martha stewart x staples journals

As promised, here is a closer look at the Martha Stewart Home Office journals. The first type is the 'Shagreen Journal'. It has an elastic that goes over the whole journal (vertically) as a way of fastening.

Opening the journal, you're greeted with this:

Followed by a note from Martha:

The pages have a space for the date at the top. Ideal for use as a journal or even as a planner. This particular one came with entertaining tips.

At the back, there is an inside pocket. (I forgot to take a picture of this!)

Now, a look at the 'Smooth-Finish' journals. I got one in pink and one in red. They had none of the aqua coloured ones left :(

Not dissimilar to the Shagreen journal, the first page has these in them with the background colour corresponding to the external colour of the notebook. 

 

At the front, there are tips for journalling:

Plus, space for important dates:

Again, the pages have a space at the top for a date or a title and so, these notebooks are definitely ideal as a journal. They could also have other uses, such as a recipe book or a book for planning events.

I have to say that I am in love with these journals. I do keep a diary and usually use it for keeping important tickets and other momentos in them. And I also use it for typical journalling too.

What do you guys think? Have I tempted any of you into getting some too? :D

my filofax week #29

Another Sunday, another Filofax week feature. Yet another boring week (I'm now preparing for my operation in just under two weeks time - eek, so scared!) and as a result, most of the things I've been doing are a bit... boring. So I've decorated the days as best as I could each evening and this is the end result.

On Wednesday, you will see that it says 'Staples replacements arriving' and that is because after inspecting the Martha Stewart x Avery items instore and coming home with a few journals, I ordered a few more online (I just couldn't resist!) whilst they were still in stock. When the original order came, one item was missing and another was damaged and so, they sent me out a replacement and also the missing item. Definitely an example of excellent customer service! No blog post about my order though as it is essentially what I bought last week - just more of the same item.

How was your week? Would you like to be featured next week? If so, please email me at paperlovestory @ outlook.com with a picture of your week and a blurb :)

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

custom meal planner inserts

Overwhelmed by the response and feedback I received with regards to my previous custom inserts, I decided to make some more but using a bit more creativity than before. I hope that you guys think that I have managed to find a compromise between the inserts looking good and functionality?

I made these using Photoshop one day as I wanted to make some inserts that were 'cute' enough for my use and I thought I'd share them as I am quite proud of them. They've come out better than I imagined - only thing is, please print them to a scale of 93%. This is a problem I'm trying to sort out (mainly just a scaling problem more than anything) but 93% seems to work well for me personally. Mainly because I print directly onto personal sized paper.

Anyway, they are designed so that they come in a set. The first page is the very first page of the set; with pages 2 and 3 alternating next (so that, when you use the meal planner, you see a week to view spread) if that makes sense. Here are two pictures to try and show this:

Ignore the insert on the left. I made an error while printing some custom notepaper inserts I had designed!
As you can see, I've also been busy by cutting notepaper down to size! It takes me forever as I have to draw and
measure out the size of personal inserts and then cut them all, sheet by sheet, manually using a craft knife!

page 1: family favourites and meal ideas / / page 2: monday to thursday / /page 3: friday to sunday + + a shopping list / /

What do you guys think? I'm trying to design loads of custom inserts in various designs at the moment (seeing as I have the time!) and this is just one offering of a few in the next two weeks or so.

One last thing: if you're looking for the other custom inserts I had posted about too, here is a link to the site where I host the files (it is another site I have used in the past for blogging and I thought I would utilise the space once again). The home page is designed so you can see a preview of the file and then click on it for the link if you're interested.

compact osterley review

So, I've had my Compact Osterley for about a month now and I have finally figured out what to use it for. It is housing my current projects (bucket list, 30 before 30 and 101 in 1001 days challenge), my blog section, the latter half of 2013 inserts, some notepaper and some to-do list inserts. Primarily, it is used as my blog planner (I have bigger and better things planned for Paper Lovestory) so after all this, I think it is now time to do a review of this binder.

Now, as most of you probably know, I've wanted a Compact Osterley for quite some time. I considered selling my personal Osterley to fund a Compact Osterley but due to the discovery of quite a few defects  in a few Finchleys, I opted for a Compact Osterley as a replacement. It felt like fate. And when it arrived in my hands, it was love at first sight. The leather is definitely more hard-wearing than the Finchley binders so I'm feeling quite optimistic of it lasting years - ring quality dependent, of course.

The inside consists of the same card slot layout as the personal.

And there are two penloops on both organisers too. Two penloops seems like a bit of an overkill in a Compact binder and I am already experiencing the negative of this as it can affect the edges of my inserts. Also, having both pen loops in use make it more difficult to put the clasp into action so my recommendation would be to just use one.

However, even with one pen in (I put my Muji Erasable in it and it isn't even that thick in size), this is how the binder was:

The rings appear to be okay for the time being - touch wood this lasts!

Because I have had a personal Osterley for quite some time, this review is really quite brief as I know I that I love the leather, the print and also the design of the Osterley. So obviously, I am gushing about this organiser. One qualm I have about this organiser is that it doesn't lie flat out of the box, however, my personal did.

I have stuck to my oath of not paying anymore money to Filofax so this replacement does not go against that!

And to round off this post, here is a picture comparing the thickness of the two binders (both with inserts in them, but not stuffed to the brim).

What do you guys think?