Life Update + Famous Friday ~ Recollections vs. MAMBI!

Hi guys! Haaaappy Friday! Before I get on with the Famous Friday post, here’s just a little life update 🙂

Snow! Snow, snow, snow!! Yay!! Here in Virginia where I live it is not currently snowing but there is snow on the ground!

Anyway, before I explode with snowiness, let’s continue. 2018 is going great! I’ve been doing pretty good with my New Year’s Resolutions so far:

1. My Bible reading is going great! Sometimes I read in the morning, and sometimes in the evening; it depends.
2. Devotionals ~ I haven’t been able to do that every morning, but I’m getting there 🙂
3. Time management ~ I am being pretty productive, but I could always get better.
4. My room could use some improvement 😛
5. My desk…same as above 😀
6. I have been using my planner a lot! Every day I write down a checklist and at the end of the day, or the next day, I check it off, which is very satisfying!
7. I haven’t been able to create a blogging calendar, or post as much as I want to, but I have posts in my drafts box that I write as often as I can!

That’s how I’m doing with my resolutions, and hopefully I’ll improve and be able to keep them!

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Now, onto the Famous Friday part! I haven’t done a Famous Friday post in so long, so I’m excited to be doing this again! Also, I’ve decided that instead of doing just books, or movies and other things like that, I can expand my choices! And I’m going to shake things up a bit and do a this vs. that post! So, today I’m doing…Recollections vs. MAMBI Planner!

Note: The pictures in this post are not taken by me, but from online. Picture Credit goes to Google 😀

Related Posts: Famous Friday Introduction and Famous Friday ~ Hero’s Guide and Life Update + Famous Friday

I’ll start by reviewing the Recollections planner!

The Recollections planner that I own was a Secret Santa gift from one of my friends. I have the French Bulldog one!

It’s so cute!! Here’s a peek inside-

In the upper left corner is the monthly view. Next to it is the weekly view. On the bottom left corner are the stickers the planner comes with, like the month stickers you put on the little tabs that stick out, to-do list stickers, and other decorative stickers! It’s great. Next to that little page is the Important Dates page. There’s also a Goals page – which I like a lot – an Important Contacts page, and also a Notes page. I wish I could show you my planner inside, but I would prefer to keep what’s inside my planner a secrect. 😐

Planner Pros:

• It’s a really nice size – 5 x 7, and you can take it anywhere!
• I like how you can put contacts, goals, dates, and notes inside your planner.
• The weekly view is nice also because it has a big space for your notes for that week. Like, for the week of Jan. 1, I put in the little notes section my New Year’s Resolutions.
• The inserts that separate each month are very cute and flowery!
• It’s also nice that they include stickers!

Planner Cons:

• In the monthly view, you don’t get much space to write things down since the boxes for each day are so small.
• In the weekly view, the boxes are also pretty small, so I only have enough space to put down a checklist for that day. (I have pretty big handwriting, though, 😛 )
• The stickers fall off sometimes, but so far that’s only happened once to me!

Anyway, there’s a little Recollections Planner Famous Friday post! I really like having this planner, and I’d definitely repurchase!

Onto the…MAMBI Happy Planner!

These planners are very popular nowadays, and I can see why! They are very cute, original and easy to work with! A good friend of mine, Lindsay over at Linds4Dance, has one and is suuuuper good at decorating them! So definitely go check out her planner posts!

I have the Faith Edition –

This planner is really pretty and I enjoy using it a lot! Let’s get started!

The cover says “grace upon grace.”

I really liked the inserts because that have a Bible Verse (or part of one) on each!

This planner comes with pretty stickers as well! It also comes with black pen, a magnetic bookmark, and some mini post-it notes!

Here’s a peek inside:

Here’s the monthly view ^^

Weekly view ^^ The weekly view for the Faith Edition is vertical, but there are some that are horizontal.

Planner Pros:

• They come in several different sizes!
• MAMBI always has really pretty planner covers, inserts, and sticker! And the stickers fit perfectly in the planner since they’re made for Happy Planners 🙂
• I didn’t mention this earlier, but on the page right before the insert that goes before the monthly view there’s a little page with things like…Grateful For:, Prayer List:, Goals:, etc. and that’s really really nice. It’s cool to flip through each of those pages and see how you progressed!

Planner Cons:

• Since the planner is bigger, you can’t carry it around with you, which is a bummer
• The stickers fall off their sheet sometimes, but not often – maybe once or twice.
• On the monthly view, the weekend blocks are a different color than the weekday blocks, so it kind of already sets the color theme if you want to decorate your planner spread.

So those are the reviews of both my favorite planners! Here’s a list that has parts of the planners that both have in common, and which I like better –

Recollections vs. MAMBI:

• The Monthly View – I think I’m going with Recollections on this one. They’re pretty similar, but like mentioned above, MAMBI colors it beforehand, and that’s basically the only thing.
• The Weekly View – MAMBI on this one 😀 It has three sections, and that gives you more space to write more and plan more!
• The Size – MAMBI again 🙂 Mainly because it comes in all sorts of different sizes, while Recollections only comes in two. Other than that, the sizes are pretty much the same
• The Design
  • Cover – Recollections 😀 The covers that Recollections offers are just super cute, while the MAMBI ones are kind of repetitive, if you get what I mean. Each Recollections cover has a new style.
  • Rings – By rings I mean the Spiral Rings vs. the Special Rings. MAMBI’s rings are useful, but design-wise, Recollections spiral rings are simple and elegant.
  • Tabs – MAMBI tabs have prettier fonts on them and the stickers that allow you to place the labels on them stick on easier.
  • Inserts – The monthly inserts in the MAMBI planners are much prettier, in my opinion while the Recollections ones can be tacky sometimes – but they are cute!
  • Stickers – The stickers that come with the MAMBI planners are prettier, and there are more of them, but the ones with the Recollection planners are also cute!

Tada! That’s my overall review on both planners and all that fun planner stuff!

Which one is my favorite? Honestly, it’s so hard to choose 😀 They’re both so fun to work and plan with, and since I haven’t worked with either of them long enough to be an expert…

I’m going to go with the Recollections Planner

I think because I like the layout more and the small size is really convenient. The cover is also adorable!!

My final say about both are –

The MAMBI planner is more pretty and elegant. If you are an artistic person that likes being creative, the MAMBI planner is your thing! I would highly recommend this planner to anyone, though!

The Recollections, from my experience, is more of a cute planner. You can’t decorate the weekly spread as much as you can the MAMBI one, so if you’re looking for a planner that’s more for planning and not decorating, then the Recollections planner is just for you!

I’m not a super artsy person, and I’d just like a practical and cute planner, so I like the Recollections Planner. I still use different colored pens and washi tapes for the monthly spread, but mainly I just write down what I need to get done that day, and stuff like that.

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I hope you found that review helpful in any way!

Thank you guys for bearing with me through my post! If you’re new to my blog, thanks so much for reading and I hope you’ll give me a little follow!

Here’s a question for all you readers:

What’s a post idea that you’d like me to do? Now that the Christmas season is coming to an end, I’m running out of post ideas! Your input would be greatly appreciated!

Till next time ~

Lydia ❤

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