My Planner Addiction: Part I - How It All Started

Im crazy about collecting things! I collect almost all sorts of things! As a kid, i collected Hello Kitty stuff, until it progressed to the whole Sanrio characters. I collected Barbie dolls -- an addiction that my Ama (lolo/great grand father) supported -- he used to bring me home one barbie doll every time he gets home from his out of town trips. I collected crafts and beads for my "kikay" accessories.  My most serious collection that up until now is growing big, is my Audrey Hepburn collection. It started in highschool, and it just kept getting bigger and bigger. As a teenager, i also collected even the odd stuff. I would keep price tags from the clothes i buy, especially ones that show huge huuuuge discounts from the original price. I collected the useless stuff that always turned up in the garbage every spring cleaning. I was always so crazy about collecting random things, i dont even know why! I guess i really get easily attached -- and then find letting things go hard. :-P

My fascination with stationeries started when I was still a little girl. I loved collecting papers with colorful, beautiful designs, and even ones that had scent on them. I can still remember bringing them to school, and comparing them to my classmates' collections, too. We would gladly exchange papers we have from our packs of stationeries. I also really loved collecting stickers that i had a couple of what we used to call "sticker albums" back in the days, for me to be able to keep and arrange my stickers -- although Mom was really the one who arranged, and put them altogether, in groups & categories lol! I had all sorts of kinds! From teddy bears, cartoon characters, and famous celebrities & movies, such as Titanic. Yep! Jack & Rose were part of my sticker album. I also remember buying those "chupachups" lollipops religiously just so i could collect and complete their Spice Girls stickers -- and boy was I able to do such thing! haha! I would bring my sticker albums to school, and i would go to highschool buildings because the high school students loved giving me stickers, and they would help me arrange them in my album.

I never really got overt that addiction, even until i reached college. You know what they say.. OLD HABITS DIE HARD! ;-) Whenever i see fancy & cute notebooks, planners & journals in bookstores, I would buy them, but wouldnt be able to write in them because it always broke my heart to do so, so they just end up as displays. I have a collection of both dated and undated journals dating from 2008-2015.

I honestly think that particular addiction was useless. Until one night, I was browsing through instagram, looking for pens (which i have a collection of, as well. duh. haha) and stumbled upon this thing called "planner community." I found it through a hashtag of pens. I got curious, and ended up checking out every photo with different hashtags that were related to this whole planner thing, and realized how big this whole thing is. I was really interested, but I HAD A LOT OF QUESTIONS ABOUT IT. And when i get interested in something, I really make sure i would understand and know everything about it.

At one point I reached a hashtag called  "planner party," which was held in Manila. And i noticed a familiar face. It was my dad's cousin, Iya (@craftymommabear on instagram). I treat Iya like a cousin though, even though technically she's my aunt. My dad has a lot of cousins my age, so we're the ones who usually hang out  & are close to each other. Anyway, i saw her in one of the planner party photos, and I contacted her right away. I needed to ask her a lotta questions that still bugged me, as i was ummm technically new to the whole planner designing thing.

She then explained to me everything about it, which led us to a conversation that almost reached us till sunrise! Iya was a REALLY big help. I call her my "planner master" and mentor. Anything that i dont understand, i would ask her and she'd always have an answer to them!  One thing that I really  love about the planner community, is that everyone shares what they know. I see a lot of instagram questions on posts, and these planner masters really reply to them. They dont have this "crab-mentality" that most filipinos have. ugh. They dont keep things to themselves, they treat the community as a their craft family, basically. They dont hesitate on telling you what shops they know,  what's the use of this and that. There are no secrets. They love sharing what they enjoy doing. What they know, they let everyone know.  They even have "planner parties" where they would show other "planner girls" how they decorate their planners. 

Im a person who loves to share what fancies me and what I enjoy the most. (and I wouldn't dare keep this craze to myself, or else id end up having a mental illness! haha!) I first shared this to my family. My mom, my sisters Ainee, Yanna & Twin Tish & my aunts. Although when i was about to surprise them with their first planners, I already saw Tisha's planner snapchat post -- so it was a bummer i wasn't able to surprise her. Haha

I became really crazy about it, that i decided to make it a business. I made an online craft store account called "Love & Other Crafts" (yep! the idea's from the movie "Love & Other Drugs!" haha!) And i also made a separate craft account, @ohmegasigh, because i dont want to be flooding my public ig's followers with too much craft posts! haha

Anyway, in the next series of these blog posts, I will be sharing everything that I know about this huge thing about PLANNERS that's been going on, for a long time now -- which i had discovered not too long ago. I want so many of you to get involved, too! WARNING: HIGHLY ADDICTIVE. Ill start with the most frequently asked questions! Im just trying to finish everything, and will let you know once the posts are up!! 

So keep posted!

Peace

Love

Light

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Mara