Testing Erin Condren’s LifePlanner
Hello to you all 🙂
I hope your last week was full of lovely memories. ❤️
A few months ago I discovered Erin Condren’s Planner but I didn’t buy one because of the the costs. I know that you can get a lot for your money, however, I don’t know why I was a little bit sceptical. After a few sneaks to the website and a few talks with my hubby I was ready to buy one, and I was overwhelmed by the huge range of planners, products, accessoires and lots more. My first thought was „Was zum Geier soll ich nehmen?“. I try to translate it as „What the heck should I buy?“. 😳
The good point is that on the website is a little quiz to help you find the perfect planner for you and your planner needs. So I tried it and the quiz said that I should try the Lifeplanner Deluxe monthly. Well, I checked it and started customizing the planner. It is really brilliant that you can choose:
- your cover
- the coil colour
- what should be on the cover (like your name)
- the colour palette inside
- when should it start (the months)
- extra pages
And after you chose all your planner details, you can order it. As a little washi addict, I ordered the washi rolls with the Kaleidoscope motive on it too.
To be honest, the shipping and customs costs are quite pricy for me (living in Germany), but ok, it is an invest. 😉
The shipping was quite fast. In total I just had to wait 3 weeks. That is really fast for going around half the world.
I was really excited when the parcel arrived. After I had opened the package, the smell brought me back to reality. It was really smelly in a chemical and unpleasant way. Unfortunately, the smell stayed in my living room for three weeks, no matter how often or how long I opened the windows.
The cover of the planner looks exactly the same as the online picture suggested. The planner is 23×18,5cm without the binding. It is for 12 months, starting on September. It is really great you can start at that month you order it. The paper is soft and thick, so you don’t have to worry about bleeding or ghosting.
For every month you have a page with a slogan and after that you have a page where you can write birthdays, goals and other things down. Then you find a monthly overview and according to that the weekly pages follow.
I was scrolling through the pages and my husband was wondering because I was so quiet. Normally, I can’t stop talking about new planners, but this time it was different. Honestly, I was a little bit disappointed and I didn’t know why. Then I checked my washi rolls and I am used to that you can peel the washi easily off the roll but in my case the washi was pulling over. That happened every time I tried it. 😕
I found thousands of stickers or sticker sets for the planner and I decorated it. The variety is huge and you can buy so much stuff. That is really an advantage. It is really fun to decorate it in your personal style.
But every time I use it, I haven’t got the same vibe as when using my Hobonichi or my Bullet Journal. Maybe I have difficulties because of the structure of the weeks and the monthly page with the goals (I didn’t have any goals each month) or I am not used to have a binding. I really don’t know. 🤔
I really love the customizing of the whole planner, the stickers and the huge amount of supplies you can buy for it. But I am not sure if this system is the best for me. Experimenting is one of my loves in life but the arrow of planner love hasn’t hit me so far.🤷🏼♀️
Wisdom of the day: If you don’t try, you will never know if it is your style.
Love to you all,
Chrissi 🤓
TCMC Birthday Bundle
Hello to you, 🙂
I hope your week started in a calm way like mine.
Today it is a really lucky day for me. I was very patient and waited since August for my birthday bundle which I ordered from TheCoffeeMonsterzCo on 6th of August 2019. And today it has arrived. 🥳
Helen, the shop owner and creative brain behind the name, had given a little sneak into the bundle via Facebook and Instagram, so I knew a few things which would be in there.
There are two packages in there. The smaller one is a cute notepad, a little charm (a bunny), a keychain and the washi tape.
In the bigger package there is:
- a sheet for Erin Condren
- a sheet for Hobonichi
- a die cut sloth and a bigger die cut which shows her figure with washi rolls
- a sample of randiDOTplans with TheCoffeeMonsterzCo
- a sheet of washi samples
- 3 lovely stickers (a panda, sloth and unicorn)
- a sheet of stickers of sparkly paper
- a sheet of holographic stickers
- a cute vinyl sticker (her little figure in a cup)
- a little card holder with a unicorn
- a little card „just keep swimming“
- a sheet „clouds and stars emotis“
- a sheet „onesie sticky note stickers“
- a sheet „make memories banner“
- s sheet „mini desk emotis“
- a freebie from hellopetitpaper
- a „thank you for your order“-freebie
- a thin paper which is printed with the onesies
- and a thicker paper with the onesies and plants
The bundle itself cost 49,56 Euro and with shipping I paid 59,80 Euro. I think that is a quite reasonable price for the huge amount of goodies which were in the bundle.
I am so excited and have fallen totally in love with all of those stickers and other items. 😍 We will see how I am going to use it.
Wisdom of the day: All the good things (in my case: stickers and more) are worth waiting for. 😉
Love to you all,
Chrissi
50 days till Tokyo
Hello to you all,🙂
I hope you had a wonderful weekend and enjoy your week.
The weeks seemed to fly since we booked our flight to Japan. (Sometimes I wished it would be a one way ticket and I could live in the land of amazing stationery 😄) 50 days isn’t really a long time and at the weekend my thoughts wandered around.
Because my husband looked at me and said: „Sweetheart, have you done a detailed planning? Last time you were prepared at this time and you tried to pack the bags.“ Well, he was right. Last time I organized everything months earlier or maybe I was soooo excited. I don’t know. But he was right about another point: the detailed planning wasn’t ready. So I started it and I don’t know why I stopped or forgot to plan further. 😱
At the Last weekend it was a perfect late summers day where you can sit outside and enjoy planning.
What did I do?
It is quite easy. When you know the places, sightseeing spots, cafés, shopping streets and so on you want to visit, you can decide to record them in a journal and/or to mark them on google maps. Personally, I do both because I like to write things down and I will carry my phone with me all the time so when I will get lost then I let it guide me back to the right way. 😉
To get an overview how long distances are, I need to check a street map and mark all the spots there. In this case, I was a little bit shocked because the distances where longer than I had expected. But it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find a system in this madness. 😂
I saw that we want to visit shops and sightseeing spots which are in the same district or the areas are next to each other or we can take the Tokyo Metro for a quick ride.
So on day one we are going to Asakusa and Tokyo Skytree. On the second day we are around Tokyo Station and Akihabara. The third day is our day outside Tokyo where we are going to Kamakura (again) which I can highly recommend. The fourth day is all about Yoyogi Park, Harajuku and Shibuya. The last day we will walk around Shinjuku and Ginza. As you see these combination are just the districts, not the exact spots.
Last time we had the list of areas with all the places we wanted to go the next day and every night before we went to bed we decided together which place or shop we want to visit first. I don’t plan time to eat because we want to be flexible and we decided spontaneously when and where we wanted to eat or sometimes we had an idea where we would like to have dinner.
This year, we will get up by 6 o’clock and we will leave the hotel by 7 o’clock am every day. It is a good time because when the ride with the Metro is a little bit longer (maybe 30 minutes or so) and after that you have to walk, you can be at the first sightseeing spot when it will open. Our day will possibly end at 9 o’clock pm.
Wisdom of the day: You can always find a system in the jungle of planning. 😁
Love to you all,
Chrissi
A silky Journal
Hello to you 🙂
I hope you enjoy your week so far. As you know, I love to test stuff around stationery and I did it again.
A few weeks ago I got a mail via my blog and I was invited to have a look at a little shop called SilkStation at Etsy. So I was curious and I saw this lovely journal which I ordered straight away.😍
I love to support small businesses and so I can recommend this little shop. Jake and Connie started it this year and I think it is a great idea with really unique products especially when you are looking for something different.
The journal which I ordered is covered with silk and I can tell you that the feeling of the journal is fantastic. Normally, the journals have a smooth surface but this journal is so soft and sleek. I just love touching it (I know it sounds strange but I love the feeling 😁)
I am a fan of bright colours and I can tell you that the colours look the same as they were in the pictures which were on Etsy. I am really fascinated by the pattern and it reminds me of something but I can’t remember of what. 🧐
The cover is well made and I like the edges of the cover because they aren’t just straight, they are in a zigzag design.
The journal has lined paper and it is a pure white.
Sorry for the bad lighting in the last picture. There were too many clouds in the sky to day. 🤔
I think that this journal is made to be special and I think I have finally found a journal where I can collect my favourite quotes. 😊 If you are looking for a journaling person who needs something unique in their stationery funds then it will definitely be a lovely present.
At this point I want to say thank you to Jake and Connie to be bold and so creative to start their business and I will be excited to get more of their products. 😊 I am in love with my journal. So thank you very much for contacting me.
As a little note: No, I was not paid for this review and I ordered like every other person would do too. I simply love supporting stationery businesses and testing new things.
Wisdom of the day: Everybody needs something silky and unique in their life. 😉
Love to you all,
Chrissi
My journal full of memories
Hello to you all, 🙂
I hope you had a lovely day and have done your work/study or school for today. Make yourself a good cup of tea or coffee and have fun to read.
It is a little bit rainy here and while my little pug girl and I were outside for her walk, I got a little bit nostalgic. The rain always remembers me of our days in Japan. We did not have a lot of rain there but every time we had, the rain was really heavy. I don’t know why but in these few days I had the most beautiful moments of my life. I love everything about rain: the sound and the single rain drops which fall down. The world gets another touch and sometimes I think the world is a little quieter than normally. These moments, you cannot really collect in a journal but you can uphold the memory as best as you can. I tried. 😉
While we were in Japan last year, I took my notes in a travelers notebook. There were no pictures, no doodles, just my very messy hand writing. I love it. Sometimes I collected some information material. After some time, I decided to create a memories book for myself. So, let me introduce you to my book. 😄
It is a purple coloured Leuchtturm1917. The paper is dotted. My Favorite 😍 One of the coolest things is that you can customise your journal with your name or something else. I love the colours and the paper of the Leuchtturm1917 journals.
So, these two are one of the first pages which I created in the journal. For me, it was important to have a map of Japan, so that I can mark all the huge cities which we would visit. My time line page was a draft of all the things and places which we visited. This draft I did on a sheet of paper and I thought that it would be great to have the whole planning in my journal. 🙂
As you know, I am not the greatest artist but I want it pretty as well. Because of that I decided to use my photos, some washi tape and the information material which I brought with me. I am very old school and love to write with a fountain pen and black ink. I personally love my hand writing. It was a lot of work but it was worth. All in all from the first page up to page 101 every page is stuffed full of memories and I enjoy every single bit of it.
When I got Fernweh (the translation is wanderlust, but I think this German word means so much more 😉) I took this memory journal and I am glad to have it.
Normally I would write my wisdom of the day. But today I would like to share with you my beloved picture of rain in Japan. It was the 7th of May 2018 in Kyoto. Enjoy it. (No Photoshop, just the beautiful nature)
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Sticker Haul: Halloween at TheCoffeeMonsterzCo
Hello to you, 🙂
As you know (ok you know now) that I live in Germany. We don’t really celebrate Halloween but it’s getting more and more popular. For me personally, I love Halloween and all the stuff around it. I love cute zombies, mummies, vampires or an adorable witch. So why shouldn’t I have something like that for my sticker collection as well. 😉
I knew that I would be right at Helen’s website and her releases on Saturday, 31st of August, were in a really cute Halloween style.
What I ordered:
- two art prints
- die cuts: one mummy and a set of die cuts (a pumpkin head, a witch, a ghost and the cat)
- two Hobonichi week kits
- two Erin Condren sets
- and 12 sheets of stickers
What I got:
- two art prints
- two die cuts mummy and a set of die cuts (a pumpkin head, a witch, a ghost and the cat)
- two Hobonichi week kits
- two Erin Condren sets
- and 12 sheets of stickers
- a little freebie sheet
- a lovely card with greetings from Mama Tater
- a mummy as a die cut
The main reason why I ordered, were the art prints. I saw them on Instagram and Youtube and I fell in love immediately. I was not disappointed at all. They are so adorable. You can see that Helen put so much work in it and it is made with love and passion. And that is the reason why I love to order in a small shop. You can see the work and the passion for their dream.
The art prints are printed on photo paper and the measurements are 15,1 x 10,3 cm. It is a good size. It is not too big and not too small. The print is of high quality.
To my Halloweeny sticker sheets:
I love a good mummy, so I bought myself a sheet full of them. At the Halloween Working Sheet you have five different emotis which work at their laptop. There is a witch, a zombie, a pumpkin head, a mummy and a minnie mouse. I love them. Everybody needs a countdown and now I have one for Halloween. I bought two Halloween Samplers Sheets which have different emotis on it. There are for example, a little vampire, Tinkerbell, a cat, Scooby Doo or a Ghostbuster. They are just cute and I am so happy that I ordered them. One sheet was all about Alice in Wonderland and I absolutely adore them. There are Alice, the white rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Cat and Hatter. Too Cute to use. 😁 My last sheet was about Hocus Pocus. I am in love with this movie. It was my first Halloween movie I watched as a child. I would love to be witch like Winnie, Mary and Sarah. 😍
To my other sticker sheets:
I bought a sheet with emotis which eat cookies. Hey, everybody loves cookies. ❤️= 🍪 Another sheet is full of emotis which read a book. I love to read and I think they are cute to mark such a moment in my journal. It is pumpkin time and so my third sheet is full of emotis with a pumpkin. My fourth sticker sheet is with lovely onesies. There is a hedgehog, a fox, a bear, a racoon and a deer. Really cute. The last one is about things you hope will never happen. There is something like a hurricane or insurance emergency.
All in all, it is a great haul and I really love the quality of every single piece.
Wisdom of the day: Cute and spooky work perfectly together.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Shop review: squarelimedesigns
Hello to you, 🙂
I hope you had a good start in this new week. I am sorry for being late with this post. Unfortunately, I was ill last week and I was not able to concentrate to anything. So I stayed in bed and cuddled my little pug girl Maya who was adorable and happy that I was at home. 😉
Today I would like to support one of my favourite Etsy shops. The shop is called squarelimedesigns and the owner is called Christina. I love her designs. They are cute, funny and functional. The stickers are hand drawn and you can see that she does it with love and passion. Her products are for any planner and I love the style very much.
So, if you are looking for a kit for your Hobonichi or little stickers which look like sticky notes, you should visit her store. 😄 And you get a little freebie with every order which is always a lovely surprise.
How did I discover the shop?
Uh, that was quite an adventure. I was browsing through Youtube and watched one of her videos by pure chance. I loved the cute design of her drawings and watched two more videos. After a few weeks I was looking for inspiration on Pinterest and there was the cute little design again. It was in a photo on Instagram and there was a comment from her as squarelimedesigns. Because of that, my way to the Etsy shop was just a click away. 😉
I personally adore the stickers for the daily usage, the Hobonichi weekly kits and the sticker sheet „cute coouples„. I am absolutely in love with the pancakes and the syrup or the milk bottle with the little cookie. I love the colours which Christina uses because it is not everything pastel or in a light colour. I am a fan of bright and intense colours and from time to time every journal needs something like that. 😄
The stickers have a really good quality and I like the texture of the paper. It is soft and you can remove the stickers easily from the transfer sheet.
To be honest with you, I hope that Christina will launch a lot of new products for a very long time, then I will be a happy, loyal customer. 😍
I would like to mention it precautionary. No, I didn’t get anything free or with a discount. It is my personal opinion and I think that we, planner babes and guys, should support each other.
So my wisdom of the day: Don’t be shy and brightened up your journal with stickers from squarelimedesigns.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Stationery Haul
Hello to you, 🙂
I hope you enjoyed your last weekend and had a good start in the new week.
Last Friday, I had an amazing day. My husband and I went out to Leipzig for a little shopping trip, but the best happened after we were back home. A few orders arrived. 🤩It was great because I had waited for some of the orders for quite a while.
So, let’s start with the orders!
TheCoffeeMonsterzCo
The shop owner Helen had a birthday sale. (I discribed my experience with it in another post.) I ordered a very huge amount of stickers, a bundle and other smaller things. The smaller order arrived and I was so happy. In the picture, you can see Lilo and Stitch Die Cuts, a sheet of stress emotis, a sheet of baking emotis, a sample of a sticker kit with Lilo and Stitch, sheets of memory banners and last but not least a sheet with reading and tea stickers. The beautiful card and the mini sticker sheet are gifts and when you order some stickers, the card and the mini sticker sheet can change from time to time.
I absolutely adore Helen’s sticker because they are beautiful and well made. The paper has a lovely soft quality and you can remove the stickers easily. Besides the cuteness, the stickers are very functional as well.
MarinaBoeyngDesigns
I had ordered a few sticker sheets from MarinaBoeyngDesigns via Etsy. I really loved the stickers sheets for quite some time and so I decided, it is time to order something again. In the picture, you can see two sheets of cacti. I ordered a few sticker kits of autumn (I love the leaves and the motives). I wanted to give the galaxy sheet and the sparkly boxes a try. The beach stickers were absolutely amazing. I love the washi samples as well. The card, two freebies and the little Die Cut were a gift. You can collect stars with every order and you can get a discount when you will have collected 15 stars.
It is really incredible how lovely the stickers were made. The colours are so bright and deep which I adore. I like pastel colours but from time to time the stickers can be really intensive. I think that won’t have been my last order there. 😉
simply gilded
I placed an order with simply gilded. To be honest, I saw a lot of posts on Facebook and Instagram where planner girls used the cute washi tape with bows on it. And I thought „Where can I get it?“ I couldn’t find it on Etsy… Ok, samples, yes, but not a complete role of washi. I was a little bit disappointed and in a Facebook post a planner girl showed her stationery haul and I saw the label. I thought „YES, finally!“ So, I ordered at their website. I bought two sheets of sticker bows and 5 washi tapes. The card with cats and the single bow were freebies.
The golden foil are so beautiful and well made. The quality of the washi tape is amazing. You can remove the washi from the role really easily and you can remove it from the pages of your journal as well. It was the right amount for my very first order and it won’t have been my last one. 😍
Wisdom of the day: stickers and washi make your journal bright and happy. 😉
Love to you all,
Chrissi
What kind of journalista are you?
Hello to you 🙂
I hope you had a good start in this new week.
I stood on our balcony and thought about the different ways you could journal. With every single way you want to express your feelings or thoughts. Which way do you prefer?
Here is a short list of styles:
- Bullet Journal Method
- Junk Journaling
- Scrapbooking
- Art Journal
- using a planer like Erin Condren or Happy Planner
- using a Hobonichi Cousin/Weeks/Avec
- 5 year calendar
- classic dairy
- Traveler’s Journal
I know it is a short list, but these are the styles which came into my mind. 😉 Let me know which styles I forgot and what makes them special.
Bullet Journal Method
The system was created by Ryder Carroll. He wrote a book about the system and I loved to read it. It was informative, inspiring and you learn to change your perspective. A Bullet Journal can help you manage your tasks and appointments in a simple way which you can create. You decide in which way you use the space in your journal. You can choose the symbols and design your very own special journal.
Junk Journaling
This is a very creative way to work with paper with different motives, glue, stickers and straps. It is so cute to see how you can create your own book. You can design from the cover to the end the whole book. For that, you can use different styles of paper and materials. Sometimes the junk journals look a little bit old and it is interesting to see how these journalists create that. It is a wonderful process. To me it has an old fashioned boho chic style which I adore. ❤️
Scrapbooking
It is a wonderful way to collect your memories. It is a little bit like the Junk Journaling to me. Scrapbooking has a modern touch and it is a fantastic way to use decorations or other handicraft utensils. A lot of journalists take a photo album and work with different pens, photos and ornaments. You can use tape, strapes, colours and a lot of things more which you like.
Art Journal
Art Journaling is for very creative people who like to draw sketches, use water colours or work with coloured pencils. It is a great way to draw during a journey and so you can collect special moments. You can draw whatever you like. Unfortunataly, I am not such an artist but I love seeing people create a wonderful picture.
Erin Condren and Happy Planner
I know it is not the same and there is a huge difference between both systems but the style is a little similar to each other. Both planners give you a structure and a lot of goodies to use for your special planner. It is really interesting to see the amount of tools which you can use for this. Both planners can be personalised by yourself.
Erin Condren has a collection of planner systems for that what you need. On the website you can buy tapes, stickers and a lot of things more.
Happy Planner is really cute and the designs are eye catching. You can change the pages in the planner as you like and need it which I think it is really great. They have a huge variety of sticker books which fit perfectly into the planner.
Hobonichi
The wonderful calendar system from Japan has it fans around the world. It is a calendar which is released twice a year, so that you can decide when you want to start your journaling year (April or November). The Hobonichi comes in different sizes. There is the Cousin (A5 and A6), the Weeks, or the Avec. The variety of designs and covers which you can use for it is great. The Hobonichi has a really wonderful paper. It is thin and very light. ❤️
5 year calendar
This is a special calendar which you use for 5 years. One day is at one page and you have a small space where you can write a few lines a day. You can write about every thing you like, like your day, a special thought or anything else.
Classic dairy
It is one of the simplest and most beautiful ways to write about all the things which matters to you. A lot of young people started a dairy out of different reasons. Most of the time it is about your feelings and thoughts. It helps to clear up your mind. It is really a liberating feeling.
Traveler’s Journal
This is a great system for people who are on a journey anywhere and want to write down what they experience right when it happens. You have a leather cover and you can put inserts in there, depending on the elastic bands which you have in it. Mostly the pages of the inserts are blank and you can design them as you like it. I love the idea to have a journal where I have the freedom to be creative in all the ways and I can do what ever I like.
If you would like to know more about one or two of the systems or styles, then stay curious because I will write a deeper insight. 😉
So, what do you think I use? Well, I love my Leuchtturm1917 as a Bullet Journal, my Hobonichi Cousin (A5) as my productivity journal and my 5 year calendar (Some lines a day by Leuchtturm). And for journeys I use my Traveler’s notebook. I love all of them and I think I will try other styles as well. 😉
Wisdom of the day: Don’t be afraid to experiment for finding your own style.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Zenpop Stationery Box
Hello to you, 🙂
today I want to talk about a stationery box I tested. I was looking for a stationery subscription box, so I googled and I found a huge variety of different boxes. There were boxes for paper, for inks, pens or stickers. Some of the boxes were a great mix and the prices could differentiate. So finally, you need decide how much money you want to spend for a box.
My personal budget is 30 Euros (33,93 US Dollar). I love especially Japanese stationery. Because of that, I decided to buy zenpop.jp box There are ten items in a box which can be sticky notes or notepads, pens, erasers, washi tape, stickers and other tools. It is a monthly box and it has been delivered punctually every time so far. The costs are 27 US Dollar per month.
This is my July box. Inside were two washi tape rolls, sumo sticky notes, lovely cards, a pencil with a sumo wrestler, a pen with black ink and two different pen tips, paper plus envelopes and a few sticker sheets.
It is my third box and I like the little suprises every month. I will continue testing it for a while and maybe I will change the box. 😉 This box had one lovely surprise for me though. Last year in Japan we visited a sumo tournament and I love this sport. So the sticky notes with the sumo wrestlers on it called my memories. 😍
My wisdom of the day: If you love surprises then try it and you will find a box which suits your taste and budget.
Love to you,
Chrissi
Shopping rush at a birthday sale
Hello to you, 🙂
it is a Wednesday evening and I think about my evening yesterday. I am not a huge shopping fan. I don’t go crazy when there is a sale or anything like that. But yesterday it happened, I had my girly fan freaky moment.
It began quite simple. I wrote about TheCoffeeMonsterzCo a few week ago. I love the shop and I love supporting people who live their dreams. The shop owner, Helen, has done a birthday bash ever since she had her little company. For me it was the first time that I was looking forward to this event. Every week she came up with new information around her sale. At one point she got me. I thought „yes, you should shop when there is the sale“. She published a Birthday Bundle. Every week there were sneaks, what will be inside and one week the sneak was a little rose gold bunny. Normally I am not a huge fan of gold but the little charm was so adorable. I knew I had to get one of these bundles.
Yesterday was the magic moment, the shop sale started 9 a.m. PDT on 6th of August. Helen had a hole page on her website with all the information which you needed for the sale. There were strict guidelines what you have to buy separately from the rest and what you could combine.
For me, it was 6 p.m. in Germany. Perfect! I was home, back from work and my little pug girl was next to me. BTW: I told my colleagues all about it and I think they see me as a stationery nerd now even more than they did before. But who cares. 😀
So, the magic sale moment. I was prepared. I knew exactly what I wanted to buy. Some of the sticker sheets you could add into your cart before the sale started. I was looking for some limited like watercolouring prints and the little bunny charm (in case I wouldn’t get the bundle), the Birthday Bundle, different sticker sheets and washi tape. You see, I had a plan and as RuPaul would say „don’t f*ck it up“.
I was so nervous (maybe I had a blood rush) when I pushed for a refresh of the website. A lot of the limited items were sold out. The clock said that it was two minutes after 9 a.m. PDT. Two minutes not 20! I ordered my Bundle and then I placed my second order with the sticker sheets. I had a few limited things in my cart and I told myself „YES! Great!“ I checked out my cart and I got the message that a few items of my list are sold out. Ok, it was a try and so I paid my cart with the things I got.
Yes, I didn’t get all of the things which I loved but I got more than I expected. It was a great experience to take part in such an event. There is one thing I can tell you deeply from my heart: Helen and her family have my respect for this hard and passionate work! I cannot tell you often enough: THANK YOU! Great job!
So my wisdom of the day: Go wild and always stay nerdy, no matter what you like!
Love to you all,
Chrissi
99 days till Tokyo
Hello everybody,
I hope you had a great weekend. 🙂
I promised to write more abut planning and now I have the perfect opportunity. We will go to Tokyo again but this time only for a week in November.
Last year, my husband and I had the adventure of our lives. We went to Japan for about three weeks and we fell in love with the country, the people, the culture and a lot more. A few months later we had wanderlust and because of that we decided to go for a short trip to Tokyo again. During our honeymoon we went to Tokyo, Nara, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kamakura and to Nokogiriyama. It was an amazing journey.
So in May this year we booked a hotel and flight tickets for Tokyo. 😀 We will do some catching up on sightseeing and we will enjoy a little bit shopping plus really good food.
I want to shop mainly stationery this time. Last time I was restrained and I didn’t buy much of what I wanted because I had sensory overload. Really overload. (And I am usually not that kind of person who goes crazy by an overload.)
As a planner girl, I do the best I can and plan the trip. 😉 But this time I would do it a little bit differently. Normally I would pick up a book (travel guide) and stick it with notes… a lot of notes. And my husband would do the same. After tapping ca. 10 books with maybe a hundred notes in each book, we would have a coffee and discuss the places and ideas. But not this time, I watched a Youtube video „100 Things to do in TOKYO, JAPAN | Japan Travel Guide by kimdao“ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYSMJ-lM2t0). I love her videos. It was about 100 things you can do in Tokyo. I wrote down every single place, food or shopping idea. We did a few things from this list last time and there are a few things we don’t want to do. We talked about the ideas. It is a first list and I think we will find a few more places we will or at least want to visit.
My wisdom of the day: Habits are great, but trying something different or new can change perspective.
Beginne zu schreiben oder tippe „/“ um einen Block auszuwählenAbsatz
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Sticker haul: The CoffeemonsterzCO
Hello to you all, 🙂
From time to time I will show my new stationery treasures and I will write a review about the products.
In this post I will talk about my stickers which I bought from TCMC (The CoffeemonsterzCO). I have followed her (Helen) on Instagram and Youtube for a year or so now. I love her designs and on one point I thought „Why I do not buy something from her?“. And so I did. 😀
At first: No, I do not get anything for free or any other reward because I write a review! I think that we should write and support each other in our little world.
So, the link for the website is https://thecoffeemonsterzco.com/ or you order via Etsy.
She is a young woman with a great idea and really good products.
The products in the shop are stickers with different motives or themes. The design is cute and not to over the top. It is clean, neat and so sweet. There is one little person in different situations or in fancy dress. When you join the Facebook group, you will be informed about new releases, which come really often, and presales. You can get a freebie as well. For example a calender picture for the month.
I ordered four times. Two orders I received and I am waiting for the other two to arrive. So I am still full of anticipation. 😉
With every order you get a little card and it looks like this for example:
There is always a thank you from Helen or an other family member. That is one of the sweetest personal touches which one can add to a card. (There are so many other shops which do the same and I always fall in love with it.)
My first order
(Sorry for the light, it was not the best today.)
Aren’t they cute? I bought sticker sheets with Winnie the Pooh, Pokemon, Sakura, vegetables and fruit. One sheet is 8,5 cm x 11,6 cm. The paper feels soft and you can really easy remove the stickers from the sheet.
order nr. 2
Here I have a few sticker sheets for journaling, lazy days, asian food and Harry Potter. Furthermore, I bought Hobonichi sticker sheets and some different diecuts. The sheets for the Hobonichi is 5,3 cm x 10,8 cm. So it is a little bit smaller than the normal sticker sheets. The diecut with the washi rolls is 4,5 cm x 8,6 cm and compared to this is the sakura diecut 4,3 cm x 4,7 cm.
All in all I am super happy with the sticker orders. I will definitely order new stickers. 🙂
Here is an example where I used them. It is a page of my Hobonichi Techo Cousin. I wrote on the month page things with I want to do more often or better.
My wisdom of the day: Everybody needs a little cuteness in their life. Go and find yours.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
Day 3 & 4 of Barcelona
Hello to you, 🙂
today I write about the last two days in Barcelona.
Day 3
We got up early because we went to the Barcelona WalkingTours. I can highly recommend it. So my hint for you is to book it (well) in advance, because there is just one person who offers the tour in English.
We were 40 minutes too early, so we decided to drink a coffee. We were lucky, found a Costa Coffee shop and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee. Personally, I like a good cup of coffee from time to time but I love tea. So, I took a „risk“ and drunk a Café Bombón. This is a Spanish coffee specialty which consists of an espresso slowly poured over sweetened condensed milk and the propotion is 50/50. The trick is that they must not mix in the cup. It was really sweet but tasty.
Our tour started at 9 o’clock in the morning and our guide was a lovely lady called Alba. She was awesome. She lead us through the Gothic Quarter, the oldest part of the city, which has really narrow streets. But at the same time there are so many bars, cafés and unique shops. We saw a lot of wonderful historic places and Alba explained it really vividly. During the walk she gave us a lot of hints where we could get the best Churros or where we could have a nice time, which museum we could visit, etc. The tour took 1 1/2 hours.
After the walk we followed Alba’s instructions and had the best Churros in town. They were very tasty. Then we went to a café called Caelum. It was a small shop at the corner of a tiny square with an old school flair. The chairs and tables were not the identical, but it matched all very well together. We had a cup of coffee there and I ate a strawberry chocolate tartlet. I was in food heaven, it was perfect. It was not to sweet, it was fruity and you could taste the chocolate as well.
Our next stop for the day was La Rambla, one, if not the, major tourist and shopping streets of Barcelona. So, we went for a quick walk from the Gothic Quarters to La Rambla. On this long street a lot was going on. Everywhere were dealers with a blanket and they tried to give you a good price. To be honest, I do not think that it is a legal business what they were doing there. I did not buy anything there. Of course there were booths with food, which looked more official.
We went to the famous market place – Mercat de la Boqueria. There you can find only food. The main incredients you can get there are: vegetables and fruit, meat and fish. I loved the place, because the atmosphere was great. I saw booth owners chatting with their regular customers or people who met by coincidence and talked for some time. It was really great. We tried a piece of Iberico and Serrano ham each. It was so yammy! You can taste a difference but I cannot say which I would prefer. I‘d take both.
Back on La Rambla we walked all the way down heading to the port. We had some time left, so we decided to visit Museu Marítim de Barcelona. I can recommend this museum because it is a little bit different from other museums. You get there a audio guide for free and you do not need to enter any numbers because it starts the information while you are walking and approach an exhibition item. An other interesting point were the little cinema rooms where you can sit down and watch a short movie about certain topics like everyday life on a galley.
Our last stop for the day was the cruise with a boat through the port and along the coast side. We took the tour with Las Golondrinas and the it took 1 1/2 hours. It was quite windy at that day and the sea was rough enough to make some passengers sick. Unfortunately, there were no announcements in any language of what could be seen. Pity.
After such a long day, we went to our apartment and we fell asleep.
Day 4
That day, we just wanted to take a ride through the city and when ever we would like to hop off the bus, we would do it and so we did. 😉 Another good thing about the Barcelona city pass was, we did not have to pay for the Bus tours because the price was included. Otherwise the price would have be 30 Euros per Person for one day.
We decided to hop off at Montjuic, the Jewish mountain (named after the still existing Jewish cemetery), so that we could go to the top by cableway. It was a lovely ride and on top of Montjuic we had a relaxing walk there as well as some great views over the city, the port and the Mediterranean Sea.
At the end we went to the beach and put our feet into the cold water. A little refreshed we took the metro back to our apartment for packing. In the evening we ate at other great local restaurant. Again, we had lots of tapas. Each and everyone of them was fantastic, for example patatas mixtas, chorizo in a fantastic sauce, meat balls, cheese plate, and so on, and so on. Did I mention it was fantastic? 😉
It was a wonderful last day in Barcelona and we decided to go back there 2027 when La Sagrada Familia will be completed.
My review: I am really proud of myself that the planning worked out for those days. Yes, we skipped the Picasso museum and the Magic Fountain but that was fine for me. We had just a wonderful time with our friends and we had a little bit time for shopping.
My wisdom of the day: Do not overplan and overthink plans, enjoy the moments und have fun. 🙂 Something great comes out.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
An overview and the first two days in Barcelona
Hello to you, 🙂
I hope you enjoy your day and have a nice time.
In this post I will write about the actual trip and whether my time table worked out the way I had planned it. I will give you a quick overview about the place, what we visited and what we shopped there.
| date | plan | realization | notes |
| 12th of May | – visiting different Casas – Park Güell | – visiting the Casas (Milà, Batlló, de les Punxes) – Park Güell | it was a lot of walking |
| 13th | – Camp Nou – Museum of Picasso – La Sagrada Familia + Sant Pau | – Camp Nou – La Sagrada Familia | we skipped the museum because we were tired |
| 14th | – walking tour – Las Ramblas – Mercat de la Boqueria – the port – a cruise through the port – maybe the nautical museum | – all the points in the plan including the nautical museum | well, we were busy |
| 15th | – bus tour – Montjuic – Magic fountain | – all three bus tours – Montjuic – a ride with the cableway – visiting the beach | a little bit different but funny |
First of all, I can recommend a trip to Barcelona and four days are enough – they were for us, at least. There were a lot of things to see or visit and we are glad we made it.
Now I will give you a closer look to the first two days in detail with some photos. 🙂
First Day (12th of May)
It was one of our best decisions to visit the Park Güell as it was our first highlight. We bought tickets online which included a free bus ride to the Park and back to the Metro. I can tell you one thing about this: DO IT! Do not to walk up there. The Park is on top of a mountain and the way up there was really hard even for the bus. You can a walk around the inner part of the Park which is incredibly beautiful.
After that, we took the bus back down again in order to go for a walk for the first Casa which was designed by Antonio Gaudí. It was a lovely walk along Passeig de Gràcia which is a luxurious shopping street. We shopped at the famous chocolate maker Antoni Amatller who owned one of the Gaudí houses. The chocolate was really worth the price and was not as expensive as we had expected. We continued walking to Casa Milà which is the most famous Gaudí house. You can visit the Casas if you want to. We did not because of the rather expensive entrance fees and the long waiting queues in front of each of the Casas.
After that, we went back to our apartment and we were looking for some food. That was the end of the first day.
Day Two (13th of May)
We took the metro to Camp Nou, the football stadium. Especially our friends were excited we went there. I, on the other hand, am not interested in football at all, but it was really interesting to see what the club achieved in all these years and how they support the kids.
To be honest, after 2 1/2 hours of walking through the stadium (changing room, press conference rom, the museum itself and the press gallery) we were so tired. We had a short chat and decided to give us a time out for a nap. And we had a great nap 😀
In the afternoon, we walked around La Sagrada Familia and stayed for an ice cream in a little park nearby. We saw a lot of influencers who tried to get a perfect shot/selfie with La Sagrada Familia in the backround. That was not easy because of the height of cathedral’s towers.
The inside of the basilica, as I should call it more accurately, is even more impressive than the outside. The display of light and colour was spectacular and the most beautiful displays which I had ever seen in a cathedral.
After a wonderful time in La Sagrada Familia, we went out for dinner in a local restaurant which was close to your apartment. We enjoyed some nice tapas and some sandwiches.
Shopping experience
As I have written above, we bought some chocolate which was really tasty.
But in addition to that I also bought some guide books about the Park Güell and Antonio Gaudí. At La Sagrada Familia I found even more interesting guides, post cards and notebooks.
While we were walking along one shopping streets, I saw a shop called MUJI. We have one of these shops in Germany as well but it is not close to where I live so I decided to sneak into it. 😉 Of course it was heaven for my little planner heart. I bought pens in different tip sizes, notebooks for my travellers‘ journal, some mini markers and portable scissors.
So, that were the first two days. 🙂 In my next post I will write about the other days.
My wisdom of the day: Not every plan can be realized and spontanious changes can make a plan even better. 🙂
Love to you all,
Chrissi
How I planned the Barcelona trip exactly?
Hello to you, 🙂
I am very sorry, I did not write this post earlier. To be honest with you, I had some health problems and now I am on my way back. 🙂 So let’s check this out:
At the beginning of every trip planning I am quite a chaotic person. I found on so many pages what you can do there or what you should not do. So I had a bunch of different notes and I tried to find a kind of system. Ok, this time it did not work. So, I started talking to my friends who came with us and I talked with my husband. With our friends, it was a short chat because they wanted to go to the football stadium of FC Barcelona und they wanted to visited La Sagrada Familia. After this talk I had a nice cup of coffee with my husband. To be honest, it was rather a monologue where I spoke most of the time. 😀 At one point he said, I should write it down and plan it that way… My brain just thought „WHAT“? while I was talking, I forgot all the points which I had explained.
Because of that I spread all my things out on our table. And it looked like this:
What do you see?
- a city map
- a map of the hop on hop off buses‘ routes
- a information guide for the Barcelona Card
- a list of all the places where we could get a discount
- a city guide Barcelona by Dumont which I can really recommend
- my journal for the first sketch of the tour
- and my pot of coffee
I looks quite messy but there was a system in this madness. 😉
I started by marking all the places we wanted to visit. While I was doing this, I found out that a few places where really close to each other while other places were really far apart. I decided to check on google maps how long it would take to get there via metro or walking. Then I was thinking about which places would be a match and I tried to find a time plan which would allow us to be flexible and we would not be too long on our tour.
At that point I found the Barcelona WalkingTours. It would start at 9 o’clock in the morning and it was the only tour in English available. I wrote them and I got a date where we could take part in it. This was our second fixed appointment. (The first one was La Sagrada Familia.)
The first day would be the 12th of May when we would arrive and I planned visiting Park Güell and a few different Casas with were designed by Antonio Gaudí.
13th of May we could have a look to Camp Nou, Museu Picasso and La Sagrada Familia.
14th we would have our walking tour in the morning, then we could walk through Las Ramblas with a quick stop at Mercat de la Boqueria to the port. In the evening we would then take a cruise through the port and along the coast with a boat and maybe there would be some time left for the nautical museum.
15th – our last day – we would take it easy and take the hop on hop off bus through the city, going to Montjuic and the famous Magic Fountain.
16th we would fly back.
Because I did not like to take a journal with me during the day, I made a sheet with the details. (The paper is folded because of it was put into a trouser pocket. 🙂 )
So wisdom of the day: In every mess, a system can be found – you just need to look for it.
Love to you all,
Chrissi
The world of washi tape
hello, 🙂
today I want to talk about washi tape. If you are interested into journaling then you will find the colourful masking tapes.
What is washi?
It is an invention of the Japanese. Washi literally means „Japanese paper“ (from „wa“ = Japan/Japanese and „shi“ = paper). It is sometimes also called masking tape alternatively.
It is a colourful tape which can removed from the paper without any remains and you can tape to another place, again and again (if it is of good quality). It is amazing and it helps to personalise your journal, card or whatever you would like to decorate with it. Washi tape comes in huge varieties. The shape, the size, and the colours can be very different. You can find tape with a golden touch, with dogs, cats, otters (as you can see in the picture), houses, planets, stars, mountains, and many things more. You won’t believe it, you can even find it in plain colours 😉
I am a little washi messy. Honestly, I love it. The sheer variety of motives and styles of a tapes can be so different and every tape is pretty. As of today, I have got 260 different tapes. I know it is a huge collection but I am in love with these little rolls. 🙂 For example, I have tapes which have a single colour or tapes with prints like flowers, cactus, animals or landscapes. And I am sure, there will be many more to come.
Drawer number 2
How do I use my washi tape?
Most of the time I use it for my bullet journal. I like to tape it on birthday cards or seasonal greetings. Sometimes I use it for presents. It is a lovely and personal touch. 🙂
Wisdom of the day: Try it and you will love it. 🙂
Love to you all,
Christiane
My favourite stationery online shop
Hello, 🙂
long time no read. Ok, I am sorry, that I have not written a new post for such a long time. We were on holiday to Barcelona with some very dear friends of ours and after that I was on the road for work a lot.
However, today I thought, that it would be nice to give you some information about one of my favourite stationery shops. To be honest, there are a lot of stationery online shops and websites like Etsy or Wish which make it easy for stationery addicts (like me) to buy some wonderful things.
But my absolute favourite and I think my first stationery shop was London Gifties. You know, you will never forget your first love. 😉
The shop owner is Kristine. She offers a lovely variety of stickers, washi tape, water colour sets or paper journals and many more. She does a great job with her small business. The products change from time to time. That is great, so you can check every two months or so and find new things every time.
Why I am telling you that about little shop?
First, I love to support little shops and I think it is important to be supportive in our journaling/stationery community.
Second, in little shops you can aleays find stuff which is unique and the quality is high.
Third, the package is incredibly beautiful. Each of them is decorated individually and differently, and the name is done in beautiful hand lettering style.
Today I got a new package from London Gifties. It was a so-called treasure box. So it was a surprise for me to see what is inside. I was so excited and I was just happy to open my box. 🙂
Which stationery things were inside? There were eight different rolls of washi tape, a paper bundle, tea, chocolate, and a mix of classicy goods from Japan.
My wisdom of the day: If you want to shop for stationery, try a little shop and you will definitely find a little treasure yourself.
Love to you all,
Christiane
PS: In the future, I will blog about more shops or artists I love. 🙂
Planning our trip to Barcelona
Hello 🙂
I hope you had/have a good Friday. Today it is the last planning day for our trip to Barcelona. We are going to travel with some good friends.
To be honest with you, Barcelona isn’t the city of my dreams but I think it is a trip worth because of the wonderful culture and amazing architecture. So, I am a little bit excited. 😀
We will stay there for 3 whole days and one half day. The best thing is that our flight is going to take only 2 hours.
I planned intensely last weekend. I bought some guide books and I was overwhelmed by all the wonderful places which you should or could visited in Barcelona. So, I started putting a post it on my favourite spots. After that I realized that the book was marked on nearly every third page. Ok, that was way too much for 3 days. Because of that, I was looking for the most important highlights of Barcelona like Sagrada Familia, the port, Parc Güell or Montjüic.
The planning was quite exhausting because my husband and our friends gave me the freedom to plan the trip. Ok, I love planning but sometimes it is nice when you have some help with it.
During my planning I was a little bit shocked about the entrance fees of the highlights. After the shock was gone, I started my research for something like day passes to save money. You have the choice between Turbopass and Barcelona pass. Both passes have advantages and disadvantages. We decided for the Turbopass because the Sagrada Familia is free and we can use the hop on hop off bus for one day.
I planned our visits according to the locations. I tried to put all highlights of the same area at one day, so we can enjoy a walk through the different districts. I am excited to see if we can walk to those sights or whether we will have to use the metro and the bus system a lot.
I think I will show you whether plan and reality will have found each other after we will have returned back home next week. I’d like to do these kind of checks of reality. 😉
Love to you all,
Christiane
My perfect time to journal
Hello 🙂
today I was thinking about how I find my journal time or what I do when I take time for journaling.
To be honest, I don’t have time for journaling every day although I would like to have. I work 40 hours per week and the flat cleaning doesn’t do it on itself. 😉 And I have to admit that I have a few other hobbies too. 😉
At some days, I just check the things which I have to do for the next days and I write only my moods and fill in my trackers. Maybe I write just a few notes or a plan for the next day but it takes only 10-20 minutes a day.
On the other side, there are days when I have spare time and I can be as creative as I would like to be. At this time, I draw new weekly or monthly spreads, try to doodle, or write some lines, maybe a short story. When I am doing that, I listen to a radio play or to relaxing music. I enjoy a good cup of coffee or tea and sit at my desk. Next to me is my little pug girl Maya who is usually sleeping (it is really relaxing to hear her snoring 🙂 ) Ok, sometimes her big brown eyes look at me and she can sit on my lap. She loves to cuddle, you know.
In the spring and summer time I like to sit on our balcony and enjoy journaling outside. We have a nice view over the houses up to a forest. You can see a lot of trees and it is calling for inspiration. I can do this for 2-4 hours.
These moments are great and very special for me. I can relax and enjoy this time.
My wisdom for today: When you start journaling, take some time, sit at cosy place and have your stationery tools near you. Don’t stress yourself, if you don’t have much time every day.
So, what is your perfect moment for journaling? What is relaxing for you when you are journaling? I would be happy if you shared your experiences in the comments.
Love to you all,
Christiane
Evil Journalista 