New Year, New Planner

Well, here we are -- already a whole week into the new year. How did that happen? And of course, a new year means a new planner and a new diary. For me, those are two separate entities: My planner is just for future planning, appointments, schedules; my diary is for noting what actually happens on a daily basis. And I'm talking paper here -- I've tried the digital route, but it just doesn't work for me. I need to write things down.

I have trouble sticking with any ONE planner for a whole year, and tend to switch every few months. Sometimes that's confusing, but it does keep things from getting boring. For the last several years I've been switching back and forth between my various Filofaxes and the Erin Condren Life Planners. I started off 2014 with the Erin Condren, but after a few months I decided to try my personal size Finsbury Filo, and ended up sticking with that for the whole second half of the year. It was super convenient -- I was able to have both my planner and my diary in one very portable book, just by using different divisions (monthly, weekly, daily).  But two things bothered me: There wasn't much space for writing my daily notes, and I missed the colorful content of the Life Planners -- Filo pages are pretty dull if, like me, you're not really into doing a lot of decorating.

So for 2015, I've gone back to Erin Condren, at least to start the year; we'll see how long I last. As usual, I had a hard time deciding on the cover design -- you can do quite a bit of customizing with these planners. I finally came up with a very simple black and white design that I was sure I'd love -- until I actually saw it. When I saw the planner "in person," it was just too stark (and actually sort of funereal).

Taffy cover design in black and white

But the EC covers are now interchangeable (!) so I was able to order a new cover set to replace the first one I ordered. The new one is much more colorful and much more fun to look at everyday.

Fleur Feliz cover design in teal and white

And for my daily notes, here's what I'm using in 2015:

Yes, that's Snoopy under the strap!

It's a Moleskine large daily planner in the Peanuts Limited Edition. It has one page for each day of the year, in a size that's big enough (5 x 8.5) for me to write down all the stuff I write everyday, but small enough to cart around easily. And I'm hoping that since I really love Snoopy and Charlie Brown and all their crew, I'll be inspired to stick with it all year.

And just for the record: I'm in no way affiliated with the Erin Condren folks, Filofax, or Moleskine. I just enjoy using their products. 

Blue Monday: Car Buying Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I haven't been participating in Blue Monday for a while now. Actually, I haven't been participating in anything much when it comes to blogging, lately. My husband Michael retired a couple of months ago, and since then we've been spending most of our time getting our condo in shape to sell later this year. I had no idea being retired was so much work!

We also recently bought our first SUV - a 2011 Ford Escape. And during the several hours we were sitting around at the dealership, doing all the paper work, I had time to notice all the retro-style gas pumps decorating the showroom. Thought this one would be great for Blue Monday since it was such a nice blue color. But the lighting in the place kept me from really capturing the blue, darn it.


And the car was no help, either - it's gray, not blue. Well, there is some blue on the license plate. And blue sky reflected in the windows and trim. Not enough?


OK, I also took some photos of the handbag I had with me that day, and it has some blue in the fabric (which is called "Night Owl" because of all those cute little owls in the print). OK, not much blue, but some.


Oh, and my glasses have blue tips on the ear pieces, too. Does that count?

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Wordless Wednesday: Filos and Friend

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Organizers

Do you use them?

I'm specifically thinking about Filofax "systems" and their ilk. I've got this sudden itch to own one, but they're rather pricey and I'm wondering just how useful it would really be.

I've always kept a personal diary or journal, and I'll continue to do that. I'm not thinking that the Filofax would replace that. I also keep a reading journal, just to keep track of what I'm reading and the number of pages I read per day. This year I'm using one of the Reading Woman engagement calendars by Pomegranate.


It's lovely, with nice smooth, heavy pages for writing, and reproductions of thirty-two paintings that show women reading. And it helps keep this woman reading - the days I don't do any reading are left blank, and I really hate seeing those empty spaces.


But I'm thinking the Filofax would come in handy for organizing more than just my reading life. This year is likely to be a big one for me: hubby retiring, selling the condo (I hope!), buying a new home, moving, and exploring a new area. My year will almost certainly be exciting, but also hectic and chaotic: lots of work and planning and travel and appointments to keep. So you can see I really need that little leather notebook with all those cute - I mean useful inserts and accessories.

Of course, I could use my iPad for all that. Or my "smart" cell phone. They've both got calendar and planner capacities. But I guess I have to admit that, for all my fascination with the new technologies, I'm really a pretty confirmed pen-and-paper type. There's just something about a hand-written list on a real sheet of paper - something visceral that electronic devices just don't provide.

Basically, of course, it's just that I've been bitten by the Filofax bug and I've just got to get my hands on one. And I find I'm not alone in my fascination. I had sort of assumed the non-electronic organizer was a thing of the past. Not so. After doing a little googling, I found there are still loads of people devoted to their Filofaxes, Day Runners, Day-Times, or Franklin Coveys. There are "fan" groups on Facebook and Twitter. There are even Flickr groups, with hundreds of members who've uploaded thousands of photos of their beloved (and lovingly customized) planners. (See Philofaxy, Filofax Joy, For the Love of Filofax, Filomaniac, and Filofans.)

So, after much dithering and hair-pulling, I've finally decided to take the plunge. Now, of course, comes all the dithering and hair-pulling while I decide on style, size, color, where to buy, etc. That's going to be a problem because there's a lot to choose from and I don't do well when I have too many options. Looks like I've got a little more googling to do.

Cross-posted at Joy's Blog.