I've always been a paper & pen aficionado. Even in this digital age, I have a strong appreciation for writing things down and I still love to journal every night before bed. I've been using paper planners since I was in high school, and you best believe that they were never the boring school-issued agendas either. Even at 16, 17 years old, I would go to the fancy stationery stores and splurge on a nice planner for that school year... and I would use it to death. All my assignments would get written down, upcoming events, parties, test dates, etc. The habit carried through to college and obviously came in handy after I graduated when I was a preschool teacher.
After having my first baby, the things I jotted down weren't quite as urgent (no more, MUST READ 100 PAGES OF BIOLOGY TEXTBOOK TONIGHT! written in red anymore heh) but I used my planners to maintain my sanity - keep track of appointments, play dates, meal planning. Then, after giving birth to my second child, I tried for the sake of simplicity to keep everything in my iphone calendar but really... old habits die hard, and I found myself itching to write things down so I could cross them off afterwards. Plus, it was hard for me to remember to actually open up my calendar app on my phone to see what was going on; it's much, much easier to keep a planner book open to the relevant month/week so that I can physically see my schedule and be reminded to check it for upcoming appointments.
In any case, long introduction to just simply say... I finally bit the bullet and bought my VERY FIRST LIFE PLANNER. The new planners for the 2014/2015 year were released on June 12 and you KNOW that I was poised and ready with my laptop at midnight on June 11. Apparently so was every other EC fan out there because their website crashed once and it took me forever to checkout my cart. No care, no matter, I did it, it's over, and a few days ago I opened my front door to find a glorious box from Erin Condren Design. Hallelujah!!!
(Front & back covers)
As you can see, I went with the gold & white foil pressed cover ... and gah, it is so stunning. I can't even. AH! You can see in the pictures above that when the light hits the foil it just gives off this really beautiful sheen. It's almost too pretty to write in.... I mean, I'll obviously love it and use it but truth be told, as soon as I opened the box and got all my accessories and "extras" settled into the book, I just set it on the counter and stared at it for a few days. Every now and then, I'd lovingly open it and rifle through the pages, but I haven't jotted anything down in it yet hahaha. I will starting July, though!
Once you remove the elastic band (all the Life Planners come with one) and open it up, this is the very first thing you see. The foil editions have this really pretty overlay for the first page and I think it's really classy. Love it!
Aside from being just super GORGEOUS, this thing is practical on every level. Beauty meets function; it's the best of both worlds, you guys. The first few pages of the planner are yearly overviews of 2014 and 2015. And then, each month for the next 18 months has its own tab with a two-page monthly spread, and two-page weekly spread for each week. The monthly spreads have major holidays already noted, and the weekly spreads have tons of room to jot down appointments, meetings, meal plans, exercise goals, shopping lists, or anything else your mommy brain might risk forgetting. It's A W E S O M E.
*The planners also come with a beautiful clear plastic bookmark so that you can easily find which week you're currently in except my planner was accidentally shipped with one of the older versions from previous Life Planners. I didn't want to include a photo of it since it's not technically what you'll be receiving if you order one of the new 2014/2015 planners. Which brings me to say that EC has incredible customer service. I emailed them about the error and they were really nice and prompt about sending out a new bookmark for me. Can't wait until that arrives!
After all the monthly and weekly spreads, there are lined and blank pages for doodles or notes .. and as you can see, they're not just boring lined or blank pages, they're decorated and colorful. Fun!
I think my favorite part of these planners are the STICKERS that they come with. I know I'm a grown woman who is excited about stickers but... c'mon, stickers are fun at any age. Each planner comes with a few sheets of included stickers that say "birthday" or "party" or are just blank, but you can also order additional sheets of stickers and customize them with what YOU want them to say! So, I ordered a few sheets that say "date night" or "girl time", etc. I can't wait to use them!
At the back of the planner there's a folder to hold your Perpetual Calendar, which is basically a small booklet of important dates that never change year to year so you don't have to constantly be writing them down when you get new planner books. And behind that there's a small plastic pouch to hold your knick knacks and what nots. I put my coil clips in there so that they're ready to use when needed.
Okay! And then that's where the Life Planner would typically end, but as an added option, I ordered a customized notepad and stuck it on the back cover of the book so that I could have extra scratch paper to write notes and stuff. I love the inspirational quote on this: If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.
I also ordered the additional pen holder that you can stick to your planner because... let's keep it real, I'm always losing my pens!
So one of the new features with this year's edition of planners is INNER-CHANGEABLE COVERS. What the whaaaaaat? As you can see, the front and back covers easily pop off so you can change the covers when you get bored of what you have. I'd say this is really genius of them to do because if there's ONE thing that makes it hard for me to remain committed to one notebook/planner/anything, it's when I get bored of them. And this planner goes until the end of 2015 so if I'm trying to use this for the next year and a half, I NEED to have the option to mix it up a bit once in awhile so it stays fresh for me. LOVE this idea! I've already ordered a second set of covers to swap out when I'm ready, although I have to say I'm so in love with the white & gold right now, I don't think that's going to happen for awhile.
And that's it! I do have to say that if you're planning on ordering the extra notepad to stick to the back cover like I did, it will make your book a little bulky and difficult to close. This normally wouldn't be an issue except that with the pop-off covers, if you're not careful, you might find that the back cover pops off a bit with the added girth of the planner.
Erin Condren Life Planners are available RIGHT NOW at the Erin Condren website and start at $50 for the classic designs and $75 for the foil pressed ones. Go get yours today!
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