To-Do List for Bank Holiday Monday

There are SO many things I wanted to do this weekend, but today I've just sat around on my behind and done nothing. Well, I've been on the internet for most of the day and I'm no more inspired than I was when I woke up this morning. I've now also got a headache.

So here is my list of to-dos for the bank holiday, before I forget about them completely and get Pin-dicted (adjective: physically and mentally dependent on Pinterest, and unable to stop looking at it without adverse effects.)

• Play the keyboard for the first time in too long. My boyfriend's granddad sadly passed away earlier this year and has left us his keyboard. It sounds lovely, and I've not played in so long. It would be really nice to have some time to try and remember how to play again.
• Hoover my car. Eurgh crumbs. Where we live, there isn't really a suitable place to put my car so that the hoover can be plugged in at the bottom of the stairs, so I can hoover my car out. I have my MOT on Saturday, and I'm a bit of a snob. Besides it really needs doing. Something is growing in the back seat and it scares me *car gremlin*.
• Personal information page for my Filofax pocket - to co-ordinate with my new dividers =) the colours make me so happy. I've not yet filled the personal information page out, so I'm going to make my own/customise the Filofax one.
• Play guitar. See point 1. I get to play every now and again, but don't do it enough. The internet ruins who we have made ourselves into.
• Set up the Kinect so I can start doing yoga. I keep saying I have Christmas podge left. It's nearly April. Truth is, I just love food, but I have to start exercising, I'm becoming such a couch potato.
• Sort out my home Filofax. I set this up a few weeks ago, and have just left it. The point of it is to have all our household information and so far it's pointless and useless. Time to make it worth something.
• Make a carrot cake. My boyfriend loves my carrot cake, even though I've only made it once before. We're having people round for dinner tomorrow night and need a dessert so I'll make it then. Baking is good, except for when I get frustrated and throw things around the kitchen...
• Find a miracle way to clean the sodding bathroom. I was almost driven to tears today. We live in a hard water area, so the shower unfortunately accumulates a lot of orange 'gunk', if you will. I try scrubbing but it comes back, I look at my efforts when I think I'm finished and it somehow looks worse... it's not the first time I've cried at the sight of a bathroom. Remember those horrible avocado suites people used to have in the '70s?

Anyway, long story short, I need to get things done. I'll let you know if any of the above actually gets completed, or if I spend the weekend in my pyjamas.

Goodnight, Laura Jane xx

Homemade Journaling Tags for my Filofax

You may remember in my last post that I made my own dividers out of scrapbook paper from the company, Basic Grey. I have been looking for some journaling tags to write down lists (as I do quite often...) and couldn't find ANY that complemented the lovely colours of the What's Up paper collection.

So I decided I would make my own on Paint Shop Pro.

They're not perfect, they're a bit narly round the edges, but they fit in with the theme. I will have to print them and make sure they are ok pixel-wise, fingers crossed.

Here they are... Knowing my luck they will look awful when they're printed out, I'm not very good at this type of thing and they're not as crisp as I'd like them to be. Ho hum, we'll see!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Jane xx

Pocket Domino - Pastel Colours Theme

I made some new dividers today for my pocket Domino in lavender, this is going to be my daily diary.

The paper is from Basic Grey, What's Up collection. Here is a link to some online stockists:

http://www.basicgrey.com/scrapbook/dealers/online

The picture above gives you a better idea of the colour scheme, and below is my ideas board. Not only was my pastel colour scheme inspired by the paper collection, but also by the lovely pages Jennfer Reyes has done in her Songbird. Visit her blog at http://mypurpleylife.blogspot.com =)

Here are my new dividers:

 

Cover page

 

 

Tabs, labelled with small rub-on letters (mine are from WHSmiths)

 

 

Diary tab

 

 

Today marker - front

 

 

Today marker - back

 

 

Money tab

 

 

Food tab

 

 

Notes tab

 

 

 

 

 

The Hunt for Mini Notebooks

I had a plan. Not a dream, a plan to put into action for my new Pennybridge (she's a GORGEOUS little bundle of purple-y joy!). However after putting that plan into action today... it failed.

I thought... why go out and buy something when I can make my own little notebooks? Why spend more money on something when I can be creative and make do with the materials I have? So I twoddled off to the office to create... a mess. And then I gave up. I was trying to make little notebooks so I can keep my financial spending record, general notes and a little journal in the pockets of my Pennybridge but alas, my stapler is crap, my paper measuring is atrocious, and my patience is lacking.

So... I'm going to share with you, while I'm on the hunt for mini notebooks, what I find, to help any of you who may be considering making your own and make a right botch job of it like I did! Seriously it's that bad that I'm not even going to post pictures. Ok, maybe just a few.

Here she is, in all her purple-y glory. The non-leather is just beautiful. She's lovely to hold, really well made, no issue with rings, doesn't lay flat but that doesn't really bother me. Also a picture of the inside, you can see all the pockets on the left (that part opens out like a wallet and there's a little zip compartment in there.) Even the pen loop is purple!
























And here is my attempt at a mini notebook. Measurements = not.even.close.

 

I did get one achievement out of it though, a pretty cover page =)

 

 



For any of you who didn't see my mood board (oooh get you) on the Philofaxy Facebook page, here it is again. This is the look I'm going for, kind of gothic, victorian-esque, black, purple and teal. So much prettiness!

 

I decided to do a mood board because, after my epic fail, I felt a bit "where do I go from here?" It's a really good visual way to explain to yourself what you're doing =)

 

 

Anyway... on with the search! So what exactly am I looking for? Probably a set of 3 plain notebooks which I can decorate, which aren't too expensive so I can replace them when they are full up... and they have to be maximum size 12cm x 8cm (the same size as pocket paper). Also has to be from a UK website.

First stop... MOLESKINE. Fairly hopeful seeing as I'd seen these on the Paperchase website. Pocket size, too big. Volant books however, only 6.5cm x 10cm, perfect size, not too thick, range of colours, and £5.50 for 2 notebooks. £4.50 delivery. WHAT?! Are you kidding me? That's a joke. Fair enough if I was ordering a large item, or several things then I might have considered it but that's almost as much as the item itself, which would fit in a jiffy bag.

Stop 2... PAPERCHASE. All spiral-bound, which I would worry about it indenting the cover or my front page. I did find this little guy on the left, 11.6cm x 8.9cm. Unfortunately the extra 9mm on the width might get in the way of the rings when put into one of the pockets on the left inside cover. Also saw this Kraft A7 notebook, at 10cm x 7.5cm. Good size, but £2.50 each so if I wanted 3 that'd be £7.50. Definitely an option, but I'm going to carry on looking.

 

 

 

Stop 3... PRETTYDANDY.CO.UK. Never been on this site before, but these caught my eye...  Hideous covers in my opinion but that can easily be solved. Only £4.95 for a set of 4, but no size given on the website!

 



Stop 4... TEMPTATIONGIFTS.CO.UK. Again, never been on this site, but found this (wasn't even what I was looking for). Size... 24cm x 17cm. WAY too big. I really want this. Can someone shrink it for me?

 

So now I'm getting really fed up. Too big, too expensive... now you can see why I tried to make my own. Sod it, I'm going to eat my pizza.

 



 

Travel-o-fax

Today I've spent some time making a Travel-o-Fax as we're going on holiday to Rhodes (Greek island) in October for my birthday.

Picture heavy post!

Pocket Domino in Lavender, was not in use and I felt bad for her so here she is, filled with loveliness!

 

 

First tab- info. Very important, a bit vague, but this is where personal details and SOS is kept.
Note: all of the pictures on the dividers are from Pinterest.

 

 

Using Ray Blake's template again for my tabs, I can't get over how easy these are to make.

 

 

First page in the Info section, with a cute quote "May your travels lead you to some amazing places." There's a little picture of a vintage style balloon above it.

 

 

SOS page... very important!

 

 

 

 

Second tab, Hotel. All our hotel details in here. By the way, all the pictures have a vintage-y duck-egg and coral-y pink colour scheme to them. Also a map of where the hotel is.

 

Travel flight information.

 

 

Things to see and do in Rhodes... obviously if we book to go somewhere else another time I can make new inserts for all the sections and archive the old ones/use them in a travel scrapbook.

 

 

I typed up some information about the history of the island, local attractions, etc. I wanted my pocket travel-o-fax to be a combination of a travel planner and a guide. I didn't want to use the Travel Pack from Filofax as making my own inserts would be cheaper and more tailored to where I am going.

 

 

Journal section... I always love to scrapbook my travels when I return, so to make sure I don't forget anything I've included some journal pages.

 

 

Local info... restaurants, bars, museums, galleries, etc.

 

 

Planning - checklist for packing, plan of what to do on each day of the week when on holiday.

 

 

And finally, notes. I love this picture on the divider.

 

 

Hope I've nudged your wanderlust!

 

xXx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Book of Shadows - sneaky peek!

Here are some pictures of the dividers I made for my Book of Shadows using art by Jessica Galbreth. Her work is beautiful, take a look if you haven't Googled her already!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Ray Blake by the way for the divider template, really easy to use and very very effective, totally recommend using it!