What Keeps Me Together.

I am a woman of routine, as much as that drives me crazy its the truth. I hold myself together by doing things a certain way. As silly as that sounds, when you are juggling 50 million things, being a mum to two kids that are developing into their own personalities, being a loving fiance, planning a wedding for 60+ people, changing my lifestyle and losing weight, whilst fighting depression and trying to make a name for myself Art wise...something has to be there in place so that I don't lose the plot.

Now I've posted about my beautiful Malden in one of my latest posts, This is my new love, one that my darling fiance purchased for me, and it is just delightful to live in. It is handmade in Italy by many many talented craftsman and its second to none. A Gillio Medium dark Brown Compagna. She is holding my life together, keeping me 90% sane!

I never thought such a simple thing, could help me get so many aspect of my life in check. It's like My one woman show book.

I use a week on two pages, and have toyed with the idea of a week on one page with a notes page opposite, maybe next year I will trial that. I get our lives down in this book, from bills, to school things to remember, daycare days, letters I need to write to penpals, our weekend plans and so on. Using  highlighting stickers to make important things jump out at me.

I make my planner my own, with little drawings, stickers, bright tape and coloured pens, it helps me feel like I am in charge of my life, not the other way around.

My daily routine was an idea from a fantastic video by Joy over at enjoyette @youtube if you haven't seen her, do watch her filofax vids. they are some of the best I've seen.

I can move my tags around if my day is different, and I should have taken a new shot of this page, because now my work outs are at the crack of dawn lol and my blogging is later on in the day...I've got these post it flags on a hambly screen print dashboard - all my dividers are dashboards now.
Another idea from joy was context boards...which I quickly adopted into my own planner

they get checked off once they are done...the errands one has been replaced a few times already once all the jobs are done, a new board is put on. It's awesome, I love this idea.
Major daily things that MUST get done go into the weekily board.

my planner is where I go to remind myself of little important things...

it is where I store things that I know will make me smile when I flick to them

I don't just use mine as a planning tool, I also use my Gillio as a wallet...it is working so far, but I see another pocket sized Gillio in my horizon.
Some people may think its silly, or archaic, but for me...pen to paper is how I get through life be it art or writing...so paper planning is the only thing that makes sense to me...even if I am a digital girl in so many other areas of life, it will never be part of my planning life.

 I will do a more updated set up video soon, so keep an eye on that if that is something you would enjoy.
maybe paper planing is something that youre missing in  your life...
It keeps me together, it makes me happy...and I collect things that make me happy.

I will be more present within the walls of my little blog nook...enjoy your evening, and thankyou for reading.

xx Courtney