It started with one Filofax ...

My obsession with Filofaxes started in September. The idea was simple: purchase a Filofax, use the diary, fill the 'fax with all the useful information I need, get organised. I really did set out to use a single binder, really I did ...

The first one was a personal size Finsbury in black that looked very boring and is far too big for my bag. A couple of weeks later I went to Staples and found a pink pocket size Metropol for a fiver ... The size was sooo much better, but the binder was oh so very pink ... I didn't keep that one long. Then along came a pocket size Malden in Vintage Pink. This is my main binder with everything in and can easily double up as a wallet. Love it love it love it! I love the zippy pocket, the colour, the size, yummy leathery smell ... And my mini size diary fits in my Malden whenever I want to have a change from my mini ...

Do you see where this is going ...?

... Oops TKMaxx had loads of Filofaxes in ... Oh dear! I accidentally acquired a black mini Amazona and my current love, the red mini Finsbury Zip I mentioned in my previous post. And just the other day I found a personal Graphic in Staples for a fiver - Well I couldn't leave it there could I ...!  

 (and I forgot to mention the personal size Metropol in Kingfisher Blue thats on order ... Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!!)

This is not good and really must stop. My bank balance is suffering and my friends think I'm a nutter ...

Here are my 'filos ...  (yes they do all have a use!)

And then I see photos of other people's Filofax collections and realise my obsession is quite mild after all!! Heehee. :o)

My Lovely New Filofax Finsbury Mini Zip!

Gosh has it really been six months since my last post? Eek! And to make matters worse this post isn't even about dolls, or anything crafty ... Its about my lovely new Filofax! And theres plenty of photos of it too lol! I will however be posting about the dolls I had for Christmas sometime in the near future.

Anyhow, lets get straight to the point ... My lovely red Finsbury Mini Zip!

My beloved Frixion pen won't fit inside, so I picked up a Filofax Flex cheap from TKMaxx and trimmed down the pen loop just enough to fit in the rather tight external pocket. The loop itself is elasticated so will fit most of my pens.

The inside left has some useful pockets where I keep my most useful business cards (handyman, pet sitter, local taxi) and also my doctor details in case of emergency. The clear flysheet has small post-its with reminders on. Behind the flysheet you can see my current food shopping list ...

Then I have a full 2013 week on two pages diary. The front of the diary has a 2013 calendar and I've highlighted important dates like birthdays and anniversaries so I can see at a glance. Details are written in the diary. I also have Notes, To Dos, and Addresses. These are marked with Martha Stewart Mini Tabs, which I luuuurve!

Finally, tucked in the back pocket is a Moleskine Volant Extra Small which fits in beautifully, avoiding the ring mechanism, and a Filofax pen!

So there you have it! I am really pleased with the size (rather the lack of it lol!), the set up, the colour, and the stiffness of the binder allowing me to write without having to find a flat surface. The price was good too, good ol' TKMaxx ...! I hope you enjoyed reading about my new diary ... Here's one last photo ...

New members of the family. :o)

Our new additions, Peter and Godzilla ....

This is Peter in his fave place, guarding the millet.

And heres Godzilla, cleaning himself and generally not cooperating ...

Their previous owners think they're about five years old, and they were living in a teeny tiny cage with no room to stretch their wings out ... They can't fly which suggests they were never let out ... And they stank of cigarettes. :o(  Of course they are now living the good life and being totally spoiled! They are too scared to come out the (large, new) cage yet ... They will build up to that at their own pace, they've only been with us a couple of weeks and are still learning to trust us.

Pippa Convo 2012

The Pippa Convention this year was held in Manchester on 26 May. I was part of the convo doll design team again this year ... Everyone who attends sends a Pippa doll in to be customised. This year Pippa was customised in the style of Dita Von Tease as this year is Pippas 40th birthday, so we wanted to do something special!

Heres some photos ...

On the left is my convo doll, on the right is a custom Pippa by Suey Gaythorpe that I won!

A Pippa doll army!

Some more of my dolls. Here we have Patriotic Pippa for show and tell, Birthday Party Rosemary, Pippa as a fairy, and I bought the Pippa in the purple dress.

No proper stamping for ages, then ...

... three birthdays this week, so yesterday it was time to dust off the birthday stamps and get down to some serious stamping! And I'm quite pleased with the results too ... except I can't show you as Blogger is being very naughty and not letting me upload any photos! Bad Blogger! Ah well ....

I was giddy as a kipper this morning - a rather large package arrived for me all the way from Australia! A few weeks ago I entered a competition for a spool knitting group I've joined ... and my name was picked out the hat! So what was the lovely prize? Well I was thrilled to have won a Santa knitting nancy and a truly gorgeous book 'A Very Beaded Christmas', packed full of lovely seasonal projects! I will certainly be having a go at some of those ...! And will post a photo when Blogger behaves itself! ...! A huge thank you to Maz who runs the group - until recently I thought I was the only adult who would admit to still doing French Knitting lol ...!

Right then. I'm off now to have another go a uploading these here photos ...!

A Challenge for 2012

A lot of bloggers set themselves a challenge to last throughout the year ... whether it may be a calendar page for each month, or a Christmas card a week, or anything else - all are brilliant ideas and I've been wanting to set myself a challenge too. The challenge I settle on has to be something I can pick up and put down on a whim as sometimes time is tight, and not too in-depth, complicated or time consuming and something that can be a bit varied so I don't lose interest. The challenge I'm setting myself is to knit/weave/crochet a scarf a month for the next year. It doesn't sound too taxing does it, but it will enable me to hopefully learn new techniques without adding any stress of having too much to do, maybe even knitting on 'proper' knitting needles (ha!), and if I do more than one in a month it really doesn't matter!

So what will I do with the finished articles? As of yet I have no idea (next years Christmas gifts??) there's plenty of time to sort that out yet! In the meantime it will be interesting to find out what challenges others are setting for themselves!

WOYWW - Playing with my new stamps ...

Well here is my dining table this week ... I have been playing with my new M&S Kirstie Allsopp stamps I had for Christmas, although the chicken on the orange paper on the cutting mat is a freebie from Craft Stamper. The thank you card is for my lovely MIL who bought me Pippa dolls for Christmas (see previous posts for more about these). I do love the tin the stamps came in, its very pretty and I have a million and one uses for it already! The white bag contains numerous balls of wool yet to be put away, as I'm going through a scarf-making phase... trouble is I make the scarves then give them away before I remember to take a photo. Duh! The last one I knitted was a long black scarf with red and black fringe on the ends ... It looked lovely (honest!) and was very well recieved.

Here's a close-up of what came in the tin ... stamps, ink pad, ribbons, tags and notelets ... all very useful of course!

So why am I showing you this? Well its WOYWW of course, that time of the week when hundreds of bloggers around the world share what is on their desks ... To find out more please go to Julias blog here .

New Year, New Look ...

Today I started faffing around on my laptop and have given my blog a fresh new look - I hope you like it -  it took me ages to figure out how to alter the background, header picture, etc and I still can't add my signature to the end of every post! If anyone can help please...?


Also I would like to wish everyone who reads this a very Happy New Year!!! I wasn't in a fit state to post anything yesterday after having got home just before four in the morning ... now I feel fully recovered and ready to send the kiddies back to school on Wednesday!!!

WOYWW - Wednesday Again Already!!!

Hello! Not a lot of crafting has been attempted over the last few days ...mainly because my craft table is in fact the dining table, so needed to be cleared for Christmas dinner!!! So here's a photo of Santa arriving at our village instead ...

  ... and here he is when we went to a special 'Breakfast with Santa' on Christmas Eve ... we all had a lovely cooked breakfast whilst Santa went from table to table and spoke to all the children. We then sang a few Christmas songs before Santa read a couple of stories ... It was a lovely morning, and my children (age 10, 9 and 7) really enjoyed it!

And finally here are the cards I made in a hurry just before we went to Santa's breakfast - they're still not quite finished at this stage ...! And these were the last things I made before today, except I've just remembered I started knitting another scarf last night and haven't taken any photos of it yet though ...

Christmas Day was absolutely wonderful, but I sort of covered that in my previous posts ... The time is going sooooo fast, and its hard to believe next Wednesday all will be back to the normal routine with Christmas just a pleasant memory ...

Now I'm off to have a nose at desks around the world ... care to join me? The best place to start is WOYWW Creator Julia's blog here ! Go on, race you there ...!

All Dolled Up at the Dolly Spa

*Warning* loads of photos - you have been warned!!

Today was spent giving the Pippa dolls I recieved yesterday a bit of a spruce up. The hair was a little tangled, especially on the Princess one, and the dolls had a vague aroma of eau de loft ...

Soft toothbrushes and baby shampoo are good for gentle cleaning. The dolls are about 40 years old so are in pretty good condition for their age ..

The hair on the Princess doll is very good, just in need of a gentle wash and brush .. Many dolls had their hair chopped by children playing hairdressers ... This Princess is a Dancing Princess because when you move her left arm, her head and waist turn as if she's dancing the twist! How clever!

 Having a hair treatment ... fabric conditioner works best.

 Fruit Shoot tops are perfect for holding the hair in place whilst drying ...

The clothes the Pippas came in were lovely clothes, but not what they would have originally been sold in ... and there's no way of telling which issue the dolls were either, so I've made a guess ... From left to right we have 2nd edition Marie, 3rd edition Pippa and I believe Dancing Princess Pippa was only ever sold in the green sparkly dress ...

That's all for today ... I'll bore you with more Pippa-related stuff another time!