Review: Charlie's Planner Goodies

Hi everyone!

I am so sorry about the absence here on my blog lately. Things have been hectic to say the least but I have a few posts planned for the coming weeks so hopefully I can get back into the swing of things for you guys. I miss blogging a lot.

Today I have a review of a planner item to share with you!

This item is from a fairly new shop, Charlie's Planner Goodies. She sells her items through her Facebook page.

She sells cute items for Filofaxes/similar planners including dashboards, monthly sticky tabs as well as dividers.
I have one of Charlotte's handmade dashboards to show you today, which has an elastic pen loop attached to it! The one I have to show you is a Pocket sized dashboard, but she does them for all the Filofax sizes.

Her dashboards is made of a sturdy card stock and is covered with a patterned paper of your choice. They have a thick elastic pen loop on the right hand side.

The dashboard I have, is a very cute pastel polka dot pattern. Here it is inside my Small Lilac Kikki.K planner.

The elastic pen loop is quite thick and will hold most pens. I used a Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto pen and a thick Sharpie Pen in it, and it held them very well.
I think the loop is too wide to hold something like a Frixion Slim pen (it may slip through), but if you do want it specifically to hold a slim pen, I'm sure Charlotte would accommodate that for you.

When I first tried out this dashboard, to be honest, I was a little worried that it would not hold up over time and may be flimsy, but was proven wrong. I used it for a couple of weeks and it was fine and has held up nicely! I wouldn't go tugging on it like crazy, or trying to fit a huge pen in it, but if you treat it nicely I'm sure it will last you quite some time!

This dashboard will be great for anyone who wants to add an extra pen loop to their planner. I definitely could have used these when I had a Kate Spade planner as the pen loops on those can be very tight and it was hard to find a pen to fit in! But even if your planner's pen loop is fine, it's always nice to be able to carry an extra pen.

Charlotte's dashboards are $6 for Mini/Pocket size and $8 for Personal/A5 size.

Charlotte also sells some other planner items such as monthly tabs and dividers (in particular superhero/comic dividers which look so awesome!). Be sure to check out her Facebook page to see what she's got to offer! Send her a message or write a post on her page. She's super nice!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I hope you'll come back soon as I hope to get myself back into the swing of things on here, especially in the new year! ♥

*Product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company or PR for my 100% honest review. For more info please read my Disclosure Policy*

{Unboxing} Kikki K Pink Textured Planner

Hi guys!
Ah, I feel like I say this every time I post but I'm so sorry for the lack of posts. Argh, I feel really awful about it. I'm sorry! I have been pretty busy with my Etsy shop lately, and other stuff. You know how it goes!

Anyway, I shared a video on my YouTube channel on Friday showing an unboxing of my new Pink Textured Kikki.K Planner! You can check it out here, or watch below! :)

I hope to have a video up later this week or early next week, showing how I'm using this planner and my current planning system. I'm trying to figure out what works best for me, but it just keeps changing!

I'm able to film more videos now, which is great, so if you have any video requests, be sure to let me know!

Thanks for reading/watching. ♥

Small Kikki K Lilac Planner Update

As promised in my Small Kikki.K Lilac Planner First Impressions post, today I have an update on the planner! :)

I also got a new camera, so I can give you some better photos!

Here is my little pretty. I have been using her for about a week now.

In my first impressions post, I had said that I was a little disappointed with this planner.
I felt that the quality wasn't as nice as my Large Kikki.K planner*, and the rings weren't as great as I had hoped. They are much smaller than my other Pocket size planners, and they also had some slight gaps.

{*The Large Kikki.K planner is actually on its way to a new home! Not because I didn't like it, I loved it! But I am not using A5 size planners anymore. I bought the Small one, because I still wanted to have one of these gorgeous planners in my collection.}

However, after my week of using this beauty, I'm much happier!

I do feel that this one is a little more stiff than the Large planner was, but I actually don't mind it now. It makes it easy to write on when I don't have a table to lean on.

I did have to reduce the amount of inserts/information I keep in my planner when I moved into the Small Kikki.K from my Filofax Malden {that baby holds a lot}, but it's okay. I would prefer the rings to be a little larger, but oh well.

I do still think that this planner would work better as a wallet, or for someone who doesn't want to keep much in their planner.

It's not my favourite planner, but I do really like it now. :) It's very cute!

I will also have a set up video of this planner on my YouTube channel ASAP, so stay tuned for that.

Thanks for reading. ♥

Kikki.K Small Lilac Time Planner {First Impressions}

Hi friends! I hope your week is going well so far. :)

Today I have another planner First Impressions for you! I did one of these about a month ago, here, on the same product that I'm going to be showing you today, but in a different size!

This is the Kikki.K Small Lilac Time Planner for 2015. {Review on the Large size.} This planner retails for $39.95 on the Kikki.K website. They can also be found in some Kikki.K stores.
The Lilac Time Planner line was released at the end of July. At the time of writing, all 3 sizes are available on the website.

FEATURES / LAYOUT

The Small Kikki.K planner is equivalent to a Pocket size Filofax, which is my current favourite planner size and what I am using every day.
This is my first time ever owning a Small Kikki.K planner. I have only ever owned Medium or Large.

The leather is a pretty lilac colour, with gold diamonds on the outside. The inside is plain lilac leather.

The insides of this planner are very similar to the Large one, obviously, but it's a little more simple.
On the left you have 3 card slots and a secretarial pocket.

The tabs that you get in the Small Kikki.K planner are different to the Medium or Large, as the planner is obviously a lot smaller.
The tabs and inserts that come in this planner are Monthly View, Weekly View and Addresses.

The rings in the Lilac planner are gold, to match the lilac/gold colour scheme.
I'm not sure what size these rings are, but they are definitely smaller than the rings in my Filofax Pocket Malden, which has 19mm rings.

At the back of the planner, there is slot with a notepad in it.

The planner has an elastic pen loop, and an elastic closure.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS / OPINION

I have to say, I was a little nervous when I was first opening up my planner. Although I had a great experience with my Large planner which arrived in good condition, I had heard a few people say that theirs arrived damaged and had some defects, especially regarding the rings. However, they were able to get a replacement or refund.
To be 100% honest, my planner did not arrive in "perfect" condition. I do believe that all of the rings have a small gap to them, which is unfortunate. But for me, not a deal breaker, unless they were very damaged. I'm not really the type of person to return something unless it is extremely damaged or unusable, so I won't be returning my planner.

While I love the look of the Lilac planner, I don't think that the quality of my Small planner is quite the same as the Large. I can't quite explain how. It doesn't feel as "squishy" or soft as the Large.

I thought it was also worth mentioning that the Small planner does not lay flat, unlike the Large planner which does. I'm sure you could get it to lay flat with some training.

I also was a little disappointed by the size of the rings. It feels much smaller than my Filofax Pocket Malden, which I mentioned above.
As soon as I received the planner, I moved right in. I'm the kind of person who likes to stuff my Filofax very full, and I just can't do that with this Kikki.K planner. I had to remove quite a lot of my inserts in order to fit everything inside.
I think this may work better as a wallet, rather than an everyday planner. However, I will try it out and see how it goes.

I thought I'd also mention why I purchased the Small size.
If you follow me on Instagram, or have read my last few blog posts, you will know that I am now using a Pocket {or Small in Kikki.K terms} size planner as my everyday planner.
I was using an A5 {or Large} size for a couple of weeks near the end of July and start of August, before realising that it wasn't working for me, which is when I decided to try out Pocket size.
I had thought I'd use my Large Kikki.K Lilac planner as my Blog/Etsy planner. Well, that didn't happen. I barely touched it since I started using a Pocket size.
I have decided to sell my Large planner, as I don't see myself using it again and didn't want to have it laying around, unused. {It is on hold for someone at the moment.} It is such a beautiful planner, but Large the size isn't great for me right now. This is why I have purchased the Small size!

I hope this post was helpful for you to see how the Small Lilac Time Planner from Kikki.K looks and what I think about it.
I'll hopefully bring you an update on it here soon, if not you'll definitely know by looking at my Instagram account.

Thanks for reading. ♥

Happy Saturday.

Happy Saturday morning everyone! {Or whatever day/time it is when you're reading this!} I hope your weekend is off to a great start.

I hadn't planned on posting a blog post today, but I just got the urge to write something. So here I am!

I'm pretty excited that it's the weekend! Saturday in particular. Saturdays are probably my favourite day. I love Saturday mornings! I don't really know why. I don't sleep in, I get up at the same time as I do every other day. Something about Saturday morning is just nice.
Saturday afternoons, we usually do our food shopping and then spend the rest of the day at home.
And then Saturday nights, my husband and I have a date night, which is always fun, no matter what we do! A lot of the time we just stay home and watch a movie {it's too cold go to out!}. So Saturdays are definitely my favourite!
What is your favourite day of the week?!

I just painted my nails this morning, and I felt like showing you {and my pretty Kikki.K in the background}! I've used Face of Australia "Jafar", a super dark, deep red {almost black!}, from their Dark Side collection. I absolutely love this collection.

I have to be honest, though. These are not my nails. They're actually fake glue-on nails. I was trying to grow out my nails to this length/shape but it was just not happening. And I got so impatient. So, I bought some glue on nails. I told myself I'd never wear fake nails after I had acrylics back in the day, but I really like these! I don't think they actually look very fake {my opinion - you may think otherwise}. I know they'll only last me maybe 5-7 days maximum, because by then they will probably look a bit gross, but that's fine with me!

I uploaded an updated look at my Kikki.K Lilac Planner set up on my YouTube channel the other day, if you're interested in seeing that!
I am absolutely loving my Kikki.K Lilac planner and I haven't moved out of it since I got it, which is weird for me. I can't even see myself moving out of it soon.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! ♥ Let me know what you're getting up to!

Kikki.K Lilac Time Planner - First Impressions {Filofax Friday}

Hi everyone! Welcome to my first Filofax Friday post! I hope to post one of these every week. Fridays will be all things Filofax/planner related. Tips, tutorials, hauls; you name it!
My first Filofax Friday is pretty exciting, I think!

This week, Kikki.K has released their new Time Planner line for 2015! (If you aren't aware, Kikki.K is a Swedish inspired stationery store. Their main stores are here in Australia, as well as other stores in Singapore and New Zealand. I think they will soon have stores in the US too!) The 2014 Mint Time Planner was hugely successful and people are still hunting them down and paying crazy prices to get their hands on one! I was super excited to hear that the 2015 version was released and purchased myself one to try! I absolutely love the Kikki.K planners I've tried so far. I think they are really great for the price. (They are the cheapest leather planners out there that I've found.) The 2015 Time Planner is quite similar in design to the 2014 planner but I thought I would share my first impressions with you today, and how the planner comes when you purchase it.

I thought I should mention that the Time Planner is not the same as the Berry/Grey Kikki.K Personal Planners that are still available for purchase online. (If you have a look at the Personal Planner on their website, you can see how it differs from the Time Planner.)

Update 3/8/14 - I have uploaded a video of my set up of this Kikki.K planner! If you're interested, check it out here, or at the end of this post.

Note: This post is picture heavy! :)

First off, the 2015 Time Planner is made of really nice leather, in a lilac colour, with small gold foil diamonds all over it. I absolutely love the colour. The colour is quite different to the pictures on the website, however. It is much more of a true lilac purple, whereas the website makes it look pink. Just a thought for those who may not have liked it from the pictures online. Although, the colour is not that easy to photograph.

The Time Planner comes in 3 sizes (Small, Medium and Large). I decided to try out the Large as I'm now using an A5/Large planner. More about that in another post!

The Time Planner has an elastic closure. I know some people really aren't a fan of this. Personally, I do prefer a button/snap closure but the elastic isn't too bad. I do worry that it may get dirty with use. Although it should be fairly easy to clean.

Inside, on the left you will see 3 credit/business card pockets, 1 larger pocket, one secretarial pocket, one zipper pocket and one full length pocket. So it's safe to say you have a lot of pockets here.
I noticed that behind the secretarial pocket, it is lined with cute black and white fabric! I don't believe that the 2014 Time Planner had this type of lining behind the pocket. It was a cute surprise!

In the pocket, was this cute card that says "2015 Live it Love it". I think this would be cute to use next year!

The next thing, I am super excited about. Gold rings! I love gold rings in a planner. I think it looks gorgeous. The rings on my planner are awesome. No gaps or anything like that, which I was so happy about. I know that's very important to some people.
Something that is different with the 2015 planner is that there is paper around the rings to protect them from denting the leather, rather than fabric like last year's. That's no big deal to me, because I'll be removing that before I use the planner (as I assume most people would).

The dividers in the 2015 planner are cute. I wasn't a fan of the dividers that came in the 2014 planner, as they were a dark navy colour. For 2015, you get these cute light pink dividers, with gold writing on the tabs! The tabs that come in the planner are Monthly View, Weekly View, Addresses, Birthdays & Anniversaries, Shops & Restaurants, To Do, and Expenses. I like these dividers much more than last year, but I probably won't be using them in my planner as I wouldn't use most of these sections.

The "This Week" ruler that comes with this planner is a clear frosted style, and the writing on it is pink. I think that this ruler is a little thinner and less durable than last year's ruler, but it's not awful.

Each section in the planner comes with inserts. Most of these are the exact same as from the 2014 planner, so most people would be familiar with them. The paper that comes in the planner is fairly thin, so you probably wouldn't be able to use a felt tip pen or anything without it bleeding through.
Here are the inserts. The pictures are fairly self explanatory. (Sorry! I forgot to include a photo of the monthly inserts! I will try to update the post soon with a photo.)

(The To Do pages have perforated lines so you can rip out your lists! I think this is pretty cool!)

In the back of the planner, you have a Notes pad. I believe these pages are the same size as the paper in the planner, so you could punch holes in your notes and insert them into your planner.

You also get an elastic pen loop, which I like. I much prefer elastic pen loops over leather, as you can use almost any pen in it.

On the back of the planner, "Kikki.K" is embossed.

Overall, I am super happy with my new planner! I absolutely adore the lilac colour. I am very happy with the quality as well! I cannot wait to move into it. I'll be sure to do an update post when I have set it up. There weren't too many changes from the 2014 planner, to the new 2015 one.

My planner was packaged lovely, with lots of bubble wrap, as usual. Kikki.K always packages nicely.

If you're interested in checking out the new Time Planners, you can find them here. I can't guarantee they will be available for long, though! They tend to sell out quickly as they are so popular.

Update 3/8/14 - I've uploaded a set up video of my lilac Kikki.K!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! I will be happy to help. :) ♥