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

Current Work Set-Up

Oops!!!

I´ve been thinking about my work set-up for 2013 recently as I need to upsize again to allow for all the project work that is likely to be coming my way over the course of next year. Whilst doing this I realised that I never got round to posting pics of my current set-up, so here goes.

I moved into my raspberry compact Chameleon in mid-October and to be honest I am a bit gutted to have to move out. It is small with a simple set-up that works well at the moment, and it is easy to stick it in my bag whenever I need to take it home.

I wanted it to be simple, practical and nice to look at, so the logical place to start was to see what sections I needed. Although I have the standard six numbered dividers I only set up four sections and left the other two in the back blank in case I needed them.

I have a Diary section which contains a WO2P with lines format - for me this is more than enough space for entering meetings, appointments, and deadlines.

My To Do section contains some lined paper and various To Do sheets. I am currently using some that were given to me (I think they are TMI inserts) and have added post-it markers to identify the sheets as emails, calls, monthend/do not forgets, project list, and to do's.

I then have a planning section which contains Filofax day planner inserts. To me these are probably more suited for personal stuff on the odd days when I have lots to do outside the home. I haven't actually used this section at all.

My final section is my capture pages, which is full of blank paper. I haven't used this section much since I moved into this binder, but it is a section which is very handy to have and I have a feeling it will get a lot of use next year.

I wanted to pretty it all up a bit, but not do anything permanent as realistically this was always going to be a temporary move until I decided what I needed. As you can see from the pictures, I labelled the dividers rather than the tabs, using washi tape and my Rotring Rapidograph pen.

Looking forward to playing with my 2013 set-up.

LJx

TK Maxx, and a Fabulous Paper Shop - Wow!!!

Hi all :o) Another stationery post I’m afraid.

After seeing the notebooks that you can get in TK Maxx in Weymouth I was rather gutted that I couldn’t buy loads of them, as there would be no room in my case to carry them all home.

However, I went shopping in Salisbury with Josie and Marcus, and discovered the TK Maxx there – oh my, I think I was in heaven (poor Jo thought she was never going to get me out of there – while Marcus helped me choose what I should get, including two notebooks for Jo for her birthday – ha ha ha!!!).

I realised a very important thing while I was there with them. No – I probably couldn’t fit them all in my case, but I have to fly back to the UK for a long weekend next month to pick the boys up, and I won’t need many clothes then so my suitcase will be fairly empty. Therefore I could leave some of my stuff from this visit in the UK and take some notebooks home with me (there is no way I was leaving notebooks behind – not with my boys –Marcus already picked one from the shelf for himself).

So here are they beautiful notebooks in all their glory, including a fabulous planner…

Pretty, pretty, pretty...

Emma Bridgewater - 3 pocket journals (blank, ruled & quadrille), A5 ruled notebook with elasticated fastening, and Jan Constantine B5 ruled notebook - I have a smaller blue one somewhere, but I can't find it... all at less than half price

Pretty paper inside :o)

Chelsea Home hardback, hardback bird (the one with the nest), paperback bird, and butterfly "My Life" planner from Life Canvas - major savings on the Chelsea Home one (70%+ savings) 

Bird nest top and Chelsea home bottom - cute 

"My Life" planner - pretty paper and great tabs.
Top tabs - Notes, To Do, Ideas, The Best

Sample paper 1

Sample paper 2

The Best section contains 7 side tabs: Music, Books, Films, Websites and 3 blank

Super cute planner for a bargain price of £3.99 - what a find!!!


And I just had to include a little note about a stationery shop I found in Freiburg on the way back from Karlsruhe. We stopped at a shopping centre so we could grab a bite to eat and a drink, and take a little walk to stretch our legs. Imagine my delight when I saw Die Papeterie when we stepped out of the shopping centre, obviously it would have been rude not to at least have a little look (especially as I still hadn't managed to find a Leuchtturm 1917 notebook in the flesh anywhere, even though I had asked in a few places). 


Honestly, this shop was like an Aladdin's cave of stationery heaven. They had Moleskine, Leuchtturm, Lett's, Montblanc, various pretty silver stuff, washi tape and last, but definitely not least - a fabulous selection on Filofaxes (and not hidden in glass cases or anything). I had a chance to hold and open so many beautiful filos (they even had the Osterley out on the shelf). Obviously I wasn't looking to buy a new filo while I was there, and unfortunately they did have the ruled Leuchtturm notebooks in the pink or the aqua, but I couldn't leave empty-handed so got these...

Aqua blank notebook (but it comes with a ruled and a quadrille guide, so it may work for me), and a red ruled notebook (I'll definitely use it one day...)  

Leuchtturms and some pretty washi tape (along with a couple of new tins, red Zen for my Tick Tock Rooibos teabags, and the cherry blossom one for storing stickers in

I hope you enjoyed looking at my new things, I am very pleased with them.


LJx