Boyfriends and Buckles: My First Leather Planner

I've heard tales of people who smell and stroke their ring-bound binders. "Craziness," I thought. Planners are practical, but who needs real leather? I am fine with my vinyl Franklin Covey compact 365 Flourish. It (not "she") is the perfect size and very pretty.

Still, I put a Boston Compact by Franklin Covey (and these cool owl magnets) on my list. 

Others had commented negatively on the buckle closure, but as a buckle sort of person, that appealed to me. (You should see my shoes. Always a little buckle here or there. It really helps out when you have Hobbit feet and need to widen things just a bit.) The Boston is not a Filofax, but I already knew that I need something wider than a Filofax personal size and smaller than an A5, so Filofax was not an option for me.

Plus, the Boston comes in blues and greens. I find black boring and browns are never exactly the right shade (either a deep, rich chocolate or a perfectly orangish ochre). My Flourish makes me happy, but it doesn't work well in professional settings. But a nice blue - now that is neutral yet intriguing.

So I put one on my Christmas wish list. Well, I've apparently been mostly nice and just naughty enough {sheepish grin} for Santa to deliver the Boston on Christmas morning.

It smells like my boyfriend.

Yes, I am a happily married woman and have been married for almost two decades. But in 1992, when I first started dating my husband, he had a beat up leather jacket that he wore in the cold. He always smelled like soap, strawberries, and leather.

The Boston has that same, sweet, nostalgic scent. Louisiana does not get its autumn leaves until mid-winter. To touch the smooth skin of the ring-bound planner is to be carried instantly back to those days of cuddling and holding hands under the fall trees right before the LSU semester started each January. They were brief, as the blazing Louisiana heat returned by March, but those days made an impression that will last forever. Boyfriend smell. It might be the best part of my new binder.

I've fallen for this planner, hard and fast. But there is a lot more to the binder than just good lucks, a trim but generous figure, and appealing scents.

The Boston binder is slightly wider than my Flourish. Since the rings are the same size, this was a very pleasant surprise.

You can see that the binders are the same thickness.

The closure is a snap. It stays closed very nicely. The strap is pretty long, though tight when closed. I expect, since it is actual leather, that the strap will stretch a bit. The buckle is purely decorative and nonfunctional, so I cannot adjust the length of the strap.

The buckle is a bronze gold, but the inside rings are silver. You'd think that would bother my OCD, but somehow, it doesn't.

You can see the lovely inside front cover with two pockets the the left and a hidden pocket to the right. On the back inside cover, there is a hidden pocket and a place for a notepad (that I won't be using, as I prefer my paper up front in the dashboard).

There are two excellent pen loops, made of leather but with elastic on a part of each so they stretch. The loops are higher enough that they hold Frixion pens (tricky to hold, I sometimes think) very well.

The binder came with these two black, plastic pieces, that I will probably use as templates for custom made pages.

The binder is leather, so some markings on the leather are anticipated. But, for now, it's smooth and blemish free.

Now that I have two inside pockets, I plan to use the big one for stuff that is already noted in my binder.

See how neat and tucked away it looks? (Sorry about the picture quality. My husband got a new camera for Christmas, but he is still learning how to use it.)

Things that are in my "in-box" and not yet processed will go in the smaller flap.

Doctors' cards, reward points, and coupons go in the many credit card slots.

The planner does not lie perfectly flat, but it's close, and I bet a little time and training will help.

Instead of putting a notepad in the back, I am tucking in some large sticky notes.

The back notepad holder pocket goes all the way through the bottom of the planner.

Here's a peek at the hidden pocket.

I am keeping the contents the same, except that I can finally remove and file away the Christmas project. (I fold the bottom edges of projects and file them behind the last month of the project - December in this case - with my archived planner pages. The folds make it easier for me to find projects when searching my archives, like next year when I am setting up for Christmas.)

Note that all my planner pages fit on one side of the one inch rings.

Add a zipper pouch of supplies and it still fits pretty well, with three months of planner pages.

The pen loops are my favorite feature.

The strap does not lie flat when the planner is open, but there is enough room that it doesn't hide anything.

Stuffed full.

My only complaint is that the strap curls up a bit as it kisses the front cover.

I wish we had smell-o-blog, so you could enjoy the boyfriend scent, too. I definitely recommend the Boston binder in compact size (4 1/4 x 6 3/4). I'll do a video tour soon. In the meantime, thank you for following my planning journey. Until tomorrow...

Etcetera.