Happy New Year!

My goal for 2012 was to bring this blog to life and update it at least 5 times a week, but life threw me a curve ball and I was knocked down with bronchitis. What a way to start the new year! I spent New Year's Eve in bed all night and was asleep before 8pm. I didn't actually get out of bed and leave the house until Tuesday when I went to see my doctor. Thank goodness for meds!

So... my 2012 is off to a rough start, but it can only get better, right?

eBooks vs. Hardback & Paperback books

I love to read and I've always loved books and used to buy them all the time. Around the time I bought my first home, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't buy anymore hardback books except copies of first edition releases from two of my favorite authors. Why would I make such a promise? As I was packing my things to move from my very last rental apartment to move to my very first home I purchased, I realized just how many books I owned. It was excessive and I just did not have the room to store them anymore. It was difficult, but I decided to dontae nearly all of them to my local library and I kept only a small handful. Okay, maybe more than just a small handful - it was more like 3 boxes. Two were filled with cookbooks and one was filled with fiction hardbacks. I've always gotten library cards from every where I've lived. I just needed to utlizie my local library!

A couple of years later, Amazon came out with their first Kindle device. I was intrigued, however I wasn't interested in purchasing one until after they came out with the Kindle 2. But it wasn't until after they came out with the Kindle 3 that I really wanted one. I finally broke down and bought my Kindle 3 in January of this year.

Transitioning from books to my eReader was difficult at first. I loved my new electronic gadget, but I also love the feel of a book. I love the feel of the paper and turning each page one by one, seeing progress as I made my way to the end of a book. I only bought a few Kindle books and had downloaded many free books. But more and more, I was getting used to my Kindle and loved how conveniently small it was. I loved that it would fit in my purse, no matter what book I was reading - not something I could do with thick, hardback books in the past. I also loved that it was so light-weight and so easy to travel with. My laptop bag wasn't weighed down with a heavy book for my frequent day trips to NYC for work anymore! And then one day, they introduced Kindle Library Lending and I was absolutely thrilled!

I had borrowed a copy of The Help from my co-worker and I had gotten so used to my Kindle that I was too lazy to carry the thick book around. I had her book on my shelf for months, planning to read it one day... eventually. Two days after my library introduced Kindle lending, I put my name on the waitlist for the Kindle eBook copy of The Help and I was number 42! I paiently waited for weeks and finally last week I received an email that my name had finally made it to the top of the list! My library gave me 48 hours to check it out on their site and their Kindle eBook lending period is for 2 weeks. The book is so good, I can hardly put down my Kindle!! And, though I love the book and wished I had cracked open my co-workers hardback copy before now, I've got to admit that I'd still rather read it on my Kindle!

Wow. Techology has changed the way I feel about reading.

Do you have a Kindle? Or are you considering getting one?

MIA

I've been MIA for a long while. Life's ups and downs have kept me busy. My goal is to start updating this blog again on a regular basis starting in November (which happens to start tomorrow).

My Erin Condren Life Planner - Part Deux

I had posted earlier about my Erin Condren Life Planner and wanted to share a little more about some of the things I was curious about before I ordered mine. I hope this information is helpful for others!

I had a slight issue with my Erin Condren Life Planner but it was very minor and still functional but my OCD tendancies made me have a minor freak-out about it. Their website had recently been hacked and fortunately for me, my planner was already in process and printed when this happened. I can only imagine what their customer service group was dealing with since many orders were lost but they handled the situation so well and have since recovered. I felt bad about contacting them but after a tweet response from Erin herself advising me to contact them, I did! Erin and her company strive for absolute customer satisfaction and they went above and beyond for me! They are awesome!!

On Friday I contacted customer service and by the following Wednesday I had received FedEx Express shipment from Erin Condren that resolved my issue! Plus they included extras for me in my email communications and in my shipment. Wow! Not many companies are as responsive and so rapid, even while dealing with trying to catchup and recover following their website hack!



Once again, they shipped my package in a beautiful box with bubble wrap and tissue! They get an A+ for presentation!!



So on to more details about my Life Planner... The planner is thick! It's over an inch! I weighed my planner just as it arrived in the box with no extras of my own added to the folders. So this includes the three clips plus extra stickers and cards on my work shipping scale and it came out to be 1.8 pounds. Yes, it's got a bit of weight to it. Keep in mind that this includes not only all twelve months of 2012, but also includes five extra months of August through December of 2011. I'm sure it would be much thinner if it only included the months of 2012, so this is something to consider if you've already got a planner for the rest of this year or want to wait to start it next year. One of the best things about Erin Condren's site is that they allow for customization and you can ask for it to only include 2012.



Not only am I obsessed with planners and calendars, I also have an obsession with writing utensils. So I had to find the perfect pens to use with my new Life Planner. After I had ordered my Life Planner I had two weeks before it arrived, so that's when I went on my quest for the perfect pens. Wow, there are a lot of pens out there - too many to choose from! This is just a small selection of what I found at my local Staples store and I left without making a decision.



I had received a tweet from Erin that they like to use fine-tipped Sharpies and roller ball pens.



My wonderful Hubby bought me a package of Ultra Fine Sharpies and surprised me with them the day after I had received my new planner (yes, he's great and supports my obsessions). I was so excited to start filling in the pages of my planner, but much to my dismay I discovered that the Sharpie markers bleed through the pages! But they work great on the stickers included with the planner, so I'll reserve use of them on the stickers only.



I had a $5 coupon for Staples so I made a quick trip to pickup some pens! Once again I was faced with the options from earlier and I had to make a decision because I coulnd't wait any longer to start using my planner. I came home with these uni-ball 207 gel pens with 0.7mm tips and so far they've worked out great - they do not bleed at all!

I gotta say... I'm very impressed with Erin Condren's Life Planner and especially with her Customer Service group! My obsession with her products will surely grow and I know I'll be placing an order for more products very soon!

Do you also have an Erin Condren Life Planner? What kind of pens do you use with it?

Mother Nature

I drove up into our driveway and found this ginormous bug on our garage. Eeeek! What on earth kind of bug is this?!

I sent my Hubby a text with the picture of it and he replies to me "It's Mother Nature. As long as it's OUTSIDE..."

He's got a good point!

My Erin Condren Life Planner Is Here!

For most of my life I have been a freak about planning and have always kept calendars or planners. Wheter it was a pocket calendar I carried in my purse through high school and college, or a Day Timer or Franklin Covey daily planner I would get from the companies I worked for, I always had to have some kind of calendar or planner. Back in the day, I was so obsessed with daily planning that I even got a job working for a local retail Franklin Covey store!

For the past few years I have used a Moleskine planner as well as two electronic calendars (Outlook for work, accessed on my work issued BlackBerry CrackBerry and Google Calendar for personal life accessed on my iPhone). Yes, I'm one of those people who keep electronic and paper planners both. Anyway... I'd been eyeing the Erin Condren Life Planners for quite some time but just couldn't justify paying $50 for one. But then I found a Groupon deal for her website and my life is now forever changed and my obsession has started!

I ordered my Life Planner right after Erin Condren released their new designs for their 2012 Life Planners. They added monthly tabs! There's such a demand and obsession for her Life Planners that it takes almost two weeks from the date of order to the date they ship your customized planner out and I must say that it's so worth the wait! But the anticipation is killer and makes you want to stalk FedEx drivers while you are waiting for your own Life Planner to arrive!



I spent this past Thursday in NYC for work and was so excited when I got home to find this beautiful box on my doorstep!

My husband made me eat dinner and relax a bit before opening the box because he knew I'd spend the rest of the evening filling in the pages of it. So after I gobbled down my dinner, I cleared the table and attacked the box!



I was so excited to see that even the details down to the corrugated box were a focus to this wonderful company! And look at they way they packaged everything inside the box! Tissue wrapped over bubble wrap!!



Erin has so many beautiful designs that it was difficult to choose which one to order. It actually took me about a week to decide and I went with the fleur fleiz in the splash colorway. What is so cool about these Life Planners is that they will customize them for nearly any way you desire and you can pick your own colors! But I'm not so creative so I stuck with their color scheme.

Hmm... In my excitement I realize I didn't take any photos of the inside pages. You can view them on Erin's website but I'll post more on Flickr later.



Behind all of the calendar pages there are lots of blank pages for notes and lots and lots of stickers to use on the calendar pages for special events (again, I forgot to take photos of them). And, just past these pages there's a folder that is two sided so you can "Keep It All Together" and there's a zippered pouch which had lots of extra goodies inside! There were customized labels (6) as well as general labels (6) that can be used on gifts for various occassions. There were also "Lets Get Together" cards (2) and extra discount code cards (2) you can use or share with friends. These Life Planners used to come with colorful binder clips to help you keep your page, but now they come with these cute swirly round paper clips as your page holder.



Inside the back cover are calendars for 2013 and 2014 for future planning. As you can see in this photo, I have a packet containing two customized notepads that match my Life Planner's fleur feliz design - this is an extra add on you can buy with your Life Planner.

I cannot tell you how excited I am for this planner and am looking forward to filling all the pages of it with my life happenings!!

Right now there are Erin Condren deals on One Kings Lane until Monday 08/15 at 11am EDT.

Do you use a planner? What kind do you use? And if not, how do you keep yourself organized?

3-Packs Of Extra Dessert Gum

Just a follow-up on my previous post about Wrigley's Extra Dessert gum...


I was so excited to discover 3-packs of the Baked Apple Pie flavor at my local Target! Such a better value than buying by the single pack. Still haven't been able to find this flavor at Costco or Sam's Club. Sam's had Mint Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Shortcake but the only one I absolutley love enough to buy a huge supply of is the Baked Apple Pie.

Have you tried Extra Dessert Gum? What is your favorite flavor?