Hauls Part 2!!!

Well, you know how it is. You're tired, worn out from a fun weekend and a long day at work, knowing full well that tonight is the night for getting that early night before monthend kicks in tomorrow evening, when what happens? Oh no - I had to get something out of my suitcase and then this lot sort of fell out...

I have to admit - it's amazing how much stuff you can get into such a small space :o)

First up is my bundle of stickers and bits that I bought off Ebay, not all of it is here as some of it has already gone to another home (my friends 17 month old daughter now has a small bundle of card making stuff and stickers), and somewhere in my case I still have three bottles of Fairy Glitter

Not a bad haul, card stuff, stickers and stamps

 Next up I have a couple of Oxford notepads that I was given by Maggi who is now the proud owner of the three filos that I gave away. Having read reviews by people who have used this before I was quite excited when I saw these, and they are so smooth to write on - amazing, and how cute are these page markers?

While I was in the UK I went to Wootton Bassett for the weekend to see friends and watch rugby. I thought that popping into Thornton's would be harmless enough - little did I know that they have stationery and lots of other funky things (thankfully my case was already pretty full so I couldn't buy too much, but that didn't stop me from spotting these little beauties...

More sticky notes, some name confetti with my name actually spelt the right way for me, and a fridge magnet

Next up - Artbox haul. Sticky notes, notepads, labels, writing paper and a postcard. There is an "I Heart Artbox" badge somewhere too, but I guess it's still hiding in the clothes...

Yay!!!

Gorjuss labels, cute sticky notes and a lovely hearts writing set 

Mr Comic A5 notepad - 8 designs of paper

Super Cat in 8 designs!!!

Little Miss Sunshine seems to be trying to get in with the Modes4U package - I can't say I blame her, their stuff is awesome. Looking forward to using her as a page divider as she is a magnetic bookmark so I can move her round without having to take her on and off the rings :o)

What's in the package then Little Miss Sunshine...?

Wow, wow, wow - and can I just say again - wow!!!

I was in a room all by myself when I opened this package, and there was a squeal, and a "Wow" or two and then a silence of total awe as I went through everything :o)

Sentimental Circus again - notepads, writing set, die cut writing set (awed silence), sticky notes and more stickers

Chou-Fleur writing sets and notepads - v cute

Another die cut writing set with cute little houses on, a deco tape, quite a few rolls of washi tape, a triangle rubber and a pencil that is a rubber if that makes sense - I was very impressed!!!

 I haven't had time to play with my new stationery yet, but I did manage to punch some holes in some of my A5 paper from the first haul last week when I went to see Lucy of Modern Musings fame. It took me the best part of half an hour to punch holes in about 30 sheets of paper using Lucy's metal A5 Filofax hole punch - not because there is anything wrong with it, just because I am a bit special. Every time I thought I had the technique sussed I would be totally unable to punch any holes through the next piece I tried...  But I persevered, and tonight I punched a few sheets from Mr Comic and Super Cat to brighten up my filo. At the weekend I think it will be time (in between sorting out and having Christopher's birthday party) to sort my filo out just the way I want it.

My A5 Holborn Zip looking very professional...

Just a few bits of colour to brighten my day - Super Cat paper peeking out from behind the beautiful Paperchase sticky notes from Lucy :o)

My only section with funky A5 paper so far - roll on the weekend

Mr Comic!!!

 Anyway, I really must get back to doing sensible things like loading the dishwasher, trying to get the youngest chap to go to sleep as he was still pottering around and going through to my bed 10 minutes ago... maybe if I leave him a few more minutes he will actually lie down and go to sleep... yeah, and I might give up all my Filofaxes and stationery - ha ha ha!!!

Will post an update once I have re-organised my very professional filo :o)

LJx

Hauls Galore!!!

Woohoo I am so excited!!!

I know I'm supposed to be packing ready for my flight in the morning and don't have time to be blogging, but OMG - stationery hauls galore!!!

DF arrived this evening while I was starting to get my clothes out ready to pack, when what should fall out of his case? Not one, oh no, but two parcels of stuff for me, so obviously my natural reaction is not to pack as fast as possible, but to open it all, take photos and tell as many people as possible - if the worst comes to the worst, as long as I have one set of clean clothes I can always go to Matalan and get some clothes after work on Monday. Before I go any further I would like to apologise for the number of pictures - I got a bit carried away :o)

So first up - scrapbooking papers ready for using to make dividers for my FFs to and possibly for doing some actual scrapbooking - both items on my list of 101 Things to Do in 1001 Days. I ordered these from the Mayflower Creative Crafts shop on eBay and the service was amazing. There was a comment that if you were buying more than one item to ask for postage discount before ordering, which I forgot about until after I'd placed the order and just thought that I was a bit daft but it wasn't a huge amount of money so didn't email them to see if there was any way I could get the discount applied after or add some stickers to the order or something, but they refunded to my PayPal account with no prompting, which was really good of them.

These are the first scrapbooking papers that I have ever actually seen close up and I just can't get over how amazing they are:

Spring Fling - 60 Sheets

Mademoiselle - 24 Sheets

Mariposa - 24 Sheets and Bright Dots - 30 Sheets Yes - that makes a total of 138, oops!!!

Sample of Bright Dots - not very thick, but a nice basic paper

Sample of Mariposa - thicker and absolutely stunning

Sample of Spring Fling - similar to Bright Dots

Mademoiselle - thicker and the patterns have to be my favourite - they are just gorgeous!!!

Parcel number two was from Modes4U and contained the first of my stationery packages from them. Check these out...

Such a pretty bag - with really cute messages on

Love this business card so just had to take a photo...

... of both sides

Sentimental Circus, writing sets, notepad and stickers - I love Sentimental Circus - soooo cute!!!

Various writing sets

A5 notepads - perfect to go straight into the A5 - maybe it won't look as professional as my To Do lists - but these are fab :o)

Perforated pages, same design through the whole book, but it is fabulous and double sided, so I'm happy

Special surprise - the cat notepad comes with a sheet of stickers - wow!!!

Two designs - single sided print, but lots of designs...

Another two designs...

And the final two :o)

Mermaid sticky notes, washi tape and deco tapes

I can't wait to play with this stuff and start using it in my FF - in fact, it is so nice that I am sorely tempted to move away from the one life one filo practice...

Watch this space for another stationery post as I will be collecting my second Modes4U parcel and my first ever Artbox delivery tomorrow - I won't be able to post until after next weekend though as I won't be home and won't have a camera with me, or my MacBook :o(

Right - now I must pack (or maybe play with my stationery a bit...)

Have a good week :o)

LJx

Leaving Home

So, the time has come. Three of my babies are leaving home - they are now packed and ready to go :o(

So let's take one final look at them before they make their journey overseas (obviously I will be accompanying them on their flight - they are too young to be flying alone). Please excuse picture quality, I had to pull these from other group photos as I didn't have time to do new photos before they head off to their new home

First we have the A5 Domino in Ultra-Violet - wonderful thing, and only going because I know that it will be loved and well looked after in it's role as household filo in its new home. I have the personal in UV and the A5 in Violet, so don't feel I need the A5 in UV (in fact. the violet is a stunning colour. This one is going complete with 2011-2012 WO2P Sweden/Denmark style, standard dividers, and some coloured papers, address sheets and a notepad, so should be all the basics for initial setup, although I will point the new owner in the direction of Philofaxy so she can have a look and see what is available of course.

Next up is the pocket Finsbury in Raspberry, I have had it a while now, and although I really like the colour I just can't see me ever using it. I originally got it to use as a wallet, but at the time I thought it was too big (seems a bit stupid saying that as I now have the Pennybridge for that, but it is way more practical), and the zip pocket was just too tight. Unfortunately that doesn't have a diary at all at the moment as I emptied all my binders to do my stock count and then gave away all the pocket diaries as I won't use them (at least not this year), however it does have a random selection of stuff out of my box, so hopefully that will be OK.

Finally, the Cuban Slimline in Ink - I bought it with such good intentions, in fact I ordered two as Sabine (FF convert) at work wanted one - she loves hers and uses it everyday. I tried... for all of twenty minutes (literally), it doesn't have a clasp which I thought would be fine... and the pen loop..., as soon as put a pen or pencil in it, it just bugged the hell out of me. Maybe if the pen loop hadn't been so annoying I'd have been OK with the lack of a clasp, but that pen loop - never gonna happen.

So although I will miss them (especially the Domino, but when they launch new colours of those babies I may have to get more) - they are going to a better place, where they will be loved and cherished, and more importantly, used.

LJx

101 List Progress Check - May 17th 2012

I said I would try to post an update weekly, but I have a busy weekend coming up - home alone with the kids, and then will be off to the UK for the whole of next week so it'll be a while before I post another update.

I watched Papillon last night as the second of my classic films - can I just say, awesome!!! I loved it - having looked at Wikipedia this morning it appears their is some debate as to whether the book it is based on is actually Papillon's memoirs or a novel based partly on his personal experiences, but the film is fabulous and I would recommend it to anyone.

Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen are both outstanding, and the film has quite a lot going on, but doesn't rely on being ridiculously fast paced and special effects, which so many films seem to rely on these days - in some cases to distract you from the fact that the storyline is either; very similar to many other films, or that the storyline itself just isn't that good.

In other news my supplements are still being taken twice a day - must take this mornings one before it becomes afternoon...

Work has finally started on the garden at our house in the UK and the garden is now cleared, tree removed and fence posts put in - it's only taken 10 months since we got the quote for the work to be started, but it's moving quite quickly and should be done pretty soon - with any luck it may get finished while I am in the UK next week. I don't have any photos here as they are on my work laptop, but should have some good ones to add next week.

Ben's dad has been round to the house as well to see what how the shower we currently have there is connected and we won't be getting an electric shower after all, but we can just get a new unit that fits the connections that are already there which will be quicker and easier to fit, so hopefully I'll be able to cross that one off the list soon too.

Off to take my supplements now and take the boys out in the sunshine to stop us all going crazy :o)

LJx

101 List Progress Check - May 12th 2012

Well, it's been a pretty uneventful week on the 101 challenge front, however, I am pleased to report that I finished reading The Shipping News.

It didn't grab me, but that could be due to the unusual use of short sentences throughout the whole book as I felt that it didn't flow for me, or it could just be because I've had a lot of other things going on and therefore maybe wasn't fully engaged. Having said that, I enjoyed the book and would read it again, and would probably find it easier to get into second time around. I have never seen the film, but would definitely like to so I can see how the characters were brought to life for the screen.

I am hoping to watch Papillon or The Sting sometime this weekend as I didn't get the chance to watch a film this week, and then I will be two down on the classics :o)

On the health front I have been disgracefully lacking on the exercise front (having done none since my last update), but I have remembered to take my supplements twice a day and have managed to drink 1.5 litres of water most days, still not often enough to consider that particular challenge started, but I'll be on it soon..

I bit the bullet on Wednesday evening and ordered stationery for my Happiness Binder - probably enough for all the Filofaxes I own to be honest, oops!!! - and did overspend a bit, but I am not going to need to buy any pretty paper for a while. That'll make my fabulously frugal three months a bit easier when it comes round - ha ha ha :o)  I should also be receiving my scrapbooking papers and stickers that I bought off eBay soon, and they will hopefully be just what I need to start on making dividers for my beloved filos.

I have dug out my copy of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Ruben so that I can read through it again and make some notes as I had intended to do last time. I will write down any special quotes I find as well to go on my pretty paper in my Happiness Binder.

Even though I am not getting through the 101 in quite the way I had hoped (I think I was possibly over-estimating the number of hours there are in a day), I am glad I started this challenge as I am doing and seeing things that I probably wouldn't otherwise have got round to.

I will try to be more timely with my updates as I had planned to post weekly and have been pretty remiss so far.

LJx

101 List Progress Check - May 6th 2012

Oops!!! I thought I had posted an update last weekend, but clearly I hadn't, so here is the latest re my 101 challenge...

Last weekend I managed to cross off my challenge to watch 10 new releases, so here is my final list:

• Thor
• Harry Potter (the last one)
• Captain America
• The Green Lantern
• Happy Feet 2
• Puss in Boots
• Contagion
• In Time
• Jane Eyre
• The Help

For the classic films, I have now watched Brief Encounter and I'd been led to believe that it was supposed to be one of the most romantic films of all time, but I just didn't get that. Some married guy tries it on with a married lady, they kind of hook up, but don't, but fall in love and then it's all over and they are sad - the end... maybe I'm heartless, or maybe I was just expecting too much. I thought I'd be in floods of tears, but just didn't identify with the characters.

I have also managed to blog about my set up for my A5 Filofax - the format of the blog wasn't quite as intended (ie write post for Lucy re my A5 work FF) for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I lost my A5 work Filofax shortly after I wrote my list and since then have moved between various set ups so now I am using one A5 Filofax for everything, and as I have my own blog now it made sense to post the details on here instead of sending it to Lucy to post onto hers. You can see my post re my A5 here, and if you would like to see what binder I am currently in (I have moved twice since), you can see this here.

Prizewinner book number two is ow started - The Shipping News by Annie Proulx. I am finding the short sentence structure that she uses a bit unusual/awkward at times, but it seems good so far.

 I started taking my supplements again on Thursday (after forgetting to take any since my last 101 post when I said that I was going to take my ones for that day when I finished posting, and then not doing so).

This weekend I have been browsing at modes4u and artbox, checking out the funky stationery so I can get some for using in my happiness binder to write quotes/jokes on that make me smile. Unfortunately I now have wishlists totalling approximately £200 - I really need to reduce those lists before I end up with a whole stationery shop in my cupboards...

Today I completed the task of making a birthday cake. As I haven't made a cake from scratch in many years it was an interesting experience... Unfortunately you can't get self-raising flour over here so I had to find out what the right amount of baking powder that I needed was as the recipe book doesn't have that info (despite being a general cook book that gives all the basics), and I didn't have any caster sugar... Oh and I didn't have any sandwich tins so had to stick it into one deeper tin, which I'm sure means I should have adjusted the temperature and times, but never mind. It came out a lot better than I was expecting it to, and although I wouldn't go as far as to say it was a total success, it was far from being a failure and actually tasted really good.

OK - it's far from perfect and as I was rubbish with the 'decorative icing' I made it into a face - and no it wasn't for a
4-year-old, it was for a 36-year-old 

On the work front - I have now managed to finish on time on Mondays and get home in time for DF to go to band practice, and haven't had to bring work home with me (excluding monthends, where I have either left later, but still in time for DF to go and with no work to bring home, or have left work on time and brought some work home with me - which was all part of the deal so that is fine).

Until next time...

LJx

Time to Make Space...?

Hmmm... just a short post now.

38 years old, and 38 filofaxes - it has been suggested that I should now only be allowed to by one filofax
a year... and I may agree that I shouldn't have more filofaxes than years.

No, I don't intend to go down to 21 filos just so I can pretend I'm younger, but I have come up with a much better idea.

I can send some of my filos to a new home, where I know they will be loved and used, instead of sitting in a cupboard.

This actually serves 3 purposes:
                   
                      1)       This proves that I am actually able to divest myself of a Filofax without coming out
                                 in a cold sweat;
                      2)       This enables filofaxes that may never be used to fulfil their potential;
                      3)       This makes room for me to be able to buy more filofaxes when I spot incredible
                                 bargains on ones that I really like.

Two things to do:

                     1)         Identify potential leavers      -        done
                     2)         Assign to new owner           -        done

I am quite excited as the person the first one(s) are going to has never had a Filofax before and is really looking forward to getting her first one.

Now... when can I start searching for more...

More 30mm Rings andi Birthday Surprises

Woop woop!!! I was such a happy bunny on Wednesday - I had and unexpected delivery at my work. I'm afraid you can't see packaging or any teasing shots, but I was too excited to wait to open it.

A surprise birthday present from Splucy (or Lucy and her beloved Mr P)... I was so excited I was squeaking in the office, bouncing about on my chair and grinning like a lunatic for most of the day... look what I got!!!  :o)

Hello Kitty 10 colour pen, Maped 4 colour twin-ended pen, double ended highlighters, super cool bulldog clip thingies for everything I could need and fabulous Paperchase sticky notes - so feminine and cute (pretty much the opposite of me) and absolutely fantastic!!!

Thursday on the other hand was a pretty tough day, until I got home from work to find a delivery note from the Post in my letter box for this beauty...

A5 Holbourn Zip - fully loaded and ready to go, but still not as fat as the Malden

Again, no photos of the unveiling, I was far too busy moving all the contents from my Malden and digging out a few extra inserts to go into it...

It's going to be pretty much all pictures from here on :o)

Loving the fact that you can just stick stuff in it without thinking it may fall out - zip, zip, zip!!!

Pride of place for my new Paperchase stickers, and iPod looks very happy in his new home - he may even get used now as he will be with me instead of on a shelf...

My current favourite daily set up - WO2P with To Do list 

30mm rings and black dividers from Sweden finally in use

Back pockets with lots of space

The only thing that had me concerned at first was that the pockets weren't quite as I was expecting, but I think this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

When I decide what sections I want to have I will decorate my dividers and take some more photos :o)

LJx