Self-made planner in Daycraft Signature Sketchbook

Sorry everybody, my A5 Filofax failed terminally. I really do have to be able to carry my planner around with me everywhere, and the A5 Filo binder is just too big.

And my Minister weekly planner wasn't doing it for me because now I don't have many scheduled events (so I don't need the timed daily columns) but I do have loads of tasks (so I need more space each week for lists).

I'm pining for my Uncalendar Half-Size planner, which would be perfect in this situation. It has month-on-two-pages grid calendars, week on one page with the opposite page for lists, and loads of notes pages. Click here to see my review of it with lots of photos of the interior pages.

But since my Uncalendar is on a boat somewhere with the rest of my household shipment, I had to create my own version. Perfect excuse to buy a new notebook! I bought a Daycraft Signature Sketchbook in the large (A5) size. You may remember my review of the small size sketchbook (which you can click here to see).  I bought the sketchbook here in Jakarta at Aksara bookstore in Kemang. (@Aksara_Store on Twitter).

In my previous review of the Daycraft Signature Sketchbook I went on about the beautiful soft cover and the super-smooth 100g paper. I have to say, it's very pleasant to use as a planner because I love to handle it all day! I'm very tactile and I love touching the soft cover and smooth paper.  And, the purple cover is gorgeous too! ;)

The paper is cream colored, and the page edges contrast nicely with the purple cover.

The cover is smooth with Daycraft embossed on the back.

As far as I know, Daycraft is still looking for distributors in the US and Europe. If you don't have a Daycraft retailer near you, you an order them from Australia on the Vera Chan website (http://www.verachan.com/online-shop/) with worldwide shipping. You can find Daycraft notebooks here: http://www.verachan.com/online-shop/stationary/ and the Signature notebooks are listed as "Classic notebook." She has generously offered Plannerisms readers 20% off all products when you enter the discount code plannerisms at checkout!

Here's my self-made planner. It's pretty simple. I made open, untimed spaces for the days, and left the opposite page open for lists and notes (click on the photos for a bigger view):

At the top of each week's page I stamped the beginning and end dates for the week with my new date stamp that I bought right before I left Scotland:

I also made month on two pages calendars for April, May, June and July:

I actually put the month calendars in front, and the weeks behind. I only did until July because that's when my Extra Large Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook starts, and I plan to switch to that planner when it starts (on June 27th to be exact).  So this planner is really just a stopgap until then. But, if I get to July and want to stay with this planner, there are enough pages in the book that I can draw up monthly and weekly pages all the way through the end of the 2011-2012 school year.

The day spaces measure only about 40 sq. cm, which are not large enough for me when I'm busy.  (From experience I know I need day spaces of 65 sq cm or larger when I'm busy.)  But I think these day spaces should work fine for me until July because I'm not very busy.  The Extra Large Mole weekly notebook day spaces are about 72.5 sq cm, so when school starts up along with after-school activities and all that I'll have the big day spaces to handle it all.

The Signature sketchbook doesn't have a pocket in the back, so I taped in my address booklet that I removed from one of my large size Moleskine planners. I taped my favorite post card of Glen Coe to the front of the address booklet.

The colors on the postcard happen to look really good with the purple cover!

So there's my very simple stopgap planner in my new beautiful Daycraft Signature sketchbook to get me through the next couple of months until my Moleskine weekly notebook starts.

Interestingly, this is the third year in a row I've been chomping at the bit to start a Moleskine 18 month weekly notebook in July! The first year I also made my own planner to get me through until my Mole started (which you can read about in my 13 Planners post, scroll down to #s 7 and 8).  Last year I was impatient to start my new 18 month Moleskine because it had the new monthly calendar grids, so I went back to my old Mole weekly notebook (which you can read about in my 2010 Planners Tally post, scroll down to #5).

Both of the Large size weekly notebooks failed me due to too-small day spaces. I don't know why I never tried the Extra Large size before! I'm thinking the larger day spaces will make ALL the difference. What do you think? ;)