project life update...

i have been evaluating all areas of my life lately...the next area i wanted to address was my memory keeping...  i have been a scrapbooker since my oldest son, who is now 14 was born,  i have gone through many stages and styles over the years...  the one that i found worked the best for me was the Project Life system by Becky Higgins...  it is very easy to get my hand on supplies...  they are sold in my local Michael,s and AC Moore...  i also can do a little at a time...  I don't have to create one whole big 12x12 spread...  i can just add my 4x6 photo and journal on a 3x4 card and then i am done for that photo...  i have been working in a project life format since 2010...  this year is the first year that i have not worked on m y project life photo...  as life tends to do, it got in the way... i have been having bad fibro flare ups and really have lost any desire to be creative...  so, i have done nothing!!!

a few weeks ago, i came across a post on instagram about heidi swapp...  she has been one of the biggest inspirations to me since i started scrapbooking...  i loved looking at her spreads because we have children around the same age and i just love her style...  the post was regarding the passisng of her 2nd child cory...  this really hit a nerve because i have seen this boy grow up over the years in her pages...  since his passing, she has been talking about the importance of capturing your memories and that she is so happy to have them during this difficult time... (i know that difficult does not begin to describe what the swapp family is going through)...  i have decided that it is time to get off my butt and start capturing memories again...  the photos do not need to be perfect...  i don't need to pose my children...  i want to capture how they are and what they are doing now...  i have started taking photos of the everyday things that are going on around my home...

now, all i need to do is start printing out the photos and putting them into my album...  one of my biggest obstacles in the past, was myself...  it wasn't that i didn't have the time, i didn't think i was creative enough to create a beautiful, magazine worthy spread...  i had lost sight of the most important thing...  preserving my memories of my family...  i am trying to keep this in mind as i delve back into my project life album...  as i go along i will post my spreads here and talk about my project life journey... until next time...

leslie :-)

Planner Update / Etsy Sticker Haul

how fast things change!!!

at the beginning of 2015, i was torn between 3 planners... i have stopped using one of them and now i am currently torn between the remaining two...  they are both erin condren life planners... one is the horizontal layout and the other is the vertical layout...

                                                                          vertical & horizontal life planners


i never thought i would be a spiral bound girl, but to my surprise, i am really liking the spiral binding...  i have also been throwing it into my bag and taking it with me...  that is something i never thought i would do, considering that it is larger than my other planners...  it is large to take in and out of my bag if i need to check my schedule, but that really doesn't happen that often...  when erin condren released the new 2015-2016 planners on june 9, i was all set not to order a new one...  then i saw her new horizontal layout...  i knew right then i was in trouble...  i always thought that i was more of a horizontal planner and that this would be a perfect fit for me, so i ordered 2 (one for me and one for my daughter)...  we ordered the ready-to-ship planners and within a week they had arrived at our home...  my daughter switched over and has not looked back...  she loves it...  it will be a perfect fit for her once school starts up again in septemeber...

                                                                      my daughter's horizontal life planner


i, on the other hand, have not been able to decide which i like better...  this is so shocking to me...  i thought that i would switch over to the horizontal and that would be that...  that is not how it has been working out for me...  i was going to give myself the month of july to figure out which i liked better...  i have been using them both...  it is double the writing and planning, but i want to see which planner is working better for me and which one i enjoy using...  i have been noticing pro's and con's for each of the planners...  now that august is here, i still can not decide which i want to continue using...

                                                                              2015-16 vertical life planner

                                                              2015-16 horizontal life planner


i will be continuing to use both for at least the first week of august...  i will be doing a review of both layouts with the pro's and con's of both of them...  first up will be the vertical...  stay tuned...


fondly,
leslie :-) 

life update... what I have been up to

well, it has been another long while since i have posted here... i always start out with good intentions, but then life gets in the way...  i have decided that posting here is something that is important to me and that i would like to do on a regular basis... i need to make this a priority for myself...  i have been doing a lot of soul searching since the beginning of 2015... i have been on one crazy planner journey since January... but i will go into that in more detail in another post... stay tuned for that one...

the spring is the busiest time for my little family...  we are in full swing lacrosse and soccer mode...  my boys are on multiple lacrosse teams and my daughter is on a travel soccer team...  but lately i have seemed to find a really nice rhythm...  i seem to be very happy and have more time to spend on myself... it has been a long time since that has happened... fourteen years to be exact...  

i also suffer from fibromyalgia...  my neurologist has put me on medication and it is working like a dream...  i haven't had many flair ups in the last 6 months...  also, as a bonus side effect, the medication helps with migraines and i have only had one in the past six months...  that is incredible... i feel like a new person...

since i have been feeling good, i decided now was the time to start on my weight loss journey...  i kept about 10lbs of baby weight with each of my 3 kids and since being diagnosed with fibro, i put on another 10lbs due to not exercising...  i joined weight watchers in March and i am down a total of 8.6lbs to date...  i have to keep reminding myself that rome wasn't built in a day and that i will get there...  

these are some of the topics that i will be sharing here on my blog...  it will be mostly planner related still with some life updates thrown in...  all in all things have been pretty good so far in 2015 and  i look forward to posting here on a more regular basis...  it is nice to be back...

fondly,

leslie

introducing my 2015 planners...

one of my favorite things about a new year is a new planner...  it is almost like the first day of school when i was a kid...  i have always been a stationary lover... some things never change...  lately i have been having a hard time trying to decide what planner i am going to use...  i am in love with 3 planners right now...  what is a girl todo?  

                            my 2015 planners

the first planner that i will be using is my erin condren life planner...  i have been using this planner since august...  it is a good fit for all of the activities that my family has...   

                               erin condren life planner

next is my full-size midori traveler's notebook...  i have my 2015 diyfish day-on-one-page inserts in here...  

                                                midori traveler's notebook

last but not least is the newest addition to my planner family...  i'd like to introduce my field notes sized chic sparrow traveler's notebook or aka my jendori.  i am really loving the smaller size and the yellow paper house inserts that i have purchased for this planner...

                                                                 chic sparrow

i will be writing a detailed post for each  planner shown above...i will also be filming a setup video for each planner that i will be posting to youtube...  so be on the lookout for these up coming posts and videos...  until the next time...

fondly,

leslie :-)

Wow! It has been a while!! Welcome 2015

I want to wish everyone a happy and healthy New Year!!  where is the time going??  2015! ALREADY!!  I also can not believe that I haven't posted on here is 6 months!!  that is crazy!!  I knew it had been a while, but I didn't think it was THAT long...  as I was sitting down to write out my usual new year's resolutions (this year I am calling them GOALS),  I really thought about what was important to me and what I wanted to make a priority this year...  planning has always been a major part in my life...  I have had a planner since I was in elementary school...  I just love to write lists down of any kind...  I have tried to use technology to replace my paper planners, but it just never worked for me... I NEED to write it down...  I have discovered an amazing group of people who share this same love for paper planning... I have truly found it to be a gift...  I love finding inspiration from all of these amazing people I have stumbled across on Instagram and YouTube...  I want to make this a bigger part of my life...  with that being said, one of my goals for 2015 is to blog on a regular basis and post some videos on YouTube more often...  I really enjoy it...  I will be sharing what planning system that I will be using in 2015 in the VERY near future...  look for a post and video soon!!  enjoy your celebrations!!!

fondly,
leslie :-)

filofax & mtn wrap up - week 19

hey everyone - this has been one crazy week here... the warm weather has arrived and hopefully is here to stay...  I had such a nice and relaxing mother's day... in past years, we are running from one game to the next... this year, i only had my daighter's lacrosse game...  not too bad...

on a sad note, there was a tragedy in my community this past weekend...  5 students from our high school were killed in a car crash late friday night... they ranged in age from 14 to 17...  please keep these 5 children in your prayers as well as their families and friends...  it is just so hard to wrap your head around...  

sorry to change gears, but now onto a completely light topic - my Filofax and mtn...  a few weeks ago, i switched back to using my a5 planner in addition to my personal size planner...  this past week, I decided to just use my a5 filofax... I was using my a5 finsbury, but i wanted to change things up a bit, so i moved into my a5 patent purple original ... here is a photo of her...

 a5 filofax original in purple patent leather

i find it smaller and easier to carry than my finsbury...  i also ordered the diyfish 3 month trial for version 2.1 in the a5 size off of etsy...  i only have the day-on-1page inserts because I think that it has the perfect amount of palace for me...  here is my completed week19...

            weekly view and monday

           tuesday & wednesday view

                 thursday & friday view

               saturday & sunday view

i did not decorate week 19... i just wanted to set it up and work with it...  i am missing the weekly chart for week 19 because the download only came with one weekly chart for may... i am making more copies for the rest of the weeks in may...  now here is my week 19 in my midori traveler's notebook...

             week 19 view in my mtn

as you can see I didn't finish out the week in my mtn...  that was when I began switching over into my a5...

well, another week has passed...  see you soon!!

thanks,

leslie :-)

Filofax & MTN wrap up - week 18

 hey everyone... i hope the warm weather is finally reaching your area...  it was in the 60's here this past week... it was wonderful!!!  I have had enough of the cold, windy weather that seems to have been around forever!!  

now onto the planner front... on wednesday, I switched back into to my black patent personal original filofax...  i purchased a new little coach bag that I will be using as a wallet, so I thought it was the perfect time to pull out the original... i love the original, but i have a difficult time using it as a wallet... that is where my malden comes in...  i love to use it as a wallet...  i am thinking of switching planners at the beginning of each month... let's see if i remember this at the beginning of june...  

it really felt like this week flew by...  it just seems like I was writing about my week 17 wrap up... here are my photos for week 17 in my filofax...

                  a5 week on 2 pages 

this was a weird week in my diyfish inserts... april ended on wednesday, so 1/2 the week was in april and the other half in may... i left the pages in their monthly sections and just carried my appointments over to the monthly calendar... here is the weekly chart from the first half of the week...

        weekly view - first half of week

    weekly view & weekly chart - second 

                         half of week

                   monday view

           tuesday & wednesday view

                     thursday view

                 friday & saturday view

                      sunday view

now here is a look at my week in my MTN...

i hope everyone enjoys the warmer weather...  i'll be back soon...

leslie :-)

Filofax & MTN wrap up - week 17

hey everyone - i hope everyone is liking the new layout and design on our blog... my daughter picked it out from an etsy shop called DREAMLIKE MAGIC...  They had the cutest designs...  This was lizzy's favorite one...  she is very into aqua right now and I did not want anything too busy... this was a perfect fit... one of my goals for this year, is to post consistently on our blog and our other social media accounts...  last week went well, so let's see if I can keep this up...  

we had a relatively quiet weekend as far as sports were concerned... only 3 games...  it was a nice change for us...  i was able to get some chores done that normally have to wait until the week...  now onto the good stuff... my filo and MTN...

                       my A5 finsbury

i have to say that i really enjoyed using my a5 again... i didn't realize how much I missed her...  

          weekly layout & weekly chart

                     monday view

           tuesday & wednesday view

                 thursday & friday view

                saturday & sunday view

now i am onto my diyfish inserts for my midori traveler's notebook...  i can not say enough how much i love these inserts...  they are fantastic...  the layout is great...

              weekly view in my MTN 

i hope that everyone has a great week... finally the weather is starting to feel a bit like spring around here... yay!!!

leslie 😄

diyfish inserts for my midori traveler's notebook

today I went to staples to print out my diyfish inserts for my midori traveler's notebook... i am a HUGE fan of fish's inserts... i use them in my filofax and now in my midori... i just love the layout... i use my inserts to keep track of all my social media information... i will be going over exactly HOW i use them...

now back to the inserts... i ordered them off of diyfish's etsy shop... she has a tremendous selection of inserts... i purchased the inserts for midori traveler's notebook in regular size... i also selected the inserts for may - august... they print out 4 months per notebook... when you purchase the inserts, you will receive 3 files to download... The first 2 files you will receive will be the inserts - one in A4 paper size and one in letter size... the last file contains printing instructions...

once you download the files, it is time to print them out... i do not have the best printer... so i had my inserts printed out at staples...  it cost me $3.49 to print out the whole set on letter sized paper...  the one suggestion that i have for printing out the inserts at staples...  you should print them out head to toe... otherwise, they will not print correctly... 

after printing the next step is to fold them... i first try and fold them in half and flip through, so i have an idea of how they will go together in the notebook... i use my scor-buddy for this step...

                                            folding my inserts

the inserts are marked with a marks that you use to guide your scoring...  i scor the pages in sections... once i am done scoring all the pages, i begin to bind the notebook...

there are several different techniques that you can use to bind your notebooks... i opt for the easiest one, which is to staple it... this is another step that i do at staples, because they have a long reaching stapler that i use... the other item you will need at this point is a file folder...i use a plain-colored one... i line the the scored part of the inserts with the fold portion of the folder...  then I begin to staple... 

                                       binding the notebook

i attached the notebook together in 3 places... on the outer sides and once in the middle...  i also staple on the outside of the notbook...  be sure to place your staples INSIDE of the cutting area... now for the cutting... this, for me, is the hardest part...

                                      cutting the notebook

you need to be very careful when cutting the inserts... i cut my finger this time... so, back to staples i went and had them trim it for me...  you can use a paper trimmer or a craft knife, ruler and cutting mat... either way will work, so do what you feel more comfortable with... here is the final result...

                                                    cover

                                          inside notebook

i hope you enjoyed this post and decide to try these inserts...  til next time...

leslie :-)

Week 16 - Wrap up

This was one crazy week!!  my kids were on vacation from school this week and I was running all over the place with them... I also had Easter dinner at my house for about 20 people... so there was a lot of cooking and cleaning going

on... there was some major planning going on at the beginning of the week, but then I just fell off the planning wagon...  i did learn that if I have a lot going on, the one thing that I can not let slip is my planning... without it I did miss some items that we needed...  let's see if i learn from this... so enough of that... now into my planner pages...  first up my Diyfish personal size inserts for my Malden...

       Weekly planner and weekly chart

                       Monday view

        Tuesday and Wednesday views

             Thursday and Friday views

           Saturday and Sunday views

As you can see, Saturday and Sunday are looking pretty bare...  

now onto my midori traveler's notebook weekly view for week#16

                 MTN week16 view

I also decided this week that I missed using my A5 finsbury... so I pulled her jot and decorated her...  here is what she looked like at the end of the week...

              A5 Filofax weekly setup 

 

that is all for week #16...  very happy to have my kids back at school and some

time to finally write this post... until next time...

Leslie :-)

Week 13 Wrap Up for my Filofax & Midori

Hey everyone... This has been one crazy week...  My kids sports have started in full force and I am all over the place... I am finally getting a chance to blog about my completed week 13 in my Filofax and my Midori.   Here we go:  

a view of my weekly view, my project life section, meal planning and my weekly chart. 

This is the view of Monday:

This is the view of Tuesday & Wednesday:

This is the view of Thursday & Friday:

This is the view of Saturday & Sunday:

 

Now for a look at my completed week of my Diyfish inserts  in my Midori Traveler's Notebook:

One thing that I really love about the Diyfish inserts, is that I can always see my weekly view and my monthly view (which you can't see in the pictures). 

Well, I hope everyone has a great ending to their week.  Hopefully, I will be able to get my weekly post up sooner than Friday next week!!  Here's to hoping.,,

Leslie :-)

Week 12 - Wrap Up

    Hey everyone-  this post is a little late... I would have liked it to have gone up yesterday, but I had to take my youngest to the doctor... He has had a terrible xough over the weekend... Turns out he has brochitis...  So I have been hanging with him most of the time... (He is the snugglieat of my kids and loves to cuddle when he is sick)... Now back to the important stuff... Filofax!!  LOL!!

    Here are the photos for my completed Week 12:

       My weekly view and weekly chart

                          Monday

            Tuesday and Wednesday

                Thursday and Friday

                Saturday and Sunday

     I will also be including the completed week 12 in my DIYFish inserts for my Midori Traveler's Notebook. 

              Week 12 in my MTN

     I'll see you back her next week with my completed Week 13. Have a great week!!!

Leslie :-)