Hello friends, thanks for dropping by to get to know more about me! It’s been 7 years since we started this website, Printables And Inspirations, and I will be sharing a little life update about me and blogging.
Table of Contents
How we started
A friend introduced us to the printables community and I was fascinated. I’ve always loved stationery so it was amazing to see how people are sharing their planners and printables online. I decided to start my own website with the loving support of my boyfriend (now husband), and since then I’ve been sharing pages that I lovingly created. I also discovered the bullet journal method and planning with stickers, so I also share what I use in my personal planning journey. Blogging also gave me the opportunity to share beautiful Bible verses and my reflections about life.
We now have 3 websites: PrintablesAndInspirations.Com is my first and personal blog. CuteFreebies.Com is my second space for sharing more free printables. ShareALifeVerse.Com is for sharing more Bible printables and my sister is now designing freebies for this site.
Life lately
We’ve made a lot of big life decisions along the way. We got married after 9 years in a relationship. It was a very simple celebration with our family and close friends. There were only minimal preparations and when I think about it now, I still wouldn’t have it any other way.
We moved to our home just last year. It’s smaller but closer to family, and we chose this place hoping it could be our forever home. With this new location came new responsibilities, more house chores, lifestyle changes, and countless updates to my planner system. To be honest, I feel like I’m adulting all over again.
I take care of community cats at our new place, and our family dog sometimes stays with us. You might see him in some of my YouTube videos, but mostly he keeps my sister company along with our 5 chubby cats. We’re sad we couldn’t bring our old pets from 6 years ago to our new home, but we still help take care of their needs.
My planner journey
I started using the bullet journal method a few weeks after creating this blog. Since then, I’ve designed a new printable planner/bullet journal every month to share with our planner community. When I first started, I printed an A5 booklet each month and used it as my bullet journal.
Then, I discovered vertical weeklies and stickers, so I incorporated them into my journals. Making stickers for my weeklies became my creative outlet during the pandemic. I got a Silhouette Portrait to cut my stickers and shared the cutting files as well. I really enjoyed my vertical weeklies, and my planner grew bulkier every month.
We went out almost every day post-pandemic, and the Hobonichi Weeks was my go-to planner. It was the first planner book I used until the end of the year. Decorating it with stickers and washi tape helped. I tried other Hobonichi planners but couldn’t stick with them. I had stopped using the bullet journal method by then, and my planner system worked well for me until we moved to our current home.
This year, I started printing my planners again and also used digital planners along with my Hobonichi Weeks. I needed a new planner system so I went back to the basics of the bullet journal method. It is still the most effective tool for me and I am thankful for it, and I am happy to say I am back on track with my new planner system. I hope to share more about this soon to help us get ready for 2025.
Making connections
Sharing my printables through the years helped me connect with our planner community. Though we don’t know each other personally, I feel our connection every time I share a new planner, or stickers sheet, send an email or post a video. Knowing that someone sees and appreciates my work inspires me to do better, create more and I am so grateful for each and every one of you. I pray that I will be able to share with you and connect with you for a very long time.
I have started posting YouTube videos again in addition to my blog posts, Pinterest pins, and sometimes Facebook and Instagram. Though simple, these videos are personal to me so I hope you enjoy watching them or find them helpful. My goal this year is to reach 5K subs so please like and subscribe to my channel.
We also opened our Ko-fi shop this year for those who want to support us more or buy more printables. You can also send a tip through our Ko-fi shop as another way to show your appreciation. Please know that just you being here, sharing about us and coming back to our websites is already a great help for me. Thanks for being part of our planner community!
Love our planners? Say thank you with a coffee or send your support at my Ko-fi shop!
Celebrating 7 years (Free gift!)
We are celebrating our blog anniversary this week so thank you for 7 years! We couldn’t have done it without your support and God’s work in our lives.
CHECK OUR ANNIVERSARY GIFT FOR YOU
I will go back to this page next year for another life update. Until then, let’s have more beautiful days this year, good success and enjoy our printables!
Love and hugs,
Mae Orcales
