Planners - New Range of MLP Equestria Girls Stationery On Our Website

As requested the Equestria Girls Stationery is now available for sale on our website - Enjoy!

shop.wrightstationery.com

A few of the most recently requested:

- Minecraft;

- Lego Movie;

- Minnie Mouse chore charts;

- Ben 10 (<-- Again! I know I will get round to this, I promise! :-D)

If you have any requests or would like to nudge me on any you have previously requested, send me an e-mail: blog@wrightstationery.com  I am busy but no request is ever ignored, I will reply to you.

Family Time - Pride of Paisley

Paisley is currently gearing up for the City of Culture bid in 2021 and as a tiny part of that they have began displaying brightly coloured lions all over the town with clues which makes up a trail. This is the map that helps guide you through it.

We did the trail on Sunday 17th July, and the kids loved seeing the brightly decorated lions and we had some ups and downs collecting the, clues.

This lion is Paisley Love Buddie on Causeyside Street and I think it was my daughters favourite.

This is Babylon Bill located outside Renfrewshire House (which is the main Renfrewshire Council building).  We started with this one as we parked the car close by - since there is free parking Saturday and Sunday in all Council marked parking bays.

This lion is Frae Paisley to Persia and is located at the Lagoon Leisure Centre.

 This lion is Rainforest and is located at the junction outside St Mirren's Cathedral.  We got many strange looks taking pictures at this one as this junction is very busy with 4 sets of traffic lights!

This lion is Chewy the Wookie Lion and we couldn't get into scan the QR code on it as it was within the locked gates of the Wynd Centre.  But it still looks cool even from a distance

This lion is Wild Paisley and is located outside Oakshaw Trinity church. 

This lion is The Paisley Pharaoh and is located outside the Paisley Museum.

This lion is Buddie the Builder Lion and is located at the UWS Paisley campus entrance.

This lion is Ramble and is located at Slug in a Bottle site near the Main UWS Paisley campus.

This lion is Weavers Lion and is located on the Paisley High Street.

This lion is called Mystique and is located at Paisley Cross.














The large lions, decorated by artists were outside, however the smaller lions (32 of them) that all have letters on them, are inside shops, restaurants and other businesses. As we did our trail on a Sunday we got less than half the letters collected as most of the businesses were closed, some had them visible in the window or put up photos of the lions with the letters, others had full metal shutters down which meant you can't see in at all. So we plan to try again on a Saturday to collect all the clues.

We didn't find all the large lions as the kids were exhausted from finding the ones we did see. You forget how big the town center is until you walk the length and breadth of it lion hunting. Two of the lions aren't within Paisley either, one is at Glasgow airport (although only 5 minutes away from where we were in the town centre we were already tired and didn't go) and the other is in Glasgow Central train station, which I keep meaning to scan the barcode on it, either before or after work - as this is the train station I use daily to get to work.We did get to see the lion designed by my kids' school and although they weren't chosen to help on it, they are very proud of it.

Lion designed by one of the schools

Lion designed by one of the schools

http://www.prideofpaisley.co.uk/

Planners - New Range of My Little Pony Planner Pages

As requested, the new range of MLP planner pages are now available on our website!

These are currently only available in Filofax sizes A5 and Pocket but we're working on the other sizes which will be uploaded soon so watch this space (literally as I'll update this post when they are ready).

Those who requested the Monster High range, your wait is almost over also, just a few more days until they are available.

So...ENJOY! :D shop.wrightstationery.com

New range of Monster High planner stationery now available! 

Planners vs Journals

I've noticed a spike in the popularity of bullet journals. Every once in awhile I consider using them instead, but after weighing up the pros and cons I always end up sticking with my planner.

I know you can buy journals with removable pages/dividers, but I find I'm not always accurate with which sections things go in and like to be able to lift and lay pages more than once (sometimes as much as five times). I have a habit of writing notes on a random piece of paper and adding it easily later.

The slots on journals with removable pages or sections make it more difficult to replicate if I print my own. But with my A5 Paperchase planner I can use any A5 piece of paper and use my planner punch to make it fit perfectly.

By buying a journal with non-replaceable pages it means you have to go out journal shopping again in 3 months, 6 months, a years time. For most who use them, this is a treat but for others, they simply can't afford the expense when you have so many other things to pay for these days. Whereas I purchased my binder more than a year ago and I only replaced it before that because my previous one was 15 years old and was held together with duct tape - it sounds pathetic I know, but it was a present from a late relative. But when my daughter was embarrassed by me using it around her, that's when I purchased a new one. 


Moleskine journals come in a range of sizes, soft or hard covers and various page types: squared, lined or blank.
 
Pocket (90 x 140mm, 3.5x5.5in)
Large (130x210mm, 5.1x8.3in)
- Expandable pocket
- Page marker
- Elastic band fastener
 
These can set you back anything from £5-18 if you buy from the Moleskine website, and cheaper if you buy from other shopping websites.









 

The Moleskine Professional notebooks are bit more expensive setting you back more than £20:
- Hard (or Soft) cover
- Rounded corners
- Elastic closure
- Exclusive layout dedicated to professional note taking
- Initial pages dedicated to: Contents, Key Tasks, Project-Planning, Personal and Group Goals
- Numbered pages
- Detachable tab pages and to-do list
- Chlorine-free
Again the main pages are fixed and I rarely know how many pages I will require per section so being able move them around is a big thing for me, therefore the Moleskine journals and notebooks weren't for me either. The is one unique thing about Moleskine products - you can have them personalised if you buy direct on their website.


Leuchtturm1917 is an A5 size journal:
- 249 numbered pages
- 8 perforated and detachable sheets
- Expandable pocket
- Blank table of contents
- Page marker
- Elastic band fastener
- Thread-bound book opens flat
- Ink-proof paper (80 g/sq m)
- Sticker for labelling and archiving
- Dimensions: 145 x 210 mm
This journal costs roughly £9-10 from most stationers online.
 For me I didn't like the idea of having to hang onto an old journal because I needed the info in a couple of the pages. I know lots of people keep all their bullet journals but I simply don't have room in my house for that.The ARC journal is one which allows you to move the pages about within it as it is bound by little plastic discs.
- Durable polypropylene cover
- Premium 100gsm paper
- 60 re-position-able narrow-ruled sheets
- 19mm discs
- Size A5, 148 x 210mm
These can cost anything from £10-20 depending which size and quality of cover you go for.
You can buy refill pages for £2-3.There is a way to print your own pages and punch them with the ARC punch...but the punch itself costs around £42 - for me this was just not worth it.

The idea that I could loose a couple of the discs that hold the whole planner together could mean I would lose vital pages and information and knowing my luck I would end up losing some of the discs down the back of my crafting desk...this planner just wasn't for me either.

  
 
NU Elite wire bound notebooks are pretty inexpensive and also come in a range of colours:
- Ruled.
- Perforated.
- Inside pocket.
- Dimensions: 216 x 168mm

These are more notebooks than journals and don't come in a range of paper types e.g. squared, dotted, etc. only in lined. It's the same with their range of project books with movable divers.




 


I do use similar notebooks in work to the NU project pads- project notebooks from Pukka where I can move about the section tabs but I don't use them at home.






 

Fauxdori style planners have no rings, instead they have elastic that holds in the pages often in two or more sections. This one on Etsy was my favourite:

But I always feared the pages would slip out easier than if they were ring bound.

 



The most common or famous planner is Filofax, but there are so many other brands which make the same size planners it is unbelievable!A Filofax A5 organiser can range anything from £38-180 if buying directly from their website/shop. But I'd imagine unless you have a lot of surplus income, you're going to head to eBay or Amazon if you want one a price that doesn't involve potentially dipping into your overdraft!  Their features include:
- Left Hand Details: one vertical slip pocket
- Right Hand Details: one vertical slip pocket, one elastic pen loop, one notepad pocket
- Diary Type: week on two pages diary
- Transparent flyleaf
- Ruler/page marker
- To do
- Contacts
- White notepaper
- Coloured notepaper 


Paperchase organisers are by far my favourite, I feel the colours and patterns are a bit more lively than Filofax ones.
- Slots for cards,
- Compartments for loose paper,
- A tear-away list pad
- A pen holder
- Week to view diary
- Section dividers
- To do lists
- Meeting minutes
- 4 blank dividers
Paperchase organisers range from £15-22 on their website, sometimes they have sales which makes them a little cheaper, their accessories are cheap enough and always temp me to buy more than I should.

In the end I went and purchased a spotty designed Paperchase planner with an elasticated closure.
Other than the diary, everything else in my planner are pages I have designed and printed myself, including the dividers.

I'd be lost without my planner and it's taken awhile to get used to a different binder, but after a year I think I'm finally there.

Planners - New Range of My Little Pony Chore Charts

As requested by so many of you by e-mail, the new range of My Little Pony chore charts, I am pleased to announce are now available on our website.

Disney characters - coming soon!
Equestria Girls - coming soon!
Ben 10 - coming soon!

Thanks for your requests, keep them coming and we'll update the website with the designs soon.

shop.wrightstationery.com

Also our range of My Little Pony planner pages are being designed as I type this, so for all who asked for them, I'll upload them soon.

Projects - Giving Our Downstairs Hall A Makeover

Our entrance hallway was cluttered and not very functional.


I started by:
1. pulling everything off the shelves, off the coat stands and out of the cube stools;
2. throwing out anything we don't wear, is too small, torn or broken;
3. anything still in usable condition was bagged up and went to the charity shop;
4. cleaned everything staying in the hall including the walls and floor;
5. measured up all the furniture that was staying in the hall;
6. measured the space I had in the hall;
7. and planned where I was going to put everything.

I'm a visual person and in order to work out where everything was going I drew it out. I drew it currently and then with the help of my kids and some cut out shapes we worked out where to put everything so it was practical.
 

Then I got to work rearranging stuff. The shoes and boots went into the cupboard and the cubes. The coats and jackets back on the stands then I moved them into position. This meant I could see how much space was left as I still wasn't sure where to put the shelf units. Once I realised there was enough room, I slid the shelf units in at a 90 degree angle to the wall so we could access both sides of it (to hopefully reduce the kids arguing over who has enough room to get their school bags out in the mornings) at the same time.

Then it was just a case of tidying all the leftover bits and pieces.

In the after pictures there a couple of bags 2 for the charity shop and one with reusable bags to go into the car boot, which have since been removed from the hall since I took the photos.

I'm very proud of my little accomplishment in re-organising the hall. It's one more step to us having a more pleasant home. Friends and family have commented on it being nicer when you walk in (being less cluttered REALLY helps).

Projects - All Our Upcoming Projects

We moved into our first proper family home in Spring 2011 (it was a one and two bedroom flats with  communal gardens before that).  It had lay empty for quite a number of years as the owner had been in hospital before he passed away.  His son had decorated the entire house in an aid to sell it quickly.  Therefore, there was no furniture to get rid of and everything (bathroom, kitchen, internal doors, etc.) were all brand new and unused.

Both myself and my partner are creatively minded so as soon as we saw it we both had ideas to improve it before we even got the keys!

In no particular order, this is the list of improvements we plan to make to our home (and it should add value to both our lives and the sale price of our house if we ever decide to):

• Completely re-do the roof covering (black slate);
• Repair and paint all the downpipes and gutters;
• Re-rough-cast the entire outside rendering (front and back);
• Add a utility room to the kitchen;
• Finish the kitchen off once the large appliances have been properly moved to the utility room;
• Add a family bathroom to the first floor (with a toilet, pedestal sink, bath and shower like our downstairs bathroom);
• Loft conversion - to become the master bedroom with en-suite;
• Convert first floor master bedroom into a craft room that doubles as a spare bedroom;
• Completely re-landscape the back garden so we have an actual seating area.

So far only one of these projects has been fully costed, discussed with the workmen and has a scheduled start date.