Pink Agendas + More Pink Agendas

from top to bottom: Rifle Paper Co. // Ban.do // Rifle Paper Co. // Lilly Pulitzer // Ban.do

It's the most wonderful time of the year... PLANNER PRE-ORDER SEASON !!!!!! Just kidding, it's not that exciting. It still is one of my favorite things to do come every June. Last year I ordered a really cute floral one from May Designs. I was considering monogramming it, but then at the last minute I decided it would be better if it just had "Agenda" written on the front. That was literally fate because then my best friend sent me an agenda for my birthday and I ended up gifting my May Designs agenda to another close friend who was in dire need of a planner for the Spring semester.

Anyway, I've had planners I've loved and planners I've been indifferent about and the main difference is that when I have a cute agenda I feel really motivated to use it, therefore I end up being more productive. Whereas when I've had planners I'm indifferent about, I'm prone to just setting it aside and forgetting it even exists until weeks later.. yikes! The best agenda I've had so far was a Lilly Pulitzer Large Agenda, so this year I was originally going to just get another but before I settled on the perfect one, I decided to check out Rifle Paper Co and Ban.do since I had heard lovely reviews of their planners as well. Well, it looks like this year I'm really digging pink agendas!

one of the important things you have to consider when you're selecting an agenda is the aesthetic. With Rifle Paper Co. agendas, the pages are very clean and elegant. You won't find spreads with quotes in bubble letters, as you might in a Ban.Do agenda, and you definitely wouldn't find tropical watercolor paintings as with Lilly planners. One thing I will mention is that the stickers that come with Lilly agendas are a lot more practical than those that come with Ban.Do agendas. Of the three, I would consider Lilly ones to be the most traditionally youthful. I mean the main reason I got one of those in the first place was because I associated Lilly with retro Jackie Kennedy-esque dresses as well as sororities, which I associated with college and I was just starting college. It just made sense. As for Ban.do planners, they're a little bit retro, a little bit cheeky. They're really feminine and very beautiful. They're also very similar to Lilly planners but without the timelessness.

Another thing I should mention is that these are all roughly the same size - about 6.5" x 8", and most are spiral bound, except for the little pink Rifle Paper Co. one, which is what sort of convinces me against that one. I tend to carry my agendas everywhere I go, so I need them to be durable and easy to use. I'm not sure a traditionally bound book is going to be the best choice for me, although I do love how adorably vintage it looks.

Another thing I always look it is how the weekly spreads are laid out. I  use my planners to write all the tasks I have to complete in a day, including homework, errands, and meetings. So I always need my planner to have plenty of space. I'm still not sure if I prefer lines or not, to be honest. They keep the sections tidy, but they also limit how many things I can fit in a section. I really like how with the Rifle agendas there's a checklist and all the sections have two columns. That would be so ideal for someone like me. Although I guess I could do that with the ban.do ones too. I'd just have to manually draw in little check boxes. One thing I love about the Ban.do and Rifle agendas is that they have little weekly quotes. I find that sort of thing to be really motivating.

I'm still not entirely sure which agenda I'll chose, although I'm leaning more towards the Ban.Do ones. Which one would you pick? I'll let you know when I decide for sure!

Alright, have a lovely Thursday!

x / Ceci

Lilly x Target

Lilly Pulitzer doesn't exactly fit with my personal style, well regularly. I mean usually, you'll find me in muted pinks and darker greens, and lots of black and ivory, and cream, and white. It's more simplistic and toned down... BUT I make an exception for Lilly, because lets be honest, how could I not? There's something so wonderful and whimsical about intensely bright florals and the classic A-line shift. It's romantic and old-timey. It makes me want to live in a small town on the east coast. It makes me want to spend a day at the beach, or maybe just sip lemonade or sweet tea on a porch with my favorite people. There's just something so classic in the concept. So when Target announced their collaboration with Lilly Pulitzer, my heart skipped a beat and as I tend to do when things get exciting, I told everyone who talked to me that day.

The interesting thing, though, is that I feel like the majority of the people I know who love Lilly Pulitzer and all things preppy were mad over the fact there would be a Lilly collection at Target. Their arguments were kind of silly, but I mean I do understand why someone would be mad that they saved up for a long time just to get a dress, only to have a similar one end up at Target for a fraction of the price they paid. Still, the pros outweigh the cons. And it's not like this is the first time Target is collaborating with a high-end brand. Frankly, I'm thrilled.

The collection will be out on April 19th, a Sunday! I've heard it's supposed to have 250+ pieces, including women's clothing (obviously), children's clothing, accessories, dinnerware, and cosmetics with L'Oreal and Essie. And the prices are supposed to range from $2-$250.

What do you think? Are you excited about Lilly x Target?

All the pictures are from the Target Look Book, by the way.

Agenda Love

I always had a clear idea of what college would be like and how everything would pan out. and for the most part, I was tragically wrong.  I thought I would move out, for one. I thought my style would change drastically. I thought I'd have a large social circle and maybe meet interesting boys. I thought I'd become a "scholar," I thought I wouldn't cry much, I thought I would stick to nursing, and most frivolous of all, I knew I would have a Lilly Pulitzer agenda. I don't even know where that idea stemmed from. I don't know when I first chanced upon a Lilly planner and decided I needed it, but for the last two or three years, it was on the list.  It's funny how out of all the things I thought would happen, the latter is the only one that actually did, and as ceremoniously as I had imagined. Just picture 18-year old me sitting at a computer, ordering my agenda the first day of pre-orders. And you can just imagine my glee when it arrived.

Even though I've heard Erin Condren planners are better,  I think I'll stick with Lilly forever because they're so darn beautiful and they suit my affinity for floral patterns and little animals prints, both of which are very present in the agenda. And the issue with Erin Condren planners is that I can't find a way to justify paying $50 for a 12-month planner (that doesn't even have floral prints and little animals on it). Granted, $28 might be a tiny bit expensive, but you should consider that it's a 15-month agenda. In fact, I think what I'll do is use my Lilly agenda for the 15 months and then fill in that one planner-less period with a little agenda from May Books because I know they always have an agenda sale for New Years and then it would just be about $8, which sounds decent to me. Plus those ones are cute too. Granted, they're tiny and a tiny bit flimsy, but they're cute. You know, I don't think I could ever go back to having a black and white planner after having had a pretty one.

I wanted to make a post about my agenda, because when I was first deciding how I could organize it, I had a hard time finding really good information in one place. It was all scattered and different and frankly, it took me a good month to actually feel like I knew what I was doing. I figured it would be nice to make a post for students to be able to refer to when they first start using a planner.  And I mean if I'm going to touch the subject, I might as well be thorough. So keep in mind, there will be lots of pictures and it's a bit of a lengthy post.

Continue reading after the jump,