Setting up my Planner for February

Inspired by last week’s color-coordination of my pens, I decided to pro-actively set-up supplies for my journal for February. I am embracing the Valentine’s Day vibe with an all-red-and-pink palette with pink floral washi and flower stickers as well as color matching my pens and inks.

I picked out two inks for the month:

• Monteverde Blueberry Muffin (which is more burgundy than blue) (30ml for $12)
• Robert Oster Cherry Blossom ($28 for 50ml bottle)

and three pens:

• Kaweco Sport in Pink (no longer available) and Frosted Pitaya ($26.50)
• Jinhao 82 in cherry red (approx. $8.98 on Amazon)

I also dumped out my jar of pink and red pens to see what I have available:

• 3- Pentel Brush Sign Pens ($2.50 each)
• 2- Zig Clean Color Dot markers ($3.45 each)
• Marvy LePen in red ($1.80)
• Faber-Castell PITT Brush ($4)
• Uni-Ball Signo Hello Kitty 0.38 ($2.85 each for Uni Signo, Hello Kitty model was limited edition and is no longer available)
• Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4 ($1.75 each)
• ZIG Clean Color Real Brush ($3.40 each)
• Zebra Mildliner in pink ($1.75 each)
• Pentel i+ multipen in pink, loaded with pink, green and black refills ($2.90 for pen body, $1.75 per refill)

I went through my collection of washi tape and pulled out some that were pink, red, green and floral. The roll in the plastic container is the Bande Washi Tape Sticker Roll in Pink Roses ($6). The rest of the rolls have been collected over years so I don’t have links to share but JetPens has lots of fun options in the pink color family.

I also purchased some new washi date stickers ($6.99 for a pack of 12-monthly sheets) to use on my pages since my notebook is a plain Stalogy and the pages are not dated.

From my sticker stash, I picked out some flowers, cupids, leaves and other elements that felt Valentine appropriate. Most of the washi stickers came from Flowers, Fairies and Plants washi sticker set ($9.99 for 120-stickers) I found on Amazon last year and the Botanist’s Sticker Anthology Book ($14.49). I carefully razored out a few pages from the book that I will put into a folder so I have quick access to stickers as I want them.

For Clarity:

The only purchase I made this month for my planning was the washi date stickers. Everything else was collected from my existing stash of products. I like this activity of pre-selecting inks, pens, colors, washi and stickers at the beginning of the month. IT pares down my massive collection to a more manageable kit and makes it easier when I sit down to plan or add a little flash to my notebook.

I’ll probably streamline the pens a little bit more so they fit in my travel pen case that I take with me to and from work. The rest will stay in my home office for my weekly prep sessions.

I used a similar, curated collection for January and it worked really well. In January I focused on blues, snowflakes, and a wintry feeling. Using a curated portion of my collection meant I had fewer decisions to make when I got my journal out but enough different pieces to create nice little embellishments to my pages. For both January and February, curating my tools has helped me stay inspired and excited to use my planner and, really, for me, that’s the most important thing.

What kind of system do you use to keep you excited about journaling or planning?