I like my planners, or diaries, to be good old fashioned paper based book type things. It seems that many of us still do, as there's still a thriving market for diaries.

What's different about the one I'm reviewing here from Paperblanks is that it is an 18 month diary. That's a year and a half. It took me from July 2012 and will go up to December 2013. For someone juggling home, work and children at school, this is actually a godsend. I don't really know why, but having a diary that runs from January to December is a bit of a bind.

I need more flexibility than that - my planning often takes me well over that year for one thing! And the school year inconveniently starts in September, so I need to be able to start planning that out from now really. Not doing just one term and then following on in another diary ...

Sorry this is turning into more of a rant than a review. But parents out there - you know where I'm coming from on this don't you? And you'll know why I was so excited to get to review this little diary.

Click here to read more...

A couple of years ago, when my son started school, I began a tradition of making him a photo book. Just to show him what he did, what he liked, and what had been important for him that particular year.

These have been a huge success, and what I love most about these books is that I can use them to keep everything. All his school projects for example. I won't be able to keep all those projects themselves, but he will always have the photographs.

I really wanted to extend this to other things, and tried valiantly to keep scrapbooks for him. But you know, these take a lot of time, and more than a little bit of organising. And I just don't have that sort of spare time.

My husband makes notes in his diary. First time son did X, cute thing son said, when we went to X, and so forth. Really love to look back over the years and see these notes, but a little bit impersonal just jotting these things down in a paper diary.

So then the wonderful Tamsin at PlayPennies had this fabulous idea. What about something in between? A journal that you can keep about and just make notes in.

For someone like me who adores stationery with a passion, this was like a dream come true. I spent hours drooling over just the right sort of book, and then Paperblanks offered us the chance to try out two of their specially made journals.

Would I ever, in a million years, pay £16.99 for a blank notebook? Nothing comes into this house unless it is good value for money (unless it is a tie in merchandising for some US TV show but that's a whole other rant) and what could possibly make these worth the money? There was only one way to find out.

Click here to read more...