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.

Projects - Create A Utility Room

This is something i have wanted to do since we moved into our house back in 2011 - turn the old coal cellar into a utility room (our house is mid-terraced house built around 1950's).
The previous owner has tiled/plasterboard-ed most if the area in question, but as the old walls were never knocked down it feels cramped.

I have done quite a lot of research on load bearing walls, and my conclusion is that the walls we would be removing are not load bearing.  The large wall that runs the length of the space runs parallel to the beams on the ceiling/floor of the first floor.  The second wall that connects the middle wall to the back wall includes a door frame, but I believe this to have been put in after the house was built and is not structural.  I will seek advice from the builders before we have it removed as our bedroom (and our actual bed) sits directly above it.

The back wall currently houses our fridge freezer in a little cubby hole under the hot water tank, far left is a cupboard with the boiler (and Johns golf clubs, camping table & chairs, parasol, various garden tools, etc.) in it and beside it a tall narrow cupboard with our lawnmower in it.

Firstly, I would like to remove all the yellow sections seen here on the image above.

Then I would add a full length worktop (that matched the one in the kitchen), house the washing machine under it where the fridge freezer was and add tumbled dyer on the worktop directly above it. The new combination boiler would go as close to the wall as it can go (if there is room perhaps it will go on the same wall as the back door along with the light switch), the bin will be closest to the back door, beside it there will be space for food waste and recycling bins. Lastly there will be space for dirty laundry underneath the worktop and space for clean laundry sorting on the worktop.
As the water pipes are already there for hot water tank (these are connected to the main cold water supply) so once the tank was removed, these could be reused to connect to the washing machine.
We will have to add a waste pipe for the washing machine though.  I also haven't decided if the budget affords a condenser tumble dryer or if we should add a duct on the wall for a vented tumble dryer.

The middle wall in the kitchen stores a shelf unit (or makeshift pantry as I call it) and nothing else but a doorway.

My idea is to knock down the wall beside the shelf unit (highlighted in yellow above) and add a sliding door to this doorway (below).

Below is a floor plan of the way I would like the finished utility room to look.

As we are about to pay for our full roof to be redone, this project may have to wait awhile.  But I shall have much fun costing it up.

Family Time - Glasgow Botanic Gardens & Kibble Palace

Kibble Palace

Kibble Palace - Then

Kibble Palace - Now

Botanic Gardens Glasgow

Glasgow Botanic Gardens - Then

Glasgow Botanic Gardens - Now

On Sunday, my daughter Sophie was attending the Judo group at a High School across from the Botanic Gardens in Glasgow, so I thought I'd take my son in as he's never been.

We spent an hour looking around including in the play park, but any longer and I'd have been dragging around a grumpy 5 year old.


One area in particular he did like (once he read what it said on the door)

 
Venus Flytraps

Once Sophie and John joined us it wasn't long before he couldn't resist the urge to get a picture of me with the naked statue (as always, so mature haha!).

Yvette & the naked statue

Of course no sunny day in the park is complete without ice cream...although we waited until we got home before eating ours.

I would advise if you're prone to passing out with heat, not to venture into the Botanic Gardens as it is tropical heat.  Although there were many leaflets and boards about animals and birds, those are elsewhere in the park so we didn't see any of them (always disappointing).