2015- 2016 Erin Condren Life Planner Review

Hey ! Welcome back! 

So first let me start off by saying how much I LOVE this planner. For a long time when I was younger I used to use paper planners then I switched to my iPad. I love the calendar on my iPad but it just wasn't as colorful as i'd want it, so I went on a hunt. That's when I found this beauty! The Erin Condren Life Planner. Now some may say someone would be crazy to purchase a book with sections for 60 bucks, but the functionality is endless! (and plus I used a coupon! LOL)

So lets start off with the review. I first started getting into the Erin Condren Life Planner lines because I was looking for a creative way to plan my wedding. I am a scrapbooker and if i cannot use my washi tape on something I AM NOT SOLD. I was dazzled at all the amazing images that I saw on instagram and how the ladies of the planner community decorate their planners, so I got one. Not many had the wedding planner so I was still stuck but I was dedicated to waiting for the new rose gold planners. (who doesn't love rose gold, right?!) The planner comes in gorgeous boxes, they sent me pink (blah). I wished I had gotten purple, but that didn't stop my excitement!  

Isn't it so beautiful? So this year, with all the hype of the new rose gold Life Planner, there were some screw-ups when it came to people receiving the right orders and perfect planners. I am in no way bashing the Erin Condren company but I would think that for the price we pay for these things, when we receive then, they would be heavenly perfect. The only issue I had with my planner was that the coil, in some parts looks as if it was painted with rose gold spray paint and on some parts of the laminated cover was sort of cracked and tearing. The cover won't be an issue for be because the company sends you a $10 coupon to use to buy a new personalized cover which I was planning on doing anyways but the coil is going to bother a perfectionist like me. I already emailed the company and I'm just waiting on their reply. 

Erin Condren always sends a little extra with her planners so with this one came a mini planner (the peach colored book) which is like an on the go planner if you don't want to carry the bigger version around with you. There are also 3 thank you cards, 1 coil clip, 3 referral cards and a sampler sheet of stickers that Erin Condren makes. Personally, I would never purchase her stickers because they do look like something I can make myself (and center then way better may I add) and I mainly use washi tape. But I must say there are a lot of creative people on Etsy that sell stickers are are amazing. My favorite place to get washi from are WillowFields and Paperpanduh. Some of the washi shown are from Michael's. 

The reason why I love these planners are the way they are set up. If you type in the hashtag #eclp on instagram you will see how many creative ways there are to use one layout. I plan on making my own stickers for mine to spice up the color a little bit, but everything is gorgeous. There is a monthly spead as well as a weekly spread and it makes it hard to not stay organized. 

A few other things that come with this planner are a few sheets of stickers, a clip in ruler, a pocket in the back as well as a clip in pouch, and 18 months of full planning bliss. There are two choices. The 12 months, where it starts in January and the 18 months (since the planner release is in June ) which carries from July 2015 through December 2016. Although it is a little chunkie, I don't mind. 

The inspiring quotes that are placed all though out the planner are amazing and a joy to see. I hope that I inspired you all to think about getting a planner. They are an amazing way to keep your life in track as well as keep it creative. If you'd like to buy one you can click here to sign up and receive $10  off coupon in your email to use towards your order. 

Happy Planning! 

Follow me on instagram: @Faneezahayatt

Relationships

Hey !! Welcome back! 

So, I just began our road to planning our wedding. How exciting, right? I thought that it would be an awesome idea to talk about relationships! 

So I know, not everyone thinks they need to be in a relationship and thats ok, its all about self progress. I feel like if you weren't content with where you are in life you wouldn't be able to share your life with someone else and thats ok too. Personally, I think growth with someone is amazing and during any relationship, no matter at what point of life it started, you should be able to look back and say wow, that person helped my growth and I did the same. Pushing each other to be great human beings are what its all about. You want the idea to be successful together. 

My relationship with my fabulous fiancé started in our sophomore year of high school. We have been going strong for 7 years and counting and we constantly push each other to greatness. We are both almost finished with school and already have plans to go back for our masters. Even though we are amazing together there have been a lot of arguments. If a relationship doesn't entail any sort of argument, it's not healthy. This basically means that someone isn't letting their feelings out and eventually they're going to blow up into insane rage. Let me start by saying there are definitely those arguments where you literally have to just stop and laugh at yourself for getting mad at something so stupid. Then there are arguments where there is a point to be made, both of you just need to cool down. Screaming at each other helps, but no one listens. So get all the anger out and then sit and try to have a normal conversation.    

Obviously, arguments are just a tiny part of what goes into the relationship. Both of you have to want it. There has to be effort coming from both sides in order for the love to last. Sometimes, I believe relationships don't last because either one person gets tired or they just forget to give the relationship enough attention. Just like anything, it needs attention, patience and understanding. I think without those three things, there is nothing. You have to understand that the person you are in a relationship with has grown up with a different background and they will see the world in a completely different view than yours. But, this also makes it interesting because you get to learn something out of your comfort zone. You get to participate in things together that you may not know you enjoy but come to love because of your significant other. 

I've noticed, with my relationship, we laugh A LOT. If you can't be comfortable enough to laugh with each other everyday about something stupid or not, what is there? You're spending your life with this person, thats a lot of years! To many to be serious all the time! 

So I guess i'll leave you with this. Laugh A LOT, scream if you have to, listen to your partner and make sure your understanding and have enough patience to get that two complete strangers are turning into one family. It will work, it's just learning about each other and that can't happen over night! 

Check back for my upcoming post about #FamilyRelationships !

Hope you guys liked my post ! 

Follow me on Instagram @faneezahayatt

#DearMe

In sight of some YouTuber's doing this hashtag, I thought I should as well. You can watch the YouTube version here. You can also watch my favorite YouTuber Superwoman's version here. The purpose of the DearMe hashtag is to show girls that they aren't the only ones that feel the way they do; whether it be alienated, friendless, or even overwhelmed. So heres my version.

Dear Me,

     You may not think it now, buy you defiantly are beautiful. Yes, you look different from the other girls, but thats what makes you stand out. You are different for a good reason. You'll learn in due time that friends are not always your friends and you can only trust your family. Now younger self, everyone I mean EVERYONE goes through an ugly stage. Your beautiful in every way but trust me your hair gets better, your skin gets better, your style gets better, EVERYTHING gets better. People will make fun of you but don't stoop down to their level. Just keep your head high and walk away. You are meant to be the silly, smart, self preserved, organized you! Your common sense and self preservation gets you far while the others who were "popular" will stay far behind. Keep your goals in tact, don't let anyone tell you that you can't accomplish anything. You can accomplish EVERYTHING you set your mind to, which leads me to my next point. Listen to Mommy! You may think you guys are clashing heads now, but its only for your own good! All the advice she gives you helps you out in the long run. Oh, and I won't forget! Don't get caught up in the idea of having the crazy love story you see in the moves. You'll defiantly have your own perfect love story! He's perfect and your life falls into place perfectly! 

So, until next time, love, 

The older you! 

I love the idea of #DearMe because I have two nieces, one who is almost a teen (shocker!) and one who is still a toddler. Im excited to see them grow up, but that means they also have to go through all the stuff I did. Hopefully this will encourage them as well as other little girls to be true to who they are and not count on others to show their true personality. 

Remember to follow me ! 

Instagram: faneezahayatt 

Twitter: fanamia_

Id love to hear your versions of #DearMe, Hashtag #fanamia! 

- <3 Faneeza 

The Big Surprise.

Hey, Welcome Back !

So, in my last post I told you that my fiancé and I had planned a surprise for my niece and nephew on Valentines Day. We were so excited to see their faces when they opened up their gifts. Now, don't get me wrong. You don't need a gift on every holiday, I usually just make something I can throw some candies in and hand it off but we decided to use this Valentines Day as way to surprise them because its almost like they can read the excitement off of our faces on a regular day. We decided to upgrade their phones to iPhones. They had a touch screen phone but it really couldn't connect to anything and it was basically to test if they could manage taking care of the phones before we spent the big bucks. We were so excited i caught it on camera (sorry for the bad camera quality, I'm just getting the hang of this.) Here it goes :)

The Prep:

So to make these things we had to figure out how to present it to them without just handing it over. We were thinking hey lets tell them we have to take their phones away because there was some sort of service issue and switch out the sim cards but I don't think I would have been able to keep a straight face. Then, we had an idea to download a laser tag game that can be played with the iPhones and taunt them (because they didn't have iPhones) but that seemed a little cruel. We finally decided to grab some 3 dollar buckets from Party City, fill it with candy and prop the phone in the middle. Like this:

Can you tell that we try to cover the iPhone box with a candy bag haha. We tried, but I think the end result came out pretty well. Take a look:

The Process: 

So at this point, holding such exciting news from them for such a long time was killing us! We wanted to see their little happy faces already. So we took the drive out to my sisters house and ran up their stairs. Take a look at the video to see what happened after that, click here to view. The first valentines spent with family was awesome! We had such a fun time. 

Hope you all enjoyed! Don't forget to follow me on twitter @fanamia_ . Let me know if you like my blogs and what you'd like to read. Until next time,

                           -Faneeza <3

Valentine's Day Yummies!

Valentine's Day Yummies!

Hey ! Welcome Back !

So, I am excited to say that Valentine's Day is tomorrow ! 

I hope you all are excited as much as I am. Just remember, Valentine's Day doesn't always have to be about loving your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife. Let's make this valentine's day about loving everyone around you ! This year my fiancé and i decided to spend valentine's day with my sister, niece and nephew. We are very close and we realized it's such an awesome idea. Why haven't we thought about this before ? I think society puts too much emphasis on Valentine's day being about boyfriend/girlfriend relationships rather than loving everyone. Anyways, lets get down to the Yummies! 

So this year I let time get ahead of me and didn't plan all to well, but these yummies came out great! (family members or in my case my fiancé make great test testers! lol) 

STRAWBERRY HEARTS <3

Ingredients: - two boxes of pie crust (the boxes I got from pathmark had two pie crust per box)

                    - one egg

                    - Jam (I used strawberry preserves, your choice) 

                    - fork, 1/4 teaspoon measure 

                    - heart cookie cutter (purchased mine from party city in a pack of three)

                    - powder sugar (optional) 

Process: So I started off by cutting the pie crust with the cookie cutter. When I got to the point where i couldn't cut another heart i just crumpled it up and rolled it back out and got to cutting. Once cut I add the jam on one side (1/4 teaspoon full and just a half of that more). The jam will spill out if too much is added. I put another heart on top of that press down on the sides then seal with a fork. Crack the egg, whisk it, and brush it on lightly to the top of the hearts. Make sure to add tiny holes in the middle so that the insides have a steam release. Pop in the preheated (350 degrees) oven for 20 mins and your done! They look like these below. 

OREO POPS <3

Ingredients: - Oreo's (Chocolate or Vanilla, your choice)
                    - Candy Melts (melting chocolate, I bought bright white)
                    - lollipop sticks
                    - sprinkles, sprinkles and more sprinkles!

Process: Oreo's need to be frozen for about 2-3 hours before you used them to make these. Make sure to pop the sticks in them before you put them into the freezer. Once frozen, start to melt your chocolate. This can be tricky because you can overheat them and at this point there is no turning back they are burnt! I recumbent 30 seconds intervals and once you see some of the chips melted just stir it should become liquid like, its ready. if you work fast you can take all of the Oreo's out of the freezer but if your a little slower like me, take them out one by one (I learned the hard way, some of the warmed Oreo's fell off the stick). Just dip in chocolate, take a spoon and throw some more over the part where the lollipop sticks go and dip in sprinkles. I used flat plates to place the sprinkles on for easy dipping. Easy 1,2,3! Set on wax paper to harden. I put mine in the fridge just so that it wouldn't melt over night. Here are some pics !

The chocolate will become smooth once you stir. 

Hope you all enjoyed ! Stay tuned for the next post to see what we surprise the kids with :) Don't forget to follow me on twitter (@fanamia_) and let me know what you think of my blogs as well as what you would like to read. Until next time,

-Faneeza <3