Randoms | I Am Still Here ;)

Hello there,

Some of you might be wondering why is my Big Cartel down for maintenance or it keeps showing 'Check Back Soon' for the past few days….. And I am so blessed that I have received some emails asking if I am feeling ok or some even asked if I am pregnant. Lol. No no no, I am not pregnant, I just need a little break, for the following reasons:

1. My mini-me has just started Montessori in October and we are still adapting to the new schedule. I am always a nocturnal person who works during the wee hours (till 4~5am) and I need to wake up 8.30am the next day to send him to school. It is very PAINFUL for me every morning since I am never a morning person. I also came to realisation that I haven't been spending much time with my family ever since my little shop has picked up a little + the number of assignments that I have to do monthly is kinda overwhelming. 

Nothing beats spending a lazy morning reading books, singing songs, doing silly dance with my 18-month-old.

2. I am kinda proud of myself being able to send out nearly 200 orders this month. Can't thank everyone enough for being so supportive + patience with me because sometimes it take me a few days just to reply emails. These mails stuck at my local post office for a few days because their system was down and it took a while to process all these registered mails.

3. This is how my room looks like during packing & shipping days. Being so unorganised is driving me crazy and I am totally in creative rut and unmotivated when my room is in huge mess.



Eeekkk! I couldn't even write on my work desk for a week. Invoices, washi tapes, pens, pencil cases and books are were all over my desk.

4. Even my dad said i need to re-organise my overflowing wasabi. Lol. Well, he calls my washi tapes as wasabi =P And then I asked him to made some new shelves for my work desk and I need a little re-organisation to fit my dual-screen. Can't wait to show you my room when I am done reorganising it.

5. My room barely has any floor space after my shipping day. It was kinda crazy and this was no where to be called a happy mess.

Then we moved the day bed out and did another round of re-organisation. Well, it is still very packed and messy, i think I would be able to clean things up after a few more rounds of purging ;) 

6. After reading A Bowl Full of Lemons' blog about 31 days of purging, I reorganised our living room, Ivan's play area and his wardrobe too. Well, my scrap room is messy but at least I have cleaned up one of the corner in the house.  I think I would not be able to be so consistent in doing the purging daily but I am very determined to purge area by area according to my own schedule. #abfol31daypurge

7. And here's another main reason I am taking a short break from work. I have a ganglion cyst of ping-pong ball sized on my right ankle. It's getting a little painful when I sit on the floor when I pack orders. I have had this ganglion cyst since I was heavily pregnant and it is getting bigger recently. So I went to see doctor and also did an Xray & MRI scan for this. Well, no biggie, i just need to schedule another appointment to go for an excision to remove this. 

8. I am also grateful to be able to take a mini break and its been a while since I had lunch with the hubs during weekdays ;)

8. I am also closing the shop to catch up on back logs and orders. My little shop is run by myself only with very little help from friends / family when it comes to packing / working on orders. I do feel terribly bad when I have so many unread / un-replied emails.

My to-do list was getting so crazily overwhelming that I felt extremely unmotivated.

9. My little shop is in need of stock-taking LoL. That's the part that I hate most.

10. I have to confess: I am never good in de-stressing or dealing with stress. So when I am so swamped with work, I can never be creative or work on assignments. This much needed break definitely help myself unwind a little and do more things that I love + work on ideas that I wrote on my to-do list for a while ;) Feel so good to be able to create something for myself, just for fun, not for order / assignments. 

Don't get me wrong, i do love working on custom orders or scrapbook assignments, but sometimes doing something without any guidelines, just follow your heart to create is really what I am craving for recently.

11. Can't help be thankful for all the little things at the moment and also drafting a few blog post to show you more about my planner set ups, stationery reviews etc.

12. Again, nothing beats spending time with my little one. He never fails to amaze me with his new tricks that he learns everyday, with his smile and his happy-self.

And also, extremely happy to bump into one of my long-time instagram firmed Pooi Chin who never fails to amaze me with her super awesome Midori Traveler's Notebook.

I seriously can't thank everyone enough for your concern and kind words. Just in case you are wondering, my little shop will re-open on 25th October and of course, with the new November Happie Planner Kit and some amazing new arrivals! 

XoXo,

Planner | My First Cocoa Daisy Day Planner Kit

Hello hello, have you seen this? As some of you may have seen this happie news that me & Candi are now DAISY GIRLS! what daisy girlS? We are now on Cocoa Daisy Day Planner team! Woo Hoo! I remember I was doing a happy dance in a taxi when I saw the email that Christine sent to me. Since I haven't been scrapping much lately (I still do occasionally), being on a planner kit design team is truly one of the most awesome thing on earth!

Okay, so this blog post is about unboxing my very FIRST Day Planner kit from Cocoa Daisy. I took a lot of photos of the kit because I want to show you more details about this awesome planner kit which you could get it from here. October kit is already sold out so stay tuned for the November kit! 

I waited a day to open the box... because I wanted to take detailed photos of me unboxing this and show y'all. 

Who doesn't love a happy mail day? Just a lame photo to show off my manicure hehehe.

The planner pages / inserts are in the kraft bag while the rest like roller stamp, washi tapes, planner charms and assorted journal cards are kept in the mini muslin bag.

Here's a pic of the full kit. I received the A5 pages and Personal sized pages in the box because I want to use Personal sized for my personal stuff and the A5 sized planner for my work-related stuff. Don't you just love the watercolor splatter on the page? Since the inserts are more on the peachy-pink tone so its not difficult to guess which planners that I am gonna use in the month of October ;)

The kit includes:

• 32 double sided daily to do pages
• 4 double sided week in review pages
• 1 double sided October tab page
• 1 3x5 45 page note pad
• Little B pink stripe washi tape
• 1 large shipping tag with sticky notes (note pads are assorted and may not be the same as pictured - but will coordinate with kit)
• 1 Exclusive Planner Charm - button design by Panda Eight
• 1 Micron Pen in orange
• 2 Paper clip flags
• 1 Freckled Fawn Pink Arrow clip
• Shimelle Date Stamp
• 10 Me and My Big Ideas Journal Cards (cards are assorted and may not be the same as pictured)
• 2 gold stenciled mini shipping tags 

You could also specify if you would like 6 or 7 hole punched planner pages. or I have even read someone commented n Instagram and would her pages to be without holes. 

• 6 Hole punched pages fit most Kikki K. and Filofax planners. 
• 7 Hole punched pages fit most Day Timer planners

Flat rate shipping is as follows:

• Domestic - $6.00
• Canada - $9.00
• International - $14.00

I am using the A5 sized planner in Pastel Pink (from my shop here) and my unicorn Filofax Finsbury in pink. Pink on pink on pink is just perfect for October since it is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Love this exclusive Planner Charm - button design by Panda Eight Designs. I am a sucker for planner charms and have different charms for each and every planner.

More photos of the full kit + personal sized inserts in my Pink Finny. Oh well, you do not need to have an expensive planner to start organizing your days / schedule. But these pretty inserts will definitely make planning your days more enjoying. I love to have a month tab divider as this is my first time having a monthly tab instead of my usual to-dos, shopping list, assignments etc. I am gonna laminate the October tab page to make it sturdier.

The October tabbed page is double sided - Front is some cute calligraphy while the back is the calendar. So practical, isn't it?

The ombre effect weekly pages. I am gonna use this to plan personal schedule like when and where for my daily errands. I totally need this since I have about 3 hours in between dropping Ivan off at his Montessori and  picking him up after class. This week-on-1-page is just nice and not too overwhelming as this is just to plan my trip / daily errands. 

The back of the weekly page is a simple grid page that I could write more details / weekly to-do here. 

Here's the double sided daily To-do pages. You started off with the Daily To-Do section (which will be the top priority of your To-Dos) then follow by call/schedule section. I don't really have to make phone calls since one of my main daily task is to reply emails / comments. So I am considering changing this section to emails section. There are times that I checked my emails on my iPhone and had totally forgotten to reply them when I get on my computer. I am trying to avoid reply emails via phone as much as possible as i would prefer to reply emails either formally / less typo / more details.

And the cute hydration tracker totally motivates me to start tracking my water intake ;) Thinking of using different colors for different type of beverages / drinks that I consume daily. 

The other side of the daily pages have 15 minute pick up, Thankful for, dinner, purchases and before bed. I was so inspired by the way The Organised Nest organizes her daily task and break them down into chunks of under 5 minutes /10-15 minutes /15-30 minutes. Remember to watch her youtube channel for more info. I can never break down my task as detail as her so this quick check list for jotting task that are under 15 minutes is just awesome. Things I could put in here would be: Printing shop invoices / order,  pay bills or send emails. I am putting high hope on this so I would be better in time management ;P 

Another idea for thankful for section - I am thinking of making a mini album to journal / count my blessings. So I would use this to jot down my happy moments or things to be thankful for. And will refer to this section whenever I have time to work on my mini book. 

The before bed section - would be things that I want to do with Ivan. Since he just started his pre-montesorri today and we are working on adjusting his daily routine, so this would include activities to do / books to read before his bed time. And also quick to-do before I go to bed. 

Here's a peek into my A5 sized planner in Pastel Pink. The kit includes a Pigma Micron pen in Orange which I will show you the pen swatch next time. Pigma Micro is one my favorite pen that I use for journalling in my scrapbook pages and use it for drawing. They are water-proof, archival quality and doesn't bleed through papers.

I love the memo pad that is included in the kit and I want to keep it on the side pocket so that I could doodle some random notes.

The pages for the A5 kit and Personal sized kit are almost identical just that the daily pages are different. It has : Must-do, to do, call & schedule section since A5 sized inserts are roomier. I  like that with the must-do section I could prioritize the important task easily. Thinking of using the schedule to plan my work flow. I normally don't work accordingly to time table since I work alone and work from home. Now that I have extra help from some girlies to unpack and pack kits, so setting a work schedule and stick to it would be much helpful.

The other page of the daily to-do would be: 15 minute pick up, dinner, notes & ideas, before bed, thankful for and purchases. Notes & ideas is such an awesome section that I would either jot down ideas that I have for my shop / happie planner kit / blog post / video. I am gonna keep blog or video schedule in my work binder instead of my personal planner.

IT's already 30th of September now... which means one more day till I could start using these inserts! Will definitely make a blog post / video to update y'all on how I use them ;) Don't you just love looking at planner pages that have been filled up with handwriting and doodling?

Thanks for reading such a long blog post ;)

XoXo,