Shopping!

About once a year I'll have a big spend up, when we have a trip planned to the city.  This year, the Other Half entered a mountain bike event just outside of Christchurch, so that was where my money was destined to go.
Usually, inspiration strikes either on the way home, or a week or so after I've been, but this time I was ready.   My hobbies/obsessions tend to change with the seasons, and right now I'm looking for comics graphic novels.

Two Sandmans, three Hellblazers and a Preacher.  Which would be enough to keep me out of trouble for a while, only I'm a bit obsessed with reading things in the right order, and none of the places I visited had any even-numbered volumes.  So I've got gaps in the stories, and plans to start buying long-distance from an awesome bookstore in the city.

I also picked up another Gaiman title and a sparkly green pencil for my handbag.  Oh, and a new handbag:

It's probably too big to called a handbag - sack might be a better word.  My A5 filofax has heaps of space, and my tablet and camera should fit in just as easily.  Next week I'll probably be reviewing different back/shoulder pain treatment methods, but for now I love it.  The busy purple lining is even growing on me.

In Motion

This week's challenge is 'in motion', and has really driven home the idea that I want to be shooting well beyond what my point and shoot camera is capable of (and myself, come to that...).  I know what I want to achieve, and this photo... just isn't it.  So much so that I'm not even submitting it to the PhotoFriday site, and am only putting it here to prove to myself that I haven't piked on the challenge a mere two weeks in.

Mood

This is Dawson.  He is unthrilled that I'm within eight feet of his food, and can go from cheerfully starving to rabid fuzzface in 0.2 seconds.

This is also an attempt at a PhotoFriday challenge, with an outdated camera.  Hopefully my pics will improve (even if the subject remains the same!).

13.5 lists

Behold, two weeks of lists:

The bucket list drew me up short, and I've left it blank on purpose.  I just don't have one, and I don't think I'll ever have one.  Still, onward and upward... but before I go, a peek at my new tabs:

I finally got around to getting some smaller avery tabs to use, so now I can mix and match as many sections as I please.  The books tab at the back is the original, larger size, which is perfect since that's the most important bit (after the diary, of course!).

My next challenge is remembering to use my camera for taking photos, and not my phone.  I forget how amazingly useless it is for taking photos with any kind of detail!

Summer salad recipes

It turns out the Pinterest has it's uses, especially since launching a mobile app.  I've gotten into the habit of seeing something nice to eat, and pinning it while I'm surfing on my laptop, then loading it up on the tablet, which gets propped out of the way in the kitchen so I can try recipes out right away.  This generally involves a lot of running from one end of the kitchen to another, since the only safe place I have is the furthest point from the stove and bench, but anyway...

Because I've been using Pinterest as a cookbook lately, my actual cookbook (my work of art!) has been sitting in the bottom of the pantry with other neglected things (soda stream gas cannister, terrible bottles of white wine...).  I dug it out for something the other day, and now I'm in the mood to make it grow again.

I wish I knew where this recipe came from.  It's great for summer lunches.  The actual spread itself is a mix of images from Scrap Girls, and the spots are from a background designed by Ange Designs.  The font is called Annoyed Teenager, and is designed by Arianna Teague.

This is a bit of a cheat - it's just a background with text added.  The paper is from a kit by Sharon C, who shares the most amazing kits for free, and the font is called Designio, by Rodrigo German.

First 365 spread!

The first weekly spread of 365/30 lists is full, and looking like it's going to be good reading in a year or two.

I've never been too good at journal prompts, and I'm not sure if I'll make the entire 365 list, but I'm enjoying it so far.  It's certainly got me thinking about different things, that's for sure!

The rest of my filofax has had a bit of a makeover too, in the past few weeks.  I've been using random scrapbook sheets as dividers, but they were only paper and not card.  I finally got around to printing off some things I like looking at, to use as dividers...

  

(I've changed the other dividers too, but they're not as interesting to look at!)  I'm using avery tabs as the actual index tabs, since I change my mind at least once a month about what sections I want to have.

Monthly Goals

I've joined a group of filofaxers in a list challenge.  At the beginning of the month, you're given a list of lists, filling in one each day.  I'm not usually very good with these kinds of challenges, but this one is supported by a great bunch of people, and I've managed to fill in my lunchbreaks this week trying to come up with some answers.

The very first list was a list of monthly goals to shoot for.  I've managed to avoid making goals pretty much my whole life - things happen, or they don't, and while I might accomplish one or two things that have been on my mind, I've never been keen on forming a coherent, dedicated list, but I admire those who can form enough goals to be worth listing, and then go on to actually accomplish them.

My list is quite short, what with easing into new habits and all that, but having written them down I'm definitely more aware of them, even without looking at them.  There are only four of them, but they're already weighing on my mind, and I'll update you at the end of the month to see if I've managed to achieve any of them.