Planning from the Pond

Hello friend!  Welcome back to my blog.  It has been a hot minute since I have posted here.  I am super excited to dive back in and show you all the things that have been making me happy. One book July has started.  I struggled for the last few days of June in deciding if I wanted to participate or not.  I decided that although I love watching all the videos on YouTube, keeping my life all in one book is not for me.  I have several books going right now and I am super productive in all of them. The current challenge is all about The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll.  I also love watching all the #bujo and #bulletjournal videos but I can't plan my life that way. Then I remembered the challenge from a couple of years ago...one project.  This I can do!!  My project for this year is blogging.  I have two blogs that I want to post on, this one and Runs on Diet Coke and Jesus.  I contemplated posting everything on one blog but decided to separate my faith blog and my paper bl

There is only one planner system that really ever tempts me away from my beloved Erin Condren planner.   It happens every September, Hobonichi releases their new books and covers.   Oh be still my heart! The Hobonichi Techo is a Japanese planner that released it’s first planner in 2002.   I first discovered the planner in 2014.   I immediately fell in love with the paper.   The Hobonichi is filled with beautiful Tomoe River paper.   Tomoe River paper is very thin but holds up well to all types of ink, even fountain pen ink. The Hobonichi techo is a daily planner that also contains monthly pages.   The cousin version also has weekly pages.   There is also a weeks version that has a week on one page and a note page on the opposite side.   They pack so much into such a compact package.   The techo and the cousin are both less than 1 inch thick. I love this tiny book!   I use the Hobonichi A6 as a daily journal.   I love being able to use any pen that I want and also the limit

YouTube is filled with videos of people planning out their lives.  They use colored pens, sticky notes. stickers, washi tape, stamping and much more.  Their planners are filled with beautiful layouts that I envy. After watching these videos, I fell into a deep planner hole.  I wanted my planner to look as beautiful as the ones I saw in the videos.  The first thing I did was go to my scrapbook stash and pull out anything I thought would be useful in my planner.  Then I went to Hobby Lobby and Michaels to scour the aisles looking for planner decorations. Now I had all of this amazing stuff to use in my planner and I needed a way to organize it.  Back to the stores I went to find totes and plastic containers. To be honest, I was overwhelmed with all of the stuff.  I had no idea how to keep everything I wanted to use at my fingertips without having to pack a suitcase.  What was I supposed to do?  I needed to watch more videos!  The hole kept getting bigger. Having all the things is

If you search the hashtag Erin Condren on Instagram, you will generate a huge list of beautifully decorated Life Planners.  I have found myself down a rabbit hole looking at all of the layouts.  I love seeing the beautiful layouts everyone comes up with.  They are amazing. When I started planning, in high school, I only used a blue ballpoint pen in my planner.  It worked great.  I never dreamed that eventually there would be a whole other world of planners and decorating. As my planning evolved, so did the planning community.  In the past five or so years, there has been a tremendous growth in people who use paper planners and companies who produce planner decorations. Although pen and paper have always worked well for me in the past, the need to play with stickers and cute tape was calling to me.  I had to give it a try. In my endeavor to create a beautifully decorated planner, I have amassed a huge collection of stickers, stamps, ink and washi tape.  I was super excited to pu

I have a confession...I am obsessed with pens.  It is a love affair that has been on-going since high school.  I have more ink in my house than my great-great-grandchildren will be able to use.  It's weird right?  I'm okay with it...in fact, having so many pens makes me happy. To go along with having so many pens is having a pencil bag to carry my current favorites in.  The pencil bag I have been using since May is a Milloo Ariadne bag in sea green leather.  Konstantinos has a store on Etsy and is fabulous to work with.  I sent him a message about the sea green leather that was out of stock to see if he was going to get any more of it.  He went to his supplier and found me a small piece which he was able to make me both the Ariadne bag and the Estia bag.  I am in love! In my pencil bag I keep my current favorite pens and pencils, along with a few stationery items.  I carry a lot of pens...I like to have options. My favorite ball point pen is the Pilot Vanishing Po

Hello friends!   My name is Melissa and welcome to my new blog!   I have been a planner for most of my life.  I have used everything from Filofax, Day Designer, Hobonichi, Traveler's Notebooks to Erin Condren...you name it, I probably have tried it.   I am constantly changing the planner I use.  Currently I am using an Erin Condren Life Planner.  This is the fifth? year I have purchased a Life Planner.  I love them.  Over the years the Life Planner has evolved and the changes are great. In the past versions of the Life Planner you would get to choose your cover, personalize it and that was it.  The cover was not interchangeable, the coil was silver and there was only one layout.  I love that all of these things now have options. Erin Condren has three layouts you can choose from: vertical, horizontal, and hourly.  You can also choose from colorful or neutral.  The neutral is mostly black and white with a tiny bit of color.  I have used all three layouts and love the hourly