​​6. What are 5 things for your planner that you absolutely can't leave the house without?
​Sharpie Pens in black and red
Highlighter (whatever color I'm using at the time, currently pink)
Frixion erasable pen in Black
Graph note paper
Post-it notes and page tags​​

​​7. What is the current theme for your planner pages?

​I like bright white pages with open spaces and lines and checkboxes.​

​​8. What would you describe your planner decoration style as?

​Well, I'm what I guess is called a functional planner.  Although I bought a few rolls of Washi tape when I started, I don't really decorate my pages now.  I was once very much in to scrapbooking and loved it.  After the last baby book was finally completed, I moved to digital scrapping to save time and eventually quit doing that up as well.​

​​9. How did you first discover your love of planners?

​I have always loved desk-top publishing.  I would make newsletters on an electric typewriter before personal computers (yes, I'm that old!), business cards and certificates when I got my first computer (Macintosh Classic II with the tiny screen), and  then forms:  business, home management and to do lists when I discovered Microsoft Publisher.  I liked making printables so much that I started putting them on my blog and discovered that there was a "demand" for planner inserts.  Last July I pulled out my old planner and started creating my own inserts.  I enjoyed the creating and discovered that I loved being organized and having a plan.

10. What is your favorite thing about Live. Love. Planners.?​

I am a new reader of Live. Love. Planners, so I am just getting started.  This post right here is the one that drew me in!  Live. Love. Planners is now in my newsreader and I'm looking forward to each new post.

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Thank you so much Becky for being here today! Make sure to check out her site http://www.plannerfun.com/!

If you are interested in being featured in an interview on Live. Love. Planners., send me an e-mail at beth.dewald@gmail.com! Thanks for reading!

My Thoughts & Tips on Color-Coding

A very controversal subject in planner world is -you guessed it- color coding.  Some people love it and make it the most important part of their planner, others view it as a waste of time and avoid it as much as possible.  I myself have color coding in my planner, but I believe it is a very testy part of planning.  Some people over do it to the point were they have 15 different colors existing within their planner for the most explicit details in their daily life, meanwhile, I only have 5 at the moment.  Why I do this? Here's why:

Color coding is glance-at only

What I mean by this is that I believe the purpose of color coding is to be able to see what type of events will be on my schedule without having to read into the details of the event itself. When you go ahead and go color crazy, you'll constantly have to go back and look at your code to see what type of event it is. This defeats the purpose of color coding because you prevent yourself from "glancing" properly.  When you have only the five colors, it makes it easier to "glance" at your events.

How do I start my own color coding system?

Simply brainstorm the most general thing you do in your everyday life.  After that, choose a few that you think you need the most and assign them a color. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy!


That's it for today! Thank you for reading and make sure to comment below!

Planner of the Week: Patent Domino Filofax in Turquoise!

Hi everyone! Today I have decided to start a new feature on the site, and make every Saturday Planner of the Week! For these articles, I will introduction cool and new planners and describe the features included in the planners. Today I chosen to feature the Patent Domino Filofax in Turquoise, a new part of the Domino line!

This planner comes in Pocket, Personal, and A5 sizes, and the A5 size includes a slot in the back for notepads (love!), which is great for jotting down notes that you don't want finalized in your planner.  Another feature I like is the flexibility of the planner itself, with the very simple design it easily accomadates to each individual need of the planner. With a starting price of $29 (22 pounds) for the Pocket, it is the perfect price for any planner geek in the need of a new planner.  Make sure to check it out here.  Thanks for reading!