Filofaxed

Project FILOFAX is in full swing. I have prepared a repository of information that should be useful on day to day basis and in case of an emergency.

In addition I decided to create a personal planner - but after weighing my options and searching on line for various templates I decided to make my own. Using items on hand I created a personalized 5-year month-at-a-glance calendar that should allow me to keep track of anything I want.

The ultimate cost was under $3.00 for binding the pages into a spiral notebook type document. Then I dropped some real money on a nice set of pens and some washi tape. That stuff is expensive!

Here's my stash - my Filofax and my Planner with accessories. The Filofax cost about $25.00 because I bought it at Mitsuwa - the Japanese Mall. Now to start the intensive work and personalizing the planner and actually using it.

Here's a view of the inside. To make my printing easier, I made a blank template that could be customized for each month. I'll add numbers, holidays and such later.

 

If I actually manage to make use of this for the next five years, then I promised myself I would splurge on a ream of colored paper and make myself a new one for the next five years.

Bonsai!

No, this has nothing to do with Buckaroo Bonzai being my favorite movie.

I love bonsai trees. Who doesn't? But they're expensive and easy to kill, so I decided to make my own invincible bonsai tree.

 

 

I used the small pot I had originally put my baby Groot in - since the clay Groot did not really turn out so well or last long because the air dry clay cracked. The pot was actually a perfect Bonsai pot and was probably the one my original bonsai came in years ago.

 

I took a cutting from the unkillable bush that grows next to the deck. I've been hacking away at that thing for years and it just keeps growing. I've cut branches from it that have started growing on their own a day later, so I realized, hey, this thing won't die. Cutting it down and sticking it in a tiny little pot won't hurt it. A short branch that already looked tree-trunky made for a nice bonsai starter.

 

I added some moss dug up from beneath the back step - also probably unkillable. I added some stones and put it all in a nice potting mix.

 

I figure I can trim this thing all I want, and it will just keep going like the Energizer bunny of Bonsai - unlike those frail but pretty little juniper bonsais that wither after a few weeks outside of the care of a seasoned professional gardener.

 

Just for good measure, I popped another cutting into the fairy garden behind it where I'm growing one of my mini-lawns. I figure I'll do the same with that one.

 

Stay tuned for pictures of my sproutlings. The lettuce, spinach, radishes, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes and beans are all in their permanent homes and starting to green up.



The Modern Grey Bedroom

It's done! And I think it turned out pretty good:

 

 

The only items that are real miniatures are the vase in the corner, the Buddha on the shelf and the books. Everything else is hand made.

 

The bed is balsa, foam core, quilting fabric and tiny bamboo-like rods that came in a potpourri bag.

The end tables and the dresser are balsa blocks with added drawers, painted black. The drawer pulls are beads.

The lamps are beads and pieces of the bamboo sticks.

The modern wall hanging is a jewelry finding/bead.

The chair is a craft cork covered in fabric, the backing is cut from a paper towel roll and painted black.

The floor is foam core and the rug is gray felt.

The comforter gets its drape from tin foil folded into the fabric.

 

Here's a closeup interior view that I think is really cool.

 

As far as project FILOFAX goes, I bought a B5 size loose leaf notebook with extra paper and dividers and I'm in the process of collecting all pertinent information. It's going to be a lot of work, but hopefully when I'm done, I'll have a central location for all valuable information, an emergency vault of info to be used by me or handed off to someone, I will have used up a lot of my office supplies that I've been storing long-term for 'in case I need them' and I'll feel less stressed by being able to clear out some clutter and consolidate my stuff.

Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Vacation epihany

I've had the week off from work. I planned this as a 'get organized' staycation which was to include:

Setting up the garden.
Replanting and repotting old plants.
Changing out my closet.
Going to the eye doctor.

All fine plans, but usually when I have a week off, I end up creating a new direction or goal for myself. Since the 'grand experiment' has proven, as I suspected, to be a bust, and I've reached a place in my writing where I'm no longer enslaved by it, I need something else to do.

My epiphany came yesterday when I discovered 'life planners' and 'filofaxes'.

Now, I have NO DESIRE to plan every second of my life. That's for SAHMs, and I'm not one anymore. I don't need a bulleted list to tell me to take a shower and planning 7 days of dinners has never worked out for me. BUT, I decided that one of the sources of my free floating anxiety has always been that I was too busy focusing on writing to be organized. I have a basic system for things, but I'm usually flailing a bit and whenever I need something in a pinch, it usually involves running around, digging up the information I need. I really need to make my life easier and reduce some of my stress, so my next project is an overhaul of my system and a consolidation.

I'm not going to start carrying a 'life planner' around with me so I can record bowel movements or how many glasses of water I drink in a day, but really getting all important information in one place is starting to sound really attractive to me.

Hence my next BIG PROJECT shall be called: FILOFAX.

In the mean time - here's my next miniature project. The Modern Gray Bedroom is shaping up to be pretty cool:

 

This one will have completely hand made furniture and will probably be the first of a number of rooms I want to make in these little wooden crates I found at A.C. Moore.

Off to get organized!

Time to get dirty!

With my room within my room project done, I turned my attention to the garden. I set up my critter-protection and I'm preparing for a bumper crop of organic produce:

 

I decided our yard is useless. The kids are too old to 'play' outside anymore, no more dog - so we have a postage stamp of land that does nothing. It's high time I took it over and made it do something, so my enclosed garden begins.

 

I also prepped a new fairy garden and cleaned up some of the old ones:

 

 

I added a little bit more to this one today - changed out the bench for a white one and transplanted the moss from my indoor moss gardens to fluff it out a bit.

 

Can't wait for the lawn I planted in this one to start growing.

My little sewing room

It's done!

DIY Sewing room:
Walls and floor - painted foam core
rug - felt
wall paper, including chair rail - scrap booking paper
shelves - pieces of a divided curio box
sofa - made from cardboard, foam core and quilting material
side table - small jewelry box lid with wooden wine bottles for legs
lamp - wooden dowel inserted into a hole in the box top and painted gold
lampshade - the cap to a sample bottle of shampoo
cork board - cork rapped in silk cord, secured with pins
coffee table - foam core with lace from a pillow case, legs are Styrofoam balls
curtains - old pillow case, wooden dowel and beads for end caps, tie backs are ribbon
patterns, shirt and sewing notions are from a scrapbooking sticker set
coat hanger is a bent paper clip
the plant is from an old quilling project
the Roman shade is fan-folded parchment paper
the plastic box of fabric is a case that pins came in filled with scrap fabric

Only the books, the pots, the sewing machine, the door and the pillow are actual dollhouse miniature items

Clay obsession leads to miniature obsession

And so it goes...messing around with clay and miniature food has rekindled my love of miniatures. Years ago I built a couple of dollhouses from kits, but having no place to display them I eventually gave them away with most of the furnishings.  I kept a few pieces and some do dads and I've had this stuff in my craft closet for years. Now I've decided it's time to use my craft stuff, rather than saving it for some time in the future when I 'need' it. So I'm making room boxes.

First a little history - here are pics of the old dollhouses:

 

The Blue House

 

The Cottage

 

 

The master bedroom of the Blue House.

 

 

The kitchen of the Blue House

 

 

The kitchen of the Cottage

 



 

The bedroom of the Cottage with handmade quilt.

 

The interesting thing about the Cottage is that I had planned to write a story in which the heroine lived in this very Cottage.

 

Here's my current project - a living room/sewing room combo - in the early stages:

 

The furniture is placed just to give me an idea - I've completed the couch and the tables. Now it's time to add all the minute details and then display it on a shelf. I bought a lot of wooden pieces at A.C. Moore today, so I plan to make some more furniture for my next project. I want to do a bedroom and a kitchen. I could have spent some money on pre-made furniture but after looking at it closely I decided it has no real charm. I much prefer the handmade items now - and don't have any desire to just plop expensive pre-made items into a room no matter how realistic they may appear.

More to come.