Some of you may recall earlier this year when I received my first filofax style planner, an A5 mint beauty from Kikki K that I wrote a rather extensive blog post about! I love my A5 Mint Time Planner, but after acquainting myself to the filofax and planner community, I began to realize that an A5 planner was just too large for my needs. Yes, it holds a lot of information and yes, the pages are much larger so you can really capture all the details of day-to-day life, but for me, it wasn’t perfect. When I moved onto my personal sized Kate Spade Wellesley Planner, I began feeling a little more at home in a 6 ring planner. It was more compact, easy to carry and write in while I was on the go and it fit nicely into more of my handbags. But still, it just didn’t feel 100% right to me. For a lot of us in the planner community, the search for that perfect planner is something that seems to elude us. Many of us have collections of planners that may seem frivolous to some, but those who understand know that our planners are like our babies. Okay, not literally, but like children or pets, our planners each seem beautiful and unique in their own way, and again, like children or pets, sometimes they just aren’t perfect and we try to work through issues to come to some state of balance. I have to say though, this last week I received a beautiful gift from one of my favorite stationery companies, Kikki K, and it has really been making me question my loyalty to my other planners. I was sent a Medium 2015 Lilac Time Planner (with a matching adorable pen!) and although it wasn’t something I was ever expecting to like, I have fallen head over heels in love with it!
There is something about the Kikki K planners that I just like. They are made from soft leather, have a nice rounded feel in the hands and the color, oh the color, it’s breathtaking! I’ve never thought of myself as a purple person, but this lilac is sophisticated and feminine, and surprisingly neutral! I also just love the dimensions of this planner. When I compare it to my Kate Spade planner, it’s slight wider and slightly shorter, but more of a square shape overall than the obvious rectangular shape of the Wellesley. To me, the proportions feel anatomically correct. Of course, there is also the elastic closure band, which I am a major fan of and was one of the reasons I purchased the mint A5 earlier this year. I think the elastic band is secure, but forgiving! You can stuff it with more inserts, stickers, notepads, and washi samples than a traditional planner with a button or zipper closure and it all holds together!
Another thing Kikki K gets right with this planner is the pockets! The inner cover has an array of pockets, from a large secretarial pocket, perfect for loose papers, cards, mail and more! Then, it has a selection of pockets, some deep, some small, but all have a variety of uses and can fit a plethora of planner goodies and decor! One thing I am very pleased about, in comparison to my mint planner, are the dividers! They are a lovely shade of peachy pink that work nicely with the lilac planner. They are so lovely, in fact, that I didn’t bother making my own personalized dividers, because I loved the stock dividers so much!
Now, on to the inserts and the various sections of this planner! The planner came with a variety of inserts: month on two pages spread, week on two pages calendar, address book inserts, birthday and anniversary pages, shops and restaurant tracker, to-do lists, and expense sheets. I love the Kikki K calendar inserts, however, the dates began with 2015 so they weren’t much use to me. So, I used some free printables from Philofaxy to hold me over until the new year! I also put aside the address book, birthday/anniversary, shops/restaurants, and expense sheets because they aren’t any use to me. Instead, I broke my planner down into the following sections: Monthly View, Weekly View, Yearly, Strange & Charmed, Life, and To-Dos!
My monthly view is my editorial calendar for my blog and YouTube channel, helping me keep track of posts and regularly scheduled content!
In my weekly view, I opted for a week per page layout paired with a custom Task List that I designed myself! These two together help me manage my tasks and important items throughout my week.
My yearly section is geared towards helping me organize big picture life goals and tasks. I use a variety of pages in this section to help keep my focused, breaking down my year by month and seasonally.
The Strange & Charmed section is devoted to my blog and YouTube channel. Here I keep track of blog posts and YouTube video ideas with custom trackers I designed for myself. I also keep a variety of loose notepaper here for taking notes or brainstorming.
The life section encompasses everything else in my life that I need to keep track of. This is my place for storing inspiration, my wish list, and taking extraneous notes.
Finally, the meager to-do section is where I keep a running list of to-do items that need my attention.
Overall, I am loving this little planner! I think the size is perfect for me as the planner fits everything I need, all in one place! I am obsessed with the color, which is such a random thing for me, but I just think its such a great shade! I am so excited and thankful that Kikki K was kind enough to send this planner to me, and if you have been thinking about this planner, I definitely think you should pick it up sooner rather than later, as these tend to go out of stock as we get closer to year’s end. Of course, if you want to see an even more in-depth look at my planner set up, make sure to check out my YouTube video below, which basically walks you through the entire planner! If you are interested in any of my custom planner inserts, feel free to visit my shop!
I hope you have enjoyed this peek into my new planner! Make sure to let me know if you have this planner and what you think about it by sending me a tweet or leaving me a message on my Facebook page!