My Kate Spade Planner Story

This is my collection of Kate Spade Planners. =) 

I have been asked every time I post my collection, where I get them and how I managed to get them all, especially since it seems everyone has such a problem doing that.

First off I want to say that this isn't a blog meant for bragging or anything of the sort. I had to work hard to afford my planners just like anyone else, and although I did have help obtaining them, I did pay and work for them all myself. 

Also I will not be sharing the prices I paid. I know they might be less or more then what you feel should of been paid for them, so just know I paid what i needed to pay. = )

Soo... From the beginning.

I first discovered Kate Spade Planners from youtube. I believe it was My_Planner on youtube. I fell in love with the planners and finally decided after much debate on a zipped planner to purchase one.

So it came first my Black Planner.

My older sister Kayla (Somuchtogain) and I went to Vegas April 2014 and I found my very first one in the Kate Spade Outlet there. I immediatly fell in love and knew from then I wanted to have this collection.

Never before had I felt such peace and comfort from a planner. It fit me perfectly. 

So next came my red one.

This was the first of my trades, I traded the red for my A5 Finsbury in rasberry to a girl on facebook named Vivian. She was so generous in trading with me, and although its actually the only one I haven't yet used, I can't wait until the fall time when it's beautiful crimson colour will shine. =) 

Next came my lovely green, one of my top 3 favourite colours. It came from a girl on facebook (as did most of mine) who took a big dip on my shipping for me and sent it with some cute little goodiers that I've already used up. 

My Beautiful Purple was the next to come to me. I bought it from a seller on ebay who thankfully allowed me to purchase outside of her lising which was amazingly generous. I was so excited when I got her and she is my top favourite!

My Coral came from Katherine Peas on facebook. Also knows as PeasKneas on instagram. She had been struggling with the idea of selling for a long while because she wasn't sure if she liked it or if she was thinking it miuch to orange for her.

So we talked for a while and she finally decided she couldn;t stand the colour and sent it to me with some lovely matching target flags which I think are mostly to blame for my new addiction with them. =) 

And last my pink.. It was hard to make the choice to trade my personal and pocket mint kikki k for this planner and in some ways I do regret it.. Especially now that I got my lilac because I love my personal lilac and wish I had my matching mint.

So thats my story basically. .Not very interesting but I wanted to have it laid out because I am always asked and this hopefully might lead to some answers. Down below I will list the groups and such that you can check out for the planners and hopefully find your unicorn as I have found mine. =)

Thank you for tuning in and hopefully you'll tune in for the next post. = ) 

Facebook: Kate Spade Planner Club

               : Filofax and pens for sale.

My Instagram: Organizedhobbit 

Organizing 101 : Planner Supplies

Hi everyone, I am back with a new blog which has a focus on something all of us have! Planner supplies!

I myself being a simplist with an over thinking brain really had to work on making something that was not only easy to get to, but was fuctional. 

I get easily overhwelmed by things and having the ability to go ahead and find what I need, or switch my supplies up as quick as possible is really something nesesccary. 

So as the pictures below will show, the three things I need to keep organized are!

- My Scrap Booking tote, 

- My Orla Kiely Bag

- Sonia bag from target.

These three items help to keep my supplies easily organized using either the various compartments for catagories, or using the envelope method** for my loose stickers and such.

** Method meaning using either envelopes or similar to put my loose sticky notes and labeling the fronts as to keep organized.

Now I really wondered on what would be the best way to do this beyond just showing you through pictures so I decided to sit down and make up ten tips I use whenever I think on my organizing, and perhaps these tips might help relate to your organzing needs.

(NOTE: These are in no particular order.)

1. Use Labels. Labels help to keep things in order by grabbing your attention and by then helping you to put things in their correct desitnation. 

2. Make it simple, you don't need to have a billion different compartments to keep things organized, go with what works for you!

3. Dejunk often. Don't get overhwelmed with all this stuff. Don't keep things you don't use, it doesn't nothing but cause wasted space. I like to go through my stuff once a week, or whenever I get a haul and update because sometimes it's easy to let it get away from you.

4.  Samples are key! Use washi samples, sticky note samples, ect. Using samples lets you not only have a variety and use all of your stash, but it helps with the tip above. If you use it and dislike it, then you can easily know thats something that you should get rid of. 

5, I reccomend using a travel size pack for your daily planner needs, that way you are using a mix of stuff thats right infront of you and always able to be used. Versus always having to dig through your stash to find what you need. It keeps you using your items and keeps you from getting to overwhelmed. 

6. Don't buy in bulk! I know it's tempting to buy everything on sale, god knows I have. But if you think on how much you might actually use something, buying just one or two might be enough for you. However that being said, if it's something you do use daily, then there is no harm, just be aware of the space this new amount is going to take.

7. Variety is the spice of life! Keep changing it up, if something iisn't workiing for your planner storage or you find that you aren't using your stuff because of it. Switch it up until you find a system that works.

8. You don't have to buy more to be organized! You can work with what you have and do amazing things!

9. Get creative. Use things that you have, make a shoe box into your sticker or stationary holder, make a vase into a pencil holder.. Get creative and make what you have around work, because you never know what you might find. 

10. Make it work for you. Don't do something just because someone else does, because in the end, it's you who has to use it so make your orgnanization work for you. 

Some of these tips might of sounded a bit repeated but I like to go by them when I consider my own organization needs. My planner holds my life and it deserves to have it's supplies considered just as carefully. 

Thanks for reading and remember my hobbits! Keep it simple.

IG: OrganizedHobbit 

Monthly Goal/Set Up (August 2014)

Hi there my Hobbits, it's good to send another blog your way again! I am not sure how many of you actually read my blog or enjoy it for that matter, but I do enjoy writing them for you.

I am hoping my new schedule of blogs will help because if you prefer one option over the other then you only have to tune into my blogs during certain periods in the month. 

So that actually brings me to the topic of my current blog: My monthly goals and set up!

So we will first go into my month set up as thats what changed the most and then do an overview of my monthly goals. 

If you follow me on instagram then you already know that I currently switched to using both my Kate Spade Personal size Wellesley Planner and my mint green Kikki K A5 planner. One is specifically for my day to- day events and the other is been brought in to help manage my projects and blogs during the month. I have noticed while my to do's and such are much more organized, my blog and projects have been all over the place lately and I wanted to try and get a handle put on everything so I could focus more on one thing, versus having a ten things a week I want to accomplish because I am not sure what else I can get done in short periods of time.

So as I will show you below, I have devised a monthly system which takes full advantage of the times during the week that I have the most time, and will allow me to accomplish the most tasks. 

So as seen above is my monthly spread broken down in the Friday/Saturday/Sunday side of the spread from Kikki K monthly planners. This section is specifically for the blog I will be posting that week as indicated by the circle masking sticker dots I have used to help my color coding system.

Pink: Month Set Up/Goals

Green: Organzing 101

Orange: Planner Choice

Blue: Random

Dark Grey: My month review. 

Next to that is Martha Stewart dew drops which are used to label my projects. I love the Kikki K monthly inserts because they have these lovely side bars for notes which became perfect to use for my projects. Something simple to put something as easy as "Copic Commision - Taylor Swift" Or whatever the case may be. Its simple but it stands out to me and helps me to see it and know whats on the go for that current week.

Projects are labeled under;

Red: Writing General

Orange: Drawing

Yellow: Other

Green: Time Management

Blue: Novel 

I also use a date system to allow me to get one thing done before I start another so in example of this week.

Mon/Tues/Wed: My Writing General Project.

Thurs/friday/saturday/Sunday: Is what I use for my blog days.

I always write in pencil so that way if something should come up such as a drawing commision or something of the sort, I always have the ability to move my own personal projects around and fit in something, or if I decide I don't wish to work on a certain project. 

Having this new system in my set up has helped me more then I even realised in my last few weeks. It puts it all out in a monthly spread what needs to be done and then it makes it quite easy then to flip to my weekly pages. 

My weekly pages are where the meat of my to do's which then go into the Kate Spade Daily pages comes from. I use my date system in my weeks as well.

On the left page is my Mon-Wed days and all my to-do's for that weeks projects are located there.

The right page is Thur-Sun and my blog to do's go in there. 

I take from this list and put them down into the daily pages under their appropriate catagories as to always make sure even if I only carry one planner, I can keep a firm look on what is going on with my projects and Blogs so I never let anything slip as I was before. 

My Daily Pages have not changed, I had some A5 printed should I wish to move into this planner permanently, but they are still my current choice for my Kate Spade Planner.

Using my new system has allowed me to break down my to do sheets and keeps me accountable for what needs to be completed for my next day. However when it comes down to the actual use of these inserts, there hasn't been much change beyond now using the daily schedule on the top of the page to schedule my four potd (Photo of the day) challenges. 

So thats my system and now to move on  to tracking and accountabilitiy!

My projects in terms of art and blogs have been broken down into the graphs shown above. For Blogs I have a simple.

Photos

Write Up

Organized

Blog

Just the few things I know I need to get done for each blog and while it may not be that blogs week I might have a idea come to me and this is a way to keep track of that concept as well. 

For my art I use.

Sketch

Ink

Colour 

Finish and Post.

I am also going to include a V - Video option as I am now capable of adding in my drawing video/Planner video options with my new desk set up. 

I am also using a notebook to keep track of my ideas, it's similar to the project management book that I discovered from  OrganizedJen On youtube or instagram. Her idea inspired me to take my own spin on the concept.

SO!  Now for

Monthly Goals

i

I decided to put my monthly goals on the very front of my Kikki K Project Planning Binder because then I am always in sight of it and it keeps me aware of the goals I am working on at any given month. I am not going to type them all out but a few of mine include.

- POTD Challenges

- No spend Month

- Sell all I don't use.

- Blog Once a week.

I am very focused on making my goals work and making them realistic as to what my current situation and such is right now. 

So I know  that may of been a little long winded so if you have any questions or comments please feel free to let me know in the comments or email me at.

amiesmith22@gmail.com

Or Contact me/vist me VIA

IG: OrganizedHobbit 

SO thank you so much for reading another blog of mine, thank you for taking the time and please enjoy your long weekends. 

Thanks again!

Amie ( OH)