Wellness Journal

I’ve been diligently using my EC vertical planner as my food and exercise journal. I can’t say enough good things about this and how it keeps me accountable to what I’m eating each day. 

Weight loss is 80% what you eat and 20% exercise so it’s really important to plan your food and then stick to the plan!!

Here are some of my recent weeks. 


It’s becoming more of a habit now to pencil in my meals for the next day. I only plan one day ahead and keep my food very, very simple, following the Bright Line Eating guidelines. 

Making It Mine

The RAK program is so popular it needs its own planner to stay organized!

I saw a post for a used planner for sale and literally bought it in 30 seconds flat!

It arrived in a few days and I put it immediately to use keeping track of all the RAK requests and anything else of interest from the Erin Condren groups.

Here is the planner as I received it in the mail.

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The cover is a soothing Cornflower Blue in the Gingham pattern with minimal customization.

I tried several things to cover the name but finally just ended up using my favorite pin stripe Washi tape and some cute ABC stickers to write “RAK 2014”.

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To protect the stickers and keep the Washi from peeling, I put a small piece of clear packing tape over the area.  You can just barely see the left bottom corner of the packing tape in this next photo!  A person would have to look REALLY HARD to see the packing tape, so it is a good option for protecting any decor that might be added to a used planner to cover the other person’s name.

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On the inside, I used complimentary colored pens to keep track of RAK requests, new people, international requests, and notes about anything that was necessary to remember in managing the various Erin Condren groups that I started.  I was giving out between 300-400 names weekly, so there was a lot to jot down!!

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This little “used” planner (though it was completely brand new), has and is totally serving its purpose.  I think the cover turned out just fine and I am grateful that I found a used one that I could purchase for this purpose!

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Making A Used Planner Your Own

You want to know a secret?  Used Erin Condren Life Planners are a HOT ITEM!!  When someone posts a used EC LP for sale, the post *might* last 1 minute before it is SOLD!!!  People love Erin Condren planners, and they especially love getting them for a great deal!

I should probably define “used”!  We are not talking about a planner that is a year old with writing all over the place.  A “used” planner, in this context, is one that is basically new still, only the person might have a few birthdays listed, or a few appointments, or a sticker or two.  Generally, used planners become available when the Cover was printed incorrectly, or the person didn’t like the cover they chose, so they ordered a different one.  I just bought a used planner myself, $35 including shipping, and I will be using Bic whiteout to cover a few marks on the January, February, and March monthly calendars.  No biggie!  I’m pretty sure I’ll make it a Garden Journal, but more about that another time.

Today, I want to HIGHLIGHT one of the most beautiful used planners I think I’ve ever seen!  I won’t tell the story, I’ll let Rosie tell it, because she is the one responsible for making it so beautiful and personalized for her!!

“Hi Kristy,
Sorry this has taken forever for me to get back to you. I ordered some personalized note pads to match the EC, [and] now I really feel like I fit in.  Silly I know.

Well I basically have been calling this the “year of the planner”.  I have been contemplating purchasing an EC LP for a few years but kept talking myself out of it.  I was thinking things like…it’s not customizable…what if I need to add to it…what if it doesn’t work for me then I’ve spent all this money on it for nothing?  I kept going to the web-site and putting a planner and accessories in the cart, then I’d go back and delete everything. I did this so many times!

In between,  I’ve been “trying a bunch of other planner’s”.  Out of the blue, someone had posted a “used ECLP” on the Filofaxes and Pens for Sale Facebook page.  It was good from Dec 2013 to Dec 2014, so I bought it for $30.  Well it never showed up.  [The gal] got the envelope back, damaged, opened, and planner-less.  She felt so bad about it.  I was sad also. I was really looking forward to getting it.

Later that day I saw another EC LP on the same FB page so I bought it for the same amount of money. I was jumping for joy when I received it!! I had been reading and reading all the post’s and scouring all the pictures on the Erin Condren Fan Club page, so I was more than ready to jump right in!  One of the funny things was the “used LP” I got was the same cover I had been putting in the cart on the web-site.  It was meant to be mine!!

I went to my scrap room, pulled out some matching Washi [tape] and got to work covering up the name “Jessica Roche” in cursive on the front cover.  It looked fine but needed a little something more. Luckily, being the scrapbook hoarder I am,  I found some matching K & Company felt flower stickers, so I put them on,  then lastly added some sparkle HOTP Dazzles dot’s to the center’s of the EC Dahlia’s and…Viola!!!…Some awesome cuteness going on!!

I loved the way it turned out. I added a charm that I made and ordered some matching note pads (with my name on it, yay!!), and I’m happy, happy, happy!!  

So glad to be an official part of the Erin Condren Fan Club. Thank you so much for asking me to be a small part of your blog, I am truly honored!  Happy Thoughts, Rosie

PS: Jessica Roche gave me permission to use her name and before pictures of the planner she sold me. What a sweetheart! Thank You Jessica!”

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Photo by Rosie

Before

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Photo by Rosie

After

I absolutely LOVE this!  What an incredible job personalizing this “used” planner!!  Thank you Rosie for sharing your story!!

In Love With My Event Stickers

I am in Event Sticker heaven!  I just love my event stickers and use them all the time in my planner!  I love all the colors and love using them to motivate me to complete certain tasks!

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I put reminders to call my family members, and mark down when I do a special mall/shopping day with my daughter!  I have stickers for club meetings for my son, and library days, and menu planning!

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I mark my Flylady zones and keep track of all the movies we watch (mostly because I think we watch too many of them, and I’m about to order stickers for books I’ve read, as I think it would be much better to have more “book” stickers than “movie” stickers)!!

I have them color coded and at a glance, I know exactly what needs to happen!!

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My planner evolves each week, with all the most important things placed on the pages first!!

I am trying really hard this year to get our finances in order, so am marking each bill due with a green Pay Bills sticker with the business and amount (I have a whole entire sheet of these on order because I already ran out).

I love tiny check boxes, and use a fine black Sharpie to write on the stickers.  I have stickers for each family member, in “their” color, so all appointments, or anything that pertains directly to that person is marked with their color of sticker!

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I have ordered stickers for each of my blogs so I can be sure to do my weekly blog posts, and not forget to make those happen on time!!  And I’m going to also order black stickers with the word “Piano” on it, so I can record when I practice/play/enjoy the piano, one of my favorite hobbies!!  I want to be able to look back at my year and see the things I did just for me (piano time), to know that I not only invested in my family and their happiness, but I took care of myself as well, and did things that brought joy into my own life!!

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The event stickers come in 35 different colors, and I love having a rainbow of them in my planner!

Some things I’ve learned about the event stickers…

The words don’t show up very well on the colors Pear, Butter, Lemon, or Light Blue.  If you want to write on your sticker with a black Sharpie, the writing doesn’t show on Chocolate, Black, Navy, Charcoal, or Mocha very well!

If you want to order stickers that match each of the month’s colors, be sure to check out my Color of the Months blog post, to find out exactly which colors to choose for your event stickers!

Here is my list of event stickers so far (in no particular order), and the colors I chose for each one, and the reason behind the colors:

Daryl – Orange – Because that’s his family color
Kristy – Pink – Because that’s my family color
Darien – Cornflower – Because that’s his family color
Kaelyn – Lemon – Because that’s her family color
Kendrick – Kelly Green – Because that’s his family color
Write Letters – Light Pink – Because it’s something I need/want to do, and it’s in my color shade
Special Dinner – Pool – Because everything food related is in Pool
Potluck – Pool – Because it’s food related
R.A.K. – Gold – Because RAKs bring sunshine into someone’s mailbox (or my mailbox)
Movie Night – Navy – Because Navy is like the night sky, and that’s when we watch movies, at night
Call Friend – Light Pink – Because I want to do that more often this year and pink is my shade of color
Call Mom – Hot Pink – Because I love her, and it’s in my shade of color again, but more vibrant because it’s very important
Call Kim – Purple – Because it’s my sister’s favorite color, and I need to call her more often
Anniversary – Light Gray – Because we are getting close to our Silver Anniversary
Lazer Tag – Gray – Because it’s dark in the building and kinda smoky in there too
Sky High – Teal – I don’t know why I chose this color for this
Mall/Shopping – Butter – Because it’s something I do with my daughter, and it’s in her shade of color
CMWF – Orange – Because it’s my hubby’s work
Road Trip & Travel – Coral – Because it’s one of my favorite color of stickers, and both of these activities are some of my favorite things to do
Snow Skiing – Baby Blue – Because it looks like winter and snow and cold
Hiking & Camping – Mocha – Because it looks like dirt, and you get dirty when you go hiking and camping
Tennis – Pear – Because it’s the same color as tennis balls
Swimming & Water Skiing – Turquoise – Because it looks like beautiful refreshing water
Bubble Bath – Hot Pink – Because it’s one of my FAVORITE things to do, and it’s in my shade of color
Door Decor – Beet – Because Beet is super pretty and Door Decor is a happy thing I do each month
Pathfinders – Army Green – Because it’s my son’s club, we march, and it’s in his shade of color
Library – Tan – Because our library’s name has “Prairie” in it, and tan makes me think of the prairie
Plan Menus – Pool – Because it’s food related again and it’s a very calm and soothing color, though dealing with food does not leave me feeling calm and soothing, so I thought I needed some external motivation and help in that area
Various School Related Stickers – Red – Because the little red schoolhouse is always Red
Specific Bill Related Stickers – Green – Because green looks like money
Dogs – Taupe – Because muddy little paw prints are usually brown, and Taupe is a light brown that I can write on
Pay Bills – Green – Because it’s about money again
Zone 1 – Dark Orange – Because that is the color Flylady uses for Zone 1 (next time I’ll use Dark Red)
Zone 2 – Gold – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 2
Zone 3 – Cornflower – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 3
Zone 4 – Kelly Green – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 4
Zone 5 – Beet – Because that is the color she uses for Zone 5 (purple would also work)
DRINK H2O – Turquoise – Because that’s the color for water related things
Shine Sink – Lavender – Because it’s a chore, and Flylady loves purple
Mini Tramp – Seafoam – Because it was a nice color that I hadn’t used yet
Fab Abs – Coral – I don’t know why I chose Coral for this one
PROVERBS – Butter – I don’t remember my vision behind this sticker or this color 😦

And if this isn’t enough, I’ve got stickers ordered for my 3 Blogs, Piano Time (black), a few more specific bills (green), Attack Clutter (lavender), Pay Bills (green), and I’m always trying to think of more, especially those that will motivate me to accomplish something or develop a needed habit, like reading more books, or some type of exercise, or some type of cleaning routine!

If you haven’t tried the Event Stickers yet, go for it!  It’s an easy way to bring color into your planner pages, and a great way to color code, set goals for yourself, and bring some variety into your days!

Blank Event Stickers In Your Planner/Notebook

One of my favorite items available for the Planners and Notebooks is the blank colored stickers.  I have stacks of them waiting to designate that special event, day, or activity.  Every Life Planner and Notebooks with the monthly calendar pages come with 2 pages of pre-printed events, as well as 2 pages of blank stickers.

Let’s talk about the blank stickers.

There are 10 different colors of blank stickers, 5 on each sheet.  I don’t know the order they are in, because I had already removed these and cut them apart before deciding to do this post.  I am grouping the photos into two different groups like this… (please remember colors vary according to lighting when the photo is taken as well as the way a monitor displays the colors).

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AND

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The reason they are grouped like this is because the first six strips of color have actual names available on the Erin Condren website.  These colors can be selected when you order Custom Event Stickers.

The colors are:

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This next group of stickers don’t have names.  I have ordered every color of sticker available on the EC website, and these 4 colors are not part of what I received.  They come in every Life Planner, but they don’t match any of the color choices on the EC website.

I have given them my own names, for now, but I will be checking with EC to see if they actually do have names for these colors (I’m sure they do).  When I find out what they are, or if anyone already knows, I will be sure to post about it here on the blog.

These colors are close to the Custom Event Sticker colors, but they are not an exact match, and cannot be ordered for Custom Event Stickers.

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The Planner Lime is very close to the regular Lime color, but it isn’t quite a match.  The Planner Purple is a most lovely purple color, and I really wish they had this one available to order, but they don’t.  The Planner Teal and the Teal on the website, are close, but again, not an exact match, and the Planner Green is quite a bit darker than Kelly Green, but not as dark as Army Green.

In the next blog post, I will be showing which colors match each calendar month.  Most of the colors are available if you want to order Custom Event Stickers that match your months, but a couple of the months actually use a few of the 4 colors above that are not available for custom ordering.

Stay tuned…!

What To Do With March 2014

I just saw some chatter in the Erin Condren Fan Club regarding the monthly spread for March 2014.  Here is 1/2 of the monthly spread in all of its festive green goodness!  Look closely at the bottom left corner.

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This cannot be happening!!  Itty, bitty, teeny, tiny boxes….4 days worth??  NO!!!!

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When I first got my planner and saw this, I promptly went to work and made some changes.  I immediately used my Bic whiteout tape and covered the lines that divided the boxes as well as the numbers 30 & 31.  This gave me full size boxes for March 23 & 24.  Don’t mind how messy those boxes look.  I had a disagreement with some uncooperative Washi tape, and it tore my pages just a bit.  No worries, I can live with it.

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After I redeemed the squares for March 23 & 24, I went back up to the top left of my monthly spread and used the first 2 boxes, and wrote in a 30 in the Sunday box and a 31 in the Monday box, and finished out my month.

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This works for me.

I went through the rest of my planner and found the same issue in November 2014, only it affects just one box, instead of two.  I do hope they will do something different in the 2015 planners.  Having just a 1/2 box for a day will NEVER work for me!

Can We Scream HAPPY?

I don’t think any other planner screams HAPPY as loudly as this one does!  Party Pops on white brings a huge smile to my face EVERY time I see it!!  The large letters down the side are so clean and crisp, and the polka dots are so cheerful.  It’s like having a party in your hands every single day!

I looked up “happy” on dictionary.com– joyous, joyful, blithe, cheerful, merry, contented, gay, blissful, satisfied…this Erin Condren planner is all of these things!

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Photo by Kathy Stevens

How can it be possible that a planner can inspire such a feeling of happiness?  It seems a little odd, actually.  Planners have to-do lists, schedules, appointments, things that generally bring some element of stress into our lives.  But there is something special about the Erin Condren planner.  It is fun and colorful!  We forget that we are plotting work and action for ourselves because it’s so much fun to write in it, to color coordinate our pens, and to decorate a bit with stickers and Washi tape!  We forget that the chores are, well, chores, because we are anticipating that moment of checking off our little box, and feeling the satisfaction of completing a task!

I love this Party Pops cover!  And I am so thankful I found a planner that is so much fun to use and that brings such joy into my life!

Note-Worthy

The note pages in the Erin Condren Life Planner can be bursting with life, as is the case with Teresa’s page below!  What a fabulous idea to keep a visual reminder of all the things that make you happy, all the things that bring a smile to your face, and all the things that find a spot under the affectionate heading – “Favorites”!!

A page like this is always a visual feast for the eyes, and each glance will highlight something different, and often just the thing you needed to see on “that” particular day!  It can be created all at once, or it can start with just one word in the middle, and as inspiration comes, other words can be added, doodles and drawings created, spreading out in circles, like the rings consuming a small pond after a stone is tossed into the middle.

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Photo by Teresa Barron

What will your first word be? How many ripples will be in your pond of favorites?  How many of you will use this space in your planner for creating something that will exercise your smile?  Bring some happy into your day!

Create a page  that leaves you feeling content and energized!  Words are a powerful thing, capable of changing your outlook on a bleak day!  Invest in your smile potential…because when you invest in you, that invests in everyone around you!!

Do something special with a note page in your planner!

And we ALL want to see what you do!  ~Kristy

Paisley on Chocolate

Paisley is definitely one of my top 3 favorite Erin Condren cover designs.  And actually, I have not seen a Paisley cover yet that I didn’t like!  This one especially caught my eye because I have always loved Chocolate and Pink together!

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Photo by Lindsay Noche

I spoke with Lindsay Noche so I could let you all know exactly what colors she chose to make this stunning cover!

This is the multi Paisley design, on a Chocolate background.  Her name, “Lindsay Noche” is printed in Light Pink, and the verse is printed in Tan.  I am still working on learning all of the names for the fonts that EC uses in their designs.  I don’t know the specific name for this font just yet!

This color combination is so delicious I could see myself using it sometime in the future!  Thank you Lindsay for sharing your planner with us! ~Kristy