Review | Busy B DAY A PAGE DIARY 2017

I love a diary but I'm incredible fickle about my choices and have been known to chop and change between types and methods throughout the year depending on where my life is at. Currently, whilst 'unemployed' I no longer have the Outlook diary in the office which I can view at a glance five days a week and no need to carry my Louis Vuitton Personal Organiser around because I now have the Ban.do weekly diary to hand during some point of the day.

I'm finding the Ban.do Diary currently suits my needs as I keep track of what is becoming a far busier lifestyle during my 'sabbatical' but I have managed to find a way that works for me perfectly - and I may well share with you in due course.

Something I am conscious of is returning to the corporate world and wanting to maintain my diary at home and my blog requirements. That is where the Busy B Day A Page Diary 2017* comes in. The Ban.do is perfect for keeping track of appointments, notes and reminders but what about my plans for the day when I need more space than a few lines to plot my day?

Currently whilst finding my 'working from home' routine I'm using a regular notebook simply to write down my tasks for the day whether blog or home related and only yesterday I was writing the dates for the forthcoming week to add future tasks that are coming up which isn't ideal and a day to a page diary would do just the job.

When I return to work and I'm reliant on scheduling posts and some might say being more in front of my blog planning the Busy B Day a Page Diary 2017 will be perfect for this and I wish I could start using it now - in fact as I write this post I remember my 2016 diary that has been untouched and will start using that for the remainder of the year. 

I'm sure stationery lovers are already familiar with Busy B as they have some wonderful products to keep you organised whilst aesthetically pleasing. The Day a Page Diary I have compliments my marble Ban.do planner and is A5 in size so sits nicely atop it and create one of those areas of your desk that you could almost consider Pinterest worthy. 

It's not a diary I would want to carry around in my bag on a daily basis as with most day a page diaries it is weighty but not overly so, compare it to one of your more heavier books you're reading. The cover is soft, similar to your Moleskine notebook which ensures there is no added weight but has a sturdiness I'm not concerned about becoming too damaged. It's cream colour I'm sure would suffer some battering over time but I'm not too worried about that for now.

Its internal design is very simple, a day a page and that's that. The pages are lined which is a thumbs up for me and my preference and there's enough space for me to cover my tasks for the day whether simply 'share post on social media' to reminding me of products to follow up on. I can easily make notes about products I'm currently testing and other such musings on the pages.

Another thumbs up from me in addition to lined pages is that Saturday and Sunday are also included as full days to pages. So often diaries limit the space for weekends which would drive me crazy. When I was working full time it would be the weekends when I would have to run most of my errands, particularly blog tasks so its great to see that I can carry on as normal without limited space.

In short for me I will be using this less of a typical diary and more of a dated note or list book - which I guess is what a diary is! I'm sure there will be some days left blank and I'm keen to investigate some stamps or stickers for repetitive daily tasks that will be time saving in the future and if I'm so inclined I can pretty the pages with some washi tape if the mood strikes me.

Diaries are very personal things depending on your lifestyle and requirements but I'm Busy B will have one for you.

What diary method do you use?

*this post contains press samples and/or affiliate links

Life Update | I'm a Full Time Blogger!

One doesn't have to be a genius to note there has been an impromptu break on Florence and Mary. If you follow me on social media I'm sure you will put it down to my recent holidays. As one friend said I appear to never been in the country and that is part of the reason and why there was an initial break following my return from Menorca. Once home I was unable to get back into the groove before departing to Ibiza and then subsequent events have led to my break in posting being longer than I expected. But all shall be explained...

The big news of the moment is I have recently been made redundant, hence my slightly click-bait inducing title. My redundancy is bittersweet. I was at my company for ten years and had made many friends and lots of fond memories but recent events had changed the course of both my role and environment and as such moving on is a positive step.

'At my age' to be in a position where I can take some time out and think about my next move, what I want to do next and as a blogger enjoy the luxury of 'full time blogging' is exciting. It's also a great time of year to be 'unemployed' with Halloween and Christmas festivities on the cards - I'm off to a Pumpkin Patch on Wednesday so stay tuned for that.

To address the cliched 'full time blogging' aspect of things, what does that mean for you as readers? Please don't worry that I'm going to go all editorial on you, that's not really who I am but you will see a more varied mix of content. I find my beauty reviews very easy to write, and as such are quicker than lifestyle posts with their abundance of photos requiring editing, and they won't disappear but with more time on my hands I hope to be able to catch up on sharing some of my recent trips, perhaps one or two 'chatty' posts and being home in the day means it's time to up my photography game and even starting sharing more images of products in action - although some of these dull days have already hindered me.

Whilst I don't expect my 'full time blogging' to be something I continue with long term, I like the office environment, I do want to see what I can achieve in my time off with Florence and Mary and hope you do too. You may see a new blog layout, there may be one or two more sponsored posts as I look at monetising things (I'll spare you the typical disclaimers about remaining honest and hope you know me well enough) but I intend for any changes to be positive ones for you and me.

Continuing the cliches I'm also thinking about dabbling with YouTube. It's always been in back of my mind for a while now and my niece and nephew are very keen for me to start a channel so with their encouragement how could I not. The editing process has always put me off, but again, with the luxury of time I can concentrate on learning and getting that right without battling to get blog posts up for the week in addition to working full time. If you have any tips, or suggestions for that matter please do send them my way.

Exciting times ahead, I hope you're looking forward to it.