Got me a new Filofax

I'm spectacularly pleased with my latest purchase. Not only is it way cool, I got it half price. So, what did I get? A new Filofax. To be more precise the A5 Filofax 'Original' in Dark Aqua.

I reckon this would divide folk I know into those who would say: "Nice! What inserts are you using?" And those who would say: "The last person to have a Filofax was Del Boy".

I can see their point, in the general sense paper planners are a bit dated - everything is electronic now. However, I always have a sketchbook with me and I've always had a bit of thing for, well anything stationery related...

In fact this is not my first Filofax. In fact this is not the only Filofax I own. This is not where I reveal a cupboard stuffed full of them.

Yeah, I've always been like this. 

But this was my first. Yep, it's from the eighties. I got it as a birthday present when I was a kid. I don't think it's a real branded Filofax (since I was about 8 at the time, I didn't really care) but it does still have a bunch of Time Manager inserts in it.

I've been looking at so many lovely planners. The way some people have them set up is stunning especially the Kikki-k fans. I'm also glad that this is expanding the scrapbooking industry a bit. Getting new people involved and making creative products for them can only be a good thing.

Cartonnage

Be still my heart.

Although the French word 'cartonnage' technically means cardboard, I seem to have stumbled upon a great word for things constructed out of cardboard, like boxes. Except the English word 'cardboard box' doesn't really cover it. It sounds so disposable.

These are actual items constructed out of cardboard. They are sturdy objects like drawers and even some furniture. I'd like to try some of these techniques, it opens a whole world of new options for scrapbooking and bookbinding.

Many of the items pinned below are not styled to my taste, but you can see the possibilities. A tiny bookcase for a set of mini-albums? A box to contain a travel journal with a drawer for all the extra memorabilia? Fantastic.




Check out this Pinterest board too.

Learning French

Bonjour!

J'ai commencé à apprendre Français encore. C'est le deuxième fois. J'avais appris à l'école mais avec pas beaucoup succés.

[ Hello there! ]

[ I've started learning French again. It's the second time. I did learn at school but with not a lot of success. ]

That's not true. I learned quite a lot, and my reading comprehension is still quite good. I was just a bit lazy and didn't take it very seriously. Now I am enjoying learning irregular verbs. Maybe I would have enjoyed it at school if there had been an app for it like I have now. I'm currently using Brainscape which is a flash card based system for learning all sorts of things.

Or if there had been YouTube videos like these:

Comme une Francais TV - Geraldine is great, she inspired me to start speaking French more
Her show is aimed at people who live in France and want to fit in. So its not for beginners but I find it fascinating! She also has a website - commeunefrancaise.com

Damon and Jo - these guys are funny. They have a LOT of personality. They make travel videos and sometimes French videos as Damon teaches French.

Caillou! - Geraldine, Damon and Jo, and everyone else suggests finding TV programmes in French similar to those you like in English (or your native language). I find these extremely difficult to follow and a lot of the French is slang-y. Not useful when you are still learning. So I started watching Caillou. Yes its aimed at 5 years olds, but it's very sweet and I understand a lot of it. Plus they use real words so the kids can learn.


Tu parle le Français? Or do you speak another language?

Thoughts on Project Life 2014 and plans going forward

Last year I completed a full year of Project Life in the 12x12 format. Well, just about. All the photos are in, there are still some words to type up.

Anyway, after this mega achievement, I asked myself if I wanted to do the same again, and as with the 10k race I ran, the answer was no, not straight away.
Both were very satisfying to complete but also hard work. Enjoyable hard work. Maybe commitment is a better word.
And my Project Life binder is giant. I kept it to one since I did on average one side a week. There is a very boring month where four weeks are on one page. And a couple of extra inserts from trips.

As I asked myself about it, I realised I do still want to document my life and some of the everyday things, but not everything. More of an over view and if I am going to be into this hobby for any length of time (not something that is normally a problem for me) it will need to not take up as much space. I've currently got four 12x12 albums (not all full).

Another thing happened, someone I follow on Instagram has the Heidi Swapp Planner (the new black and white stripe one that goes with the Big Picture class). It's gorgeous.
I know from past experience that a 'planner' is not going to work for me as an alternative to a whole PL but in googling that little beauty I came across some pictures of Heidi's Memory Planner (from last year I think) and some beautiful work people had done with it.

My brain started working on how I really wanted to document things and came up with something based on the memory planner/planners in general but mixed with PL. I think it will be a bit more monthly based - so I can be more selective about what I put in.

I'm making plans - it's got to be ring bound so that I can add/change pages and its got to fit some project life pockets - I like the tallways 3x4, but I probably need more than 4 a week (like in a 6x8)
maybe 6 like the memory planner and tabs like a filofax.

To the drawing board!

Adventure planning: Brussels

Isn't it odd sometimes the way things turn out? Like that quote 'Life is what happens when you're making other plans' (I'm not sure who said it originally there seems to be some attribution decay see here). Last year I hadn't planned on going anywhere travel-wise. But as time went on I got severe wanderlust and ended up going to Paris.

This year I am going to visit Belgium.
I'm actually not sure if I've been to Belgium before. I thought I had on a school day trip to France, but I asked the friend I went with and she didn't seem to think we did. This was the days before digital cameras, so I probably didn't take any photos.

But that's not why I'm going. We decided to surprise my Dad with the trip as a Christmas gift, he is interested in Napoleonic era military history and this year is the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo, which is, it turns out*, 15km south of Brussels.

After the success of the Paris trip I am using the AirBnB service again. I'm a little more apprehensive taking the whole family, but it should be good. We'll have a whole house to ourselves.

I've started a board on Pinterest with some things to do. Have you been to Brussels? Any recommendations?

*Isn't it shocking I didn't know that Waterloo was near Brussels?

Print your own binder

This looks cool. Today I was perusing some planners and binders online and came across this page on the Avery website.

You can get a personalised folder printed and sent to you. There is only the choice of A4 or A5 - but a nicely personalised A5 folder could be a great gift. You could set the inside up with any kind of custom pages - a week in the life set, a holiday journal or an easy to complete December Daily style project. I'd like to design my own, but you could use printable templates from someone like Ali Edwards, Cathy Zielske or there are tonnes on Etsy - like these from Printable Possibility (I've not tried these by the way - it's just an example).

A note on A5 though, you'd have to use custom paper sizes if you wanted to include tabs. That's the issue I found with my Paperchase files. They are made to for exactly A5 paper so anything else, like page protectors, are too big because of the hole punched section. Also whilst we're on the topic of Paperchase - their 6x4 pockets don't fit a 6x4 photo, they are smidge too small, which is fine for crafty projects but a nightmare if you want to slot a bunch of photos in.

'Five minute a day' bread

I've made a start.
As part of wanting to eat more 'real' food I've decided to try making my own bread. I don't want to give up bread entirely, although that would probably be good for me - I'd like to eat stuff without additional chemicals and I want it to taste like bread.

I've noticed that the (admittedly sometimes comforting) sliced white bread we buy tastes of not much. Over christmas we bought a loaf of real bread with cranberries and seeds and it was delicious. Really worth eating. I'd like to eat things that are worth eating. Less but better.

I've made bread before, but I find it extremely annoying. I know, you don't have to do anything whilst it rises, but it still takes that amount of time. I've never been prepared enough to do it in advance. I've tried this no-rise bread from Crafty Kin, maybe I did it wrong but I found it very doughy.

I had checked out the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day website before looking for faster ways of making breads. Now I've finally got to a point where I want to try and have it ready in advance. I got the book for Christmas and it is rising as I write this.

I mixed the dough. Looks gross, but super easy.
Let it rise. Looks even grosser, but you don't have to watch it.
Left it in the fridge.
Cut off a 'lump'. I say lump. Slurrrb is more like it. And managed to form it with a bit of extra flour.
Left it out to 'rise'.

How easy is it?
It's not difficult, but the squishy dough is tricky.

The real test - how does it taste?
It tastes like real bread! It's quite chewy and you know you've eaten it.

There is enough for another boule in the fridge. I'd like to try the pizza next. If we can make Italian style thin pizza I will be extremely pleased. Our trip to Venice has rather ruined any other kind for me ;)

Extending my December Daily 2014

I've decided to extend my December album to the full month. You must be mad I hear you cry.
Stick with me for a moment on this one - do you do project life as well as a December album? Generally? And what about in December?

This is the second year I've done a full 12x12 project life album. Last year I had some trouble sorting out December as I'd put eveything in the Daily and I didn't want to print it out again. Then it finished. I had to put Boxing day - New years eve in the Project life. It was weird.

I've pretty much ended my Project life this year at the end of November, I've realised that if I put all of Decmeber in its own album, I don't have to worry about completeing both.

Plus I did some Christmas-y things after the 25th I wanted to include and another major reason - its snowed on the 26th! yay! Christmas snow pictures. They belong in the December Daily.

I've learned some things this year doing this project.

Firstly you don't need a lot of 'stuff'. I didn't buy anything because I decided to use things I already had. I used a few scraps and a nice little paper pad to do my journalling on, but not loads of bits and pieces.

I don't like working with the small horizontal pockets and large vertical. It's all wrong. 3x4 is awesome for me and I like to add Instagrams and write under them not at the side. It's been a bit uncomfortable with this layout, but worth the challenge and I do love the end product.

When it gets near the end of the season just get it finished. Do the minimum that will finish off a page if you know you won't look at it again for another year!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! x

10 Ways to keep up with your December album

Isn't December just flying by? Every year I forget how fast it goes once you're into the month. Case in point -  the other day I watched
Polar Express as I didn't want to watch one of my real favourite Christmas films as it's not near enough to Christmas. This is silly. I'll never have time to watch them all. I should start in November. (I always watch the full set of Harry Potter in November). Or just get on with it.

This is how I now deal with my December Daily. Just get on with it. I try not to worry too much if something better is going to happen or if there will be a better place for a certain card or embellishment.

'Keeping up' with it seems to be the main reason for people not completing their albums, not enjoying it or not doing it again. How do you 'keep up' during the madness? Here are some ideas.


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