day planner – Pure Sugar

2017 Erin Condren Life Planner Sneak Peak

Posted on May 21, 2016 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Can you hear me singing, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year?” OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration but I always get excited for the launch of the new line of Erin Condren planners. I have been using an EC since 2011 and over the years there have been many changes and many additions. This year is no exception, so let’s get on with it, shall we?

First of all, I think the biggest change is the addition of a neutral color scheme option. If you work in a professional environment, the blacks and grays will definitely look slick. (But there’s also just that hint of color, so it’s not boring.) Also, this choice is great for people who love to decorate (me!), but don’t always want to match the pre-selected color scheme. For example, in my currently hourly planner the month of July has a green color scheme, but I’m going to want to do red, white, and blue the week of 4th of July, so I’m going to have to cover every bit of green. If I go with a neutral next year, I can do what I want! And what about that handlettered font? This one just might be calling my name…

Neutral Erin Condren colorway

Of course, there is still an option for bright, cheerful colors. I’m not in love with the watercolor splash along the top. I know it is very trendy right now, but it seems a little 80s to me. Probably because I am old enough to remember them, LOL! Also, as you can see in both colorway photos, there are three options for layouts: classic vertical, horizontal, and hourly. Currently I have an hourly planner, but as I have gone “back to basics” I’m once again considering a horizontal. I have plenty of time to decide, though, since my current planner runs through the end of the year.

Bright Erin Condren colorway

Another change this year is you can choose your coil: silver, gold, rose gold, and black. I’m kind of excited about the black coil, but I’m concerned about paint chipping off — this has been an issue for the metallic coils in the past. I am also a curious what the upcharge will be.

Now, let’s talk about covers. There are so many new covers this year, including several new metallics. In addition to these Life Planner covers, there are some new designs from the launch of the Teacher Planner. I have no idea how I’m going to choose! Good thing they are interchangeable so I can pick several!

New Erin Condren Covers for 2017

The new planners will be available for purchase on June 1. If you’d like to save $10 off your purchase, sign up through my referral link and then check your email for the code. I’m not sure what pricing will be this year, but in the past, a basic planner sold for $50. I can’t wait to see what other goodies will be announced!

{Planner Freebie} Troop Meeting Planner Stickers

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Carol — 4 Comments ↓

Troop Meeting Planner Stickers | puresugar.net

Oh, I have slacked on getting this free planner printable up, but also blogging in general. So, instead of waiting until yet another Friday I’m just putting them up here today!

Last fall my daughter eagerly joined Daisy Scouts and absolutely loves it. I have been a Cub Scout mom for many years, and now both of my boys are in Boy Scouts, so it really comes as no surprise that she wanted to join in the scouting fun. For a while I was using Daisy Scout stickers that I made to designate meeting times in my planner, but I didn’t love them. So created these troop meeting stickers that will work for all phases of the Girl Scout program.

Download my FREE Troop Meeting Planner Stickers HERE.

I like to write the meeting time on the trefoil to make it stand out a little. They are nothing terribly fancy, but they work for me. Hopefully they’ll work for you too! Enjoy!

As usual, my free planner printables are for personal use only and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Use an electronic cutting machine like a Silhouette Cameo to cut your stickers, print them out on regular printer paper and then cut and paste into your planner using a tape runner, or else print them on full-sheet labels and just hand-cut the stickers. I always appreciate being tagged (@carolwrites) in your IG pics if you use any of my free printables in your planner!

{Freebie Friday} Cross Event Stickers for Your Planner

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Carol — No Comments ↓

photo Cross Stickers_zpsankch9mj.jpg

Hey guys! I meant to get this free planner printable up last month, but I never got around to it. I’m sorry! I have to say, I love these cross event stickers! I use them in my Erin Condren planner to mark down my kids’ CCD classes, as well as designate church and church-related events. I use them a lot! They’d also be great for Bible study, or really anything Christian-related.

Download my FREE Christian Planner Stickers HERE.

The floral cross image is free clipart from 123FreeVectors in case you want to download it yourself for any crafting.

{Freebie Friday} FREE Printable November Planner Stickers

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

Hello everyone! I know, I have so much to catch up on — but that will have to wait for tomorrow. Today I’m just popping in to share another FREE November printable for your planner or calendar. It’s already the end of October, so it’s definitely time to start writing in all of those important November events. This sheet has some stickers that are designed for the Erin Condren vertical planner, but you can certainly use them anywhere they will fit!

First, I want to give credit to @Jen_Plans on IG. She posted this photo of stickers she made for a RAK, and I loved her event sticker with the banner. I took that idea and created a half-box sticker with the same idea. So thank you, Jen, for the inspiration and I hope you don’t mind me using your idea! Som of the other images are used in accordance with the TOS from Freepik.com. If you enjoy making your own stickers — that’s a resource you should definitely check out!

As usual, my free planner printables are for personal use only and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. I will either print these out on regular printer paper and then cut and paste into my Erin Condren planner using a tape runner, or else print them on full-sheet labels and just hand-cut the stickers.

{Freebie Friday} Trash Day Planner Stickers

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Carol — 4 Comments ↓

Free Trash Day Stickers For Your Planner

Hello, hello and TGIF! Today I have another planner freebie for you. I hope you will be able to use them! A little over a month ago, our sanitation company changed our trash day and there were a couple weeks that I actually forgot to put it out on the curb! I whipped up a page of reminder stickers to print out for myself, and then thought that I’d offer them here, as well.

Free Trash Day Stickers for your Planner

As usual, my free planner printables are for personal use only and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. I will either print these out on regular printer paper and then cut and paste into my Erin Condren planner using a tape runner, or else print them on full-sheet labels and just hand-cut the stickers.

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 10-13

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Carol — 3 Comments ↓

Another month has flown by! March was a killer for me. We had so much going on that it left me dizzy sometimes. I just didn’t know which way to turn. That being the case, my planner pages were more functional than pretty. So, this was March.

Week 10

Week 11

Week 12

Week 13

Last week we all, at various points, ended up with a horrible (truly horrible) stomach virus that is going around. Seriously, what a way to wrap up a really busy month. But we all got through it and I guess on the bright side, it’s behind us.

So now it’s April! And I actually had windows open today! And the kids will have their spring break! So hopefully life will slow down just a teensy bit.

Oh, I did get a very generous sample package from OnlineLabels.com last week, and I’ve been having a great time making myself custom labels that perfectly fit within the Erin Condren boxes. So expect a post on that soon!

If you are a new Erin Condren customer and are interested in ordering, you can use my referral link to save $10 off your first purchase (you’ll get a code via e-mail after you register).

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 6-9 PLUS a video!

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

Life is crazy. Luckily, my planner keeps me in check, even when that means I don’t have the time to blog like I wanted. <<Ahem>>

Anyway! The first thing I want to share with you guys is a quick video I made. This video shows some of the changes I made to my planner (hacks, if you will) and how I have repurposed a couple of the sections. Maybe I’m weird, but I love watching YouTube videos that show all the different ways people use their planners. Here’s mine!

Here’s my February Monthly Spread:

OK, now back to the weekly spreads. Week 6:

Week 7. We were on vacation most of this week, so there really wasn’t a whole lot to keep track of, thankfully!

Week 8. As you can see, life started to ramp back up. I got my hands on the “Plan It” stamps from Studio L2E so I used a few of those stamps on this week’s spread. I tried my idea of recording something from the day on those lines at the bottom. I like the idea in theory, but so far I haven’t kept up with it.

Week 9. Didn’t really have time to do too much decoration/journalling/whatever last week. I felt like I was a little crazed, so it just wasn’t a priority.

If you are a new Erin Condren customer and are interested in ordering, you can use my referral link to save $10 off your first purchase (you’ll get a code via e-mail after you register).

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 1-5

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

Everyone who knows me also know that I have an unhealthy a close relationship with my day planner. It all started back in the early 90s when I recieved a Filofax for a high school graduation gift. That planner helped get me through college and a few years thereafter. However, once I was a new mom I didn’t have a need for a planner anymore… until that one baby became three kids, two of whom were in school. I needed to get organized again. And I discovered Erin Condren’s beautiful planners.

In the past I have reviewed the planner, but this year I thought I would start sharing about how I actually use it by posting how I customize it, some little tricks, and my weekly layouts, too. As you know, there are quite a few blogs focussed on planners and organizing. Everyone has their own way of doing things, but sometimes you pick up an idea or two.

Today I’ll be sharing my January layouts because… well, I feel like I want to have the whole year included on my blog. But after this week I’ll just do weekly updates once the week is over. First, here is my monthly layout. It is definitely boring and as I’ve mentioned… January was just kind of crabby for me. A lot of people don’t seem to use their monthly spreads, but I do. When I am scheduling appointments, I find it easier to see the entire month at once instead of flipping pages.

And here’s week 1. Um, yeah. I started a Whole 30 that lasted for more like 14 days, LOL… But better than nothing, right? I started journalling a little bit each day. I haven’t been consistent with that, but I’m going to try to pick it up again for February. I keep all my planners in case I need to refer to an old event, but also because I enjoy seeing what we were doing. So why not add some journalling to the mix?

Week 2: A new planner feature this year is the notes section at the bottom. I was really excited about this at first, but I’m not utilizing it like I thought I would. Obviously I cover most of it up with washi tape for a bit of extra color. I’ve been using it for meal planning, but maybe I’ll trying using that section for “hot action items” in the future — three things that I absolutely must get done that day.

Week 3: See that arrow-shaped page flag pointing to the “pack meeting” sticker on Friday? I bought these at Dollar Tree and I love them so much! So often I have extra little notes about calendar items, and these are great for that purpose.

Week 4: Another kind of lame attempt at journalling, LOL. Also, slightly embarrassed by how much crap I ate this week.

Week 5: Last week, as we moved into Febrary I finally felt like I was getting my groove back. Trying to jazz up the week with more stickers. That’s right. I love stickers. I am totally a 12-year-old girl at heart and I am OK with that 🙂

We’ll just start there. I have customized some of the notepages in the back to suit my own needs: a log of checks I write, a place to keep track of swaps I send and recieve, that sort of thing. I’ll get there, soon.

The Erin Condren planners typically go on sale in Feb. or March to liquidate her current stock since the new planners come out in June. So if you’re on the fence, it’s a good time to try the planner without having to shell out all that money. Because let’s face it, even though they are very pretty and I love mine… it’s still expensive. However, it keeps me on track so I feel it’s worth it!

If you are a new Erin Condren customer and are interested in ordering, you can use my referral link to save $10 off your first purchase (you’ll get a code via e-mail after you register).

{Review} 2012-2013 Erin Condren Life Planner

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Carol — 7 Comments ↓

Last year around this time I started hearing about Erin Condren on various blogs. Several of the online deal sites had specials last fall and I was able to snag a half-price voucher. So, for my birthday, I got myself my very first Life Planner. And I fell in love with it!

I’ve been using it daily (well, let’s be honest — multiple times daily) for almost a year now and I can honestly say that no other planner has worked so well for me since my old Filofax in college. Since I’m starting to plan appointments and school events into next year, I decided it was time for a 2013 planner and again I chose Erin Condren.

There are so many cute designs that I literally (literally!) agonized over this decision for a couple weeks. My husband was so tired of me going back and forth and asking his opinion on color combos. He’s a saint for putting up with me, I swear! Last year I chose the Zig-Zag pattern. This year I wanting something totally different so I went with the Candy Lace design in a custom colorway (lime and dark gray). I also requested that my first name be printed in purple because I wanted one more color on the cover.

While the overall layout is the same, there are a number of changes to last year’s design. Most noticably, it now has a metal coil (instead of plastic), and laminated monthly tabs. I never had a problem with the plastic coil, but the metal coil is certainly sturdier and looks a lot nicer.

Another change is the monthly calendar page. It went from a single page to a two-page spread. I was thrilled to see this! It’s much easier to write information down on the larger calendar blocks. Of course, there’s a trade-off and gone are the lined note pages before each month. I liked to use those as a line-a-day journal (when I remembered to do it), but I can easily include that information in the weekly spread. And there are also several blank sheets (both lined and unlined) toward the back of the planner so there’s plenty of room for notes and doodles.

The weekly spreads are the same, with the exception that the weeks no longer break up (even if the start of a new month disturbs the continuity. To me, it’s fine either way. Here’s a peek at what a weekly page looks like:

Now, while we’re talking about the bulk of the planner let’s also talk about paper. In the old version, the monthly calendar was on a heavier cardstock-weight paper. To me, it served as a great divider and I could easily flip between months. The current version no longer has this. I’m a little worried the monthly tabs might rip off, so I’ll have to be careful. I’m sure it’ll hold up just as well, though. I think this might be a way to help trim down the thickness of the planner. As you can see, the new version is not as thick.

Erin Condren’s new version of the Life Planner also comes with sticker sheets, though fewer than last year. This year you get three sheets of pre-printed stickers and one sheet of blank stickers. Last year I got two sheets of pre-printed stickers and four sheets of blank stickers (I still have so many left unused!). Overall, this isn’t a big deal to me. I still have my “leftover” stickers, plus you can purchase extra blank sticker sheets. Or you use washi tape (like me) or other calendar stickers.

The folder design at the back is slightly different. The new version is one sided with a deeper pocket. This is great because my papers are always falling out of the old version of the folder. And there’s still the zip-lock pocket at the back, the perfect place for the labels that come with the planner as well as stamps and appointment cards.

Oh, one addition that I really like but don’t see mentioned in many other reviews: the Address Page. You can write down addresses & phone number for up to 14 people. It’s a great quick-reference for people you contact the most. And yes, there is still the My Important Numbers page. I use this all the time and keep the numbers for my kids’ school, my hairdresser, oil company, plumber, our doctors… they’re all right there.

Overall, I’m very happy again. At $50, this planner is a huge splurge for me, but I use it faithfully and it works for my style of organization. (Keep in mind that each planner is hand-produced in the U.S.A. — to me, that’s worth shelling out a little extra money!) It averages out to about 14 cents/day for something that helps keep me on time, remember birthdays, know what’s for dinner, and remember everything I need to do on any given day.

The only other thing I’d like to see on the Life Planner is some sort of elastic band to help keep it closed. But I improvised and just made my own, instead 🙂

So there you have it! If you are a new Erin Condren customer and are interested in ordering, you can use my referral link to save $10 off your first purchase (you’ll get a code via e-mail after you register).

* I was not compensated in any way for this review. I purchased the Life Planner completely on my own and just wanted to let you know why I love it! However, this post does contain an affiliate link. *

Tag Archives: day planner

2017 Erin Condren Life Planner Sneak Peak

{Planner Freebie} Troop Meeting Planner Stickers

{Freebie Friday} Cross Event Stickers for Your Planner

{Freebie Friday} FREE Printable November Planner Stickers

{Freebie Friday} Trash Day Planner Stickers

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 10-13

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 6-9 PLUS a video!

{My Erin Condren Planner 2014} Weeks 1-5

{Review} 2012-2013 Erin Condren Life Planner

carol.banc