Plan with Me- New Year's Eve

Watch the video here.

This week I am going with a gold and black theme to celebrate the new year. I love the plain and simple look of the more neutral color scheme after the more colorful Christmas spreads I have been doing.

This week I also added some stickers from the Gimme Stickers set from Pop,Fizz Paper. I love the cute owls and they fit very nicely into the theme/colors I already had planned.

Speaking of that sheet I really have to laugh at the fact I couldn't find the sheet of stickers that were sitting right there on my planner. Yikes, I think I need to get more sleep than I have been lately. I left that in so you could laugh along with me.

Here are some close ups of the pages. Thanks for watching the video and checking out my blog.

 

My first Graze Box- un-boxing

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I am really excited to be sharing my introductory box from Graze with you. I saw the Graze Box on a couple of people's videos and decided I wanted to join in on the fun. I used the code on one of those videos (Thanks Alicia) and I am so glad I did.

The deal, at least when I signed up is you get the first box (a small introductory sampler) for free and then the regular boxes will start. My insert says I will also get my 5^th box for free too.

The regular boxes contain 8 snacks at a cost of $11.99 including shipping.

One of the important steps in the process of signing up is to go through the customization process and let them know your likes and dislikes so that your box can be tailored to you. They have questions not only about likes and dislikes but about allergies and special diets.

One thing you do have to watch is that the subscription automatically signs you up for weekly delivery of the boxes. I switched mine to one box per month which suits me better.

In this introductory box I got 4 items so let's talk about them individually.

Everything Bagel Chips- I really like this one. It does remind me of a snack from my childhood but I can't remember what that was. I love the onion flavor a lot.

Original Protein Flapjack- really just a granola bar. It is pretty good. I do like that they packed a lot of healthy stuff in such a small bar. It is a bit sweet for my taste though.

Jelly Doughnut- again way too sweet for me but still good. I think I will divide this one up into a couple of baggies. I like the concept though and it is yummy. If I was in the mood for a super sweet snack I would probably gravitate to this one over the Flapjack.

Thai Sweet Chili Bites- this one is hands down my favorite of the box! I love the savory spiciness of it. I could sit down to a giant portion of this one any day.

So those are my feelings about this box. If you want a box for yourselfbe sure to use this link  so you can get your 1^st and 5^th boxes for free.

Plan with Me- “twas the night before Christmas

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For this week's plan with me I decided to use a sweet set of vintage Christmas designs that I found a while back. I love the look of this set!

I am especially pleased with how my ombre check boxes turned out this week. I think I see improvement every week in the stickers I am creating for myself. The process of creating the stickers is almost addictive, I love to get the idea and translate it to the form of the sticker. I also love browsing the multitude of clip art available and matching those designs and the designs of the digital papers to form sets that go together. I just wish I was talented enough to create them from scratch.

Here are some close up pics of the spread.

Sticker Haul- Oh Hello Stationary and Pop Fizz Paper

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I decided to take advantage of a few of the sales at the beginning of December from some of my favorite sticker sellers. Mostly I wanted to try the “mystery kit” type offers. I am just beginning to receive the items I purchased.

The first 3 packages came in the mail this week so I decided to show off what I got. The first shop is Oh Hello Stationary, I know we are all familiar with both the shop and the wonderful stickers that they make.

I made two separate purchases from Oh Hello, I really wanted to try their Monthly Sub kit so I got online fairly early in the day of December first and placed my order. I love the monthly kit, it is all about making yourself better in the new year.

I also got a notice about the Whoops sale and I managed to order 2 of the Whoops packages. For the most part they are stickers I will use.

Then I have been watching Dani from Pop Fizz Paper on Youtube for a while and seeing her videos and other peoples videos about her Gimme Stickers package. I just had to get my hands on one of those too. The was the first time I have ever ordered from this shop and I love the stickers. They are wonderful.

So that was the first of my haul videos I have two more packages on their way. When they arrive I will do a couple more videos. One of those is coming down from Canada so I am not sure how long to expect that one to take. The other I think will be available when I pick up my mail on Monday.

December 2015 Ipsy Bag Opening

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This month the Ipsy Bag itself is a really festive red, it really looks very “Christmasy” and I do love that. I must say it is very stiff and plastic so it does look much better than it feels. I do like that it is a different shape than the bags I have received in the past. Overall I think it is a winner.

The contents this month were really on point for me.

I have been thinking I need to try a new primer and the Ipsy bag provides one this month from Elizabeth Mott cosmetics. The retail price is $20 for a tube twice the size as the one in the bag. If I like it I will probably buy one for sure.

Next up is the Tarte Cosmetics Smooth Operator finishing powder, this is part of their Amazonian Clay line. I have not tried this product before, I will give it a try but I do have a powder I really love. If I like this one I might use it also though. If not I know someone that might like it. The full size of this product retails for $33 for approximately 4 times what comes in the sample here.

The Skinn Sugar Lips lip scrub is something I am really looking forward to trying. My lips like my skin are very dry so this should help them a lot. I used to make a lip scrub but haven't for a long time. The retail price for this is $20 for a container about twice the size of the sample. I notice that it also comes in a Strawberry Daiquiri flavor (this one is just called “Original”) This is another product that I would definitely consider purchasing if I like it. I know what a difference a good lip scrub does for the way my lips feel.

The hand lotion is possibly the thing I love the most this month. I know I have said many times I have extremely dry skin and this lotion feels amazing! I love that it moisturizes so well and at the same time leaves no greasy feel on my hands. Those are two really important things for me. The tube in the bag is 1 oz and online I found this lotion for $21 for a 4 oz tube. I think my shopping list just got a little longer because I am already in love with this stuff.

And finally the lipstick, I do love a nude lip and this is such a pretty color. It is just dark enough to be there but not so dark that it screams “I'm here” if you know what I mean. The perfect color for a casual look. My only concern is that it seemed really shear on my hand. I will have to actually put it on my lips to make a decision about how I feel about it. According to what I am finding online this product is sold exclusively at Target. It appears to come in 5 color choices and the retail price is $9.99.

So for me this was a really winning bag. I love almost everything in it and can't wait to try them all out. I am really glad Christmas is this coming week so I have a good excuse to wear some makeup and try these products.

So do you get an Ipsy Bag? What did you get in yours? 

Plan with Me- It's Almost Christmas

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Since Christmas is just around the corner I am decorating my planner with a theme of It's Almost Christmas. I love the colors this week and I had a lot of fun making all the stickers. At the last minute I found a sticker book at the Dollar Tree that fit in very nicely so I used some of the stickers from it to decorate with also. 

Plan with Me Cookie Baking Theme

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Sorry this is getting posted so late in the week, we have had a series of winter wind storms and our electricity has been going off on a regular basis. I had to find a couple of windows of time when I was fairly certain the power would stay on for both the editing of the video and then to upload.

Since this week my girls and I did our annual cookie baking day I decided to use that as the basis for the theme for my spread. I love how it turned out even though I was not happy with my color matching for some of my stickers.

Here are some photos of the spread so you can get a better look. 

Planner Flip-Through

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I decided to do a quick flip-through of all the spreads I have done in my planner since I got it at the beginning of August. I hope you enjoy seeing the different pages that I have completed. I always enjoy seeing these types of videos so that is why I decided to film this.

I think my style has really developed over the 4 months I have been planning. It is fun to see the differences in the early pages to the newer ones.

My path to the planner world was a surprise to me. Let's start with about a year ago when I decided I needed to get more organized in 2015. I couldn't find a planner that I liked to so I started making my own pages one month's worth at a time. Those first few months were interesting because my idea of what I wanted changed a lot.

Then last summer we had some really hot miserable weather and I am the first to admit I am a weather wimp. I hate really hot and I hate really cold. I just want it to be comfortable all year. But anyway in the really hot weather I watched a lot more YouTube videos. I started with craft ones and when I ran out of videos that interested me I turned to beauty and makeup videos. I have always enjoyed those kinds of videos they were the first ones I actually watched on YouTube years ago. One of the things I noticed a lot of the make-up and beauty YouTubers doing was the planner videos. Then I started looking for plan with me videos and I was hooked! I fell in love.

At first I looked at the price of the Erin Condren and thought “no way” I wasn't going to spend that much on a planner. Then I sat down and added up all the stuff I have bought over the course of the previous few months trying to make the 'perfect for me” planner. It was actually more than the Life Planner. That settled it I ordered my planner and have been so happy with it and with planning in it. I stay interested in it because it is fun to do the spreads each week and to look at them throughout the week.

Then I bit the bullet and got my Cricut, I find I absolutely love designing and making my own stickers.

Anyway enough of my rambling here are some photos of each of the spreads in my planner. If you see a sticker you are interested in let me know and if it is one I have purchased I will look it up and let you know where I got it from. 

August Monthly view

July 27- Aug 2

August 3-9

August 10-16

August 17-23

August 24-30

September Monthly view

August 31-September 6

September 7-13

September 14-20

September 21-27

October Monthly view

September 28- October 4

October 5-11

October 12-18

October 19-25

November Monthly view

October 26- November 1

November 2-8

November 9-15

November 16-22

November 23-29

December Monthly view

November 30- December 6