TradeMe Bargain

For some time now I have been looking for furniture for my craft studio aka the Dungeon (yes it comes complete with spider webs). I don't care if the furniture looks pretty or not, or whether or not it all matches just as long as its functional.  
As money is pretty tight (damn this recession, hurry up and be over) I really haven't been looking at that seriously for furniture though I have managed to pick up some bargains over the past couple of months.
First there were the lovely soft padded chairs and my wheelie chair that I picked up from the place I am working at the moment. Nothing is worse than sitting for hours intent on creating and scrapbooking only to try to move and your butt has gone to sleep cos the seat is too hard.
I got the chairs for $10.00 each... a real bargain as far as I was concerned but the bargain I picked up today beats them hands down. My apologies if I sound like I'm gloating but I'm just so stoked with my purchase.
I was on TradeMe when I spotted a listing for a magazine rack thingey. No one had bid on it and it was listed at $1.00, no reserve so I put on my watch list. I thought it was smaller than what I wanted, but that it would still do the trick - what I wanted was somewhere to store and display packs of paper and the like (cork sheets, double sided adhesive sheets etc). 
So the auction ran its course but no one bid, so it was offered to me at $1.00. I accepted only to be offered a second matching magazine thingey also for a $1.00 so I said yes to that one as well.
This afternoon I picked up the 2 magazine racks and the tri-fold screen I also won. Let's just say they were much bigger than I expected and only just fit in the back of the van with the seats folded up... thank goodness for people movers.
Anyway here they are... not in their final position, I need to rearrange the studio again, but they are at least at their new home.

 Yep... so considerably bigger than expected...

 Loving the drawers at the bottom for extra storage.

And my very cool screen which I have some interesting thoughts on what to do with this. Watch this space!!

Off-The-Page "2011 Diary"

I loved what I did last year so much that I just knew I had to personalise this year's diary as well. Look out next year!!!
This year I was a little wiser and took something with me that had the hole widths & sizes that my Bind-It-All cuts, so that I could look for a diary that already had the holes cut to the same size and dimension (a lesson from last year). I could only get a page per day diary so hence its a bit on the "chubby" side but that means more room for sketches & ideas.

I removed the flimsy plastic covers and replaced them with board book covers with I decorated with patterned paper, inside & out. I punched holes to align with the existing holes using my Bind-It-All.
I also add some month dividers like last year, but this time instead of adding pockets to them (which I hardy used last year) the dividers are actually doing TRIPLE duty.

• First, as dividers so I know when each month begins & ends

• Secondly, as a monthly planner for my blog, so I can keep on top of what blogs I'm doing when & what pre-planning & preparation I need to do before posting

• And finally the back of each divider is printed with the list of important dates, such as birthdays, anniversaries etc, so I know when & who I need to create a card for. There is plenty of space for adding extra birthdays so if you want a card you had better make sure I know when your birthday is!!

The printing was a bit haphazard this year which disappointed me, but then my printer is playing up. I just hope I don't have to think about replacing it as up until now it was a terrific printer. Given that I am the only one who will be looking at it, I was happy to use the pages as they printed, they were still usable if the printing was a little skewed. Anyway, I did photograph some of the better pages, so you can see how it all looks.