New Year + New Semester = New Planner

My second semester at Iowa State is officially in full swing! I arrived back on campus last night and spent the night unpacking all of my stuff before climbing into bed in our newly reorganized room. Our beds are now bunked which means that there is so much more space to live and enjoy.

Over winter break one thing I made sure to think about and ultimately purchase was a new planner. I have always utilized a planner to write down my homework and keep dates and in general my life organized. I knew that this would be a very valuable tool in entering my second semester.

Last year I invested in a personalized Erin Condren planner with tons of pictures from the previous year covering it. While I loved the personalized aspect of this planner I disliked the layout that I had chosen. When ordering my planner I had chosen the vertical layout (each day broken up into three sections most likely to distinguish time during the day) but for me personally this wasn't a logical way to stay organized. As a student I need a decent amount of space to write my assignments down whereas the time during the day isn't as applicable. Don't get me wrong, they can be perfect for other people but I decided to change it up and I am so glad.

While I could have just ordered another one for this year and changed the layout, I decided to see what options there were that would be cheaper. I had heard that Michael's craft store sold a brand of planners so one day I decided to check it out. Sure enough, Michael's carries "The Happy Planner" by Create 365 in many variations. They have the classic (medium) style as well as the mini and the big style. The planners also come with many different covers, fun quote pages, and a few different layouts. I fell in love with the idea of the mini planner since I could easily carry it in my purse and it utilized a horizontal layout leaving me plenty of room to write in.

I chose the MINI Happy Planner in the style "Big City Brights":

The Happy Planner

The Happy Planner

The Happy Planner

If you know me, I have a thing for polka dots so this cover fit my style and personality perfectly. I love the simplicity of it just saying "2017" on it as well. When I purchased this planner I also grabbed a sticker pack by Create 365 and pack of planner stamps. I am already loving using this planner and I have been able to experiment with decorating it and organizing it in different ways.

One of my favorite parts of this planner is the rings and how the pages work with them. The pages are punched so that they have little cuts that allow them to be taken out and then "snapped" back into the planner. Create 365 also sells a punch that allows you to take any paper, punch it, and add it into your planner. I love this feature because if I need space to decorate a page or write in it, I can take the page out and then put it right back in without any worry of losing it.

Another one of the fun parts of this planner is the opening pages to each month. For each month there is a full large calendar, a monthly snapshot page, and a unique and uplifting quote. The snapshot page provides a space to write down birthdays, goals, important dates, and reminders which is super helpful for a quick overview of the whole month. The designs for each quote page are so different, colorful, and fun. They are a truly great way to start of the month feeling inspired and happy!

Whole Month Calendar

Monthly Snapshot and Quote

Monthly Quote

Over break I spent some time decorating the pages of my planner with stickers and stamps. There is a whole movement of people decorating their planners and designing stickers especially for them. Since I don't have a fancy printer to make and cut stickers I decided to print out the designs on paper and glue them into my planner. These designs added a special, personalized touch without costing anything! Here are the first two pages:

This whole page was dedicated to New Years since it was the week leading up to 2017! I found this super cute and amazing printable HERE from Three Cheers + Co and I love how classy and artsy it made my page look. There were fun sayings, a sticker for resolutions, fun tags, and more. For this week, since I didn't have any homework, I filled up the space with things I did each day and fun memories.

This picture shows the pages for the next week before I filled them in. The printable is from Planner Addiction and can be found HERE. The tropical theme made me long for warmer days which I got a little bit of when I traveled to Atlanta. In an attempt to stick with my goal of drinking more water, I added water trackers for each day. I included schedules for each day that I was at a conference and plenty of space to write down things I needed to remember to pack and such. I have now completed these pages and I just love how they look!

I am officially obsessed with my new planner and decorating it! Pinterest has been an awesome way to find inspiration for how to decorate and organize my planner as well as find free printable stickers. I look forward to using my planner daily and making it MINE! Thanks for listening to me geek out about planners :)

Much Love,

Madison

#LIFESTYLE