Creating a zen like study space (or attempting to sort the clutter)

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So I have been remiss in my blogging duties for quite a while now, instead of enjoying tapping away writing nonsense I have instead been tapping away on assignments and case study analysis....for those of you who don't know I'm studying for the CIM Chartered Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing in my "spare" time away from work. The level of work and commitment to this course cannot be underestimated - since receiving the case study details (all 8- pages of them) I've barely seen Mr P as I scuttle home and stick my head straight into modelling matrices and pivoting data in the aim of creating a number strategies that depending on the information given in 3 weeks time in the exam may of course be completely useless...

So my deepest apologies any of my readers who remain, I have lots of blog post ideas just awaiting to be written from a review of the amazing diary formats created by Ray of http://mylifeallinoneplace.blogspot.co.uk/ and Steve http://philofaxy.blogspot.co.uk/ to an updated Filofax family post...and a giveaway!!!

BUT that aside for now, despite today being bank holiday Monday I headed to my desk this morning only to be interrupted by a most vexed Mr P questioning just how one girl can have quite so many products in the bathroom...I do believe the words "do you need all this" and "why have you got so much" came out of his mouth - much to my chagrin. I mean hello, I'm a girl, I like to smell nice!!

So in an attempt to ensure our planned wedding day doesn't get cancelled due to my slovenly and product hoarding ways it was off to B&Q in search of shelving to add more storage in the girl cave (otherwise known as the spare room that used to be Mr P's domain)

After much cursing of traffic (him) and cursing of chavs (me) we chose our shelves - reasonable-ish Oak so that the alcove above my desk could be transformed into a shelving utopia.

Well it's not quite there yet, I need a massive spree in Muji/Ikea or more likely Tesco/WHSmiths for magazine box holders, storage boxes and filing.....ah the calm organised side of my Virgo nature sighs a happy sigh...

And as I've been reading lots of blog sites on organisation and storage solutions I have lots of colour co-ordinated storage ideas that I plan to steal be inspired by - I mean how gorgeous is this for example:

Image from the amazing blog IHeartOrgansing

So there we go, 5pm on bank holiday Monday:
Study - nil
New Shelves - 1

Time to crack open the textbooks again....

Lx

What's in my bag - Spring edition

Super Sunny Weymouth Harbour

So it feels like Spring has most definitely sprung in Weymouth today and its blooming lovely! Determined to make the most of it I ventured out for a walk into town to run some errands which were followed up by a spot of lunch with some friends - bliss! But of course a summery day calls for summery clothing so after rocking the rolled up jeans, vest, bright cardigan and FLIP FLOPS look -finally it is warm enough for bare feet...how I've missed my Havaianas (if you've not heard of Havaianas the are THE most comfortable flip flops in the world and they come in a massive range of colours and are really reasonable!) it also felt like time to start sporting a more summery bag.

Can you guess what kind of bag it is yet?

So out came my Mulberry Jody tote bag - which is in fact 2 bags in one! I've had this bag nearly 4 years, it was my splurge purchase to celebrate when I quit my old London life and decided to move to the seaside and start Loulou's Life Phase 2!

It is the softest leather and can be used as either a large hand/elbow crook carried bag or if it's not stuffed to the gills you can fold the top over and buckle the straps and use the shoulder strap instead. (You can see some better photos here)

The inside lining is a really cute pinstripe so you can see everything really easily as its not a dark black cave like many of my handbags.

Then there are the usual inside zip pocket and mobile phone pocket plus on the outside there are 2 pockets on each end of the bag secured by popper fastenings..very handy for easy keys/phone access.

Super cute mini pockets

It really is a super lovely bag.

Anyway as I was only walking into town I didn't need to take too much with me so it was just the following:

Malden Filofax
Kindle (in case from Tesco)
Purse (Ted Baker gift from Mr P)
Mini purse (Celia Birtwell for Boots - holds essentials like lens wipes, spare contacts etc)
Marc by Marc Jacobs re-useable shopping bag
Pack of tissues
Soap and Glory hand cream
Cherry chapstick
Orange Frixion pen (such a happy colour)

So that's my lot - barely anything for me!!

Happy Spring to you all hope you all have sunny weather like us

Lx

Deco vs Enigma....chunky monkey Folifax

So as anyone who reads my blog/knows me knows I am totally obsessed with Filofax - and especially my Deco that I have been faithfully using since September last year when the super lovely Mr P managed to track down an Amethyst version for me.

And it has been perfect. Plenty of room, lots of little pockets, card slots, zipper and popper versions. Smooth suede interior, sumptuous leather exterior....sigh. It really is the Queen of the range in my opinion.

However as jam packed as I like to stuff my Filofax I cram even more into my day to day handbag....from pens, mobile, hand sanitiser, hand cream, Kindle, shopping bags, spare contacts lenses, a make up bag (I get to work v early so it's Face-On when I get there) the list is endless!!!

But twice this week I've caught myself cramming more in on top of my Deco and seeing things catching the gorgeous clasp and leather strap. Now don't get me wrong I don't think I'm being less careful or taking her for granted (she barely has a scratch or wear patch on her I'll have you know) but I think with how much I have in her and how hectic life is at the moment I'd rather switch to using a binder that's more robust/less precious.

And that's where my dilemma comes in. Not which binder to use, but the guilt factor over swapping out of the Deco! Tragic I know seriously but I'd hate Mr P to think that he wasted his money, or for Deco to think she wasn't loved anymore.

So I'm running an experiment for the week - out comes the Enigma that I won last year in a competition with Harpers Bazaar and into hibernation goes Deco. The Brindle (as I'm calling her as that's her colour description) is coated leather, smooth and soft but I don't think she'd scratch easily. Now opinion was divided over this style when she launched - I thought she looked lovely but Mr P's comments at the time mirrored others who called her "roadkill"....and she was free....

But she's been tucked away in the box since she arrived last November and apart from featuring in a blog post hasn't seen the light of day. Until now!

I've literally lifted all the contents of my Deco out and straight into Brindle and wowser chunky she seems now too!

But with no clasp, no foldable strips of gorgeous leather to worry about and the fact that she was free means I think Brindle and I will have an interesting week together as I put her through her paces.

The transfer in picture form ;0)

Chunky ol Deco vs the Enigma

Possibly too much in the Deco??

Front layout (note Eiffel Tower ticket from Paris weekend last year)

Empty Deco, sob

Hibernation cave time

The Enigma front layout transfered

Yep I fattened her up

A cute Filofax F on the popper clasp

So what do you all think? Still hate/love the Enigma? Think I'm making a huge mistake transferring out of the Deco??

Lx

To fair or not to fair....

Hopefully this won't be how we end up!!  Image

As readers of my blog know last year Mr P was nuts enough to propose while we were in Paris (you can read all about here if you haven't already) and for a planner like me a large part of the fun of the wedding will be the planning. But before you can plan you need to seek information. And where does one seek wedding information I hear you ask? Well of course it is at your local wedding fair!

Now wedding fairs are strange places. Full of over excited brides and their mum's plus the odd stray fiancé looking around with trepidation at the rows of stall holders eager to talk about "favours" or "chair covers" or "save the dates" all words that until you start planning a wedding are unknown to the average man.

My darling fiancé is not dissimilar. I've managed to drag him to two wedding fairs - and that was purely so we could nose around the venue hosting it to see if it was to be "The One" (in fact the first one was, the second just a double check before securing venue no 1 with a deposit, so that was a winner of a show) however the teams of people with their pastel fabrics and old fashioned sales techniques did not appeal to my lovely man one bit.

For example he detests the current trend for using chair covers - especially at a £2.50 cost per cover (times that by 100 chairs for the ceremony and you can see why he's not keen) Colour coordination is one thing but a sea of swaddled chairs toning in with our colour scheme is a little too formal for us. Thankfully at our chosen venue the chairs are very nice - they have legs, seats and backs pretty much all you could wish for in a chair me thinks!

Videographers are another area Mr P is not keen on - not because having a video of our wedding is abhorrent (or at least I hope it isn't that!) but the ones we have met have been more Alfred Hitchcock (old and full of creepy ideas) than JJ Abrams (young and enthusiastic) and if their videos are as old fashioned as their DVD packaging then we may as well hire a sketch artist to caricature the wedding it would be more modern!!!

Of course there are always the photographers. Each of the wedding shows we have attended photographers have out-numbered the other stalls 3 to 1. We wither have a plethora of Dorset based photographers who focus on weddings or by hum they make a killing on the wedding circuit so its he who shows, wins! This is another area that Mr P and I are not yet aligned...I believe the photos are important - I mean after all those, the rings and memories are all you have left after the big day. And being a photo-phobe where a camera looms into view and I automatically pull my "camera" pose (think lunatic with a handbag and you won't be far off) I'm keen we find the "right" photographer who can take the obligatory few group shots but will miraculously disappear into the background and yet taking stunning natural shots as we enjoy our wedding reception. It's either that or I down 10 shots of vodka in an attempt to feel more comfortable in front of the camera - possibly not the best plan at 2 in the afternoon on my wedding day!

But back to the joys of wedding fairs...of course a big part of these shows are all the competitions to enter. I work in marketing, I know these competitions are purely to gather data so the firm can constantly try to sell us stuff. Does that matter when I'm faced with the chance to "win". Hell no, hand me a pen! Mr P simply rolls his eyes and edges nearer to the door knowing full well the plethora of direct mail recycling about to hit our doormat thanks to me.

Of course Mr P can relax in the knowledge that planning the wedding is well in hand with a freak planner like myself. He need only input and approve key items as he wishes (as well as sourcing all the music obviously) while I try and think out every element in advance - I mean that's why I have the wedding Filofax....in fact I can just imagine this being me on the morning of our wedding:

From the fabulous blog The Distracted Crab

So are you a wedding fair type person or are you like Mr P, see them as an unnecessary evil that were to be endured while we looked for a venue?

Lx

Shoes, shoes, glorious shoes........

Maria Carey's shoe closet...bigger than my house? I think so!! Image from here

Warning, this is a post purely about shoes. Mr P you need read no more, nothing to see here. Honest ;0)

So it struck me this week that either I'm getting (a lot) older or Clarks shoes are getting far more funky. This has come about as I'm currently in love with about 5 pairs of sandals in my local store...Clarks for those who don't know are a shoe manufacturer and retailer that started off based in Somerset and were the compulsory brand for school shoes. I cannot tell you the suffering over the years enduring flat, brown, basket style sandals will haunt me forever. We even went on a school trip to their factory to see how these shoes were made!! (no trips to Alton Towers for my somerset school no siree it was shoe factories and the ballet - can you tell it was an all girls school??)

Anyway as usual I've gone off track, back to the point of this post! It was while I was out at lunchtime one day this week running some errands that I popped into my local Clarks branch, lured in by the summery window display. It was all sunshine and beaches and smiling tanned models wafting around flaunting their cool shoes instead of being like me in a chilly, grey, miserable mid work week wearing cosy boots...Once indoors I spotted all these beautys...and it was lust at first sight. I'm a sucker for a bright summery shoe, and if there's a wedge involved then I'm all over it. Being a midget I love a good bit of wedge action - makes me considerably taller but I can still walk without being crippled after 5 steps!

Now with an average price tag of £55 a pair these are not cheap shoes - certainly not compared to New Look/Debenhams/even Marks and Spencer BUT they are generally very good quality in my experience and they're just so pretty!!

Yellow shoes of joy

Ickle wedge = comfy, funky straps = cool

Super red flowery loveliness

Gorgeous daytime sparkle anyone?

The ultimate wedge?

Of course I'm on a shopping bag (of sorts) while I pay off my new car and the new barbie laptop plus save for a wedding so shoe shopping is not coming under my "essential only spending" mantra at the moment (apart from the yellow ones they are MUST HAVES surely???)

But then I can always reply when Mr P asks "is that a new pair of shoes?" with "What? These old things? I've had them FOREVER they were just lurking in the back of my closet. Honest"

Although - blogging about them with pictures probably means he'll see through that ruse....Darn it.

So dear readers are you feeling spring like with your wardrobes yet? What do you think of my current shoe lust list? Can you think of any justifications for a new shoe purchases? Or can you help me reign in my shopaholic tendancies?

Lx

Oh Osterley How I Love Thee (and can you help out on this assignment?)

So it's been a while since I blogged about a Filofax set up - mainly as my systems had been working so well. However while the Personal Deco that is my everyday contains everything I'm supposed to be doing set up is working perfectly from an overview perspective - juggling my studies has become more and more difficult to schedule....

So I started thinking about how I could more efficiently track what I'm supposed to be doing and when!

In comes the return of an A5 Filofax. Now regular Filo-crack readers of my blog will know that for a long time I'd been using an A5 for work. Until last year when I switched to using an A5 Flex and combining it with an A4 notebook for meeting notes/to do's etc (I was getting through so much Filofax paper it was costing a fortune!!)

Now this system is working fine for just my work bits. I could see the week at a glance, I had room for priority tasks and had all the space I needed for lists and notes in the A4 notebook. BUT I missed the flexibility of the Filofax set up - being able to move sections, have pages inserted wherever I wanted them, you know the usual reasons for liking a Filofax system in the first place. So I got to thinking...

Could I return to the A5 and schedule my school work alongside my work work. This would have the added benefit of meaning that I could really start studying in the evening post work (at work) and achieve things before leaving to drive the commute home and being too tired by the time I got there! Something I'm really struggling with - the 70+ mile daily commute takes at least an hours drive each way and means I don't get home until gone 7pm. So by the time I've said hi to Mr P the earliest I could sit down would be 7.30 which is bang on dinner time...

Anyhoo as always I digress.

So with a new A5 Osterley just screaming to be used (I'm so in love she is so soft, lies flat straight out of the box and is that combination of cool but classic that I love and I got her for a bargain from City Organiser who not only are far cheaper than the official Filofax site their customer service and speed of delivery is amazing) I've mixed up my set up...warning lots of pictures incoming!

In it I've got 3 diary formats. Yep 3! This may sound mad but wait until you see why.....

So here she is:

Not a fantastic shot but you get the idea...

Really love the popper clasp and the feel of the leather

Inside front - lots of card pockets and a full length pocket currently holding a jot pad from my Flex

The obligatory post it note holder!

The start of the diary pages...note the Today marker and Pink top tab...

The Pink top tab takes you to my monthly view of the year..here's January

The black Today marker is for a week on one page with notes format diary (this is a mock week)

Then a clear Today marker takes you to my appointment times week on two pages diary

The newly set up "Dashboard" for an almost GTD inspired section

Then it's my To Do's section - again this is a mock up 

And finally the back with A5 notebook pocket (and notepad) plus a clear top opening pocket

So my diary layouts and system runs thus:

1. Month to view - long range planning, key meeting dates, holidays etc. Essential for me to see when things are scheduled in for the year (and once 2013's pages are released for next year!) I've got a 2013 year planner but the boxes are just too small for me :(
2. Week on one page with notes format - this allows me to see the whole week, key meetings only and top priorities for the week and to do's. So if I'm in London I can note what I need to take with me. Plus my main priorities for the week are always in front of me!
3. Week on two pages with appointment times - now this is new to me. I'm trying to use these pages to block out time when I can work on specific projects BUT also block out study time - so for example the time slots go up until 9pm meaning I can allocated 2 hours post work finishing at 5.30 on specific school work related items eg read X chapter or complete Y workshop project.My theory being if I'm staring at the appointment to do these things all day I won't a) forget to do them and b) will make time to complete them. Having these items in my Personal diary meant I didn't look at them enough and didn't update them enough...this way as I use this Filofax constantly during the day for notes etc I will always have these front of mind...

Will this system work? Who knows but I'll keep you posted :)

Of course what I really want to try are the Philofaxy print your own A5 time management inspired pages - but no printer access...darn!

Any tips for work/life/study scheduling gratefully received....

Lx

Loulou goes loopy over laptops

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I’m currently on a train tootling my way up to the big smoke for a couple of days of meetings. And after 2 coffees, some breakfast Jaffa cakes (don’t judge me i was up at 5am!) 2 hours of studying and all before 8am I fancied a break and was musing on potential blog posts that I could get crack on with and thought of this one....

My study kit gained a new addition this week after my faithful old laptop crashed out on me one too many times. So in desperation I hit the high street seeking a replacement. Now any of you who read my blog know that while I adore shopping, especially for handbags, I baulk at spending large amounts of money on technology. It just seems alien to me (as you can read about here) so I can assure you dear readers that I didn’t take the new laptop purchase willingly or in haste. It’s been a decision looming for some time L

Of course I could have done without it being 2 days after I signed up to buy a brand new car but these things are sent to try us. So off to PC World/Currys I went in Bournemouth after work on Monday. Now while I think it is fantastic these stores on retail parks open until 8pm and  I appreciate the hard job they have in the face of internet comparison shopping, crippling economic conditions and decreasing profit margins I can’t say this too lightly, this one was RUBBISH.

Appalling selection of products despite the fact the store was the size of an average Tesco superstore, almost zero staff available and those who were of course were both chatting to their colleagues and had umpteen customers waiting for their time.

Half an hour I was in that store looking at pretty much the same 3 laptops continuously. Did anyone approach me? Could I find anyone to talk to? Could I heck. I’m lucky that Mr P is an IT boffin so I spent my evening on the phone to him reading out specs and names and him googling the laptops to see if it met my needs (ram? Processor speeds? Core i5? I mean if they wrote it in English maybe I’d understand!!)

Anyhoo after getting irate for a while trying to find someone, I was waiting in line to attempt to spend £500 and googled on my iPhone (at least that works) the nearest Comet which was thankfully only yards away. 

So I hotfooted it out of PC World and literally skipped over to Comet. Now I didn’t have high hopes I have to say after the PC World experience but I could not have been more wrong.

Really nice selection of laptops, much better store design, some great (and clear) offers PLUS helpful staff! Needless to say I spent my money there....I even got an absolute bargain I bought a Sony Vaio laptop (which was the one I really wanted for no other reason that I think they look nice – shallow I know but as Mr P kept saying all the insides are pretty much the same for what I need it for why not be shallow considering how much I have to stare at it!!) Now the only thing that was putting me off the Vaio is the price as it does appear you pay more for the Sony name...

Unless you are a Comet shopper and don’t mind a pink laptop – yep I said pink....In Comet, on the night I went shopping, there was a Sony Viao on sale for just over £400 – still a lot for a piece of tech but a whopping £250+ off the price they were being sold for on the Sony website (see here if you want to know more) But to purchase the laptop in a more subtle blue was an additional £150.

Now I love pink, I have a pink purse, a pink iPhone case, even a couple of pink Filofax in my collection BUT I would usually draw the line at a Barbie pink laptop I mean I use this thing on trains (yep the suits are staring at it I think they’re just jealous) at work (I’m going to be mocked mercilessly I know this already as I work with nearly all men in a tech firm...Apple is the name of the game with their smooth effortless sleekness) And of course I use it for studying (well that’s ok as it’s only me) but I like to pretend I have an air of professionalism at times and surely a pink laptop flies in the face of all that is business like?

But then the Frugalista in me thinks getting a top spec laptop (Mr P’s verdict) at a bargain price is worth a little ribbing (and of course the money I save can be invested in bags so it's win win) which means, ta da, drum roll please......and here is Barbie in all her glory:

I do have to admit though in an attempt to tone down the pink-ness I did opt for a turquoise blue sleeve to protect Barbie when out and about...well the pink one clashed a bit!

So dear readers what are your thoughts? Would you ever be seen out and about with Loulou brandishing a Barbie pink laptop? Does it make me look like a tragic teenage wannabe? Or, as I work in media marketing, can I get away with it being just a bit of fun?

Lx