Author: Caroline

Bullet Journal 1 month in

Well we’re just over a month into using my bullet journal and I must say I’m loving it. It’s so much easier and makes much more sense to my list loving brain.

What I’ve learnt so far…..

1. Follow the basics til you get a grip on it. Go visit the home of the Bullet Journal first. Read how Ryder sets it up. Devour the videos. Follow the basic setup for at least your first month.

2. Don’t compare yourself to others. Yes all the Facebook groups and Pinterest and Instagram are awesome for inspiration but your journal is yours. Do as you wish.

3. Don’t try and do all the challenges you find. This month I tried to keep up with 4. I managed to do one everyday. Next month I’ll be more selective which challenges I actually attempt.

4. Also don’t try and track everything. Be selective. You can always track different things next month.

With that out of the way, here’s some of my spreads…

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My first monthly page. Pretty plain when compared to my second month (I started half way through October). Love this spread much more but I still want to work on it.

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Getting much more confident with creating collection, doodling and adding some pretties. This is my first Zen Art Challenge and the cover page for my Christmas planner. The illustration is from Urban:Eve’s Christmas planner (I Love her Christmas planners, her art is amazing). I printed it on clear sticker paper then cut it out for my bullet journal.

So where to from here? I’ve added a few pages for our upcoming trip and have started decorating my December pages. I’m really loving this system. We’ll see how it goes in a few months.

App for fun and learning

Dislaimer: I was provided with a subscription to Kidloland. All opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.

It’s no big news that we’re a tech savy family. Both Miss K & Miss A have their own iPads and when it comes to apps for both girls I really like to try and mix educational and fun.

Obviously we have the usual young children favourites – Peppa Pig, ABC 4 Kids, YouTube for Kids (and endless loops of Hobby Kids TV *sigh*) but one we have been using a lot for the last few months has been KidloLand. It’s an app aimed at children 0-5 but slightly older kids might enjoy it too. Miss K (who is 6) enjoys helping Miss A (who is now 2) to play some of the games when she gets stuck so there is a wide skill range. At the time of writing there are over 800+ nursery rhymes, songs, stories, games and activities!

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The app is free and comes with a sample of each section and is enough to keep younger kids amused but as they age the subscription is really worth it as it gives you access to everything at once and all updates during your subscription. Each song contains fun graphics and interactive elements so they kids can interact with the songs instead of just staring at their screen. Everything is downloaded to the device so they can still use the app with no internet – an awesome bonus for travel! The downloads are small so you don’t have to worry about it filling up your device either. Have a kid who gets bored with apps easily? There are new updates monthly so there is always new content. We’re still finding new things each time we play.

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Miss A is a keen learner and is picking up things so quickly (especially from her big sister). By playing the games in Kidloland she has now started counting along and is often singing nursery rhymes to us. She prefers the games and puzzles but will often go back to the nursery rhymes when she wants to just listen to some music. It’s a great all round app that does offer a variety of learning in a fun environment.

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It’s available on iOS (KidloLand); Google Play Store (Nursery Rhymes For Kids) and Amazon Appstore (KidloLand)

The maker’s of Kidloland have kindly offered me 3 x 3 month subscriptions. If you’d be interested in checking it out, enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Working towards "planner peace"

I love my planner, I mean seriously LOVE my planner (or maybe I’m just addicted to stationery LOL) but I am yet to find “planner peace”. You know, the one planner you wan to use over and over each year.

When I started back into the world of planners I had an awesome A5 size pink planner from Inner B. Wasn’t a huge fan of the colour but I loved the planner. When they stoped doing inserts I decided to try a Kikki K A5 in lilac. I LOVE it but the paper the inserts are on suck. It is too thin for me. I grabbed another set of Kikki K inserts for this year but I’m still not a fan. Fast forward a couple of months into 2016 and I grabbed a Heidi Swapp personal size planner. LOVE the paper but the size is too small for me. Since I hardly used it I’ll gift it to Miss K next year as she keeps asking for a planner to decorate.

What’s a girl to do? I’ve got the planner coming from Leonie Dawson as part of my Shining Academy membership but I don’t know if I’ll use that as my main planner yet.

I’m drawn to bullet journaling as it looks so simple. Etsy is just evil as there as so many cute planner pages on there. I guess I need to sit down and work out what I want to put in my planner and what I’ll use my planner for. I love pen and paper but find myself using my phone cause it’s just easier :/

Edited: I’ve splurged and bought a Leuchtturm1917 Bullet Journal. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to report what I think