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In Blogging/ Felicia the Artist

Art Sale

Art SaleArt Sale.

Is there anybody out there?

Probably not, It has been more than a year since my last blog post.

I like to blog to give myself a visual diary, so I’m blogging today.

This morning I took a notion to sort out my art room. Oh my goodness, why did I start?

Everytime I do this (which admittedly is only about every two years) I end up getting rid of a ton of stuff.

Last time I had recently stopped teaching childrens art classes at home, so I gave loads of things to the local school.

This time I was sorting paintings…… I have so many.

So, I think an Instagram art sale is in order!

I’m still working out how to do it to make it easy for the customer.

The sale will include some prints, they are being sold in Ikea frames. They are only on sale because I don’t use those frames anymore.

Some small original pieces and then two or three large pieces.

There are Polly Dollies, florals and quirky watercolour bits.

If you are on my mailing list you will get notification 24 hours before it goes live, just in case you’d like to snaffle something!

If you’d like to join the mailing list have a look on the home page of my website.

I will photographing each piece over the next few days, drop me  aline if there is something you’ve had ypur eye on.

That’s all my news for today,

F xx

 

 

 

In Blogging/ Craft/ Life in General

Humbug Free Christmas Shopping.

Humbug Free Christmas Shopping.

Well, even though the TV and shops were shouting about it since Halloween, Christmas is finally here!

The tree is up since the 1st December (it’s never been that early before), mince pies have been consumed and Hallmark movies are on a loop.

What have I been doing since my last post you may ask… well considering that was early last year, quite a lot!

Too much to tell you really, so I’m going to skip ahead to now and pretend you’re all up to date.

Humbug free Christmas Shopping

Last Christmas I joined the Old Market Flea  in Killarney. It is found at the back of The Laurels pub on the second Sunday of each month and every Saturday & Sunday in December.

I have been there for most of them, I think I missed two. It has been such a lovely market, I’ve met new customers and made lovely friends with other stall holders.

This Sunday is my last one for the year. It will be on for the following weekend too, but i’m declaring Christmas holidays after this one!

So, if you want to get a print, a framed print, a card or a cushion (I’ve only got three left) come in and see me.

Humbug Free Christmas Shopping

Humbug free Christmas Shopping.

(Look how nice the cushions look piled onto a bed!)

There are so many different stalls from cakes and doughnuts to wood carving and antiques. Vintage clothes and fairies to jewellery and art. With so many things in one place it definitely makes Christmas shopping Humbug free!

Have a lovely weekend,

F xx

 

 

In Blogging/ Craft

How to sew a Goose.

 

How to sew a goose.

We’ll get to the goose soon….

Once upon a time I started a blog. This blog was called Scrapzville and I had it for many years.

Looking back at the first year or two I see that I wrote long, rambling posts, as if you (the reader) and I were sitting at the kitchen table having  a chat. Not only did I post long rambling blogs, I posted often. So what changed?

Well, two things. Firstly, I started to get ‘followers’. People, some of whom I knew and some I didn’t, started to read it, and I got an unmerciful dose of the ‘What will they think of me?’ bug. I got shy and bothered and started to write what I thought it would be OK for people to read, instead of what I wanted to write. So, I wrote less and less and eventually I decided on a big change in the hope of a fresh start.

How not to sew a goose.

The second thing, after I changed from Blogger to WordPress was the bloody SEO scores! I like long sentences, the SEO does not. There are these little spots of colour at the top of the page, it starts off red, orange is ‘needs improvement’ and green is good. I’m at the mercy of these spots, shortening sentences all over the place for the elusive green!

(I bet you’re wondering about the goose?)

 

All this to say that I want to go back to rambling. I’ve been gone for so long that I doubt anyone will read this, I will though. Sometimes I go back and read really old posts, it’s like an online diary, it’s cosy, I like it.

So, if you are still here, well done. Make some tea or coffee and we’ll get to the goose!

 

Last weekend I took a notion to sew something, and for some reason I decided on a goose. Now, I don’t have a pattern for it so I looked on Pinterest (where else?!) but none of them were the right shape. Apparently there is a quilting pattern called ‘Silly Goose’ so that came up a lot, but very few soft toy types.

Eventually, I drew out my own. This is a very ‘make it up as you go’ kind of thing, so this could be a very odd looking creature.

How to sew a goose

I cut out the pieces ( I could’ve ironed the fabric first…) and started sewing. How to sew a goose

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was doing so well until I turned the neck the right side out. This is what comes from making it up as you go, I forgot to turn the beak the right way before I sewed it in. This meant battling that long skinny neck with a knitting needle to turn it seam side out, unpicking the beak and starting again.

(Just so you know, the little spot has gone orange, it didn’t like that last sentence!)

Eventually I had a shape that looked fairly good. I used toy stuffing, sewed her up added a bow and Ta da… a Goose!!

 

How to sew a goose.

Now, the only thing that I would change is the position of the legs. They are quite far forward which makes her look a bit like the Loch Ness monster, but for a first attempt at pattern making I think it’s pretty good.

How to sew a goose

So there you have it. There is a goose, loose about this hoose!

It’s a lovely day here, I hope it’s nice where you are too.

Thank you for stopping by,

F xx

In Blogging/ Craft/ Painting

Quilt update.

Quilt update.

Remember that quilt?

I’m pretty sure my last blog post said something like,” Tune in next week for an update…”

well, here it is almost a month later!

I actually did finish it within that first week, of course you’ll just have to take my word for it, but I did.

But here it is!

Quilt update

(That chair was once teak with a really rotten gold draylon seat cover – but that’s another story).

Quilt update

The pink velvet was perfect as a backing. It’s so soft!

Quilt update

Aren’t they the prettiest colours? Tilda fabric is just lovely, I got mine from the Crafty Fox  but i’m not sure of the name of this particular collection.

Quilt update

Toby has declared it suitable for cuddling up on. He likes to burrow underneath of it so he can sit on the velvety side. I could try and keep him off of it, keep it ‘for best’, but along with everything else in this house, it was made to be used.

What else has happened since my last post?

Well, last Sunday I was at the Airport hotel in Cork for the Cloggers event. Marie and Shell put a huge amount of work into these events and I was really pleased to get to one. Cloggers are a group of bloggers in the Cork region ( I think it covers most of Munster) they blog about many subjects from fashion, make up, lifestyle & healthy eating to Horror themed books! 

As usual there were a great bunch of people there with some lovely stands.

Ebony and I put our work together for this one:

 

Quilt update

 

Quilt update

I happen to think this little rabbit is the cutest thing in the world!

(Available from The Little Things Company)

So, that has been my month, thank you for stopping by!

F xx

In Blogging/ Craft

Super Easy Quilt Making.

Super Easy Quilt Making.

‘Super easy quilt making’ is probably the wrong title for this post.

It should actually read, ‘ Make it up as you go ‘.

This morning I was doing my favourite Sunday morning activity. That would be drinking coffee in my p.j’s whilst browsing Pinterest – when I came across this:

Super Easy Quilt Making

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I love fabric, I love making things but i’m not very precise with them. My seams don’t line up and my sewing is only straight-ish. So I clicked into the post, read it all (it is a really good read) and decided that I would make a start on a quilt.

At the knit & Stitch show 2015 (yes, it was that long ago) I got some gorgeous Tilda fabric from The Crafty Fox stand.

Super Easy quilt making

Then last year I bought some pale pink velvet to make a backing for said fabric.

quilt5

The tutorial said that she had used fabric of all sizes. Since I had bought fat quarters I thought i’d cut them a little more evenly to get the best layout from them.

The ‘How To’ bit…

First of all I ironed them (being folded for a year and a half really sets those creases!) Then marked them every 4 1/2 inches and drew a pencil line.

Super easy quilt making

I do have a rotary cutter but I just can’t get along with it, so I used scissors.

Super easy quilt making

Once I had cut up all five fat quarters into the 4 1/2″ strips, I cut those strips into random sized pieces. I cut some lengths into two sections and some into four or five. There was some pretty fabric with buttons on it in my stash so I added a little of that as well as a few pieces of the darker green stripe (top left in the picture).

I had bought a full metre of the green stripe so I thought I’d use that for the binding. It’s a bit of a contrast to the main colours but by adding a few little bits into the quilt top it will all blend in. Remember the ‘make it up as you go ‘ theme? yep, that’s where the binding that doesn’t match came from.

To make the top I just sewed pieces from each pile together in a long strip. There was no pattern to it, just randomly choosing a piece and sewing to the last. It didn’t take very long  – in no time at all I had this:

Super easy quilt making

That’s a long strip of fabric!

Five fat quarters cut into 4 1/2 inch strips (with a little of the two other fabrics thrown in) came to an amazing 40 foot long strip!

Next I decided how wide I wanted my quilt to be (you can see how well I thought this out before I started can’t you?) which was 36 inches. By the time I had cut up the whole thing I had thirteen strips. The last one was slightly short so I just added an extra piece of button fabric.

Super easy quilt making

You can see how the order you sew them together in doesn’t really matter. The different sized blocks make it less precise and you can move the strips around until you like the layout. Of course, then it all has to sewn together, but that is really easy especially if you’re not too precious about sewing straight.  I do try, I line up my edges and keep the sewing machine foot on the edge but the straight line just alludes me. Real quilters are amazing, they make it look so easy!

Super easy quilt making

(I should have ironed this before I took the photo……)

It took two and a half hours to go from Pinterest to having the quilt top sewn together, much faster then piecing squares! I have to get wadding tomorrow (if you live in a place where there is a fabric shop nearby that is open seven days a week then you are a very lucky person!) and then decide how to quilt the layers together. I would love to try some free motion quilting but i’m not brave enough yet.

Tune in next week to see if I’ve made any progress…… hopefully I will have a finished quilt to show off!

Felicia xx

 

 

In Blogging/ House Love

Christmas 2016.

Christmas 2016.

Suddenly it is 2017. 2016 has passed by in a blur.

In four days the decorations will come down. December just vanished, we were all busy, but it went by so fast.

Just in case this year passes as quickly I want to document our decorations. I had great intentions of doing this as soon as they went up. The blogging world was full of ‘Christmas decor tours’ in November!

Traditionally we put the tree up sometime around the 10th December. That was my Dads birthday, so it has always been that way. I wanted to put hem up earlier but I lost that battle. I wish I had though because they will be down so soon.

Without further ado, here is our tree:

Christmas 2016

I’m really glad I bought this last year. It was so much easier to take it out of the attic then go to get a real tree.

I got it from The White Room in Kenmare. There is never really a ‘theme’ but the colours this year were silver , white and a little red.

Christmas 2016

These white baubles also came from The White Room – in fact I have started a lovely collection from there!

Christmas 2016

These snowflakes were added this year.

Christmas 2016

A little bit of gold was added by these Scottie dogs. They are the cards my Mum gave us, but I liked them so much that they will come out again next year to sit in the tree branches.

The Fireplace.

Christmas 2016

Right next to the tree is our stove. The mantle was decorated with real fir branches and holly. These candles are battery operated but look very real. Real flames and greenery are a dodgy combination! The star garland is made of twigs and I’ve had it for ages, and I made the stockings a few years ago. There is only one here this year, the rest are on the banisters.

Christmas 2016

I couldn’t find any holly with berries on this year, so I added some red baubles.

Christmas 2016

The fireplace in the kitchen got a garland and two Christmas wooden houses. The large one lights up (as you can see) because Tim is a genius! You push down on the chimney pot and the windows light up.. too clever for his own good.

We had a lovely time, it rained and we didn’t leave the house all day. Since I’ve given up chocolate, I didn’t over indulge in goodies – unless you count roast potatoes?

We had good fun, good food and most importantly lovely company. I hope you also had a beautiful day.

Felicia xx

In Blogging/ Life in General/ Painting

That Friday Feeling!

That Friday Feeling!

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.

That Friday feeling.

 

What else?

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.

That Friday feeling.

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!

That Friday feeling

    (Source)

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

In Blogging/ Life in General/ Planner Love

Planner Review – Episode 2.

Planner Review – Episode 2.

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!

Planner review - episode 2

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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!

Planner review - episode 2

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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.

Plum Paper Planner.

This one is my favourite so far – but of course its shipping from America so it makes it a big purchase.

Planner review - episode 2

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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.

Planner review - episode 2

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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.

Mrs Brimbles Printables.

Planner review - episode 2

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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!)

 

Finally, Paperchase.

Planner review - episode 2

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.

Planner review - episode 2

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!

Planner review - episode 2

Felicia xx

 

 

 

In Blogging/ Life in General/ Planner Love

Planner Review – Episode 1.

Planner Review – Episode 1.

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.

Planner review - episode 1

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!

Filofax –

planner review - episode 1

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?

MAMBI , The Happy Planner.

mambi-2

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“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.

Planner review - episode 1

(Source)

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.

The Erin Condren Life Planner.

Planner review - episode 1

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!

Kate Spade Planner.

planner review - episode 1

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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

 

In Blogging/ Life in General/ Planner Love

Back to school means..

Back to school means….

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.

Back to School means

(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?

How do you choose a planner?

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