July 25, 2016

Play Pretties Review: A Melancholy Moose

I don't think it is any secret that I am a Harry Potter fan.  If it was, it ain't now!

I listened to all the books on audio and fell in love with the characters just like everyone else.  My favorite character in the story is Luna Lovegood.  I just love Luna!

Recently, I read someone 's post on Facebook about an Etsy shop that sells Harry Potter sticker kits. I've seen some kits in the past but always hated the colors.   The pictures that were posted were enough to get me to click over to the shop site and I am soooo glad I did!

A Melancholy Moose is a sticker shop that specializes in hand drawn, whimsical drawings on her stickers.  The artwork is amazing and so very cute!

Look at this!




So cute!  It's all hand drawn!

She has several different Harry Potter-inspired kits as well as other fun kits and functional stickers.  The paper she uses is a matte, non-removable finish.  My crappy iPhone camera would never be able to do the colors of her stickers justice but you'll just have to take my word for it.

As soon as I saw her Luna Lovegood-inspired kit, I knew it had to be mine!  Just look at these illustrations!


The colors are so pretty!

I also ordered these really cute and slightly snarky cat stickers for those days when things on your to-do list just won't get done.


When I placed my order, she was offering a free Limited Edition Harry Potter Birthday sampler since July is Harry's birth month.  You knew that right???

Look at Hagrid!


The shipping was fast and the package was decorated with other cute little stickers.  I'd recommend this shop to any Harry Potter planner fan out there!

Check out A Melancholy Moose's Instagram for a discount code too!

***I added this link to the All Things Planner link up hosted at Planner Squad!***


All Things Planners Link-Up Party

July 22, 2016

Meet Pippa, a Plum Paper Planner

I have stalled on the blogging simply because I got soooo danged frustrated over the pictures I am able to take.  I don't have a fancy camera so I am stuck depending on my iPhone camera which no matter what their commercials tell you, the pictures are crap.  I want to show you all the beautiful colors of my layouts and stickers and it just isn't working for me.  All I can do is say sorry they are crap and keep trying though.  I hope you'll hang in here with me.

Now onto the planner.  I have a new one.

I'd like to introduce Pippa, my new Plum Paper planner.  Anyone that's known me for any length of time will probably be able to figure out where that name came from but if not, I am a fan of the British Royal Family and I named my Pippa after Duchess Kate's sister, Pippa Middleton.  I already have one planner named Kate Middleton so I might as well have one named after her sister, right?

I have gone through several planner set ups and never could find one I really fell in love with.  Pippa is probably the closest thing to "love" or planner peace I have found.

If you've never heard of Plum Paper before, I urge you to run (after you finish reading my post, of course) to their website and check out all of their beautiful designs.  You can change the colors of the covers, add names or monograms, or even add a picture.  I love whales so when I saw this cover, I knew I wanted it.  I did change the colors slightly on mine though.  I asked them to use one of my favorite color combinations - aqua blue and red.  It's not a bright, bright red or even a "Georgia" red, but it will do.


Aren't those little whales cute?  The covers are water proof and tear resistant and the pattern is on the front and the back of the planner.

Pippa starts in July and runs through June 2017.  You can choose to build your planner with a date range of 12 - 18 months and have it start in any month you'd like.  That's an awesome feature for those just getting into planning and you don't want to waste half a planner, or students/teachers needing a planner that starts in the middle of a year.

Each month has its own color divider and the tabs are laminated and heavier paper is used.


Each month has a goals and notes page at the beginning.  I've only decorated this section a little bit, nothing jaw dropping for sure.



Then there is a monthly view.  This is my very first time ever decorating a monthly view.  I used pieces from my latest Planner Society kit on both the goals/notes section and the monthly view.


You can choose a vertical or horizontal layout when you build your planner.  I am not a fan of vertical.  I feel that there is not enough room for my handwriting so I opted for a horizontal setup that gives you a notes page on the left side and the weekly view on the right.  You can also get a horizontal week on two pages, if you'd prefer.  I really LOVE having the notes page to go along with the week view.  Here is an example of how I decorated a notes page.


Again, fan of the Royal Family and no surprise who I think we should all vote for this election year.  This was also the week of the shooting of the two black men and the Dallas police officer shootings so when I saw this quote from Dr. King posted on Facebook, I printed it off and glued it in.  I wanted to remember what was going on and I plan to do more of that from now on.

Here is the layout I used last week.



First picture is the left side notes section and the second picture is the actual week layout on the right side in the planner.

I used stickers from CandLCrafts1 on Etsy and washi from my Planner Society kit.

I really recommend Plum Paper for those looking to have a more customized planner.  They also have sections like budgeting, fitness, home management, to name a few, that you can add in the planner for a small fee.  The only section I added for mine was a larger notes section at the back.  So far I have used it to keep track of Etsy shop business cards or discount codes I can use on future orders.

Very happy with the Plum Paper planner so far.  The only downside I've run into is there are not a lot of Etsy shops that sell weekly sticker kits for it.  Etsy is dominated with Erin Condren sticker shops but hopefully there will be more and more shops that offer a PPP or Plum Paper Planner version of their kits.

So now you've met Pippa!