How's The Planner Going?

Earlier this month I shared with you my plans for using my planner more regularly this year and I showed you some pretties I made for it (on New Year's Day no less - boy, I was keen!).  I thought I would give you an update and show you how I set up this week. I tend to spend a few minutes on a Sunday afternoon to get my diary set up for the week. And I mean a few minutes. It only takes a short amount of time to stamp a few things and update my list and spending papers. Here's this week before I added in some daily to-dos:

As you can see I add little bits and pieces each week for documenting my goals (on the back of the Shine piece). I also stamp something inspirational and encouraging or write down things that caught my eye from what I've been reading or seeing in my week. For example, in The Longest Ride by Nicholas Spark (I really enjoyed this story if you are looking for a book recommendation) I read the following joke: What do you get if you play country music backwards? You get your wife, your truck and your dog back! That joke tickled my fancy and ended up in my diary for that week. This week I used some Heidi Swapp stamps to remind me to shine (Sparkle being my OLW) and focus my thoughts on positive things. The "Let Your Light Shine" stamp also got a coat of glitter paint in the lightbulb to make it shiny - a little product I found in my office de-cluttering (bought at SENZ over 3 years ago!).  A few dots of liquid pearls on the filament topped it off perfectly. Here's a close up:

I'm really enjoying using my diary. I use it to document my day, my goals and gratitude for the day. Confession Time: I'm not very good at being disciplined or consistent with documenting anything (even important things like health issues) so it's a bit of a surprise to me that 4 weeks in I am still using it daily (and loving it!).  It's a new focus for me in 2015 I guess: #plannernerd  #newyearnewme  #tryingnewthings

If you remember back in November I did a 30 Days of Gratitude project. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would do it again. So, I decided to add a gratitude spot for every day. I must admit that I am not as deep or thorough in my daily gratitude as I was for the 30 Days of Gratitude project. For example: Tuesday's gratitude was a float on a hot day (float = soda plus icecream yum!). You might notice that I have stamped gratitude on white card and glued it in place. The reason is that if I stamp it in the diary it shows through on the other side. My solution was to stamp a few of the word gratitude and each week I can glue them in. I do also stamp the word in sometimes and then I use the card pieces the following week (covering up the ink bleed).

I am entering my planner (diary in kiwi land) in the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Work It Wednesday - New.  The planner craze is new for me and it is also bringing out a new me (diligent to fill it in). Also, the Pink and Main stamps just arrived this week so they had to be used immediately (new) and it was the first time I used the glitter paint even though I've had it for more than three years (new technique). The details are here .
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes. I love it when they do anything goes but it certainly ups the number of entries! The details are here .
Inspiration Emporium - Fresh Start. The challenge description says just get your creative mojo going and create something - the sky's the limit. That's an easy brief to fill! This diary page was a fresh start for the week and using it is something new (fresh) for me too. The details are here .


Materials:
Stamps - Heidi Swapp, Ali Edwards, Basic Grey, Pink and Main, Waffleflower, Recollections; Ink - Stampin' Up!, Ranger; Tag - Kaisercraft; Washi - My Mind's Eye; Cardstock - Stampin' Up!, Frixion Erasable Pens (yup, still love 'em!)