My {Filofax} Week 11

March 18, 2013August 25, 2016Leave a comment

Paper Lovestory's My Week

It’s a new week, and boy am I excited.

Here’s my week:

And for a quick recap of what happened {in case you aren’t at all interested in reading about my life}:

I spoke too soon about the photo challenge.
It was one of those meeting weeks at work.
We had a painter come over to give us a quote for painting my room.
Saturday started with a trip to Tyson’s Corner in Virginia.
I also managed to finally get my hair done.

And for the longer version {for those of you who like to read or are just nosy :)}:

I guess this was just one of those weeks where I was ready to be done. With Spring break coming up, everyone had a bit of Spring fever, but unlike the week before a break, this one was full of meetings. I didn’t feel that any of them were terribly productive. Many of them were just ways to catch people up to speed.

Everything seemed to suffer a bit this week. I’m now pretty far behind on my photo challenge, so I’m going to take the next few days to catch up while I’m off. I didn’t exactly have a chance to slack off on my assignments though because this week everything was due by Friday night. I knew this at the beginning of the semester. I even took a quiz that said I was aware of this week being the exception to the due dates, but Friday morning, the reminder email from my professor came as a shock to me.

After going after the room renovations full force last weekend, I started to realize I may be in over my head. If my room wasn’t massive and I wasn’t so vertically challenged, I’d probably not be dreading so much, but hiring someone seemed to be an easy way out. We had a guy come over to give us a quote on pricing. I was honestly a bit shocked when he came back with a price of over $1000 for JUST my room. We already had the paint, AND I wasn’t even asking him to do the stripes on the one wall! Needless to say, I’m now gearing up to paint my own room.

Working full time has really screwed with my sleep schedule. I used to be a night owl and now I’m waking up at 7am without an alarm. Go figure. Saturday, after waking up yet again at another ridiculously early hour, I decided to venture down to Tyson’s Corner. It only took a few hours to realize why I never enjoy driving in D.C. or Virginia, but I survived.

Saturday afternoon, I managed to bite the bullet and get my hair cut and highlighted. I have a hard time going to get my hair cut. I’m really self conscious about my hair. More importantly I always find some other thing to spend the money on, but a Groupon deal for a place that had been recommended to me came up, $55 for full highlights, a shampoo, and cut at Kisner’s. After 2 years of not getting my hair cut or highlighted, it’s nice to have a bit of a new look. I got a couple inches taken off and a some layers put in so that my hair did more than just fall flat. Now that I’m a bit more blonde again, I also have an excuse for all my blonde moments.

So that was my week. I’m off until Thursday so I’m taking it easy this week or trying to at least. I’ve already managed to get injured with a nice gash above my lip. Thankfully, I escaped stitches.

{Filofax Friday} How I Got Out of Planner Fail

March 15, 2013August 25, 20166 Comments

Planner fail seems to be a recurring theme amongst us planner addicts. Most of us always seem to be searching for that perfect planner – the perfect system. I’m no different. I’ve bought my fair share of planners and accessories to test out different methods and setups, but this year, I’ve practically banned myself from buying all things planner related. {With the exception of odds and ends to make my planner cuter as long as it doesn’t change the set up.}

Sorry guys, no fancy pictures this time around…

I assume my planner obsession started out back when I was in elementary school. At the beginning of every year, we were given a preprinted 8.5″ x 11″ week on two page academic planner specially made for my school. They were pre-punched to fit in a 3-ring binder, thin enough to keep in a 2 pocket folder, and had boxes with each subject already printed on them for each day. Some teachers required you to use them and even checked them before you went home at the end of the day. Others didn’t care. Since I attended the same school all the way through eighth grade, this was one of the things I looked forward to each year. If I could find one I’d share it, but they’re likely all tucked away in the basement somewhere.

In high school, we were given a ring-bound lined week on two page planner that was in between a personal-sized and A5-sized Filofax page. The front half of was the school handbook that had all the school policies and the times for all of our alternate schedules should we have had various delays or assemblies. {I think we had about 9 in total…} In my group of friends, these little books were always with us. We’d tape our class schedule to the front cover. The weekly layout was a pretty standard lined Week on 2 Page layout, but I have a feeling since most of us went to the same elementary school, we all adopted a method loosely based off of that elementary school planner and ended up writing the school subjects written down under each day. During free periods, we were usually drawing on them, highlighting the pages, or even carving designs in the plastic covers. It was like a secret competition with everyone comparing their handwriting, designs, and doodles to everyone else’s.

My first year of college, freshmen got a tiny pocket-sized, I believe, planner at orientation. {I really don’t know because I found it utterly useless and threw it in a corner of my room somewhere.} After that, there’s somewhat of a blank spot in my mind until I started using Moleskines. I discussed my planner journey from then on in part 3 of my Filofax Tour series if you want to read .

The real problem started once I got a job and had money to buy my own planners. I’d buy a new planner every other month it seemed. I’d see the lovely pictures on the internet and think, “Wow, that’s a great idea! I want that!” Twenty minutes later, I was purchasing a new planner, and before long, I had shelves full of planners that I’d used for a week and gave up on. I’d spend more time setting up planners to get things done than actually doing the things these planners were supposed to help me do.

I had this idea that I could find the perfect system – one that would solve all my problems and make me super woman capable of doing everything, I just hadn’t found it yet. The obvious solution was that I needed to keep buying more until I found the right one. {What a silly idea!} There’s only so many formats and styles, and I had just about tried them all, so one day I sat down looking at my pile of planners and actually thought about why I kept buying so many planners. That’s when I stumbled across my first problem:

I didn’t want a planner that would help me be able to do everything. I wanted a planner that would everything for me!

I wanted a planner that would magically do all my work, so that I could sit back and relax, but let’s face it, that’s obviously never going to happen unless my life suddenly turned into a Disney movie {although it would be nice.} I eventually accepted the fact that no planner was going to miraculously get rid of the things I had to do and put me on autopilot so that I didn’t have to do a think, but using a planner could make all those things more manageable.

Then I read the wonderful Imy’s series on Falling back in Love with Filofax, and it was around that time I decided I would declare to use one and ONLY one planner for 2013. I gave myself 2 months to find what I wanted and then I was going to stick with it. No exceptions. I bought myself a few options and eventually opted to treat myself to a Plum Osterley for Christmas with the understanding that I wasn’t going to buy anymore.

Three months later, I’m still in the lovely Osterley, and the only change I made was swapping the lined week on two page diary for a week on one page with notes diary. Everything else has stayed the same, and I’ve ended up with my perfect system. I also figured out the other half of the reason I was always in planner fail. It wasn’t just that I wanted a planner to do everything for me or that whatever planner I was using wouldn’t work for me. The problem was pretty simple actually.

I was switching planners so often that I was never giving them a chance to succeed in the first place.

So to all of you who are stuck in planner fail:

Commit to trying one system and sticking with it – It will probably evolve a bit here and there as you use it, but committing to and sticking with a plan is how things get accomplished.
and remember, this is your planner – Everyone’s lives are different. What works for one person, whether it be full of cute doodles or incredibly neat and organized, may not work for you, and that’s okay. Find what works for you and embrace it rather than trying to force someone else’s system to work.

February Birchbox and Ipsy Bag Reviews

March 13, 2013August 25, 20162 Comments

I wouldn’t consider myself a make up expert by any means. I’m definitely a newbie when it comes to these things, but I do like to try new products, which is why I subscribed to Birchbox and, later, Ipsy. If it weren’t for Birchbox and Ipsy, I’d have missed out on products I truly love and use every day so I try to share my findings on these products with the people in my life which now includes all of you. {Disclaimer: My nose doesn’t work very well so if fragrance reviews were what you are hoping to find, I likely won’t be reviewing them.}

Birchbox

February Birchbox

I honestly have to admit, I haven’ been thrilled with Birchbox lately. Their boxes have been sort of blah lately. I don’t hate the products, but they certainly don’t have the “Oh YAY!” factor lately like they used to. So let’s get started {I’m going left to right top, top to bottom.}:

Bi-Facil Eye Make Up Remover – Curiously Birchbox is not selling this on their site. I wasn’t super impressed with this product. Definitely not worth the $28 dollars Lancome is selling the 4.2 oz size for. It will definitely make a great addition to my travel bag though, and I will likely save the bottle because it really is just the perfect size.
Skin & Co Roma Sicilian Body Gel – This is yet another product unavailable for purchase on Birchbox’s site. In fact, I wasn’t even able to find it on the manufacturers site, which is probably not a bad thing. I didn’t dislike this product, it just didn’t do anything for me. This will again go into my ever growing selection of travel toiletries.
Color Club Nail Polish in Wild Cactus – I’m not sure what the “wild cactus” thing is about. It’s certainly not very cactus-colored, maybe a more Christmas colored polish. I’m typically not a fan of Color Club polishes because they don’t dry well on my nails, but this one faired okay. It’s a very deep emerald green. I used it on all of my fingers, with my Nailtini Millionare polish on the ring fingers as an accent nail. It was very St. Patty’s Day themed.
The Ghirardelli chocolate square was admittedly the first thing to disappear from the box. It was a cute touch to get some chocolate in a Valentine’s Day box, but I was a bit let down. I like trying new and exciting products I might not otherwise know about, not things I can buy at any nearby store or find in my cabinet already.
Last but not least, a headband by Twistband – I’m not typically a headband person, but this style of headband changed all of that. I found myself wearing this all the time just to keep the little hairs out of my face. I’ve used Twistband hair ties before. One came in my very first Birchbox, but it quickly frayed. I received another one recently as well, but I seem to have misplaced it. Needless to say I’m big fan of these elasticized ribbon hair products, but I’ve found the ones from Mane Message stay in my hair better.

Ipsy

February Ipsy Bag

I have to hand it to Ipsy. Unlike Birchbox, Ipsy’s been sending out fantastic bags chocked full of goodies lately. {Again, I’m going to try to go from left to right, top to bottom.}

First up is the Flawless & Poreless primer from Pixi – I mentioned this in my February Favorites post. If you read that post, I was coming to the end of a tube of my go to Too Faced Primed & Poreless primer and was debating on which of these two to purchase. I like this primer. I think it’s really similar to the Too Faced primer, but in the end it came down to convenience for me. Both are about the same price. The Pixi primer is even available at Target, but I was already placing an order online at Sephora. Should I need a primer in a pinch though, I like knowing this is available.
Coastal Scents Eyeshadows – This is my second set of coastal scents shadows from Ipsy. This set was a little more out there in terms of color, but they are my university’s colors, so I guess it’s a good game day shadow set. They come off as more orange on here, but they are really yellows, golds, and blacks.
Lash Cards – Truthfully, I didn’t try this product. Maybe it’s just me but I find the concept silly and slightly odd. I’ll save these for a boring day when I plan on experimenting with things or possibly a special occasion, but truthfully, I’m usually pretty careful with my eye makeup.
Gel Eyeliner by MicaBeauty – I also included this in my February Favorites post. I had never tried a gel liner before, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. It was quite easy to apply and gave a ton of drama to my eyes. I see this sample going a long way.
Smokey Lash Kapow Mascara by Pop – I wasn’t exactly sure what the mysterious black flowery tube was when I pulled it out of the bag, but I assumed correctly that it must have been mascara. I’m a big fan of Sephora’s Full Action Mascara, but I honestly switch mascaras every day. I probably have about 8 in my makeup drawer right now, and this one was one of my favorites. It did a good job at separating my lashes but didn’t give me quite the “Kapow” I was hoping for, but it was nice on the days I didn’t want want to look like I was wearing a lot of eye makeup. It’s more expensive than my Sephora fave so wouldn’t repurchase it. It wasn’t a bad mascara, but for the price, I don’t think it’s any better than others.

Overall, I liked both of these bags, but Ipsy won hands down. I’ve just received my March Birchbox and Ipsy bag, and from first glance, I think Birchbox may have redeemed themselves. I’m excited to try some new products, check back next month for the March review.

My {Filofax} Week 10

March 11, 2013August 25, 20162 Comments

It’s a new week, and boy am I excited.

Here’s my week:

Sorry for the bad photo angle.

And for a quick recap of what happened {in case you aren’t at all interested in reading about my life}:

This month’s photo challenge is going much better but not great.
I stayed home sick on Tuesday, but ended up working from home all day.
We finally had a SNOW DAY {with no snow…}
Saturday was super busy, a home appraisal, IKEA’s Bring Your Own Friends event, and a trip to Costco.
Sunday was even busier thanks to inspiration from IKEA which kicked my room renovations into high gear.
March’s focus on budget is not going so well… AT ALL.
and I cannot wait for Spring Break (even if I only get 3 days off)!

And for the longer version {for those of you who like to read or are just nosy :)}:

Who knew that adding the photo challenge prompts to my online calendar AND my daily to do pages in my Filofax would keep me on the track?! I’m staying fairly on track with the furthest I’ve slacked behind being 2 {busy} days.
Monday evening, my throat was a bit scratchy, and later that night, I ended up with a fever. Tuesday morning, I barely had a voice, so I decided I’d stay home for the day to avoid getting anyone in my office sick. Normally when I’m sick, I don’t want to leave my bed, but I felt fine aside from sounding like a frog and the fever from the day before. I was wide awake though, so I pulled my laptop out and worked from 6am-5pm. I even kept to my usual work schedule and took a lunch break at 2pm.
Wednesday, everyone was predicting a huge storm to hit the East coast. We were supposed to get 4-8″ of snow, which is a lot for us. I was pretty excited when I woke up to see a light dusting of snow on the ground. My university closed, and I anxiously waited for the rain to switch back to snow around noon as forecasted. The snow never came, and the rain melted any snow we had gotten that morning. It was a REALLY uneventful day, but at least I had a day off.
Saturday morning we had an appraiser come to assess the value of our house. I keep my room fairly neat so I didn’t plan on cleaning more, but for some reason I went into “Clean ALL the things!!!” mode. Everything in my room usually has a place. If it doesn’t, I find a place for it or get rid of it, but occasionally, I get lazy and just put it in my inbox tray by my desk with the intention of getting to it later. Of course later doesn’t come, so the pile takes over my desk until I don’t notice them {or pretend not to.} Out of nowhere before the appraiser came, I threw everything that was out of place into a basket {and no, I didn’t hid it in a closet…} I sorted them into their respective areas {Office – Filing, Supplies, Coupons; Electronics; Closets – Travel Accessories, Jewelry, Pet Stuff, Tools; Bathroom}. In a matter of 20 minutes while watching a movie, everything was put away and sorted.
Saturday was a big day, the appraiser came at 9am. After he left, I had to rush to make it to IKEA for their Bring Your Own Friends event. I made it just in time to enjoy a free breakfast of eggs, bacon, and potatoes which was perfectly “Andrea-portioned.” {Just enough to make me energized for the day, not ready to go back to bed.} Taking a stroll through IKEA was a great way to spark my creativity. I also confirmed that I do like the furniture choices I picked out, and the all the measurements work out too. After IKEA, we stopped at Costco to pick up a few things. Afterwards, we went through the containers in the garage to see what painting supplies we already had. We found out we had most of the things already, and threw out a lot of trash in the process.
On Sunday, we had another fairly full day. We went back to Costco to pick up some more of the hangers I purchased the day before, AND drumroll… a new memory foam mattress for my room. We walked over to Walmart next door to pick up some groceries while we were there, and ventured back home so that the mattress could get a chance to expand in time for me to sleep on it. Then we went to Home Depot. $200+ worth of paint later, I got to check another item off the room renovations. {That’s for painting a few rooms, not just mine.} I got home and got to work on patching and sanding. My room and everything in it is now covered in a fine layer of drywall dust. {I really should have taken before pictures BEFORE the sanding.}
If any of you read my March Goals post, you’ll know my focus for the month is my budget. So far, that’s a huge bust. Many of my purchases were for deals I couldn’t pass up. Others started out as things I needed but ended up including a lot of impulse buys too. So in an act of trying to shock myself into some accountability, here’s my purchases from last week:
- Sticky notes from K&Company – I didn’t need these, but now they fit Personal-sized Filofax pages, and I have actually started using them.
- A free pair of glasses from Coastal Contacts but I had to pay $14.95 for shipping {I wanted to have an extra pair.}
- A 4 pack of brush heads for my Clarisonic {20% off plus 8% cashback} from the Skinstore = about $15 dollars per brush head
- Hair ties and headbands from Mane Message – I’ve gotten similar ones to these before as samples, and I love them.
- I picked up some hair supplies, vitamins, odds and ends from Drugstore.com – most of it was on sale, plus I had cash back
- I bought a license for CleanMyMac2. – I had tried the previous version before and loved it so I wanted to support the developer with version 2.
- I also picked up a travel bag for my Clarisonic. – totally unnecessary.
- A 5lb. Kettle bell and 2 sets of dumbbells for working out. – the set of weights I had was too heavy so I got some lighter ones.
- The Hunger Games trilogy on Kindle {on sale for $5} – I couldn’t pass it up.
- Two sets of 35 no slip hangers – I’d seen online that Costco was selling hangers similar to Huggable hangers for only $9. I picked up a set on Saturday, and returned to get another set on Sunday.
- The paint of course.
- And the big one…the mattress. My old mattress was 12 years old and sagging in the middle. On Saturday, I found out Costco had a sale on a 14″ gel memory foam mattress for $399, so I checked it out on a whim. I was a bit concerned about the quality based on the price, so I went home and checked some reviews first. It’s not a top of the line mattress, but reviews weren’t too far off from Tempur Pedic ones either. It just didn’t have the $3000 price tag of the Tempur Pedic ones I’d looked at before. I figured that for the price, it was worth a shot. I also ordered a mattress cover for it since the people I’ve spoken with recommend always putting a cover on memory foam mattresses to protect them from moisture. The hardest part is finding sheets to fit it. My old mattress has gone to it’s new home in a spare bedroom to eventually be a guest bed.
With all that happened this weekend, I left myself very little time to do my school work that I had, as usual, saved until the last minute. I actually took a quick break from sanding on Sunday and submitted my assignment online while I was completely covered in dust. I’m actually pretty disappointed in what I turned in, but I just wanted to get it submitted.

Until next week.

{Filofax Friday} Using a Filofax in a Digital World

March 8, 2013August 25, 201612 Comments

I work for my university’s Information Technology department. I’m constantly surrounded by all things digital. As I write this, I have my 27″ Apple display, a Macbook Pro with Retina Display, an iPhone 5, and an iPad all within arms reach on my desk. Sitting next to them all is my Filofax though. So how does someone in IT use both?

I’ve already given you a tour of my Filofax. Part one’s overview showed how everything’s arranged. Part two’s diary section showed how I keep track of meetings and due dates, and Part three showed how I use my daily pages. But… there was one thing missing – the backbone and brain of my system – how I keep everything scheduled, and how I remember to do things. I’d be lying if I said that I was super organized and my Filofax did it all. {I wish.} My Osterley does keep my life running smoothly, but it supplements my digital systems. I’m not sure I’d ever be able to use just a Filofax or just digital things. {This post is a little text heavy. Sorry.}

The Backbone – Google Calendar

My university has a contract with Google through Google Apps for Education, so I use Google quite a bit for work, but I even use it outside of work, because this system just works for me. I have calendars set up in Google Calendar for categories similar to the ones in my Filofax:

Social (pink)
Finance (green)
Personal (blue)
School (purple)
Work (orange)

I also have a few extras that either don’t need to be tracked in my Filofax, or if they do, they get color coded as one of the areas above in my Filofax:

Student Employee Schedule (I make the schedule each semester for our student employees and this shows up on their calendar as well.)
Holidays (both my university’s schedule, and general US holidays)
Sports team schedules (Ravens, Orioles, Capitals)

The Google Apps suite is essential to the daily workflow of my department. We are all spread across campus so Google Calendar allows us to see everyone’s schedules and set up meetings. We use Google Drive to store the meeeting agendas that get attached to the meeting entry on the calendar, and send out meeting invitations using Gmail. Since Google is such an integral part of how we work here, it’s a good thing that this system works for me.

Each week, usually on a Sunday, I sit down and copy any new events to the monthly and weekly pages in my Filofax. The calendars automatically sync to my iPhone and iPad. Depending on where I am, I pick and choose which way to view my calendar. If I’m out walking to a meeting across campus, it’s easier {and less attention-drawing} to pull out my phone and figure out where the meeting is than it would be to pull out my Filofax. When I get to that meeting, I probably have my iPad in front of me so that I can follow along with the meeting agenda online, but my phone’s in my pocket. In my office or at home though, I probably have my Filofax sitting close by. Either way, they all have the same information so I’m not missing out on anything no matter what option I choose.

The Tasks

When it comes to recurring tasks, I’d be lost without the Things app. I have it on my Mac, my iPhone, and my iPad so everything syncs. I’ll admit I hated the apps when I first used them. Little by little, I found ways to use it, and now that it’s set up properly, it’s fantastic.I use Things as my master list. I know some people like to write down a master list, but I don’t like how cluttered that can get. Pretty much anything I have to do goes into Things first, and then gets transferred to my Filofax each day. If I think of something I need to do, I can put it into Things and set a due date or when to follow back up on it. Every morning, I get a list of “things” that I need to do for that day from Things, and I write them into my daily pages because I like physically checking things off. Once they are done, I get to check them off in both Things which saves them to a logbook, and in my Filofax which looks pretty.

I have the following areas set up in Things:

Blog – Any posts that I post every week {My Filofax Weeks, Filofax Fridays, Sunday Socials} and anything I post monthly like goals are scheduled here. I also keep a running list of post ideas. When I’m looking for something to post, I can look at the list to schedule one of the ideas.
Work – I copy over any items from meeting agendas into this list right after the meeting. I also have recurring things like when to submit my timesheet or when it’s my week to complete a weekly review.
Personal – I’m a forgetful person, so here I note when I need to repaint my nails, whiten my teeth, change my toothbrush, refill prescriptions, etc.
Cleaning – I hate cleaning. Without a schedule, I don’t clean. I’ve tried Flylady, but it was so detailed it drove me crazy. I ended up setting up a less detailed cleaning schedule in this particular section and it helps to keep me on track. Everything is set to repeat “on completion” rather than a specific day, so if I don’t feel like doing something, it rolls to the next day.
Pets – Having three cats is a full time job in itself, but mine are spoiled so they get their own category to remind me to cut their nails, brush them, etc. {Random fact: they are toilet trained, *weird… I know* so at least I don’t have to worry about a litter box.}
Media (more about this further down)
Shopping – I keep a running shopping list and wishlist here so that I can check things off while I’m at the store.

As you can see, some areas mirror whats in my Filofax. Others are broken down a bit more. For instance, in my Filofax, cleaning and pets fall under Personal and are color coded in blue. I don’t know why I do it this way, I just like breaking it down more in Things. Also, since my school assignments aren’t recurring events, I typically don’t put them into Things, because I’ve found it’s a waste of time.

So if any of you are still with me, congratulations. You’re almost to the end.

I have a Media list in Things but it isn’t for recurring events or tasks. I subscribe to Netflix for streaming and BluRay discs. We also have DirecTV at our house, and I happen to have a DVR. Each week, I look to see if anything in my Netflix queue might be coming on TV any time soon. If they are, I set my DVR to record them and remove them from Netflix, that way I can make better use of my subscription. I put an entry into Things with the title and time of day and set the due date as the day it’s coming on. I also remove them from the queue if they are going to be available via streaming soon. On the day it’s set to record or be available to stream, it comes up as a task (which I don’t put in my Filofax). If it doesn’t record due to conflicts or some other issue, I know to add it back to my queue on Netflix.

So that’s the last part of my system that keeps me organized. I like using them both for their own reasons, but a huge benefit is that information is always backed up in two places (online and on paper). I hope you enjoyed reading. Tune back in next week for some Filofax enabling.

{Blog Update} Bloglovin’

March 7, 2013August 25, 2016Leave a comment

Hey guys, I just wanted to make a quick post here to let everyone know I signed up with Bloglovin’. Click the link below to follow me if you’d like.

March 2013 Goals

March 5, 2013February 21, 2016Leave a comment

Can you believe it’s March already?! I know I can’t. February flew by. So how did I do on my goals and what are my goals for March? Keep reading to find out.

A recap on February’s projects and goals:

~~I want to finish reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking~~ – Finished. Great book. I highly recommend it to anyone feeling bit lost in an extroverted world. If you don’t feel like reading the book, Susan Cain sums up the book quite well in her Ted Talk.

Another goal is to finish patching the walls in my bedroom and bathroom – I didn’t do so well on this one. Most of the holes are patched in my bedroom, but I still have sanding to do. I also have to take a few things (light fixtures, shelves, etc.) and patch those holes.

I’m participating in FMS’s February photo challenge as part of my resolution to take more picture -This was a total bust, but you can see my February recap here.

I’m going to work on remembering how grateful I am to have such an incredible boyfriend. – This was also a total bust given that we broke up 4 days into the month. In the past month, I’ve learned a lot though. Mainly that our relationship was not at all as strong as I thought it was.

I’m going to work on hopefully repairing some friendships that I royally messed up. – I tried, I really did, but some people are unwilling to forgive people. I went out and bought cute little gifts and included apology letters, but when I went to deliver them, the response was a wonderful, “You really thought that was a good idea?”

and I have some cute little projects for Valentine’s Day that I’d like to complete. – Another bust, Valentine’s day just wasn’t my day this year.

So 1/6… Ouch. Let’s hope March is better.

Now for March’s goals and projects.

My focus this month will be paying attention to my budget. I’m blessed to not have any sort of college debt thanks to my mother working for the University I attended for my undergraduate degree. Now that I work there, they’re paying for my graduate degree as well. I have a well-paying job with awesome perks (like the brand new MacBook Pro they gave me to replace my old dying one.) It’s really allowed me to do some great things like help out my mother financially. However, I’m not immune to unnecessary purchases, and I always feel like I could do better even if I’m not doing badly.

I already save $315 dollars from every pay check. I also have around $60 dollars that I put aside every paycheck for a few things on my wish list.
New this month is that I’m also setting aside $25 dollars from every paycheck so that I have Christmas money. I worked it out and it should add up to about $500 dollars by November plus interest. {Thank you Smartypig. You have been amazing in terms of helping me save.}
I have a few credit cards for various stores that I pay off immediately after buying something. I also have a main card that usually carries a balance, so this month is dedicated to paying that off and keeping it paid off like the other cards.
I’m actively trying to ask myself, “Is this something I really need?” Sometimes it works. Other times, like when I decide to get a few items from Sephora that turns into “Well let’s try this just once, and maybe this too,” and before I know it I have a $160 dollar order. I’ve been tracking my spending more closely with Mint so hopefully I’m on to the right track with that.

Other projects for March

Reading – I’m working on reading both Blogging for Dummies and Blog Inc.
Making progress on my room renovations – I really need to get the painting tackled in my room. March 9th is a Bring your Friends and Family event at IKEA so hopefully I can pick up a few things to get the ball rolling and get my inspiration sparked again.
Completing FMS’s March Photo Challenge.

What are your plans for March? Did you set goals for February? Hopefully you did better than my 1 for 6 tally. Here’s to a great month!

My {Filofax} Week 9

March 4, 2013August 25, 20162 Comments

I feel like last week went by incredibly fast. I cannot believe it’s already March. February flew by.

Here’s my week:

And for a quick recap of what happened {in case you aren’t at all interested in reading about my life}:

I tried to add a bit more color to this week’s pages to go along with my wonderful stamps I got.
I had another presentation to make for work.
I actually began somewhat prepping my room for the renovations.
A new watermark for pictures.
Procrastination can effectively sum up this week.

And for the longer version {for those of you who like to read or are just nosy :)}:

Last week, I blogged about the wonderful stamps I got from Etsy. I’d been looking for stamps like these for a while so I was thrilled when I found them. They came from Korea, I believe, so it took a while for them to get here {mainly because our mail man forgot to bring them}. To go along with the stamps, I tried to add some color, but I must say, the color overwhelms me and I think I will tone it back for next week.
My work scheduled yet another presentation for me. {I really wish they’d understand, I don’t like public speaking.} After each meeting, they always tell me I did a good job and that I seem more comfortable. Truthfully, I still despise it. I’ve just kind of given up trying to get out of them because my whole department operates on the idea that you will learn to like it eventually.
For about 6 months or more now, I’ve been planning to redo my room. Currently it’s painted bubble gum pink and lime green. After almost 10 years, I’m ready for it to go. The hard part is going to be painting though. I really do not want to paint a 16’x21′ room PLUS my bathroom. {and I’m doing stripes on one wall too so that’s even more work}. So in catching up with my to-do list, I cleaned up quite a bit and did some organizing here and there. The big change was with my bathroom though. My bathroom is a bit odd. The first part of my bathroom, the sink area, has no door separating it from my bedroom. Then a door separates the sink area (and my bedroom) from the toilet and shower area. There’s a window in each area, but the door blocks one of them at all times depending on if it’s open or closed. It’s only myself and my cats that use my bathroom and it’s tucked around a corner so the door stays open 100% of the time. I made the decision to just take the door down, and I was blown away by how much light pours into my room now that both windows are accessible. Another great perk is that without the door taking up space, I got to move the cat’s food bowls onto the tile floor which will be a LOT easier to clean up.

Making the new watermark for my photos

I’m in the process of slowly figuring out this blogging situation. I picked up a copy of Blog, Inc., which I’ve been seeing a lot of lately. One of my sources of inspiration, Jen from OrganizedLikeJen also mentioned it in her video she recently posted on Youtube. I plan to start that this week. Another change I made was putting together a watermark for my images. Now that it’s made, I’m trying to figure out the best {simplest} way to add the watermark, put images on my blog, and what to do with the ones I’ve already put up both here and on Flickr. I really want everything to look consistent. {I’m a bit OCD.} If anyone has any tips or suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
This week was really all about procrastination for me. In some ways it was a blessing, and in other ways it was a curse. Instead of doing what I should have done in order to meet deadlines {blog posts, school work, etc.} I did everything else instead. The good part was that the “everything else” happened to be productive to some extent {cleaning, catching up on reading/YouTube, creative blog things, etc.} so I’m writing this in an incredibly clean room, the bad part is I didn’t do a lot that I should have done. In fact, I’m writing this right now instead of doing my assignment that is due in 10 hours.
Lastly, a quick update to my photo challenge challenges… in a my February photo challenge recap, I linked to the March list. When I actually read the link, I saw a fantastic little link to add all the events to your online calendar. Knowing how much I use Google Calendar, I did, and it’s been working out well. I also started adding the daily picture to my daily pages as a to do item just as an added reminder. So far, I’m on track.

Until next week.

According to Andrea

Finding ways to help technology make life easier, not more complicated.

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I didn’t want a planner that would help me be able to do everything. I wanted a planner that would everything for me!

I was switching planners so often that I was never giving them a chance to succeed in the first place.

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Birchbox

Ipsy

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{Blog Update} Bloglovin’

March 2013 Goals

My {Filofax} Week 9