My A5 Journaling Filofax

Some of you may not know the back story to this one. I've always wanted to write in a journal, but never had the enthusiasm to sit down each night and write about the mess of a day I'd had. I just got fed up with it.

Gail, who blogs at It's My Life, gave me a really good idea. Instead of journaling every night, just write a few notes about how you were feeling, what you did that day, etc. and then journal at the weekend when you have more time to focus on it.

I needed a spreadsheet for this. So I made one.

I set up columns, titled: Day, Date, Listening, Eating, Drinking, Feeling, Wanting, Thinking, Quotes, Liking, Hating and Photo Ref.

I have been asked if I use the Photo Ref column for the 365 Project. I don't, but there's no reason why you couldn't. It's just for reminding myself that I've got a picture for that day, so when I get round to ordering prints I can reference the photo on my computer and know which day it was for.

The other columns are fairly self-explanatory. In the Listening column I've put songs I heard that day that made me think, or that I could relate to in that moment. It's a nice touch to add, especially when you're a bit of a music junkie. I've also recorded what we ate for dinner and my favourite drink of the day, good food is a great photo opportunity. I want to add the little things in life to my journal.

It's only Saturday afternoon, but I was eager to get set up. I'm using my A5 Black Domino Filofax which I've had for a few months now. I was going to use the Identity as I thought the Domino's rings would be too big, but when I went to look at them both I realised they're pretty much the same size. I prefer the Domino as a journal - it's what I decorated it for, it looks like a book of Victorian secrets!

 

The only issue I have with using a Filofax with large rings for a journal, is I like to stuff my Filofaxes until they have no room to breathe, and my journal was only about 25% full. I have no idea what else to put in there. Embellishments and journaling cards will add thickness to her but not enough.

 

So, let's open her up. This is my first week's journaling:

 

 

 

Close-up of the bottom left page, with Newton Faulkner lyrics:

 

 

Front of the journaling card:

 

 

I hope I have inspired you to shake the dust off from one of your unused A5 Filofaxes, make it beautiful, and start writing. Not for anyone else, not to make it look functional, but just go crazy and let it be your journal, about your life.

 

 

 

My Week 26

Ah, week 26. Haven't really done anything interesting this week, except for my little shopping trip last night to Matalan, Ikea and Primark. I got some great goodies, actually! I don't often go clothes shopping so it was really nice to find some bits that I really liked.

I got some really cute cherry socks:

 

 

And some cute sticky notes with cupcakes on them, they were reduced to £1.00!

 

 

 

A little more about my page design this week... the panda sticky notes were from Artbox, and the washi tape was on a RAK (random act of kindness) gift I received from Libby. That's the great thing about washi tape, you can just peel it up and re-use it!

 

My colour scheme was Japanese inspired this week and I wanted to add a bit more interest to my page, so I drew a kokeshi doll and coloured her in the same colours that I used for my weekly pages. I named her Kimi. She's been a friendly little face this week.

 

 





 



My Week 25

Here is my week 25, I really like how this turned out. It's kind of Japanese (Imy!) inspired, cute, colourful. I'd been dying to use the clouds washi tape since I bought it, and I think it's really lovely. I ordered it from eBay.

You can see that my to-do list on the far right is huge this week; I'm trying to organise my house at the moment, get rid of things we don't need, get everything into order and try and keep it that way. I spent an hour cleaning the grout in our shower last weekend, and this week planned to sort, tidy and declutter.

However, after the overtime I did on Tuesday night, I looked like this...

 

 

I spent the rest of the week knackered and couldn't bring myself to sort, tidy or declutter anything else. Still, I guess there is always next week...



My Week 24

So, here is my week no. 24! Really enjoying using different colour schemes each week and experimenting with colours and washi tape.

I have used a black and yellow theme this week (I think I was trying to summon the sunshine), unfortunately it didn't work =(

I used washi tape that I received in my secret swap package last week, I really like the stripes. I used clear stickers over the top to add some black and boldness, and to inspire me this week. The stars and hearts were just black outlines but I used a yellow Sharpie pen to colour them in, again to add some more colour to my page. I used my usual colour highlighting system and added a few cute animal stickers that went with the colour scheme.

So what have I been up to this week? Myself and my boyfriend had three days off at the beginning of the week, it was nice to relax, we didn't do anything in particular though.

On Tuesday The Civil Wars, one of my favourite bands, had a big announcement, they released a new single and their new album will be out on 6th August. I write these things down because I think at the time, I'll have to buy that, then when the time actually comes around I've forgotten all about it! Here's one of their videos.

 



It was my Dad's birthday on Friday as well as being Father's Day on Sunday, unfortunately he lives in Wales and me and my boyfriend couldn't change our work to visit him. I sent his presents with my sister - I had to drive to hers on Thursday night after work.

That's about all I've done apart from today I scrubbed the grout in our shower with a toothbrush and bleach, it looks so much better. We live in a hard water area, so we get a lot of limescale. I've now strained a muscle in my hand!!

We're going to my boyfriend's brother's for dinner tonight, get to see their new pad, exciting!

My Current Setup

My setup has changed quite a lot in the last few weeks. My Filofax journey started when I bought a personal Finsbury in raspberry which I used for about a year, then she had to be returned to Filofax because the colour was rubbing off.

I wanted a Filofax the same colour as the Finsbury (Filofax sent me an aqua chameleon which I really didn't bond with at all, it was very dull and I couldn't love it). I found the Domino personal in grape on eBay and used it for a while until I decided it was too bulky.

After testing several variations of using a pocket (day per page, week to view, Moleskine hacks), I had had enough, I wanted my personal Domino back. Luckily I had held on to her and one day last week I took the plunge and filled her up again. Here she is!

 

 

A Review of the Personal Domino


I really like the personal Domino. After switching to various different Filofax this is the one I have stuck to. Maybe it's because I know I'll never be able to afford an Osterley or a Malden, maybe it's just because I really love the colour and the simplicity of the design. It's not fussy, it's well made and it hasn't let me down yet in terms of quality or manufacturing issues. The elastic is still tight and how it should be, although from experience I do prefer a snap closure. I really like the stitching detail round the edges as well, gives it a nice look without being too fussy.

So, my current set up consists of 6 sections and 13 sub-sections. I know, that's a lot of sections, but there is method in my madness.

 

This is my cover page which I used paper from Pink Paislee's Jubilee collection, I had this in my stash and loved the colours. I also made a little card holder for one of my loyalty cards which is smaller than a business card, to stop it from shifting too far into the card slots on the left. The scrapbook paper is inside a plastic pocket to keep it from getting dog-eared, and I can stick notes onto it if I need to remember things.

 

 

Back of the cover page, nice cheerful pink! Then we go to my first tab. I just used my 1-6 tabs that I had in my stash, I may decorate these at a later date but thought I'd keep it simple for now and see how I get on. I may get the stamps from the same range as the Jubilee paper on my front cover, and stamp onto the dividers.

 

My first section is Personal. In here I just have my personal details page and a world map. I may add more in the future but I just wanted this information separate to everything else for the time being.

 

 

Section 2 is my Me section. This is where I have my 13 sub-sections, labelled: Wishlist, WWW, Contacts, Finance, Media, Blog, Food, Home, Travel/Adventures, Fitness, Special Dates, Work and Lists. I used a set of A-Z tabs and used Masking Stickers to cover the letters up on the tabs.  I have a legend on the back of the main divider for this section showing which colour corresponds to which sub-section, and then within each sub-section I have colour-co-ordinated paper and write the headings in the corresponding colours to that section.

 

 

 

Section 3 is my year to view page, I have circled the dates when I am off medication:

 

 

Section 4 is my month to view pages, again I've used a colour coding system to mark on the monthly calendars. Coding is as follows: Reminders (e.g renew car tax), my boyfriend's pay day, my pay day, my boyfriend's annual leave, my annual leave, bills due, birthdays and events.

 

 

Here is this month's month to view:

 

 

Section 5 is my weekly planner, all of the calendar inserts are from Organised Mum. I know I have mentioned this before but I urge you to try these inserts, they really are brilliant!

 

 

Section 6 is a general notes section where I can write things down and file them in my sub-sections.

 

I'm really pleased with my current setup, it finally feels like everything is where it should be and I can reference all my information easily. She is heavier than a pocket, I'm not going to lie, but the extra space is more than worth it.

 

 

 

 



 

 

Project Life Using a Filofax

For a few years now I have wanted to do a daily journaling book or smash book, and then I found Project Life. It's an organised system, where you can create a scrapbook for the year, using small journaling cards and adding them into a binder.

 After looking into it, Project Life seemed quite expensive to start up. You need the binder, the plastic sleeves (these are sectioned so you can add different cards into the different sections), the journaling cards, plus things to decorate. One of the most expensive things was the plastic sleeves.

So, while I was shopping for my secret swap stuff, I came across one of these business card holders in Wilkinsons, and it spawned some new ideas in my mind.

"I wonder..." I thought, "could I use the sleeves from the business card holder, put them into a personal Filofax and use this as a Project Life system?" I Googled it, I can't find anyone that has tried this, so I guess for the sake of all scrap-kind I should pilot it. We're already half way through the year though, so maybe that's a project for 2014.

 

My idea was to trim the sleeves down, punch them and put them into a Filofax, I have plenty of scrapbooking paper and card to make my own journaling cards, and on days where I receive birthday cards or business cards I can use those instead. I can add journaling, sparkly bits, keepsakes, it'll be an inventive way to record memories without having to spend too much money on it. Plus, the cards will be small, so it shouldn't seem too daunting.

 

When the year is over I can either bind the sleeves together and make a front cover, or punch the corners of each of the cards and ring them together, like this:

 

With all these creative ideas, and no money or time to execute them, sometimes I feel being creative is more of a curse than a blessing.

 

 

 

My Week 23

My first week using my Organised Mum inserts! I've got on really well with these, I did use them previously before I wanted to downsize to a pocket, but I've realised how much I missed them. This week is a pink theme.

I was off sick from work for three days this week with a nasty flu - as I talk on the phone all day it would have been very difficult for me to be able to do my job, and I was very lethargic and generally felt rubbish. I'm still suffering with it now, but hopefully I will get better soon, the doctor did say it could last just over a week.

I did some shopping for my secret swap this week, it's the first swap I have taken part in and I really enjoyed finding little stationery things to send to my swappee. However, I won't participate every month, as I don't have a lot of expendible income and just the presents have set me back quite a lot, not considering how much it's going to cost to post it! It'll be nice to do every few months, I think.

Big news this week... went to see Bon Jovi in Birmingham with my big sister! I don't spend a lot of time with my big sister, now we're both grown up we just carry on with separate lives, so it was really nice to spend a day with her seeing a band that we grew up with and both love. (Their set was amazing... a giant classic car!)

 

 

I was very sceptical about the fact that their lead guitarist Richie Sambora wasn't touring with the band "for personal reasons", and wondered who they would be touring with instead. His name is Phil Xenidis, and although he's not Richie, he definitely didn't make me miss Richie. (He's got lovely hair as well, very similar to my boyfriend's hair! I would kill for locks like that...)

 

 

 

 

I also created a front cover for my Filofax this week using Pink Paislee's Jubilee paper. I wanted to add a bit of colour as I first open the binder, and I think this does the job!

 

 

 

 

No other plans this year for going to rock concerts, although my Dad mentioned going to see Black Sabbath in December... in fact I don't really have any other plans at all for the rest of the year :/ rubbish!

 

How has your week been?







June Secret Swap

This month I decided to participate in a secret swap with other members of the Philofaxy community. I received my parcel this morning and am so happy with everything! Due to the return address on the parcel I can thank my swap sender directly, so...

Thank you so much, Anne-Marie Hawthorne from Oklahoma!!

I can tell Anne-Marie took into consideration what I liked and disliked, she has sent me some amazing gifts, so I thought I would share with you what I received today!

 



I thought I'd go through all the items I received as it might be hard to see in the picture above, I received so many goodies!! I will save the best til last...

 

 

Ed Hardy pen: I love Ed Hardy artwork, and tattoo art, excellent choice! And it's not just any pen, it's a multi pen :)

Sticky Notes: Some really nice, versatile fluorescent coloured sticky tabs and some thumbs up sticky notes, really like these!

Purple Ink Pad: I LOVE purple! I don't actually have a purple ink pad and have been meaning to get one, especially as I stamp on my Filofax pages, it's such a beautiful shade of purple as well, my favourite!

Smash Pads: Really wanted to give these a try, and they are really good quality and fun, will use them for lists on my pages.

 

 

Ink Stamps: I really like Inkadinkado rubber stamps, the little moustache is so cute!! I also do lots of journaling and stuff and these stamps will be really good for that. Also got some cute little Studio G stamps!
Smash Tabs: Again, wanted to try these out when I first saw them but didn't get round to it, love the fact that there is a 'to bake' one!! Lovely colours and again great quality.
Little Notebook: This is a little bright green/yellow notebook from Hobby Lobby, I haven't opened it yet but I think I will slip it inside my personal domino for little thoughts, maybe decorate the cover!
Washi Tapes: YAY, more washi!!! Striped purple and striped yellow washi tapes in a set (was really happy I got a yellow one, until recently I hated  yellow but the other day started decorating my next week's page with yellow and wished I had some washi tape for it... now I do! Also some cute glitter sticker tape (not washi tape, but every bit as amazing!!!)

Stickers: I keep using the same words in this post to describe all the amazingness that I received... but these stickers are really cute. Some are shiny black and silver skulls, speech bubbles and words, hearts and stars in a really arty font :)
Smash Stamp: Really wanted one of these too! Can't wait to use it on my diary pages, I think it will look really cool!!

NOW, HERE IS THE MOST AMAZING THING ABOUT ANNE-MARIE AND MY SWAP. THE RAVEN INK STAMP - THIS IS MY FAVOURITE POEM OF ALL TIME - THE RAVEN BY EDGAR ALLEN POE. EVEN BOYFRIEND WAS SUPER IMPRESSED. <3

Thank you again to Anne-Marie for all these beautiful gifts, you did so well buying for someone who is actually quite fussy! I cannot wait to send out my parcel and share the happiness!!

Indecisive yet again... Up-Sizing

After receiving my Domino pocket baroque, adding my Moleskine papers, creating my colour coded subsections... I really missed my grape Domino in personal. I missed the size, I missed using my Organised Mum inserts (the quality of these inserts is just brilliant).

So, I've swapped over. I'm going to set up my pocket domino baroque as a journal to write my thoughts in, not necessarily every day, but whenever I feel the need to vent. And my grape domino personal will be the hub for all my daily appointments, etc.

In case you haven't seen the Organised Mum inserts, here they are. Their site is down at the moment as they are adding new products (hopefully some new inserts!!) But they have a diary refill which is only £7.50, week to view.

 

 

The days of the week are separated into five columns, but you can write through the columns if, for example, you don't have five separate things going on all the time, or you don't have three kid's and your partner's schedule to record. A lot of people think this diary is for mums only but it really isn't!

 

 

 

I wanted to check before moving back properly that I'd still have the freedom to decorate the pages as I do in my Moleskine-hacked pocket. I noticed while doing this test page that the paper is white, rather than Moleskine paper which is kind of off-white and recycled looking. The paper quality of these inserts is the best I have found, I tried out the rubber stamp on the bottom right page and no bleedthrough at all.

 

 

So I've now transferred all my appointments for this week into my personal domino and I love the layout, it's so clean and fresh but pretty as well with the addition of washi tapes and stickers. This was a very quick decoration as I'm poorly at the moment, but it bodes well for future pages.

On the far right there is a list of things to do, which I added stars next to. I then assigned the tasks throughout the week (with stars next to them) so I can see where I need to get things done. Same as before, I've used a coloured pen to write in my important appointments, like the doctors, meetings at work, and Bon Jovi on Sunday :D

 

So what have I done with my colour coding section?

 

 

 

Added it into my personal, of course :) I had some A-Z dividers lying around, and simply covered the tabs with the circle stickers. I also created an index so I can tell which tabs are for which things. This looks much nicer than my previous attempt, I think.

 

 

 

I know what you're thinking, how long will this last? Well, with the thought that this will cost much less to replace each year than the 3 (yes, 3) Moleskine notebooks I used to create my pocket diary, I'm thinking she's a keeper :)

 

Have you ever gone round in circles only to find yourself back where you started?

 



 

 

 



 

 



 

My Week #22

This is my week 22 shown above, my page has a kind of hippie/bohemian look. I added the Tinkerbell stickers for a bit of fun and thought they went well with the colour scheme. The lyrics in the bubble writing are from Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynrd, I love these lyrics (note the cute little VW camper van sticker, love these, they were from Paperchase).

Not a lot has happened this week, after last weekend being very busy and being away we've just chilled out. Although this weekend I have been very poorly, started with a sore throat on Friday and I struggled through the day at work, spending the rest of the weekend in bed.

I'm still suffering now, this is the first time I've been ill in eight months which means my immune system must be getting better, but now I just want this cold/cough to sod off! No fun at all. Every time I eat anything that isn't soft (in particular, toast, anything with breadcrumbs) I have a massive coughing fit. At least I got jelly and ice cream for pud yesterday though <3

 

My boyfriend bought me these beautiful flowers as a get well soon present, they are roses and irises, beautiful cheerful colours. I've got them on the table next to me, the irises are just starting to poke their purple heads out from their leafy beds.

 

That's all from me, I'm going back to my pit to rest! xx