Muji Stationery Haul (and mini review)

Hi everyone!

I don't usually post hauls on this blog but I thought I'd do one on a Muji shopping trip I did for my mom and sister.  This was weeks ago and I didn't want to post it before they got their packages because they do sometimes read my blog, and I wanted it to be a bit of a surprise.

I got them a few other odds and ends but I wasn't able to take a photo of those, so this will be purely a Muji showcase.  (:

As many of you may know, Muji is a great source for stationery.  I've gotten some things there I wasn't expecting -- the Muji stamp for instance, and personal and pocket size refills, to name a few.

Here's the lot:

Clockwise from top:  Clear, zipped pouches that fit Personal and Pocket; pen-style scissors and index stickers (mine, LOL); pastel multi-pen; clock sticky notes; Pocket punch; checklist & box stickies; checklist & box stamps; finally, undated weekly and monthly calendars.

I won't waffle on about every single thing, but I wanted to write a mini review about a couple of things:

1. The clear zipped pockets are such great quality.  They're a teeny bit smaller than Personal or Pocket, but fit right in after punching.  I've been using one for coins in my Slimline for some time now, 1 1/2 years to be exact, and it's holding up pretty well. (I remember how long I've had it because I was with my sister in July 2012 and I've had it since then.) Considering it carries heavy and dirty coins, it has had no tears or snags, and the zipper still works perfectly. I prefer these to the Filofax-brand ones because of the location of the zip (which I know you all understand).
2. The Pocket punch works great!  They have steel 'teeth' and can punch easily through a few pieces of paper or cardstock.  It's a pity I haven't seen one in the Personal size.  I don't think Muji has one.

A close-up of the stamps and stickies.

I love that Muji stationery (and most of their products) are streamlined and functional.  I've written about them before in these posts:

Muji pens/cases
"I Love Muji"
Calendar Planning in the Midori
2013 Diary Experiment
Using the Muji Stamp in the FF Cotton Cream and Dodopad diaries

That's it folks.  Should you have any questions about any of the products in the photos, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll try to answer them.

Thanks for visiting!  And Happy New Year!

Calendar Planning in the Midori: Current and 2014

Hi everyone!

Since I started using the Midori, I've been revelling in the joy of having a lot of writing room.  Especially in the Diary.  I have pretty tiny handwriting so it wasn't really a problem, but having all that space is a nice bonus.  I prefer the Week+Notes format but had to resort to WO2P in the Filofax for a number of reasons.

In the Midori, I handmade the Week+Notes format in the lined notebook it came with.  I now have room for lots of lots of to-dos.

Hand-drawn lines and dates, stamped days of the week, and Muji stamp for a to-do list.

This is the post that led to this diary journey.

I started using the Muji stamp in October 2012 and wrote about it in this post.  I'm happy to say I've kept it up for a year.  I used the stamp in both the Dodopad when I was in that, and the WO2P.  I loved the visuals in the Dodopad.  However, it had to take a bit of effort to squeeze in everything I wanted into the daily grids.

In the Dodopad

The same week in the Filofax Cotton Cream WO2P

Below is a snapshot of a week in the Midori.  As you can see, I can write loads of things, with room to spare.

Days of the week on the left, Notes page on the right.

I started using icons to categorize tasks, as you can see in the next photo, using a template.  (More about this below.)

For 2014, I decided to get the same diary format.  I've been having fun setting it up in preparation for next year. Early, I know, but I wanted it ready to go when it was time, and frankly, I can't wait to start using it!  (:

I decorated the front and back covers with stickers and embossed the two halves of the year on the cover (Jan-Jun, Jul-Dec).

I stuck month tabs to make it easy to find the beginning of each month.











And my favorite customization is the addition of icons to better categorize tasks, appointments and events.

I'll test out a few different formats to check out what works best for me.

Here's how I'll use it:

I assigned a space on the blank page facing the calendar days for Things To Do (safety pin icon) and Calls to Make (phone/cell phone icon).  The man/woman icons are for my family's schedule (work, play, others).

On the calendar pages, I'll use icons to categorize tasks and use them as 'invisible' columns.

I got the icon template from pencils.jp.  Incidentally, it's the same place I get my Midori and inserts/refills. They have the best prices on the web for the Midori notebooks, refills and accessories.

I've seen similar templates like these such as the one Tracy got.  They're available on Etsy. They were a bigger size so when I found this credit card-sized template, I grabbed it.

Lastly, I don't really decorate my pages but I'll add the occasional sticker or stamp just to give the pages a little bit of interest.  Sometimes they're themed, more often than not, they're not.  And now, because I have all this room, I may start to really decorate, we'll see.

Diary planning is a little less of a chore now because my pages are neat and pretty.

I hope this post made sense!  I found it a little hard to accurately describe what I did and I hope the photos helped.

Thanks for visiting!

Anatomy of my Filofax: Diary/Calendar

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd share with you the different things I have and use in my current stay-at-home Filofax, a Personal Pink Baroque.  This will be the first in a series of posts that will detail how I use my Filo, what it contains, and what I did to customize it.

Baroque with some of its contents

The set-up hasn't changed much from when I last wrote about how I use my pink personal Classic here.  Incidentally, it was a Guest Post on Vanjilla's Blog.

Let me start with what Diary I use and why I prefer this format.

2012 Christmas Week

A sample of what a week looks like, and how I use the opposite blank page.

As you can see, I use a Dodopad filofax-compatible personal diary.  Week-On-Two-Pages with Notes was my favorite format for years.  Recently, I'd been using WO2P because that's what came with the binders I bought and I didn't want to spend any more money on a separate format when they were quite usable.  I hadn't even heard about the Dodopad till about February.  I held off on getting it for a while, but my curiosity won out, and in April, I bought it at half-off from ebay.  It was almost the middle of 2012 after all, and it was a good deal.

How I use it
I have tiny handwriting.  Otherwise, this format would never work for me.  The grids are really quite small, and I tried to use all the columns for each aspect of my life so I was really limited to one grid per day.  The weekly grid is on the right-hand side, the opposite of the Filofax brand WO2P with Notes.  There's also a bit of space on the top and bottom of the grid for notes, doodles, etc.

On the left, there is a blank page for just about anything you want to do with it.  I use it for a To-Do list and a Menu List. I recently started writing a menu for the week and I write about it in detail here.  An Avery round tab takes me instantly to this week.

Pink Avery round tab

At the back are grids for forward planning which includes January through June.  After which time you should be getting your own 2013 diary or you're really not planning that well, are you?  (:  I have used them as intended with a few things in March onwards.

2013 Forward Planner

I like the Dodopad because it's my ideal format, but much more fun, colorful, and interesting. I don't really need to pretty up my pages with stickers and drawings since Lord Dodo already did that for me.  I've stuck to this format since April so I guess you can say that this works for me.

You may have heard they're revising the 2013 format to include bigger grids, and I'm pretty sure I'll be getting that too.

The entire Diary portion lives behind a calendar side tab, after which I have 3 top tabs:  Y (Year), M (Month), and W (Week).  Here, I have tasks/chores that happen at any particular point in time.

The 6 custom side tabs

Top tabs

Under "Y": Birthdays and Anniversaries

Under "M", my least favorite subject:  Bills  (:

Under "W": TV shows

Also under "W":  Chores

As you can see, the pages are just hand-drawn and I write most things in pencil.

And, that's how I use the Diary in my Filofax.


Next up, Dividers.

Thanks for visiting!