Shantelle Marie Photography

2015-2016 Erin Condren Life Planner Unboxing + Overview!

erin condren life planner 2015-2016

After many trials and tribulations, my 2015-2016 Erin Condren Life Planner is finally here! I’m super excited about this for two reasons: HORIZONTAL LAYOUT and it means a fresh start! Now, I’m not just here to talk about why I’m excited about the new planners, I’m also here (as always) to give y’all an unboxing and overview of the new launch…as well as do a giveaway again! That’s right – once you finish psyching yourself up about the prettiness of the planners, you can enter to win a Vertical Layout Rose Gold Life Planner! So without further adieu, let’s take a look at both the Vertical and Horizontal Erin Condren Life Planners…along with a quick comparison of last year’s! Check out the video to see the planners in more detail and read on for some photos and descriptive terms. 😉

As a refresher, you can check out my previous unboxing of the 2014-2015 Erin Condren Life Planners and then my 6 month update! Now, let’s start with the Horizontal layout, shall we?

Not going to lie, I reeeeeally like the horizontal layout except for one thing: it lacks some of the cute touches that the vertical has. However it’s not lacking in it’s own special touches and I’m head over heels for the coloring!

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Hello, gorgeous.

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A goals page!

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The month colorings are coordinated (sorry about the contrast in these two photos) and cute. Just like the new notebooks there is a note page prior to the start of the month with a quote on the opposite page. I love the extra room for notes and have started using it for budget items I know we’ll need that month and some other general things! The “Goals” section on the monthly view used to be “Notes” – which I honestly preferred.

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I LOVE YOU HORIZONTAL LAYOUT.

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Here are the sadly uninteresting graph and unlined horizontal note pages. Prior to these, the note pages are pretty cute (themed like the monthly designs) but nowhere near as fancy as the vertical planner design that you’ll see later :( They also reduced the number of pages in the back. It saves space but it makes me much more hesitant to use the pages!

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The Keep It Together folder is somewhat plain in the horizontal, but still contains the (ever unused) Perpetual Calendar! Plus hello cute (but also ever unused) stickers. There are a total of 4 pages of stickers: 2 already printed and 2 without any printing.

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I adore the new pocket! Previously, it just had a red line across the top under the seal; the dots are a vast improvement! These are the items that came in the Ready to Ship planner: some compliment cards, do it all dots, referral cards (you can add your referral link on the back), and a coil clip!

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Vertical time! Just like in the horizontal planner, there’s now a note page prior to the month with the quote on the page before the full month.

vertical layout erin condren life planner

I LOVE the changes they’ve made in the vertical. No more things telling you what to do along the bottom area, a cute flag area on the sidebar, and I like/don’t like that they’ve removed the calendar! When I used the vertical last year I would put a peppy sticker in the morning section of every Monday – this little square will be perfect for saving space but keeping the cute! I do miss the cute dots that used to line the sidebar though. RIP dots :(

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Adorable patterns in the note pages for vertical!

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Again, I adore the more subdued color palette of the horizontal but I really miss some of these cute touches that are only in the vertical. The chevron pattern and brightness of the Keep It Together folder are so happy!

erin condren life planner comparison 2015 2014

In case you don’t want to compare photos in this post to the other posts, you can see some comparisons here between the 2014 vertical and the new 2015 vertical and horizontal.

Erin Condren Life Planner 2014 2015 Monthly Weekly Comparison

More comparisons!

erin condren coil comparison

So the coil situation is a little less than spectacular. You can see in the photo above how much bigger the new coil is compared to last year. I miss the smallness! I would attempt recoiling but a) I’m terrified and b) rose gold :(

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I bought the Classic Sticker Book and the stickers are SO cute! The only downside is that there are quite a number of “tag” stickers (like Happy Birthday and For You) and I’d rather there just be stickers for the planner!

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The updated Party Pop Markers are so great! I’ve had an issue with the paint on the pens smudging though, which is a little odd.

Overall I am SO excited to be using the horizontal planner and I really like the updates that have been made to the vertical planner. I’m excited to see what’s in store going forward, but honestly, after the issues from this launch and ones I’ve had previously I may not be ordering again. Check out the video (way up at the top) for more information on some of the troubles I’ve had with Customer Service at Erin Condren (because it’s too long to type).

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Now for what you’ve all been waiting for: the giveaway! The winner will receive:

• 2015-2016 18 month Erin Condren Life Planner in Rose Gold Vertical
• A set of the Elastic Bands
• A code for a free personalized cover
• The sticker, postcard, and fancy box (plus, sealed with Hello Kitty tape)

This giveaway will only be open to US entries. Enter below using the Rafflecopter form!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you received your new planner yet? Let me know how you like it in the comments!

Wishing you all the entries,

Shantelle

PS – You can save $10 off your first order if you sign up for Erin Condren using my referral link! Yay savings!

Head Over Heels for the Erin Condren Take Note Notebooks

erin condren take note notebook deluxe simple unboxing review

They are here!!! My Deluxe and Simple Erin Condren Take Note Notebooks (whew, mouthful) have finally arrived and they are adorable. So of course what else would I do but film an unboxing and review of the two beauties for y’all? I’m super pumped about this one too because I actually used a real camera to film it all. That’s right – no more creepy vibrating background. Just pure, HD up in my faceness. You’re all so lucky! As usual you can either click play below and/or read through the post which will feature pretty pictures and comparisons of the deluxe and simple Erin Condren Take Note Notebooks!

erin condren notebook unboxing review

The new EC notebooks are (thankfully) lower priced than I remember and this year they offered different sizes as well: 8.5×11 and the standard 7×9. However, not wanting to tote around something huge, I went with the 7×9 for both of my notebooks. You have the option of adding a calendar to the deluxe for an additional $15 (ouuuuch) which I went ahead and splurged on because I plan to use it as a blog/content/business notebook and figured the calendar will help with my editorial calendar organization. I plan to use the simple to use as a family notebook, hence the Clementines cover because we’re a band duh, however I’m having a massive block in how to get it set up. Any helpful hints are appreciated!

erin condren notebook unboxing review

So far the notebooks are just great. They have the same paper/quality that the Erin Condren Life Planners do and I love the note paper, just as I do in my planner! Any designs printed on the paper are gorgeous and bright so it’s a real treat to look at. The paper is thick enough to handle some heavier pens without bleed such as the PaperMate Flair, Staedtler Triplus Fineliner, or Pilot G2 0.7mm, but not too bumpy that you can’t use something as thin as the ever-amazing Pilot Coleto. Most of the paper in the deluxe and simple is lined but there is some unlined paper in the back, and of course if you get a calendar in the deluxe that starts it all off!

erin condren notebook unboxing review

The months in the Deluxe are very cute but it’s a bit annoying to have to hand place all of the Colorful Dots that are included for dates. I understand why it’s not dated but it’s still a pain in the arthritis! I half considered using tweezers to place them before I gave up and just placed the first and last day of the month. I do love the little saying on the front of each month – it’s quite similar to the sayings at the top of the months in the planner.

erin condren notebook unboxing review

Above you can see a thickness comparison between the simple and deluxe notebooks to the 18 month Life Planner (that does not have the last 6 month’s weeks in it). While the deluxe comes close to the planner, it falls just a bit short. The deluxe does come with the “keep it together folder” and a clear pocket in the back which had been removed before I took this photo though, so that probably helps a bit with the overall bigness :) On the other hand the simple is about half the thickness of the planner – I just love how it feels in my hands!

I reeeeally love these notebooks. The quality is amazing and so much nicer than the spiral notebooks that you can pick up at the store. Which they should be of course! The great thing about how many pages these have is that they should last you for quite a while. Erin Condren does offer dividers now to separate the sections like a multi-subject notebook, however when I placed my order I didn’t think about getting any and I’m very happy I didn’t. At the time I didn’t realize that the dividers are basically the same size as the 7×9 interchangeable covers with slight tweaks to the design on the back. So basically you can just use your extra covers as dividers! It’s also kind of a deal since if you purchase one interchangeable cover you get a front and back cover, basically giving you two “dividers” for $10.95! You can see what it looks like in the video above :)

I’m super excited to dive in and start using these beauties! Have y’all gotten any of the new Erin Condren Take Note Notebooks yet? Any tips on using them family style or even for blog content?

Wishing you DIY divider hacks to help save your pennies,

Shantelle

PS – You can save $10 off your first order if you sign up for the site using my referral link! Yay savings!

How to Book the Perfect Hotel

morrison-clark inn washington DC

Me being smug in the perfect hotel.

I absolutely love hotels and I’ve been fortunate enough to stay in some pretty amazing ones. I often hear from family and friends that I always pick the “right” hotel. They say that whenever they’ve picked one it never ends up measuring up to what they expected, or missed a key detail they needed, or was just plain gross. Of course, this is not luck – it takes quite a few steps to ensure that I’m not booking myself into the next Bates Motel. Well, I’m here to help (I hope!) with some tips on how to book the perfect hotel for your next and future trips!

My Process

1. Location is king. I start with what might be considered the simplest step: figuring out where I need to be at. This might seem pretty straight-forward but I don’t mean just typing in the city you want to be in. You need to first narrow down the places that you HAVE to go to. If you need to spend time at a conference center in Toronto, you don’t want to try and book a room near Montreal because you’ll be going there one day out of a 7 day trip. Choose the “base camp” of where you’ll be at for the biggest chunk of the trip and search in that area.

2. Work within your budget. I have seen too many people (myself included) look at the beautiful hotels that are 3x your available budget, get frustrated, and just book whatever cheap hotel they came across next. This is a recipe for disaster. So before you start looking at the Ritz and Plaza’s of the world, choose only the pricing options within your budget. I generally use Expedia to find my hotels, however almost any site will have pricing options with the rest of their filter choices. Use these and find that you shed less tears for having not seen that amazing indoor pool with a freaking palace ceiling above it (I’ve blocked the hotel I saw this at because frankly, my dear, I give too much of a damn).

3. Narrow down the options. Now that you’ve chosen the hotels that will work for your location and within your budget, look at the ones remaining. Do you need to have (or feel that hotels should include because it’s 2014 and we aren’t heathens) free wifi? Do you need cheap/free/any parking close to the hotel? Does it need to be near a dry cleaner for the dress you spilled mustard on from that amazing hot dog you just HAD to have from the sidewalk vendor? Eliminate those that don’t have what you need no matter how pretty they are. All done? Good job! You’ve now narrowed down hotels to those that will meet your basic needs.

4. NOW look at the pretty. Check the hotel’s photos and reviews with not only the website you’re surfing to book through, but also TripAdvisor. If you do nothing else I recommend, USE TRIPADVISOR! I have rarely been let down by the reviews and photos posted on this site. And hey, if the extra pretty hotel is in your budget go for it. If it’s not, and you won’t be spending much time at the hotel anyways, don’t go for it. Pay attention to key points in reviews – is it perfect for a one night stay or a week? Are the beds comfortable or hard? Loud or quiet halls? These all feed into the hotel being Mr. Right or Mr. Not Even For One Night.

5. Check the mobile app of the site you use. So, you’ve chosen the location, the price, the amenities, the pretty, and now all you need to do is book the perfect hotel through the web, right? Nope! There are absolutely great deals to be had online at any given moment, however a little known fact of deals is checking your chosen website’s mobile app. As I said, I use Expedia and I’ve found offers for mobile booking. You may get extra points which can get you to higher rewards or you might get a crazy awesome discount. I’ve booked a $400/night hotel for around $189/night. That’s exactly how I planned a weekend at the Omni Shoreham in DC back in April. Nothing more than double checking the rate I found.

From that point on you should be pretty solid in the decision you’ve made and all you have left to do is send your new booking to your Kayak “My Trips” account and wait! I’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t a foolproof method but it has rarely disappointed. Do you have any tips or tricks for how to book the perfect hotel?

Wishing you a myriad of mobile-only deals,

Shantelle