BLOOM PLANNERS

It's almost the end of the year, and with the silly season upon us, it's never too early to start getting 2017 sorted. Every year, I tell myself to limit the amount of diaries I own, because for one, I tend to find a hard time looking for a reason to use each one. But when pretty diaries show up on my doorstep with layouts that are just begging me to try, how could I say no?

And so, that brings me to the next set of 2017 planners (and notebooks) for review: Bloom Daily Planners. Bloom Daily Planners is an American planner company devoted to designing planners to fit everyone, from Middle Schoolers to moms alike. With cover designs as diverse as the fabulous women who use them, spacious layouts and inspirational features, their aim is to make staying organised trendy and fun. One design which absolutely appealed to me (and to many others apparently from how often it sells out!), however, was their Vintage Floral Collection. Despite it not being too obvious, I love floral patterns, and when I saw this on their site, it was my one and only choice! I had to have them (all)!

Sage from Bloom Daily Planners was super nice enough to send me the Vision Planner from the Vintage Floral collection that I was eyeing and surprised me with a bunch of other goodies from that collection as well (major thanks, girl!). So here I am today, to give you a full review and look through to all the planners, notebooks and notepads I received. There'll also be a little something for readers at the end of this post! So grab a cuppa, sit back, relax and enjoy!

There are 6 items on the list which I will go over, with them being:

1- Vision Planner

Measuring at 7.5 x 9" and weighing 1lb 2oz. this planner might be slightly larger than an A5, but it's sleek design (and not too thick width) means it's still a portable planner you can take with you on the go:

This Vision planner was the one that caught my eye when I was browsing through the list of products available on their site. For one, the gold binding is gorgeous, and the inside reflected that of the Erin Condren / Get to Work / Happy planner without the hefty price tags:

In addition to that, however, with it being a Vision Planner, it also included extra pages to help fulfil your 2017 goals such as:

And:

But I think the best part of the planner is that it's hard cover with metal edges. The insides may be one thing but if the planner doesn't last the every day beatings it will undoubtedly take, what's the point, no? We don't need our planners to fall apart because I'm sure our life will consequently follow!

2- Daily Planner

The daily planner is slightly smaller than the Vision measuring at 6 x 8.25", and 12.7oz, which definitely makes it a portable planner:

It has a very simple design, with monthly tabs, and monthly calendars at the beginning of each month (just as it should be!).

The week is distributed over two pages with simple lines for each day:

And at the end of the planner is a yearly overview and a nice slot for all your bits and bobs on the back cover:

3- Daily To Do (Notepad and Book)

The Daily To-Dos come in two option: a binded notebook or tear-away sheet form. Either way, they both contain similar information (the notepad is just more colourful!). The best part of the notebook, however, is that it too contains perforated sheets. So if you ever need to take your list with you but don't want to carry the whole book, just tear the sheet away and you're done.

Here's a closer look at the notepad and what's included in the list:

4- Stickers

The stickers they had were the next thing that caught my eye after the Vision Planner. I mean, look how colourful they are! I must admit, I'm lucky enough to not be bitten by the Etsy Sticker Bug as I tend not to buy too many planner stickers. But it's fair to say that I couldn't resist these.

5- Notebook

If you're a student, or even if you just love notebooks like I do, this notebook is a perfect addition to complete your Vintage Floral collection:

It's ruled on the inside which makes things a lot easier for writing notes.

And that's the end of the list! If you're interested in any of the products, just head to Bloom Daily Planners here. Do check out their other collection too as it sure won't disappoint! I hope you enjoyed this review and have another set of choices for your 2017 planning!

CURRENTLY #20

TIME: 4:59pm

LOCATION: Bedroom / craft room / office

FEELING: Super excited that my holiday begins in just 4 days!

LOVING: My new Bailey Nelson glasses

READING: Dan Brown - Digital Fortress

DRINKING: Water

ANTICIPATING: The start of my on-call shift tonight. Hope it's not too crazy :(

LISTENING TO: DNCE - Toothbrush

WATCHING: Vampire Diaries

PLANNING: My holiday - it never ends!

LOOKING FORWARD TO: Friday, Friday, Friday!

CREATING: Catch-up pages in my November daily MTN

NEED TO FINISH: Packing!

WISHING: My holiday can start now.

MAIN GOAL: Finish up holiday planning. Wash the car.

BRUSH LETTERING (WITH OLIVIA)

Along with scrapbooking / memory keeping / Midori Traveler's Notebooking, I try to expand my creativity with different art mediums and techniques. Recently, I've picked up brush lettering after seeing so many great artworks on Instagram. For me, when it comes to brush lettering, it all depends on the brush pen you're using (and occasionally the paper). There are hundreds of different types on the market, but I've found that the Tombow dual brush markers works the best for me.

Now to the actual lettering bits: I know that some people find it hard grasping the concepts of thin and thick lines, joining alphabets etc when it comes to calligraphy writing, so I've teamed up with Olivia from Brush Lettering Practice to create some calligraphy phrases you can practice with (for free!)

The first phrase she made for us is a little phrase I think everyone should be adapting in their daily lives: Keep a notebook! Here's a little peek into what the sheets look like and how I've lettered it using my Tombow markers:

You can also check out the full (sped-up) lettering video I've done for these phrases on my Instagram!

Do check Olivia's site out (here) for more lettering sheets you can practice with. She also has a whole package of alphabet lettering sheets you can purchase in her store! But if you're interested in just this practice sheet, the download link is right below. Feel free to download the sheets and practice, practice, practice!

PERSONAL PLANNER REVIEW

Oh, it's almost that time of the year again - deciding what notebook / planner / diary to use for the new year. I've been spoilt for choices this time, being fortunate to pick a number of different types. Not all will make the cut, of course, but that doesn't mean I won't be reviewing all of them for you so that you can make the right choice. So for the next two months, look out for 2017 diary reviews right here as I'll be looking at a number of choices before the new year begins!

The first one on the review list is the absolutely customisable Personal Planner diary. You can find a link to their site here. This company is basically one to fill all your needs in terms of size, writing space, what's included, front page photos, back page photos and even your ruler colour!

I decided to pick the A6 size for work, which will be big enough to fit my work schedule. I designed my front cover with an artwork I did recently, picked my elastic band colour and settled for a simple black colour for my back page. This is how it turned out:

The colours were super bright and vibrant and represented exactly what I had in my original artwork. I was thoroughly impressed.

The insides were as much fun to design as were the outside. I was spoiled for choices and there'll be much more choices if you go for the A5, square, or wide sizes due to the bigger size format to fit more things in. It's actually amazing how much you can choose to include or exclude in your pages and I just had to try all the options. Who knew designing your diary would be so much fun?!

You can select the theme of your borders, dates included, and what you have on the bottom of your planner. This way, you won't have unnecessary categories clogging up your page when it could've been used for something else instead.

The back pages are reserved for things like the wolrd map, additional ruled / lined / grid pages and yearly overviews.

It's a perfect little planner that you can use on the go. It's made of sturdy materials and includes a hard plastic flyleaf on the front and back of the planner. They even include a plastic pocket, a coloured ruler of your own choice and a sticker sheet full of fun little emoticons! The best part is: it's not even expensive for the service and quality you get!

So if you want to create your own customisable diary for the new year, do check out Personal Planner. You won't be disappointed!

NOVEMBER GOALS

I actually cannot believe it's already November. Wow. Two more months and it'll be the end of the year. Already! It's going to be an exciting month this one, with me going overseas for the first time in a long long time and possibly a few workplace changes too. Either way, here's a look at how last month's goals faired and a look into this month's too:

1. (TICK) Read at least two books:
   - Girl on the Train
   - How to be Parisienne
2. (HALF TICK) Research up and document all things Paris!
   - I seem to be changing up notebooks every time to plan my days in Paris, but with a week left to decide what to use, I think I'll be sticking to one notebook now...
3. (HALF TICK) Test out the Contax G1 + film photography
   I'm still in the process of testing it out and I so badly want to finish up my film so I can process it and see how the pictures turn out, but I'm finding it hard to find subjects to photograph! I guess it'll be a long while before I get to see the photos.
4. (FAIL) Save
   To be fair, I've been basically working every day and will be working every day from last week till next week, so I guess that makes up for all the spending I did...

As for November's goals:

1. Read at least two books:
   Knowing I'll be on the plane for hours at a time, I think it'll be a good time to catch up on some reading. I can't possibly be bringing my books with me along though, so my kindle app on my iPad will have to do. But before the trip, I'm going to try to devour the rest of Dan Brown's Digital Fortress since I've already started that.
2. Finish planning up Paris:
   I can't delay this any further or else I'll end up with half a dozen notebooks of Paris planning that aren't complete!
3. Keep a notebook:
   As easy as that sounds, it really isn't. Sure I've kept dozens of Bullet Journals / MTN diary, but a notebook filled with random quotes, notes and doodles? That seems to be the hardest for me. I need to start a notebook out simple, quick and without expectations. It seems like only then will I be able to keep at it without wanting to start another fresh book
4. Document my travels on the go:
   I still can't believe I'm going off on holidays this month and this will definitely be the biggest and probably most difficult goal to accomplish. I seem to leave my travel documentation till the end of the trip when I have all my tools with me at home, but let's hope I can do things on the go this time! Not to mention, take all the pictures!
5. Update my blog layout:
   I think it's taken me a whole year to do this. I seem to always get sidetracked and do other things instead. Oops.
6. Continue with my November Daily Notebook:
   I started a daily entry book in November last year and promised myself to continue it the year after (which is this month!). It's going to be nice to see how much has changed since then

Exciting times ahead!