Throughout my school age years I was ALWAYS the girl who wrote absolutely everything in her cheap little planner the school gave us, from homework assignments to events and then chores for home too. I have always loved planners. My only trouble was once I got to a certain age in school they stopped giving us planners and it was up to us to find one that would work for us. It is a lot easier to use a planner, and make it work, when you didn't pay anything for it. One problem I would always come across were that the daily boxes were never big enough for my handwriting. I would buy planner after planner and never be happy with any of them but never want to commit to anything over $15 because of my track record with them.
After college and in my first hospital RN job some of my coworkers introduced me to Erin Condren Life planners. So I looked into them at that point and saw their price and I thought, "Oh heck no! I can't justify that kind of cash!" So I continued to planner hop and never reach "planner peace" as this wonderful community calls it.
Fast forward to January 2015, I had been working two RN jobs and my photography company on the side and was barely keeping track of it all, my final straw was when I went to the wrong baby sitters to drop Alex off before work one night. I had had enough! I told myself I have been working hard enough over the past few months and I desperately needed something to help me get my life in order.
I placed my order and began checking my email everyday for a shipping notification! And once it did finally ship I checked the tracking every 4 hours practically until it arrived at my door. My mailman must of thought he was delivering a million dollar ticket with how excited I was to receive it!
Oh my goodness the amazingness that followed! I started simple, I was just using a black pen to write all of my plans into it. I then started to use the do-it-all dots to color coordinate church events and baby sitters.
Then I stumbled upon this video: Elle Fowler's Planner 101: Intro to Glam Planning .
I then became engulfed into other plan with me videos on YouTube and the hashtag #glampanning on all social media platforms.
What did I stumble upon? This rocked my world! I had never thought of the idea of using stickers to assist in planning. I was drooling over the stickers and the beautiful pens and washi and all of the things! At that point I wouldn't let myself spend money on the stickers. SO I invested to colored pens. I started with BIC colored pens, then Sharpie pens, then Papermate flairs. Oh my goodness the pens!
Then I began to experiment with the stickers that Erin Condren includes in the back of each planner. There are blank ones, some that say birthday, appointment, anniversary and etc. That is where it all started. Then I found this amazing thing called washi tape! Boy did that change the game!
Following this I found the Target Dollar Spot. Who knew how addictive page flags that don't actually stick to paper could be, not to mention it had washi tape and decorative stickers. Until this point I had never really had any interest in this section of Target, the wonderful ladies of the planner community showed me just how incredible it really is!
I then found myself wandering the aisles of Hobby Lobby & Michael's in their scrapbooking aisles looking for more and more decorative stickers to add to my collection that I would never use.
Then upon learning more about Etsy shops I set out to learn how to make my own stickers. And I stumbled upon the Xyron 510 sticker maker. How amazing!! I could now make my own stickers and save money and time! I spent the next 3 nights making my own stickers on our computer into the wee hours of the morning.
I made stickers for my work schedule, Chris' work schedule, church days, weather stickers, football games, tennis matches, TV shows, payday, photo sessions, dr's appointments, dentist appointments, grocery days, stickers to symbolize when I put gas in my car and lots of decorative stickers(that I would hardly EVER use).
I was set, until I got tired of cutting out each sticker one by one that is. Over the past 2 or so months I have allowed myself approximately $40 month to accumulate stickers for my collection. I have quickly learned that I am more of a functional planner that decorative.
This has definitely been a whirlwind of a journey but it has definitely been so fun and I am ready to scream it from the rooftops, "I AM A PLANNER ADDICT!" I will no longer be ashamed when someone opens my planner and sees just how down to the detail I plan, and that my planner is actually colorful and fun. My motto is, "If I am going to be so busy I can't see straight I might as well have fun while I am doing it."
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