Address book organisation fail or win?

I was given the above gorgeous address and birthday book, something I've wanted for ages but thought it was a bit boring to buy myself. But LOOK at it. There are cakes on it. But I cannot eat the book... well I guess I could. But that's just weird right? 

Which colour Filofax should I get?

I have decided to buy a new filofax...or two. Anyway my dilemma is which colour so this is where you come in. I've decided on the Filofax Classic Personal Organiser in A4. It comes in black, brown or cherry and I just cannot decide. Help. Please.

Another Filofax in the Home

Lyndhurst Personal Organiser from Filofax

No it's not mine. Spurs boy has decided he should join the Filofax community and has purchased this before he went on his trip away and he is already using it! I thought it was a bit of a joke when he said he would buy one as he has survived all these years just using his brain (no joke) and more recently his iPhone. He has about 10-15 property projects on the go at any one time and they are all at different stages and yet he knows exactly which one without having to look it up. I am not like this at all!

When I said I would help with his business I told him I would need to have this information written down as I cannot just "know" it all like he does. So I got him to write it all down and although I think he was a little freaked out by doing it I think it helped him to see it could actually help him. He also has noticed that other people that do the same work as him have a Filofax or a likewise organiser of some type.  It's probably a trend thing but he'd never admit it.

So I still am coping with my little Mini filofax and whilst it's working as I can write small it's still not ideal. So I have been having another browse on the Filofax website since learning of Spurs boy's purchase and as we will be staying in London this weekend I might just have to pop to the Filofax store. I did send a little tweet to Filofax about there not being a nice choice of purple organisers, they have the Adelphi range but I'm not fond of the padded jacket look. Filofax then replied to say there "might" be some purple ones in the 2010 range and they will be instore March - June.

I'll still go to the store but for now here are my favourites, but I might just have to hold on and see what this new 2010 range has - please be purple, please be purple...

ALWAYS HAD MY EYE ON THIS ONE - Butterfly Personal Organiser

DEFINITELY ON THE LIST - Finchley Personal Organiser

LOVING THE CHERRY COLOUR! - Filofax Classic Personal Organiser 

 ALWAYS HAD A SOFT SPOT FOR THIS ONE- Domino Personal Organiser

Sarah Loves... Lakeland

Just put in another order with Lakeland, it's becoming another addiction. After our iRobot buy that I blogged about here and then last week we started looking through and seeing what things we needed wanted. On the website you can also read what other people thought about their purchase which can offer you more insight into whether you feel it would be best for you.

ALREADY BOUGHT Grand Remoska Electric Cooker

We've only used the oven 3 times since we bought this three weeks ago. It's cheaper to run and it makes gorgeous sponge cakes.

ALREADY BOUGHT Remote Control Tidy

We just had too many remotes and it seemed "my" place to put them was always different to where Spurs boy wanted them to go. So now we have no excuses...

ALREADY BOUGHT 'Empty Your Pockets' Organiser

Spurs boy bought this to prove he can leave his "stuff" in one place. He did challenge me to get one so I would be able to empty my bag every day! My answer "I'd need a much bigger one!" :-P

ORDERED Heated Towel Rail

We seem to run our tumble dryer loads recently and we're getting very aware of our carbon footprint in recent weeks and this seems a good way to cut down in the home.

ORDERED Mini Make-Up Caddy

I suppose this is actually my version of the 'Empty Your Pockets' Organiser as I'm hoping this will make me cut down on make-up splurges! I doubt it though, although the thought is there :-P

ORDERED Cupcake Cake Pan

I have a real sweet tooth and love cakes. This seems like the ideal purchase for me

ORDERED Lakeland Paella Pan

Spurs boy and I are big fans of paella and this is only £9.99 and they say you need to have a paella pan to make the perfect paella. Nom nom nom!

 

ALREADY BOUGHT AND RE-ORDERED Chef's Candle

We have an open plan kitchen, dining and lounge so kitchen smells can linger for some time and this is great for eliminating those smells. A definite must!

 ALREADY BOUGHT Tomato Compost Crock

Living in a second floor apartment isn't very easy to take out your kitchen scraps and this clever little pot is handy to have as we can then take them out to our bin later on. Has a carbon filter inside to neutralise odours for a couple of months. Also it's red!

Are you a fan? What was your favourite purchase?

Being a bridesmaid

Today I started on my quest of being Chief Bridesmaid for my friends wedding in July.

I met up with the Future Bride and my Bestie (my best mate) who is also in the bridal party, and we started off with doing normal shopping. This meant I was able to get everything I had seen on the New Look website the previous day. Other shops made us go in and we again spent money that we hadn't planned to. We then stopped for lunch and we got down to the serious business of 'The Wedding'.

Now I've only seen Future Bride in a dress once before, when we were bridesmaids at another wedding. Bestie wears dresses most days but these are bright vibrant fashionable ones and she has never worn a prom or formal dress in her life. We are not girlie girls, of course pink was the first thing agreed that would not be featured.

Future Bride's parents died 3 years ago and Bestie and I know that every step of the way they will be missed and we have prepared ourselves already for this. Future Groom's Mum died last year and his Dad is having treatment for bowel cancer. Future Bride and Future Groom have two little boys aged seven and two.

We started off on our trip around some bridal shops and in the first two we found the assistants to be snotty and unhelpful, I think they thought we were there for fun and that we weren't being serious about wanting help with dresses. The third one the assistant was just plain rude and by this point I think we were all thinking "What do we do now?".

Where do 3 girls go needing inspiration for Weddings? The pub. Honest. No joke.

Before we did this though I headed off to WHSmith and bought all the wedding magazines available and all the stationary necessities needed to plan this wedding. We sat in the pub with cocktails, we just had to do it! We made our very own Wedding Planner organiser for Future Bride to use. We laughed through the magazines, some people like some weird things to wear!

We cut out the best ideas and put them all in our organiser and then asked Future Bride what she really wants from her day (you see we can be a little bit girlie) Before the cocktails kicked in we had completely set up our organiser and Future Bride seemed much happier, although this might have just been the cocktails!

We know we still have to look for dresses and we will come across some rude snotty people along the way but now with our organiser in hand we will be much more wedding wise.

We even selected the colour of the bridesmaid dresses -

Each bridesmaid is to have a different style of dress. Although really that means just me and Bestie as the other bridesmaids are under ten years old. As the budget is quite tight we are having the dresses bought for us but we have said we'll pay for shoes and accessories. The thought of wearing a dress doesn't seem so bad now.

Our day at The National Wedding Show should provide added inspiration and obviously people won't be rude!

When I got home sitting on the table waiting for me was The Bridesmaid's Guerilla Handbook that Spurs boy had apparently ordered for me and it had arrived that morning. Going to give it a read tonight and make sure I'm fully wedding-wise. Surprisingly it was a bit of a girlie day, but definitely no pink!