Daily Dose

Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals In November

I had such high hopes and then all the unexpected things happened (along with some expected things) and my life went to hell and didn’t really ever recover. OK maybe it recovered a little. Enough for me to finish Melisa’s bottle in time to take it to her on our next trip to that stupid suburb. I’m pretty pleased with that bit of artwork, even if it isn’t art journaling.

I did a tiny bit of doodling and I played with some ephemera in prep for a page that I’ll work on … someday, someday maybe. (Oh look at me channeling Lauren Graham, just as I’m about to talk Filofax… which makes no sense to most of you, but makes perfect sense to me.)

I had a couple of rough moments in the Filofax world because life went to hell and so did my well laid out plans. I recovered. Mostly. Or I’m still recovering. My schedules are all wonky and my reusable stickies for recurring meetings and reports are effed all to hell because times and dates have changed so much. Rather than completely re-do them again, I’m holding off and out til 2015 and feel better about the week’s schedule already.

In other news, my mom bought a Filofax, the youngest child asked for a Filofax for Christmas, and I convinced Idyllicchick that the perfect planner for her was a Midori Traveler or a Fauxdori Traveler (it is and I’m all the jealous that she has one and I do not.)

Besides Filofax screw ups my few lines a day journaling went to hell, too. My mornings were so chaotic that I completely missed the two minutes I usually take to journal with my first cup of coffee. Hell most of November was done while cursing and trying to remember life a week ago — rinse and repeat, three times. Yea, it was like that.

December will be better because I’ve carried over my major to do items + added only holiday related shipping and wrapping stuff. I’m really just holding on til 2015. (Oh, I did finally order my A5 inserts. They’re not here yet but I expect them soon. That will be fun — all bullet journaling, all the time. I think. Mostly. hah.)

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Moon Cleveland

Here I am playing catch up with books — so out of order, let’s go with Moon Cleveland. RJ flipped through the book while she was home on mid-term break and picked out a bunch of places she thought she might like to check out while we were visiting for parents’ weekend.

I went through it after her and then planned our itinerary around her choices — and mine.

Saturday
– West Side Market was fantastic. Unplanned dash into Koffie Cafe — TW is still raving about her coffee.
– A visit to the A Christmas Story house/museum and that was awesome. Even if they over-booked their 12:15 tour and we had to wait in the cold for an extra half hour. Heh.
– Melt Bar and Grilled for lunch was a-freaking-mazing. Vegan chicken wings were excellent. All of our sandwiches were fabulous. I’m so glad I noticed they had vegan offerings because RJ was in heaven with her pierogie grilled cheese.
– Next, we headed to Cleveland Heights and wandered around the shops on Coventry Village. A used bookstore and Big Fun Toys were both big fun.
– We ran over to Eton something or other (a frou frou mall) for the Vegan Sweet Tooth and RJ was very pleased with her vegan baked good.
– A stop in Target for dorm supplies (and junk) rounded out a very full day.

Sunday
– The Root Cafe for breakfast — my huevos rancheros were good, RJ’s friend joined us and her egg & goat cheese sandwich looked excellent. RJ was very pleased with her vegan scramble.
– The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame visit was more fun than I expected. TW was the one who really wanted to go there but I definitely enjoyed it.
– The Free Stamp was on my list but A had to be back to Oberlin by 2 so we didn’t have time to walk over to see it. Luckily, we drove right past it on the way back so that was a lucky break!

All in all, a good trip. Oh, the Moon guide was fine. Not exceptional but it did the trick.

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Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals In October

Aside from some doodling in my filofax, October was an art journaling bust. October in general was a bust and I didn’t see THAT coming at all. My filofaxes did their job, I just ignored everything I planned and did pretty much nothing that wasn’t work or survival related — that sounds more dire than it should but that’s what the month was made of, really. Bah humbug.

I really have to get Melisa’s bottle done in November. HAVE TO. I also need to get back on budget because, yea. Umm. We need to do that.

And, I need to decide once and for all about my Filo inserts for 2015. My mom sent me an extra set of personal week on two pages (yes, she entered the Filofax world with a pretty Poppy cover story personal) so I guess that decision has been made for me (and that’s probably what I was going to do anyway — it makes the most sense.) The A5 though… bullet journaling is the method, but what type of paper? what type of layout? I really need to figure that out before the inserts I want are out of stock and I end up having to print my own. I do not want to print my own.

OK enough brain dumping, maybe I should get up and actually make a decent to do list for the month? Yea, good idea.

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Ready for #Readathon

We have books.

We have snacks.

We have dog toys and treats.

I’ve set up my browser home page(s) to always open the Dewey’s Readathon blog, my blog, the #readathon twitter stream, and the Dewey’s Facebook page. (This makes it easier for me to interact with those who are reading along and participate in the mini-challenges.)

I have a plan for my day (though I may not stick to it):
– I’m starting with an art book because the first hour of #readathon is always rough for me. I’ll have to work. I’ll want to blog the opening intro challenge. I’ll want to check out the stream to see what everyone is doing and of course I’ll break out the first of the yummy food. So — an easy book is always best.
– Next, I’ll go for a novel, adult or YA, which should get me through til lunch.
– Then, I’ll go for a graphic novel.
– From there I’ll hit the children/middle grade books.
– I’ll end the evening with more art books.
– And of course, I’ve got a couple of fantasy novels on my kindle app and I’ll be reading those throughout the day and night.

I’m psyched!

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Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals In September

Oh right, it’s October. Which means it’s a new month and time to review last month. Thank goodness last month is over.

I didn’t actually create a to do list until after JMP went home and that list was intended to carry me through October so I’m not too upset about the fact that the only thing I’ve managed to cross off is the mailing of packages to five people. I’ve managed to get started on a few other things on the list but I’m not making a lot of progress because September sucks and it’s awfully early in October.

I did order some storage bins to start weeding through the linens and towels and bedding situation.

I did art journal a wee bit at the end of September. I also tracked down a water bottle for Melisa and I think I even know how I want to make this thing… so we’ll see. Hopefully I’ll have that done by December 2 — which is the next time I plan to be in her stupid suburb.

I worked on JMP’s stocking last weekend and hope to keep making progress there. Maybe. Hopefully.

And we absolutely do have to find our winter clothes. ASAP.

Also, Filofaxing — I’m back at it, though I don’t seem to be doing any daily journaling. I need to get that back into my daily schedule. Soon.

Onward into October.

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Re-Visiting The Princess Bride

I love The Princess Bride (who doesn’t, right?) I’ve seen it a trillion times (who hasn’t, right?) So I hesitated about ordering tickets to see The Princess Bride at the Hollywood Palms theater in that stupid suburb that I hate to go to.

But when TW wandered over there and mentioned that it was playing, I thought what the hell. It will be fun. And, they make a really awesome lemon sorbet martini. (I know, you’re shocked.) The tickets were super inexpensive, when you look at how much a movie ticket normally costs, so that was an added bonus.

After a rough couple of days at work, I was totally ready for this particular date night movie. It was even cooler than expected because we got to watch the movie in the special screening room that has like 12 small leather couches instead of the computer desk type chairs. Much more comfortable and intimate. Really nice.

We ordered more drinks and a ton of food (though not as much food as last time) and sat back to watch.

And that’s when I realized, I haven’t really seen The Princess Bride a trillion times. I mean I have, but not all of the way through from start to finish without working while watching or getting distracted by kids or pets or other people. And, I’ve never seen it on the big screen.

If you have the chance to see it in a theater this way, I highly recommend it — even if you’ve seen it a trillion times. It’s totally worth it.

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Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals in August

Pretty much my only goals were JMP related and I managed to do all but one thing on my list. So yay me.

I haven’t touched the water bottle I was supposed to make for Melisa before I see her in September. I’ve barely touched my Filofaxes since JMP arrived. I keep falling behind on the daily journaling and have to catch up by looking at my Instagram to see what we did on each day.

So, everything is going smoothly. Except when it isn’t. Mostly it’s good. Very good.

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Pinterest Frustration

Like all new social media platforms, I joined Pinterest without really thinking about how I might use it, whether I might use it for the rest of my life and whether I was going to find myself with a mess if the darn thing took off like wildfire and became the next big thing that STICKS.

So, years have passed and Pinterest is a thing. A thing that should be used. Properly. Or at least in a way that makes a little bit of damn sense. Having not enough boards or the wrong boards has been making me CRAZY so I finally decided that I either needed to FIX it or STOP USING IT and since I obviously can’t stop using it, I’m fixing it.

I’m making new boards. Deleting old boards. Moving pins to the proper places. Getting rid of pins to dead content or pins that I don’t even understand why they were pinned to my account in the first effing place. What was I thinking?

I started out saying I’d spend 30 minutes a day on Pinterest, fixing my damn account. But after 15 minutes this morning, I was feeling a lot of anxiety. I don’t really LIKE Pinterest, lol. So I’ve decided forget that 30 minutes a day, I’ll just do 15 minutes. I can handle 15 minutes and when it’s all fixed — I’ll feel better about Pinterest. Right? RIGHT!

Do you have boards that make sense? Do you have too many, not enough or just the right number of boards? Do you tidy your Pinterest account regularly or just pin and forget about it?

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Ah, That Brings Back Memories

On Saturday, I was scrolling through Instagram, like I do, when I saw a photo of a Cherry Dip cone from Dairy Queen.

Oh! Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in a zillion years. I want Cherry Dip!

I pushed that last thought away and went about my day. But Cherry Dip kept popping into my head.

Finally, a little after 4pm, I couldn’t take it any longer and I told TW we should just put on pants (pants!) and go to Dairy Queen and get Cherry Dip.

Oddly enough, TW’s response was, “It’s almost 4:30.”

Umm, not her normal response for such things. I figured she didn’t like Cherry Dip or something? So after telling her that they do serve Cherry Dip at 4:30 pm on Saturday, in the summer, and getting not positive response from her, I tried to push Cherry Dip from my mind.

Next thing I know, TW’s making dinner. A very nice dinner. The tater tot waffles were good. Good enough that I didn’t even complain about the mess from the waffle iron. And by the time I’d eaten all my dinner, I pretty much had forgotten about Cherry Dip.

Until a couple of hours later when TW said, “So, are we going to get Cherry Dip or what?”

I tried to ignore her. I had wanted the Cherry Dip hours ago. Not at 8pm, damn it. Didn’t work. I still wanted Cherry Dip.

So we got dressed (it took more than just pants by this time) and drove to the DQ/OJ combo a couple of miles away. The line was long. Very long. The workers were not quick. We ordered our Cherry Dips (and small OJs) and sat at a small table by the door.

A boy behind us in line also ordered Cherry Dip, though he got a large one and we had small ones.

Every time someone came into the DQ, they said, “Oh Cherry Dip! I haven’t had Cherry Dip in years!” or “Oh, I haven’t thought about Cherry Dip since I was a kid!”

Nobody ordered Cherry Dip but it was amusing to hear everyone do that initial gasp of memory when they saw the Cherry Dip. It was also kind of fun to listen to everyone talking about their memories of Dairy Queens from long ago — because that’s what everyone sitting around us did, while they were there.

I don’t know if it was the Cherry Dip that brought on the nostalgia or the old photos on the walls or if it’s just a thing that happens in Dairy Queen. Whatever it was, it was fun and I really enjoyed the Cherry Dip.

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Filofax, Art Journaling and Other Goals In July

I can barely remember July, it’s a blur of madness and even looking back over my Filofax and daily journals doesn’t help much.

I know that I pretty much completely ignored my Filofax at the end of the month, because of BlogHer. And, I was smart enough to not add any serious goals for the month — the only things I added to the to do list were those I knew I had to do in order to actually do my job and/or go to BlogHer. So, yay! Success!

I didn’t do a damn bit of art journaling but I did make an awesome clipboard and that was totally, completely, fun.

July was a success. I survived and there were some damn good moments tucked in there with the madness.

I’m hoping to have a ton of art fun making a water bottle for Melisa and playing with JMP, in August.

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