Design Love Planner Review

I am so excited to tell you guys about this planner! 

This is the one I chose to be my official planner for 2015.

I went through a bit of a planner roller coaster this year, first I bought the Lilly Pulitzer agenda, then I bought the Kate Spade agenda, and then I finally found my planner sole mate! 

It's crazy how much my taste changes, but I'm so glad I finally found the perfect planner for me!
Let's be honest, picking a planner is a big deal. It's the item you're going to be using every day for an entire year,  you'll take it along with you everywhere, and it will either make or break your organization goals. So because of all of those reasons, it's so important to chose the one that's right for you.

WHAT I LOVE

The layout of the planner // I cannot emphasize the importance of this enough! I absolutely love that this planner has the traditional monthly view, a unique weekly view, and a to-do list section for each day of the year. 
The daily to-do lists // I'm a person who is constantly writing to-do lists. I love the feeling of getting things done and checking things off as I go! So having a to-do list section is life changing!
The ribbon bookmarks // They're adorable and super handy for quickly flipping to pages.
The gold foil details // The perfect planner not only has to be functional, but it also has to look pretty!
The spiral bounding // This makes it so much easier to write in because you can flip the pages easily and fold the planner in half! I hate having to keep a planner flat and hold down the pages while I'm trying to write.
The thick paper // This planner is made with thick quality paper, not the cheap flimsy stuff! It's perfect because pens (specifically marker pens) don't bleed through the pages.
The stripes // I have an obsession with stripes, I think that's pretty clear by now.
The monthly art prints // Each month in the planner has a cute print which you can either leave in or tear out!
The pockets // There's not one but two pockets for sticking all your necessities in! This is huge for me.
The user guide // In the beginning of the planner there's a note from the designer, an introduction, and instructions on how to best utilize the Design Love Co. planner! I found this to be super helpful and a nice added touch.
The monthly goals & budget pages // I have yet to see this in a planner, until now. It's yet another way to stay organized, and plan out your spending each month.

WHAT I DON'T LOVE

The gold foil issues // I've only been using the planner for a month, and the gold foil is already coming off. I'm super bummed about this because I love the gold accents throughout the planner.

The overall size // Although I love that I can stick this planner in my purse, I don't love that there isn't always enough room for writing everything down. I would love for Design Love Co. to offer a bigger size for the 2016 planner.

The limited quantity // It seems like they either didn't make enough of these planners, or had overwhelming success selling them, because they sold out super quickly. You can find the odd one on eBay or another secondary seller but for the most part these babies are hard to find. Design Love Co. did say they'd have more planners available in the coming months, but I'm sure it'll be a very limited quantity.

Overall, I love love love this planner! It caters to my to-do list obsession, helps me stay organized, and looks super cute!

Tell me about your 2015 planner!

These pictures are not mine, they were borrowed from the Design Love Co. 

To Do List

Most kids on their Thanksgiving Break sit around, watch tv constantly, eat food, and waste this week we get off from school on stupid stuff. Don't get me wrong, I will definitely be eating more than my fair share and probably more than I should  on Turkey Day. But there's just something in me that drives me to be productive on my days off. I've always been a person who just has to be doing something. For example, I almost feel restless or guilty when I watch a movie and don't have my laptop in front of me working away at something. Granted, I'd probably get very little done, and I'm usually way more interested in the movie than what I'm working on, but its just that fulfillment of at least trying to work on a task.

So with that said, I have created a to do list  for things I want to complete on my time off.

Do you have a to do list you're working on at the moment?

Lilly Pulitzer Binder Covers

In honor of everyone going back to school, whether to middle, high school, or college everyone needs a binder or two (or 5!) to help get them organized for the upcoming year. If you are lucky enough to have already completed all your schooling then this post could still apply to you! You could use these binder covers for reports, or at home organization, like recipes or organizing finances (fun fun!).

I honestly hate using binders, just because they become heavy heavy heavy with paper, but they are great for organization, and many of my teachers require them this year so I had to give in. So I was determined to make them look as pretty as possible and I have succeeded!!

 

Here's how to do it!

1. Google Lilly Pulitzer patterns, pick out your favorites, try to pick the ones that are big (1,000 x 1,000)
2. Copy the image
3. Open up Word and paste the image onto a new Word document
4. Rotate the image if needed, and expand it to cover the entire page (I couldn't get mine to fill the entire page so I left a couple inches of empty space at the bottom of the page and just cut it off when I printed it
5. Once you get the image to fill as much of the page as you can, insert a text box, where a title is going to be, and type in what you'd like it to say (Chemistry, Recipes, etc.)
6. For an extra bit of pizazz match the color of your title to the Lilly pattern you picked!
7. Print, punch in holes if needed, and enjoy!!