This morning I finally got around to updating my Etsy shop.
All of the Polly Dolly prints are re-listed and the wooden houses are there too.
So, just in case you need a gift for a new home, Christmas (sorry to use the ‘C’ word in October) or just something to make you smile have a look here:
♥ My Etsy Shop ♥
After all the hours of watching planner reviews, checking shipping prices and being sorely tempted to have more than one, the decision was made and I finally settled on……. (insert drumroll here…)
The Kate Spade medium planner. It was the black and white stripe that did it. The inside cover has black polkadots on a white background – what could I do?
I ordered it from My Shining Armour on Wednesday lunch time, it arrived by courier on Friday morning. Great service for a €5.50 delivery fee.
Of course the packaging was shiny – what else would you expect? and it came with a little note and some jelly sweets.
Now my quandary is when to start using it. The planner started in August and goes through to December 2017 , perhaps I will start on November 1st it doesn’t seem right to jump in half way through a month. Or possibly wait for January?
This planner is beautiful, it has really smooth paper and I am delighted with it. I now have a whole 2017 planner insert from Paperchase that I don’t need – give me a shout if you’d like it, i’d love someone to put it to good use!
For some reason I am filled with Fridayosity today. This is odd since I don’t have a Monday to Friday job, but lets go with it anyway!
What do I have to show you today? well, I finished the painting of the little creatures that weren’t pigs. They are in fact ‘Spoonlings’ ( I told you my head was a bit strange). I’m not sure where they live yet, but I have some other little illustrations of them in the making. I’m very fond of them indeed.
As tomorrow is the first of October, I decided it was time to put out some Autumn decorations. Last year I had a lovely table decoration (as you can see here) so I used the same again. I added some oak leaves , acorns and leaves from the Virginia Creeper which turn a beautiful red colour at this time of year.
This is a very subtle lead up to the Halloween decorations…. As there are no kiddos at home anymore I cannot pretend to be putting them up for them, but they’re gong up anyway!
I like this, we’ll see how close I get to it. There are so many Halloween decor ideas on Pinterest I could get completely carried away, all I need is a local pumpkin patch and a black cat (surprisingly hard to find!)
I will be working like a mad woman to put the finishing touches to all the bits and pieces i’m bringing to Meath. I am now the proud owner of a travelling display wall (another ingenious invention from Tim) so I can display the paintings I may or may not get finished. My Christmas cards arrived from the printers today so that’s another thing ready to go. Its coming together and my aim is to be packed and ready a full 24 hours before I leave, not racing around at the last minute….. We can but hope.
Wishing you all lots of that Fridayosity feeling, have a great weekend.
Felicia xx
The last few weeks have been a bit crazy. A lot crazy actually. We were away on holiday, then Zac went back to college. Tim had an minor surgery and then we had a family wedding. The holiday and wedding were fantastic and the surgery and college move went smoothly. I’m not complaining at all, it was a great month, but I am totally wrecked!
This week I have had the luxury of mostly staying at home. Of course, as soon as I stopped racing around I caught a cold (doesn’t that always happen?) so I’m really making the most of it. Being at home doesn’t mean nothing to do though, I have taken a stall at the Women’s Inspire network event which is on the 5th October. This is a bit of a leap of faith, but nothing ventured and all that. I will need stock to sell, the cards are ready. The fauxdori’s are ready, the aprons arrived today, but I don’t have any paintings.
Fortunately, today was the day the paint bug hit! which means I don’t want to do anything else but paint pictures.
I set a task of finishing six 5″x 5″ paintings which of course I didn’t! Although I finished and framed two and drew out some outline ideas for the others I got stuck on the last one.
I love to paint houses, so I drew out some of those. After that I drew some floral outlines, and then while I was doodling these little characters appeared. I love it when that happens, I’m just painting away minding my own business and suddenly these little creatures turn up saying, “paint us, paint us!”
Because I have a very strange imagination (I’ve always said my head is a lovely place to live) they suddenly developed names and hobbies and a bit of a story…… and now I’ll never get the other paintings finished!
This is what they look like so far. Meet Doris and Hector! They look a bit like pigs but they won’t be when they’re finished, I really hope I can make them look like they do in my head.
I wonder if you can set up a stall with just two finished paintings?
If you are going to the Women’s Inspire event in Meath then please come and say hello, then you’ll see how many paintings I actually got finished!
Felicia xx
Hello again, last week I looked at the Filfox, MAMBI, Erin Condren and Kate Spade planners. Today I have four more, you might not have heard of them all, but I thought they had enough good points to review them.
This first one is called the Ban.do Classic Agenda. Nope, I hadn’t heard of it either but it is a whole world of colour, positivity and fun!
I will say I have discounted this from my search for being ( I can’t believe i’m going to say this, i’m so old!!) too young. However, it would be a perfect gift for a teenager. It comes in two sizes, the medium measures 6 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ which costs $28 and large which measures 8 x 10″ which costs $32.
As you can see it has a month on two pages layout with note space. Laminated tabs, a ribbon page marker and elastic closure. It again is a 17 month agenda, so perfect for the school year. Whats really nice for teens are the little compliments that adorn the pages, there are doodles to colour & loads of stickers. You could go a bit mad on the accessories too!
Ban.do offer loads of different covers (which can be personalized with your name for an extra $5) but its the shipping that makes it a big purchase. The medium planner would cost $38 to ship from Kentucky and again there is import duty. But guess what? Those lovely people at My Shining Armour have a selection of them on their site. You won’t get to personalize them but how bad? for between €27 – €37 and minimal shipping you have a perfect gift for any teenage girl in your life.
This one is my favourite so far – but of course its shipping from America so it makes it a big purchase.
It’s very Erin Condren like in layout and has a multitude of customizing choices. It measures 7 1/2″ x 9″ for the medium size, the larger one is 8 1/2″ x 11″. Whats really nice about this one is that you can choose to have anywhere between 6 to 18 months in it and you can choose when it starts! It has all the usual things like a strong spiral binding, laminated tabs and pocket folders, there are also a huge amount of add ons to choose from.
Of course these push up the cost but if you’re going to get it you may as well do it right! The list of add ons include, a fitness tracker, budget planner, meal planner, home and blog planning to name a few, they cost $4.50 each.
It does say that the national holidays are on an information page, so I think you can opt not to have them included on the calendar. (Again, American holidays aren’t much use to me). The paper weight is 120gsm so its pretty good quality, so far I like it all.
The postage to Ireland would cost $19.75 , which with 2 add ons makes a total of $58.50.
Plum Paper also have an Etsy shop, you can still choose all the options for add ons, layout, add your name etc but you don’t get as many covers to choose from. The costs on Etsy are in Euro, so it would be €52.17 (that’s a medium planner, 2 add ons and shipping).
♥ PLUM PAPER HAVE VERY KINDLY OFFERED A DISCOUNT CODE TO ANYONE WHO WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE A PLANNER! ♥ leave a comment if you would like me to send it to you.
So what if you want to make your own planner? well, there are lots of options available online to print your own inserts. You just need to have either a Filofax style cover or an A5 binder. Then you choose your calendar, dividers, to – do lists, checklists and anything else you can think of from and Etsy seller and print away!
One of my absolute favourites is Anna Brim, also known as Mrs Brimbles. Everything on her site is hand drawn, some are coloured already and some just outlines so that you can colour them. She has a particular love of rabbits… and bees…. and owls. You can get a beautiful set of bumble bee decorated planner inserts for €8.49 which contains all of this:
About Me / Personal information
Address sheets
Birthdays / Anniversaries
Chore Chart
Diary pages (week per two pages)
Dinner Plan
Housework Chart
Lists
Meal Plan
Medication Chart
Notes
Quotes pages
Reminder pages
Sites and Passwords tracker
Spending Money tracker
To Do checklist
Wish list
That’s a complete planner right there! of course you do have the expense of printing it yourself but that is still a really good deal. This way you get to choose the paper you use, I have purchased a few printables from Anna and found lightweight card to be perfect.
There are designs for all seasons and occasions, the best bit is once you have purchased them you can print them as many times as you want, so you never run out of pages. The calendar is not date specific so you can print a new one for each year (but i’d want to have another design by then!)
Paperchase stock planners, inserts and every kind of stationery you can think of. I was in the Covent Garden shop over the weekend and had a good look at what was there. The paper is really good quality and what really surprised me was the size of the large planners. They measure about 8 x 9 1/4″, which doesn’t look so big on a ruler but when its in your hands it’s huge! It would definitely be something that would be left on your desk rather than be carried around in your bag. The standard size is 5 1/2 x 7 1/2″ which is the same as Filofax.
I of course did the same thing I have done in the past. I stood surrounded by planners and couldn’t decide which one I liked. Then the voice of reason said, “what about your Filofax?” so I bought a calendar for 2017 (the holes are punched to fit Filofax or their own planners) just in case I decide to use it again next year….
If you look at there online shop they have a sale on some planner right now. The personal size is £11 and would cost £6 for postage. There are also Paperchase departments in Dundrum shopping centre and Arnotts in Dublin. They have a great range but don’t ship (even within Ireland) however, well worth a look if you’re in Dublin.
So, that is the round up of Planners for 2017. I’m not sure if I’ve helped you make your minds up or just confused the issue more! I can’t choose between the Plum Paper, Kate Spade or my Filofax…… I know, it’s only September, there is no rush, I’ve had a feast of stationery shops this weekend and am now addled. On the great scale of things this doesn’t matter at all, but its such fun choosing. As any other planner lovers will agree I’m sure!
Please let me know what you’ve chosen. I had a message from a friend to tell me Prima had a new planner out so there are more choices all the time.
By the way, I was in this shop yesterday but didn’t have much time to look around as I was heading back to the airport…. probably just as well!
Felicia xx
As I said in the last post, choosing a planner is a big deal. They can be pretty expensive, so you need to know you’ll use it. My first planner was in 1990, just as the Yuppy period was coming to an end I finally saved enough to buy a black leather Filofax. It is a personal sized Buckingham – they probably haven’t made that style since then.
I still have it, last year I bought all the new inserts. I thought I would resurrect my vintage Filo, but the paper (even though expensive) is really thin and I find the personal size just a bit too small. So, back on the shelf it went, it’ll probably be worth a fortune one day!
Then I moved onto Dodo Pads. Anyone heard of them? I had at least four of these, they had very nice paper and lots of doodles to colour.
Way back then they were spiral bound, now they are punched for rings- but they are still around i’m glad to see!
So, what are the choices today? I have looked eight different planners, I will give you as much information as I could find on each. i’ll just do four today and four next week. Go and make a cup of coffee and settle in, this could take a while!
These come in A4, A5, Personal, Pocket and Mini sizes. There are so many different styles with prices that range from about €40 for a denim cover to € 179 for a top of the range leather cover. They are available in Easons, so you can have a good look at the layout before purchasing or at Filofax.com . Since you replace the calendar each year it is obviously reusable, and you can buy different add ons such as budget sheets, address book and note pages.
They are very smart looking planners, they have pockets for bits and pieces, a pen loop and card slots. I’m starting to wonder if my one deserves another chance?
“The what?” I hear you ask. If you are someone who loves to decorate your planner then this might interest you.
MAMBI stands for’Me and My Big Ideas’ , there Create 365 ‘Happy planner’ has a lot going for it.
You can order either horizontal or vertical layout. It has a month at a view followed by a week on two page layout. The dividers are decorated and the tabs laminated. It measures approximately 10 x 8″ and the basic cost is $29.99. It also has ’12 month kits’ with different themes to allow you to have coordinated decorations, so sticking to the basic planner could be tricky! This planner covers 18 months which is ideal if you are a teacher or student, but it’s not for everyone. There aren’t any customizing options but there are quite a few designs to choose from.
The good things about this planner are really good, but here are the cons…
My big dislike of this planner is the binding. It uses a disc binding system, little plastic rounds that grip onto the pages. They may be fine, but I definitely wouldn’t trust this planner in my bag.
It ships from California, the shipping cost is $46.50 (yes, you read that right) which is crazy! Bare in mind the dreaded import duty that we get charged on a lot of orders from America.
However, there is another way. While I was searching around I found a fabulous site in Surrey, UK. called’ The Homemakery’ they have a selection of Happy Planners priced at £29.99 with a shipping price to Ireland of just £8.00. No import duty, I would imagine the post would take a week at the most, so if you like this planner its a better option.
You knew it had to make the list somewhere! I think this is the most talked about planner of all, if you have a love of planners then you’ve heard this name. There are thousands of ‘unboxing’ videos on Youtube, it really is a craze that seems to be lasting. Okay, where do I start?
There are loads of cover designs to choose from. You can customize your cover with your name or even a photo (which I like) It measures 9×7″ and is coil bound (not spiral bound) this year the size of the coil has been increased to give more room for ‘stuff’! You can have horizontal or vertical layout, you can add and take out sections, its colourful, the tabs are laminated, and it has matching accessories. It would take a while to put your order together simply because there is so much choice. Things like changing the colour of the coil to match your cover, or even using your own unique design for a cover are options but beware, the cost of the changes add up quickly!
The presentation when it arrives to you is really nice. It’s wrapped in tissue and has notecards and stickers in the box. It’s the little things that make it special.
I looked at a basic planner with no accessories and it was $55.00 and the shipping is $19.95 for 8-12 day delivery. The cost isn’t actually as bad as I thought it would be, but don’t forget the import duty. I could go on and on about this one, but there is no need – hundreds of Youtubers have done it for me!
Forgive me while I swoon a little over this one! It measures 73/4″ x 6″ . It is spiral bound within the cover,horizontal layout, the tabs are laminated, there are note pages (very important) and the public holidays are listed on a page and not printed onto the planner (excellent idea if you live in a different country). This one covers 17 months from August 2016 to December 2017.
I have a planner that last until this December, so is this a bit of a waste? Also, I think its very sensible, no colour, this one has a good chance of being next years planner, but is it a bit too grown up? (I may be an adult, but i’m not a grown up!) I’m also a little worried about the weight of the paper, the reviews of the 2016 edition claim the paper was too thin (the same problem as the Filofax).
Already i’m thinking, “you could change the paper”, but that is why i’m searching for the perfect planner. Something out there must tick all the boxes right? Then the part of me that is in love with the cover is saying,” you write in pencil, whats the problem?” –
Kate Spade = quality = expensive but Guess what? I found an Irish source! Nicki Hoyne from ‘My Shining Armour’ has this for €38.00 and since it ships from Kilkenny postage is only €5.50! (or €10 if you’re in real hurry). It’s also available in a larger 91/4″ x 71/2″ size that costs €46.00.
Actually, this site has some amazing goodies – if you sign up for the email list you get a 10% discount that you can use for jewellery or their pouches. I always say shopping online isn’t really my thing… I may change my mind!
Right, that’s the first four. I will be back on Tuesday with the rest – and hopefully a decision on which one to order!
Felicia xx
Okay, it means the kids go back to school. But, what about all the things that go with that? like new school bags, new notebooks, new folders and my all time favourite new pencil cases!
It also means new starts to me,like a new years day all over again. No matter what that might be it’s a fresh beginning. A great time start something new, or give up something that you don’t need.
I am a stationery geek. I get ridiculously excited at this time of year when I go into Easons ,all those pens and Hello Kitty erasers!
We haven’t had any ‘going back to school’ kids for a while now, my son is going back to college tomorrow for his second year. (He chose a Spiderman pencil case, because apparently, ‘You’re never too old for Spiderman’). That doesn’t stop me buying new stationery for myself.
(My current stack of notebooks)
Now, my absolute favourite and most used item is my diary/ planner. I literally do not know what i’m doing or what I’ve done unless I write it down in there. Because there is a hint of neat freak about me, I write in pencil so I can rub out any changes and not have scribbles ( I told you I was a geek!)
Around now I start to think about next years planner, start watching all the Youtube videos on different brands and say, “next year i’ll actually use those stickers I ordered..” I love those planner videos with the colour coded pens and the stickers, but realistically it’s not me. How do they have time to fill it in like that?
All of this got me thinking, I’m not the only one who uses a diary/ planner. I know there are many different criteria for finding the right one for you. Is it spiral bound? Is it a horizontal or vertical layout? What size suits best? Can you customize it? What’s the cost? These are important questions!
So, I am going to write a series of blog posts on the subject – I know some people who just fell off their chairs with excitement and some that don’t get this at all. (In which case, sorry and please come back soon x)
I’ll be back on Friday with my first look at whats out there for my fellow paper lovers.
Bye!
Felicia xx
Last week Tim & I took off on our summer holiday to France. We flew from Cork to Carcassone with Ryanair, the flight is only an hour and forty five minutes. Pre- booking your seats costs a few extra euro, but to me, not doing it would ruin my holiday. That may sound a little dramatic but i’m extremely claustrophobic. A seat as close to the front as possible means a stress free flight – always a good way to start my trip!
Once we arrived we drove south to Ax- Le- Therme in the Pyrenees. Actually I drove, Tim gets to navigate. So after a few miles of trying to change gear in the door and being very careful of roundabouts we settled into enjoying the scenery.
This area of France is beautiful (isn’t most of it?) very little English is spoken and its just as you expect a French town to be. However, we only spent the evenings there really – the days were spent having mountain adventures!
We have visited this region before so we did one walk that we couldn’t finish last time, and then chose new routes.
The big surprise this time was the heat. They seem to have crazy accurate forecasts, but what the temperature rose to and what it felt like were very different. On our second day it was forecast and hit 38.5°- that is unimaginable if you live in Kerry! However, two days later the forecast was for thunder and rain at 2 pm. At 2.15 pm the heavens opened and the temperature was 14.5°, bizarre, but there you have it.
Even though it was so hot, I wore long trousers for walking. The reason is pure vanity! You see, if you wear shorts you get a tan from the bottom of your shorts to the top of your socks. It cannot be evened up with fake tan (believe me I’ve tried!) You can tell the climbers in town in the evenings, they are the ones with the shocking white ankles and feet!
One afternoon was spent at the ‘Maison de Loups’, this was definitely my favourite part of the trip. Now, I have to tell you I am not a fan of keeping animals out of their natural habitat. These wolves were born in captivity and have a huge area of nature reserve to roam in. I’m torn between wanting them to be running free and being so grateful that I could see them as close up as I did.
The park is divided into different areas for different wolves, here are the Arctic wolves.
European wolves.
And Canadian wolves. I cannot explain how much I love this creature, look at the paws!
I was so ridiculously happy I could have cried! They are so beautiful.
I had visions of the evening news having the headline: “Crazy women from Ireland arrested for trying to smuggle a wolf out of the country in her hand luggage”. So I resisted….. just.
All in all, the whole holiday was fantastic. If you like walking (not necessarily up mountains) beautiful scenery and good weather then I would definitely recommend a visit to the Pyrenees.
We are all more aware of the sugar we eat these days. Not just in the form of sweets and chocolate but the hidden sugars that seem to be absolutely everything!
There are loads of fabulous cookbooks full of healthy living recipes, Deliciously Ella, Fearne Cotton, and Davina are some of my favourites. Now, don’t go thinking I live a fully sugar free life – I don’t. But I do feel better when I cut it down to a minimum. For years I’ve had dark circles under my eyes, ridiculous amounts of money have been spent on concealers, none of which worked. But when I cut down on sugar they got visibly better – that alone is worth resisting the cake!
When I am trying to be good this is the recipe I reach for, its really easy and keeps well.
100g butter *
100g honey
150g Oats
1 apple, peeled and chopped
A handful of dates, chopped.
* you can use coconut oil instead of butter if you are cutting out dairy. I only use 50g though otherwise I find the flavour too strong.
Preheat the oven t0 175° and line a 1LB loaf tin.
Melt the butter and honey in a saucepan, then add the oats. Mix well.
Put half of this mixture into the tin. Press it down with a spoon, layer the chopped apple and dates on top then add the rest of the mixture. Press it down again and bake for 25 minutes.
Leave it in the tin to cool but cut it into slices while it’s still hot.
Delicious with a cup of coffee and surprisingly filling.
Enjoy!
Felicia xx
When I write my odd ramblings on this blog I don’t really consider who might read it. I used to, and do you know what? It really held me back because I worried about what those people might think.
That sentence has a lot to answer for.
I hadn’t really noticed that this had changed until today. I was talking to a friend who was trying hard to ignore her fortieth birthday. She was really sad that her thirties had passed and wanted to know what was so good about being in your forties.
That’s a really good question. What is so good about getting older?
There are many things, but the one that cheered her up the most was, ‘The older I get, the less I care what people think of me.’ To be honest I surprised myself with this answer, but its true!
A big part of this comes from the support and friendship of other women. When I think back to my teenage years, I shudder! There were always the cool girls who decided who was in and who was not. I was always way too ‘out there’ to be in, I hated most of secondary school. In fairness, if I hadn’t been so shy I would have stood up for myself a bit more and it wouldn’t have been as bad. That’s another good thing about being over forty- you can look back and realise things weren’t as bad as you thought. Whats done is done, if I knew then what I know now etc!
I am blessed with good friends both in ‘real life’ (as in, women I know) and online. I have been encouraged by their words and inspired by their stories-
I think the older we get the more confident we are in ourselves, we become emotionally stronger and more aware of who we surround ourselves with.
So, thank you to all my women friends, those of you I know and those of you who I know through the power of the internet. There is a little voice in my head saying, ” are you really going to post this, what will people think of you?” but, yes, I’m going to. I trust that my tribe won’t judge me and might even agree.
Here’s to being over forty and loving every minute of it!
Felicia xx
