Review: typo Taylor Satchel

I recently purchased a Taylor satchel from Typo, and I am very pleased with it. So that all of my lovely batling readers can have a look at this lovely bag, I thought I'd review it!

The Taylor satchel comes in six different colours/designs, and costs $39.95 AUD. It comes with a detachable shoulder strap and the bag is 28 cm * 35cm * 8cm. 

On to my purchase!

I decided on the vinyl tooled/engraved style brown Taylor satchel, a nice mix between professional looking briefcase, and gothic goodness!

I ordered online from Typo (also known as Cotton On), and it arrived within a week of purchase.  I found the customer service and reliability of ordering fro Typo online great!  Typo has many stores in the 'real world' but I do not like crowds and too much noise so I try to avoid shopping in 'bricks n mortar' stores!

My order arrived, nicely packaged in a box, and everything perfect!

The satchel!

The Taylor Satchel does not disappoint, strongly made, and quality product, the 'engraving' look of the scroll work on the surface is beautiful.

There is a handle attached to the top of the bag, as well as the adjustable and detachable shoulder strap.  (gratuitous shot of my funky nail polish as well...)

The bag is lined in matching fabric, and contains an internal zipped pocket.  

There are two pockets on the front big enough for a phone and a 7" tablet, or a small diary. (Another gratuitous shot of my funky nails!)

The front pockets have the same engrave/tooled leather look on the vinyl as the satchel flap does.

The bag has enough depth to carry files, a sandwich, wallet, small camera, phone, tablet device, small laptop computer, planner or diary, and whatever else you want to stash in it!

I am very happy with this purchase! Thanks Typo!

Please share your bag purchases!

Have you bought yourself a groovy bag? please share the info in the comments section below the post!

New downloadable for A5 planner pages in swirling watercolour

I have three planner binders, two Filofaxes and one Kikki K. I use all three of them plus a diary!

• The Filofax A5 Metropol contains my courses/study; my home business records; and a place for me to put lists of stores i like etc
• The Filofax Personal Domino has my grocery lists, my project funmail addresses, and stamps, receipts and other shopping stuff
• my Kikki K A5 planner is my project planner and it has to do lists, addresses for businesses, and meeting notes

I like to create my own personalised pages for my planner binders, and I am always happy to share them with anyone else for free for them to download and print and use for themselves too!

Please if you share links to any of my downloadables be courteous and state where you got them from and please do not onset any of the free stuff!

Today I painted some swirls of colour in watercolour paints and scanned it in as a background for some new planner pages.

If anyone would like to use them you can obtain them from my Google drive from this link, if you have any challenges getting them to download please comment on this post with your email addy and I will happily email a copy of them to you!

Print these on A5 pages!

This is what they look like:

cover or divider

ideas page

a page for lists: shopping, wish, books, movies all sorts of things

a page for notes

the timetable page

the to do section

REVIEW: Kikki K 2015 TIME PLANNER LARGE: LILAC

Hello everyone! I thought it was about time I did another review! The last review I did  was about washi tape from Chiyogami Designs, back in March this year!

Last week I ordered some goodies from Kikki.K, and I have been (im)patiently waiting for them to arrive. I placed the order on Thursday evening 23.10.14, and it arrived today, Friday 31.10.14. They sent my order on the Friday 24.10.14, so it took five working days to reach me. Melbourne to the outskirts of Brisbane Qld delivery of 5 working days isn't too bad, and this is an Australia Post thing anyway, nothing to do with Kikki.k!

WARNING: this post has heaps of photos... I wanted to show you all what the planner looks like inside so please bear with me!

So, what did I order?

1. 2015 Time Planner in Lilac with Gold specs
2. PERSONAL PLANNER REFILL: UPPSALA
3. Adhesive dots

Opening the box

The excitement that welled up in me when I caught sight of this box on the door step had me almost jumping up and down in glee. Only other stationery aficionados could ever relate! 

Hooray the delivery from Kikki.K has arrived	An Aladdin's cave inside the box!

I opened the box, and the first thing I removed was the large plastic bag air cushions that Kikki.K use to protect packages. It would be great if they could maybe use recyclable/more environmentally friendly inserts to protect the package, but I am a wee bit too excited about getting to my order in the box to think too long about the future of our planet.

First glimpse of contents

I really love this little canvas drawstring bag my goodies arrived in!

Here you can see my planner, the Uppsala refills and the sticky dots I ordered! Sitting on the canvas drawstring bag, and on top of the Kikki.K wrapping paper!

2015 TIME PLANNER LARGE: LILAC 

I will review the Uppsala planner refills in another post, today I would like you all to see the wonderful lilac and gold Time Planner. (If you have been trying to decide whether you want to buy one or not, hopefully the pictures and my comments will help you make your decision either way!)

Still in its plastic bag, 'Arabella' my new planner is waiting to be unpacked! Yes I have named her Arabella...any objections??? 

The folder  of the Large Time Planner is slightly larger than my Filofax Metropol A5 (blogged about here, here, and here), and it takes the same refill size as an A5 Filofax. The cover is softer than my Metropol, but this does not mean it is in any way flimsy. The lilac is a lovely pastel lavenderish colour and the gold specs make it look fun as well as being useful!! 

There is an elasticised strap to hold the planner together which I prefer to a snap closure, as when i have a heap of documents in a planner I would prefer knowing they will stay there and not break the fastener!

Inside the Planner

Firstly I will share my not so happy thoughts of the inside of the planner. The we can speak at length of all the good parts of it!

The dividers are pink.. this for me is not a good thing, I dislike pink, and personally in a lilac planner I would have preferred purple dividers, or gold like the dots on the cover.  This is not a deal breaker for me, as I can decorate the dividers or make new ones anyway. But be warned if you don't like pink, you won't like these dividers!

There is a section for restaurants and shopping. This really isn't me.. but again this is not a deal breaker, i can rename the divider and i can give the restaurant and shopping pages (there aren't many) to someone who will use them!

What I love about this planner:

Firstly the ring mechanism is large and can hold heaps of paper! It is also well constructed and has no closure issues (the first thing I check with planner binders)

The cover of the planner is stylish, fun, and strong; I love the elasticised closure to hold all my papers in!

There is a zipped pocket, and flaps to put notes, stickers, receipts,  tickets and whatever else you can think of in, on the inside of the front cover. All very handy!

Inside the back cover is a slot where an A5 sized notepad sits, and there is a pen loop as well, which JUST fits my Parker pen.

The paper the planner comes with is slightly cream coloured (off white) and has a satin finish. It is quite strong and smooth to write on, but my Stabilo fine point felt pens do leech through the pages a bit, this is not an issue, I have other pens and pencils I can use.

VERDICT

I bought this particular planner to use as a project planner, I have a specific use in mind for it. I believe that its size, additional pockets and the fact it has an elasticised closure is ideal for the purpose.  

I am very happy with this planner and personally recommend it. You can find it in Kikki.K stores and also from their online shop. Like all their planners I believe it may be a limited edition so if you are wanting one, maybe buy one soon!