Van Der Spek set up

Last Friday my Van Der Spek planner in 'senior' size arrived and I had very little time to play as I  was busy organising my eldest with his packing for leaving to go to University on the Saturday.  Can you believe that he hadn't even done any laundry??  He had mentioned earlier in the week that he had started his packing...I should have checked then as all that meant was he had put his Xbox and games in a box - no clothes or anything else!!  So come Friday it was a mad rush to get everything sorted out (and washed) and packed away ready for the 5.30am departure for our 5 hour drive to his University.  He has started the next chapter of his life...it's been a strange week end for me.

Anyway fortunately I had the sense to book today off work and set about organising myself and setting up my new planner.

It did come with some 'senior' size inserts which are the same width as filofax personal and just a bit shorter.  I realised that I could have true A6 inserts (Mulberry agenda size) which are wider but I would have to make them myself.

Obviously I had to get the polar bear back in as a matter of urgency so that was the first job :)

It's my trade mark Polar Bear - couldn't miss him out!

He was a bit small to laminate on his own so I backed him with some lovely leopard cardstock which I think looks fab!

Next came the diary inserts, I bought these off Etsy and they are from July 2014 - December 2014 which is all I needed for now.  I tried designing my own but to be honest I couldn't be bothered messing about and I wanted something now!  I really need to learn how to use Publisher before the end of the year so I can do them - I will be making notes for the rest of the year on things I need to change or add so that I can hopefully design the perfect insert for my needs from 2015...watch this space!

Simple but effective

I didn't like the right hand page that came with the download, it was like graph notepaper and as my paper is just ordinary printer paper it was showing through too much.  I just did my own with 'Notes' at the top and a different quote on each page for a bit of interest/inspiration.  I love quotes!!

I need to find some nicer paper for when I do my 2015 inserts, I really don't like this white printer paper it looks cheap and just isn't nice for inserts at all!!  I need to find out what the Kate Spade inserts are printed on as they have been my absolute favourite ones so far - so if anyone knows the weight of this paper, please leave me a comment below!

After the diary comes the notes/to do section and I have laminated a print that I love...

She is organised, confident and sassy!

And after her come the To Do's on 100gsm paper that I thought would be great to use as it takes fountain pen ink really well but even that bleeds the ink through if you print on both sides (I didn't write in fountain pen on both sides so I didn't realise this) but it'll do for now but it isn't the right type.

I love the colour and texture of this paper

So all that is left to do now with this baby is use it!!

The leather is so so soft and I love the full width back pocket but I wont be using it as a wallet (for now) as I have just moved into my Fossil 'Long Live Vintage' purse that I got from eBay for a whopping £2.57.  It's been sealed in an airtight container for a week with bicarbonate of soda and tumble dryer sheets to get rid of the musty smell it had but it's worked so I'm happy now and I think the two of them go together quite well :)

I hope that I have finally found permanent 'Planner Peace' with this one.  It is large enough to not feel cramped, especially with the wider pages, and yet small enough to not take over my bag!  The rings are also smaller at 20mm so I wont be able to stuff it with all those extra pages that I never ever use!!  

I think it's a good thing that I didn't want to use the pages that came with it for exactly that reason.  It has meant that I have had to think what I need, what I actually use and then design them.  There is little point filling it up with expense sheets, measurement sheets, full year calendars, public holidays, addresses, etc, etc. as I just never use them!  I will put an emergency contact sheet in with my most used numbers just in case my phone dies on me but that's all.  

The next set up post will be on my new A5 Original in patent 'Latte' which I am going to use as a personal development filo as I am starting a new college course this week on 'Life Coaching' so I will do something on that once I find out what I need.

Until then, take care xxx