Personal life personalised

Being the geek that I am it is not only ticking things off a 'to do' list that gives me great satisfaction but also anything personalised.  People seem really pleased with personalised gift giving and seem to feel the love through the personal touch in the gifts. It certainly eased the festive giving this year. which I have posted about in the past.

One company that has brought me great joy in the personalised product range is erincondren.com. The best thing is that all of these products help me become slightly more organise. The postage to New Zealand is a bit pricey but I am easily able to turn a blind eye to the postage price when I look at the beautiful stationary with my name sprawled across it and when I am writing on the beautiful pages.

So far there are four products that I have road tested. These are the life planner already on to my second one, deskpad, notebook and Christmas gift labels. 

My favourite product is the life planner. I love how there is enough room on the planner to schedule all aspects of my life - work, personal and health. The colours are gorgeous and especially love how there is the option to personalise the cover as much as your heart desires. I added a quote to my planner 'be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle'. This is to remind me to get over myself and that if someone upsets me I don't need to hold a grudge as I don't know what they are going through and their reasons for their actions and words.

There are several other fantastic features such as the clear zip lock pocket and the keep it together folder. I love the zip lock pocket for storing all those everyday objects you need such as stamps, gift cards, cards, envelopes and more. The features in the planner are never ending. Before I got my first planner I used to watch this video religiously and let my mind wander about all the ways the planner could be used and be entranced by the month plans, to do lists, tabs and coloured stickers.

One of my goals for next year are to write things down straight away at work and jot down brainwaves and wonderings so I don't forget to ask questions or share my ideas. I ordered the deskpad to help achieve this goal. I used it for one day this year but realised I wasn't in quite the right mind space to accomplish goals and needed something new to look forward to next year. I can't wait to pull this out next year and I am sure just like the planner people will be amazed by its beauty and style.

To achieve another goal of happy, healthy living I have ordered a notebook to jot down quotes, goals, recipes, memories and anything else that delights me and makes me smile. I love the selection of lined and blank pages. My favourite part was when I opened the notebook and saw that each of the lined pages had different floral design on the corners. SO PRETTY! It also has a calendar, keep it together folder and zip lock pocket.

Just to complete my personalised happiness I ordered some Christmas gift labels to add to the fun of Christmas wrapping.

Christmas gifts

    As a new serious budgeter and saver I have to be very careful that Christmas is not the undoing of my budget and savings. It is not so much the present buying that will be my undoing but the drinking, dining and celebrating that comes along with the festive seasons. This could also be the undoing of my newly acquired health and fitness goal (which I hope will one day become a lifestyle).
To help stay on budget I have decided to buy one big(ish) present each pay and to just bake or send cards to most people.

Example of the gift labels I ordered

    As someone with OCD about needing everything personalised I thought it only right to use  Erin Condren and vistaprint to personalise the season of giving. I thought that if some people are just receiving baking because of my budget then I should make it pretty. I ordered some clear sealable bags and labels from erincondren.com to put Christmas baking treats (much more appealing than baking in plastic wrap). This order did not help my budgeting/savings plan as they had a flat shipping rate and I decided that I better take advantage of the shipping rate and upgrade my personal notebook and deskpad too (habit that as of today I will try to break).

Mini certificates

    Vistaprint is also a fantastic place to go for gift giving with a personal touch. Vistaprint is certainly the cheaper option as they often have huge discounts on a range of products. This year I have created 'mini certficates' using the business card template for the two teachers I work the closest with.  I also have a friend who is becoming a homeowner for the first time and is moving into her first home. I created some address labels as a merry Christmas/housewarming present for her.

Business Cards

Return address labels

    I have four more big (ish) presents to go and then my gift buying will be done.Which has just made me realise that I will now need to go and work out a budget for Christmas food.
:(