Preparations for Elf Fun At Our Home

I discovered Elf On The Shelf from Organised Housewife's post about it last year and was keen, I came across the Kindness Elf late September and then due to Uni stress I forgot all about it.
As I neared finishing my final assignment someone shared Elf On The Shelf in the Project Life Australia Facebook Group and I got excited and so ordered the doll. 
A day later Kindness Elf was back on my radar, so I have chosen to do all things Elfie in a way that suits our needs.
While searching Kindness Elf I found some blogs used language when talking about children that I find unfair so I found myself wanting to dismiss the idea but thought no the concept is great I just need to ignore those who talk about children this way and focus on kindness and fun.
I started a Pinterest board saving anything that looked like it would be of use.
Joined the facebook groups I could find for both and searched blogs, etc.
I am so excited I thought I would post this blog post now and do a update at the end of each week in December of our Elf Fun.

On November 12th I ducked into St Vinnies with the boys after school and Mr 9.5 fell in love with this Nutcracker Advent Calendar, I told him there was no way Mummy could replace his missing block so we should leave him for someone who could.  After school drop off the next day I raced back to pick him up, he is arriving with our elf on December 1st with a letter from Santa saying he noticed Connor loved this Nutcracker and so he got the elves to fix it for him.











I got this door on ebay (it is a 1:12 scale dolls house door), stickers are from Lincraft.

I have picked up a plain stocking for them each for the elf to bring the morning of December 5th for them to put up for St Nick that night.

I have ordered Zentagle 1 as our Elf is going to prompt the kids in week 2 of December to learn Zentangle with Mum so my next trip to Officeworks I will be getting the boys a pen each that Courtney recommended to me as a good starter Zentangle pen for the boys.

I remembered I had bought 2 Simply Said Dear Santa books for the boys years ago thinking I would get them to do them when they were both big enough to really enjoy it, well at 8 and 9.5 I think they are big enough now.
So the elf will leave these with a journalling pen each for them to create that day.

Other Elf prompts will include but not in this order donating toys they no longer play with, going to play with the dogs at the refuge so they aren't so lonely (we adopted a older dog in April who had been there for 6months, the dogs only get 1 hour a day out of the concrete pens and she has some big issues due to this), December 2nd he will prompt them to write cards after school to their friends, classmates and teachers, make presents for their Grandparents and Aunt & Uncle, help Mum prepare Christmas treats, do some scrapbooking with Mum, have a movie day at home, put up the tree, I am still working on my list, it is nearly done.

I printed out the Calendar page from a Christmas Planner from The Polka Dot Posie to keep in my Special Events section of my Filofax to plan out our Elf prompts.

It is now November 23rd and my Elf was shipped November 3rd so I am a little worried it won't arrive in time for me to put the letter in the mailbox to the boys and set the door up while they are at school on Friday, I am going to check for a Elf Plushie to have in reserve just in case.

My Christmas themed Filofax set up.

My boys are 9.5 and 8 so I was thinking about the age I was when kids told me about Santa and wanted to make Christmas extra special.  I started thinking about Christmas when I was a kid, so I am attempting to incorporate a few extra things into Christmas this year.
All this lead to me wanting to immerse myself in Christmas.
At first I really wanted a Red planner but then I realised that Chocolate goes well with Christmas colours so here is my Christmas set up so far.

My Dashboard.
I wish I could find Christmas sticky notes.

My brain dump.

My Diary.

Special Occasions

Birthday/Anniversary Dates, Note paper to plan presents and events, Christmas Calendar to plan elf fun, Christmas Inventory so I can take a inventory of decorations and wrapping supplies this year.

Sorry can't show the inserts with anniversary dates and Birthdays, they are from Lime Tree Fruits and I put this Dr Who quote on the back of the second page.
Paper clipped together is my Christmas Inventory and Elf planning.

 My Inventory and Elf planning.

Financial

Education, this is usually my third section but since I have finished Uni for the year and Miss 19 graduated Yesterday, Miss 17 finishes school for the year next week and the boys finish for the year the week after I have moved it to the back.

My new page marker.
It wasn't big enough to stick my colour code and my morning & afternoon/evening routine one so I cut some scrap laminate down to 3 inches by the height of the paper, punched and snipped it to go behind the page marker.
Over on the right is the Christmas charm I am working on, my hand injury means I can't add the beads myself so Miss 19 will help me Monday.
My page marker from my purple set up is stashed at the back so I can store all my Daiso sticky flags on it to save for next year.

I punched this cute little card and put it in Christmas week so I can write notes on it.









So excited I finally got hubby's roster for Decemember Yesterday so now I can decorate December and plan out the rest of Christmas.  YAY.

Falling in love with my Chocolate A5 Finsbury

When I got my Chocolate A5 Finsbury I thought this will be great chocolate goes with so many other colours I can change my dividers when I need a different feel.
Then someone posted about the Calipso Deep Blue being Tardis blue and I was in love and it became my unicorn and I wanted it sooo much but sadly they sold out and the price on ebay made my unicorn out of reach.
Then I discovered the A5 Finsbury Electric Blue and I was in love, a hue that was on the border of blue and purple, so I quickly ordered one as this was now my unicorn.

While it was on route circumstances changed and it meant there was a chance I would need to sell this beauty, so when she arrived I just opened her to look at her, take a photo to share in the planner community and then back in the packaging she went to sit on a shelf waiting for when I knew if I could keep her or would have to sell her.
And so I decided I needed to fall in love with my Chocolate just in case.
Through fellow filofax fans that are also Dr Who and all things nerdy fans and their posts of their themed planners I realised my chocolate was perfect for a 10th Doctors coat them, Firefly, etc.   I am still working on my planner charms.  I have the perfect sonic screwdriver pic to make a page divider with, still trying to decide on the perfect Firefly quote for a page marker, thinking I will go with the same dividers I made hubby and have galaxy photos from the Hubble Telescope as my dividers and I have dashboards already chosen since I set up hubby with some planner fun to brighten his time at work.

My purple dividers, without my dashboard.
I use a Project Life divider in aqua with dots on it as my page marker when using this set up.







As I started planning Christmas I realised brown goes with Christmas colours really well and my love for my chocolate girl grew.
Here is a link to my Christmas set up (link will be added asap I am working on my blog post for it Today).

Pic taken when working on my dividers.  Starting top left with my Dashboard, Brain Dump, Diary, Education, To Do, Special Events & Finances.







I do wish I could afford to have a collection but that will be a few years off before I can afford to do that, in the mean time I am happy with my practical collection.
A5 Chocolate Finsbury for my detailed planner, my me planning.
Personal Black Hamilton for the family medical planner.
Pocket Raspberry Finsbury (a gift from my planner friend Toni) for my wallet.
And my first ever Filofax a Personal Violet Domino which I am turning into a contact book with a section for each family members friends.

How I have organised my Desk Drawers

Currently my desk is a 4ft folding table so I have popped a little bedside table underneath to my right.
I thought I would share what is in the drawers.

 Here is the top drawer with my old CM case on the right, pencil case from Michelle in front (I keep this open so I can easily access my planner pens), on the left at the back is a box of deleted ribbons and some crochet thread, middle is a op-shop find pencil case full of cheap washi with my handmade enamel dots in a container on top (please when DIYing enamel dots read up on melting plastic and maybe look at the safer options of paint or enamel accents).

 Here I removed the pencil case so you can see what is tucked in around it hard to see but at the very front is some PL dividers I cut down to planner page markers, some pencils with these, and in front of the box of ribbons is some colourful scotch tap, a sharpener and a squirt bottle.

 Inside my CM case a part to my magnifying light (it got put in storage and hasn't been seen in some time), buttons are under the ink blending tool, some replacement blades for my old CM 12inch trimmer are under the ink blending tool foams.
Scissors and jewelery tools in the front half.

 Under the scissors and jewelery tools are staples and staplers.








Bottom Drawer

 My CM border maker and cartridges, Smiggle case and paper flowers at the back.

 Pencil case from Alicia under the Smiggle case.

Paper flowers.









Here are links to my other posts on both my blogs that cover desk and craft organising.
My Desk
Inside my Pen and Pencil cases
Aldi cart storage
Basic needs to scrap
Boys Desk Organisation
My space is very small so I have to cram things in where they fit, hoping one day we will live in a house that I can have a bigger space and spread things out a little and put things away together.

My Pen/Pencil cases including my new Kipling 100 Pen Case.

For those who weren't aware I been a party plan Consultant for various scrapbooking based party plans off and on since April 2006.
When I was a CM Consultant I loved their pens but due to price they are only used in my scrapbooks, never in my planners.  Due to the propensity for lines to be changed, whether it be bold tip being cut, changing colours in a set or dropping the line to replace it with double ended I wound up with a large collection by taking advantage of specials.
Through my planner friends I discovered the Kipling 100 Pen Case and the lovely Michelle organised a group buy during a sale (check out Kipling USA's Facebook page for our feedback on our poor experience).
Anyway Today Kipling case arrived and I set about working out which pens to keep in it. 
Do I keep my pens and highlighters I use for my planner? 
Do I keep my CM pens in it? 
Do I save it for something else?
In the end the best fit was my CM pen collection with 3 extras thrown in.
And so my lovely Typo case from Michelle remains home to my planner pens, with some washi stashed under them that won't fit in my washi storage.

 Graphic Arts design, I wanted something bright and fun that didn't have to fit into the colour scheme of the room.

 I got a pink Gorilla, my daughter got a Turquoise, I love the Turquoise.  Gorilla is super cute no matter the colour though.

My CM Fine Tips

My Round tips and Bold tips, a Red Eye reduction pen, 3 of the double ended CM pens & 2 ZIG Caligraphy pens.

2 black Sharpies for writing on my plastic flags, 3 frixons (need a black and red still), 2 4 colour pens, cheap red and blue pen, pen my best friend sent me and a set of 6 highlighters on top.

Under the pens is a stash of washi, mechanical pencil, correction tape, eraser and various mechanical pencil leads.

 My Smiggle case is my long trip case, it still has my A6 Visual Art Diary and sketching supplies in it from my last trip to Brisbane for medical appointments though my on the go planner supplies have been taken out.
I allow myself this with what I can fit in it and the planner I need to take and that is it, the rest of my bag is for clothes and food.

Alicia sent me this cute pencil case, I keep my alcohol markers in it, I have 2 packs of bic markers in there unopened and another brand that has since been pulled due to drying out, I only have 12 of their markers and several dried out before I could use them.  Very disappointing.

My Desk with Op-shop and home made storage.

I have half of the office to use as my scrapping/study/planner space.  As it is the back half sometimes it gets used as a space to dump stuff out of the way so I am working on getting my space back how I like it.  I just finished the desk surface and thought I would share my set up and what I have stored in my op-shop finds and handmade little drawers.

Kaisercraft drawers, Matchbox drawers I made, little gift box my best friend sent the Jayne hat charms she made me in with my little stash of supplies to make planner charms.  I only keep deleted inks on my desk as my ink tower is kept in my $13 Aldi cart that is home to all current supplies so I can just wheel it out to the dining room when I have friends over to scrap.

 A stack of 3 cassette tape holder converted to hold washi, bread bin with all kinds of bits hidden in there, 2 letter holders, a basket you can just see.

Letter holder I got for $2 at the op-shop it came with the cute envelops and paper you can see in the back.  I keep my bulk pack of base cards for card making in the front section, the back has the paper it came with, some left over card kids and a A5 notepad tucked behind the cute paper (otherwise it slumps over) from Kmart (in the second pic).

 This basket sits the furthest to my right on top of the bread box it has digital cameras (had them for a few years I think they are only 8mp), mouse, Christmas cards I wrote but didn't get to send out last year due to my Uncle passing, a notebook for (it is here as both hubby and I use it so it is reachable from both desks) & camera chargers.

 This letter holder holds deleted ribbons in the top and chipboard in the drawer.

 In the Kaisercraft drawers I have assorted embellishments from a party plan scrapping company in 7 of the drawers but the top middle and right have these cute stamps Rowena RAKed me and my 10th Doctor charm and my Firefly charm.

 My Matchbox drawers are home to deleted embellishments from the party plan company I am with, small chipboard, buttons, & brads.

 On the left is the little box my best friend sent the Jayne hat charms in with my small stash of charm supplies.  On the right is the little mister bottle holder I threw together in a box with a hole punch.

Deleted inks are on the base of my lamp.
The little red stamp in front is a Dragon stamp I found at a office supply I got to reward Mr 8 as he loves Dragons.
My various plastic page flags are just to the side along with a Christmas charm I am working on.
My 6 hole punch is on top of my Matchbox Drawers.

I would love to see your desk set up. 
Do you have any op-shop bargains you use for storage?

Regular items on Daiso flags

I have issues with my hand that make writing, drawing, scrolling and typing painful though typing is the least painful.  So writing the same thing over and over is painful.

Hubby works at a place that is 24 hours 365 days a years so his roster is constantly changing so I didn't do a colour for him, but for the rest of us I have done enough for at least 5 weeks of flags.
For the boys I have included the items they need for each week at school so I can set them for the correct days, I have also included flags for when sport is as I track this just in case I have no choice but to make a appointment for them during school hours as their ability to participate is limited and they often just sit on the sidelines.

The week in these pics is a little different as Hubby is on Holidays and it is my Youngest's Birthday on Sunday so I usually have Yellow flags for print photos on Saturday, Craft on Sunday and sometimes Art Class on Saturday morning.
Also I have finished Uni for the semester so no purple study flags (these are in storage on the back of my education divider) and no Scrapping workshop is scheduled for this week so no purple flag for that.

Upcoming week, pens covering Hubby's roster.
HCM flag on Friday is for rehearsal, after it they have their break up, then Saturday is the end of year Concert.   After 10years as a member this will be the last for my eldest as she Graduates this year and is off to do her Diploma and then onto Uni with ambitions of a Doctorate in Music.