Life Cycle of an A5 Core Sheet

Hello, stickerators! It’s me, Natalie. For this month’s EllieBeth Designs UK blog post, I wanted to share how I get the most out of one of my favourite sticker sheets: the A5 Core sheet. It’s almost inevitable that not every sticker on a sheet will be used the first time around, so I’ve created a little system for making sure that, ultimately, no sticker is left behind.

Firstly, when my A5 Core sheet arrives, I slip it into a poly pocket and add it to the A5 Core sheet section of my A5 sticker binder. Sometimes, I get an A5 Core sheet as part of a mini essentials kit. When that happens, I add the whole kit to the same poly pocket in the A5 Core sheet section, just to keep everything together.

Next, when it comes time to use the A5 Core sheet, I set up my weekly schedule with whatever stickers I need from it, and then I peel off the excess sticker paper, punch the backing paper and insert it into my bullet journal, so that if I need more stickers during the week, they are to hand.

After that, once the week is done and I have used all the stickers I need, I put what’s left of the A5 Core sheet back into its poly pocket (along with any other sheets from the same collection) and move it to the BACK of the Daily Log section of my sticker binder. This is where I keep my Days and Days sheets and any other leftover sheets that could be used to set up my daily logs.

Lastly, when setting up the daily logs in my bullet journal, I take sheets from the FRONT of the Daily Log section of my sticker binder. Once I’ve finished setting up a week’s worth of daily logs, I move those stickers to the BACK of my Daily Log section. This way, all the different collections of stickers (made up from whatever sheets and leftovers I have) cycle through my sticker binder which keeps my bullet journal fresh and makes sure everything eventually gets used. Once I have used absolutely everything I can use from this section of my sticker binder, I take any leftover stickers and add them to my reusable sticker album, which I keep in my planner pouch. This is very useful, as it means I can grab whatever I need whenever I need it for whatever spread I’m working on.

So, that’s how I get the most out of my A5 Core sheet – and all my sticker sheets really! How about you? How do you make sure no sticker is left behind?

Thanks for reading. Until next time … keep stickerating!

Love Natalie x

For 10% off planner stickers at EllieBeth Designs UK, you can use my code NATALIE10 or follow this link. This is an affiliate code, which means I will earn a few Rainbow Rewards each time you use it, but this is at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support! x

Hello! Here is my review of Week 2 of One Book July 2021, in which I cut myself some slack when it comes to morning routines! Thanks for stopping by. xxx

Last week, my family and I went away on holiday. We stayed in a flat in Swanage, which we used as a base for days out to the beach and surrounding countryside. I have a love-hate relationship with holidays. I love taking a break from home, seeing different sights, walking different walks, breathing different air, but I hate the decision-making that goes into it – what should we pack, what should we eat, where should we go, what should we do? Such questions can make the whole event mentally taxing when it should be mentally relaxing!

One of the things I’ve done to reduce the mental taxation of holidays is to create a digital packing list. I have a list of everything each member of the family needs to pack, plus a list of all the things we need to pack as a family, from clothes to toiletries to food to entertainment. Whenever it’s time to pack, I review it, update it and print it off so that everything that needs to get packed, gets packed and ticked off the list. If I find that something is missing from the list, I make a note of it and add it to the digital list once we return from our holiday, so it’s up-to-date for the next time we go away.

(On a side note: it’s fun to look back on past lists and see how family life has changed. When the kids were smaller, it featured things like toys and colouring books, now it features phones and chargers.)

Eating well while on holiday can be a bit of a challenge. At home, I do all the meal-planning, grocery shopping and cooking, and obviously, while on holiday, I wanted a break from all that, but just saying, ‘I’m not doing it,’ is not really an option – that would be more of a headache than it’s worth! Someone needs to take responsibility for feeding the family, so this time, all I did was pack enough food for the week’s breakfasts, snacks and lunches and then left the evening meal to chance. It worked out okay in the end; we decided on the day what we wanted for dinner and ended up having fish ‘n’ chips on the beach, takeaway pizza, quick-and-easy cold meats and salad (twice), and a quick-and easy-stir fry. All the last two required were a couple of ten minute trips to the supermarket (by my husband) which was just around the corner.

Although I ate differently than I would have done had I been home, I feel I ate well. I made sure I ate the rainbow each day and didn’t binge on ultra-processed foods. I ate in moderation, and I’m happy with that.

We did a lot of things on holiday, more activity than I’d normally do in a week. We:

• walked around The Blue Pool in Wareham
• walked along Studland Beach (collecting seaglass)
• walked around Swanage (several times)
• did The Woodland Walk at Durlston Country Park

The rest of the family did more exercise than I did. There was also a walk to Corfe Castle (and a steam train ride back) and a walk to Winspit. In the evenings, we chilled at the flat, watching movies (and the footie), reading, surfing the web etc. Some days, choosing what to do was easy, somedays it wasn’t, depending on our individual moods and energy levels. It did help to have an idea of what we wanted from the holiday and a list of ideas to choose from. Before the holiday, we’d all sat down and discussed how we each wanted to spend our time, and we used our local knowledge and the tourist information website to come up with a list of possible activities. We also agreed that we didn’t have to do everything together.

As children grow up, family holidays change. It always seems to take us by surprise that what was fun last year, won’t necessarily be fun the next – this year, there were no trips to the arcades, no crabbing from the jetty, no sitting on the beach all day digging holes. The kids were less content to hang around with us, taking life slowly, just resting and relaxing, and that did cause some huffing and puffing, but we worked it all out in the end and had a (mostly) enjoyable time together.

(On another side note: the kids are actually old enough now to go off and do things on their own, but I don’t think they’ve quite realised that yet! Maybe next year.)

So, all this to say that a little forethought, an honest discussion or two, plenty of give-and-take and a bunch of lists can go a long way to taking the headaches out of holidays. Now, if only I’ll remember that next summer …

Hello! Here is my review of Week 2 of One Book July 2021, in which I talk a bit about having to be flexible with my routines and habits.

Hello! Here is my review of Week 1 of One Book July 2021. I’ve been working on getting into a good morning routine, so my days can get off to a good start.

This week encompasses the last few days of June and the first few days of July, so here is my first One Book July 2021 weekly plan with me video. I’m hoping to bring you a plan with me video every week for the rest of the month, and maybe a few other planning-themed videos too. This year’s theme for One Book July is: routines and habits. If you’ve followed me for any time, you’ll know that routines and habits have played a huge part in my recovery from mental illness, so they’re something I’m rather passionate about. In today’s video, I chat about my morning routine and the changes I want to make to it for the rest of the summer. I hope you find it helpful. xxx

Today I wanted to share with you a little tweak I’ve made to my food diary. (You can find out about my current food diary in Eating with Agency – Part 1.) Since I set up my food diary, I watched another TV show about health and fitness: 21 Day Body Turn Around with Michael Mosley on Channel 4. I always watch this type of show with a big dollop of healthy skepticism, as that’s just who I am, but what was said chimed with everything I know about health, fitness and biology, plus Michael Mosley is an actual doctor, so I’m predisposed to trust him!

Anyhoo … at one point in the programme, Dr Mosley said that the participants should aim to eat at least 30 different fruits and vegetables a week. That struck me as an awful lot, so I thought I’d see how many different fruits and vegetables I was eating and if it was anywhere near that amount. In the empty space next to Sunday in my food diary, I wrote the numbers 1 to 30 down the page, and, as the week progressed, I listed each different fruit or vegetable I ate. It’s only Friday and I’m already at 32! So it’s not really that hard for me after all. Going forward, I’ll keep listing them and see what other fruits and vegetables I can find to add to the mix.

The other thing I’ve done to my food diary is to split the bottom box into PFs (processed foods) and UPFs (Ultra Processed Foods) because, although I don’t want to eliminate PFs and UPFs from my diet completely, I’d like the bulk of my food to come from non or minimally processed foods. Imagine, if you will, a pyramid with non and minimally processed foods on the bottom, PFs on top of that and UPFs on top of that. In fact, now I think about it, I might actually draw myself a pyramid-shaped food diary in which to write everything down. Just to remind myself what proportion of my diet should be coming from what type of food.

Helping me with all this is the Open Food Facts app. Open Food Facts is a global community with volunteers all over the world. It is supported by a registered non-profit organization headquartered in Paris. Its vision states:

Everyone can improve the food system and reduce the impact of food on our health, environment and society.

and it’s mission is to:

Provide open data, knowledge, tools and support for everyone to empower them to have the greatest positive impact on the food system.

• For consumers to make better informed food choices.

• For food producers to identify ways to improve the quality of their products and to be encouraged to improve it.

• For scientists to improve the collective knowledge of the long term impacts on what we eat on our health, the environment and society.

• For states to decide on the best public health policies and to help foster their adoption.

• For individuals, academics, non-profits, startups and companies to efficiently address issues with the food system and quickly deploy them worldwide.

On the app, you can scan the barcode of any item of food to find out more about it. If the item is not on the app, you can submit photos of it and the relevant information from the packaging. What I’m most interested in at the moment is the NOVA score. Nova is a system of grades from 1 to 4 to allow people to simply compare the degree of processing of products. Here are the groups:

• Group 1 – Unprocessed or minimally processed foods

• Group 2 – Processed culinary ingredients

• Group 3 – Processed foods

• Group 4 – Ultra-processed food and drink products

My aim is to eat mainly from Groups 1 and 2, eat a little from Group 3 and very little from Group 4, and the app makes it very easy to do that. Now, whenever I eat something I haven’t eaten since starting this healthy eating thing, I check it on the app so I know how processed it is.

Next up – I’m going to have to look at portion sizes. I need to eat enough not to be hungry, but not so much that I hinder my health.

It almost July, so it must be time to set up my rings for One Book July. I feel a bit of a cheat, as I’m doing my own One Year One Journal project, so I’ve grown used to doing all my planning, memory-keeping and journaling in one place, but I’m going to participate anyway because I love it! Looking forward to seeing how everyone else approaches the month. x