This Weeks Happy 12

Bella

When we are in Scotland we stay with my brother & his girlfriend has the cutest miniature yorkies, Bella & Milo. Bella is the one in the photo and looks like a teddybear. I never had pets growing up, mainly because my dad was in the army and we lived all over the world so it wasn’t very fair to have animals. Also now that I am an adult I rent and its so difficult to have pets in a rental so it was cute having dogs around for a couple of weeks, they’re so tiny and cheeky, now we’re back home we miss them being around. I think another visit north of the boarder is on the cards soon.

St Andrews ScotlandSt Andrews Harbour

This visit to Scotland was quite a stressful one as my dad was in respite care after being admitted to hospital and was unable to go back to his house. So after an ordeal trying to find him sheltered accommodation we had to pack up his house (without him) and move everything to his new place within 2 weeks. His new place is much better and I hope he will feel more settled there and begin to make progress. Every time we are up in Scotland we always make time to visit St Andrews, I love to walk across the sandy beach & get a little wind swept before popping back into the centre to have a brew and relax. Its such a stunning coastal town and well worth a visit.

Florabunda Bando Planner Bando Planner October

Admittedly I haven’t been using my planner as much as I’d hoped in August, just due to the lack of time but when I do use it I remember how much I love it. The pages are so bright and the positive messages at the beginning of each month make me smile. I have written a review of my Florabunda Bando Planner if you’d like a more in depth look at it. I carry it around everywhere (yes I am that geek).

Ezra & Gil Manchester Ezra & Gil Manchester

I came across a new place to go in Manchester – its a cute kitchen style eatery called Ezra & Gil in the Northern Quarter. It feels like an extension of your home. Its relaxed and has a really good feel about the place and the staff couldn’t be friendlier. I had a beetroot barley risotto and it was utterly delicious, I also had to pretend I didn’t spy all the delicious looking cakes and pastries sat on the till (trying to limit my sugar intake) which was hard as they looked and smelt amazing.

Its reasonably priced and have a really good menu, oh and the part thats even better is it is open until 8pm, so I plan to head back over for dinner one evening & maybe have a cake too.

Jurlique Precious Rose Handcream

This Jurlique parcel arrived whilst I was in Scotland and it arrived just in time to cheer me up, inside were skincare treats to celebrate their 30th anniversary & I was happy to celebrate with them. What a beautiful package to arrive on my doorstep. If you want to read all about what was inside click here – Precious Rose Handcream.

ban.do Florabunda 17 Month Agenda

ban.do Florabunda 17 month agenda

I’m not a very organised person, its something I want to get better at and what better place to start than to purchase a pretty planner. I have been hunting for a cute but functional planner for ages & I came across the most beautiful ban.do one in Paperchase, completely by chance. I can’t find a link to it on Paperchase but here it is on the USA Ban.do Shop.

Ban.do are an LA based company that create the cutest bright bold stationery. I have no idea how I’ve only just discovered them, I am late to the party. I now have half of their website on my wishlist, this could get expensive.

BAN.DO 17 MONTH LARGE AGENDA - FLORABUNDA

I bought the ban.do 17 month large agenda with the Florabunda cover, it cost £25.00 and I love it! The good thing about it is it runs from August 2015 and ends in December 2016, so that means there are no wasted months with me purchasing it more than halfway through 2015, I get to begin planning right away. I’m so excited I have never owned something like this, I have only written a few lists & important dates in so far but I’m hoping to have lots of blog posts planned out for the upcoming months. I want to use it as a blog planner but also as a brief journal / diary of what I do each day. That way I will get the most use from it and there is plenty of space for me to do both.

Do you use a planner & has it helped you organise your life / blog more?

The Florabunda Agenda has a beautifully bright floral patterned hard cover and is spiral bound, I have the larger 8×10 size which is quite large but its a great size if you want just one planner for life, work & I will be using it as a daily diary too. I wanted to make the most of it and so will be using it for everything. Its quite heavy so I won’t be carrying around with me (too much, I will mostly be using it at home and thats why I really like that it lays flat & it can sit open on your desk on a specific page / week to remind you what you have on that week.

ban.do florabunda planner

This planner is jam packed with the cutest illustrations, inspirational & motivational slogans and there is so much room for you to make notes, plan, organise and keep a track of all those important dates.

So it opens up to a blue sleeve with ‘You are the stars you are the galaxy’ in cute font, – I’ve been keeping stickers and a few lists in the sleeve. All the sections are tabbed so its easy to flick to the month you need and a gold elastic keeps the planner closed when you’re not using it. Oh & like that this planner lays flat which makes it easy to write in & means the spine doesn’t get all creased and damaged.

Cute bando Planner

bando planner review

You get a two page spread at the beginning of each month with uplifting slogans & cute artwork. I love these & my favourites are ‘Being Nice is Cool’ & ‘Your Future Looks Bright’. Each month has two pages for notes which I have been using to make lists & jot down dates that haven’t been finalised.

Then each month has a month to view over two pages and after that you get the standard week over two pages layout. I find this layout gives me enough space but I know the smaller boxes for the weekends are an issue for people, but I’m never that busy at the weekend (homebody) so this layout works fine for me.

bando planner

ban.do Florabunda 17 month agenda

There is a page of bright sassy fun stickers to use throughout your planner, I might be in my 30’s but still get excited over stickers. Its a nice fun start to the planner. Then they give you a list of important holidays (American dates) and they have thrown is some cute fun days – like National Piña Colada Day, National Cat Day and National Flower Day!

Large 17 month bando planner

Florabunda large planner

October in bando planner

There are so many little touches / details in this planner, its been so well put together. The quality of the cover and pages is very good, if something has to last you from 17 months you want it to be well made and this ban.do planner certainly feels like good quality.

I didn’t want to give too much away in the photos, but there are quite a few reviews of these planners online if you want a more in depth look at all the pages. Ban.do summarise this planner with some great bullet points,

  • 17-MONTH AGENDA (AUG 2015 – DEC 2016)
  • GLOSSY PAPER-WRAPPED HARD COVER
  • SPIRAL-BOUND, LAY FLAT DESIGN
  • ELASTIC BAND CLOSURE
  • DOUBLE-SIDED POCKET PAGE
  • THE CUTEST STICKER PAGE OF ALL TIME (WITH EXTRA STICKERS!)
  • COLOR-CODED MONTH TABS
  • CHEERFUL ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT
  • FUN TO-DO’S FOR EACH WEEKEND
  • A BUNCH OF SPECIAL HOLIDAYS

Let me know what planner you use & I will do an updated post in a couple of months to let you know if I am in fact more organised & if I have been keeping up to date with filling it in. Wish me luck.

*Update – December 2016. My planner is out of stock but a UK seller does have a range of Ban.do merchandise