Distant Moon

Organise Me: The use of a calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +0000

When I was younger if you'd asked me what a calendar was for I'd have replied with something along these lines:

For looking at pictures of my favourite boyband/mancrush, duuuuh. *rolls eyes* *huff*

Although I was quite an organised teen (I'm sure my family are reading this and thinking to themselves that they remember me being super messy...ignore them.) but the idea of writing anything on one of precious calendars was utter ridiculousness to me. I kept all I needed to know in my head and scheduled myself each day down to the minute, which subsequently I never stuck to. I had a friend who had a calendar and she used it properly. She had everything on there from assignment due dates to the days she began and finished her period. I remember going to her house before school every morning and being in awe of this life organisation tool she had on her wall.

Life map

Calendars are certainly a life map to help plan where you are going to be in the future. It's hard to keep all that information in your head and when you're thinking about the interview you've scheduled for a months time and you're meant to be working on something else...well, you're probably not going to be bringing your best. I know I haven't and it's the most annoying thing to know you could be focusing better and working harder. This is something I am working on.

One lump? Or two?

Is one calendar enough. For me it's not. I made myself a wall calendar and found that I needed space for notes to fill in the blanks behind a Write blog post. In a months time will I remember what that blog post was meant to be about? Probably not, or if I do it negates the point of having a calendar to clear out the head space. My solution to this was to get a separate day planner diary with a page a day and enough space to elaborate and leave myself little notes. It's amazing how quickly you get used to syncing the two, looking to one and then the other to supplement information. It makes me feel super organised already and I've not done that much yet!

A word about colour coding...

Do it! I've begun to colour code everything. The calendar gets the full on colour treatment:

Red = Bills
Green = Life stuff
Orange = Work
Blue = Blog

I can tell at a glance what I'm supposed to be working on. *high five*

Want to download and print the calendar I made for August? Click HERE.

How are you organising your life? Let me know in the comments or drop me an email.

Organisation Smorganisation: Getting back on track

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 08:58:00 +0000

I am not an organised person. Someone recently used the term "choreographed chaos" in reference to me. And it's true. I have a tendency to put things down in strange places (or the first available space to me!), I rifle through my clothes drawers and mess it all up and resulting in extra work for me on my days off, and I have a terribly short attention span. I am a whirling dervish of utter calamity.

Keeping myself organised

I have to go to great effort to keep myself in check. I write to do lists all the time. I use Wunderlist at work and have a running list of every thing, no matter how small, so I don't forget to do something. People laugh at me, but I have to do it. Structure is important for my brain. It's like a climbing Clematis (and yes I have one in the garden!). Without a wall or a trellis the stems flail around looking for something, anything, to attach itself to for support. I am that Clematis! Did I just liken myself to a plant? Holy... someone get me a cup of coffee.

Making plans

When I was a teenager, every evening I'd write a schedule for the next morning.

7am: Get up

7:05am: Actually get up

7:15am: Shower

7:20am: Seriously, get out of bed you lazy bed monster!

Or something along those lines. Was it going a bit far to attempt to structure every little detail of my day from minute to minute? Yeah, it was so I stopped. I came to the conclusion that it took the creativity and spontaneity out of life. So I stopped organising myself all together!

I'm going to get organised again. Not to the previous extent, but certainly gaining balance is a good idea. The essence of scheduling life, I suppose, is to plan and also be flexible within certain limits. What might I do on this day? Does it matter if I don't do it? Can I move it to another day if I need to? To do this I need a diary.

Paper vs online calendars

I love my tech. My smartphone is rarely away from my side and I enjoy being able to access everything quickly. Lately I've been using Wunderlist (which I mentioned before) and Google calendar to organise myself at work. It's worked really well so far. I can set up reminders that ping at me, my laptop and phone sync automatically, and I can access it from anywhere I need to.

There's only one problem. I like paper. Paper is right there in front of you, reminding you that it needs to be completed. It can't be dismissed, or snoozed, or silenced. It can be screwed up and shoved in a bin, but you know, that would be a waste and I don't like waste. You can wander past it day to day, have a quick glance and remind yourself. There is a great satisfaction when you cross something off the calendar or to do list because you've completed it.

So here's a challenge...

Get organised. Simple and yet my head just had a little panic. Organised! What?! Nooooooo...

I'm going to start here and it's going to be on paper.

You can download the blog planner by clicking right....HERE or by clicking the picture.

Do you have a story about how badly organised you've been or you're super organised and want to share your tips? Leave a comment or email me. I'd love to hear from you.

:)

Laters.

K-Monster
xo

Vegetable disaster!

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:01:00 +0000

I had a rude awakening yesterday morning. I was planning on a lie in, but the potato patch had other ideas.

Blight: Noun. The rapid and extensive discoloration, wilting, and death of plant tissues.

Yes, that nasty little Blight that rots the plant from the leaves down has got our potatoes by the ~~balls~~ ... potatoes... The Mister and I had to utilise EMERGENCY PLAN C which is code talk for digging up the taties as fast as possible to try and salvage our crop.

These leaves will have to be burned to stop contamination! Luckily we caught it before it reached the potatoes so we have a nice half a sack of young spuds and that ain't half bad. :D It must have been a sight for the farmers driving up the track past our house in their massive tractors. There I was digging furiously in my pjs.

Despite the near disaster it was a happy day, particularly as the radishes are doing super well. *high five* and we had a yummy lunch of home grown salad stuff. Please excuse the sleepy, no make up face and mussy hur... at least I'd managed to change out of my pjs by this point!

Laters, Bloggeroos.

Love from The K-monster. xoxo

Our story

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 16:25:00 +0000

This is my Mister and I.

We met 4 and a half years ago while I was at university He'd just moved to the area for work and happened to go out with some work colleagues one night for a few drinks. On the other side of town, my housemate Anna and I made our way out together to see two separate groups of friends. My group of mates were running late so I stayed with Anna and her friends for a bit. Some time passed, I went to the bar to grab some drinks and as I wandered back to our table this tall man locked eyes with me and said in a really surprised way, "Hello!" Being quite shy...yes, i'm shy...I quietly said hi back and scurried off. One of his work colleagues came over and spouted off some pick up lines... I was not impressed, but I could see the tall guy in the background, pulling faces which made me laugh. We all went on with our nights.

Later, I walked towards the cash point next to the exit and he approached.

"I know this might sound a bit silly, but would you like to go out for dinner sometime?"

It must be obvious that I said yes! He later told me he thought I was leaving and thought he'd never see me again.

Things were good. We were together for a while and life was all kinds of rosy pinks!

But I won't paint you a faux painting here...He got made redundant from his job. Soon after I left university and couldn't find any kind of job at all. Bills piled up, life hit us at full whack. I'd not long lost my mother to a terribly vicious form of cancer. Life. My grandfather was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. We each had to move back in with parents, me to Cornwall and the Mister to Dorset. We were together and yet miles apart for nearly a year. Life. He got a new job. We moved to Cardiff. We made some amazing friends. He lost his job. He got sick. He was in hospital for 2 months and had a life changing surgery. I stayed with him in hospital 6 hours every day because he couldn't cope. We had to move out of our home while he was sick. For the last month I had no where to stay and our new friends showed so much kindness in letting me stay with them. He asked me to marry him from his hospital bed. He came home. We started again. Life.

Life has been all kinds of wonderful to us and all kinds of not. We're still dealing with the results of the recession. Everything I earn goes to paying off the small debts we owe, which make saving for a wedding really, really hard. We could wait to get married, but we don't want to because it shouldn't be about how much we can spend. Instead I am relishing the challenge of pulling off a super awesome wedding on a zero budget and staying true to our ethics. I am getting as many people involved as possible, calling in favours and getting myself ready for going DIY cray cray! We are aiming for next Spring!

I am super excited to get started and book-end this crazy chapter with a beautiful ending. You with me on this, Blog-o-sphere?

Yeah...thought so. :)

xoxo

Learning.

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 15:36:00 +0000

Dust and new finger places,

Alien to the way they stretch.

In time it comes, but

The wait and work can

Tire these hands,

This brain.

To own the skill

Of musicality is to

Tame the hardest part

Of the soul.

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:36:00 +0000

Ah Sunday. My only day off work this bank Jubilee weekend and even though I thought I would, I spent zero time celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Instead I finished digging the new herb garden that was originally planned to be home to half a ton of daisies, but the daisies will have to go elsewhere!

I must admit, I woke up in a dreadful mood this morning. Hormones were a flyin', tears were shed, and I stayed in bed feeling rather sorry for myself until at least 11am... It is one of those days...Weeks actually. But gardens' weave a magical spell and my gloom was banished.

I sat and made a list of the herbs and plants I want to grow in the new patch. If you can think of any more things to pop in leave a comment.

*Mint
*Lavender
*Thyme
*Chives
*Garlic
*Rosemary

I want to add some different types of salad leaves too.

This afternoon the Mister and I went for a quick stroll to a local ox drove where the wild flowers were in full bloom and I went a little Instagram crazy! The Mister tried to join in by trying to orchestrate an arty photo of him holding a dandilion... It didn't work quite as he'd planned! But it was nice for him to have a go since he isn't one for social media of any kind...a break through?!

Speaking of breakthroughs, I actually sat for 10 minutes away from my phone, laptop, and other human beings. Yes, friends. Today I sat and read a magazine article with a cup of tea to hand. Just some time to sit with my thoughts. Perhaps I need to make this a priority 'cause it kind of helps.

Back to work tomorrow but since work is full of Jubilee celebrations I think it's going to be fuuuuuuun.

Now, do I want to read some Sci Fi or stuff my face with minty ice cream before bed?

Instaweek

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Mon, 28 May 2012 10:10:00 +0000

1.Beyond the garden. 2. Going somewhere? 3.Floral 4. Clematis came to live in the garden 5. Somebunny 6. Worry dolls 7. The Mister is driving...Help! 8. An engagement :) 9.Iced coffee

Free Downloadables

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Wed, 16 May 2012 07:30:00 +0000

Yesterday, before I went to work I had a play around in Photoshop and made myself some new desktop backgrounds and I thought I'd share them with you.

1024x768
800x600

1024x768
800x600

Hope you enjoy prettying up your computer today! Let me know what you think. Would you like to see more of these sorts of things?

xo

Wild Bunnies In The Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:17:00 +0000

Since the Mister and I have moved onto the farm there's been a little bit of adjusting to do. Not having a supermarket just round the corner was the biggest so haphazard little old me has had to become super organised and write shopping lists...and try not to forget things, which I nearly always do.

The other adjustment has been a lovely one. Our house backs on to fields so we have so much wildlife coming into the garden it's unreal! The other day the Mister found this bunny staring at our veg patch. There are lots of wild rabbits here and while I squeeeeeeeeeeeee at the cuteness of them I also must remember that they are not domestic rabbits for me to cuddle and give cute names to...

I'm catching up on blogs for most of the day today then off to work this evening. I fancy getting my knit on later too. I've got a pattern for some awesome bunny slippers that I bought from Tiny Owl Knits. Yerrrrr, I know. The cutest, right? I actually made one a few weeks back but managed to freestyle it a bit and it ended up double the size of my foot. One giant slipper!

xo

EDIT: The wild rabbit has been hopping in and out of the garden all morning! So lovely to sit and watch him bundle about. Getting waaaaay too attached!

Little Orphan: Howard the porcelain owl

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Sun, 13 May 2012 23:00:00 +0000

You might remember Howard from several posts on my old blog where he'd sort of take over for the day. But what you don't know about Howard is how he came to live with me. I have many "Little Orphans" all of them have a story and a personality that most people over look.

Howard, or so he tells me, used to live with a little girl. She kept him on a bookshelf in her nursery and he'd watch every day as she'd take her lessons with Nanny. Nanny was a woman who liked Maths. Nearly always she'd write sums on the small blackboard for the girl to work on and Howard spent his days on the shelf, as he propped up a very dusty edition of "How Bunnies Make The World Go Round", adding and subtracting numbers to his tiny owl hearts content.

One day, as Nanny was preparing for lessons, she thought today would be a good day to learn about how bunnies make the world go round and so she reached for the book that Howard had guarded so very well. The book slid from the shelf and as it did Howard slid too. He looked at Nanny with eyes wide trying to tell her not to take the book. But Nanny carried on because Howard was hidden. The edge came nearer and nearer and all of a sudden the book left the shelf and so did Howard. He flew through the air. It was only then that Nanny saw him and she tried in vain to catch him but it was too late. He fell through the window and out into the street below where, with luck, he had landed in a cart of old things and a cushion broke his fall. Howard sat up and looked around. The plume of dust that had burst from the cushion as he landed made everything misty. Nanny was leaning far out of the window. Surrounded by clocks that ticked and tocked, a very old quilt that smelled very strongly of old lady and several books that were falling apart at the binding... and not one of them were anywhere as good as "How Bunnies Make The World Go Round", Howard thought to himself. The cart moved further away from Nanny.

The man whose cart Howard had fallen into, traded in antiques but upon seeing this porcelain owl he decided he was no antique and sent him in a bag of bits that nobody wanted to another shop.

And that is where I found him years later: On another shelf, propping up another book, figuring out the same sums that he remembered Nanny writing on the blackboard over and over again.

A week in Insta

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:03:00 +0000

I came late to the Instagram party and (as usual) I wasn't sure I was going to love it at first but now I adore my little Insta-machine. I am still getting the hang of taking photos on my phone. I'm one of those that snaps away, taking awful looking phone pics that get relegated to my memory card only to be deleted years later when I need to make room for Angry Birds!

1. Getting some insight into the mind of Mr Lutwidge Dodgson. 2. The Mister tries to get my attention. 3. Vintage dress on a blustery day. 4. A new place to call home. 5. Mooooooooo! 6. Old edition of my favourite childhood poetry book. 7. A little bloggy switch-a-roo. 8. Magical bluebells. 9. Howard and I go on a journey in the car.

Follow me on Instagram: @journeyinland

And for this very sunny morning here in the UK... here's a playlist I came across earlier. Obsessed.

Songs to listen to while traveling by Grooveshark Explore on Grooveshark

Have an excellent Saturday, folks.
xo

Bluebell Woodland Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:56:00 +0000

The Mister and I have just moved house and haven't had the opportunity to go exploring in our new environment, also as the Mister has been poorly sick, what with surgery and all, he's been ordered to stay at home for a good old rest. The other day was our first venture out to look at the bluebells growing in a woodland near our new home. It was spectacular!

This is the first time I've lived away from the sea (inland...working out how I came up with the new blog name yet?!) and normally our go to place to get peace is the coast. I feel really lucky to get to see these bluebells as they flower for a short amount of time and then they are gone 'til next Spring. We caught it at just the right time!

As we were heading out the door I thought to myself that Howard was a wise enough owl not to get lost, so he came with us, perched very gently in my coat pocket.

You can see some more of my little Howard later in the week.

Katherine xo

noreply@blogger.com (Journey Inland) — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Remember this face?

After many years of fluffing around with Paper Pocket I've decided it's time for a new start. PP evolved as I did, but the only thing that didn't change was the name. The time has come.

I suppose Paper Pocket was a learning blog. I tested out my web design skills on you on many occasions, you watched as I got to grips with a camera and had some stumbles in life, but it's been amazing to share and meet people who love and appreciate similar things.

If you'd like to subscribe, follow, tag along for the ride, or whatever it is we are calling it these days check out the options by clicking subscribe in the nav bar.

Here's to three more years of blogging right here on Journey Inland and I hope you'll be a part of this journey.

Katherine
xoxo