In My Memory Planner #2

I am mostly caught up with my memory planner being a week or two behind it not enough to make me feel overwhelmed, yet. In the next few days I plan to get back to it I have found a few things that help me keep on top of it and I thought I would share.

* Firstly have an easy way to print your photos if you want to include them, otherwise it will be a huge stumbling block. I have decided to stick with printing mine with my instax printer. Which means I don't need to worry about things like going to get photos printed or always having printing paper and ink here, as long as I have a supply of instax here then I'm good to go!

* Keep supplies simple and flat- this means stickers, stamps and washi tape are my go to supplies for my planner. It means that I don't have to riffle through all my supplies and it keeps the memory planner without bumps, it is a tad bit annoying to be working on a page that has a bumpy back

* Journaling in bullet points makes it fast to record lots of memories. I'm not super worried about having perfect writing (but I should probably work on it) I am more concerned with getting quick memory jolts in there that can help me remember what we were doing that day, including the boring things.

* My last tip would be for those who struggle to keep on top of an ongoing project like this is to look at your calendar and work out when you can allow time for it, then set alarms on your phone! this year I have put alarms for printing monthly photos and for sitting down to do project life and it has made a world of difference. We plan for all the things we hate to do- appointments and meetings we should also plan for things we love to do.

*Also my motto 'perfection doesn't live here- joy does!!' leave perfection behind and just make something !

In My Journal

I recently bought this little pen pouch from Kmart, I've moved a few of the things that were in there and added some of my own things. I had wanted something that could hold pens and scissors but also some stickers and things for my memory planner and for my journal.

I love having so many bright coloured pens to use, its so much more fun! I ended up adding the word love to the front of the pouch from some freckled fawn stickers, I may just decorate it a little more but for now it is perfect to pop into my bag when I am on the go.

I'm loving that my Journal is super easy (light) to bring along with me everywhere. I finally settled on the Bullet Journaling method for this year and I am loving it. Before I had seen this method of journaling I made this calendar printout that I thought would be great- turns out it fitted right in to the Bullet Journal system and so I will be printing out a few more

It has really helped me to keep track of the things that I want to achieve each month and is helping me to be much more productive throughout the day. I tend to find it easy to get distracted as the day progresses and this style of  journal really helps me bring things back to focus. I also love that this style of journaling is so versatile and I'm finding it great to have everything in the one place!

And also who wouldn't love a rainbow of hearts ?!!!

If you want to find out how to bullet journal you can go here!

Travelers Notebooks

I've been making some little travelers notebooks (aka midori's) In basic terms they are a cover which has elastic running down the middle so that you can pop some small notebooks inside and change them as you use them.What I love about them is that they are not as heavy as some of the planners which means that they can go with me in my bag where ever I go. I usually leave the little note books (like the ones below) completely blank - not lined so that I can do whatever I like in them. I used mine mostly last year when ever I needed to write a list or write a note to myself. 

So here are six new little note books that I whipped up, simply by cutting some white A4 paper down to the size I wanted and then adding some scrapbook paper to the outside and then running them through my sewing machine. Doing it this way means that you cant put too many pages in each notebook but since I can fit at least four in my travelers notebook it doesn't bother me.

Below are the covers- eight of them. I made a pile of them with some stuff (technical term ha haa) that I found at spotlight, it is a paper/fabric and it is quite sturdy. I used some fabric mod podge to adhere fabric to the paper/fabric then once it was dry I sewed around the edges so that the fabric wont fray too much. Then just pierced holes in the top and bottom and added some elastic. I like to have two lines of elastic so that I can put notebooks on each.

Then just sewed the notebooks and added something cute to the front of each one

You can see here that I added a button where I fastened the elastic at the bottom and I also added two holes so that I could have a piece of elastic to hold the travelers notebooks closed.

I've only ended up finishing four of them, these ones happen to be gifts for friends. Except the pretty one on top, that one is mine! This year I think this is what I will use as a planner, I might even have one note book per month. There is so much that you can do with them- endless possibilities.

You can find a few here on my journal pinterest board.

In My Memory Planner

Do you every buy note books/journals/ planners because they are super pretty and then become paralyzed by actually doing anything in them because you don't want to ruin them? I often do this but I had an attack of this when I got my  Heidi Swapp Memory Planner. I must say that I could not help but buy one when all the memory planners last year looked just gorgeous! Once I opened up and started to think about how I was going to use it I became super confused my question was (and may be still is) is this a planner or a memory keeper???? Memory suggests that you will be documenting what has been  but I usually use my planner for keeping me on track and writing ideas and appointments down- planning for the future.

As I looked around at others memory planners I decided that this was about memory keeping in  a pretty yet quick way. I may just be overwhelming myself with different documenting styles- why is it that we always want to do all of them. So I guess that this year I am doing some combination of scrapbooking and Project Life, keeping a memory planner and also I have been documenting my photos with a photo a day app, which has been the simplest way to keep track of all the shenanigans that happen throughout the year.

I guess that I also need to add in a planner of some description where I can write down ideas, to do lists and appointments etc. I may be a little late already in the year (oh my its late January!!!)to be finally deciding on what I am doing with myself but hey better late than never- and with the kids still home I am still in holiday mode!

Back to my memory planner, I've had fun setting it up and adding things to it, I bought the Heidi Swapp gold polka dot Memory planner and I've begun to add memories and fill out each day.

Its nice to have such an easy way to document the simple happy days that happen here!

My Planner

I just purchased this Kikki.K planner after much searching around and finding nothing that was cute and practical, I ordered this one online and it finally arrived and after  a crazy run home in the rain with the box under my arm trying to protect it from getting wet it made it into my home.

 Anyway I had been wanting a place to put all the things that I usually write down on scrap pieces of paper I end up with piles of paper around the place and never able to find the one list that I need. So I wasn't really wanting a calender style folder and I also wanted it to be small enough that I could take it with me in the car, we spend a lot of time in the car waiting and travelling to and from school during the year.

 I wanted a place where I could: track my goals, put weekly menu plans and shopping lists, keep a weekly cleaning plan, Christmas and birthday panning and also write ideas for blog posts. Usually all of these things are done on random bits of paper.

 So far I have managed to add a section for menu planning and have printed out some menu plans that I created, they're not perfect yet but they will do for now. I've got a few other things that I would like to print off like a shopping list and I would love some way to track my goals, to see that I am making progress (or not lol).

 I've still got a  little to do to sort out all of the things I want to keep here and I am working out weather to keep the dividers and pages that are in here and just adjust them or to make new dividers and new pages that are more suitable.

I've added some kaiser kraft stickers into the pocket and some project life cards for now. I'm sure that I am going to make lots of adjustments to make the planner work for me but other than that I am super happy with this gold planner and I'm super excited to start filling it up.