Archive for September, 2008

Memoriae Notebooks

Posted September 30, 2008 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

Quo Vadis, our parent company in France, recently introduced a new line of notebooks. Memoriae journals each have a different theme to record notes, thoughts and memories. The Memoriae collection is like organizing your memoirs into different diaries. home_uk_memoriae3.jpg

Each journal is dedicated to a different part of living: My Travels, Weekends, Child, Cooking, Wines, Loves, Hikes, Culture, Joys, Sorrows, Dreams and Friends.

My Memoriae is a global “Quo Vadis” of where to go, what to see, things to do and experience. It is a social network to share stories with people of similar interests.

Stephanie who blogs on Spiritual Evolution of the Bean answered my call for volunteers to review Memoriae.  Here is her review. biffy-bean.JPG

A few other people volunteered as reviewers for Memoriae. I will post their reviews as they go up on their blogs or websites. 

Thank you, Stephanie, for taking the time to review Memoraie and write about it.  I really appreciate your honest thoughts and feelings about the product.

Quo Vadis in the U.S. does not have plans to import Memoraie at this time.  However, if you live in North America and wish to purchase any of these journals, they can be found online in Canada and the U.K. here and here.

I will be blogging about the Habana Notebook reviews later this week.

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Happy Banned Books Week

Posted September 29, 2008 by
in Editorial | Add your comment »

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Banned Books Week was created in 1982 by the American Library Association to celebrate our freedom to read. The ALA website has a fascinating list of last year’s most frequently challenged authors and books (Mark Twain?! Maya Angelou?); there’s also a list of banned or challenged 20th century classics, like Lolita and The Catcher in the Rye.

What’s your favorite banned book?

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Fall’s fashion quandary

Posted September 26, 2008 by
in Where to Go? | Add your comment »

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Lani Rosenstock is a New York based style consultant whose philosophy is that fashion is about being confident in your own unique look. Today, she’s back with a trend report on fall styles.

Who do you want to be this season? Huntress, Bohemian Goddess or Sexy Secretary? No recent season has offered us so many characters to play at once. I don’t suggest choosing more than one of these for work or your boss may suspect multiple personality disorder. But feel free to don a feminine blouse and pencil skirt to play the Sexy Secretary by day and a Boho dress after dark to bring out your inner Bohemian. Feeling brave? A Huntress would put a feather in your cap, literally, and swirl around in a plaid cape or menswear inspired vest. All this costumery too much for you? You’ll be happy to know that another look of the season is Minimalism.

Accessories offer another outlet for creativity this season. The most important footwear trend is the bootie. I love it in grey suede, which will let you hit another trend of the season, grey shoes. Last season’s big necklaces have only gotten bigger. If this trend is well, too big for you, create a long and lean tough girl look with a variety of layered chains around your neck. Not one for necklaces? Embrace the costume jewelry trend with a large cuff.

Our style, like our lives, should be constant but always changing. We all have a core style but we should be looking for ways to update and refresh that style each season. I’m hoping that these resources will help you to do just that!

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The Time Map

Posted September 26, 2008 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

There have been many movies over the years about Time and time travel: The Time Machine (1960), Planet of the Apes (1968), Back to the Future (1985) and Groundhog Day (1993) are some memorable ones, but my all-time favorite is Time Bandits, a dark sci-fi comedy released in 1980. time-bandits-2.jpg

In director Terry Gillam’s epic voyage through time and space, a group of mischievous dwarves steal a special map from the Supreme Being and use it to try to get rich. This coveted map of the universe reveals gaping flaws through which time travel is possible. timebanditsmap.jpg

In a nod to C.S. Lewis’ Narnia tales, a young boy named Kevin joins them through a portal from his bedroom closet. He has encounters with Napoleon (Ian Holm), Robin Hood (Monty Python’s, John Cleese), Agamemnon (Sean Connery), an Ogre (Peter Vaughan) and Evil (David Warner). Evil is after the map in order to become the Supreme Being himself.

I always coveted a copy of the time map, too. Much to my delight, I found a version on the web.

Graphic designer John Heilman of Metropolis created a replica from the movie prop.  The price is a little steep, but I may treat myself to one for Christmas.

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The expandable hour

Posted September 24, 2008 by
in Planning Tips | 1 comment »

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In general, I think I’m a fairly efficient person, but I often find I fit the tasks I have to do to fill the time that’s available. Like many writers, I can be very productive when I’m on deadline or juggling multiple assignments. It’s when my workload’s light that things start to go downhill, as I take little breaks to catch up on blog reading, clean the house or re-organize my desk, and put off what little work I need to do until the very last moment.

Many different theories have been put forth to explain procrastination—that procrastinators are perfectionists, for example, or that they lack self-confidence. I wonder if it’s not also because we’re subliminally addicted to stress, since we know that’s one sure way to actually get the job done. If I feel like I’ve been wasting too much time at the end of the day, I start to get stressed, and then I tend to sit down and actually finish the work.

At any rate, the answer is as simple as it is hard to implement: prioritize your tasks, then do them (I also like Karen’s suggestion of using an hourglass to keep track of time). If you’ve got time left over at the end of the day, work ahead—or kick back with a book or a glass of wine and enjoy yourself.

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How do you personalize your planner?

Posted September 23, 2008 by
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 1 comment »

Geralin Thomas of Metropolitan Organizing in Cary, North Carolina uses a Minister weekly planner.  However, she has adapted the dashboard of action items to meet her own needs. Here’s how she described it: aboutgeralin.jpg

“Regarding the Minister’s right columns: delete the category, “Write” and instead add, “Buy” and “Dinner.” Alphabetize the list:

A: Action

B: Buy

C: Call

D: Dinner (as in what is for dinner every night of the week)

E: E-mail

F: Future (stuff you need to do, later)

This is how I customize each box within the Minister’s weekly layout for myself; I share this alpha list with clients and they love it! It’s easy to remember, too.

If you really want to make it user-friendly, add lines in the “Call” section making it easier to write names and numbers in an orderly fashion.”

Thank you, Geralin – you always have great suggestions.

How do you personalize your planner?

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Hawks!

Posted September 22, 2008 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Where to Go? | Add your comment »

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I snapped this great picture of a hawk in the Ramapos this weekend—there were three of them in total, and they were just circling and circling overhead. Look at those wings!

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30-Minute Hourglass

Posted September 19, 2008 by
in Editorial, Planning Tips | Add your comment »

I often write and research on the internet at the same time.

But I’m finding its taking longer and longer to get work done. When I’m on the web I begin to drift from link to link, and lose focus for the task at hand. Web surfing isn’t a waste of time, but it has become a major distraction from what I’m supposed to be doing.

So, I’ve decided to employ an old time management devise to help keep me on track–an hourglass, also called a sandglass. I will use it to set a specific amount of time for particular writing projects. The sand rushing through the funnel will be my prompter to stay focused and work quickly.

Other ideas?
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Vertical or horizontal?

Posted September 17, 2008 by
in Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

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A reader from Virginia recently wrote in to compliment the vertical layout of the IB Traveler. We offer a couple of other vertical planners (the weekly Space 17, which has a full page for notes, and the Biweek #47), but other than that, the rest are laid out in varying degrees of horizontal.

Are you a fan of vertical planners? What do you like best about them?

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The Butler Bag

Posted September 16, 2008 by
in Where to Go? | Add your comment »

The Butler Bag is designed to help women find things in their bag.

A busy working woman who’d just given birth to twin girls, Jen Groover was frustrated by the lack of organization in her purse. head-shot-jen1.jpg

She envisioned designing and marketing a “Butler Bag” – a purse-meets-tackle box aimed as busy women looking to organize their lives.

Unlike standard pocketbooks, Grover’s Butler Bags would come with built-in compartments, with slots for everything women carry around from Blackberrys, compacts, iPhones, brushes, keys, wallets, etc.

“I wanted to solve the problem of the black hole of women’s handbags,” said Grover, 35. “This is organization without compromising fashion.”

While the Butler Bag looks like other bags on the outside, hidden inside are dividers. With this tidy system, women don’t have to fish around for keys, or change, or mints that have dropped to the bottom of the purse.

The bags are priced from $125 (shown here) to $1800 for deluxe models. 270x300blackhybrid.jpg

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