101 Progress Check - February 24th 2013

Yay!!!

Les Mills Combat is going well - I am doing my workouts every morning before work as this works better for me than doing them when I get back home. Today is a rest day - I was planning on swapping with tomorrow and doing Combat 60 this morning, but both boys were up way too early and there is no way I can face it this afternoon/evening.

I'm still going to be extra good though and do X-Stretch from P90X later as I think that'll do my legs the world of good. I did Tummy Tuck from Brazil Butt Lift on my other rest day, and am very pleased with how well I'm doing. So pleased in fact that I joined Ben to do the Bulk Shoulders workout from Body Beast yesterday afternoon (with very light weights of course).

After I've completed Les Mills Combat I think I may do the Body Beast programme (with light weights, I don't want to look like Sagi).

I've started doing some planning for our family weekend away and it's looking like I'll be booking for us to go to Europa Park (nearer than Disneyland Paris, much better value for money, and from reports it seems like it is a better option).

This morning I finally got round to reviewing my 101 list with a view to removing all items that I either don't actually want to do (go skiing etc), things that are really longer-term goals, or items that have no real way to measure them.

Things to be removed:

-    One on one time with boys (half day each a month) - my boys have said they would rather have big
     family days out rather than one on one time, so I'm not going to force them into this.
-    Develop boys independence - this is really a natural ongoing thing, there is no end to this so it is
     something that would never be crossed off the list.
-    Take a two week holiday with no children - after the successful big family holiday that we had last
     Summer, our boys really want to do this again, and as they are both tied into school holiday dates
     then it is pretty much impossible for Ben and I to fit in a two week holiday as well.
-    Eat the five a day for four weeks - I am following the nutrition plans that go with my workout
     programmes instead.
-   Try a Zumba class - what was I thinking, the only thing clapping me would be my butt?
-   Go skiing once - OK, so I live in Switzerland, this doesn't mean I want to go skiing.
-   Learn Spanish basics for holiday - it's looking like Mexico is off the cards (see two week holiday
    with no children above).
-   Go to a festival - not sure what the point is in us spending a small fortune to go to a festival when we
    are really only going for one (maybe two) of the acts, who we will only get to see perform for half
    an hour anyway. I'd rather wait until they are touring and spend the money going to see them play
    for longer
-   Fix up kitchen (UK) - not sure if we're planning on doing this before the end of the 1001 days, we
    may end up with a much bigger project further down the line so it makes sense to wait.
-   Learn Swiss German to an undecided level - I think I'll be better off trying to consolidate my High
    German knowledge, although I am struggling to find a level to aim for. Maybe I should just aim to
    be confident in general day-to-day conversation and vocabulary and phrases for emergencies.
-   Happiness binder - I have this set up and use it sporadically for things, but don't feel happy that I
    have completed anything by doing this.
-   Scrapbooking (physical or digital). Another task with no definite measures, bye...
-   Go to Mexico
-   Introduce one new Flylady habit per month - this is so not working for me, but I am doing my own
    thing using my Plannerisms planner.
-   Get ripped abs - I'm not totally giving up on this, however, I am not so daft as to think that all the
    excess skin from pregnancies is going to just disappear because my stomach muscles have
    strengthened.

Things to be added:

-   One big family day out every month
-   Knit a scarf
-   Embroider a sampler
-   Write a poem
-   Read five banned books
-   Journal daily for two weeks (minimum of 15 minutes)
-   Drink a cup of Rooibos with honey daily for two weeks
-   Set up a recipe binder
-   Set up an events planner
-   Transfer all data from the Dodo Book of Christmas to the events planner
-   Set up playroom for boys now that they are sharing a bedroom
-   Scrapbook three photos of the boys
-   Write a short story for the boys
-   Keep to a basic household routine using my Plannerisms planner.
-   Complete Les Mills Combat workout programme
-   Donate to charity (sponsoring someone who I would sponsor anyway doesn't count)

There are a couple of other items still under review, but I need to discuss those with other people first, so leaving them as they are for now.

Unfortunately I can't add any links to the post today, as my internet seems to be having a fit about something... oh well :-)

Have a great week,

LJx

They've Arrived...

Oh yes they have :-)

Please excuse photo quality, the flash was being a bit random (or it could just be that I don't actually know how to use the camera properly). 

Ben and the boys arrived back from the UK late on Friday night and it was great to have them back home. Obviously once the boys were in bed the first thing I wanted to do was get my new Filofaxes that Ben had brought back with him - not in his hand luggage as instructed, but in his suitcase. I am so thankful that his suitcase didn't get lost... there could have been trouble ;o) I was told that, as the boys weren't allowed to get their new things out to show me before they went to bed, I wasn't allowed to have my new things until the morning either. What am I, 5? Clearly that idea wasn't going to pass muster and I dived straight into the suitcase.

There were two lovely binders expected, and first up (I was saving the best until last) was the A5 zipped Lyndhurst (my first proper black Filofax) which was my accidental purchase from eBay, as it unfortunately turned out that the person I bought it for needed an A4 (I'm not sure who it was unfortunate for though, as I'm very happy to receive it into my collection). 

A few minor marks because it was second hand, but still in
very good condition

The Lyndhurst came with a few inserts - it had the 1-6 and A-Z dividers in blue and grey, a black today marker, credit card insert and a Filofax notepad.

Lies pretty much flat straightaway :-)

Lovely rings - no issues

Then came my first Franklin Covey binder - the beautiful Ava which I bought from Imy over at Imysworld, if you haven't checked out her blog before you should (is there anyone who hasn't, really?) here is the post which she did about Ava comparing her to the Osterley from Filofax.

The first thing that struck me upon seeing Ava was what a gorgeous shade of blue she is (she really is). The leather has a nice soft feel, but doesn't feel like it wold scratch easily at all like some of the Filofaxes (you know who you are Mr Ochre Malden, but we still love him, he is one of the few that can carry off the scratched look, it just makes him look even more loved)

Check out the colour!!!

Flattability scoring? 10 out of 10. Could this be the elusive Mary Poppins binder of the planner world - (practically perfect in every way)? Only time will tell, but not just yet as I am happy in my Rockin' Planner at the moment, but think I will give Ava a go later in the year as I may have to treat myself to the FC Her Point of View 2 Pages Per Day inserts for Jul 2013 - Jun 2014. 

Super flat :o)

The eagle eyed of you may have spotted the stickers hiding in the ID slot - as well as sending me the fabulous Ava, Imy included a whole stack of other bits and pieces for me, I wasn't expecting all this extra stuff and so went to bed much later than intended as I was too busy checking out all my awesome new stuff :-)

Cute stickers hiding

A few sheets of Paperchase stickers (ones they don't do anymore),
and a sheet of owl index tabs

Loads more cute stickers - now I have stickers for
Oz I may have to plan a holiday there :-)

As well as all these stickers, Imy also included Daytimer hotlist pads (I have seen these on other blogs and always really wanted to get some, and now I have two pads of them, they are great), cute paperclips (I have some similar in plain colours and love them), special Post-It notes (including super sticky arrow ones where the sticky bit runs down the middle, I can't wait to start using these), cute stripy green pens (blue ink), which are very fine and look lovely with many of my fills, and last, but by no means least, three (yes, three!!!) Bic 2 colour pens. Now anyone who knows me, knows how much I love my Bic 4 colour pens (and Bic biros generally), both standard and fashion colours (come on, 8 colours in 2 pens, what's not to love). The Bic 2 colour pen has two of the best colours from the fashion colours (pink and turquoise), and being that bit slimmer fits into so many more of the Filofax pen loops - yay!!!

I think I said everything about these already but "Yay!!!"

I am a very, very happy girl now (OK, at my age "girl" may be pushing it a bit, but I'm sure my mum still thinks of me as her little girl, so I can still use that word).

LJx

101 Progress Check - February 17th 2013

Hello :o)

I have done very little towards my 101 this week.

I still haven't reviewed the list to see what's outstanding and what things I no longer actually want to achieve.

However, the one thing I have done is start the Les Mills Combat programme through Beachbody, and despite the fact that it's tougher than it looks I am a full seven days into the sixty day programme and am feeling very pleased with myself.

I'm making no promises to myself about what I'm going to do towards my 101 things this week as I am concentrating on the fitness first and anything else is a bonus.

Have a great week,

LJx

101 Progress Check - February 10th 2013

Woohoo - it's Sunday again, and I have made some progress (not stacks, don't get too excited).

Last Sunday I did actually get round to watch the musical film "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" which I loved. I am sure there are many people out there who wouldn't really go for this, but I loved it :-)

This week I received an email saying that the old gas boiler has been replaced at my house and all the gas stuff has been signed off, so now I have both the gas and electrics signed off - and crossed off the list - result.

My boys have been away and are due home this coming Friday, so Ben and I have had some time to ourselves, and although it would have been the ideal opportunity to go out for dinner or something for our date night, we decided to stay home with a couple of drinks and watch The Expendables. It may not be everyone's cup of tea for a date, but it suits us just fine. It was lovely to watch what we want and have a little drink, without listening out for the boys, or thinking that it is too late to put it on as we have to get up early in the morning - perfect!!! Tonight we watched The Expendables 2, but as we watched that straight after the rugby at about 6pm I won't class that as a date night :o)

I have finally got myself ready to start attacking the abs again. Today I watched Les Mills Combat basics in preparation for beginning the programme tomorrow. 

This week I have also started writing a gratitude journal to go in my happiness binder, but need to get into the habit of doing it everyday. Once I have got this up and running properly I will take some pictures.

Have a great week,

LJx    

Paper Planners Still Rock!!!

Oh yes - indeed they do :o)

Check out this delight - he is definitely the bad boy in my collection...

Not only does he look like a bad boy, he has caused me to stray from the Filofax path... I have no idea of his origins, but am happy to have him in my company.

He is actually a plain, simple, black folder with his own fabulous leather jacket slip cover (complete with a pocket in the front). Someone has put a lot of work into the detail of this cover, with all the zips, chains, tiger T-shirt, buttons, star studs and a belt. The finishing on the cover is beautiful, and I find it hard to believe that someone would make it and not keep it, or have it given to them and not look after it.

plain black heavy duty card type folder

Slip cover jacket

Opened out from the front

 Looking inside the folder in more detail it is clear that this is quite an old piece (month on 2 page diary inserts Dec 1990 - Jun 1992) , and has not had heavy usage, and there are personal details of the person who used it. Back in it's youth it was owned and used by Laura who attended Huish Episcopi school (having googled this, it is in Somerset), and who's birthday is January 11th.

It also came with dividers (Calendar Planner, Today, Finance, Project, Goals, Notes, C-Z - some with addresses on), card holders, unusual plastic inserts containing post it style notes and some stickers. The front page of the inserts identifies them as being from Filopac (I've tried googling them and have had no joy) and this is The Executive Edition.

Below are some pictures of the inserts, I haven't seen any of these before...

unusual plastic folders

Same type, but opening the other way

Filopac Executive Edition

Tabs

Month on Two Pages

Things to Do for the week

Today - with space for times, appointments and
priorities

Finance sheets

Project pages

Goals

Don't forget sheets 

Adress tabs and extra pages

Ring mechanism embossed with "ensons"

A bit blurred I'm afraid. Having seen small gaps in the
top set if rings, when I took all the inserts out to take
a photo of the mechanism, the gaps are almost gone.

There is also a receipts envelope which I forgot to photograph.

I am now in a total quandary as to what to do with this binder. I had planned to move in as soon as it arrived, but I now feel that I'm spoiling somebody's history by doing this. In a way I would love to use these inserts, but in another way I want to just preserve this whole thing as it is...

I think I may need help...

LJx

A Perfect Find...?

This is a totally unexpected post, I have been asked for Filofax advice from a friends boyfriend via Facebook. 


Here is the message that appeared on my wall a couple of days ago... 

"xxx mentioned getting a filofax and I said luckily I know someone who loves them :) he would like your advice as he wants one to carry all his dissertation stuff in, preferably waterproof and with a zip"

My plan was to find out more about what he wants (size etc) and then to ask for more advice from the Filofax for Philofaxy Fans group on Facebook, or in the Free For All Friday regular post on Philofaxy. Especially as there are many people in the groups who use their filos for planning university work and therefore could give much better advice than me. 

"I basically just want something (if it isn't zipped then it's not an issue) that stores my journals, notes, diary and a few pens for uni. Sometimes better than a bag, just needs to be able to fit A4 paper in etc, easy to carry around, if it isn't leather no worries." 

Still not sure if he really wants an A4 or if A5 would be OK, but I can make a start to check for advice... But first - just a little look on eBay... and what was the first item on the when I did a search for Filofax A5? Only an A5 Lyndhurst zipped, with 1 hr 16 mins left on it, at only £23.50 bid so far... obviously it was a sign, so I bid for it there and then, and won it for £25.00 - bargain!!!

So was it the perfect find? That remains to be seen, but if it's not what he wants then I will be more than happy to have it sent to myself instead, and I am quite happy to look at other options for him (with advice from the group).

LJx

(Not sure what's happened to my standard text settings, hopefully they will return to normal for my next post...)

New Purchases/Presents In Brief...

OK - it says in brief, but what it actually means is that I just don't have time to do lots of separate posts, and I'm lazy. As some of the items get used more I will post about what I have done with them  :-)

As you may know, I put myself on a no shopping stint for 12 weeks, did I save money? Probably not, because since then I have probably bought all the stuff I would have bought in the course of that 12 weeks anyway - yay!!!

These are the lovely things that were waiting for me when I got to Weymouth:

 A lovely personal Malden in Ochre from the fabulous Charlotte, who included some filofax stickers (which are great), and some diddy post-it style page markers (which are always so handy when you're trying to actually be organised). I now have almost a full Ochre Malden set - I'm only missing the mini, and I don't think I want one of those, they don't appear to have enough pockets...

Filofax and inserts

The other thing that I got with these which I've never had before (or even considered) is the 2DPP diary. I think I may have to start doing a one line gratitude journal and then I can pretty each day up with stickers, doodles and washi tape. I think this would be perfect for in my happiness binder :-)

Opened up

 My next package was my beautiful teal Plannerisms planner, I haven't put in loads of photos, but if you haven't seen the insides of these before check out this link to the Plannerisms blog of Laurie who designed them - they are amazing.

Love the colour, so excited to get started

I was so pleased to get this and was going to start using it the first night, until someone (thanks Dave) thought they should tell me that I shouldn't write in here with a normal BIC biro, it needed a special pen, not just a black biro... so much for starting my organisation and new set up immediately.

Next came the cute washi tape that I spied over on Alice's blog (The Wonderful Life of Alice), I'd mentioned that it was I thought it was great, and as she didn't want it anymore she sent it to me. How sweet is this personal notepaper that Alice uses - I want!!!

Ooh!!!

But not only did Alice send the washi tape, she also included a bag with loads of bits and pieces for me (and my boys).  There is a picture of a lot of the stuff that arrived below, but there was even more than this. In the evening of the day that I received this I met a friends niece who was just fabulous and she loves stickers too (and yes, she is an adult too - see, it's not just me), as she was so nice and loves stickers sooooo much I did her a little pile of various stickers out of the ones Alice had sent me. I got a message the next day (I left them for her, so she didn't get them until the morning) saying that she was very pleased with them. I am glad to have been able to share my gifts from Alice with someone else who really appreciates them too.

Felt stickers, owl stickers, butterflies and bugs, metallic
tape, stickers with little bits inside, magnetic bookmarks,
hearts & stars for tracking, cupcakes, hearts, robot skulls,
cute girls, animals and bling - so many things

Then came the pens - a pack of 20 Staedtler Triplus Fineliners, and check out the packet these come in, that is amazing. I happened to mention that I like my pens to stay in the correct order in the holder, and then got paranoid realised that if I left them in the meeting room without me then they would very quickly be rearranged by the mean boys, therefore every time I left the room (regardless of what for) my new pens had to come with me.

A veritable rainbow

 On my last day in Weymouth my final package arrived - 6 new washi tapes from eBay, I only have one problem now...

I need some more tea-lights to use them on - ha ha ha!!!

Bag of wash-tape decorated vanilla tea-lights

After work on Friday I was dropped at Staples in Bournemouth, as I wanted to get some BIC medium crystal biros (???) and I was desperate to check out the ARC system that I have read so much about. I really liked the paper (nice quality, reasonably priced) and so cam out of there with the system, spare paper and a pack of 3 hotlist type pads - result!!!

Saturday in Bournemouth... where to go?...

Paperchase of course!!! Unfortunately (or fortunately maybe) the Paperchase concession in Bournemouth is only small so I didn't buy a huge stack of things, but managed to pick up a few good bargains.

E-Book case, writing set, stickers and a couple of Santa packs

I also went into TK Maxx (had to be done) and although they had some lovely notepads there, they didn't have anything that I really wanted desperately (or at least nothing that I would have actually been able to get home anyway). However, one thing they did have which I hadn't expected were a few packs of the standard block colours of scrapbooking paper from American Crafts. If I'd had any chance of those fitting in my case I would definitely have got some.

And then on Friday this week while I was working from home as I was too poorly to be allowed out of the house, this arrived from Maaike of the wonderful blog My Filo World.  Now this is the only one with proper unveiling photos as I didn't have a camera with me for any of the others, so lets see...

Lovely wrapping - how sweet!!!

With a little note

And here it is.. the gorgeous, green Windsor

So sweet with this little floral pen

Inside there was also a special today style marker, Month on 2 page tabbed dividers, and some funky paperclips (heart, star and a particularly cool circular one).

Thank you to all of you who designed, sold, or gave me any of these lovely things - thank you, thank you, thank you :-)

LJx

101 List Progress Check - February 3rd 2013

Hi All,

I have been an utter failure over the last two weeks, being away and now having a skanky cold which has fuzzed up my little brain and taken away all the energy I have.

I haven't reviewed and updated my whole list as I promised myself I would, and have achieved very little.

I did however keep my promise to myself that I would go and watch Les Mis at the cinema while I was in the UK (Hugh Jackman & Anne Hathaway in one film, who could resist). I have never seen  the stage show, but can tell you the film is amazing. However, if you don't like musicals, don't go and see it and then start whining about the fact that there is too much singing in it. I will tell you now, there are very, very, few spoken lines in the whole of this rather long film. I am so looking forward to it coming out on DVD so I can lie in bed and watch it with tears streaming down my face :o)

O loved it so much that when I got home I downloaded the soundtrack to my iPod, which has apparently done nothing to help me sleep as every time I wake up I seem to have songs from the show going through my head on a loop... oh well, I can think of worse things to keep me awake at night...

You will all be pleased to know that since the end of my No Shopping challenge, my spending skills are back on track and I have lots of new goodies to share with you (as soon as I am feeling well enough to stand up long enough to take lots of photos).  :o)

This afternoon I may chill out and watch one of the musicals that I have recorded, now what do I choose.... Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or Calamity Jane?

Have a great week :-)

LJx