Planner Meetup - Western MA

I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday with new planner friends in Massachusetts where we shared our favorite planners and supplies. I brought along my adorable Supaclip (40, the smaller size) with a sneak peek at the Emoji refills (shown in the image below).

Those little froning faces are perfect to clip together your bills...that is the pile my husband is allergic to so he'll be forewarned not to touch it,

I promised to share links to some of the products we talked about so what you'll find below are direct Amazon PRIME links for Supaclip starter set, Refills, Adjustable Diary Punch and Desktop Pencil Sharpener, for all those Adult Coloring enthusiasts out there.

 

In case you are looking for a 6-hole punch for A5 size planner, I have a video on how to make that work with minimal effort (I did all the math for you, lol).

The following are some snapshots from the Planner Meetup

A very talented lady, @jesseniascreations made that black & white planner band that was in our swag bag, matching my Erin Condren Life Planner perfectly

Planner Pile Up - well represented by assorted companies - Erin Condren, Happy Planner, Webster's Pages, Michael's Planner, Filofax and several others that I can't recall.

The swag bag was brimming with stickers, clips, washi, planner band and even an adorable mini bottle of essential oil in lavender,

I am so happy to have been able to attend the event, meet so many like minded planner enthusiasts and look forward to the next one.

Where to find me online:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nhensel

Blog - http://cleversoiree.com/

Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/natashazhensel/boards/

Instagram - http://instagram.com/natashazhensel

Pilot Frixion Erasabe Pens

Pen Sets Collection for my Planner(s)

WOW, not sure if this is all of them or not but will be putting them to live together in one container so I can best use the one just right for the job or paper weight. 

Stack up nicely, lol 

Varsity Disposable Fountain Pens (7). Nice on heavier paper but bleeds through terribly on Filofax and 60 lb and lower weights. Review with paper samples.

Some of the least expensive of the bunch $1.49 or all 10. Not the most slick pens but absolute workhorses for the daily use particularly on write & toss adhesive paper or notepads. 

Glitter all the way - Atyou Spica add that little something. Juicy so not the ideal for double-sided writing but nice on card stock tab dividers for a little bling. I picked these up from Oozak.com

Frixion erasable pens*. I like using these for longer lists or journaling on blank pages to give myself some piece of mind in case I mess up. These are from Amazon.
*if you are using printed pages, any lines might be erased in the process of removing writing

Staedtler - my favorite, smooth, skip free, nice point, barrel is triangular so they won't roll off your desk if you take them out of the case (I tend to open it up and flip the cover backwards for easy access and prop up as show on the cover). Minimal bleed through, best results on lighter colors but that also depends on writing style. Some people tend to be 'heavy' handed vs. others have a 'lighter' stroke. 

I have had these for over 15 years, used them to correct homework (taught English as a Second Language) but apparently have forgotten about them in the back of my desk drawer. Time to use these up. Really like the 0.3 mm tip. Great for smaller spaces. I tend to compensate to the free space I have to write. Give me an entire page and I'll use broad strokes vs.  gum wrapper would yield tiny print.

Last but not least are a couple of Calligraphy sets, the ZIG (in the foreground) are Chalk for darker color paper or on Chalk labels, the smaller 3 pen set is from Y&C and are Chisel Tip in 2.0mm, 3.5mm & a whopping 5.0mm. These are by Yasumoto company and are made in Japan, distributed by Y&C. Also antient, from the back of my desk. Since I don't do Calligraphy that much unless requested by customers for invitations, these will last a while.

Richblue A5 Purple Cardholder Binder Compatible with Filofax

A nice option for archiving A5 size Filofax inserts in this binder available on Amazon at $20* shipped (Prime)

Two shallow pockets on the inside of the lightly padded binder, 6 rings in a standard A5 size that fit Filofax inserts perfectly

Available in six colors - Black, Brown, Purple, White, Green and Pink 

2015 Filofax in A5 One Day to a Page 

In hand 

Lies flat, although this binder is advertised as a card holder, it does not have a closure or a pen loop but I think it would be nice to keep on my desk as a reference tool for prior calendar year's archive

***NOTE*** Since I did the video, the review and a post on Philofaxy Facebook page, the price of this binder (in purple and green only) skyrocketed from $18.36 to over $35 and I do not have an explanation as to why. The best thing I could recommend is to add this item to a wish list if you are interested and just keep an eye out for a price drop. If I can, I will try reaching out to the seller to find out why the vast price difference and so suddenly on the two colors out of 6 available and will post an update here.
***UPDATE (2-27-14)*** Seller replied to me that the price of all colors has been adjusted to $18.99 USD as of this morning, That's great customer service :)

Planner/Organizer Stamps

I am compiling a list of companies that make stamps that are perfectly sized for use in planners/organizers like #Filofax #ErinCondran #DayTimer

Many of you might already be familiar with #Studiol2e but how about #SweetStampShop or #WaffleFlower. Just check out some of the adorable stamps:

Studiol2e BeYOUtiful Plans

Sweet Stamp Shop - Plan to Eat

Waffle Flower - Stay Focused

Bella Creations - Plan Nerd 2

Pink And Main - Icons

Cute Paper Clips for Filofax/Planner/Organizer

I was in a meeting this morning that required my attention but not direct participation so while my phone was on mute I multi-tasked making these adorable paper clips using the following supplies:

• Large Paper Clips - available at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Staples, OfficeMax - with back to schools sales you can find them just about anywhere and in patterns and different collors
• Stamps of Life sets: tv2stamp and coordinating TV Dies, coffee4two and coordinating Coffee Cup Dies
• Twine wrapped around the small spool die, can't recall who it's from but it is a 2-piece set with a larger one
• Dimensional adhesive tape
• White & Black card stock for die cutting, white for stamping on and black for backing
• Your choice of inks, pens, or glitter - I used Ayto Spika in Lavendar for the coffee cup with my initial on it

You can see the dies on the left and the tiny coffee stamp on the right 

A closer look at the dies

Filofax - Sometimes It's the Little Things I Fall In LOVE With

It's often overlooked but sometimes it's the little things that make me fall in love with an item, in this case my Filofax(s).  Too few to be called a collection and since each are in use at the same time, they are utilitarian first and that suits me just fine. 

The first fine detail I always notice is the spine logo - convex or concave they are simply elegant.

In color or black, above. 

The back stamp is just as memorable 

I even like the stitching on the Domino 

My Metropol Personal Organizer is my day to day wallet so I get to shlep it around town and on road trips 

The spine logo of the Sketch Zip A5 is almost like a rubber stamp although I've not tried stamping with it (but I might) lol 

Love the zipper of the A5, nothing falls out of my household organizer and that's perfect because I tuck all sorts of loose magazine pages, coupons, recipes...

I decorated a piece of cardboard (dress shirt insert) with just some of the images that make me think of home 

And how could I pass up the adorable 6-ring organizer stamp, it's even zipper style like my Sketch A5 

I also use multiple rulers, one for each quick go to sections of my calendar 

And last but not least, the zipper pull which is the perfect size to grab and pull without resistance

A5 Sketch Zip Filofax Inserts - Year on 2 Pages & Monthly

To be honest I didn't do much research on the availability of these types of inserts but having been in a long online meeting I used that time to create these myself.  The benefit is I picked the colors, sizes, fonts and layouts and can alter them as the mood strikes me.  The A5 paper is from Empire Imports, bought on sale with an additional $10 off $50+ purchase, which is thicker than the standard Filofax inserts so the print is not boldly visible from the other side.  Set my printer to print both sides and punched the holes with my Rapesco Adjustable Diary Punch.  If you want an easy way to punch A5 paper, just check out my video.

A5 Sketch Zip Household Filofax - Sneak Peek

This is what my Dashboard looks like in the A5 Sketch Zip

Current tabs:

• Pets
• Projects
• Service Info - Lawn, Heat, Plumber, etc.
• Chickens
• Maintenance Schedule

I am rearranging what I capture in the Household Filofax this week I'll be printing new inserts specially designed for each section and cutting some new dividers, stay tuned for an update via blog post and YouTube video.

Varsity Disposable Fountain Pens by Pilot

I picked up this set of 7 assorted color Varsity Disposable Fountain pens from Amazon, they also come in 3-pack (Black, Blue & Purple).  At the time of purchase, the 7-pack was just under $20 US

The 7-pack includes one of each of the following colors:
Teal, Purple, Pink, Green, Red, Blue & Black

The caps snap on with a reassuring sound, hopefully this means little chance of leackage

The scratch pad on my desk is very lightweight paper, probably 20lb, and the ink writes smoothly with virtually no skipping or feathering

The nib is M so it's similar to the Shaeffer refillable fountain pens I use as well

Smooth nib with a clean appearance even after writing several recipes on note cards

Standard Filofax paper weight did shadow on the reverse side but did not bleed through

No dry time makes these pens a nice option to ball point.

For anyone curious about the sustainability of this product, although these are noted as Disposable, there is a way to re-fill them with an ink-dropper by pulling the entire nib housing out of the pen.  I personally have not tried to do this to any of the pens, yet, but have seen several reviews of these being successfully refilled and used without leaking (always an encouraging thing to hear).

Video:

Filofax Clear Pockets - Perfect for Post-It Notepads

While cleaning out my office, I came across a binder full of old diskettes (some of you might remember these ancient storage devices that held a whopping 1.44 kb of data) and noticed that the storage sheets were a sturdy frosted plastic.  Bells started going off and I grabbed my scissors and cut them down to fit into my Personal size Molden which I use as a wallet. 

To make it even easier to access each pocket, I used an inch and a quarter circle punch to create a finger fold.  The punch went through the plastic like butter, even surprised me. 

Then I used my trusty RAPESCO Adjustable Diary Punch to create the holes

Also punched easily even through two layers at once

These diskette pockets are the perfect size for 3x3 post-it notepads which will keep the corners pristine which can't always be said of the dashboards 

Happy together 

While looking for my circle punch I also came across this small tab punch from Jenni Bowlin made by Fiskars, the idea size for Pocket or Personal size Filofax 

You can easily print all the label titles on your printer and punch them out to arrange in your Filofax