The last week of January is one of my absolute favorites.  Not only is it when my birthday (January 28) just happens to fall, but we also celebrate Don’s birthday on February 1.  I love how we get to celebrate both of our special days within the same week!

Please accept my apologies in advance for my overuse of variations of the word “celebrate” in this post 😉

I’m a big fan of birthdays.  There’s nothing quite like celebrating the day on which someone you treasure was born!  As for my own birthday, I like to think of the day as a celebration in three parts: 1) a celebration of gratitude for the past year, 2) a celebration of excitement for the next new chapter in my life, and 3) a celebration of the blessing of life and gratefulness for the opportunity to live, breathe, and love on this beautiful planet.  I mentioned in last week’s vlog that I was feeling a bit unexcited about my upcoming birthday, which is extremely uncharacteristic of me.  Fortunately, that was only temporary!  I realized what was bothering me, dealt with it emotionally, and was able to move beyond it to get back to my usual celebratory self.  And did we ever celebrate!

My husband makes a big to-do out of my special day, complete with cake, balloons, and presents in bed right when I wake up.  I decided to take a half day and went downtown in the early afternoon for my annual birthday shopping trip (you can see what goodies I picked up here if you like).  Then, Don met me downtown for dinner at Topolobampo, a Rick Bayless Mexican fine dining restaurant we’ve been wanting to go to for years.  Scrumptious!  It was the perfect day 🙂

Just a few days later we celebrated Don’s birthday in the style that best suits him.  I picked up a frozen apple pancake from Walker Bros, a local breakfast diner style restaurant that Don loves.  My husband is one of those rare types that does not get terribly excited about presents.  He has few needs for material items he doesn’t already own and little desire for extra things, which makes gift giving a bit of a challenge as I like to have something for him to open during holiday celebrations.  I was pretty excited about the big present I came up with to give him this year: a ping pong conversion table top for his pool table.  He loves it!  Success!  We spent much of the day laughing between rounds.  The nice part is that it folds into flat pieces (albeit quite heavy – two people required!) for easy storage in a closet we have right by the pool table.  All that ping pong makes you work up an appetite (lol), so we headed over to Hackney’s, a local restaurant known for their burgers and onion loaf, for Don’s special birthday dinner per his request.  Two very different birthday celebrations for two very different people.  We both know how to celebrate each other right!

The time in-between our celebrations was a normal week for me, or as normal as it’s been since settling into my new schedule this year.  What I love most about working with a schedule is that it opens up time for more of those “small moments” I talked about in my last WIR while still being very productive.  I’ve been enjoying reading while I eat breakfast, catching up on YouTube and flipping through catalogues during lunch, and my nightly planning sessions for the next day.  I love “savoring the art of the small,” finding pleasure in appreciating the little things: savoring a hot bowl of homemade turkey soup, cupping a treasured mug filled with soothing tea, seeing my pup all snuggled up in bed on a chilly morning, treasuring a thoughtful gift from my husband, using my favorite kinds of pens in my planner.  The list could go on and on.  It’s the little things that make my life feel full and happy on a daily basis.

Something else I’ve become rather fond of in the past week is Instagram, and when I say “fond,” I mean downright obsessed.  I blame the wonders and joys of stumbling upon a bunch of self-proclaimed #PlannerAddicts.  I’ve enjoyed following Toni from A Bowl Full of Lemons on Instagram for awhile now.  She often posts beautiful pictures of her planners, so I decided to ask her if there were others on Instagram that she knew of who did the same.  As it turns out, there’s a lot of planner lovers out there and a plethora of Instagrammers who love to share pics!  I started following a bunch of these lovely ladies and wanted to share the joy of their beautiful Instagram accounts with you.  Some of these ladies also have blogs and/or Etsy shops where they sell custom planner inserts and charms (you can find links in their Instagram profiles).  If you love looking at planner pics as much as I do, I recommend checking out these ladies and showing them some love:

✩ @tonihammersley
✩ @filocutness
✩ @mysweetplanneraddiction
✩ @handmadebycharlottevictoria
✩ @prettyplanners
✩ @filofancy
✩ @mypurpleylife
✩ @ajshaw76

These ladies have inspired me to look at my planners as more than just organizational tools, but also creative outlets.  I’m having so much fun scheming and dreaming about how I can dress up my Filofax and add to my planner collection down the line.

You can watch this week’s vlog here if you’d like:

If you know of any other #PlannerAddicts (or Planner Enthusiasts as I like to call them.  I think “addicts” carries a bit of a negative connotation and I see only positivity and joy from the ladies listed above) please let me know so I can check them out.  Sharing is caring!  I hope you are all having a great week 🙂

* Post contains affiliate links. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are genuinely my own. *