30 Days of Lists

I really should have posted this waaaay before now. Nevermind, better late than never!

Over the next month (ish) I will be participating in 30 Days of Lists. If you've never heard of this before then here is a little blurb from the girls at the 30 DOL Blog:

30 Days of Lists is our encouragement and challenge to you that you CAN journal just something every day – even something as small as a list.
Every day through the month of March we will be posting a list prompt – anything from weekend goals to celebrity crushes. At the end of the 30 days you’ll have a collection of entries creating a small snapshot of your life right now.
Only 5-10 minutes per day are really needed. While you’re waiting for someone, or when you’re the passenger in the car. You can even download the list topics ahead of time to get a jump start!

That’s all.
Just write.
There’s no wrong way to do this and if you don’t like a prompt on a certain day, just change it

The prompts start tomorrow! If you're intersted and haven't signed up yet you may still have time.

I haven't done this properly before but when I came across thier prompts from last year (via a Filofax video post by the lovely Imy) I decided to give it a go in my own time and found it quite fun. I think I might do it digitally via my blog this time, as I just don't have the time to make an art journal at the moment, although I would like to do that next year. I would love to hear from anyone who is taking part this year, or has done so in previous years.

Day 1 is tomorrow so let the lists begin!!

Finally the New Filofaxes...

Well... I have actually had these Filofaxes for about a month now and they are already hard at work so it feels like I've had them for months let alone weeks. So what do I have now? Well... I have managed to add a personal Imperial Purple Finchely, a Black A5 Identity and an A5 Imperial Purple Finchely to my hoard.

I'll save the Identity for another day and just look at the gorgeousness of the Finchley for now :)

OOOOOH!!

Ahhhhh!

Ok, that's enough of that. One thing has to be said about this Filofax though, the colour is just delicious. I have always loved the colour purple, but, being a pernickety designer, I'm quite particular about my colours. There are certain shades of purple I don't like; I don't like bluey purples, or pale purples, or neon purples etc. etc. I could go on (no, really, I could fill just one post up with all the tones & tints I do and don't like)...But the important thing is that I really really do like this shade of purple, it is very deep and rich without being too dark and is definitely on the red side of the spectrum. Which is good.

The leather itself is quite soft and a little bit cushioned to the touch. For some reason I was expecting it to be quite hard and unforgiving like my little pocket Classic so I was pleasently surprised to find it so strokable. I like the subtle leather grain used on this binder compared to the heavily grained and patterned leathers I often see on the Filofax website. A fellow Filofax enthsiast (I will post a link here if i can find it) had mentioned that the leather on this Filofax scratches easily. Luckily this hasn't happened to me yet but one thing I have noticed is that this Filofax shows up dirt like nobody's business! Especially makeup! I have a habit of rubbing my face when I'm stressed. Rubbing face = makeup ends up on fingers = makeup all over Filofax. I never have this problem with the Baroque or Classic Filos!! I seem to wipe down this Filofax every few days only for it to gather more of my makeup bag again

So what does this Filofax do in my life? What stresses does it carry for me? Well, this is my work Filofax...I'll leave that there I think. Let's just have a look at what's inside it.

A diary within a diary?! Yes! Why not! I actually keep my timesheeting notes inside this little diary. I do this to keep client project details completely seperate from the work diary as it lets me focus on exactly what I have done for each client on a day-by-day basis without anything else getting in the way. I then come back and look over it once the project is done and detail everything in a proper timesheet. This diary is just a little cheapy from WH Smith (well, as cheap as you get from WH Smith...) but it looks quite nice in the Finchley.

Even though this is a hard-working Filofax I didn't want it to be boring so I hunted around for a classy image to use as a front page. I came across my Calander from last year (I never throw calanders away, I always cut them up and use the artwork for something) which featured prints by the designer Erté. I cut out a personal-sized insert from the front cover to use in my Filofax.

This particular print was cut from the calendar's cover so it is decorated with some glitter, very bling! I love Erté's work but I wish I knew what this print is actually called, I just know it as 'The Alphabet Lady'.

Also in the front is a few business cards and some designs I like.

I'm afraid I can't show you much inside as work is top secret!
The diary is a standard week on two pages in cotton cream. I much prefer the cotton cream layout to the standard white. The design is more modern and the 'this week' section is very handy! The cream also looks very posh next to the rich purple.

I labelled the months myself, much easier to flip between dates during meetings.

I'm still working on the tab structure so have just stuck page tabs over some at the mo. It's a pretty straight-forward setup; 'Notes' are just for general note-taking, 'Projects' is where I store notes knowledge on upcoming projects before a full brief is released and 'SMT' is company and design info. The 'Actions' section is particulary useful; during meetings I will write down the actions I need to take once the meeting is over. The pages in this section are all 'To-Do' pages and each type of meeting has it's own page so it's easy to look over and tick things off as I do them. Finally, the address section is used for new contact info as I don't have a work phone.


At the back are the business cards I transferered from my personal planner, the Baroque, along with the post-its and page markers. I don't keep anything in the zipped mesh section at the mo.

I had a bit of a size crisis a few weeks into using this Filo. I ran out of room in the diary section very quickly. You see, I use my diary section as a massive To-Do section, with bullet points in each day. It works very well for me; it lets me see what I need to do that day and I can then go back and use it as reference if I need to know when I did something. The only problem with this is that the method is a huge drain on space. SO I thought about it. And thought some more... I have always wanted an A5 organizer but never had the need to get one. But now I did have a need!! I didn't even have to decide what to get. I loved the Purple Finchely so much that when I spotted an A5 one on Amazon for a baragin £70 I bagged it quick. (Yes - for once Amazon was cheaper than eBay - and this Filofax was brand new!)
It arrived a few days later with all new inserts and a nice columned week on two pages diary. Great! Loads of room! Or so I thought. I started using it and within 2 days I gave up. The column layout was useless to me; I don't make appointments, I make to do lists. I tried to use the system by sticking meetings in at the correct times, squeezing them between my 'to-do' bullet points. The resulting mess was counter-productive so I switched back to the personal. Ok fine, I thought, I'll just order the weeks on 2 pages cotton cream diary in A5 next year and make the switch then. But as I now know, the cotton cream diaries don't exist in A5 size!! Why not Filofax?! Grr!
So what will I do with the A5? I like it too much to sell but it's other potential use of a Projects & Goals Planner has been fulfilled by the less delicate Identity (I will post on this soon!) I did think I could use it alongside the personal at work but I'm a little put off as the two Finchelys are different colours! See!

The A5 is darker and is different enough in tone for me to me to prefer the  colour of the personal Finchley to the colour of the A5 Finchley. Has any body else had non-matching Filos? I suppose it might be because the personal came straight from Filofax i.e. brand new stock whereas the A5 might have been in stock on Amazon for a while meaning it was a different dye lot. I don't know, either way I don't like them sitting next to each other. Never mind, I'm sure I will come up with something for it to do! I'm good at finding things to do :)

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Manchester

Happy New Year to all those who celebrated it last week! We decided to take the short trip into Manchester yesterday to see what was on offer in terms of celebration. Unfortunately we missed most of the events as we turned up late evening but I understand there were some amazing performances in Albert Square.

We however ventured into Chinatown and were hit swarm of madness -fairground rides, stalls, burger vans... not exactly of Chinese tradition! To be fair (but I could be wrong) Manchester Events & Planning doesn't actually organise Chinese New Year and so you take what you get around this time of year. Moving closer towards the main square however things became more traditional. Buildings and lampposts were decorated with lanterns and strings of lights. The Chinese bakeries and restaurants had remained open for the occasion, spilling their delicious smelling food out onto the streets by way of temporary stalls. Of course, every gift, toy and food shop was open too, although I didn't fancy competing with the rush of visitors inside the small overstocked shops. (Apologies for the blurry pics but I had to make do with my phone as I had left my camera at home.)

Lovely shot of the rubbish piling in the street, on top of an over-flowing bin.

 We were lucky enough to encounter the Chinese Dragons (something I missed a few years ago during my last visit) as they disappeared in and out of every doorway, making it's way around all the shops, restaurants, massage parlours and even lap dancing bars in Chinatown. I hope the patrons were prepared for that invasion! I'm sure the dragons must have knocked over a few chairs and tables as they danced around, those costumes weren't made for being graceful.

The Chinese Dragons exiting from a Thai Restaurant after visiting the Lap Dancing Bar next door.

 The Chinese Dragons were accompanied by an small entourage of four people with plastic black poles who moved the crowd out of the way as they erratically made their way through Chinatown, cris-crossing over the street so much that nobody knew where to stand to avoid being in the way - a logistical nightmare for those with prams and small children. The whole thing was very confusing especially when the road came to a sudden end...

We still don't know why this road was closed. Nothing was happening and the crowd continued to build behind us, unaware that we had been prevented from going any further. After a patient (and very British) wait of 5 minutes someone eventually asked a security guard what was going on. His response? "I don't know, we were just asked to stand here. I don't know why anybody is gathering round here anyway, the fireworks are on the other side of this building, you won't see them from here." After spreading the word, the crowd behind us dispersed in enough time for us to get round to the front of the fireworks display next to the Chinatown Gate.

The fireworks, like the whole celebration, wasn't co-ordinated very well but it was nice to watch, and to the organiser's credit, the fireworks did last for a full 15 minutes which I would say is pretty damn good for a free event.
I recorded a few videos but unfortunately our view was obscured by some trees and people in large fluffy hats (it was sooo cold last night, my feet were actually numb!) Below is the fireworks finale, I'm not sure why this video has turned out so small but it does feature a lovely goodbye from our host - "I wish you all the best and make a safe home journey".

I will upload some more videos later when Firefox stops being daft.

It was freezing cold so the crowd quickly disbanded and we sat in The Bank to warm up and have a drink or two before making our way home.

My Finished Scarf + Pom Pom Tutorial

It's time for a non-Filofax post I think...

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had finished knitting my scarf. This was my first ever attempt at knitting something I was actually interested in start-to-finish. Up until the scarf I had been knitting little squares to eventually sew into a patchwork blanket. I loved creating the little sqaures at first but it got very boring very fast. So when I went home to visit my mum for her birthday she suggested to me that I take up a new piece of knitting to keep myself interested. I decided to make a scarf and learnt a new stitch to do this, taught to me very patiently by my mother (who always been a relaible sourse of knowledge for anything creative; thank you mum!) I really got into knitting this and before I knew it the scarf was finished within a week. Here is my masterpiece!

The flash on the camera makes the colours look more garish
than they actually are.

Wrapped around twice!

The yarn is 30% wool King Cole Chunky Riot in Moors colouring ordered from Demores (unfortunately that spefic dye isn't available on the site at the moment). I just love the muted tones and I'm quite impressed at the subtle stripy gradient. The scarf is already a little fluffy as I haven't had the thing off my neck! I made it extra long so I can wrap it around my neck twice and snuggle up in it. This super length, including pom poms, took 3 balls of wool in total.

The pom pom making was another craft my mum (re-)taught me. I used to know how to do this in my childhood but I had completely forgotten how to do it. I had made a few searches online for my mum's particular method but couldn't find it so I thought I would share the knowledge and make a little tutorial on how to make pom poms with a circular template.

Here we go!


Step 1: Gather your materials:

You will need:

• Wool (I'm using double knitting for this one but chunky wool would take less time)
• A ruler
• A compass if you need one. You could always use 2 objects to draw around.
• A pencil or pen
• Some Blu-Tak (optional)
• Some thin card. Frozen food boxes are ideal for this.

Step 2: Make Your Circular Templates

Cut open the box and make sure the card is clean enough for use.

Now decide how big you would like your pom poms and draw out the templates on the card. You will need two templates. I am going to go for a diameter of 8cm with a centre hole of 2cm. The larger the centre hole, the more wool you will use and the thicker your pom pom will be. My pom pom will be relatively think and should be 8cm tall when I'm finished.

Cut out the templates. You might want to stick some Blu-Tak onto the back of the card and stab through with a pencil to make the centre easier to cut out. It's when I see photographs like this I remember that my thumbs bend in the wrong direction when I grip!

You should now have two templates! Don't worry about making these perfect circles - wool doesn't care about that!




Step 3: Make Your Pom Pom

Cut a length of wool that will be mangaeable (in the background) I usually use something around 1.5 metres long. Now place the two templates back to back.

Keeping the templates gripped together (more weird thumb bending from me) and, starting at one end of the wool, place the wool behind the templates. Keep this in place with your index or middle finger. Make sure you allow 2cm or so of wool to stick up above the template.

Now pull the rest of the wool towards you through the circle and fold it back up on itself. Grip this with your thumb.

Keep doing this - winding the wool by threading it through the circle and looping back over - until you come to the end of the wool. When you do come to the end, allow the loose end to stick out of the top, just like you did at the beginning. It just so happens my wool finished at the front, your could finish at the back depending on how long your wool is.

Start a new piece of wool like you did before. You will need to line up the new length at the same point where the last length finished, only this time on the opposite side. This means you can overlap the last loop of the last length, trapping it under your new length, making it less likely to unwind and slip off the template as you work on new lengths. Try to grip as much of the circle in your hand as you can while you work on new lengths.

Keep doing this and eventually you will end up completing the circle. Woo hoo! Now you just need to keep going, this time working over the layer you have just done. Keep doing this over and over again until you physically can't get any more wool through the centre. You may want to use a pencil or a crochet hook to poke the wool through the centre as it gets smaller.

When you are finished the pom pom should look like this. That was the boring bit done - now we just need to finish it off.



Step 4: Free Your Pom Pom!

Carefully part the wool to reveal the cardborad underneath.

Take your scrissors and slip them inbetween the two cardboard circles. Cut round the entire circle.

You will see your pom pom taking shape as you cut.

Once you have cut all the way around, part the cardboard with your fingers

Take another length of wool and loop it around pom pom inbetween the two card circles. Tie a knot, then double-knot it. I like to loop the wool around twice and tie a knot with each loop.

Now that the wool is secure you can cut away the cardborad templates. Make sure you don't cut any wool as you do so.

It's free! Now you are left with a very messy pom pom. Tidy it up by trimming back all the loose ends to the correct length. Remember to leave the wool you tied the knots with! Don't cut this, you will need this to attach the pom pom to whatever it is you are using it for.

And that's it!
This pom pom turned out quite nicely but if I was to do it again I would increase the the centre hole to 2.5 or 3cm to make it a little thicker.
You could even make pom poms out of glittery wool and use them as Christmas decorations!

Go on, give it a try, you might enjoy it :)

Happy pom pomming!

Filofax For Sale Alert!

Hello (and a very belated Happy New Year) to my fellow Bloggers.
As the title suggests, I'm letting you know that I have a Filofax to sell!
I received my Purple Imperial Finchely a few weeks ago (pics will come soon!) and I was so thrilled with it that I immediately went looking for the Vintage Rose Finchely on eBay. Well, I did find one to bid on and lucky me, I won the auction!
The Personal Vintage Rose Finchely arrived a few days ago, and, well... I just don't like it. I think my problem is that I went for the deliciously rich purple first and somehow I just don't think the Finchley suits this dusky pink colour. Perhaps it's just me, there is certainly nothing wrong with it (although it did arrive with a musky odour which I have tried to air out) and I did like the vintage colours when viewing it online. I have just changed my mind.

And so in light of my unwanted purchase, I am putting this Filofax up for Sale on eBay as of today. It will be up there for a standard 7 day auction with no reserve or Buy It Now price. Starting price is only £5!
Inserts are limited but they include:
A black Today marker
Cotton Cream dividers
Cotton Cream Address dividers
A few Cotton Cream Address pages
A few Cotton Cream To Do pages

If you do decide to go for it - happy bidding!

*edit: the colour of this Filo is more of a dusky pink that these photos suggest. Link to eBay item is here.

***Update: This pretty Filo has now been sold to a very happy buyer. Smiles all round!