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Five Under £5 for November

- Vicki 5 Comments
Five Under 5 For November

Five Under 5 For November

If you want to get involved and link up your monthly 5 Under £5 finds then head over to Julia’s blog at Rainbeaubelle and join in. It’s a lot of fun & you get to see all of the cute bargains that everyone finds, I always end up purchasing so many things from everyone else’s roundups.

So a few weeks ago I went to Amsterdam for my birthday (which was magical) I have been to this lovely City on many an occasion. One of my favourite things to do is visit HEMA, which is an affordable, very cool shop and they sell a little bit of everything. I tend to stock up on stationery, mainly because its easy to get home in my suitcase. If you’re not heading to Amsterdam anytime soon fear not, there are a few HEMA stores in the UK & you can order online (yipeeee).

HEMA Happiness Planner Notebook

New Planner Notebook

Happiness Planner

I know they have spelt it Happyness but lets just ignore that. I am going to use this for notes, lists and blog ideas, I can’t see me using it to record my ‘good things about today’. It has a sturdy hard pink and gold cover, which I really like and the pages are nice quality too. I am terrible at keeping up to date with a journal or a planner so this is somewhere in-between and if I keep it on my desk it should prompt me to use it.

HEMA Planner Sticker Sets

Planner Stickers

HEMA do to the best selection of stickers, I bought 2 packs and you get 2 sheets of stickers in each pack. I am thinking of using these in my notebook to make it look a little more colourful and give it more of a planner feel. I am a sucker for stickers and could have purchased so many more sets but I am trying to use the the massive stash I already have so I limited my self to 2.

HEMA Hand Cream

Hand Lotion £2

I 100% bought this because I loved the packaging, I haven’t used the hand cream itself yet but I am not expecting it to be amazing, but the HEMA beauty and toiletries are pretty good quality.  I have very dry hands, especially in the colder months and I’m THAT person with one on my desk, in my handbag and by my bed. Otherwise I forget to apply it, this one is going on my desk.

HEMA Writing Set

6 Pack Letter Writing Set With Envelopes £1 

This is for my 8 year old niece, I buy her one each year. We write letters to each other as she lives in Scotland (600 miles from me) and its a lovely way to keep in touch. Of course I call her and we facetime but writing a letter is more exciting and its nice to keep the letters to look back on, also we use technology so much now that letter writing is something that feels more special and keeps us connected in a slower, more whimsical way. It also worries me that Alyvia won’t have ever known a world without technology, crazy.

HEMA Festive Washi Tape Pack

Gold Festive Themed WASHI Tape

I know I do not need any more washi tape but I just can’t resist and hear me out, I have every intention of using these lovely selection to wrap my Christmas gifts. Its really great quality and the gold sparkly one is super pretty and textured. I may have already started wrapping my Christmas gifts already, that is me trying to be organised, so far so good.

I feel I was quite restrained, especially if you take a look at my HEMA Haul from a couple of years ago.

ban.do Florabunda 17 Month Agenda

- Vicki 7 Comments
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