Welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted by two
true planner pals. I'm Jess or Jessie Curran.
Hey there, My name is Mark and I go by Mark your pages and we're
back for another fantastic episode of the Planner Pals
podcast where I can't wait to talk about today's topic as
we're wrapping up the year, talking about some of our
favorite things that we've had this year.
And we're going to kind of have fun with this.
We're going to talk about 3 favorites, but you know, we
always have to throw in the thing that's like not working
for us very well. And I'm always interested to
hear just like what's not working for you because we so
often talk so much about like the things that we love.
Unless it's like something you really disdain, I don't feel
like we usually hear very much about like what's not working
because people usually like the positivity.
Yeah, no, that's very fair. I find that oftentimes things
that aren't working for me just like don't last in my collection
very long. So the the window to talk about
them is quite narrow. Whereas the things that are
working, I'm just like, Oh my God, I want to rave about this.
I want to tell everybody, everybody should get on and use
these things. I'm very eager to hear about
what your favourites are. So kicking off, what would be 1
of your favorite things from EU? Well, I think the coolest thing
I got to use this year was my notebook, the Marks notebook
that I partner along with Archer and Olive on this year.
This was a dream thing to be able to do to be able to design
A notebook and really include like all my fun things that I
wanted as a part of it. I think my favorite part that I
got to use in there this year, I called them the smart Marks,
which actually just allows you to easily find the center of
your page both horizontally and vertically, as well as breaking
your pages up into thirds or halves as well.
Right. And that was just something this
year that just was so easy. I appreciate there's other
notebooks that do. I'm definitely not the first
person in the world to think about doing this, but to be able
to include that instead of a notebook page numbers as well,
kind of all the things that I'm like Archer and Olive, If you
want to create a perfect notebook, this is what it is.
And then to be able to put that out was was pretty amazing.
And then to use it. And then as soon as I started
using it, I was like, crap, I should have saved one of every
single size. You know, like this is probably
not something that I'm going to be able to do again, at least
that I can think of in the immediate future.
So I felt like, oh, I should keep it in every size and like
maybe put it in a frame and put it up in my office because like
that's such an achievement. So it's been very cool to be
able to use it this year and just feel really happy.
Like every time I open my notebook, I'm like, I designed
that cover or and I'm like using the little grids and I was like,
I opened another Archer and all of the other day and they aren't
there. I't like, wait, where are they?
Oh, that's right. They were only a part of the
notebook that I designed. They should really do that more
often. No, I think it was.
There's something very special about like using something that
you helped create in that way, which I mean, if you think
about, you know, bullet journaling, DIY planning and
such. Yeah, we did like have a hand in
it. We created the layouts for
ourselves. We set them up the way we wanted
to and now we're using them. But the actual kind of like
notebook or like product itself, having the hand in being able to
bring that to the real world, very exciting.
I have still got mine looking pristine, looking fresh, sitting
on the very attractive notebook shelf because I'm like, no, I
can't use this. It's one-of-a-kind.
It's too special. But also the thing that gets me
about your notebook is that like you have the perfect name for
making a notebook. Well, I know what's really funny
about it is that the marked name, when I was trying to think
of like, what to call it, I wasn't sure.
A buddy of mine said it in passing as like a joke.
He was like, well, clearly it's the marked notebook.
You mark your pages, It's there. And I was like, I didn't think
about that. And then same thing with the
smart marks. I was like, oh, it has these,
you know, symbols in it, whatever.
He's like, so smart marks. I mean, that just makes sense.
And I was like, dude, you get all the credit.
So I gave him, I bought him like two different notebooks.
I'm like, this is like your finder's fee.
Like you get this, This is special.
And I totally gypped. It was like, yeah, this is what
it's called. Well, I came up with Smartmarks.
I came up with the Mark notebook.
It just just made sense. Yeah, it was it was really, it
was really special. It still is special.
I was like thinking still about like what notebook I'm using
next because I still haven't decided which notebook I'm using
next. I was like, I think it just
makes sense for you to use the square version of this.
And I was like, but I don't have any more like after that it's
gone. So I'm thinking about something
different maybe just because I have, you know, 99 plus other
notebooks that are there. But the Smartmarks really made
it got to say. Yeah, I think those little kind
of like accessibility features and such in notebooks can just
be super helpful. And if you're the type of person
who is consistently dividing your page in those dimensions or
whatnot, having that little reference there can just save
you. I mean, like, sure, counting the
numbers from like, you know, 1 to 13 or something.
If you're on it in A5, does it take that long?
No. But if you don't have to do it,
all of those little bits and pieces add up.
You know, if you're in your flow state of setting up your journal
or whatnot, you're not going to disrupt that by having to do
math, even if the math is just counting.
What's funny is that I relied on those marks so much this year
that I actually forgot how many normal spaces there are.
So on all my previous notebooks I would have, I caught it like a
cheat grid sheet. And in the back of my notebook I
would draw out the most common grid spacing sizes that I used.
And the other day I was like, oh, I need to create, you know,
XYZ. And I opened up the back of my
notebook and I was like, it's not here.
I was like, why did I make that? I was like, that's right,
because the most common sizes are in here.
And I actually went back to like a previous page and got out
another one of my favorite items, which I'll talk about as
well. And like measured out the spaces
in the boxes. And I was just like, oh, that's
right. And then I instantly forgot it.
Like I will never remember it. Like I made it too easy to use
that I didn't have to think about like the normal spacing as
well. So my next notebook will likely
not have that. So I'll have to create that
CHEAT SHEET again for myself, which I'm excited about doing
because I love setting them up, but also like, I'm glad I made
it easier for people because that's really all what it's all
about. You know, I find that anytime I
do set up a grid spacing reference or whatnot, as soon as
it's set up, I'm like, cool, I've committed that to memory.
I'm never going to look at this page again or I don't trust past
me to have done it correctly. So I just count things out
anyways. I'm like, no, no, past you was
just as much of A persnickety biscuit.
She, like, you know, was making that list, counting it twice,
all of that type of a thing. It was going to be perfectly
fine. But no, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't rely on it. So I'm like, no, no, every
single time I'll just count out my numbers.
But with working in the same sizes repeatedly, I'm pretty
familiar with the ones that I like, especially in terms of
like column dividing, because typically when I'm writing out
my to do lists and such, I do prefer to use two columns per
page. So it's like, okay, yeah, in a
B6 it's 5 centimeters across. In your A5 it's 6 centimeters
across. Both of those has a 1 centimeter
gap between them because we like to have a little bit of a
buffer. But as soon as I'm in like a
note AB 5 or a square nowadays, it's like, OK, kind of like, you
know, do the conversions like quick math in my brain to make
sure that I can commit that to memory and make sure my
dimensions aren't all like skew with Caddywhompus the entire
notebook, because that would be a bummer.
My. Favorite thing about the square
notebooks that it's the same horizontally as it is
vertically. So you really technically only
have to use a page on it, which is like, I love being able to
save pages in a square notebook because I love it so much.
But let's go into your next one. Jess, what's one of your
favorite items from this year? So this year I kind of decided
that a long standing goal of mine, okay, the long standing
goal was like, oh, I really want to learn how to do lettering.
I really want to learn how to do calligraphy.
I want to be able to make those really beautiful, gorgeous
headers that people have in their journals.
And given the fact that I've been saying it as long as I have
and haven't really done anything about it, it's like, do you
though? Do you want to do that?
Do you want to commit the time, effort and energy to learn those
things? And I think that this year I
kind of just came to the realization that it's like,
maybe we just let that dream go. Maybe that dream was like a past
previous version of you who really was into that kind of
thing. And nowadays you've got other
aspirations when it comes to your creativity.
So one of the things that has very much helped this year in
terms of still getting the kind of aesthetic or cool looking
lettering without actually having to learn how to do the
letter forms yourself is printing headers for my journal.
So going onto a font website, like free font website
likedafont.com or 1001 fonts and just kind of finding something
that I like the look of typing all of my headers out and
printing them off. But if you're printing that on
regular paper, not only then do you have to cut them out, which
yes, I have a cricket, but I don't know how to use it.
And eventually I'll learn, but not today.
OK. But not only do you have to cut
them out, you then have to stick them in and sticking in a whole
bunch of headers for like all of the days of the month plus all
of your collections plus all of your like mini collections or
anything like that. Not the business.
So my favorite supply from this year has got to be sticker
paper, in particular vellum or like washy sticker paper because
I like that it doesn't give you this really harsh outline like
if you were printing on a white matte paper, where like if you
print on a white matte paper and you're keeping it as white matte
paper. I just end up being a little bit
more in particular, just a little bit fussy about how I'm
cutting those headers out. So they have a very kind of
equidistant border around the entire of the letter forms and
such. I ain't got time for that.
I'm a busy person. There's a reason I didn't learn
calligraphy. I'm not now going to have to
learn how to use my cricket or cut things out with scissors.
So like so precisely. So I'd rather just use the
vellum because it blends into the page a lot nicer.
I can be a little bit a little bit skew if a little
caddywhompus with the cutting things out and it doesn't
actually matter as much. Blended nicely, I get the pretty
lot of forms, and I didn't have to write any of them myself.
You just triggered a part of my college frame when you said
dafont.com because that was like the number one site in design
school that we would all go to to find like whatever font we
needed for it. I've I missed that font place
because I would use it so often. I feel like now that I've
learned so much more about it and like using things more
publicly in a lot of the stuff I'm doing, especially like I
can't use it at work because it's all license or whatever.
It's a different world. I mean, in school was totally
fine and now even if I do stuff for like my wife for school or
something, I'd be like, maybe we don't go and do that because
there's uses rights for. But I think personally for
yourself though, when it's not for a business or just for your
notebook or whatever, like totally fine.
But it was just so funny to hear you say that because I haven't
thought about that website in so long.
I I would just wanted to say with the stickers, you know,
something that I've tried myself is using that.
And I think it also does depend when you said like the washi
type or like the vellum, because it's thinner.
I think we even put some of that thicker sticker paper, even
though it doesn't, it's not horrible, but like if you get
like a weird light, you can't could.
It drops like a shadow on to your page sometimes and you're
just like, wait a second, did I write on there?
I do something wrong? Like finding that really nice
thin paper that can fit on that are almost make you feel like
it's a part of your page is really important.
I haven't tried it myself. And I was thinking this too.
How dangerous in the world would we be just if we actually
learned how to use our cricket machines like fully?
I think that we would just be like the most dangerous people
in the world if we were just, you know, took 30 minutes to
learn. I know like full potential
unlocked big brain energy type thing because yeah, I'd be
unstoppable. That being said, I have used it
to make labels for like my kitchen containers or whatnot on
the vinyl kind of, you know, I was going to say the vinyl
paper. No, not the vinyl paper, just
the vinyl, but cut those out. Stuff goes on.
I'm like, excellent, my work here is done.
And then my mom asked, oh, can you do something for me?
I'm like, yeah, sure. Cannot remember how I did that.
That's a that's a future big problem.
Sorry, Mom. I think I only used it like once
or twice when I was big into like the distressed oxide inks
and stuff. I was like, I have a machine
that can make these stencils versus me buying them.
And I just remember like trying to find the right thickness of
it and cutting about. And then I was like, well,
great, now I have all these things.
I like literally, literally cut out one thing and I was like,
maybe next to learn how to make your own stickers like that
would be really cool to do. And then I was like, don't look
too difficult on to the next thing, something totally
different. Like, no, I'm not going to do
that today. The thing that I get with using
the cricket to like, you know, cut out the stickers, print the
stickers, whatever, is that it requires this really large
border around the outside of the actual print area.
And I'm the type of person who like when it comes to my sticker
paper, I'm very like, put it like a dragon.
We need to make sure we use every tiny little available
piece of space on this to print things off.
So when I make my sticker sheets, I'm using like corner to
corner, edge to edge, like barely any space around the
outside wherever possible. So in trying to, you know, marry
that preference with using the cricket who's like, yes, your
margin must be 5 centimeters around the outside.
OK, not that bad, but like kind of that bad.
It just makes me feel like I'm being very wasteful with my
sticker paper. And sure, it's a consumable
resource, like there's always going to be a little bit of
waste, but I just don't think I'm ready to kind of bite the
bullet on that level of quote waste for myself.
I know how you feel. I have one of those lean photo
printers, but it's a sticker cutter as well.
So like it prints out the photo, but then you can automatically
put the cut marks around. It makes it so easy.
But the same thing I'll be like, well, I can't fit two of these
on here because it's only like a four by six piece of like
sticker paper. But I'll print out one thing and
I have this whole other sheet and I was just like, what else
can I add? I don't like that.
I'm like really honestly feeling like I'm wasting it as well.
I'm right there with you. I just feel like I want to use
every little bit of something like that, especially when you
like it so much. But I think you've mentioned
before, like one of the things you decluttered was your extra
sticker scraps saving space, right?
Because you soon realized you don't need to save all of it
because you're not going to actually use it.
Yeah. I mean, that being said, because
I recently given the fact that it's a favorite supply, right?
You know, I've been using a lot and also just like regular matte
sticker paper as well, especially for book covers for
the reading journal. I was printing something off the
other day and made a mistake in my journal and instead of going
to my stash of sticker off cuts that I have, I went and fished
it out of the bin because it was right next to me.
Like Jessica, it's like 5 steps. Go to your collection, get the
ones that you specifically saved for this purpose.
I'm like, you're not my manager. You can't tell me what to do.
So I went dumpster diving for it instead.
It's fine. The mistake is fixed, the
mistake is covered now. But like choices now, I did take
a little Snoop at your list as I was making mine because you were
like, so on to it. This time you're like, no, I've
got my list. I know exactly what I love and I
have my ones that I don't like and whatnot.
And I'm sitting here just like, I don't know.
So I kind of made a shortlist for myself, then realized that
your number 2 was one of the ones I'd written down.
So I'm like, OK, scrap that. Let Mark have his moment with
this, but go on. What's the second favorite item?
It's my Archer and olive B5 size ruler that I only use to measure
out how many boxes are on my pieces of paper.
I rarely ever use the other side or any of the stencils in the
middle. This was really cool because I
think this came inside of a subscription box, right?
The B5 size 1, it was an instant love because it works for every
single notebook. So if it works in a B5, that
means it works for a square and works for everything below it
because the stencils they had before were for like A5 size,
right? And so you're like, OK, but then
I have to like scooch my ruler over to get the rest of my line
if I'm using it or whatever it might be.
And I just didn't really love that.
And so this has been the best. The quality of this one was also
much better. Like the very first one we got,
I think was just like cracking all along the lines.
I think that wasn't a subscription box like one of the
very first ones as well when we got it.
And they've had so many iterations of these rulers over
time to like, I personally didn't love the the wooden ruler
that they had think that was also in a subscription box.
Wasn't my the plastic wings are great, the metal ones, but like
this one has just been so fetch. It's just been awesome to have
and just use and I use it all the time.
It kind of exactly like you said, like I already have the
measurements inside of my journals, but it's just so easy
to go. And I also just, I just actually
removed three other rulers from my art cart because I always
grab this one because it does everything that I needed to do.
It's like, why do you need three other types of rulers along with
this one if you just have the one that works?
So this has just been my go to for everything.
I use it all the time. I'm going to be experimenting in
another journal that isn't dot grid, but it's gridded.
And I was still like, well, I still need to know how many grid
spaces there are in between my columns and rows.
And luckily it was a 5mm grid and just makes me so happy to
know that like it's going to workout and it's going to be the
tool that I just keep using. I mean, eventually I'll probably
use some of the the other things inside of here, but for right
now I'm I'm all about just this top section that, you know,
measures boxes from 1 to 46. No, I 100% agree because when I
got that subscription box that came with the B5 size, I
genuinely considered getting rid of it 'cause I'm like, oh, I
don't use the B5, why would I need this Foolish Jessica?
Because it is one of my most used supplies.
I absolutely love it. I don't know if they've actually
released the B5 size on the shop.
I don't think so. I but one of the things that I
really value about the B5 one that we've got is that the side
is smooth. There is no notch in the middle
of it because that was one of the things that kind of, if I
had it, it would irk the ever loving heck out of me.
But on the A5 version, the one that they most recently
released, I don't know if they've fixed it since then.
It had a notch in the side of the ruler at the midway point,
which I love the idea of having a marking for the midway point
because they've got that on the B5.
Not that I use it because I don't use AB5 sized journal, but
it is there. But if you're trying to use it
as a ruler, having a notch in it means that you don't end up with
a straight line, you end up with like, what is that like curly
bracket? You end up with like a really
long version of a curly bracket. Yeah, it is not my favorite.
I'm in the same exact mode. I totally forgot because I think
one of them also had like 2 divots in it, right?
You're the big one in the center.
I think I had two small ones on the end, maybe even.
But you're right. Like if you weren't paying
attention, you would go and just like to do it and you're like
like Rd. bump, you know, it's like crap, like divot in the
ground and then you're like crap.
Well, I thought I just ruined my page.
Or you would mark it out and then you have to flip the ruler
over to the flat side to use it. Yeah, the marks on these are so
much better. I still don't pay attention to
the marks because just like you like I'm always just like, well,
is this right? Or I don't need it exactly
there. Or you're in a square or A5.
You're like, this just works because I the same deal.
Like I have a really long ruler because that was the other
thing. Even the A fives, like they fit
within the squares, but they didn't cover your whole page.
So like if you really wanted to go across your page or fully
down your page, you had like move your ruler.
And it never is a straight line whenever I do that.
So I always had this like extra long ruler.
But this works out great because I can make it work.
It really is. It seems like such a simple
thing, but like that quality of life, like good quality thing
that you're using makes such a big difference in your
day-to-day planning. It's going to be it's going to
be in use for a very long time. I hope they come out with it on
the shop soon. That's one of those things that
I feel like they should definitely if they haven't
already. Now I feel like a bad Archer and
Olive fan. Like I feel like I should know
that. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they
haven't had the B51, but I do really love it.
I also love that along with the grid spacing you've got like
with the numbers and such, you also have the half box marks
because that can be quite useful, especially if you're
working in a journal size that requires you to divide 1/2 line
there if you know that's the kind of dimensions you're going
for. One of the things that does irk
me about it though, is that when you flip it over and you've got
the centimeter markings, then not using millimeters, you've
like Americanized the metric system.
Politely rack off because no, I don't want a quarter of a
centimeter. I want 10 individual millimeters
in my unit 10 system, please. So I went to use this the other
day. I said the other day, the other
day, could be anywhere from like last week to like 3 years ago.
So grains of salt here. The other day I went to use this
to measure something out and like, why are all my
measurements so janky? Why is everything so off?
And that's because they look like millimeters to the naked
eye. And then you go and count the
spaces and there's eight of them instead 10.
But other than that, I love this ruler.
I've never realized that. I just always assumed that it
was just because if you have centimeters, millimeters make up
centimeters. So that would just make sense.
So so I apologize for all United States non metric system users.
Actually have a loving heck out of me, but that's OK because
typically speaking, if I'm using this one, it is just for that
grid spacing. So no harm, no foul, but I'm not
very impressed with that. Yeah.
Well, so when they come out everyone, you have to get it.
It's really, I think, I mean any type of journal that works.
You know the one thing though, Jess, that this does do it will
call out a journal paper if they are not equal distances.
I was measuring something the other day and for the first
maybe 10 or so boxes, it was lined up.
And then after that it slowly got off mark.
And I was like, what is this garbage paper that I'm using
right now? Like where is this from?
Who do I have to call? I'm about to make a video about
this. Because Can you imagine like
getting halfway through like a, a page and then suddenly like
it's off and you're like looking at it, you're thinking, is it
me? Like, did I miss a spot?
Or like something's not quite right?
And you go back and realize it's the dot grid on the paper that's
the problem and not you. Especially when you have
materials that are made to fit a 5mm grid, like if you're working
in a notebook that has a 4mm grid and like that's that thing,
that's a different kettle of fish.
What we're talking about here is when they say all the packaging,
like, Oh yeah, my Docker channels 5mm, it's perfect.
It's gorgeous. And you're like, haha, no it's
not. You're skewed caddywhompus
jankiness. And I don't want to use you
anymore because now all of my measurements are just just
enough off that I can see it and it irks me.
I don't love it when like this is OK.
This is a complete aside. Similar idea is when you have a
dock grid that doesn't line up across 2 separate pages and
you're trying to make a layout where like one line goes the
whole way across. So you're like do I just ignore
the dock grid and rule through? Do I like break the line in the
middle of the spread and then have them like on completely
different playing fields? What do I do here?
Similar things. Go wild.
I think we got a notebook like that.
It would remind me of like a flip book because you were going
through it and just look like the lines were dancing on the
pages. You were flipping through the
pages. And I was like, and I will never
use this journal ever in my entire life.
Like I cannot do that. It's OK.
I mean, sometimes I know bindings are a little bit off or
it's like slightly different. But when it is like a
significant visible jump, I don't feel like, and I don't
know how to mass produced notebooks, but I have a feeling
that you can do a better job with that.
It can't be that difficult to make sure that your lines line
up. It's like when it gets to a full
row of dock grids away from each other and you're just like,
absolutely not, I can't deal with this all.
Right, Jess, what's your next favorite item from this past
year? So one of my biggest struggles
this year has been surrounding sticker storage.
I found that I was bringing a lot of stickers into my
collection, but didn't necessarily have the best way to
store them, organize them, present them so that then future
Jess could actually find what she was looking for.
So this year and maybe like the kind of tail end of last year, I
was on a quest to figure out the best possible option.
I tried a couple different things.
They had different merits versus different problems for
themselves and such. But I did find a solution for
myself this year and that was using A5 sticker binders because
I love the five size. I have a fleet of five of them.
They are all exactly the same binder.
They have a really nice size of ring on the inside so that then
I can fit ample amounts of very thin plastic pockets that I can
slot all of my stickers into. When it came to the plastic
pockets, I got a range of sizes because you know, different
stickers, different sticker sizes, different sticker sheet
sizes and such. So having some options to play
with depending on what kind of stickers I was trying to store,
that was really useful. But I didn't want to have to
then go and buy like different binders is to sort different
size pockets. So all the pockets like in terms
of their dimension, the outer dimension are the same.
They are all very uniform, matchy, matchy.
And then they just have divisions within those pockets
to help me store different things.
So I have one that is like 1/4, so it's like divided
horizontally and vertically. I have another one that is
halves, so that's just divided horizontally.
And then one that's just a full A5 pocket, which is really good
for those like A5 sticker sheets that you get from different
places. But in the fact that I have as
many as I do, I knew I needed to have a little bit more
organization than just like here's my fat stack of stickers.
So in having my 5 different binders, I have one that's for
everything kind of plant related and nature related.
One for inanimate object that is not plant related because that
would go in the plant related one.
I have one that's for like sceneries and scapes.
So that could be like a landscape or it could be a
building or even door frames and such.
Though I think I might put the door frames in the inanimate
object one. But anyway, it's cool.
At least I only have two places to look as opposed to having to
look through the whole stash of stuff.
I've got one for characters and one for something else,
something like that. I think it's just called like
scrapbooking type things because it's kind of inanimate objects,
but they're all made to like look similar to layered papers
and whatnot. But just being able to take the
swamp of stickers that I had my very large and ever growing, it
seems collection and have a little bit more organization and
a system that can still grow. It still has space to put more
stuff in it if I want to and then have like, you know, my
back catalog of the plastic pocket so I can just pull those
out as I need them. Very peace inducing, makes Jess
very happy. So I'm so pleased to actually
have a system now that works for that because it was getting a
little out of hand. I feel 100% unless I actually
just did something very similar for flake stickers because I
realized I had a lot of flake stickers and I actually bought
something similar to what you're talking about.
The pockets were actually for coin collecting.
So I think there's maybe 9 individual small pouches and it
also like kind of folds over itself too.
And then I was able to kind of distribute a lot of those into
those pouches, which I love. The problem is, is that I didn't
do that for my sticker storage because I bought into a
company's system which was a disk bound with like the pull
out pages, similar type thing and it and it works, but it got
very thick very fast. Not something that I thought
about, even though I bought like the three inch rings for it to
like disc bound into or whatever.
I realized that I've been mixing disc and rings because I know
those are two different things, but I say them as if they are
the same. But I bought the three inch
discs and yeah, it's a big guy. And then I was just like, well,
how deep do I want to go into this?
Because now I'm thinking about what you're talking about
because a lot of the sizes of the stickers for the most part
are similar to a photo pages, right?
I'm pretty sure like what yours probably for photo pages.
And then you can just kind of pop in what you need.
And to your point, which makes a lot of sense too, is then you
can like reorganize them. And when you get to a point
where you have more than a binder full and you're like, OK,
now what do I do to be able to clip them out and put them in,
but know that they're still together makes a lot of sense.
So I think that was super smart. I mean, I kind of bought in, I
spent the money. So I'm like this just going to
have to work for now, but I'm really, really loving the binder
option too because similarly I'm like, OK, where did I put those?
Is it in this binder for this solution that I made or this
leaf insert thing that I made for this?
I should have just, I, I probably will just consolidate
it down into one, but good for you just for thinking through
it. We both know that I don't think
things through like this. Like I still laugh every time I
think about my drawer organization and buying all of
it and seeing if it works and you're like, no, no, no.
You go to the store with the piece of paper and you see what
fits there. I'm just like, we are two
different people when it comes to that kind of stuff.
Yeah, I think that my stick storage and the solution finding
for that, like it's one of those things that I had to kind of
learn as I went. So originally I bought myself
some binders for it 'cause I'm like, Oh yeah, I think that this
could work. I got a couple binders from
Archer and Olive that came with these kind of very shiny plastic
kind of pockets. But the issue that I had with
these, which OK, let's talk about the benefits of this.
I like that it comes out on the side like it's got a little
zipper or whatnot, so you can zip it off or whatnot.
So then the stickers can't fall out the top or anything.
They actually close. That's nice.
But the issue I found with these ones is that these, although
they're thin ish by themselves, as soon as you start to put
multiple into one of those binders, the little plastic
nubbin that actually closes it, that stacks out really fast.
And thus because they get really thick in that very specific
spot, you have to organize the plastic pockets so that some of
them unzip downwards and some of them unzip upwards so that then
when they're closed, you have like half of them up and half of
them down. And I'm like, absolutely not.
I could not handle the channel. So I decided that that solution
didn't really work. But moving to the plastic
pockets that are a lot thinner, they all open at the top so you
know exactly where to go to like get your stickers out.
They don't have a closing or anything like that, so they're
not adding extra bulk in that way.
But I'm like, they are binders. I'm primarily storing them
vertically on the shelf type of a thing.
So if they're all opening at the top, for the most part, the
stickers aren't going to fall out.
The only time that they might fall out is if I am being
particularly aggressive with flipping my pages or I've like
overfilled the bottom section because then everything in the
bottom kind of like that stack. And then everything at the top
is kind of like a little bit like skinny mini.
So then you've got that lane going and things that just kind
of like going downhill. You're like, no, my stickers.
Why? There has to be some like
perfect solution that we just all haven't figured out yet
about it because there's just so many pros and cons to sticker
storage. When you get into it, you know,
it's like someone will say, oh, use those like sticker books,
but I'm like, then I have to peel every sticker off to them,
put it into the book. Yes, it saves space.
Yes, it makes it all uniform, but I'm like using a sticker
before the stickers ready to be used and in my brain it's like,
Oh no, now it's not going to stick as well because you
unstuck it from its original home into something else.
I know that's not true, maybe it is, I don't know, but there is
just so many different sizes and there's no uniform size.
I think that's also the really big thing and why I like your
solution too because like we said, they come in all these
different sizes and instead of trying to buy a system for that
one size, you can just make them work inside of what you have.
It is hard. I thought about it too, like why
do they all need to come out of the top or some of mine slide in
from the side as well to hold on.
And I'm thinking like, OK, what's the scenario in which
this fails? And most of the time with the
top loaded ones is like if it falls off of my bookshelf when
I'm grabbing it, but that doesn't really happen.
I have a pretty strong hold on it, but my brains always like
what if it turns upside down and then every sticker you own flies
out all over the floor? Like I know it's not not
realistic but but it could happen.
Technically speaking, that was one of the issues that I had in
a previous system. So one of the things that I
first got when I was trying to organize my stickers was an A4
size or kind of like almost letter size type folder.
Because I was thinking, Oh yeah, this will be like the one and
done one to rule them all. I'll put everything in here.
So it had very large plastic pockets that had either 1/4
divide, which was like kind of photo sized by that point, or a
six way divide. And I was like, Oh yeah,
individual small sticker sets can and sit in those.
But the problem with the Six Divide is that once you put in a
little pack of stickers that actually bulks up quite a bit,
and then they can't be held securely in the folder.
So I'd have to very gingerly turn the pages in that one and
make sure that I'm being very careful with it.
Otherwise they would just all splay out the top.
You turn a page and then it's like, oh look, little potion
bottle stickers all over my desk now.
Yes, that happened multiple times.
It's, it's, it's hard when that happens.
You're just like, I'm doing my best to organize all of the
spend the time, do the right thing.
It's just that one little mistake.
It's like when static works against you, like usually you
know, something static clung in there and you're like prying it
out. And then other times it's like
the opposite where it's like, get out of here.
I don't want you in your little home.
Like you're up, you know, using 2 opposing magnets.
You're like, I just want my stickers to be organized, damn
it. Yeah, you know, right, it's not
too much to ask for, but I think that the solution I have now has
been very pace, interesting, very pleasing.
And I think that it's probably, I never want to say it's the
final form, my sticker organization, because inevitably
I'll find something that irks me just enough to jump ship and do
something else. But for now it is working.
What would be your third favorite item?
We know that I couldn't go into any episode without talking
about fountain pens, Jess. So I know, right?
But this is a pen that I'm going to say I have to figure out the
right way to do this because people are going to get very
excited and then I feel like they're going to get very not
excited about it. So this year I invested into a
Waterman Careen. It is a beautiful pen and it has
the coolest looking like integrated nib in it.
It writes like a ballpoint pen, right?
A lot of people who don't like fountain pens because they're
scratchy or kind of pointy or whatever they are don't like it.
But the nib on this actually kind of looks like a ballpoint
pen on it and it and it writes beautifully.
All right, everyone, you hold on, just get ready to clutch
your pearls. This pen on sale right now is
$324.00. So it's a very expensive pen
because usually it's over a $400.00 pen.
Mark, that's so much sushi. It's a lot of sushi.
I mean, it's literally like a whole tuna.
But it's one of those things where, and I say this, it's hard
for me to say this too. I, Jess and I are going to be
doing an episode, just a little preview about overconsumption.
Just a just a little heads up on that in the future.
I feel bad when I say because I have so many pens, but like I
say this, that like if you're going to invest in a pen and you
are going to spend a lot of money on a pen, I honestly can
full heartedly say that this would be in my opinion, one of
the best pens to invest in when I let it leave my house.
No do I take this to work with me when I go to work?
No, like this is the pen that literally stays in my office in
my I have a special pen holder for it when I'm using it because
I don't want to like lose it. I lost the dot marker on my desk
somewhere earlier today. Just I can't find it.
I don't want that to happen to my pen, but this is just one of
those pens again where people talk about it.
They, you know, everyone does, but I'm the, the person then
too, like many people where I'm like, but I can't spend that
much money on a pen right now. I also have a very special
situation where like I get store credit for affiliate sales and
stuff like that. So I save up on those.
And this was one of those pens where I saved up for quite a
long time and hit that I was like, and now I'm going to get
it and I don't regret it at all. And actually like now using it.
This would be a pen if I was going to buy it for myself
because I've bought more expensive pens than this,
believe it or not, but there are, you know, handmade, you
know, by people. So I'm like, oh, craftsmanship,
I have to it's fine. But like this is when I would
spend that money on because it writes really nicely.
It does really feel like a ballpoint pen when you're
running with it. And the design of it is so cool
too. Like I'm so used to fountain
pens having like the extra thing you screw in like this is like
integrated into the pen itself. I don't even know how you would
ever change it or if you damaged it, like I don't know what you
would do. I don't I'm not even going to
think about the negativity. But if you are looking for a pen
and you want to like maybe ask for it for the holidays or
something, I think this is a really good one.
I have a lot of favorite pens. Y'all know this but this has
definitely been one of my favorites this year and I've
used it very often, which I can't say for all of my pens
because I have a lot. Yeah, I love the point about,
oh, you know, if you damage it, I don't know what you're doing.
Like you would get out an insurance policy on that pen
mark. Oh my gosh.
I know it is. It's hard when I like really sit
back and like say a price of a pen because I have a few pens
that cost a lot of money that like a brand has sent me and I
didn't know a lot about them at first.
I have one that is amazing. It's made out of titanium, so
like it's a nice one. And I remember getting it and I
was like, oh, which one is this? I looked up online and I saw the
price and I like almost I like laid it very gently back inside
of the perfectly like cushion pillowed case that it came into.
And I was like, I am not I am not the person to be owning a
pen like this or holding this type of pen.
Like whoever said, trust me with this, you know, but I'm just
like, OK now, like it's OK, but it really is like finding those
pens that are that are just like a really good fit.
I'm sorry on the price everyone. I wish, I wish I could offer you
a pen that cost the last that wrote as nice as this pen, but I
just haven't come across one. Like it really blew my mind.
Whereas I'm over here just like AI, like my mark on.
It's great. It's not a permanent pen, but
it's still pretty good. I know that's why I feel bad
talking about it. Like I, I'm always just like,
this is my favorite pen. Then I'm like, oh, by the way,
heads up, you're, you're putting down A to buy this.
I'm sorry. But if you're looking, if you
have the funds to do so, it's worth it.
Do you want to hear a fun story? I think it'll make you happy now
as you're sad about the price of your pen and trying to encourage
people to spend. I'm kidding, but I as a
procrastination tool yesterday cleaned out Iris.
So she's almost ready to accept newing.
She needs to be like fully cleaned out because there's that
little gap that's always there. You can't get the last little
bit out. But I'm like, I'm going to suck
up black ink into this. So like, does it matter?
But yeah, I finally did it. I'm so proud of you.
I love it though, because I was like, you know, there's like the
tiniest amount of ink left in there.
And I know that you told me about the, you know, the 2 water
cup system or whatever. You know, you suck it up, you
spit it out. No, OK, I couldn't do that.
But I'm just like, oh, I don't have a water container that I
don't mind getting stained. So I just went and used my sink.
I'm like, yeah, because that's the solution.
Like let's not stain the water cup.
Let's stain the sink. The sink is not stained.
It's fine. I'm not that much of an egg.
Well, I'm, I am that much of an egg, but not this time.
So sucking it up, spitting it out, sucking it up, spitting it
out. I'm like, oh, no, all the TikTok
croc, it was so beautiful. It was like, it was like a like
a saga. We kind of washed the nib out
and the ink was blue and then we sucked the water up and spat it
out and the ink was green. I'm just like, I didn't know you
had so much potential left in you.
I'm so sorry, but it's gone now. Wash down the sink.
That's the fun part about inks. I have an.
Ink that when you write with it, it's like this really nice green
color and then when you dip it in water, it turns the water
into like toxic sludge. Like it is the most neon E like
it looks like something I don't know if you remember teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles like from back in the day, but like
whatever God is got all over them and like turns into that.
And I'm like this looks like something out of like The
Simpsons. You know where I'm like this is
like a cartoon. It's so neon E sludgy looking
and I'm so like, but that's not the color that comes out of this
patch. Like what's up with this?
Yeah, that was quite interesting for me.
Because I'm like, you know, riding with it on paper, it's
this really kind of nice teal green kind of color.
So you know that there's going to be blue and green pigments in
there. Like, that makes sense.
But just washing out the nib, it was like aggressively blue.
And I was just like, who changed my ink already?
This is ridiculous. All right, Jess.
So that was my last favorite. Thing before we go into the
things that we weren't as big a fans of this year, what was your
third item that you were a big fan of?
So in terms of paper, it's often.
Sometimes it comes from problem solving.
It's like I have a need, I have an issue.
What's the solution? And one of the needs or issues
that I have had for pretty much as long as I have been
journaling is how to lay out my pages.
Like how to make sure that things fit properly, make sure
that then I have the space for decoration and the functional
stuff and all of that type of thing.
And when I first got started, and for quite a while, I would
just pencil things out, you know, measure out the boxes, put
in pencil markings for myself, sometimes even scaffold layouts
out in full in pencil, and then essentially double the amount of
time I have to spend setting it up.
He's like who? Draw it all out in pencil, now
draw it all out in pen. Now wait for the pen to dry.
Now erase it. Oh, no, you didn't wait long
enough. Now everything is smudged.
Everything is sadness. But in trying to move away from
that kind of system, which would cause me much heartache and
pain, I decided that I wanted to start planning my layouts out
digitally. Because then you can chop and
change things. You can move stuff around.
You don't have to pencil things in, which means you're not
doubling up on that time, and you don't then have to erase the
pencil and risk. Smudging things because that's
that's not the business. It's not fun.
Yes, we have mistake fixes, but it doesn't mean that we want to
have to apply them every single time we set up a layout.
So what I made for myself was a journal layout planner.
It's essentially a document in either Excel or Google Sheets
that is sized appropriately so that it has the dimensions of my
notebook and I can effectively make like a digital map for
myself in there. How I'm going to set up the
layout. One of the things that I also
really love is because I'm more commonly making my titles and
headers and such using typed font rather than doing hand
lettering, I can just use that same font on the document to
kind of get an appreciation for the spacing and the sizing.
Like with this lettering style, will I actually be able to fit
my header across the page or do I need to change the wording or
do I need to change the sizing of that kind of print off?
I can also get a good appreciation for how things are
going to look at the end because it's not just pencil I can use
color. I can put in no sections to say,
oh, we're going to ignore this part of the page because you're
going to turn it into a Dutch door.
We're going to have decoration in this corner.
This is roughly the color of that decoration, so we can put
in some boxes of color to represent that.
So I can get a very good look at what the layout will actually
look like once I set it up in my journal rather than just having
some kind of like penciled in scaffolding.
It has been a game changer in terms of making sure that I
don't like stuff up by spacing. I don't have to erase things as
much. I'm saving time with those
mistake fixes. And it's made it so that then
for those layouts that you do kind of set up repeatedly or you
have kind of a similar structure week to week or month to month,
I've got a back catalog of my setups.
So I don't have to start from scratch every single time.
If I'm doing a monthly review layout, I can just be like, oh,
OK, jump back into last month's what worked about this?
This looks good. Or I have to tweak these things,
but I'm not starting from zero every single time.
So that has definitely been a favorite for me.
I absolutely love those resource pages.
I found one on my computer that I went through is from 2020 is
the last time I touched it, so it'd been a while and I created
it. I was so proud of myself just
because I actually actually made all of the columns in the rows
like 5 by 5 because I went through and essentially kind of
digitized in a way all of the spreads and things that worked
for me. And I was like, oh, this will be
great. And I put the sizes in between
each to do that. Know where we differ is even
though I know that I've done the math, I know that it fits.
I know that it's correct. I can't trust myself moving from
that digital like whatever. I'm still using my favorite
ruler to space it out. I still will use a pencil.
I make a lot of pen just like little quick marks, so I know
like where to start and where to stop because I'm not counting as
I go down my pages. But it is one of those things
though, where it is a great resource and anytime you're
stuck, I forget that I have it. Honestly, I don't have it in a
spot where I'm like, oh, mark, remember you have this digital
thing that has all these resources for you, but I love it
and I have actually thought I remember doing it.
My wife was like, why are you doing that?
She's like, you know what you should do?
You should sell that as like a book like of ideas.
And I was like, that's really good idea.
You know, like I have all kinds of fun stuff where I'll be like,
oh, this is where you put a stamp if you want to, or this is
where you put stickers, like different ideas and shapes and
stuff. Of course, I never followed
through with it, but you know, maybe in the future, you never
know. I was just thinking though, like
that is such a good resource to have for any time you're stuck.
And I don't know, we should probably put those out on the
Internet for other people in case they're stuck too.
You know, it is one thing when you see a spread fully done, but
I think what I love most about it is seeing like the skeleton
of the what the idea is. I always love doing that because
that's also how I plan my pages. Like, like structurally, what
are the main areas and spaces? And then I like to add on top of
that layer with something more designed to sticker a stamp
color or doodle, whatever that might be.
But I need to know that like functionally the space works
1st. And that's why I think I, I
really do like those types of things because it focuses so
much more on that than the decorative part of it.
Like that comes afterwards. Yeah, I did use.
It to make a video at one point where I had set up kind of like,
you know, a bunch of different weekly layout ideas and then
made those in the digital space and said like, hey, here's
effectively like the schematic for the layout.
So it's got like the dimensions and the dock red numbers and all
all of that. So if you wanted to recreate
this for yourself, this is the kind of template that you would
use. Put that in that video.
But in terms of the, you know, journal spread planner or
whatnot that I use, I do sell that.
It is on my little shop. It doesn't come like pre
populated with anything, but it does come set up for the
different journal sizes. So we have like, you know,
different variants of the a fives because sure, I use an
answer and all of it has certain dimensions, but there are other
notebook companies that have other dimensions, but it's got
like the B5 and the square and the basics and all of that type
of thing. And having that reference as
well. And given the fact that I have
that template with a bunch of different sizes, it does mean
that anytime I change my notebook size, I don't have to
go and set one up again from scratch.
I've just got that template there that I can use and very,
very helpful because like next year I'm moving into a square
notebook, for instance. So rather than going and having
to set up a, you know, scaffold plan or whatever for myself,
I've already got one in my bank I can just go and use that makes
it so much easier. And I always feel very proud
when I. Do that like in Excel, because I
know you love Excel more than you love most people.
So it makes me happy where I'm like look at me using it's not
the way that it was intended whatsoever, but I could make
some magic happen here for sure. It is it is good.
I need to pull that back up for myself.
Big recommendation, yes. And it's just.
I love the fact that it just makes my journaling easier, it
makes it faster, and it means that then I have like a resource
for myself to use later on as well.
Don't have to kind of start from scratch every single time, but
moving away from our favorites into our not so favorites.
What has been something that this year has stood out for you?
Yeah. So that would be Teemu.
For me personally, entire side, the entire thing.
Well, yeah, I mean. Yes, you can get stuff cheap on
there. Like yes, I did like a bit of a
partnership with them earlier to see like what it was all about.
Yes, it is crap. Like I do not find anything
good. And the thing I was most bummed
about are fountain pens off of Teemu because people would
always tell me, like, Mark, the pens you have are really
expensive, like just showed you like there's better versions or
knock off versions on Timu that you can get that work just as
well. And so I was really excited to
try that out. And I got these two different
pens thinking like, OK, this is great.
The problem is like, so this is the Timu one and then this is
like the platinum Kurdas, right? Like, and I love this pen.
They I mean, they basically look almost exactly the same.
Both of these pens dried out in a day like really fast like I I
filled it everything was great used it OK awesome.
Went to go grab the pen the next day and the nibs were already
dried out and it got to the point where I was keeping a
little container of water on my desk and like dipping the nib to
almost like undry and like re wet the nib a little bit and and
I was just like, this is not what a fountain pen experience
supposed to be. If I wanted to do that, I would
get a dip pen like and and I would dip it.
I wouldn't have to worry about it, but I was really bummed
about and they were they were like under $3 and I keep them
for this exact reason to be like don't buy this crap off of Teamu
like pony up and get the real thing because this works and
this works really well. I would.
I mean, it's just, I mean, this is wasteful.
I mean, I'm really holding on to trash at this point.
I will never fill these pens again, ever.
And I'm literally just using them as an example.
It's like, you know, when they're doing like a don't drink
and drive and they hold on to a car that's been in like a
terrible car wreck, That's this. Yeah.
Imagine the people who. Have been curious about fountain
pens, gone to Google and been like, you know, budget friendly
fountain pen and whatnot. Found this $3 pen or whatnot and
got that. And that's their first
experience. Like, that is their first
experience with a fountain pen. And they're like, cool fountain
pens sucks, They're trash. I don't want them.
This is awful. Yeah, I think that happens a
lot. Honestly, and I think it like
really pushes people away from it and never wanting to use them
again. And you can get fountain pens
inexpensively. Like they don't have to cost
hundreds of dollars. I have some nice ones that I got
off of Amazon that cost under $15.00.
You know, it's just like, are they as fancy and cool and like
all this different stuff? No, but it's a fountain pen.
Go to five and below. Like buy one that already has
ink filled in it. Those work better than the crap
that I bought. So like I'm glad I didn't spend
a lot on them because I would have been real pissed off.
But I know some people who do buy off of that website.
Maybe it's just the pens they buy or whatever and they, I
think it's the best thing ever. Like some of their favorite
pens, I forget the name of like Gene Ho or something along the
lines of that. It's like a generic version of
whatever. People love those pens.
They think they're fantastic. I did not buy that because I was
just like, I don't need to. Let's see.
Oh, these look cool. Bad decision.
So I of all things this year, you know, I, I don't really, I
mean everything that was very good this year.
I can say like for the most part, like I really just bought
stuff that I knew that I wanted versus just trying.
But that was 1 area where I was just really bummed about it
because everyone told me how amazing it was going to be and
they're just as good and all of this.
And as soon as that happened and I tried and tried and tried, it
didn't work. I was like, no, like you all are
liars. Yeah, I find that often times 1.
Of the things that gets me in terms of disappointments is just
having kind of expectations coming into something or having
like overhype coming into something.
You know, one of my notebooks that I got a couple years back
or whatnot, I was so excited to get it a cover was so beautiful.
I'm like, Yep, this is gorgeous. This is going to be my reading
journal. I absolutely love this.
And then I got it into my collection.
I'm like, cool, the binding sucks, the corners are sharp,
this notebook is aggressive, the dots are massive, they're really
dark grey and they're not consistently 5mm apart.
So instant disappointment. Like yes, the cover was
beautiful, absolutely gorgeous notebook, but the disappointment
factor was like so much higher because I had expectations like
going into the thing. And that's not saying that we
should purchase things without expectations.
Like that doesn't seem like a good system for purchasing
things. But it can mean that like those
items are the things that stand out as like a flop or fail,
didn't actually enjoy or like this.
Yeah, I felt the same way. I just.
Ordered a Hemlock and Oak because a lot of people were
telling me about the brand and like, I should try it and it can
work well with fountain pens. And I was kind of in the same
boat. It was funny because I shared
the picture with you. I was like, I got this.
And the very first thing you said was those corners are very
aggressive because they're not rounded corners, they're sharp
corners. And I was just like, yeah, and
you know, I pen tested it in it. I'm I'm working on a video right
now on it because I'm comparing it to Archer and Olive because
it is a high competitor for my next bullet journal in the new
year to maybe try something different.
I see how it works, but it took a really like kind of long time
to get here was coming from Canada.
Not that it matters like I'm used to waiting.
Archer and Olive doesn't come fast either necessarily.
But I remember getting I opened it and there is no design on the
cover because I don't personally think a lot of their designs fit
my aesthetic. I'm finding new ways to say
that. Like they're not very masculine
looking. It doesn't.
You're doing so well. You're doing so well.
It doesn't fit my aesthetic. And I was just like, OK, and I
got it and it's like a nice color, but it has nothing on the
front cover of it. Isn't this just a color?
And I was just like, like, I'm still excited to use it, don't
get me wrong. And like really test it and
really give it a good go. But that was something where I
was like, yes, everyone told me it's great and it's awesome and
I can't wait. And I opened it.
I was like, OK, so hopefully the the usage is going to get me
more excited than that. Not having a design on the
cover. Like I bought it knowing there
wasn't a design. I guess I didn't realize how
much the design on the front of my notebooks, like affects me in
a positive way. So yeah, it is what it is.
You just kind of whip that cricket out and make.
Yourself a nice and final decal to go around the outside.
No way I this is one of those things.
Too, Jess, where like I paid full price for that notebook and
that's a thing that you and I don't often have to do.
Like I'm sorry, like we have a lot of things that are said to
us, but I was just like, no, we're not doing anything to mess
this up. Like I actually took it out of
the packaging, looked at it, put it right back in the packaging
and like put it in a box to the side until I was actually ready
to use it because I'm I don't want anything to accidentally
get on it. I had ink spill on my desk
earlier today. Like I would have lost it if I
would have had anything on my desk.
I've been very good about clean desk as I'm doing new things.
But still it's some of those things where you're just like,
yeah, maybe I'm not as excited as I thought I was but we'll
see. Yeah, don't turn it into a
wreck, this journal. Or anything like that get a
giant ink splotch on the back of it.
I do have one of my notebooks that has a stain on the back of
it, and I have no idea how it got there because I only use it
at my desk. I don't usually have things that
would stain stuff on my desk. So I'm most like suspect
Genesipa. But I think that one of the
points you made there, that idea that we do get sent a lot of
stuff, which I am very grateful for, very, very grateful.
But I do think that when it comes to one of my unfavourites
for this year, that kind of process of being sent things
from brands and such very much contributed to having a lot of
this item and not necessarily loving that I now have a lot of
this item. Singing Sister, what is it so?
At the start of this year in going.
Into my reading journal, I decided that I wanted to change
up how I was doing my reading reviews.
Last year and the year before. I had been using a very set
formulaic structure that wasn't highly decorated, or at least it
wasn't decorated in relation to the piece of media.
And I was just getting really bored with it.
But I was seeing a lot of people online doing colleges of their
journal reads or like of their book reads rather, and you're
putting in different elements related to that book.
So they kind of just like live in the world a little bit
longer. And I thought it was the coolest
thing ever. So I'm like, OK, maybe that's
what I'm going to do with my reading reviews this year, but
I'm gonna need supplies to be able to do that.
So I started collecting a heap of sticker books, like, you
know, those ones that have, you know, 20 sheets in them or
something. They end up with like 203
hundred, 600 plus stickers in them, which is great, but I
don't have a good system for actually knowing what stickers I
have. I kind of selected the sticker
books because they weren't necessarily sent to me without
me getting to select anything. It was like, hey, here's a
voucher, you can get up to X amount on our shop.
So I'd go and get sticker books because I'm like, oh, I need
this for the reading journal. Neat is a strong word.
We're going to keep it in there, but you know, whatever.
So bringing these into my stash, having all of these different
collections like travel inspired ones or the denim inspired ones
or old times in Paris or whatever, I would try and pick
ones related to things I could foresee myself reading about.
But then when it came to doing the reading reviews, I, I didn't
want to have to like give myself the homework of looking through
all of the sticker books to find the perfect sticker to go with
that book. And even then, oftentimes if I'm
using like a character sticker, say I want it to look like the
character in the book. So it's like, okay, sure, this
guys in like a baseball jersey or something.
She's talking shit. She doesn't know anything about
sport, but whatever. He's in some kind of get up, but
he's blonde and my main character has black hair.
So like that doesn't, that doesn't work.
We can't use that. I'd rather go and find fan art
online or like sign up to somebody's Patreon to get images
that they have like drawn and designed that actually look like
the characters and print those off and stick those in rather
than using all of my oftentimes computer generated art that is
in all of these sticker books. So I think that in bringing them
into my collection, it is encouraging a bad habit for me.
And I think that I might, I'm at least going to stop buying them
as a first point, but I think that having them here is just
going to encourage me to continue collecting them.
So I might let them go. Maybe.
I feel you on that. I mean the Circle books.
Are hard. I feel like there needs to be
like a index or something in the front or in the back, you know,
where you can be like look up by theme or by name or something
like that where it like collects them like that.
I agree with you, it's difficult.
I've been thinking about some different ways for me to do this
myself. Like I have all the flake
stickers and the regular stickers and their different
spots. And I thought like, what if I
create like a visual library of them, you know, and then like
tag them and do something to air table and make it fancy.
But then I was just like that. It's a lot of work to to do
that, you know, and I'm, I bought a book that was like, you
know, 1000 and Fembra stickers and I was like, oh, that's cool.
But it's the same thing. I flipped through it several
times, like trying to be inspired by something that's in
there because they don't show you all, you know, 55 pages with
like all of the stickers. You get like little snapshots of
it. The snapshots I saw I really
liked, but then it's just like the ones that I didn't see.
I'm like, well, I would never use that.
What do I do with this? Now?
That's actually a really great idea.
It would be cool if they could kind of organize them or I'm
sure there are sticker books out there that do that where it's
just like, you know, pages one through 10 are beach themed and,
you know, the next ones are fall themed or, you know, they kind
of put them together for you. I don't try to think of the
right word for it, but like they curate the book for a specific
reason. Oh yeah, mine are like that.
I. Have them, they're all kind of
like a theme per pack. So it's like one of them is like
ancient travel and it's all like, you know, ancient
landscapes and buildings and such.
Or there's one that's like just beach and it's all like, you
know, beach themed, going to the beach, beach picnic, yadda yadda
type deal. But even then, I find that I'm
not, I'm not super savvy and knowing like what stickers are
actually available in the books. Like I know the general theming,
but I don't know what designs are in there.
And it's like, OK, well, sure, I have this design, but it's a
certain size and it won't fit in this spot.
So it just becomes like way too much admin to use stickers,
which given that this is supposed to be like journaling,
like a fun thing, I don't want to turn my fun thing into
homework. I'm just having this like,
epiphany, right? Now and of course I'll never
follow through on this. So if someone does this and not
me, if you are a sticker company and you sell those Tye of books,
you should create an online category where you could like
search in A tag and then it'll tell you what journal pack it's
a part of or what book pack it's a part of, what page it's on and
a visual of what it looks like. Like, how cool would that be if
you had like a visual dictionary that was just like you said,
like you would tag something like male black hair.
I don't know. Those are the two things you
said. I don't know if you would even
tag it that way, but it would then pull up like a digital
library of all of that. And I mean, I feel like from a
sales perspective, it's like, oh, I don't have that one, but
that would fit perfectly add to cart, you know, and like sell
another. Sorry for the overconsumption
conversation again, but like you have to find that perfect one.
That would be really cool to do, I think personally.
Yeah, I think that for me. I would personally, moving
forward rather just buy smaller sets that are themed and they're
kind of like all matchy matchy because this is another issue I
have with the larger sticker books.
Is that because they have so many things in there having a
consistent theme the whole way through or something that is
matchy matchy given that I like that in most of my journal
setups, like, but for everyday journal setups in particular, I
like to use materials that look like they belong together.
So the like style of art is similar between each of them.
The color palette is similar between each of them.
When you have these larger sticker books, I can say like
this, they're not even that big. They're like this big, but
there's so many stickers in them.
But because there are so many stickers, if you had them all be
super consistent, super super matchy matchy, it would be very
one note kind of bland. And nobody, I mean, I say
nobody. I certainly do not need to use a
full sticker book of stickers. For one setup, So if we think
about the amount of time that that sticker book based on the
number of stickers in there, like the volume is going to last
me, I'm never going to use all of these, especially because I
couldn't bother going through them to find the sticker that in
theory might fit the situation. So I would rather just buy
smaller packs where everything kind of is cohesive and fits
together nicely. And I have really good
understanding as to what is in that sticker pack because I will
be more likely to use it. It will stick out more in my
mind as something that I remember that I have in my
collection as opposed to you're very absent mindedly flicking
through the book being like, oh, this is cute, this is cool type
of a deal and then never really utilizing any of them.
I agree with you 100% there, I think.
It is. It's hard.
You feel like you're getting value when you're buying like a
big giant pack of those things. But you're right, when you
actually dig into it, you realize that I'm not going to
use half of these in there. It does feel very wasteful.
Like you said, you could be supporting a smaller shop or
something like that. I've never thought of that, such
a good idea. Like people that have sticker
shops and that are artists. If you're like, oh, here's a
book theme that you can buy like the fairy porn, right?
Like you could buy, you know, a whole sticker pack.
Just just hates when I say that because you're like reductive.
I'm so reductive. That's why.
I say it now, I, I don't mean to be that way, but like how great
he's rating us. Don't worry about.
Him, you just don't pay him no mind.
But it would be great to be like, oh, I can.
Get this little fairy and a little loincloth, you know, for
my page instead of like, finding like a random fairy sticker book
that you have to, like, customize.
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's the nice
part. About especially like supporting
the people who are making fan out of things.
Because it's like, I know this matches the thing I've read.
And if I want to make a collage with materials that look like
the characters in the book, somebody has actually like put
the time, effort and energy in to make that for me.
And I can give them a little kickback and have something that
looks nice in my journal. So that's probably what I'm
leaning towards. But Platter Powers, we want to
hear from you. What have been your favorite
supplies from this year? Either ones that just stood out
as like, yes, I'm really utilizing this this year.
It's been in my collection for a while, but this was the year
that I like doubled down on using it.
Or it could be something you bought in you.
Let us know in the comments here on YouTube.
Or if you're ever on Spotify, we have comments over there.
We would love to read those. If you'd rather than send us an
e-mail, it's cool. Mark will respond to you.
I'm sure that is Platter powerspodcast@gmail.com.
Or you can hit us up on Instagram, Instagram at Planner
Pals podcast. I laugh at that because I
always. Think I'm like, I wonder if Jess
already responded to this person and I was like, no she didn't,
I'll do it. She reads it.
She just doesn't respond. Valid, that is just from.
Moving forward, we now know that is a team norm.
You will read them. You will not respond.
Let Mark respond well. Planter pals, this was amazing.
Jess, thanks for sharing your favorites.
I think I might have to look into your sticker storage.
I know I just said I already have it, but like, I really like
your idea. It's why episodes like this is
so great. I can't wait to hear what y'all
are chatting about inside of the comments section and telling us
what to go for and what to stay away from this year.
So Planter pals will talk to you next time and see you.