When this event was announced, I don’t know if I truly believed it was a real thing. It seemed too awesome to have an entire hotel full of people who are as passionate, inspired, creative, and (let’s face it) borderline obsessed with planning as myself. Add to that it was a creation of the (in?)famous 🙂 FB group Planners Gone Wild (PGW as we loving refer to it) and was being hosted in New Orleans… *Mind blown*
So the day of ticket release happens, I log on and 100% not believing I would actually be able to get a ticket and the website would crash because when PGW-ers know about a planner related release, we are well known for overwhelming the internet. To my utter surprise, not only did the site not crash (first sign this was going to be more amazing than anyone could comprehend) but I got a ticket. *CRAPCRAPCRAP* I justified it by the fact that it was occurring the exact same weekend as my birthday and with a gentle arm twisting I also convinced a planner bestie of mine she definitely couldn’t miss out on this craziness. Thank’s FOMO. 😛
There was so much hype prior to ticket release… and it only increased steadily as we waited for that weekend in May. So much preparation on all of our accounts. But I will tell you it still didn’t feel real. Not when I requested off work. Not as we googled hotels and decided we had to stay at the convention center’s Marriott to really soak up the fun. Not when flights were found and booked. Not as I packed and repacked and unpacked and freaked out about packing so I eventually just threw everything I owned that would fit in two bags. Not as I tried diligently to explain what exactly I was attending and why it was even a ‘thing’. I don’t think I even quite grasped what was about to occur sitting on the plane flying to Nola.
What I can tell you is that that weekend was everything. Literally. As Naina (like China but apparently not really!) so aptly put it “I feel like I’m in Vegas and Disney World and stickers all in one place” I still don’t think people will “get” it unless they are themselves a planner but this video goes above and beyond to describe the amazingness that we all got to experience. We were spoiled rotten and amazed by the event coordinators at literally every turn. There was not a single thing they didn’t think of and choreograph like only a llama could.
Every speaker, every sponsor, every volunteer, every attendant, even the staff at the Marriot… it was almost too much to comprehend. We are all so thankful and subsequently in a post-Geaux wild mourning period because there really is nothing like being surrounded by an entire community who GET you. who INSPIRE you. who ENCOURAGE you. who CRACK YOU UP. who make a hobby you have always loved EVEN MORE TO LOVE… It was everything.
I am so thankful that I was able to be a part of the first annual Wild for Planners #geauxwild #geauxwildorgohome #geauxwildconf #geauxwildnola #geauxwild2016 #nosureiwilleverspellgeauxgoagain
THANK YOU TO AMAZING WOMAN WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE!
THANK YOU TO A COMMUNITY OF AMAZING WOMEN WHO JOINED ME IN THIS ADVENTURE!
THANK YOU FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME!
This video will likely top a million views if not only from Geaux Wild survivors reminiscing and trying to recapture the feeling of being there daily… for the next ~365 days… until we can do it all again!
So at a planner meet up (yes, this is a real thing, planners who get together to drool over each others planners and talk planner talk and say things like ‘you can’t sit at our table’… <3) it was requested that I use my blog to talk about where I get all my crazy amounts of supplies. Today's request was for stamps. So here is you promised blog on Stamps!
I am not the most artistic person but stamps allow you to be faux artistic (that actually sounds pretty posh) and it should ideally help you save money by not buying as many stickers… in my case, not so much, but I can see it helping more logical less impulsive buyers! When it comes to stamps there is a wild world of stamps out there to be bought.
The most obvious places to start are your craft stores… Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Joanns, etc. Joann’s is usually my go to place. For one, they are ALWAYS doing 50% stamping supplies (like right now) and I buy online because the selection is wayyyy bigger. Specifically, they have Versa Magic individual inks (the best ink by far) on sale always for less than $1.50!!! You can go to the versa website and print out the color chart and then pick what magical rainbow of Versa match up for colors coordinated with the monthly themes for EC. I have a copy of it somewhere if anyone is to lazy to look for it. 🙂 Joann’s has Inkadinkado, Fiskars, Hero Arts, Lawn Fawn, Avery Elle, and many more. Those are some of my favorites. They include letter stamps and mostly decorative stamps. There’s also fun stamps like this one Inner Demons To die for!
My advice is never buy stamps from craft stores unless they are on sale or with coupons. They will always be on sale sooner or later!
Another great store for planner stamps is Simon Says Stamp they have a great selection and ship relatively fast! You can browse their site but Waffleflower, Penny Black, Lawn Fawn, etc… are all GREAT decorative stamps. They also sell ‘planner stamps’ like the ones from Marion Smith that have icons and lists stamps that are more directed at planner stamping.
Another awesome shop is Pink and Main they have fabulous planner stamps and decorative stamps with super fast shipping.
Some of the more exclusive stamps come from Mommylhey Designs Mommy Lhey her shop is down until the 15th when she is having her new release. You can follow her on instagram and youtube to see some of her awesome designs. She has kawaii icons, decorative stamps, and a whole slew of just adorable one of kind stamps that you will see tons of stamper planner people drooling over. She has a coupon code ‘welcome10’ for 10% off that usually works. She also has a Facebook group for news and sometimes coupon codes.
Some other shops are Studio l2e StudioL2e, Mama elephant (who you can find on Simon Says and sometimes in craft stores), Sweet stamp shop Sweet Stamp Shop, and Sweet V’s Stamps V’s Sweet Ideas.
Then there are some etsy stores that feature stamps including TinyStampsBigPlans (ship from Australia but ship relatively fast), Annies Paper Boutique, Atieler Dreams, MsKimmCreates, Prettyinpinkxoxo, and bellacreationz4u.
My advice is to first join a facebook stamping group so you can see some designs and find out which planner stamps you want ideally. One of the best Stamping Facebook groups is Planner Stamping. Then follow some of the stampers on Youtube because they will show you the stamps in action and you can see some great design ideas! I recommend Meredith Plans and Vanessa Vergara but there are tons more!
As an added addition you can find some of the stamps (Avery Elle, Hero Arts, Lawn Fawn, to name a few) on Amazon so if you are a die hard Amazon freak like me that works out well! 🙂 Lawn Fawn sells sets that come with exact replica die cuts as well if that’s something you need.
I would steer clear from Heidi Swapp stamps, theres a reason they are always on clearance. They just don’t stamp well.
And I googled but couldn’t find the ink splatter stamps you girls were using tonight but I believe, if memory serves me correctly, they are recollections and can definitely be found in craft stores!
If you guys aren’t already on the ebates train, get on it! If you shop through the ebates site you get monies back and they include amazon, etsy, joanns, michaels, etc. Ask me and I can send you my recommendation code so I can get some money back for referrals! Lord knows I need some monies back to my cc bills!
Can’t wait to see what you guys stamp up!!!!
XOXO
Sarah
I have been on an organizing kick lately and so it only seems fitting to post a blog showing my creation space… my office. I made a commitment to myself when I moved back from Florida to keep a tidy office and leave my laptop out of my bedroom and so far I am doing pretty well! In order to keep my space clean though, I feel like it has to be visually appealing. Just like with planners… I am more likely to look at my schedule and to do’s if it is in a pretty planner and fun to look at. So, without further ado, my office! I racked my brain and scoured the internet before posting this blog looking at others blogs and video tours of their planning supply organization and craft areas. I came to two conclusions; 1) I’m not everybody else so I can have my own style 2) I am not good at making videos. At least not yet. So I took some photos instead. Hope you enjoy and are inspired to organize your own areas!
Where the magic happens 🙂 Notice the Target Dollar Spot Haul supplies as decoration!
So here is my desk… God bless Ikea for letting us create our own spaces. It’s as if that place was made for planners. You will see the name Ikea more than a couple times throughout my blog. I love that place. I got two drawer units and a table top from Ikea and made my own desk. I feel like it’s a large enough space to utilize without being overbearing. Of course in a dream world I would have an L shaped desk that took up half the room but this is reality and I am working with the space I have. O:)
My laptop doesn’t leave my desk. It’ s a HP Envy, the first non-Vaio I’ve had, and while I am not a huge fan of the new Windows I like the size of my laptop and it definitely holds it’s own with the amount of damage I do downloading and saving files. Pinterest, WordPress, Facebook, Instagram, and Google+ are all neatly settled in my favorites bar ready for me to surf the internet for hours on end!
I won’t show you all the drawers because they aren’t all planner related. This drawer dutifully holds my electronics; my camera, camcorder, Pringo photo printer, and label maker. It’s also home to my 6 hole punch which is a Japanese import you can easily purchase on Amazon and adjusts to punch holes for all three sizes of Filofax! It can be found here. I also have a recently purchased flag punch, binder clips, pen loops, paper clips (who knew I would one day pine over paper clips), and an assortment of charms as I recently started making my own planner charms.
This is where I display my planners… the highlight of the room! The shelving unit is also from Ikea and is meant for the back of a desk but was repurposed with the help of a good friend to fit on my old dresser so I could show my entire collection! ❤
In this mix we have several Filofax (Domino, Saffiano, Finsbury) in different sizes and colors, a Heidi Swapp planner used as a memory planner, a Heidi Swapp planner used as a blog planner, the Happiness Planner, a Get to Workbook, a gold Lovedoki, two fauxdoris, Websters Pages Color Crush planners, two journaling prompt books, and my Listers Gotta List notebook. And can’t forget some of the most useful money I ever spent… my laminator! Extremely inexpensive considering the use it gets!
In my dresser, I have one drawer full of paper (A4, letter, photo paper. Pringo paper, cardstock, etc) and extra print cartridges [not pictured]. Then I have a one drawer dedicated to my personal size inserts and one for my A5 inserts. Personal size inserts are stored in a mix of Target Dollar Spot accordion folders, a color crush planner box (great for storage!), and an Avery mini binder filled with folders and mini sheet protectors. The A5 inserts are also stored in mini binders with file inserts made from scrapbook paper as shown in a previous blog to accommodate the size of the inserts. I have my Passion Planner stored in here also as I have unbound certain sections and periodically used them in my A5 Filofax. I just used binder rings to bind my collection of dividers and dashboards neatly together. I also store another mini binder in this drawer with sheet protectors containing acrylic stick on stamps sorted by type and a small dollar haul accordion file containing some journal cards that I printed out from Pinterest.
Now this beauty is a new family member… it was actually a gift from a friend and also another Ikea find. It’s called the Sprutt and it was found in the closet and shoe storage section of Ikea. It is a 6 drawer unit that is made of metal like a high school locker. I just found a pretty font and printed out labels glued to blue scrapbook paper for the front label section. The unit goes back approximately 12 inches and the drawers are nice and deep!
The six drawers contain 1) notebooks 2) stickers 3) post its/sticky notes 4) page flags 5) stamps 6) ink.
I’m a lucky girl! I just got this over the weekend and he even built it too! 😛
Then in the corner of my room I have a drawer unit from Hobby Lobby that was in my bedroom in Florida that I have repurposed as a printer stand since I now use my dresser as a display for my planners. And the room would not be complete without my Ikea Raskog. For less than $45, this cart comes in so handy as you can stock it with current supplies and move it around not only your office but your house and it tucks away neatly in a closet when I am cleaning up. I use the top section for pens, scissors, hole punches, glue, etc. The second shelf contains some more stickers and washi tape (all my pink themed stickers and washi as I am going through a phase where I feel it is necessary to have my decorations match the patent cover of my Filofax…. it’s really hard….). Then the third shelf contains small containers (also from Ikea) with all my remaining washi tape. The green container is actually full of black, gold, and tan washi tape sectioned out for when my Nude Original arrives… I am telling you… this color coordination thing has a grip on me right now!
Well I hope that you enjoyed my photo tour. I am proud to say that no matter how messy I make this room while planning and decorating, I always make sure to leave it tidy before I close the door. This is a big deal for me considering my innate ability to be a clutter bug. 🙂 I take pride in this room though and since it is where I spent a large percentage of my time outside of work and sleep, I feel it deserves to be well taken care of. 😀
I am on a mission to blog consistently this month so what better excuse to hit up the Target Dollar Spot!?! Normally, I find nothing and leave swearing I will never waste my time again because clearly all the cool dollar spot stuff is simply a myth. Well not this time… I went to a Target out by my work and further out from Atlanta and I found ALL THE THINGS. Well not all…. but PLENTY! And I even scored some for my cousin in England!! #bestcousinever
So recently I feel like I found the end of the internet as I think I mentioned. It’s like I ran out of things to be amazed by and I feel disheartened as between Pinterest, Instagram, Bloglovin’, Facebook, etc… I am bombarded by all things planning all day. I really wanted to reorganize my office though because everytime I sit down to decorate or plan I get up to find my office looks like a crime scene so clearly I could better organize and hopefully not have to empty my entire desk and closet only to put it all away again at the end.
I scoured the internet looking for videos and blogs. I found a few. Most people have videos that show their neat desk with a couple drawers and three packs of stickers a few washi tape rolls and some scrapbook paper and it you wonder how on earth their planners look so amazing with their tiny supply kit! I could have access to an entire Michaels AND a Hema store and still not produce something so pretty. The other blogs just had brief descriptions with no pictures (the voice in my head sayinng uh huh suuuuure you’re organized!)
Anyway, I figured maybe I could finally blog about something I haven’t seen a million times and be a little original. It’s been an all night event (but my perfect way of spending the evening) so I won’t post the entire she-bang. I sat down and wrote out all the things I would need to find homes for…
Then I realized INSERTS! Inserts are my biggest problem. I can find homes for washi tape, stickers, post its, etc… pens are easy to put in cups… but those darn inserts… they end up crammed in drawers and then I can never find what I am looking for when I need it. So I put my brain in gear and found a pretty cool way to organize inserts. Personal size inserts are easy to sort in accordion files but A5 inserts seem to disappear in to the legal size accordion files we have over here. It may be easier to find storage solutions in the UK but A5 isn’t a size in the US so I had to get creative.
I used small binders (like the ones you can get from Avery or the Dollar Target Spot if you have a good Target supply), scrapbook paper and tape. That’s all. I found old scrapbook paper that I have had forever and has been collecting dust under my bed and matched up pieces.
Then I laid an A5 size piece of paper on top and traced around it with enough space to punch holes on the left side and some room on the right.
Once the paper was cut, I lined the two pieces up and cut a diagonal edge off of the top sheet just like a folder and taped the whole thing together on all edges. A few hole punches down the side and viola! We have a divider that fits in an Avery small binder but is also big enough to hold A5 papers!
I made several more and the end result is rather lovely. A neat tidy binder full of Filofax A5 inserts organized by type! This one is a 1 1/2 inch binder I found at Target. I liked the system so much I made two others with random inserts and then a binder with sheet protectors to organize my customized personal size inserts so I could just flip through and find what I needed easily. I also found some large gold rings and hooked all my dividers and dashboards together.
I was on such a roll I even reorganized my Raskog cart. 😇
And now, with all my planning supplies neatly in their place (until I change my mind and reorganize) it’s time for bed!
I'm British, So Filofax 