My Collection

I thought I would share my collection with you today and go through what I'm using (or going to use) each Filofax for.

This is my collection, from left to right:
- A5 black Identity
- A5 black Domino
- Personal grape Domino
- Personal aqua domino
- Personal black Identity
- Pocket lavender Domino
- Pocket chocolate Domino

I love the fact that the colours of my Filofaxes go with the colours in my home office (see picture hanging on the wall and candle on the left)! I love this combination of colours together.

The latest addition is the personal aqua Domino which I've had my eye on for ages, then one popped up on eBay and swoooop I was in there at the last second :D It really does need to stop here though.

So what am I using all of these for? Why would I possibly need this many organisers!

- A5 black Identity - crafts and design/creativity binder - with all of my crafts information, colour combinations info, interior design info and inspiration. Not quite finished this binder yet but I'm getting there.

- A5 black Domino - My Life Story binder, some of you might have seen my previous blog post about my life story binder, I've done the cover page but that's about it so far... I'm trying to write a kind of project brief or list of things I want to include so if anyone has any good websites or templates to help with this it'd be much appreciated!

- Personal grape Domino - my schedule planner, this goes everywhere with me. It has my diary, food shopping list and menu for the week, money tracker, coupons and a general notes section.

- Personal aqua domino - She's empty at the moment! But she will hold all of my song lyrics.

- Personal black Identity - Again, empty! But she will be my home binder. I have all the inserts ready, I just have to wait for my new ink cartridge to arrive so I can print everything out, and also need to make the index tabs. After reading the Homemakers Daily blog post about using the A-Z tabs I'm starting to think I might organise it like that, rather than subjects e.g. home, travel, emergency, but I'm not sure yet.

- Pocket lavender Domino - Empty, was going to use her for my song lyrics but I think a larger format is more suitable.

- Pocket chocolate Domino - Also empty, might use her for travel information when we (hopefully) go to Rhodes in October.

So... any other uses for empty pocket planners?!

Domino Goes Gothic

I did it!! I'm really pleased with her. I have had a brainwave for a few days to create a damask embossed effect on my domino for my life story project, and after hours of considering how to do it I turned to my old friend... heat embossing. I already know this technique works as I've tried it before on a domino, but I decided to use black on black and it looks awesome :D

It also fits in with my life, because from the ages of about 16 to 18 I was very gothic indeedy. I still have a love for pre-raphaelites and gothic poetry etc. I just don't dress like that anymore, which sometimes makes me really sad :(

So here we go... It's quite hard to capture on camera but you get the idea! It only took 30 minutes as well!

 

 

Also I've replaced the elastic with a piece of ribbon (I wanted black velvet ribbon, but the good thing about this is that I can replace it if it gets dirty or frayed). This might not work for an everyday binder as you'd have to keep tying the ribbon, but for a 'look book' so to speak, it'd be fine for occasional use.

Current Setup

I thought I'd share my current setup as it has changed and simplified quite a lot since the last one I did. Also it's a chance to show off my lovely new dividers!

Cover page with family photos in a plastic pocket.

 

The white page is the back of my personal information page, and the spotty tab is my diary tab.

 

 

I am using Organised Mum inserts this year, which I LOVE... this shows the month to view page which I have tabbed with sticky notes and stamped the months on the tabs so I can flick to them easily.

 

 

Close-up of the month to view.

 

 

Monthly to-do list on the back of the month to view page, useful if you have to remember to renew your insurance or buy presents for someone in a particular month but are not sure what specific day you will task it for. Each month I delegate the monthly tasks into my weekly calendar.

 

 

 

My current week. I have a small pocket for coupons to use that week, reminders, and a little notelet which reminds me how much water I should drink and how much coffee I shouldn't drink!

 

 

There are 5 columns, it is supposed to be designed so you can use a column per family member but as I just put my to-dos and appointments in there, then I have the first 3 columns for appointments and to-dos, and the last 2 columns (shown above on the right hand page) for my food diary. I was using this for to-dos but I have started to keep track of what I eat as I have developed some dietery issues I want to keep an eye on.

 

 

Second tab is money.

 

 

Organised Mum finance sheets. There is a set of pages for each month, you record your income and outgoings, direct debits, then you can list all of your daily spending. I basically record everything that goes out of my bank account then compare it to my online statement reguarly.

 

 

Third tab is notes, gotta have notes.

 

 

Hate, hate, HATE this paper on the left! But it's only the back of a tab so I think I can get over it. Just some notes.

 

 

Tab 4, Food. Very important.

 

 

Organised Mum food inserts, you get a set of shopping lists and weekly food planners. We use these every single week, sit down on a Friday night and plan our meals, then I use the Tesco Groceries app to work out the cost.

 

 

Weekly meal planner.

 

 

Miscellaneous tab. Self explanatory.

 

So there you go!

 

Life Story project

I have started working on my life story project but haven't got very far yet. Do you ever feel sometimes like you think too much before you start a project, and you spend so much time thinking about it instead of actually doing it, that starting it seems daunting?

Well here is where I am at so far, I have taken (most of) the pages out of the life story book as shown in a previous post, but I haven't started the monotomous task of having to punch the pages yet. I decided not to take out all the pages as only the amount shown below looks like it will fit in the domino!

 

I've planned how I'm going to set up the binder, by having a few pages per year starting from the year I was born (1988) and each section will have a few pages dedicated to the memorable things that happened that year, e.g. for my birth year it'll be photos from when I was born, my first words, when I first started to walk, etc., and the same kind of theme for 24 years... (Now you know why it seem so daunting!)

 

Luckily I kept journals for most of my teen years and wrote a lot of poetry, so it sparks my memories a bit. I also used to take a lot of photos.

 

 

 

 

This is a kind of idea for a cover page, the post-it note says "Full page photo, victorian frame, date flag". I like to write down my thoughts about what I want to put on a page, because quite often I'll have short, sharp snaps in the office, and by the time I come back to a project I've forgotten half of the amazing ideas I came up with :(

 

Last night I trawled the internet for inspiration, and then thought about how I was going to get my photos printed. I don't have a lot of expendable income, so getting them printed at, say, Photobox or Snapfish could become quite costly. Also I'm impatient, and I want my photos the minute I decide they are going to be a part of the page.

I think I will probably purchase a Polaroid Pogo, as the prints will be the perfect size for my book, and from what I can gather the prints come out with a vintage/Polaroid-esque finish which will complement the look I'm going for.

 

 

Unfortunately this little fella is £60.00, which is irritating, as last time I considered getting one it was only £40. I think I may turn to the wonderful eBay to try and get one a bit cheaper.

 

So, what inspiration did I find last night? I started thinking about when I was in college, and altered journals or art journals was basically part of the curriculum. I remember how I got (excuse the pun) stuck in to all my art journal projects (come to think of it, all of my projects regardless of medium), and resorted to asking Pinterest for some inspiration. (Love this site, so inspiring!)

 

 

 

 

 



 

However, what I really need to do is get a wiggle on and finish my Creative Binder so I can use a section in it to plan my pages and stick my inspiration. At the moment it's all in my head (like a lot of life...) and I am more of a paper person than trying to remember things off the top of my head. Unless it's Bon Jovi lyrics you're referring to.

 

Lastly, I found some Kraft tabs on Etsy that would be great for using as my year tabs. I didn't want to make dividers because 24 is quite a lot... and it won't stop there either (I sure as hell hope not anyway). They're simple and effective, and not too expensive either.

 

I'm sure there will be some washi tape involved, lots of printing pictures and different collage and altered art techniques in there... it'll be so nice to have a project I can get involved in.

So guys, how am I doing so far?!

 



Life Story Filofax

I had a brainwave yesterday. *gasp* Which will result in me buying another A5 Filofax. I've alreadty bought two off eBay (I consider eBay the way to go when buying these things unless you want something really luxury).

I bought this book, My Life Story by SUCK UK about two years ago and I just can't bond with it. I don't know why, because it's a lovely book, I just can't work on it the way it is. So... I thought why not deconstruct it, punch the pages and use them in A5 Filofax form?

I have measured the pages against one of my current A5's and they are the perfect size. Also I like the idea of seperating the years of my life with dividers using lovely scrapbook papers that I have bought and haven't wanted to use because I like looking at them. At least that would be something good to use them for, something I can look at and admire.

It is a massive book, it's meant to be a lifetime journal so there are about 1000 pages but they are bible-page-thickness. I want to put them in my own order as I've already messed some of the pages up trying to work in it. The nice thing about the pages is they are cream with grey writing on them, so they will look really smart.

Has anyone out there in the Filofax community done something similar?

I found some awesome papers I want to buy as well which are based around scrapping your life story. I don't think I will scrap all pages but it'd be nice to pop one in every now and again.

 

 

 

Creative Filofax - homemade dividers

I bought this A5 domino on eBay before Christmas and have finally had a chance to start work on it. So here are the beginnings of a creative goldmine!

I really like using a cordinated set of papers for dividers so it all ties in. By the way... the mustardy colour in the photos is actually a very fresh green...

Sections are:
Crafts
Colour combos
Writing
Interiors
Projects
(A blank tab that might have wishlists in...)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filofax spring clean!

I decided the other day to take everything out of my personal Filofax (daily use filofax) and reorganise. I had loads of stuff in it I never even looked at or used, and wanted my whole year's diary in there so I had a shuffle and a sort out.

 

I ordered some paper online that went nicely with the colour of my Filofax (I've got a Grape domino, it looks like lavendar in the picture though). I made some brand new dividers and set myself 6 tabs instead of 13!!

I made a front cover sheet as well to coordinate with the other papers.

 

And with days of searching for cute sticky tabs, I just got some basic ones and used my individual typewriter font stamps to mark the months in my diary.

 

 

Have you noticed I always craft in my pyjamas?!

Month of No Blogging... Forgive Me! Here's what I've been up to...

Apologies for my absence from my blog but I have been very busy with a number of projects. My boyfriend went to America for 10 days in January and I'd decided my project to keep me busy would be to clean and organise the house.

After SUPER planning, here are the results... (imagine it was really messy and disorganised previously...)

Our living/kitchen/dining area (spot the Filofax on the coffee table!):

 

 

This is an Ikea Expedit (my favourite piece of furniture, because it's so versatile...) which I added a door to one of the cubes to make our drinks cabinet :) The handle is in the shape of a rose.

 

 

 

And then we had some snow, so I took some photos... (on my Windows phone might I add... very impressed with the quality!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I decided to tackle the home office, which I am so happy with. This room floods with light which makes it perfect for crafting. The boyfriend installed a shelf above the desk so I'd have more surface space to spread my crafty crap out.

 

 

 

Super tidy bookases...

 

 

And that's how tidy our house is now! It makes me feel so much better knowing where everything is and that I've got rid of all the stuff I never actually wanted.