dividers from scrapbook paper - with birds!

I'd been wanting some new dividers for a while, my old ones were pretty tatty at the edges, and the commercial ones are too dull for my taste.  I have a massive stack of very cool scrapbooking paper, which aren't strong enough on their own, but I had a bit of a play and with some folding have ended up with these dividers, which are strong and cool looking!

Birds on the back of two of them, although sad that the dude on the left has his head folded under....

They are about half a centimetre wider than the diary pages, which was intentional.  It gives just a small edge so you can easily flick to a page, but not so wide that they get dog-eared.  My filofax goes in my bag and is just lumped in there indelicately so this is a real issue!.  

The way the pages are folded you end up with a cute little pocket which is handy for all manner of bits and pieces.  

bright filofax papers

I had been using the filofax coloured notepaper, but with my Lamy safari fountain pen it looked like the paper was almost wax coated, and I didn't like it.  

On my hunt for new notepaper (I'm not a fan of DIY-ing) I found KiddyQualia's etsy store.  I bought some really nice bright notepapers, and some grid papers.  

The note papers have a really nice colour range 

and they work well with my fountain pen!  yay!

I see that on her etsy store she is starting to add monthly and weekly view calendar inserts so I'll be checking those out as well

New Filofax!

I set up a system to reward myself for going to the gym, and here is my latest treat, a new Filofax! I got a personal chameleon in aqua from Pens and Leather

 

I'm really liking it, and I'm glad I bought it, it definitely feels like a step up from my metropol. The photos below are probably the best colour representation of the aqua, I've noticed in lots of photos it either looks green or the black stands out while the aqua washes away, but these photos are pretty true to colour.

The pen ring is smaller then the metropol, and I've been experimenting with different pens to see what works, at the moment I've just got a plain bic but I'm not loving it so I'll keep trying. In the front slots I've got business cards and some stickers that you'll see in my diary pages too. I needed my passport for work the other day and that tucks in nicely in the full length pocket.

I've used the same dividers that I made for my metropol, and will probably stick with them for a bit until I get bored of them. I blogged about them here

I use day per page diary inserts, and I love using washi tape and stickers to decorate the pages.

 

Post it notes currently live in the card holder at the back.

I'm very happy with my purchase!

 

 

Winter coat

I've decided to make a winter coat this year, something of a perennial habit for me. I made my first one at a sewing class, and it's great, mostly thanks to a good fabric choice.

Last year I made another, but a combination of probably the wrong pattern, and definitely the wrong fabric, plus some fitting issues ended up with a wadder.

So this year I'm going all out, I did a bunch of research on patternreview.com and picked out a pattern that I think will work, simplicity 2812

 

Decided on a combo of collar (gathered), sleeve (inverted pleat), length (mid thigh), pretty much like the red coat in this picture

 

I even did a muslin of the bodice and made the necessary adjustments

 

And this evening I cut out the bodice and interfaced it. Which went well although this black fuzz that is all over everything is a bit ominous...

 

Wish me luck!

 

Charlottes quilt

This is a quilt for a friends baby girl, baby quilts are such popular gifts

I use flannel on the inside to make them lighter, and to cut down on costs as quilt batting is very expensive here in NZ. I am working on using my stash fabric, including fabrics that I've been holding onto because I love, so I donated this cute bird fabric to the baby quilt cause.

 

 

New Filofax new dividers

I really like having pops of colour in my Filofax, and these new dividers do it nicely for me in my new red metropolitan Filofax.

I made them from a cardstock set I have, that's all about retro stuff, and some of it was such big patterns that it didn't really work, but I picked out the patterns that did.

The pattern with the alphabet on it goes in the front of my binder and it's a nice cheery touch when I open up.

And lovely little bits of colour down the side!

I used some kikki-k dividers as a template (they were boring grey) but didn't make as many as came in that set, which is why the tabs don't go all the way to the bottom of the paper.

Would anyone be interested in buying these if I were to put some sets on etsy? I know lots of people make their own but maybe there are people out there that would rather get them pre-made?

 

Quick jewellry

 When I got home from work this evening I was itching to do something with my hands, so decided some quick jewellry was in order.

Four pairs of earrings

 

 The pair on the left don't photograph that well, here is a different view

 

 And then a seriously simple necklace to focus on the large bead that I really like

 

 Almost instant gratification!