My Space - The Perfect Room...?

Well, once I set up my Filofax display case and stand I had to sort out the set up for the rest of my room - so what better place to start than IKEA?

I love IKEA (which is a good thing really, as since we moved to Switzerland that is where almost all our furniture has come from). The other great thing about IKEA is the fact that they have a supervised play area for children up to the age of 8, so we can drop the boys off, grab a cake/coffee and then get the stuff we need before picking up the boys again. We get to do what we need to without children who really don't want to be there, and they get to go and play - now that's what I call a win-win!!!

Off we went to IKEA to find a desk and storage for my room, I already had an idea what I wanted to get, I just wasn't sure how big they'd be. I already had a standard desk, but wanted something that was a bit deeper, preferable without a back so I could easily us it for crafty stuff as well as using it as a working area.

  

Poor DF had a lot to get done after we got home, including going back out to get the shopping, and was then going to put my stuff together after the boys had gone to bed. Being the instant gratification kinda girl that I am I couldn't actually make myself wait until then, so while he was out shopping I got to work. Unfortunately, although I do know what a hammer looks like, I have no idea where the toolbox is kept, so I was trying to put all the dowels into the shelving unit by hand (and a rolled up towel so my hand wouldn't hurt when it came to the ones where I had to hit them to get them to go in). By the second shelf I realised that I really did need a hammer (my hands were almost dead, and I just don't have the kind of muscle power required to just push the things together). By the time Ben got back I was quite a way into my project and this was the sight that greeted him...

Nope, it's not a hammer. It's a high-heeled purple suede Diesel shoe,
but it did the job very well - and didn't leave me with a sore hand
like hammers tend to do

Yesterday I finally finished moving the empty boxes and stuff out, and now I can (very proudly) show my new room :o)

My cosy corner

I may get a small table to go next to my chair (Poang chair from IKEA, lovely woollen throw in cream from IKEA, chilled out blue cushion from IKEA and tall light from, surprise, surprise - IKEA!!!).

I intend to use this chair for just chilling with my Kindle and for curling up in with a notepad when I am journalling or planning.

From my chair I can see:

My wonderful display cases, not from IKEA...

...and my desk

Here is another view of my desk - it is an Expedit shelf unit, with attached desk (with a depth of 78cm, as opposed to the 50cm that I have with my 'normal' desk, which is now serving it's purpose as a dressing table/storage in the bedroom. I positioned the desk so that I can make the most of the natural light that comes into the room from the windows opposite.

Shelf unit with sixteen squares for storage 

In the storage areas so far I have various boxes (many of them empty at the moment), postcard sets, storage tins and some notepads - most of which haven't been written in at all yet as I don't want to ruin them (I really need to get a grip and just use them...). On the top I have a couple of storm lanterns (IKEA sale...) and some wonderfully fragrant candles that I just had to have. I was looking to get some blue ones but could only see aqua type blues, and then I spied these beauties. One sniff (or three) and I was hooked. There is white (cinnamon danish), caramel (caramel pudding) and brown (chocolate) - how could I resist having those in my room?

And that is it  - my new room :o)

LJx

Move Complete...

Well after all the excitement of last nights arrival I was a bit tired this morning, but that didn't mean I was going to spend my day off relaxing and catching up on sleep/films - oh no, no, no...

Today it was time for my babies to be freed from the IKEA moving box and re-homed in their fabulous new surroundings :o)

I realised two things after taking about five of my filos out of their boxes and excitedly putting them in the display case:

i)     I really was going to have to get them out one at a time and put the lids back on or it was going to get very messy and very confusing. It's not until you try to put the lid from one A5 onto the box from another A5, that you realise that the boxes aren't actually a standard size... To be fair, I had noticed before when stacking them in a different cupboard, but I guess it didn't really register...

ii)    Although I now have somewhere decent to store my binders, I still have to store all the boxes - oops!!!

Planning fail...

On an epic scale...

Thankfully the IKEA box was still on hand :o)

 A bit further through the process I realised that I needed to change some of the shelf heights to fit my collection in so they all had to come out again, but here they all are (apart from the A4 that the DF has commandeered for his P90X and P90X2 fitness tracking).

Looking quite cosy in here  :o)

I hadn't realised until I put them all together that most of my personal leather filos are red, purple or pink - I really think I need to do something about that - hmmm...

Here is the display stand containing most of my Filofax inserts that still have their cellophane wrappers (anything else is stored in boxes or binders so it doesn't get dusty). I have also put in my cute notepads, bookmarks, stickers, post-it tab type things, Christmas cards and some of my writing paper. Unfortunately there isn't much A5 space, but that's OK - this way I will be encouraged to use the ones that are in the stand and then I can move some of the others in.

And a couple of close ups:

Filos and inserts/fun stuff (somehow I managed to forget to take a photo of the whole lot together, this is the closest I have...

And the drawers?

Scrapbooking supplies in one for now...

And boxes with quilling supplies, and personal inserts, and a cloth personal filofax cover that was also in the drawer when the display case arrived, but got missed in the pics :o)

And there we have it, my babies in their new home.

Once I have set up the rest of the room I will write a post about the whole room and what's in it :o)

Bye for now,

LJx

Wow, wow, wow!!! eBay Heaven!!!

And can I just say "Wow" again?

There is another post re my 101 that I should do before I do this one, but I can't as I am just so excited that I have to blog this right now.

I will also apologise now as I am super tired and am likely to ramble even more than usual, but you will get lots of photos further down to take away the pain :o)

It's 10pm and I've just spent the last two hours cleaning and taking photos for this post...

As you may know from my last post I have managed to wangle a room in our apartment just for me and the things that I want around me for quiet time (obviously that does not include my children, who I love dearly, but swear they have no idea what the word quiet even means...).

Yesterday I was trying to resist the temptations of eBay, but we all know that resistance is futile when it comes to anything Filofax related, so I spent the day flitting between trying to get my new room cleared and my computer to check eBay and my emails as I had a few queries regarding the items.

With about twenty minutes to go it was looking like this bad boy was going to be mine, the last five minutes I spent glued to the chair as I wanted to make sure that I didn't miss out on anyone outbidding me. I was so excited when I was declared highest bidder as the auction came to a close than my youngest boy just sat and laughed at me - lots!!!

So here is the link to my new baby in all it's glory as included in the Saturday Philofaxy Web Finds.

So when is it going to get here? It's here!!! My fabulous DF drove for eight hours in total today (not the six he was expecting - oops!!!) to go to Germany to collect this for me, and here's what happened...

In the back of the truck and ready to go :o)

My first view...

The unit for the inserts - just in need of a
bit of a clean, other than that it's pretty darned
good :o)

And the class display case for the filos to go in

A bit blurry - but there has to be a bit of display case
love :o)

Filofax symbol on both sides of both display stands 

Cleaned up and ready to go (ignore the insert
holders, they will be given a good soaking at some
point, just not right now :o)

 So there we have the display stands all set up and ready to go, so what can I find to go in them... Well, the display stands came from a shop that was closing down, so I felt it would be rude of me not to find out what stock they had remaining in case there was anything I could help them to offload ;o)

And it turned out they had a fair bot of stuff left - not loads, but a reasonable amount. But I was good, I didn't take all of it - I already have more dividers sets than you can shake a stick at, and didn't want the only organiser they had left (Apex... *shudder*). I think I got around 50% off everything that I took, not quite sure as I wasn't the one who picked it all up, but I am very happy with this bundle (most of which wasn't in the bag, but hidden in the big drawers at the bottom. I hadn't even noticed that there were drawers at the bottom, so was very pleased to discover i) all the stuff inside them, and ii) the amount of extra storage space I have acquired.

2011 - 2012 diaries and year planners (free - super bargain) - I am
quite looking forward to trying some of these out as undated planners as there are a few different layouts here :o)

A5 - top opening envelopes, hole punch, today markers, business
card holder

Personal - transparent flyleaves, top opening envelope,
today marker, birthday year planner, white lined paper, white quadrille paper, and coloured paper.

Pocket - transparent flyleaves, birthday/anniversary sheets,  grey dividers
(I haven't seen these before and am very pleased to have them - I didn't know
these were coming), top opening envelopes, today markers, birthday
year planners, To Do lists, white ruled paper and coloured ruled paper

Mini - top tab dividers (4 white, never seen these before either - clearly
I have led a sheltered life), white quadrille paper and white ruled paper.
I also have some reinforcing patches :o)  

Now this I did know was coming - apparently it is a wooden Filofax calendar
holder...  I may be a bit dense, or it may just be too late (probably the former,
although I would like to try to plead the latter), but I'm not sure how it works... (yes, I am a bit special...)

And another one that they just slipped into the drawer for me -
a fabulous pen holder, how cool is that? 

 So - here is the full extent of my purchases in all their glory  :o)

Looking at how many slots are full already, I am thinking that I may still have to keep some of my inserts in the drawers... probably all the diary inserts.

 I should go to bed now, but have a feeling that I may end up unpacking my filos before that happens so that they can be introduced to their new home :o)

Night all,

LJx