Shop Review: Once More With Love

The Bean was picked to be on her school's Science Olympiad team!  Yay Nerd Child!

She recently started planning with me although she goes in spurts with it.  She asked me to find some stickers that she could use to keep track of the team's practices.

Off down the deep dark rabbit hole that is Etsy I went.

I stumbled upon these little mad scientists from Once More With Love.  Look at them.

I've been following Margaret and OMWL on Instagram and Facebook for awhile.  Her hand drawn characters are called Munchkins and a lot of other planners had raved about her stickers.  I can see why now.  They are super cute and you kinda want to collect them all.

We also picked out these cute octopus Chore stickers.  There have been some behavioral problems and grade issues lately so the Bean and I need to get on track and these will help her to remember what she is responsible for every week.

Habit trackers to get me on track too.

And talk about a dirty habit...laundry.  It never ends.  At least these make me smile.

And to reward myself for keeping up with laundry and habits...Etsy order stickers!!!

Once all the chores are done, we have Family Time stickers to remember that's all that really matters anyways, right?

You can customize these Munchkins for the number of Munchkins you have in your own family.

Everything came in an adorable envelope and wrapped in paper with even more cute doodles and my name written all fancy pants!

I'm going to do something with these doodles, just not sure what yet.

And to top it all off, this cute sampler was included.

I will definitely order again from Once More With Love.  I can't wait to get these down in my planner.

You can follow Margaret on Instagram for shop news and join her exclusive Facebook group for discount codes and sales notices.

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!***

SunshineNBliss Shop Review

I think maybe I have found THE ONE.

Meet my Sunshine Dori.

Isn't she the cutest???  I absolutely LOVE the vintagey-kitschy fabric print.

What is a Sunshine Dori though?

A dori or traveler's notebook is a completely customisable notebook that is made out of leather or fabric.  The idea is to be able to easily keep track of notes, calendars, and journaling while traveling. When you have one made out of fabric like this, it is also called a fauxdori.  Some shops that make and sell fabric doris come up with their own cute names too.  I bought this one from an Etsy shop called SunshineNBliss so it is called a Sunshine Dori.

I had never heard of traveler's notebooks or TNs, or doris until a few months ago.  I started seeing pictures of them in planner groups and at first I wasn't sold.  Why would anyone want something like this when you could have a pretty planner from Happy Planner or a set up in a Kikki?

Then I joined a few journaling challenges like Listers Gotta List from The Reset Girl and Quoted from Analog Stationers.  I never could decide where in my planner to add in my daily entries for these challenges.  I tried a couple of setups in photo albums, regular notebooks and journals and discarded planner pages but I didn't like any of those options.  In the planner groups I would see others making really beautiful layouts in TN inserts.  After looking into TNs and fauxdoris, I realized exactly how much I could make this set up my own.  My 109th birthday came around and I was given some elusive spendoolics and the search for the perfect dori started.

I knew I wanted something with a vintage feel to it but I also usually go for bright, cute patterns.  I stumbled across SunshineNBliss's listing for this Sunshine Dori and I fell in love.

I reached out to the shop owner late on a Friday night with questions about sizes.  I really did not expect to hear back from them until the next day or even Monday because honestly, who else is spending their Friday nights trolling Etsy?  Evidently Karee spends her Friday nights the same way!

Karee, the shop owner, replied back to me almost immediately and answered my questions.  She even sent pictures with her doris next to other planners so that I could figure out the sizing.  Once the order was placed I didn't even bother ordering inserts because I did not think the dori would arrive so quickly.  In the shop description, Karee says the turnaround time is 1-2 weeks which is what I expected for something that is totally handmade.  I placed my order on Saturday and had the dori in my hand the following Friday.  That was totally unexpected and amazing!

I squealed when I opened it because it is so bright and lovely.  Look how Karee packaged it all.

Ain't that sweet?  Wouldn't receiving a package like this make you feel special?  It did me.

I messaged Karee and told her how much I loved it and that I hadn't expected it so soon.  I hadn't even ordered the inserts yet.

I asked Karee to put in extra inside bands and pockets.  Those bands hold the inserts in place.  If y'all order a dori, get the pockets.  They are so nice to have.  Take a look at the inside of this dori.

Carrots!!!  Veggies!  The inside fabric goes so well with the cover fabric.  It is all so kitschy-cute!

This is what she looks like with inserts inside.

The inserts are from Boho Cottage and Happy Planning Shoppe and I will do another post to show you those more later on.  Right now I have inserts for my calendar, meal planning, memory keeping for Bean, bible study, Listers Gotta List and Quoted.  All of that in one dori and it is so easy to carry around.  It's actually lighter than any of the planners I've been using.  When an insert gets filled up, just replace it.  Super easy and so danged cute!

You can get your own Sunshine Dori from Karee and see exactly how great her sewing skills are. Here are all of her links.

SunshineNBliss on Etsy
Sunshine_N_Bliss on Instagram

Karee also has a shop with her sister that makes adorable dori inserts.  I plan on ordering my next batch of inserts from her.  That shop is called CraftyGirlsX2.

Pretty Cute Planner Shop Review

 Through a post on an online planner group, I learned about a shop called Pretty Cute Planner.  The shop owner is Julie and she sells sticker sets for the Happy Planner and Erin Condren planners.  Her sets are very affordable and they really are Pretty Cute!

I ordered two weekly sets.  This is the Bold French Country set.

My pictures may not do them justice but they are bright and bold.  This set came with two sheets including full and half boxes, washi, tear drops, and quite a few functional stickers.  I used this one set to decorate two planners, Pippa, my work Paper Source planner and Karrie, my yellow Kikki-K.

(Yes, I name my planners.  Soon I will write a post about all of them and how they each got their names.)

Back to the stickers...there were enough stickers in this set to decorate two planners!  All for $3.99! Very affordable.

Here is Pippa dressed up in Bold French Country.

And Karrie.

 I also ordered the Minted Wood set and this set is sooo pretty!  I can't wait to use it.

I also want to really boast on the shop owner, Julie, for a second.  She mailed out my package by USPS.  I use the AfterShip app to track everything and this package got hung up in one spot for almost a week.  I never had that happen before and didn't really know what I should do about it.  I contacted Julie to ask and she contacted the local hub and I got my package the next day!  She went above and beyond to get my order to me and I think that was so nice of her to do.

When I told her about this blog review, she graciously offered to give my readers 10% off their orders.  Just use the code THANKYOU when you check out.  Her shop link again is Pretty Cute Planner.  You can also find Julie on Instagram @ PrettyCutePlanner and Facebook at facebook.com/groups/PrettyCutePlanner

If you order from Pretty Cute Planner, please send me a picture of your layout or tag me on Instagram - @ PlayPretties  I'd love to see it!