Kikki K 'Life is Sweet' Dark Mint Planner Review!

Ok, I'm particularly excited about this one. Kikki K recently stocked their new collection called 'Life is Sweet' online (and in some stores!), and because I have itchy hands and loved the pictures they had on this planner, I decided to purchase it the morning it was released. And being in Australia, and particularly in Melbourne, where their warehouse is located, I'm probably one of the first few to get my hands on it. And I can tell you, it is divine in so many ways (and definitely worth much more than the A5 Stockholm!)

So here it is:

Kikki K Medium / Personal Dark Mint Planner!

Back

Inside:

Inside

30 mm rings!

Polka dot dividers with separate tabs!

Back - notepad

All moved in - with next week's inserts!

Overall, there are a few things I love about this planner:
1- The colour - unlike the previous mint they had, like the textured mint they brought out recently, this mint isn't as bright. It's more towards a pastel blue, and easy on the eyes. I must admit, the hexagonal gold might take a little getting used to, but I guess it works. The inside is also a nice shade of dark blue and light blue dots. Overall, great colour combination.
2- The rings - guess how big they are! 30mm! Yes, 30mm. They included some chunky as rings in this one to hold their big stack of note paper that came along with it. Now I know not everyone might like this as it does add to the bulkiness of things, but now you can store a whole lot more. I for one, think it's a good change as there are rarely any 30mm personal sized binders out in the market that look this good.
3- The dividers - they're decorated with yummy little polka dots! Unlike the previous where it's just a plain shade of colour, their dividers are absolutely beautiful, and so is the colour combination. Not to mention, unlike previous dividers where the tabs 'continue' on to the next, the divider tabs provided in this Dark Mint planner are separated. I know it's not a big deal, but I've always preferred the separated tabs.
4- The clasp - I'm so glad they decided to go for a clasp model rather than an elastic. I very much prefer the button closure as it makes the planner look... neat.

And if anyone was interested, here's a little comparison of the Kikki K planner with a pink Filofax Personal size Finsbury:

Top: Kikki K Dark Mint Medium Planner
Bottom: Filofax Pink Personal Finsbury

So if you're thinking about purchasing one, I suggest you do! It is absolutely lovely and I can actually see this model running out faster than any of their previous ones! Also, since it's above $60, use the code DIARYLOVEFEB to get $10 off! Hurray!

Enjoy, my lovelies!

PS. I'm selling two brand new Kikki K Gold Pocket Planners for US$45 each shipped worldwide. They both won't come with inserts. First come, first served! Email me or use my contact form to get in touch with me for more pictures if interested :)

Last Week's Vintage Layout

In order to keep this blog alive, if my week's layout has been ... appropriate, I shall blog about it here to give some of my readers how to quickly and easily turn boring white pages, into a somewhat colourful yet functional layout.

Last week's layout was vintaged theme, so I went with browns and a touch of gold. I used supplies I had lying around the house and were begging to be used:

Items used:
- Brown flower Washi tape from Spotlight
- Brown lace sticker border from Kmart
- Gold washi from Little B (bought from Officeworks)
- Clock, butterfly and 'memories' stickers from Kmart
- Stamps from Sweet Stamp Shop
- Silver 'clip' from mt washi
- Pen: Mitsubishi Uni Style Fit - brown and black

Easy peasy.

Kikki K A5 Cloud Stockholm Planner Review

Kikki K currently has a sale going on which has 20% off their 'luxurious' Cloud coloured Stockholm collection. I was a little excited by this as I have been eyeing the A5 cloud planner (and compendium) for a while but couldn't justify the $175 price tag. So when this went on a slight sale, I decided to take the plunge. I had just sold my A5 Malden prior (as it was too floppy to use, even though it's beautiful), I had the extra money to get myself another needed A5 planner for uni.

I ordered the Kikki K planner on Friday, it was shipped Sunday (Monday, really; AusPost doesn't work on weekends) and I received it on Tuesday. I had a particularly shitty bad day on Tuesday with some miscommunication going on with my uni supervisor and I, so I was really looking forward to picking this up from my post office after uni for a little pick-me-up.

Despite the fact that I knew it was an A5, the large size never fails to surprise me every. single. time. I couldn't open in up on the train (unfortunately), so I had to wait till I got home to do the big reveal. And I must say, I was highly disappointed...

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the box and the dust bag that came with it (which is probably nicer than the planner inside), but that's not why we're here for. We're here for a review of this:

Kikki K Cloud Stockholm A5 Planner

(Again, forgive my pictures; they seem to degrade in quality with every post...)

At first glance, the colour to me seemed dirty. That's all I could think of when I opened it up. Unlike the A5 compendium I've seen and caressed in store, this grey just seemed... off. Maybe it's me and maybe it's the lighting, but I just couldn't shake the 'dirty' word out of my head when I saw it. But I kept going, hoping for the best.

Then I saw this and it was wrapped up for return faster than you can read this sentence:

Squared spine. WHY?

The spine, look at it, just look. It's square. If I had known about this sooner, I would definitely not have bought it. Maybe it may seem to be such a small hiccup to some (handling it in real life was worse, trust me!), but the fact that the spine is stiff and square just broke the deal for me. It looked awkward, bulky and like an A4 lever folder; yknow, those that sell for $2 at your local stationery store? I hated it. I actually do not understand why Kikki K had to make the spine so square. If it were round like the others, I would have no doubt, kept it because it does smell wonderfully leather and the insides are pretty, but square?! Nope, just can't do it.

Buckle

Something else I found slightly awkward was the metal for the buckle. It was slightly sharp on the edges and would definitely hurt if hit against or held at a weird angle. Strike 2.

Inside

Unlike the outside, the insides were absolutely fine. The rings were nice and tight, the zip was good and smooth, the back pocket could be used as storage and I even liked the slit pockets as it brought on less bulk for the planner (compared to the cheaper Kikki K leather planners).

Undated monthly calendar, meeting notes, to do notes and non-specific notes included

The planner held monthly calendar inserts that were non-specific, so you could use it at any time of the year. It also had a bucket load of lined paper which would probably last you the year.

I forgot to take a picture of the back of the planner, but it held another disappointment for me as there were 2 spots on it that couldn't be cleaned off. The dots reminded me of someone handling the planner with newspaper stained fingers... ugh.

Now, if the planner had a rounded spine and a less painful-to-handle metal buckle, I most definitely would have kept it. But after handling the planner, I'm beginning to wonder if I would have needed to 'baby' it. I have seen people commenting that the leather has somewhat 'scratched' away in some areas just by sliding it on a table, and with my rough handling, I wonder how long it would have lasted. I hate planners that need to be babied, and maybe that's why I keep coming back to my Ochre Malden. It's durable and the scratches obtained just adds to its age and character, rather than to its demise.

Don't get me wrong, despite all of this, I tried loving it for a week. Tried and tried till I found an A5 Lockwood for the same price on eBay (which would hopefully be better made in all aspects possible) and bought it. So now that I'm money short, I decided that this planner had to go back to Kikki K for someone else to love.

Sorry dear, I tried.

Malden 2015 Set Up

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone's new year is filled with good intentions and goals! To kick this blog off, here's a little post to showcase how my planner will look like:

I am currently back to my trusty ol' Personal Ochre Malden because knowing that uni is coming up soon, I'll need it to survive my rough handling going in and out of my backpack. I have this urge to use my Medium Gold Kikki k but I'll settle for this for now.

Personal Ochre Malden for 2015

I currently have 8 dividers in my Malden and have had that same amount for quite a while now. The sections include:

1- Dashboard

First divider: Kikki K Dashboard

This dashboard was from Kikki K's dashboard kit which you can find on their site for all three sizes (Pocket, Personal and A5). I didn't actually need to put this in my planner, but since I had it, I thought why not? At the back of the dashboard holds all my sticky note notes which can include things to buy on my next outing trip, parcels to be delivered etc.

2- Monthly view

I found that I didn't use this section as much as I thought I would in 2014, but since it came with my Kikki K planner, it would be a waste not to use it. I mean, it's useful when I need to mark my holidays and deadlines in advance, but I find myself not checking it as much as I use and view my weekly inserts.

3- Weekly view

Weekly Divider

Kikki K Weekly Inserts

My weekly section uses Kikki K's inserts. I used to like their inserts as they held dotted lines that were pretty faded, but visible enough to keep my writing straight, but they've increased the boldness on them, and though I don't quite like it, I still think it's the best and most accessible inserts I can get my hands on

4- Personal notes

Personal Divider

My personal section houses all the little bits and lists such as things I want, things to buy, exercise dates, etc.

5- Bf notes

Bf Section

Bf and I currently live a state apart. We met right after high school but unfortunately for me, my family relocated down south to Melbourne while he stayed in Sydney. We're 3 years into the relationship and although it can get hard at times, it's been well worth it because at the end of the day, we both know that there is no one else we'd want to be with. So who says long distance relationships can't work? Inside this section, I write down all the times we've met, pictures, gifts list, and just things that are worth documenting

6- Expenses

Expenses Divider

Kikki K Expenses Insert

This section is practically the most important section of all. Hah. To track my spending and to give me an idea of how much I've spent already keeps me grounded so I don't waste more money on things I know I don't need but want in my life! I use Kikki K's expenses insert for this, as it's simple and has a good amount of lines to keep track of my spending for the month

7- Other

Other divider

I don't actually use this section and all it does is house extra note paper. I used to put my Bigcartel information in here, but now that it's closed, it's quite empty

8- Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous Divider

Stickers from Kikki K, sticky notes, etc

The last section houses the items found in the Kikki K dashboard kit which includes a pocket, stickers, page marker and a plastic envelope to keep my little bits and bobs.

I rarely change my set up and just stick to one throughout the year. The only thing I might change are my dividers, and what I may put in my 6th divider, but other than that, this will be stuck with me till my life somehow changes.

And that's my set up for 2015!

My Planners for 2015

As the year draws to a close, new resolutions are made and a whole list of ambitions are drawn up, ready to conquer the new year. For me, well, from one planner in 2014, the new year brings about for me a whole (let me count...) 7 new set of books to go through each day. Yes, I am definitely going to regret it. But here's the list of them and how I'm (hopefully) going to use each of them:

1- Filofax Malden Ochre

This will forever be my planner. It holds 7 dividers currently (I'll give a whole new post on it separately), holding monthly views, weekly views, personal notes on myself and bf, expenses, and two sections still yet to be decided. I use my Malden for listing things I need to do every day in my weekly view, and uni deadlines. I keep track of my spending (because we all know I do too much of that these days), and I keep a list of things I want / need to buy in my personal sections. I basically will need to use this in my life every day and is my main planner.

2- Midori Traveler's Notebook (MTN)

My sentence a day diary - more often than not, my days are boring, so I don't need a whole lot of space to write my thoughts. My Midori basically jots down the more important things in my day to remember. It's laid out as a week to view with a grid page on the opposite. The grid page will act like a little scrapbook to document the week etc.

3- A6 Hobonichi Planner

My drawing book. I plan to hopefully draw something every day to improve my drawing / sketching / painting skills.

4- A5 Hobonichi Planner

I totally destroyed this book by pulling off a section I wasn't happy with, so this is going to be my uni book where my notes will live

5- Kikki k Sentence A Day

I purchased a Christmas gift pack which comes with this, and since this book comes with prompts, it will not be like my MTN. I look forward to starting this and seeing what I've written in 3 years.

6- A5 Aldi 2015 Diary

This A5 diary came as a day-to-a-page with just ruled lines under each day - it's basically a regular notebook with a date at the top. I'm planning on using this as my bf notebook. I always seem to lack documenting our time together, and I hope this will change this year.

7- Pinetti Pocket Notebook

I got this from Notemaker when they were having their Boxing Day sale, and it houses two cahier Moleskine notebooks. As I'm very picky with which notebook I do my brain dumping in (as you can see, I have a very set order of what I like to do with each notebook, and they all seem very non-brain dumping worthy), this will serve as that.

Although not all of them are used as the conventional 'planner', you can see how all of them somewhat revolves around a diary-style specific day... thing. I'm not sure how long I will last with these many diaries, but we'll just have to see how it goes!

Hobonichi Planner Book Review

As the A6 Hobonichi Planner Book (English version) only started on the 24th of December (beginning to regret getting the English rather than the Japanese version), I was only able to try out its beautiful paper recently. Then I got hooked on it and couldn't stop...

Here's a look at some of the watercolour and pen tests I did in it:

Test Pages in my A6 Hobonichi

Pen Testing

Watercolour Testing - Akashiya Sai and Daler Rowney

I should have probably done my pen tests at the back of the book where there were extra dot grid papers but I was too darn excited!

Pen Test:
All the pens I tested on the page had no bleed through, however, had different shades of show through. There is of course, a major difference between the two:

• Show through = shadowing at the back of the page from mediums used on the page
• Bleed through = what you get when you use Copics / permanent markers on paper - ink bleeds through the paper and might even stain the next page.

With a paper as thin as Hobonichi's, I wasn't surprised that there were some form of show through. I was surprised, however, that there was practically no bleed through no matter what medium I used. So here's how it looked like on the back of the pen test page:

Back of the Pen Testing Page

As you can see, there are show throughs. It seems like the only really bad show through was from the unbranded Purple gel pen and the Pilot G2-05, both of which weren't exactly on the top of my pens-to-use-in-my-Hobonichi list, so I didn't quite mind. Microns, Copic Multiliners, Sharpie Pens, Lamy Safari with Noodler Ink pens had no problems whatsoever. But do bear in mind that the more you go over a single area with a micron, multiliner etc, the more show through will happen, which makes sense. The paper can only handle so much. But use in moderation and you won't have any problems

Watercolour Test:
For the watercolour test, the back of the page was unfortunately coloured over before I could take a picture, but here's another example in my Hobonichi page using watercolours:

Watercolour doodles in my Hobonichi! 

NYE Doodle

At the back of the watercolour test page

Remember how I said I got too excited? Yeh, now I can't use my Hobo till the 1st of January..

This is the back of the NYE page to show just how much the watercolour shows through:

Majority of the colours I used for the picture was using Akashiya Sai brush watercolour markers. The show through isn't too bad and for me, quite acceptable to live with and use the back page on. I used to think that the show through would cause me to dislike Hobonichi, but it's actually not that bad. Highly surprised and highly impressed!

Also, just a little tip for those who plan to use watercolours in their Hobonichi book: the blending of the Akashiya Sai markers on these papers are just wonderful! Compared to actual watercolour papers such as those found in Moleskine where the paper is just so absorbent, due to the sleek nature of Hobonichi's Tomoe River paper, it gives the watercolours time to soak in, which means, blending colours are just a complete ease to work with. Not to mention, the easy blend-ability also means less water required, which means your Hobonichi paper doesn't get soaked in. And I've noticed that with the Tomoe River paper, even though you have used watercolour on it, and even if you have used too much water / layering of colours, the paper does crumple up at first, but, put a stack of books over it overnight and the paper doesn't crinkle up so much anymore. Hooray!

So yes, so far, all I have for the Hobonichi paper are praises, praises and more praises! The only little 'problem' I've had with the paper is that little crinkle you see on the top right of the last image. I'm a pencil person and I tend to draw my pictures out with pencil first, outline it with my multiliner / Micron then rub the pencil lines off. Because the paper is so thin, rubbing it means the possibility of it crumpling up if you don't hold your paper down. It hasn't torn on me (yet), but because I didn't hold the paper down properly, it crumpled my beautiful paper up (and I cried inside). But nevertheless, it is smoothing out, and the crinkle is now not as bad as it first happened.

So all I have to say is: the paper is great, but be careful with it. It is quite delicate in it's own little ways, and although seems strong for 'normal' use, I have yet to test its abilities to the maximum. I guess you just have to try it out on your own to know its limit!

This Week's Layout

I know I haven't been around lately, and so, here's a little post to get this blog up and running again. I haven't been purchasing new Filofaxes / Kikki K planners recently (and my wallet / bank account is thanking me right now), but I have purchased new Hobonichi covers (oops) and I'll be reviewing them soon. Either way, to show that I'm still alive, here's this week's Christmas themed pages:

I don't normally use too much decoration on my pages because firstly, it defeats the purpose of a planner. With so much going on in a page, you'll end up getting distracted from it all and well, you won't have any space to write down your list of things to do! So I try to keep it to a minimum. Now that I'm on holidays, I tend to use a tad bit more decorations as my schedule isn't too heavy, and so, I can afford the loss of space.

In this layout, I've used the following items:
1- MT pink and blue striped thin washi tape
2- Kikki K snowman and snowflakes washi tape
3- Mrs Brimble's cute reindeer, Christmas Wishes and owl stickers
4- Mitsubishi Uni Style Fit pens for writing
5- Watercolour paints for the baubles

And that's it! Nothing too fancy which you wouldn't be able to dig up in your own little stash. I hope this somewhat gives someone out there an idea of how to decorate your pages colourfully and yet, still keep those days free for your planning!

Hope everyone has some great holidays ahead!

Hobonichi Techo 2015 (Sashiko Weave) Review

It's been a whirlwind past few days what with me going to Sydney, job interviews etc, but here's a little different planner review for you guys: the Hobonichi Techo

I've always wanted one, though I've always somehow managed to resist getting it. And trust me, it worked for a couple of months. Till I decided I had to try out the Hobonichi (Tomoe River) paper. I've heard great reviews on the paper, and so, I decided to break my resistance and try it for myself.

But before I get into the review of the paper, I'm going to review the cover. I've yet to write in my Hobonichi planner itself, (fear is getting to me) but when I do eventually, I'll make sure to review that too.

My first ever Hobonichi was the A6 Sashiko Weave. It was around 4000+ yen, and together with the planner, it amounted to around AUS$80+. I admit though, my cost would've been cheaper if I were patient and got myself the plain colours. But because I was going to Sydney and wanted it to be delivered to my bf's place, I had to choose something that was going to be delivered fast. And it was. I ordered my Hobonichi on a Sunday and it arrived in Sydney on the Thursday. Pretty quick if you ask me.

So here are the pictures of the Sashiko cover:

Two pen loops which keeps your Hobonichi closed if you slide the pen through both holes

All Hobonichi (that aren't zipped) comes with two pen loops for two functions:

1. To act as a pen loop (or two) - duh
2. To keep the Hobonichi shut if you slide the one pen through both holes

Also, the two things I've noticed about the Hobonichi that I wanted to bring up was:

1. When it first arrived, it was in a plastic wrapping and the actual Sashiko cover was laid flat. Initially, when I tried folding it over, it was quite stiff, but put some books over it and it'll close shut without any problems.
2. I was scared about putting the book into the cover. You had to bend the cover quite substantially in order for it to go into the sleeves. It took a whole lot of confidence for me to just stuff it in, because I know that if you didn't, you won't ever be getting it in. Maybe it's just the cover I purchased, however. I have bought another Hobonichi though (the cousin / A5) so once that arrives, I'll be able to compare.

On the inside of the Sashiko cover is a beige synthetic leather material which was actually a good contrast to the outside cover. There are numerous pockets back and front so I don't think you'll ever be short on one:

Inside of the cover

Pages in the planner

The back of the cover:

It has two page markers with different shapes which, I think, is quite handy as you'll then be able to differentiate between the two:

And finally, on the back of the cover, there is an extra pocket for you to slide in any other loose items you may have:

Overall, it seems like a very durable cover. I'm a little bit scared of the weave being caught on something and spoiling the pattern overall though, so I may very well leave this one at home. The A5 / Cousin version I've purchased is the plain Cosmos colour, which I think would be more durable. I'll post another review of it once it arrives!