Forever Last In Line: New Year, New Planner 2015

Last year around this time, I made my first custom planner. After having used through all of 2014, I am ready to review my own work and reveal to you my 2015 planner.

But first I'd like to note that I have edited my 2014 blog post a wee bit.

When I first made some of these pages (as proud as I was of them) I was offering them as free downloads. You lovelies have now had one year (actually, one year and five days if ya wanna be sassy) to capitalize on the freebies. After re-working and adding to the planner, I've decided to offer it as an instant download via Etys for a couple of dollars per PDF. The great news is, they are still super, mega-way, one-billion-percent cheaper than the planners you buy in big stores. Trust me, I was just shopping for them like a week ago. As an added bonus, I'm throwing in free peace of mind with every download: you know you are shopping small and supporting a nerdy girl when you buy the pages! As opposed to shopping big and supporting, ya know, China. Good vibes! Start your New Year by shopping small!!

Let's get on with it. The 2015 Planner!!!

This year I opted for a pretty, girly cover. Not usually my style, I know, but the birdies on this paper glitter. I cannot say no to glitter. Plus, my friend +Pyper Jean gave it to me when we made our planners together.

I also opted for a clear plastic cover this year. Last year I went white, but since I have the cute paper this year, I had to show it off. I am a little concerned about the clear cover holding up, but we shall see!!

I used the same Blank Month Pages as I did in 2014. They worked well, so I felt no need to change them. As you can see, I have January all filled in. Look! There's even a birthday recorded at the top. What a good girl I am.

For my weekly schedule, I opted to keep using Joy Kanani's freebie pages. I did make my own Week At A Glance page as well. The Week at A Glance page shows the week spread across two pages and has room to plan 6am-6pm for each day. Personally, I didn't need that in-depth of a schedule for my week. But now, as I'm typing this up, I'm kind of wishing I had put it in my own planner. Ah well, next year.

You may notice, I didn't use tabs for the months this year. They ended up getting caught in stuff a lot, so I just left them off for 2015. I've been doing just fine with my binder clips. I did add in cardstock dividers between each planner section. In electric green, naturally.

I was re-reading my 2014 blog post about my first planner last night and found something quite funny. One of the things I ended up HATING the most about the planner was the thing I was looking forward to using the most back then. Oh poor naive child! I was giddy about having my shopping list and meal plan "right on the same page"!! How great, right? Nope. I do love having my meal plan and shopping list near each other, but the shopping list from last year's planner was not cutting it. Not at all.

You see, I'm OCD about my shopping lists, and for some reason I thought that little neat column on last year's meal planning page would be fine. But do you know what I did? Every. Dang. Time. I'd write out my meal plan. Fine, good, yes. Then I'd make my shopping list. Randomly, of course, as I was thinking of things or remembering we were out of something or being advised by my husband or changing the meal plan entirely. So my shopping list would be a mess and I was then faced with two choices: try and read through the chicken scratch or re-write the list (in grocery departmental order) on a new paper.

I usually opted for the latter, leaving my planner a mess and practically pointless. So this year I did some major editing.

There is my sweet precious: an organized shopping list that I don't have to rewrite. I just sort my list as I go, random as it may be. It's beautiful. And brilliant. And I already adore it.

The meal plan section is largely unchanged. Just a lil bit bigger. Like my plan for New Years Eve dinner? "Something Fancy." So clever. We ended up having a delicious roast beef, so I guess that worked out.

Another section I majorly revamped is my social media/blogging section. I was wayyyy too cramped in my old one by the end of the year. So BAM. A much more roomy week-by-week social media plan page. I left it pretty vague because as my media plans change through the year, I don't want to end up committing to a planning page that might not grow with me.

Another page I pretty much left alone: my Project Notes Page. I really adore this section of my planner. It served me so well last year. I love having the crafty record right there with me where ever I go! I also made a set of pages for Pyper's planner that I didn't include in my own: Gratitude Journaling Pages. I have my own separate journal for that, but I love the idea of being able to have a positive space within your planner to remember what is important. Planning can get hectic and overwhelming, so that little positive reminder to focus on the blessings is great.

And that's all! Da back cover. Yes, I managed to already get a crease in my back cover. Opps. It'll be fine though. I have faith in it. If not.....I'll cry maybe. That's logically the best reaction. Because I have so many feelings about this planner.