Organized Techno-Nerd or Organized Old Fart? I can be BOTH with FiloFax!

Organized people have always impressed me.  I love to observe them and their habits while secretly hoping that some of it will rub off on me.  Sometimes it does, but while I LOVE having my life/home organized it often seems like too much time-consuming work.  I’m good at organization, really good at it, and I love being organized, but in recent years it’s taken a back seat to other, more pressing, life matters.  I’m starting to feel the negative effects of my disorganization, and I now feel the need to create organization in my life wherever I can, no matter how small the effort.  I’m hoping that once I start reorganizing my life it will have a snowball effect.

Years ago I used to keep a large organizer-wallet crammed with photos, stamps, money, cards, keys, notepad, calendar, etc., but since embracing the technology of my iPhone and iPad a lot of that stuff no longer needs to be a physical presence in my wallet and has been replaced with apps such as Evernote, Key Ring, and CalenGoo.  While this techno-approach to organization has worked out really well for me, I find myself missing the fun of having an organizer.  My conundrum has been how to justify owning one when all this great technology exists (but, should I really NEED to justify it?  Can’t I just have one because I WANT one?).  I ask myself if I am really that concerned about being perceived by others as being an old fart, stuck in the past and not being able to let go of my old, cluttered-wallet ways?  My answer is, shamefully, “yes”.  I’ve always been a techo-nerd and it’s kind of what I’m known for, and I want my young grandkids to grow up thinking of me as the “cool” grandma — I admit it.  

I’ve finally found the answer to my conundrum thanks to my good friend, Gabi. She showed me that I can have my organized clutter AND be creative…FILOFAX!  I can be a COOL old-fart!  This is a match made in heaven.  With a Filofax big enough to fit my iPad or Kindle in I can have it all! 

There is a whole new generation of Filofax organizer users who have taken this old-fashioned way of being organized and made it their own.  They are crafty, artistic, AND organized.  They decorate the pages, scrapbook in them, make art journal pages in them — there is no end to their craftiness.  They are fashionable and imaginative, and know a good-quality product when they see one.  Just do a Facebook search for “Filofax” and see how many groups pop up.  Do a YouTube search for “Filofax” and you will find tons of videos of people showing off their organizers, and how they use them.  I can get lost watching for hours.

I have yet to actually purchase a Filofax, but once I make my decision about which style and size to get I will be ordering it on Amazon.com.  They have great prices and I’m a Prime member.  I found this out via a post by one of my favorite bloggers, Xenia, who is re-discovering the joys of Filofax.

So, have I inspired you to check out Filofax?  Get organized?  Get crafty?  I hope so, because I don’t want to be the only old-fashioned old-fart out there!

     

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Sometimes You Just Need a Creative Quick-Fix. Yeah. Right.

I love to create beautiful and interesting things, but the perfectionist in me often gets in the way of my creativity.  I don’t do failure well.  When learning a new technique I will first study it to death via online tutorials, books and magazines before attempting it,  simply because I fear failure.  It’s ridiculous, I know, but this perfectionist is far from perfect.  So, every now and then, in order to escape my perfection obsession, I need to create something really quick and simple.  These simple creations are often something lighthearted and fun, so when my scrap-booking and creative-journaling friend told me about the latest trend of paperclip bookmarks I was all over it.  I was excited!  This was something crafty and fun that I could bang out with the supplies I already had in abundance!

WELL, THAT didn’t last long.  Sometimes creativity does not come easily to me and I start over-thinking the project.  The pain-in-the-ass perfectionist part of me took over and this quick little craft-fix became a major project inside my head.    What materials would I use?  What colors would I combine?  How would I pretty-up the back so it wouldn’t be ugly?  Which glue will work the best?  What should have taken 20 minutes took 2 hours to complete.  Was it worth it?  That depends.  If I decided to sell these I wouldn’t make my money back in the time spent on them and that would upset me.  If I give them away then I  could consider it a labor of love, and I could live with that.

These are going out in the mail today to my dear scrap-booking and creative-journaling friend.   A labor of love it is!