Planner Friday - Halloween special

It's been absolutely ages since I've done a Planner Friday post so hop on over to the Trendy Twine blog to check it out!

Hi!  I'm Amanda from She's Eclectic and I'm the resident planner girl here on the Trendy Twine blog.  If, like me, you're a fan of paper planning then you will love the range of stamps Annie's Paper Boutique have created over the years!  There are practical everyday sets, school life stamps, journalling and scrapbooking kits, special occasion and holiday sets and some really cute image stamps too. 

As it is almost Halloween I wanted to show you my spooky themed week I have created using APB stamps, I have listed the sets I used below.

Products used: Happy Halloween stamp set
Foodies planner stamps
Drinks & More planner stamps

At Home planner stamps
Hello Fall planner stamps
Weekend banner planner stamps

Halloween Trendy Page Dots reinforcements

Round stamp block with gridlines
Used but not pictured: More At Home planner stamps

Check It Off Planner stamp set

Washi tape

If I can, I like to pair my pages's theme with a matching set of Trendy Page Dots reinforcements as they strengthen the paper around the holes and add an extra pop of colour to my spread.  For Halloween I had these awesome skull and pumpkin designs to work with!

Halloween Trendy Page Dots

As usual I started my decoration by adding strips of washi tape to the top and bottom of my pages, followed by the Trendy Page Dots.  

I have daily to do lists and reminders so I used the Check It Off set to print some tick boxes (or circles in this case!) and then added what I need to do and remember with the At Home and More At Home stamps.  Anything I don't have a stamp for I fill in with a pen.  

Any space I have left over afterwards I use for fun!

My Halloween themed week

You can read the rest of my post here, thanks for stopping by!

Coming full circle - my 500th post & back in an A5 ringed planner

I can't believe this is my 500th blog post!  To mark the occasion I thought it would be a good time to reflect back a little and show you my brand new planner!

A5 Kikki K

Back in 2013 I brought a pink A5 Apex Filofax to help me get organised and as soon as I started using it I loved it.  I felt like I was finally on top of things again and it really helped me feel like I had some control over my life.  

My first ringed planner

I enjoyed using the Apex for quite a while before I decided to move onto a personal size planner which I liked because it was more portable and would fit easily in my bag without weighing it down too much. 

Over the last five and half years I have tried lots of different sizes and types of planners which I have written about and shared with you (you can check out my collection here if you like) but recently I have let my planning slip.  

Our new pup!

We have added a new puppy to our family and I have had less and less time to get my planner, supplies and stamps out so I have been relying on the calendar and notebook on my phone instead.  I know, it's shocking!  

Anyway, an email dropped into my inbox from Kikki K a few weeks ago showing off their newest planner collection called Sweet and I was smitten!  I couldn't justify spending money on another planner so I just lusted from a far and that was that..... until I got a second email some time later advertising a special offer, spend £60 and get 30% off.  It's my birthday next month and it was a really good deal so I thought I'd buy my present early (don't tell me off, I'm usually quite good!).  I added the A5 planner to my cart and some matching stickers, post its, magnetic page markers and a pen and got my discount and free shipping!  Here it is!

A5 Sweet Kikki K planner

Before I checked out I noticed that this design also came in personal size but I thought A5 would work better for me right now.  I'll be doing a lot of planning with this balanced on my knees or on my lap and I wanted the extra room to work with.  I don't take a bag out with me very often at the moment either so I wasn't bothered about the size and weight as I won't be carrying this one around.  Let me show you the inside....

Card slots, notepad, larger sections & zipped pocket

Every day is a little ray of sunshine- Monthly divider

I love all of the dividers, the illustrations are so cute!

Some pretty stickers to get you started

Undated monthly pages - 18 months

Collect moments - Weekly divider

Weekly pages

To Do divider

To do pages

The next four divider tabs were left blank so you can label them yourself, either with the stickers provided or using a pen.  I chose Journaling, Inspiration, To Action and Goals for mine.

Personalise your dividers again & again

Journaling

Plain paper to work with

Inspiration - I love this quote!

To Action - making plans!

Goals - write them down and make them real

There's a gorgeous notepad inside the back cover too

Everything looks so adorable!

Back cover

I can't wait to get started planning properly again!  I think to begin with I'll just be using my pen and a few stickers for my everyday plans and then break out my stamps and ink for Planner Friday posts until I either have more time or I just feel the need to use them every week.  

Oh and here's to the next 500 posts, thank you for being here with me!

Amanda

Celebratory giveaway!

I said last week that I was going to run a little giveaway to celebrate reaching 300 followers on Bloglovin' so here it is.  Mrs Brimbles has given me some of her lovely dashboards as prizes and I've added some bits and pieces to them too.

There are two prizes, one has a personal size elephant dashboard and the other has an A5 size dashboard so please let me know which size you want to win.

Personal size prize

A5 size prize

How to enter:

• Leave me a comment below saying which size dashboard you would like to win.
• Let me know if you follow me by email, Bloglovin' or Google Friend Connect and you will get an extra entry into the draw.

I will number all the personal size entries and use a random number generator to pick a winner and then do the same for the A5 size entries.  This giveaway is international and open to everyone.  

You have until 12pm here in the UK on the 23rd August to enter, any entries after this time wont be included in the draws.

Good luck!

My little trick with a paper clamp and a notepad slot

I don't like to over stuff my Filofax but I do have a lot of paperwork that I need to keep track of.  I could punch the pages and add them onto the rings but it is usually things that I don't need to keep in there for very long.  It could be bills that I need to pay or letters from school etc that once dealt with shouldn't be taking up valuable space.  

Notepad slot at the back of my Apex

What I do with this paperwork is to clip it all together with a paper clamp like this one.

Clamped letters etc

And hook the back of the clamp into the notepad slot.

Clipped and hooked

Doing this keeps all the paperwork secure in the back of my Filofax.

Everything held in place

I write the date in my diary that the bill needs to be paid or that the school event is and that the paperwork is clipped in the back of the Filofax.  Once it is completed I can remove it from the clamp.

My Filofax with the clamp in the back

Because everything is clipped together if I want to take my Filofax out with me I can easily remove the paperwork without having to search for it and opening up the rings.  This makes my binder a lot lighter!

Light and skinny again

Does anyone else do this?

She's Eclectic - Enabling Filofax love!

Since I started blogging about my Filofax a few people have told me that I had convinced them to buy one for themselves!   I asked them to send me some photos of their binders so I could share them with you.

Stephanie at Never Mind Suzi brought a lovely A5 teal binder from Paperchase and wrote about it here. 

Stephanie's photos 

Dawn at Reflective Ramblings Of An OU Student brought a red Metropol in pocket size and wrote about it in her blog too.  I know she has also ordered a purple Malden now and I'm so jealous!

Dawn's photos

Slooky brought an A5 Domino in red and some coloured pens and lots stickers and was kind enough to take some photos for me.

Slooky's photos

My friends Frances, Kate, Kelly, Mindy and Keyonna all felt the Apex love and brought one each.   I know some people don't like the Apex binders but the colours are fun, they are a good price for a starter Filofax (especially if you are not sure it is a system that is going to work for you) and you don't have to worry about throwing it in your bag along with everything else and hoping it doesn't get damaged.

Frances' photos

Kate's photo

Kelly's photos

Mindy's photos

Keyonna's photos

I am so happy you all love your Filofaxes and thank you for taking the time to take these photos and sending them to me! If anyone else has brought one after reading my blog I would love to know, I'd like to make it up to a nice round ten soon!

My week #14/52

It's that time of the week again, here are my pages from the last week.

My week #14/52

My eldest daughter was invited to a birthday party.  I clipped the invite onto the page so I wouldn't loose the address or the contact information.  

Close up

It is still the Easter holidays here so I don't really have much going on.  I am writing my daily to do lists and they are very helpful as it is much harder to remember what you need to sort out when you have a houseful of children who've been indulging in a lot of chocolate!

Close up

I am really excited because season two of Once Upon A Time starts again tonight.  I wrote it down in my diary as soon as I found out it was on because I did not want to miss it!  I have a bar of chocolate and a glass of wine with my name on them so roll on 9pm!

April Filofax photo-a-day challenge, day seven

Day seven and the theme is planning time.  I usually do most of my planning with my Filofax balanced on my lap and fighting off a toddler but I thought this would make a nicer picture!

April challenge - day seven

Do you like my Hello Kitty post it notes?  I got them from Imy's World in one of her stationery bags that she was selling to raise money for her Mulberry fund.  I thought they were really cute and I am blaming her for the Hello Kitty love I've started feeling!

You are getting a little sneak peak at my pages for this week here, I will be posting them properly tomorrow.

April Filofax photo-a-day challenge, day six and new stickers!

Today's theme is Fat or Skinny.  My A5 Apex is fat but my pocket Chameleon is skinny so I took photos of them both.  I had slimmed the Apex down last week but something I thought I had sorted out turned out not to be so I had to add all the paperwork back into the binder.  

April challenge - day six

Also I had a fantastic surprise in the post today.  My sister in law sent me these!

My amazingly fabulous stickers!

I honestly don't know if I want to stick them all on one week of my diary or never use any of them in case I can't replace them!  I am worried that a sheet of stickers can make me this happy but they are just so cute!

I LOVE my new Filofax! - Part two

So taking up from where we left off last week.... I am using dodo pad inserts in my filofax. This is a photo of how the week is set out. It is a grid format like a school timetable.  The sections along the top of the grid are blank so you can label them yourself.

Mine are Notes, Am, Pm, Hubby and Kids. The clear layout for the week means I can see where all of us are supposed to be easily.  I use the Notes column for birthdays, holidays and anniversaries etc.  Am and Pm are for my day and any appointments to do with our home and Hubby and Kids help me keep track of their week too.  Another thing I love about Dodo Pads is that each week has a different theme and there are funny little drawings and quotes to entertain you on the page opposite the weekly diary while giving you plenty of space to make notes or to doodle.  

The stickers I have used in this photo are also from JapanCorner, they say Birthday, Travel, Happy, Eat and Shopping and some are blank so you can write your own underneath the cute girl characters.

As I said last week I am also using the diary that came with my filofax.  The Dodo Pad tells me our family's week at a glance and then I use this diary to go into more detail.  There is enough room to do this in the Dodo Pad but I thought I may as well use this diary too as it is a bit of a waste not to.  It is a simple week over two pages set up but I am enjoying using it as I have been decorating it with stamps and washi tape.

This is a close up of my favourite stamp, it is a Russian doll and I am a bit obsessed with them.     My friend brought me an umbrella with them all over it for Christmas and now when it rains I'm happy because I get to use it. I also got some hand warmers made with Russian doll fabric from my sister inlaw so I guess people know my secret!

At the back of my filofax I have a large pocket that is full of stickers and the care instructions for my dividers.

Lastly this is my pen, I got it from ebay as I thought it went well with everything else in my organiser.  It says on it "If we do a green thing, the earth can be better!" and while I can argue with the grammar I can't with the logic!