I am SO totally one of those old-school peeps who still uses a paper planner/calendar to keep my family's busy schedule on pace and running smoothly.  I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur!  As much as I love my tech and what a fan of it I am, I just cannot relinquish control of my appointments and schedules over to a non-human device.

As you can see, there is NO spot to store a pen or pencil in this spiral-bound planner.  I used to have the perfect mechanical pencil that fit nicely into the spiral coil part without the eraser sticking straight out of it too much.  But, my son recently lost it – my favorite mechanical pencil – and I haven't been able to find another one just like it anywhere.  So, I recently came up with the idea to make my own pencil loop for the cover and guess what?  It turned out great!

First, I visited my dungeon of a basement to pilfer through my craft supplies to see what I could rig up to use.  I stumbled across one my ribbon tackle boxes and searched for some nice ribbon that would work easily.

Once I found something that would work {like this nice colorful ribbon}, I cut it into about a 3-inch piece.  I knew I wouldn't need too much since it would just be made into a loop anyway.  Then, I took my hot glue gun and glued down one side down onto the inside cover of my planner.  I looped it back around and glued the other end of the ribbon onto itself on the end that was already glued down.

The end result was a cute and functional loop on the inside cover of my planner which could hold either a mechanical pencil or pen so that I don't have to resort to always digging around in my purse for something!  I'm loving it!

So, my question for you is:  Do you still use a paper planner or calendar? Why or why not?  {And please tell me I am not the only one!}