BECOMING A HACKING PRO... (PART 1 - PICS)

Sorry CIA, not the brainiac kind. I can be creative, but computer hacking is a whole other level that´s just not for me.

The hack I´m refering to is in China (no, not the country, silly!). For those who don´t remeber, China is my very first faux filofax. She´s Chinese, therefore the name (see, told you I was creative! - not!).

But, for the most part, i´ts fun having to be Inspector Gadget.

I know I´m always on a rant about things here in Brazil, but believe me, there´s a reason. EVERYTHING IS SO HARD TO FIND!!!! The things I used today for my remodeling have been out of stock for at least 3 months.

How do I know? I´ve been going to the same paper store EVERY WEEK for the last 3 MONTHS asking for them....that´s how.

Anyway, let´s get back to the subject. Today´s post is going to be a sort of tutorial for anyone who would like to adapt materials in the same way I have.

I´m no expert, I just got lucky on a first try, and decided to share my lucky hunches with other needing souls. Because from what I´ve heard, I don´t think I´m the only one that´s not in the US or UK that has a hard time finding things.

Ok, so here we go. Today I made 4 things, and I´m about to tell you how, so listen up! Or read till the end :)

1. to do / to buy list
2. pouch for pens
3. dashboard
4. flags that fit neat and tidely into China´s credit card holder

WHAT I USED:

• ruler
• razor blade
• liquidpaper
• needle
• line
• scisors
• double sided tape
• flags
• post it notes
• hole puncher

1.  TO DO / TO BUY LIST

MATERIALS NEEDED:
Any post its you can find - in my case I used one from Postit that has checkboxes

STEP BY STEP

Because of the size of this particular note pad, I decided to cut it in half. That way I´d have something that would fit into my agenda, and I´d have twice as many ;)

My note pad, as I said, is from Post It. Homeline, I think. It was R$33,90 at a local paper store.

Knowing only half would have the glue on the back, I decided to leave the looseleaf parts inside the cover (pic).

You know the steps: I measure and used a ruler and a razor for a straight cut.

Next, I punched some holes in.

Originally, I only punched holes in the superior part, but they were wobly when I inserted them, so I used to the 2nd and 3rd hole from the top part and the 1st hole from the inferior rings.

That makes it stable and it even looks nicer, ´cause it´s placed in the middle.


Now I needed a place to put the other half that had a sticky part.



2. POUCH FOR PENS

MATERIALS NEEDED
Pvc baggie, small or medium size, I guess. Depends on whether you have a personal size or an A5.

STEP BY STEP

Measure the pouch against your pages.

Mine would be too big, so instead of just punching in the holes, I had to get a little creative.

My pouch would be about 1cm too big for the binder. I decided to cut it, which meant it would have open ends.

Couldn´t have that, so after cutting off 1cm (horizontally measured), I decided I could sew it.

Got my needle, my grey line and my ruler. I tried to mark 0,5cm marks with a pen, but it kept washing off so I did it with liquid paper.

After having sewn, punch the 6 holes to heaven! :)

I used those lines to give me my itinerary when sewing. I´m awfull at it, so I need guidance. This was the result:





DASHBOARD 

MATERIALS NEEDED

Transparent tabs in letter size (what I used), or a transparency sheet





STEP BY STEP
Same step by step for the transparency sheet or the dividers (which I used).

Take a personal sized page with holes punched and trace the format on the sheet. Leave a little bit of a margin so that it´s lightly bigger.

Cut out, and voilà!

Next step is to put your post its on your dashboard.

To keep them nice and tight, I used a well known hack: double sided tape! :)







I put those post its I showed earlier, but this time used the sticky side, plus two small ones, just for a punch of color.





4. FLAGS THAT FIT

MATERIAL NEEDED
Flags by YES









STEP BY STEP

Just trim of the sides a bit and they should go right in!






This is what it looks like now, with everything together:

HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!!

XOXOXOXO

GETTING ORGANIZED!

So...this was me before having any kind of organization in my life!

Yep. Not that I´m much better off, because I´ve just started the process, but seeing a light at the end of the tunnel all ready gives me some kind of inner peace.

I don´t know what it is with us woman, but generally spealing, I think planners remind us of adolescence

When we turned 18, we all of a sudden decided we were way to "mature" for some things, and people (whether family or not) agreed with us and gave us that assurance.

One of those things would be decorating your diary. You have not had an adolescence if you haven´t filled at least one page with cutouts from magazines and drawings that represent that place, song, feeling or someone who you stupidly thought was special.

Now we´re all grown up. In fact, there is little time to be "filosofical" about life as we were back then.


What you have in your diary, or in an adult term, PLANNER is different. Meetings, things to do, things to buy, childrens errands, husbands reminders, amongst other responsabilities, will now be your basic text.

But isn´t life easier when taken on light heartedly?

Well, I decided that I will decorate my planner. Why not? The secret to staying young is keeping your joviality, right? Right! So at least when I open up my planner I´ll have something beautiful and fun to look at instead of just seing a plain piece of paper with regular pen writing all over it.

Thinking of that, I began the process.

First thing to do was to decide what practical things I wanted to include in my planner.

My failed financial life came to mind, of course, as the first. Then came my kids, who have weekly testings and I need to be able to know what they´re seeing in school in order to help. third place came work and my own appointments.

This last is probably the most important because I work at 3 different schools. Each has it´s own methos, proceedures, students, grades, classes, resources, meetings, ideas.....sheesh! Made my tired just typing it!

I HAVE CAOTIC DAYS AND SOMETIMES DON´T EVEN KNOW WHICH SCHOOL TO DRIVE TO OR WHAT DAY OF THE WEEK IT IS.

Therefore, it´s evident to my I need to be on top of things ASAP. Something I haven´t been coping with doing the last semester.

Having decided what I wanted in the planner, I began to think of tabs. I found TONS of them on etsy, but of course if you live in Brazil, you have a BIG PROBLEM CALLED CUSTOMS. Most order, even the cheapest dollar ones can take up to 4 months to reach your house.

So I went to one of my favorite local stores. But, as all stores here, there biggest mistake is not having a lot of variety.

So here I am lost on the second floor, which is miniscule and is supposed to be scrap book dedicated, and I ran into the cutest paper!!!!

All of a sudden: WHAM! The thought came to me that I could make my own! Yes sir!

The result of that were the four dividers I needed and that I think came out pretty darn good and cute! And the colors match the planner completely :)

I actually messed up the order on the 3rd and 4th. It was supposed to be:

PINK - BEIGE - PINK - BEIGE

But all is well when it ends well and I´m using them anyway.

Well...if you followed my last post, which was all about China, the planner, you know that all she came with was lined paper.

In order to actually start putting my idea to work, I would need more then that.

I am a woman on a mission, so I went over to the PC and started making my own inserts.

I used Microsoft PUBLISHER, because I just love it´s practicity. It´s a lot better then word for these sorts of things.

Ironically I can´t get myself to make my tests on publisher, though. Each to it´s own, I guess.

FOR SECTIONS, I MADE:

1. Monthly calendars that go from June to December of this year, all in the following format:

      2.      week on 2 pages or WO2P. These I do by hand using the lined paper that came with her.

             

                 3   My daily schedule:

                                               

                            4.     Last but not least, my hyperdex. This one I made myself as well. If you don´t know this system yet, you should, and will. In a future post we´ll be having a guest blogger, Carla Gondim, that will explain all the bits and pieces to you!

FOR MY FINANCIAL SECTION, THERE IS:

1. A payment calendar. Actually, is was the same calendar I made for the agenda, but of course, instead of appointments, I´ll have my bills on it.
2. Monthly payment list with 3 payment methods to check on it: credit card, debit from ckecking account and wallet.
3. A daily expenditure table to controle what you spend, in this case me, and where from
   

After a full day and night without being able to sleep because I was agonizing over this organization thing, I still have my work and my sons section to get to.

And here´s my favorite part! Decorations!!!! I decided to do the decorations on my WO2P, so here are the 2 weeks I have so far:

And now I´m giving it a brake cause I have to buy some ink for my printer. Got that silly warning we all know too well:

For now, I´ll leave you all with the video of my progress: XOXOXOXO

FILOFAX IN BRAZIL!

So...a lot of people in Brazil have not yet heard of FILOFAX, or even an agenda/diary system with rings. I think that is SO NOT FAIR! It should be a system supported by the Government, free of cost, used not only to organize the internal aspects of Government itself, but also to help poor citizens like me who can´t even remember where the car keys are if their life depended on it. Just saying!

If you are one of those people who do not yet know the system, I´ll explain. Filofax is an English brand of diaries/planners/organizers which use an anular system of 6 rings and has become a global trademark.

Usually, when you think "global trademark", it translates into "EXPENSIVE", right? Sorry, I´m not gonna dissapoint you there, they are pretty expensive! But, I can bring you relief by telling you that these planners are the créme brulé of the planner world. Carefully made of real leather, they can be used through decades in a constant manner.

That means that the price you first saw as hefty is going to become nothing when you consider it´s something that lasts almost forever! In my calculations (please beware, I am an English teacher and chose the profession to get as far away from math as possible, but this time I think I may have invented the wheel!), it´s extremely worth it!

By the way, they come in many sizes and colors, from an itsy bitsy MINI, up to a wooping A5!

If you´re looking at this picture here on the left and thinking: "Why so many?!", you´re gonna have to buy you´re first to understand that there will never, ever, ever, ever be enough in your life!

It´s true, many people collect these little babies, and believe it or not, 99% of the time, they find use for ALL of them!

They can be used for personal finance control, business meeting, teaching binders, medical professional, teenage diaries (adult diaries too, for that matter), day to day control of your menus and grocery, you name it! The options are endless!

That´s what makes them so practical! Because they have rings and you use perfurated paper, you can buy your inserts, make your own according to your needs, or whatever. The sky is the limit! And this little baby will always be PERSONALIZED! <3<3<3

Well, Filo is English, but there are national offers here in Brazil to be considered. Here in Brazil, there is REDFAX, with HQ in São Paulo. It´s also made of leather, although from what I researched the structure seems to be on the stiffer side, but it does recieve ravaging reviews. In terms of price, it´s similar to most models of Filofax, but a bit on the cheaper side, considering you won´t be paying import taxes, and there is no way it can get lost on an international trip.

OH!!!! Of course, we can´t not talk about COLORS! If it´s colors you´re after, Filofax is UNBEATABLE! There are colors for those who are more business like, and others for people like me who can´t resist a neon (yes, neon, you can die now LOL).

In that aspect, REDFAX is a bit limited. Although they have a few options of color, they´re not that diverse. Here´s an example pic of them!

 What´s really cool about REDFAX is that the ring system is the same as the FILOFAX, 6 rings, and the space in between as well.

            

ONE HUUUUUGE MISTAKE that I found was REDFAX DOES NOT sell the 6 hole punch which we desperatly need! (OMG, right?). That leaves you with the soul option of buying one abroad (sorry!). I tried google for more then a day and could not find a single 6 hole punch available in Brazil! :(

Well, at least my search was not in vain. I found yet another Brazilian planner maker which has the same ring system as Filofax. So there! I can be very efficient! :)

My addicted friend started fearing me when she noticed that in less then 1 day I had gathered more information then she had in a month, plus started making inserts for a future Filofax of my own! LOL

Unfortunately, all I could do was dream about them at that moment, because I was so broke I was breaking my credit cards in half trying to avoid declaring bankrupcy (ok, so I am joking, but I was pretty broke).      

Anyhow, Carla thereby declared me a monster, but I´m a very happy monster in this beautiful world!

Back to the subject. MAIOFAX was the name of the planner. The main model of the brand is actually an exact "rip off" of one of filofaxes models (the one with the cross?). Of course the quality is not comparible, but the poor guys try.

Filofax is maleable, MAIOFAX is not.....like, at all. All you have to do is see one picture to see the thing looks like it has a cover made out of wood, but of course it depends on your taste, and if they´re in business, some people appreciate the trait (not me, though). Sorry, but I´m a Filo girl, and one day I too will have a big collection! LOL

Here she is! The MAIO! Is it just me, or does everyone get a stiff impression of them?

Another argument against them is the lack of color options, once again.

Oh! I almost forgot! At the end of the post, I´m going to add links to all of the brands I speak of here, so keep reading to the end to find them!






The last Brazilian brand I´m going to be speaking of today is TILIBRA (the T here is pronounced as CH in chile). They´re planner is not leather, it´s faux leather, and believe it or not, I know people who bought one for about 80 american dollars, which to me is a stick up. Although I do understand, because the options are slim and the offers even slimmer.

I think the TILIFAX comes in only 2 sizes, either PERSONAL and A4 or A5, not quite sure.to).

   

So, me figuratively bankrupt, was still in search of comething I could afford, but all the other I found were GRINGAS (that means foreign in Portuguese). There were some waaaaay cheaper then FILOFAX or REDFAX,  but I´d still have to import them.

Here are some of the names:

• Day Planner
• Day Timer
• Paper Chase
• YES (eu cheguei a apelar para pastas de 2 ou 4 furos comuns, depois eu conto).

There are others sold in department stores (and of course, if you´re a foreigner and from the filoworld and reading this, you´ll know), and places you would never imagine. For those who don´t know yet, some examples would be:

• target
• walmart
• goodwill
• salvation army

AND OTHERS! Of course it´s harder to get to those because you need to book a flight from Brazil to a foreign country, pay hotels, and then return, but hey, I´m so crazy I would have done it already if I had the cash ;)

Well, if you´re curious enough by now, I´m going to give you the links that I promissed (the ones to the stores, remember? YEY!!!!)

REDFAX

TILIBRA

MAIOFAX

FILOFAX

EBAY  (You can find any foreign planner, here. Take a look!)

Well, I tearfully bid you goodbye for now, and hopefully I´ll be seeing you again with my next post!