Happy 2018 babes!
One of my favorite New Year traditions is getting a new planner. And a part of being a planner junkie you're always on the lookout for something that better fits your planning needs. Boy have I found the holy grail of planners this year!
I've been following Native Bear on Instagram for about a year. I fell in love with her hand-printed tea towels and boob stamps. (o)(o) She has a very groovy vibe with that indie hand-maker allure that I love supporting so much!
When I first saw her sketches of the 2018 planner back in May my heart melted! As you all know, I re-hauled my jewelry line to focus on my love of symbolism, choosing the eye symbol as the first. I knew I had to have this planner.
I love everything about this planner. The gold metallic eye symbol with "2018" on the cover sits on this gorgeous black chipboard material. It gives it sturdiness so you can write in it on your lap.
Leela (the owner of Native Bear) even included a free jumbo brass paper clip which I love using on my current week.
So when you open the planner you have your "This planner belongs to" page to add your contact information.
Then it lists all the important dates and holidays for 2017, 2018, and even 2019, which can be really helpful for future planning.
Next, you have your year at a glance with big enough boxes to really list out anything you want as you think of it, which I showed above.
Leela really put her heart and soul into this planner with the hand-drawn illustrations throughout (my favorite has to be the hand on the weekly pages!).
Speaking of, the My Week Ahead page has lists including:
- To Do
- To Contact
- To Buy (so helpful for ordering jewelry supplies!)
- Top 3 tasks
- and my favorite; Intention of the Week
Each month has a full unlined, undotted page for notes, doodles, gratitude logging, or whatever else your planning heart desires! And a bunch more at the back of the planner, along with a double pocket page!
You also get a traditional month at a glance on two pages. She even included the moon phase cycle for the entire year! #MoonGoddess
Next, we have the My Month Ahead page with lists like:
- Top Goals
- Upcoming Events
- Financial Goals (I love this! I've never seen this in a planner before!)
- Personal Goals
- Home Projects
- and a little box for just doodling (we all do it anyway!).
I also love the spiral bound. My last planner was The Happy Planner with the Arc system so I'd purchased the Arc punch to go with it. I really loved the customization of the Arc system. Being able to add or subtract pages as I need was really helpful.
I really wanted to stay within the Arc system but that meant building my own planner from scratch (because I was so over the super girly/colorful style of The Happy Planner) and this Native Bear planner kept calling my name. I certainly don't feel like I settled!
After seeing that the Native Bear planner was double spiral bound I thought why not try the Arc punch with them. And it totally works! I just had to alternate the punches so there were double the punches to snap into each of the rings on the Native Bear planner, win-win!
All in all, I am thrilled with my new gorgeous planner! And it looks as though she's still got a few left! So hurry and get yours before they're sold out!
If you see this after she's sold out no worries, she mentioned on Instagram that she'll be working on a 2019 planner for next year. So be sure to bookmark this post or pin it to your Pinterest board to be reminded to get one at the end of this year.
Tell me, what is your favorite planner system? Are you a vertical planning girl (hello, Erin Condren fans!), or are you like me and like horizontal week on one page? Leave a comment below!