February 2016 favorites

FEBRUARY 2016 FAVORITES

• It's a planner time for me. I bought Erin Condren Notebook and Kikki K Planner this month

• I am obsessed with The Big Bang Theory this month. I've finished Season Six and now watching Season Seven on iflix

• I almost gave up #listersgottalists challenge until I bought this book. I am planning to use this book for this year listers challenge.

• I love reading productivity and motivational book this month. Now I am reading Better Than Before, a book about habits.

• Loving the new app from abeautifulmess , A Color Story app. 
• I caved in a bought the new Day One App. I am still trying it out and not sure how I feel about it. They took away Dropbox Sync
• Finally I took the time to write about 5 things Iearned from being a planner girl
• And today is a leap day, 29th February 2016. No wonder February felt a little bit longer than usual.

I hope you had an amazing February.  No matter how hard life gets, try to stay positive and look for things to be grateful for.

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Colleen coloured pencils // review

I first saw and played with Colleen coloured pencils when I attend Planner Addict Malaysia meet up last December. I love the bright color. 

So last week I went to DPulze shopping complex to meet my sister in law for lunch. It was my first time there and I did not know what to expect. After lunch I had to visit MPH store there and to my surprised the MPH store here carry lots of amazing stationaries. It's not as big as Mid Valley MPH but but the stationaries collections was pretty good for a small branch. And I saw colleen coloured pencils on a shelf with other brand. They have many sizes and I decided to get the 72 colors just because I am digging the cherry pink color.

After using it for about a week, I must say that I have been reaching for this color more than stabilo coloured pencils or faber castel coloured pencils. You can really feel the difference.

The only thing that I did not like was they came unsharpened to my standard. I like when my pencils are sharp and ready to go.


I like using these color when decorating my weekly spread planner. Lately I love doodling and colouring in my planner.  Somehow it felt more personal and fun to do.

The color feel smooth and thick. I love seeing the color emerge effortlessly without pressing the pencil too hard while colouring. 

This is what my next week spread look like in my personal Kikki K planner

The price for 72 coloured pencils is RM90.10 and it made in Japan  I highly recommend this color if you enjoy bright and colourful coloured pencils
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#listersgottalist February 2016

Earlier this month I found this beautiful book at Kinokuniya,KLCC. It has 365 days space for doodling. Right then I knew this book will be great for lists especially for #listersgottalist challenge. It' simple and beautiful enough for me.

The month is almost over and I am happy to report that I have managed to write my lists in this book every day and I am not stressing out about it.

Some days I wrote a long lists and some days I just wrote a few
The paper is thick enough for sharpie fine point

The prompts for February were leaning towards love and valentine's day which were not my favourite  occasion. When I didn't have anything to say about I just wrote nothing comes to mind.

There's only three days left in February. For a leap year (day 29) I just add a journaling card on top of day 28 which I can just flip to add the list.


I am so ready for March and can't wait for the prompts.
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The Magpies // the review

I think I have been reading too much book by Mark Edwards. I really have to force myself to finish reading this book.

What the book is about?

"When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together, they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too, including the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms.

But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror.

As they are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back—but he has no idea what he is really up against . . . 

The Magpies is a gripping psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons but the people who live next door. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone." excerpt from amazon.com

What do I think?

- this is my least favourite book from Mark Edwards. Maybe because I've read other books from him which I think it's way better than this.

- It's less suspenseful, we already know how was causing the problem

- I left the book with too many unanswered question and I didn't like it

- I think if you haven't read his other book probably you will enjoy the book

Right now

(image credit: http://www.tentionfree.com/social-media/facebook/sad-dps/)

Life right now...
- I am currently reading Better than Before, it's a book about habit
- I just realize that I have not been to Spotlight this year
- my to do list is getting longer
- my intention to stay focus this yea seems to be harder to achieve
- I need to remind myself to take a breadth, hit a pause button and reflect
- I have so many ideas about blog posts related to planners on my mind right now that need to be written down.
- I am feeling the lost of my mom lately. It's hard not to having a mother to share your happiness and your sadness with.
- Every time my son did something cute, all I can think about was pickup a phone and call my mom. I really miss that
- I am also reading Country by Daniel Steel and the story really hit home for me. I can totally related and understand what Stephanie is going through
- I am loving the Big Bang Theory sitcom on iflix. Can't stop watching it.
- I am throne between continuing with #listersgottalost challenge or join 30 days of list. I love them both but I can only do one at a time

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5 things I learned from being a planner girl

I have been obsess with planner since December 2014 when I was in the hunt for 2015 planner. I suddenly got sucked into planner world and I am loving every minute of it. I was introduced to Erin Condren planner style, Kikki K brand, filofax, kate spade personal size binder, happy planner, midori travelers notebook, hobonichi and many more. The obsession with pens, stickers, color pens and pencils, washi tapes, journal cards were getting out of control.

This little world around me feel natural to me because I am a scrapbooker and now I find new ways to use up my stash.

After a year of getting my hands dirty and try on most famous planner and not so famous one, I learned a few things a long the way.

Here are 5 things I've learned so far

1. It can get overwhelmed so easily and so fast in the planner world.
You have to do a little bit of research on what kind of planner you want. Decide and stick to it at least for a year.

2. Having a multiple planner seems to be the norm

This was totally a new concept to me. I used to look at a planner only as a calendar. Planner is so much more than a calendar. It holds basically your life. Anything that you want to keep track of or anything that's on your mind and anything that you want to make as a priority. So it makes sense to have more than one planner. Different planner holds different things.I am still testing and learning to set up different planner for different area of my life.

3. Decoration is part of the fun part of planning

Decorating your planner and make it pretty is the part where I was totally on board. After trying it out for a few months I realized that I like my weekly layout to be clean and simple. I reduced stickers and washi especially for my work planner. I only go crazy with Erin Condren planner.

Know what your style is and don't try to copy other people style. It's okay if your planner don't have any stickers in it.

4. Digital reminder is still a must
I realised that when it comes to paper planner, writing and decorating in them is so much fun but for reminder I still use digital calendar as a reminder for time sensitive event.

5. Find a system that works for you and stick to it

At the moment I am comfortable with A5 size planner and Erin Condren planner. I love travellers notebook but I only use it as a notebook at work. Anything that I capture in this I will transfer it to my Kikki K planner.I don't dare to switch to Happy Planner or any other planner. I need to keep my system to a minimum so that I can focus on things that need to be done and not worry about what planner to use.

There you have it. If you are new to planner world, my advice to you is listen to your heart and do what's suit you. Don't get discourage if your planner doesn't look as prettty as the other. Get inspiration from the pro and adopt their style to suits yours. Don't feel like you have to have the expensive planner to be productive. Even the cheapest planner can be made pretty. You have to be able to do things that "spark joy" for you.

I hope this little tip will help a bit if you are still new with planner world.

Have fun and good luck!!!

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Lets Talk about iPad Air 3

I was disappointed last year when Apple only announce iPad Mini will get an upgrade and there's no mention of iPad Air 3. I like iPad mini but I love iPad Air more. Till this day I still believe that Steve Jobs got it right, the size of the iPad Air is perfect not too small and not too big, just right. I am hoping that they will upgrade iPad Air sometime in the future and not abandon the model.

In early February I heard and watch a lot of rumours on internet land that Apple will release a new iPad Air 3 sometime in March. They also talk about iPhone 7 and iPhone 5se (which I think it's horrible name) which I am not going to talk about today. Today is all about iPad Air 3.

There's a lot of rumour going around about the iPad Air 3 specs like 3D touch (which is nice to have but not necessary), faster processor, better camera and probably will support apple pencil. If all the rumours are true I will definitely upgrade mine just because I am a sucker for pens and pencils and the apple pencil look so cool.

My hope for the new iPad Air 3 :

1. Faster processor

2. Bigger space - no more 16GB model. Hopefully the 128GB will be more cheaper now. I hope (heheheh)

3. Rose Gold color

4. better connection with third party stylus ( I love to write on my iPad Air)

5. iBook Store to be available in my region ( this may not be an iPad Air 3 specific , I just throw in there because it has been on my wish list of a long time) - I love reading on my iPad Air.

6. Better speaker but please don't take away the earphone jack

7. Longer Battery life is a must. 

8. Bigger RAM will be great too

I am hoping March 15 will be the day of the event but if it's not I can wait a little bit longer because I have been waiting for it since last year.

#thursday3 [18.02.2015]

I only did one #thursday3 this month. So many things happened this February that cause me to skip last week #thursday3. I was so too tired to day to write a lengthy blog post. I like the simplicity of this project , a photo of myself and some random facts about my life this week.

HERE ARE MY PHOTO AND FACTS FOR THE WEEK 

1. I am listening to the What you Wish for audiobook by Mark Edwards. I am almost finished.

2. I had a super busy work day today. So many things to discuss and decide, so many things to keep track of.

3. I started doing morning pages today and I found it difficult to sit down and write three pages. I like writing especially something random like this but find the time to really sit a write is not easy. I definitely will try again tomorrow.

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Think about it this way…If you take one picture and write down three facts each week — at the end of the year you’ll have more than 50 photos of yourself and 150 facts about what life has been like. It would make such an epic All About Me book — and most of the work is already done." - rukristin.com
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How I setup Habit Tracker 2016 (Erin Condren Notebook)

Earlier this month I shared how I setup my Erin Condren Notebook. Since than I have been on the look out for ways to optimise this notebook. It's too pretty to be use only once in a while or once a week. 

I stumbled upon the idea of setting up my notebook to track habit on youtube especially when I watch Bullet Journal flip through video. I like the idea of colouring the day after you have accomplished the habit. In a month you are going to have a statistical view of your habit.

I made this template from Microsoft Excel and shrink it to size. It's just a column numbered 1 through 31 and a column to write your task or habit you want to track daily.

I printed eleven sheets and paste them in Erin Condren Notebook.


I am still trying out this idea because so far I have no idea how many tasks or habits I want to track in a month. This is what I have so far and why I want to track them.
1. Inbox Zero - this is the one thing for work that I really want to practice this month and this year. Keeping my email inbox to zero is very important to me because I don't want to have things sent to me without me assigning them to something or delete it completely from my inbox. It's one little task/habit I want to practice to have a clear mind.
2. Drink 2 lit. of water - Instead of checking of the 8oz cup I am going to color the day when I finished drinking 2 lit of water. It's more cost effective for me to do so.
3. Running - I have always love running but lately I have not engage in this activity in a really long time. It would be nice to start at least once or twice a week this month.
4. Take Stairs - I want to be able to carry my body easily and effortlessly. Taking stairs where ever possible especially at work is very important to me. 
5. Insanity Max 30 - This month workout program is Insanity Max 30. So this month I want to keep track of the days I am doing this workout.
6. Write Journal - I love journaling and doodling. It's a fun and creative ways for me to document the everyday life, uncensored and put everything in context.
7. Call abah - Keeping in touch my family is very important to me. So I want to have a visual reminder of this habit so that I will not go a week without at least give my dad a call and say hello
8. Recite Quran - the habit for my soul that I want to inject into my life daily
9. Listen to Quran recital - another habit for my soul to make Quran part of my life
10. Backup photos - I have always wanted to do this but somehow I ended up not doing it. It's the only tasks I have not started this month. Hem need to do something about it.
11. #listersgottalist challenge - one of a daily project I want to this year. I have already got a book for this. The only thing I have to do is just write the lists base on the daily prompt. 
12. Plank for 1 minute - I saw My Diet is Better than Your program on hulu and I was so inspired to try and do plank moves for at least one minute a day. I just want to know if I can do it.
WOW twelves tasks/habit in a month to keep track of. It's a bit much I know but I have to start somewhere so that I get an overview of my habits. Hopefully I am able to keep it up. I think the act of colouring the box after accomplish a task is a reward for me. 
I am going to comeback to this habit tracker next month just to see if there's a change and if this tracker help me develop new habit.
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Remember the time

This week I am playing with some old photos of my two kids way back when there was no digital camera around. I am glad that I took the time to capture their life on camera, too bad I was lazy in journaling department. Some of the photos lack details and dates.

All of these layouts were made using Project Life app and Over app or Phonto app to add title to filler cards.

HERE ARE MY SCRAPBOOK LAYOUTS FOR THIS WEEK  

Sometimes when I don't really have any interesting happening I just took selfie and my planner.




I think my second son looked a lot like my youngest one. Heheheh..



"Be Creative, Show up and Focus on what's important"

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The one that we lost

I saw this notification in my Inbox this morning. It makes me stop and reminisce on the tragedy that happened to my friend Sofuan Ibrahim in 2014. If he is here with us he will be celebrating his 35th birthday tomorrow.

This little notification got me to pause and reflect on life for a bit. How fragile and how short life is. In a blink of an eye everything can changed forever. We may have move on to other things, other tragedies and worries about other things in life but for some of us ,the one who lost friends and family in MH370 tragedy , still have some unresolved feeling. To us we have lost a part of us that somehow don't have any closure. Now I understand why it's so important to bury someone, to mourn the lost and really say goodbye. Without that privilege we are left to ponder what really happened and those unresolved feeling and emotions kept lingering in our mind.

As for me I am torn in two, part of me want to say goodbye and accept the fact that Allah loves him more but part of me feel guilty that I gave up too soon. I really hope that someday we will have the answer to this mystery. No propaganda, no hiding behind the bush just the hard truth.
I am going to take this opportunity to say thank you to Sofuan Ibrahim for being a friend and college even though it was only for a short time. And Happy Birthday.


May Allah bless him.

 Al FATIHAH TO SOFUAN BIN IBRAHIM 

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A Color Story App //review

Happy weekend every one! Hope you have a great one and take lots of photos. I am super duper excited with this new app called A Color Story from abeautifulmess. This is a photo editing app on your phone. This app is free from the apple store but it will cost you about $7.99 to get the whole filter sets. 



This weekend I have a chance to play and explore this app. I like that they have a tool option which allow you to adjust the brightness, saturation and many more of your photo.


The filters are of course amazingly beautiful. You can mix and max the filter by adjusting the intensity of the filters. And when you are done you can save the filters you use to make your own recipes. Isn't that cool!

These are a few photos I did with the filters from this app. The photos were taken by my son with Canon DSLR camera. I import these photos to my phone and edit them with AColorStory app.














And this photo was taken with iPhone and edit with AColorStory app. Yes you can change the photo to black and white.


And the app also comes with starter pack of effects like light leak, color fog, flair and bokeh. These filters will be in my next month purchased lists. Love them so much.

Light leak effect
Color fog effect


Flare and Bokeh effect I highly recommend this app if you are into photography and editing from your phone. It's so much fun and handy to have right on your palm. For more beautiful photos and inspiration check out @acolorstory , @hanizeyecandy and @planwithhaniz instagram
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Lets talk about Planners

When I was organizing my office for the new year I came across an old planner that I used religiously for five years from late 1999 until early 2005. It was a Timesystem. Amazingly when I look up on the internet, the company and the system still exists.

Back then all you need is A5 binder, a pencil ( we were taught to use pencil not pen), a daily inserts for the year and you are good to go. I basically carry this planner every where I went.

You basically map out your month and your year base on this system. I think we are supposed to use activities checklist to jot down all the things that need doing.


I was a young executive hungry for life. Juggling married life, a career and a mother of two was tough. This planner really help a lot. Then in 2005 we have problem maintaining the system because the inserts was too expensive me. I tried using the system with printable from Microsoft Outlook but it just wasn't the same. In the end, I only used my Microsoft Outlook calendar and a notebook as my so call planner.

So as all people that has gone digital, I have managed my life and my day by using only digital calendar like Microsoft outlook and now google calendar. That only solve one part of the whole binder system. I am missing something.
But then in late 2014 I stumbled upon youtube videos about planners when I was searching for organisation tips. Suddenly a whole new world is open up to me. I have never heard about Erin Condren Life Planner, Kikki K planner, Filofax planner and many more. It's like whole new world out there waiting for me to explore.

The journey so far has been amazing. I have bought lots of planners, stickers, washi tapes. pens, color pencils and meet a lot of friends through planner community in Malaysia. One thing is for sure it got me to write again including starting to journal. 
I couldn't be more happy to report that after a year keeping track of the planner world and community I realised that I love have a binder system with me again. I might not make my planner pretty with lots of washi, stickers and things like that but I still take the time to draw, color and doodle in my planner. There are nothing like having a pen and paper to write on. A computer definitely cannot replace that feeling.

I might not stop buying planners and try them out but I am sure that this quest will go on for a long time. I am not sure if I will implement TimeSystem again but with all the inserts I can create and print at home, I might give the system a chance again. I wonder if the system changed in the last ten years!
I guess once a planner girl, always a planner girl
"Be Creative, Show up and Focus on what's important"
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