erin condren – Page 2

Catching Up

Posted on November 18, 2015 by Carol — No Comments ↓

Once again, life has gotten busy! You know how it goes. Oh my goodness, where to even start? It’s not like too much has been going on. Just lots of everyday life kind of stuff. Over the last week I’ve been busy with copywriting work, which has been wonderful! At this time of year a little extra money is definitely welcome.

I’ve also gone a little crazy with some new Erin Condren orders (thanks to referral credits)! Last month they had an amazing sale — 25% off anything on their website. I had been thinking about purchasing a horizontal planner to use as a daily journal, so I went for it. Now maybe your’e thinking, Carol, didn’t you buy a horizontal back in June, then decide to sell it? And you would be right. I immediately regretted it, but the deal was already done. So, after thinking long and hard I decided to purchase another one. I also picked up a couple new covers and extra folders.

My other purchase, just yesterday morning, was the new hourly planner. I am really looking forward to this for 2016! Earlier in the year, there was a customer survey with several possible changes. An hourly planner was one of them, and I was all for it! I’m looking to simplify my planning, so this should work well. I absolutely love my washi and stickers, but I’m craving a little more order, especially as our family gets busier. So I’ll save my crazy decorating for my journal and keep it simple in my planner. At least that’s the plan.

A photo posted by Carol Bancroft (@carolwrites) on Nov 10, 2015 at 12:26pm PST

Of course, I’m also thinking about my favorite holiday — Thanksgiving! It kind of snuck up on me this year. Hard to believe it is next week! Once again, I’ll be happily hosting it. I need to start my list of dishes and hit the grocery store.

The kids are great. Report cards should be out any day now, and judging by the work they have brought home I have no worries at all! Laura started Daisy Scouts and seems to love it. Of course, two of her best friends are also Daisies, so I’m sure that has something to do with it 😉

This morning I went for a mammogram. Oh, the joys of getting older! I suppose it’s a rite of passage for a 40-year-old woman, though — right? It actually wasn’t horrible, and I know it’s so important. Everything is normal, so it was nice to leave the appointment knowing that. Plus I got to wear this awesome “spa” robe, LOL!

Otherwise, I’m just doing my thing! I have to get back to a couple crochet projects I started. I’ve just been tired at night and zoning out in front of the TV. The time change earlier this month kicked me on my rear, like it always does.

Well, I ought to attack the three overflowing laundry baskets that are currently staring me down. Oh! And if you’re a tea lover, be sure to check back tomorrow. I have a review going up that I think you’ll enjoy! Have a great day!

Free Back to School Planner Stickers

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Carol — 2 Comments ↓

Free School-Themed Planner Stickers

Two weeks from today, my kids start the first day of school for the new year! I’m eagerly awaiting all the school mailings — bus routes, calendar of events, and so on. In anticipation of all that fun stuff, today I have a fun goodie for you! I designed a back-to-school planner kit that is free for your personal use.

The boxes are sized for the Erin Condren Life Planner, but should work in most other planners. I had a lot of fun designing this one. I hope you enjoy it and find it useful! You can print these on full-sheet labels or just print them on regular paper and use a glue stick or tape runner to make the stickers adhere. Most often, I do the latter because it’s cheaper.

Free School-Themed Planner Stickers The set includes: — 6 Early Dismissal Stickers — 12 No School Stickers — 2 notebook page Things to Do full boxes — 2 telephone icons (can use a 3/4″ punch to punch out) — 2 meal planning icons (can use a 3/4″ punch to punch out) — 2 arrow icons (can use a 3/4″ punch to punch out) — 2 coffee icons (can use a 3/4″ punch to punch out) — 4 paper clips stickers — 4 glasses stickers — 2 blank appointment stickers — lots and lots of flags

Click here to download this free set of stickers (for personal use only).

This work by puresugar.net is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Free Erin Condren Downloads!

Posted on August 20, 2015 by Carol — No Comments ↓

Love Erin Condren’s style, but can’t afford the pricy office supplies? Visit her downloads page and choose from several free wallpapers (including brand-new designs!) that you can use for your desktop, laptop, and probably even make into stickers! Enjoy her signature style on the cheap! You can even find a sample from her new grown-up coloring book.

Enjoy!

10 Sources For Gorgeous (And FREE) Planner Printables

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Carol — 8 Comments ↓

I am still (im)patiently waiting for my new planner to move from the order pending stage into production. If you’re in the same boat as me, this is a great time to shop around for cute planner accessories. Everyone knows that there are dozens of creative women selling planner stickers on Etsy, but sometimes a splurge isn’t always in the budget.

I’m always looking for great sources of free, printable stickers that I can use in my Erin Condren planner, so I decided to put together a list of offerings from some very generous bloggers who have some designs available for download. Get your sticker paper ready and warm up your printers!

Vintage Glam Studio – This blog is amazing! She offers gorgeous sets of printables that you can use in any planner, whether it is EC, Plum Paper, Filofax, or something else completely. Whether you’re looking for page accents, full-box stickers for your EC, or cute checklists, this is the place to go. The sets are high-quality and not to be missed!
Wendaful Designs – Wendaful Designs is a great place to download adorable flags for your planner. Icon labels, weather stickers, water trackers… you name it and you can probably it here. She also has an adorable vertical weekend heart banner for the new horizontal EC planners!
BeautyholicsAnonymous – She has a really cute collection of full-vertical-box-sized quote stickers. Sometimes you just want to fill up a blank space, or you might want a little motivivation and encouragement for the week. Full-sized quote stickers are a great way to go!
IHeartPlanners – Oh my word, I just love the sidebar-sized Habit Stickers on this blog. Laura has one set that you can customize with your own habits and one that has basics such as “vitamins” and “dinner prep” already written in a beautiful script font.
World Label – Check out the cute calendar stickers here. You can print them on the labels suggested or on a full-sheet label and punch or cut out the stickers yourself.
Planner Envy – Need to track your weight or keep yourself in check when it comes to working out? The Health & Wellness stickers here will do the trick. She also offers a set of functional, yet colorful corner reminder stickers that don’t take a lot of room, but will help you remember to get things done. There are so many freebies on this blog that you’ll want to make a cup of coffee and spend a little time going through them all.
Mein Lila Park – Sometimes you want simple, unembellished banners, stars, and pointers to use in your planner. This is a wonderful offering of colorful designs!
Belinda Seline – Have you seen those sweet gold Kate Spade bow paperclips? Belinda designed a Kate Spade-inspired set of planner decorations.
Me & My BIG Ideas – OK, this is the company that manufactures the new “Happy Planner” and line of coordinating products (which, from what I understand, fit quite nicely int Erin Condren vertical boxes). They are offering a cute set of printable countdown stickers. I can see these being perfect for so many different events, from parties to vacations.
ThePigtails.Com – Add some whimsy to your planner with these adorably illustrated stickers. Images include a milk carton, coffee cup, cupcake, speech bubbles, and more.

And this is really just the tip of the iceberg. There are so many great resources for free planner stickers! One of my tips is to search for Project Life printables. There are tons of them out there and many lend themselves well to use in diaries and planners.

(Oh, and don’t forget that I also have free heart labels that you can download! I just didn’t want to include them in my round-up).

Do you have a favorite source for free planner stickers? Share it in the comments!

Life Planner Launch Day!

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Carol — No Comments ↓

It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of Erin Condren products. Up until now I have never gotten in on all the excitement of “launch day.” However, with the new horizontal layout option that’s available, I couldn’t help but jump on it!

My current Life Planner goes until the end of the year, and I don’t plan on giving that one up. I’m going to continue using that one to keep track of my family’s schedule and I’m going to use my brand new, shiny, horizontal LP as a journal and personal goals planner. So do you want to know which design I picked?

I have admired the foil planners in years past, but never really felt the need to have one. But this year? With personalization in metallic foil too? Oh yes! I had to have it. I fell in love with this color (peacock), and the decision was pretty easy. I can’t wait to get it — you can be sure that I’ll share every detail with you!

In the meantime, if you’re considering an EC Planner, you can sign up for an account using my referral link. You’ll get an e-mail with a coupon code for $10 off your first purchase of anything on her site. I’ve always been happy with the Erin Condren products I’ve ordered, and this will be my fifth Life Planner, so I feel good recommending it as an organization tool!

Sunday Snapshots

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Carol — No Comments ↓

What a beautiful weekend! The weather was seriously perfect. We have had a lot going on since Friday night, so today we opted to just stay home. Even though I was feeling kind of tired, I managed to get quite a bit done.

I started out with laundry, changing sheets, and remaking all the beds. Is it just me, or does that chore exhaust anyone else? Maybe if it’s just one bed it’s not so bad, but four? Whew…

Two of the bananas in the fruit bowl were getting really brown, and since I had a couple in the freezer too I decided to make two loaves of banana-nut bread. I’ll freeze one and we will have the other for breakfast tomorrow.

D. made turkey stock the other night so I decided to make creamy turkey soup for supper tonight along with some garlic-cheddar biscuits. Simple & satisfying!

After everything was cleaned up, it was time to start planning out the week. I love sitting down with my craft punches, washi tape, and stickers and getting everything down on paper. I will probably never be an electronic planner person. I love my iPhone, don’t get me wrong, but I just have to write it down.

The kids and I are all watching a little TV before their bedtime, and quite honestly I’m ready to crawl under the blankets myself! I think I’ll take a cup of tea, maybe a piece of chocolate, and D. and I will probably zone out to a movie or something.

Hope you all have had a wonderful weekend!

{Freebie} Heart Planner Labels

Posted on January 24, 2015 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Free Heart Labels for your Filofax

or Erin Condren Planner

Click here to download.

A Birthday, Rain, Cats, and Lavender

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Carol — 1 Comment ↓

Hello friends! It’s a wet, humid day here in the Hudson Valley. I don’t mind the rain, but I could certainly do without the mugginess. Is it awful that I’m already starting to look forward to autumn? It hasn’t even been all that hot this summer, and I do remember how I froze all last winter, but… I’m kind of ready for sweaters and fires and general coziness. That’s just me, I guess!

So, first things first… a very happy birthday to my mom today! We called her first thing in the morning and the kids all sang to her. Hope you’re having a great day, Mom!

I’m trying so hard to remember to post more often. Really, I am! It’s not that I don’t think about my blog it’s just that I’ve found myself choosing other things in my spare time. Usually watching a show or working on my Stitchcation blanket, which is oh-so-slowly coming along. The squares that use the FPDC and FPTC stitches take me so long because I have to hook them up ever so carefully or else my stitch counts end up way off. But after tonight I should be half-way there. I seriously doubt it will be finished in time for the end of the challenge (Labor Day), but oh well! It will definitely be finished for my birthday in October.

Back in June, a friend and I both bought lavender plants at the Country Living Fair. Mine was absolutely flourishing! I was so happy! And then… I overwatered it. Let me tell you, I have learned that lavender does not like a lot of water. It went from healthy to ill beyond repair sooner than I could make it right. I was bummed because it smelled so wonderful. I confessed to my friend what I had done and we laughed over it. (Hers, incidentally, looks great!) How sweet is this: as a thank-you for taking care of her cats while she was away, she gave me a huge, healthy, new lavender plant! It is just gorgeous. I promised to be more careful with this one!

Let’s see, what else is new… Oh, I’m so disgusted with FedEx SmartPost. Back in July I took advantage of a sale on a summer sticker bundle that ErinCondren.com was having. It was some summer-themed repositionable sticker sheets, markers, the new coil clips, and a lotion sample all in a pouch. I had a bunch of referral credits, so I decided to treat myself. I also picked up the original sticker sheets. Here’s where I made my mistake: I decided to save $2 by not using FedEx Ground. Oh, friends, I have learned my lesson. The package was shipped out on 7/29. The last tracking update was from somewhere in Maryland on 8/1. My EDD was last Friday, which came and went. After dealing with “FedEx SmartPost Trace Research” team, they could not locate my package anywhere. It’s just lost. Vanished into this air. I know the issue will get settled, but it’s so frustrating that a company whose business is delivering packages loses them.

Well, I guess that’s about all… Tomorrow is Jake’s birthday. How can he be 12 years old already? I remember when he was a colicky baby I read this saying somewhere (I’m sure you’ve all heard it too): “The days are long, but the years are short.” How true that is!

{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).