Hey Daisies! How is everyone doing? The world is such a different place right now, and I hope all of you are safe and healthy. I know everything is scary right now, and I want you all to know that this Cocoa Daisy community is such a bright spot in these uncertain times, and I am so thankful for each one of you!

I‚Äôm here to share my April setup, using the Up and Away kit. Y‚Äôall, I cannot say enough how much I adore this kit. The colors, the balloons, the flowers, the quotes - it is all stunning! I love going from the soft peaches and greens of the March kit to the vibrant colors in April! This month, I am using a Foxy pocket rings in Vintage antique brass. I tried a pocket back in the fall, and I loved it but couldn‚Äôt make it work for me. After thinking about it for a bit, I realized that it was my setup and how I used my inserts that caused the problem, so I moved back in and made a few switches and I LOVE it! And I have to just repeat again how much I love these colors, and how perfectly they are showcased against this gorgeous neutral brown! If you have followed my setups for any amount of time here on the blog posts, you know that I shift things around to make my planner more functional, but that I don‚Äôt make huge changes to my setup itself (my size, yes. The way it‚Äôs set up, no. Haha). I have figured out the major points that work for me and stick with that, and make the minor tweaks when needed. So you‚Äôll be familiar with a lot of what I had in here. The biggest difference is the color scheme and the deco - which is why I love Cocoa Daisy so much. Like I‚Äôve talked about before, other members of the Design Team blow me away daily with their creativity and how they set up and decorate their planners. But it‚Äôs my goal to share how Cocoa Daisy also fits within a functional planner (that‚Äôs not to say that their decorative planners aren‚Äôt functional, they totally are!). But I want to make sure I clearly show how each month, I use my box of happy to totally change the way my planner looks, while still keeping the core of it the same. So, as usual, as soon as I open my planner, I have a decorative dashboard. It‚Äôs just a fun way to have a pop of color as the first thing I see. I did add more decorative elements in my planner this month (I seriously considered going to an larger size just for the month so I‚Äôd have more room to use everything! Haha), but whether or not I have a bunch of decorative elements, my dashboard usually stays the same. This month, I layered the hot-air balloon acetate over one of the papers with clouds - I love how it looks like they‚Äôre floating through the sky! When you flip to the other side of this, ¬†you see the top loading dashboard I made, with my favorite quote card from January, as well as another quote card from April that I trimmed and glued down on the opposite side. Right now, ‚Äúlive simply‚Äù is something that we are being forced to do, but it‚Äôs something I strive to do anyway, so I loved having this here opposite my favorite quote. On the opposite side of my top loading dashboard is another quote card (these cards from the pocket memory keeping kit are PERFECT to slip into my planner and add color and inspiration!). Christine always seems to pick the most perfect cards to fit not only the season we are in, but with whatever is going on in my life at the time. And this card ‚Äúalways choose to see the bright side‚Äù is a great reminder to see, again especially with what is going on in the world right now. Opposite the quote card is my first divider. I cut down this gorgeous floral paper and glued a divider tab on it. I used to laminate these, but honestly, I feel like the card stock paper and divider tab is sturdy enough to last me for the month. I moved my ‚ÄúNotes‚Äù section to the front of my planner. My notes is such a massive section. It‚Äôs my catch all, it‚Äôs where I jot down things that need to be added to my planner later, etc. Moving it to the front allows it to act as an Inbox as well as a notes section. Within this section I have pages for a brain dump/inbox area of sorts, and then after that I have it divided into sections for each of my kids. I keep a lot of info about my kids in my planner, and it can get lost in the depths of my notes section if I don‚Äôt separate them out that way. This way, each kid has an area where I know I‚Äôll find the info I need. After my regular notes section, I added in a ‚ÄúListing‚Äù section. It still falls within the ‚ÄúNotes‚Äù divider. I am waiting on some top tabs I ordered, and one of those will mark my List section. This is one of the things I switched around in my planner to become more efficient. Previously, what I did was jot down any to-dos in my weekly view. That worked fine when I had a larger planner and had more room on each day, but in a pocket planner (even using the larger pocket plus inserts) space is at a premium. So I needed the space on my weekly layout for actual scheduled activities. Plus, I have to be honest here. Just because I put ‚Äúclean entryway closet‚Äù on a Tuesday did NOT mean it got done on a Tuesday. My personality has always been more of a ‚ÄúI‚Äôll work on it‚Äù type than a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly cycle. I homeschool my kids, and sometimes the day just gets busy with schoolwork, so a task gets moved to another day. Or, I just decide I don‚Äôt feel like doing it right then. I‚Äôm probably a bit too laid back about it, but it‚Äôs simple and works for our family, so I roll with it. We know the things that NEED completed and do those things, but everything else follows a loose schedule. So, in the interest of being more efficient with my planner, I moved my to-do list from a weekly view to an undated running view. I just have SewMuchCrafting‚Äôs to-do inserts, and when something needs done, I write it down. When it‚Äôs finished, I check it off. If it‚Äôs something that has to be done on a certain day (for example, I had to call my son‚Äôs dr about a prescription that was called in wrong, and that couldn‚Äôt delay) I still write it on the specific day. Everything else goes here. After my to-do pages, I have another pretty decorative page. I just cut one of the dashboards to size, punched it, and added a quote card to the back. Right after that is my next divider. This is my ‚ÄúCalendar‚Äù section, and I used the April dashboard to mark it. After that I have my monthly calendar pages. I use these for pre-planning, as well as an overview of the month once I‚Äôm there. I try to write things in neatly, but if something gets scratched out, so be it. Once I get to the month I decorate it with that month‚Äôs Cocoa Daisy kit. After that, I put in another decorative divider with this gorgeous floral quote card on the back. It faces my weekly inserts. After my monthly inserts I have my weekly. This month, I decided to cut down my personal Dori and use it as a week on two pages. Since the weekly layout follows the same pattern every week, and the inserts are small, I didn‚Äôt waste space putting days of the week stickers on there, I just put the dates. These inserts are used for scheduled activities and day-specific tastes. Here‚Äôs what they look like; After my weekly inserts, is my third and final divider - my personal section. I used this gorgeous paper, glued my tab on, and put this fun ‚ÄúJust chilling, relaxing, snacking, netflixing‚Äù card on the back. That has definitely been my M.O. the last week! This section houses my book log, and my daily tracker. I‚Äôm about as good at keeping up with a daily tracker as I am at doing tasks on a specific day, but I want to get better at it so I keep the inserts in here After that, I have one more decorative divider, and that‚Äôs it! There you have it friends! i feel like my setup is pretty streamlined and simple, but with fun and colorful accents thrown in! This planner brings me joy every time I open it - which is wonderful! If you have any questions or want to see a specific part of my setup, drop me a comment below! And as always, come join me on Instagram¬†for more Cocoa Daisy fun! And if you do, tag me! I want to see your setups! See you next month! And friends, stay safe, and if you all need anything, don‚Äôt ever hesitate to reach out. I‚Äôm always here! Xo, Jenn