Planner World

I recently bought myself a new "planner" in an attempt to reduce paper clutter, and to stop using my sketchbook to make notes and lists. I'd rather have sketches in my sketchbook, not to do lists.

For the past couple of years, I've purchased a yearly personal size calendar. But it wasn't working well for me, since I make lots of lists and project notes based on what's on my calendar. So I thought a Dayrunner or Filofax type planner might work better, since you can configure them the way you want. You also have the ability to add custom sections for notes, projects, etc.  Boy, do you ever.

Something happened to the world of planners since I've been hanging out in "Robindale" (my own little world), as Jimmy likes to call it. Do you know about this?

Not only can you buy any color, design and size. But the things (and I mean lots of things) that you can put in your planner are a whole, huge industry. You can watch oodles of videos on YouTube of people showing you how they set up and decorate their planners. Yes, really.

I didn't know about any of this.

You can buy custom printable inserts of all kinds, dividers, "dashboards", and a myriad of cards, washi tape, paper clips, and other doo dads to make your planner uniquely yours.  You can even get craft folios to hold all the stuff for your planner.

My little planner (above and top) is from Webster's Pages. It's a Color Crush personal planner in Natural. And yes, I've done a wee bit of "decorating". I bought a small pack of Project Life journal cards and some washi tape, but that's about it. I do like the silver interior...it makes me smile. But I really like having all my lists and notes in one place.

Plan on....!

Link Roundup

Here's some interesting things I've found around the interwebs.

Keep from getting trapped in the rabbit hole of inspiration.

Make It:  Teesha Moore's amazing 16-page journal out of one 15x22 sheet of watercolor paper.  I gotta try this!

A sweet and lovely blog by a very talented young lady.

This one is on the Saturday breakfast list in the not-too-distant future :  baked buttermilk donuts with strawberry glaze...oh yeah!

A very inspiring and fun blog.

An e-course for bloggers if you're interested in developing and growning your blog and/or brand.

How about you?  What have you found lately that's inspiring you?

Join the Roost Tribe!

If you're looking to grow your blog (like me) and just generally make it a prettier, more functional and happy place to be...then the Roost Tribe is for you!

For the price of a gourmet coffee, you get all this :

Bonnie of Going Home to Roost is a super talented, super sweet blogger who wants to share her skills and expertise with you.  I discovered her blog earlier this year and spent several enjoyable weeks reading through it.  I was inspired!  So when she announced she was starting the Roost Tribe...I jumped.  I've already gotten a beautiful print in the (snail) mail...it's currently on my inspiration board above my computer.  Not to mention, beautiful backgrounds and repeating patterns, tutorials, recipes and more!  All for only $5 a month.

So what are you waiting for...jump over and take a look, then join the Tribe!

Craftsy Classes

Have you tried Craftsy classes?  I recently signed up for a couple, including Shoot It : A Product Photography Primer with Caro Sheriden.

Whoever thought up this format is a genius.  What a great, great idea to offer an online class where you can download materials, watch and interact with the teacher, visit with other students and see their work, PLUS (and this is huge) it never expires.  Two years from now you can look at that class again if you like.

For someone like me who is 1) introverted by nature and a definite homebody and, 2) not in a big town with a lot of knitting shops and therefore not a lot of knitting classes and, 3) in an "obscure" state as far as knitting goes...it's perfect.

I've been working on my photography skills lately anyway, so when I saw this class, I signed up!

They have a bunch of classes on a variety of subjects: Knitting, Crochet, Quilting, Embroidery, Cake Decorating, Jewelry, Papercrafts, Spinning, Weaving and on and on.  They even have a few free classes if you want to try it out first.

I'm guessing the list of classes will only grow from here, since they seem to be pretty popular.  I expect I'll be taking a few more!

Craftsy....It's a good thing.