#Back2School4GrownUps – Planner Collection

September 10, 2015September 9, 2015 hansjones1 Comment

It is certainly safe to say that since the beginning of the year when I embarked on my planner obsession, I have accumulated a decent stack of beauties. So, I thought I would share what they are and how I use them.

First up are my top two – The Simplified Planner by Emily Ley and Erin Condren Life Planner.
The Erin Condren Life Planner was arguably the first enabler into planning heaven for me. Spotting a YouTube video of one being decorating made me fall in love at first sight. With the teal and gold metallic personalised cover, I opted for the the traditional vertical layout. I use this as my every day go to planner – every appointment for work and home is noted on the monthly schedule – different colours for each to easily identify – and the weekly is my HUGE to do list – anything from a work related task to phone calls are separated up into one of the three boxes. I also add blog to do’s as well! I love the layout, it’s super versatile and plenty of space for writing or decorating when it’s a quiet week (although very rare!)

The Simplified Planner is the pineapple weekly and is perfect to use as my blog planner – it wouldn’t be right to use it for anything else! I use the monthly spread to plan my posts and decorate the blank space. Writing on a Tuesday and Thursday only gives me plenty of room to be creative. The weekly schedule is used to record the statistics from my blog and social media. I use cute little social media stickers for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and jot down the number of likes and comments against photos as well as the number of visitors to my site. It really helps to see what draws the most interest – unsurprisingly, the planner topics are the most popular! Look out next week for layout designs!

I definitely aspire to seasonal living and that extends from my home into my handbag! The Pineapple & Button Co. planner is of course my first and will remain a steady favourite. The teal and pink makes it the perfect Spring/Summer accessory.

The patent blue Paperchase planner is my go to Autumn/Winter choice. It has a great feel to it and plenty of pockets to decorate seasonally. I tend to use both of these as notebooks and for on-the-go lists! I will be featuring this planner in the 2nd instalment of Getting Ready For Autumn.

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The Smash Scrapbook is where I create mood boards for our home. Cutting out ideas from interior design magazines, I pull together colours, textures and room decor to inspire me with our ongoing projects. I love the size and thickness of the paper as it allows me to go a little crazy with the glue stick!

Finally, a grabbed this adorable Cath Kidston Christmas Organiser long before I realised I was a #PlannerGirl so it hasn’t been used to its full potential………until now! Full of cute dividers for menu planning, cards lists, present lists and notes, it will certainly get some Pineapple & Button Co. treatment this year! Watch this space!

I would love to see all your planner collections! Please share on Instagram using #Back2School4GrownUps

x PB x

Just a little O.T.Tea

August 11, 2015August 11, 2015 hansjones3 Comments

In addition to my excessive love of stationery and my constant drooling over anything interiors, I also love tea. I’m British…..I love tea…..how much more of a stereotype could I be but with so many fantastic varieties to choose from, I guess it’s hard to avoid.

One thing is for sure, I don’t drink coffee. I’ve certainly tried to like it, dabbling in lots of different varieties – decaf, iced, mochachocoloca etc but it’s just not quite the same as a good brew.

So, where to start? Well, how about my top tea favourites:

Yorkshire Tea – I love my tea to be strong and a little sweet. Yorkshire Tea brews well and is great both from a teapot or made straight in a mug. I have certainly tried other brands – PG Tips, Tetley etc but Yorkshire Tea just has that something which makes a consistently good cup of tea.

Twinings Lemon Trio – I recently started to enjoy a cup of hot water with lemon in the morning to try and start the day off right (although it doesn’t always work!) so when scouring the Supermarket shelves, I came across this little beauty from Twinings. Made with white hibiscus, lemon graa, lemon peel, natural lemon flavourings and verbena, it really is a lovely wake-up call. It doesn’t have an overpowering sourness to it making it a great all year round choice – add honey in the winter for that perfect cold cure.

Twinings Camomile and Spearmint – a friend of mine shared that a cup of camomile before bed really don’t help digestion. I’m not a huge fan of camomile on its own, so I choose to drink this option instead. Made with camomile, spearmint, blackberry leaves, lemongrass and linden, it’s certainly very calming and I do find I have a better nights sleep and wake up with a flatter stomach!

Twinings Chai Latte – oh my goodness – if you are a fan of a chai latte from Costa or Starbucks, you will love this. The tea leaves are soaked in chai syrup with gives it the sweetness of a coffee shop made drink. Top up with hot milk (preferably frothy) and this is the perfect pick me up.

English Tea Shop – Mr PB knows me so well and as a valentines gift, purchased me 16 varieties of The English Tea Shop tea. My favourites amongst this wide selection are the traditional peppermint (super tasty!) and lemongrass, ginger and citrus. Similar to the lemon trio, the added ginger gives it a boost as well as helping with digestion. The teas come in these cute little boxes making them handy for on-the-go.

Twinings Intensely Tropical – it’s been a beautiful summer so far in the UK, so I have been creating a tasty iced tea using this tropical find. Made with roeships, white hibiscus, natural lime, blood orange, lemon flavouring, apple pieces, and lemon peel, how much more of summer in a mug can you get! Simply make up a large jug using 2 tea bags and leave to cool or pop it in the fridge for an hour or so. Add ice to Mason Ball beaker and you have a delicious iced tea to sip under your parasol

Pukka Detox – last but not least, this is my must have tea if I have been a little naughty with food or drink over the weekend! It really cleanses and helps digestion. Made with aniseed, fennel seeds, cardamom pod, liquorice root, coriander and celery seed makes it taste delicious and is great at any time of year.

For my tea storage, I have 2 Emma Bridgewater tea caddy’s. I can imagine these growing old with me and getting that worn, vintage look over time. I also own this fab tea storage box from Homebase. Whilst you can fit many teabags in it, I love it sat on my tea shelf. I have a tea cupboard for all the boxes I can’t fit on the shelf which houses approximately 20 other types of teas! And the collection continues to grow!

So, what do I like to drink my tea in? My favourite mugs are 2 large Cath Kidston which makes a pretty big cup of tea – great for those grey days. I also own an Emma Bridgewater commemorating the birth of Prince George. I have the one for Princess Charlotte on a wish list! And finally, a super special mug from my best friends daughter – because everyone needs a Fairy Godmother in their life!

Whilst I tend to make most of tea straight in the mug, Mr PB recently bought my the most adorable glass tea pot which sits perfectly on my I heart tea tray for those days when I want to really enjoy my tea (and perhaps a couple of biscuits or a slice of cake!)

What is your favourite tea? I would love to hear of any brands you enjoy so I can have a try too.

x PB x

Emma Bridgewater Tead Caddy – http://www.emmabridgewater.co.uk/en/uk/black-toast-hatch-dome-caddy/invt/1blt010455

Homebase Tea Box – http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/tea-box-261079

Cath Kidston mugs – http://www.cathkidston.com/provence-rose/provence-rose-stanley-mug-1015152

Emma Bridgewater Princess Charlotte mug – http://www.emmabridgewater.co.uk/invt/1roy020002

Glass Teapot – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flowering-Discovery-Lotus-Glass-Teapot/dp/B000ZU3H5K/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1439274786&sr=8-4&keywords=glass+teapots

First Impressions – Notepads and Pens galore!

June 30, 2015June 30, 2015 hansjonesLeave a comment

Just a quick post to share my thoughts on some of my recent purchases that I shared in the recent stationery blog.

I have been using the List Book from Paperchase pretty much every day. The fact it comes with a notepad makes it super versatile for on the move and it doesn’t get squished in the bottom of my bag either! 20150630_082755614_iOS

For the smaller handbag requirements, I have been loving the Marks and Spencer Today notepad and the Target Dollar Spot floral journal from the swap. Both look cute (in fact had a couple of compliments from fellow commuters) but are also very practical. I highly recommend if you stumble across either (or both! 😉).

I have also been using the Sharpie pastel palette pens – whilst the colours are great and make your pages look summery and inviting, they do bleed through regular notepad paper. Most Sharpies will do this because of their original purpose of being a multi tasking pen for writing on CD’s to whiteboards so it is worth bearing this in mind. I can cope with that given the colour palette is a beaut!

I have also been writing……and then erasing a lot too! The Pilot Frixon pen is all its hype led it to believe. You can actually write and then erase with pretty much all of the evidence disappeared. It reminded me of the magic ink from my childhood that “vanished”……although it never really did. This actually does scrub away to nothing. I am definitely going back to purchase more colours. The range seems to be expanding in most standard UK stores – most have standard blue, black and red but keep your eye out for more colourful options.

The only items I have been a little disappointed with are the Uniball gel pens. I love the colours but they aren’t particularly easy to write with. I prefer pens that you can write both in your best hand as well as the quick shopping list but with these Uniball, you certainly need to concentrate more with these pens. I will of course have a use for them – great for birthday cards for example – but would suggest a thinner nib if you are looking for something to fulfil those every day needs.

Have any of you made the same purchases and have thoughts on your first impressions?

Please leave a comment by clicking on the link above this post And don’t forget, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

x PB x

The obsession is real…..I’ve started writing about hauls!

June 23, 2015June 22, 2015 hansjones2 Comments

And I have a stationery swap pal! But more on that shortly….

In my search for all things perfect about stationery and style, this has developed an interest in regularly shopping. “Developed an interest”?? Who am I kidding. I am forever shopping. There ain’t no thing as no spend months in my little world.

So, to that end, I have collected a fair few items over the past few months which I thought I would share. Those pieces that I have starting using will appear in a follow first impressions so watch this space if you are keen to purchase the same.

First up – notebooks. Although I try to use up a notebook before moving onto another, that doesn’t stop me from having stock. In a recent visit to Paperchase, I spotted these adorable sticky note sets. I love that they come in a hard back storage book making them using to use on the go without damaging them. They also look cute on a bookshelf. One of the sets is a List Book so also includes a standard notepad which I think will be super handy. 20150620_190924007_iOS

I also picked up a pack of Cath Kidston notebooks which come in a set of three in their usual cute floral designs. These are probably more an A6 size which is great for slipping into a handbag. I use these in meetings if I’m travelling quite a bit with work. You can still get plenty of content on the pages but they are far more convenient than the usual Black and Red A4 pads.

So, my next item was purchased purely for its look rather than its practicality but how cute is that Today slim pad!? It’s from Marks and Spencer – that was a treat! If you are from the UK, you will know that M&S are more renowned for their bras and meal for £10 so it was a pleasant surprise to see that they have upped their stationery game. The store I visited, which is their flagship in the South, had a wide collection of new products so I would highly recommend checking it out either online or in store. I’m not sure about availability for overseas but, leading into my next items, you could always find a swap partner to connect with to send you a selection!

As you will guess from the title, I recently connected with a lovely lady from the U.S. on an FB group. Fully aware from my extensive research that the U.S. seem to do it better than us, I reached out to see if anyone would like to swap and this lady said yes!

We did our first swap a few weeks ago – it was an easy, pleasant and painless experience which I know is sadly not always the case for some, but I hit lucky!

The items included in the box will continue to feature in my next few blogs but as a starter, she sent me 2 adorable journals and 2 list pads from Target. Apologies to all the stationery experts out there, but for those starting out, you will see a lot of hype about Target Dollar Spot. I have not visited this part of the store before as I always just thought it was seasonal products but the Target Dollar Spot has got a lot to say for itself! Beautiful stationery that retails around $1-$3 each!! I haven’t started using these items yet, saving for a special reason but I’ll be sure to feedback.

You can’t have a notebook without a writing instrument! So I have also built up my pen collection recently. Included in the swap box were some cute gel pens in pink, teal and green. I particularly love the heart on the lid.

Other recent pen purchases – pastel Sharpies! I have seen their primary colour collection but spotted these pastel beauties in the line up at Paperchase.

I also love any type of heavy gel pen and these uni ball are just gorgeous colours which I know will write well too.

Finally, I had heard on the blogging grapevine that the Pilot Frixon pens were awesome. So I had to try! I just purchased the pink neon for now and will see how I get on.