My week #52 and happy New Year!

Well I didn't think I would find time to show you my Christmas week pages before January but I have a quite half hour so here they are! 

My week in my Filofax #52

I really like how they have turned out.  There hasn't been too much I've had to do once all the food preparation was out of the way so I had a lot of extra space for decorations.

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Christmas Day was lovely and went without a hitch.  All my planning meant dinner was served on time and was all still hot when it reached the table.  I have to admit I am always surprised when I manage to pull it off each year!

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Boxing Day and the day after were spent with our parents.  I do tend to enjoy these days a bit more as there is no pressure any more and we can all relax and just spend time together.  I think sometimes I get caught up in the idea of a "perfect Christmas" which is just placing too many expectations on one single day and on myself.

On Sunday I finally got to watch The Princess Bride!  Can you believe that I, a girl who grew up in the 80's, had never seen this film before?  My friend Stephanie had told me how great it was and that I would love it a couple of months back but then I completely forgot about it.  When I noticed it was on in the tv guide I wrote it in my Filofax so I would remember to watch it and I absolutely LOVED it!  I think I might even have to buy the DVD!

So that was my Christmas, how was yours?  It is New Years Eve today and it is 6pm here in the UK.  We aren't going out tonight but I am looking forward to seeing in the new year at home with my family.  

Happy New Year!

I'd like to wish you all a happy New Year, have a great night however you are celebrating and I hope to see you all again in January 2014!    

* Cartoon image created with Bitstrips

The merriest of Christmas wishes!

I just wanted to schedule this post to wish you a very merry Christmas and to say thank you all for following my blog this year! I really appreciate your support and I am looking forward to seeing where 2014 takes us.

                          

I will be back in January so until then have a great Christmas and a very happy new year! 

* Image created with Bitstrips   

My week #51

I am much happier with how my pages look this week!  I love the colours of the Christmas washi tape and I was sent some really sweet stickers that I just had to use too.

My week in my Filofax #51

It might look like I have gotten behind with my to do lists but I have taken these photos on Friday morning so I still have time to complete them.  I wanted to make sure I had time to write this post before all the holiday fun starts.  School (finally) finishes today so I think the next few days will be full of hot chocolates, sweets and Christmas films.... perfect!  

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Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend!

My week #50

Oh wow, just over a week to go until Christmas and only two weeks left in the year!  I'm not sure if I'm excited or terrified?  Maybe I'm constantly switching between the two? 

My week in my Filofax #50

My pages this week are very full and messy but they helped me finish off everything I needed to do.  They aren't as nice as I would have liked but my house is tidy so that's a win in my book!  I do love the washi tape I used though, it has all the fun of snow without the hassle.  The idea of a white Christmas is so romantic but when it happens the week before it's makes everything so much harder.  Running round the shops doing some last minute shopping can be deadly when the snow has turned to ice and slush so for now I prefer the tape to the real thing. 

Christmas card divider

I did have a few spare minutes this week so I made this cute divider.  It was a Christmas card I was sent last year so I just trimmed it down to size and punched it to fit.  I'm using it mark where my Christmas to do lists are.  I'm not sure if you can see but the black background of it is all glitter so it is adding a little sparkle to my planning.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

My week #49

The minute I saw this washi tape I knew it would be perfect for my new Malden.  I love how the gold and brown go together and it's a little Christmassy too.  It also matches the gold accents on my russian doll stickers. 

My week in my Filofax #49

This week has been really amazing for me, I got an email on Tuesday announcing that I had reached 100 followers on Bloglovin! It really made me happy and I still can't quite believe it. 

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 I also got 900 followers on Instagram. I love taking photos so Instagram is one of my favourite social media apps.  It is full of people sharing great ideas and fantastic photos.

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I spent last night writing all my Christmas cards.  I used the same washi tape to decorate the envelopes, I think they look really nice now.  I am hoping to start wrapping presents today.  I am in the mood to do it while listening to some carols and maybe having a snowball or two.  

Christmas cards with added sparkle

I am already more than half way through my Christmas to do list and I am going to try and finish the tasks before the end of next week.  How are your plans going?

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Philofaxy All Stars Guest Post: My Purpley Life's Planner Envy

Hi everyone! My name is Jennifer. I blog over at MyPurpleyLife.com and do a number of videos on YouTube.  I am so happy to have been given the chance to guest post for the Philofaxy All Stars Tour 2013 here on She's Eclectic. Just like Amanda, I too have planner envy. 

My Planner Envy is TeacherCandy. Photos of her planner can be found on Instagram @TeacherCandy. Candy is such a sweet, wonderful person and her personality really shines through her planner pages. She loves the color pink probably as much as I love purple. 

The pages she creates are cute and simple, with a minimalistic design and the use of kawaii stationery, pastel colors, washi tape, and stickers. 

Her handwriting is simply gorgeous. 

The pages look full without looking too cluttered. 

Something about her pages that I'm very drawn to is her use of sticky notes. Instead of writing directly onto the paper, she makes great use of her sticky notes. 

Thank you, Candy, for allowing me to share my envy for your pages. Thank you, Amanda, for letting me share my planner envy on your blog. 

-Jennifer Reyes

More ways to find me:
♥ WEBSITE ♥          http://www.mypurpleylife.com
♥YOUTUBE♥           http://youtube.com/mypurpleylife.com
♥INSTAGRAM♥       http://instagram.com/mypurpleylife
♥TWITTER♥           https://twitter.com/mypurpleylife
♥FACEBOOK♥         https://www.facebook.com/mypurpleylife


Thank you for writing this post Jennifer and I completely agree with you, TeacherCandy's pages are beautiful!  I love following her on Instagram and seeing her creativity.  Everything is always so pretty and I envy her planner too!

My week #48

As I had written my Christmas planning post I was feeling very festive this week.  I could also use the excuse that today is the start of December but the truth is I am ridiculously excited already and I'm not sure how I will be able to contain it for another three and a bit weeks!

My week in my Filofax #48

I have been busy again, checking lots of things off my weekly to do lists and some off my Christmas to do list.  I am feeling quite accomplished and relatively calm for once.

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I haven't put our tree up yet but I'm hoping to do it today and then I can start writing our Christmas cards.  It doesn't seem right to write the cards before the tree is up!

Wish me luck, I'm off to hold the ladder while my hubby gets the decorations from out of the attic but if I see any spiders I will have to run and leave him to defend for himself!

Have a great week!

Christmas planning with the Dodo book of Christmas and my Filofax

I started thinking about Christmas a couple of weeks ago.  Well that's to say I started seriously thinking about Christmas, it has been flitting around my mind since September when the Christmas stock started appearing in the shops!  I took my Dodo Book Of Christmas off the bookcase and flicked through the pages, invoking memories of seasons past.  I love that as well as helping me plan the book also records each year from when my children were very young.

My well loved Dodo Book Of Christmas

I brought the planner in 2007 and have used it every Christmas since then.  It had a little wear on the spine so I used some washi tape to cover it and it looks as good as new now.

Inside the planner are eight sections.  These are Holiday Planner - tasks and lists, Cards, Gifts, Festive Fare, Decoration, Children, Parties and Events and Traditions.  

View inside

Each divider also acts as a clever "stuff and store pouch".

Stuff and store pouch divider 

The pouches are great for keeping bits of paper safe like lists, recipes and gift receipts.

Christmas card list

In the Card section there are pages for your Christmas card lists and they let you keep track of who you have sent cards to and received them from.  

Gifts section

The Gifts section is my favourite.  I have all the presents I have brought people in the last six years listed on these pages.  A quick glance in this section means I don't repeat presents and a leisurely read brings back memories of lots of Christmas days and makes me smile.

Festive Fare section

Festive Fare is my most useful section.  I have a detailed list in here of everything I need to know to prepare our Christmas dinner.  This includes dates when I can make things in advance and freeze them and a cooking timetable so everything will be ready at the same time.  I also keep a lot of recipe cards that I have found in the supermarket over the years in the stuff and store pouch. 

I keep an inventory list in the Decoration section so I can keep track of what I have and what I still need (and by need I mean want!).  It is also useful to list anything that gets broken or stops working.  I once spent days looking for a rope light only to realise I had thrown it away the previous December when it had stopped working.  Lessons were learned!

Children is where I write my Elf on the Shelf ideas.  We have an elf called Nipper who visits our home in December and gets up to mischief every night before returning home with Father Christmas on Christmas Eve.  It takes a lot of planning to make sure you have plenty of things for the elf to do so you aren't repeating things.  

In Traditions I have a couple of lists.  One is the things we like to do as a family and the other is a shopping list so I don't forget any goodies that we like to have each year.  It just wouldn't be Christmas without a box of Turkish delight and some marzipan fruits!

Dodo pages in my Filofax

The Dodo Book Of Christmas does not leave my house.  There are too many precious memories contained inside it and things in the stuff and store pouches that could fall out.  This year I have cut down some of the dodo pages and punched them so they will fit in my Filofax.  At the moment I have a Christmas to do list and a list of films I want to watch with the children in my filo.  I also have a page for gift ideas in case I see something when I am out and need to note it down before I get home or if I am suddenly struck by inspiration.

My Christmas to do list

Now I am using a Filofax I could realistically do all my Christmas planning in there but I don't want to.  I like to be able to keep everything together from over the years and when my children get older I can pass it on to them so they can see what I did and how I did it and it will keep our family traditions alive.  I feel that as well as a planning tool my Dodo Book Of Christmas is also a record of our family life spanning the years and it has become part of my Christmas routine to sit down in the evenings and fill it full of lists and memories. It is like a journal I didn't realise I was writing until I looked back through it a couple of years later.

The perfect pair

Thanks for reading and good luck with your planning!

My week #47

This week's theme is another girly one, I just love the rose washi and the pink and mint colours together. 

My week in my Filofax #47

Monday was my birthday, I spent the day moving into my new Malden and then celebrating with my family on the evening.  We had a nice meal together and a lovely lemon drizzle birthday cake.  You can call it a birthday cake if you add candles right?

My cake

During the week I added a section to my Filofax for my Christmas plans.  I have started writing to do lists and gift ideas down when I get a chance.  I am full of the holiday spirit now everyone's birthdays are out of the way!  I usually put our Christmas tree up this weekend but I still have to rearrange the furniture in my living room before I can do that.  I am hoping to have done it by next weekend.  Yes I'm excited!

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The rest of the week was busy, lots and lots of things to do but writing them down and checking them off kept me straight.  Having two children in school means there is always something I need to remember, even though a lot of the time I write the same reminders each week if I didn't note them down I really think I'd end up in a muddle.

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I have a feeling that my weeks are only going to get busier in the run up to Christmas but that's ok, I will just focus on one thing at a time instead of the overall picture and that should stop me panicking.  Have you started your Christmas planning yet or is it still too early for you?

I have joined the Malden family..... and it's not aqua!

Here she is.....

My beautiful Malden

Ok, ok I know I have gone on and on about the aqua Malden for months and then I go and buy an ochre one instead.  "What's going on?" I hear you ask, well the truth is I had been leaning toward the ochre for a little while.  When I found the Maldens on sale on the Colemans website  the ochre was already sold out while there was still one aqua left in stock.  I thought that Fate had stepped in and made my decision for me.  When someone brought the last aqua one before my birthday I was again left with having decide which I really wanted.

I had started to want the ochre colour after seeing photos @handmadebycharlottevictoria had posted on Instagram of her Malden.  The colour I had always dismissed as boring now looked classic and sophisticated, more grown up.  I already had a brightly coloured Filofax (my yellow Original) so did I really need another one?  Also the aqua didn't feel right for this time of year, the ochre is such an autumnal colour it just felt right.

With my yellow Original Filofax

Both colours had been out of stock on the Filofax UK website for a while and were now both out of stock with Colemans.  I couldn't find either colour in personal size on eBay either.  It was starting to look like I wouldn't get a Malden for my birthday at all.  I asked in a Facebook group if anyone knew where I could find one and was directed to a swapping and selling group.  I joined straight away and as soon as I was added I scrolled through all the listings to see if anyone was selling a personal Malden in either colour.  They were not.  I kept checking the group daily to see if one would appear and a few days later it did.  A lady was selling her ochre Malden and she was in the UK.  I emailed the seller and she sent me some photos, we agreed on a price and a couple of days later the ochre was mine!  

All moved in

I moved in straight away and am totally in love with her.  I have put my Original away for now.  I will probably move back in in the spring when I'm ready for a splash of colour again but for now I am very happy in the Malden.  I love all of the pockets and the softness of the leather, it feels completely different to my Original which is made with one thick piece of leather.  I am using the zipped compartment for my Coleto pen which is too big for the pen loop and I have put some sticky notes, paperclips, sticky dots, transparent arrows and washi samples in the front pockets.  You can just fit so much inside.  The strap is also a lot longer on the Malden so I wont have to be as strict with myself on how much I can keep in there.  I made sure I regularly emptied the Original because when it got too full I worried the strap would rub against the leather on the front cover and damage it.  It will be nice not to have that concern with this Filofax.    

In the pockets

Am I fickle for changing my mind?  Maybe, now I have the ochre I can't see me ever buying the aqua because I don't think I'm an owning-a-Filofax-in-more-than-one-colour kind of gal.... of course that could change!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

My week #46

Here are my pages for last week, I went with a green and pink theme this time.  I think they look quite pretty.

My week in my Filofax #46

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Sorry this is such a short post but today is my birthday and I have a lot on.  I will be writing another post this week though so keep an eye out for that please!

Thanks for reading.

My week #45

So I know that owls are so last year but I still love them and when my friend sent me this owl washi tape I just had to use it.    

My week in my Filofax #45

The owl stickers all came from the new planner I brought to store my 2013 diary pages in next year, I wrote briefly about it here during the October photo challenge.

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Last week I found an aqua Malden for sale on the Colemans website, it was 30% off and included free delivery.  I was incredibly excited as with the reduction I knew I would be able to afford it with my birthday money BUT the big problem was they only had one left in stock and it is not my birthday until next week.  I checked the website four or five times a day, every day to see if it was still available.  I decided if it was still there on my birthday it was meant to be and I would order it straight away, however on Tuesday this week someone else brought it.  I was so disappointed, I hope whoever brought it loves it as much as I would have.

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Anyway the rest of my week was quite busy as it was my son's 10th birthday party on Sunday so I had lots of things on my to do list to make sure everything was ready in time.  Being organised certainly makes these things easier, I remember this time last year I was panicking that I wouldn't remember everything and I was still tidying the house minutes before the guests arrived!  This time round all I had to do on Sunday morning was make the party food so I was much more relaxed and enjoyed the party a lot more.

Party food

I can't believe my son is turning ten on Wednesday, it doesn't seem possible.  Where did my cheeky little monkey go?!  I find myself looking at him and thinking "when did you get so tall?" and "where are those chubby cheeks?".  I am planning on getting lots of cuddles for the next couple of days in case he wakes up on his birthday and decides his too old for such things!

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

October Filofax photo-a-day challenge, final round-up

Day twenty - appointment

These are my sweet appointment stickers from Cute Organizing (this shop used to be called Japan Corner).

Day 20 - appointment

Day twenty one - somewhere relaxing

Shopping is relaxing for me!

Day 21 - somewhere relaxing

Day twenty two - baby

This is the scan from my youngest, it feels like a very long time ago now.

Day 22 - baby

Day twenty three - happy hump day

Also known as Wednesday, half way through the week and nearly the weekend.

Day 23 - happy hump day

Day twenty four - gotta have it

My current wish list, a teal Finchley Filofax in personal size, a Day of the dead handbag from Jubly Umph and this lovely nail polish from Literary Lacquer.  It is called Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster which is named after a drink in one of my favourite books - The hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy and it is one of my favourite colours so it must be "meant to be"!

Day 24 - gotta have it

Day twenty five - your plans this weekend

Playing with this new organiser!  I will be using the binder to archive my 2013 diary pages and using some of the inserts in my Filofax.

Day 25 - your plans for the weekend

Day twenty six - whatcha doin'?

I've been playing Tetris on my Game Boy, I am still addicted to it.

Day 26 - whatcha doin'

Day twenty seven - nature shot

Pretty autumn leaves and my Original Filofax, I think the colours go really well together. 

Day 27 - nature shot

Day twenty eight - something pretty

These ribbons are incredibly pretty!

Day 28 - something pretty

Day twenty nine - pattern

I started crocheting again this year, I love the pattern on this flower.

Day 29 - pattern

Day thirty - sideways

There's not much I can say about this one is there? 

Day 30 - sideways

Day thirty one - treat

My treat for this day was a toffee apple and a toffee nut caffe caramella from Costa coffee, very yummy!

Day 31 - treat

Well that is the end of the challenge, I can't wait for the next one!

Thanks for reading