'Timeline' planner by Ruby Black Designs

Being the stationery lover that you all know I am, I have been spending limitless hours looking at, drooling over and pining after unique stationery brands. As you know, planning has been my biggest 'crafty' take away from 2015, I'm a planner addict thanks to relevant hashtags on Instagram (damn you #planneraddicts).

So imagine my joy when I found out about Ruby Black Designs, a quirky and fun British brand with a really unique planner called Timeline...

Practically speaking, something that makes Timeline different, is that it's hardbound - like a story book. And that's exactly what it's supposed to be - the story book for your 2016. It's sturdy and thick and bound like the sort of treasured book you would find in a much loved library. With the layout and fun sections combined, when you get to December and look back, there's going to be the whole story of your year...

This is because Timeline combines practical and thoughtful in one planner. Practically speaking, you get a day per page with itemised sections for the hours between 6am and 10pm to help you plan and structure your day. You also daily get  specific To-Do list that you can tick off as you go. Then the whole bottom half of the page is the journalling section. This is blank for you to interpret as you would like. This bit makes me super excited! If you're a diary keeper, you can write here. If you're a crafty journal keeper then there's plenty of space to get your creative on!

At the start of every month is a page with a lightbulb sketch. This page is specifically for you to record your lightbulb moments - your ideas, your inspirations. Then you can keep track of them. It's just another fun page that the Timeline planner gives you to have fun with in everyday life.

Timeline is different to other planners out there because it's more creative, more...room to breathe and express yourself! If you're a fan of art journalling then you're going to LOVE this planner because it gives you plenty of opportunities to get your crafty on. When I was mooching around the Ruby Black website looking at the Timeline planner, there was one page that was featured in their video and caught my eye - it was the double page that looks like a computer/laptop. The fun thing is that it's only the outline, the contents are blank ready for you to add - in any way you would like. I have so many fun ideas for this section in my Timeline and can't wait until January to get my mitts on that page.

I absolutely love the Timeline planner and even though it's a new brand, I can see it becoming HUGE because of the unique way it combines crafty journalling with organisational planning and yet still manages to create a planner that's going to provide you with an amazing memento of your year - your story. As a mummy, a blogger and a manager in my daily life, this planner allows me to keep track of my day-to-day life, for example writing the date and time of my son's Christmas play. It then gives me the journalling section to record my thoughts about it (amazing!). It's the best of both.

The Timeline planner doesn't have the hefty price tag that some bigger planner brands do, it's only £29 and you can buy it from their website here. And if you want to see it up close and personal, watch my review in full here:


Ruby Black Designs:
Website: www.rubyblackdesigns.com
Twitter: @RubyBlackDesign
Facebook: Ruby Black Designs 
Instagram: rubyblackdesigns

The Happiness Planner

As you know, I am a HUGE stationery fan. I just love stationery, scrapbooking and journalling. I'm a sucker for cute, pretty and lovely stationery in any form. AND when I first started getting obsessed with planning, I began to research the huge amount of planners that were on the market - and I have to say, I can't wait to tell you all about this one...

The Happiness Planner!

I'm so excited by this planner, it's unlike any others I've seen, it's unique - which is really saying something! What makes this one different is that it's designed to help you get to know yourself more, set more goals, focus on your dreams and as a result it should help you to live a more positive life.

You might be wondering how a planner can do this, so let me tell you...

The very first thing you do with this planner is to take the time to invest in yourself and record the results in the first section. (I've talked about the details and shown some of these pages in my YouTube video here). There are pages of 'self quiz' type details which you need to fill in before you start and it's so fun! You're asked to record the things that you like doing the most, what you're happy with - what you're unhappy with. The idea of this whole section is to help you get a better grasp on things, on yourself and on your plans, goals and hopes for 2016. Once you've answered all of these sections, it's actually really revealing about what areas you should focus most of your energy on, and likewise, what you shouldn't.

The planner also helps you to realise what you enjoy most by asking you in that initial section, and it then encourages of you to do more of this throughout the year - 'find what makes you happy and do that' style! Likewise it shows you where you waste time and energy, which is great for helping with time management. Especially if like me, you're constantly on the go.

Another thing that I love is that when you set your goals, there is constant prompting to revisit these goals. By recording your new years resolutions, your goals and more on the detachable printables, you can make a note of the things that you want to achieve and then, if you're feeling demotivated or have lost sight of your goals - you can revisit them to motivate yourself afresh. This is going to be great for me, because I sometimes find that I can get so caught up in everyday life that I loose sight of the bigger picture, so being able to record my hopes, goals and dreams and to keep them in my planner, means I've constantly got them with me for when I need motivating again!

Throughout the year, and on a monthly and daily basis you are asked to evaluate your happiness and record how you feel, what you've achieved etc. I love this, and with all of the other options to record your thoughts, feelings and accomplishments, I love this planner because it's like a journal too, where I can record my emotions and thoughts about everything as well as keep myself organised - win/win.

A key feature is that throughout the planner there are amazing and inspiration quotes constantly. And as you know, I love quotes as much as I love stationery, so I especially love this! It's a lovely touch, and perfect for me as I'm words obsessed!

On a practical note this planner runs for 12 months - January to December (although in their shop, you can buy a 100 day version, which is dateless - meaning you can start it at any time throughout the year). From an organisational perspective, this planner has a whole page per day - which earns it some major brownie points from me. Most planners have a week per double page, but with The Happiness Planner you get a whole day per page - which means there is plenty of space to record the things you need to remember, the appointments you've got etc. So it's excellent at giving you plenty of space to get yourself - and your life organised. There are sections specifically for your To-Do lists, your schedule, your food plans, your exercise routine etc - everything you need to get your day in order. As well as this, there are thought recording sections for what you're most excited about each day, what the good things were and what your hopes are for tomorrow. As well as this, each day starts with a quote - huge love for that!

I absolutely adore The Happiness Planner for one main reason - thanks to all of it's little extra's (daily quotes, thoughtful promptings, opportunities to record and make memories etc.) it's like a practical planner and a journal combined in one. I don't have time to write or keep a diary or journal any more. Between work, mummy duties and blogging - my days are pretty full. So this planner gives me the option to record the emotional side of life - in cute and concise individual sections. And because of that, I'm so excited to start using this, because when we reach December next year, I feel like I'll have a real tool of reflection to treasure and look back on.

As well as their planners (the 100 day version and the full year version) you can also buy Happiness notebooks and cards on the website and download extra printables to use in your planner. And there are links to the blog of Mo Seetubtim who is the mastermind behind The Happiness Planner too - so I highly recommend you check that out too.

The practicality of a planner, the personal ability of a journal, means that The Happiness Planner really is one of my favourite finds this year.

Watch my unboxing and video review here:

Find more details and buy yours here: The Happiness Planner
Twitter: @happinessplannr
Instagram: happinessplanner
Facebook: The Happiness Planner