Please vote for my friend!

Hi everyone!

Please do me a really quick but brilliant favour by voting for my friend Sarah, who has the chance to win £4000 from Bic! She is currently travelling around South East Asia after winning part 1 of the competition, and now she has a chance to win part 2 of the comp., in which she and 3 other students have a chance to win the money. She is lovely and very hard working, a definite worthy recipient as she needs the money to pay for her Master's Degree in Forensic Archaeology, such an exciting course, and she is even planning on fostering baby hedgehogs! Who could be a more worthy recipient?

Please vote for her by following this link:
http://4coloursgapaway.com/entry/Sarah/

Even if you aren't bothered about the competition, please do it for your love of Bic 4-colour pens, I know you all love them!!

Thanks so much!

Poll Results

Hi!


A couple of weeks ago I set up a poll on my blog about which was the better arrangement for work and personal stuff in multiple filofaxes of the same size when you are going to work: whether it is better to

1. Carry your personal filofax to work with the relevant pages from your work filofax, or
2. Carry your work filofax with you, with the relevant pages from your personal filofax.

The winner is...  Number 2!! Take your work filofax to work/uni/the library etc, with the pages you will need from your personal filo.

I wasn't surprised that number 2 won, 21 votes to 13. However, I was kind of surprised that number 1 got so many votes!
I can see the logic in number 2- as Bridgett said in the comments, "the likelihood that you would need to know what happened last week or next month in your personal life is slim. You have a much greater chance of needing to know some article you referenced in another paper last term." LJ concurred. I think that's a very good point! I would probably rarely refer to the personal stuff in my filo, but I would kick myself if I needed something that was in my work filo that I had left at home. I like Jotje's idea, about 'one life, one planner', but in this case I'm not talking about planning stuff- diaries etc- but rather the info, reference lists etc in my work filo. I couldn't fit all my personal stuff plus this in 1 filo, even if it had 50mm rings!!

I think overall that number 1 isn't so logical; as I said, personally, I don't think I will refer to my personal stuff that much- hopefully I can hold it in my head! Whereas I will need access to a lot of my uni notes that are in my work filo. However, option number 1 did win a lot of votes, meaning it works for a lot of people! 

Really, by asking this question to you all, I guess I was kind of looking for justification to carry my new A5 purple Malden personal filo with me, with some of my work filo pages in it! But after taking it to uni for a couple of days, I have got scared that my beautiful new purple Malden will become damaged; in the end, I would prefer to take one of my hardier filos to uni with me, like my Domino or my Chameleon, which by coincidence are my work filofaxes! So I guess that makes up my mind for me!

Now all I've got to do is actually set them up properly!

One True Filofax?

Hi everyone!

I was just reading Philofaxy's Free For All Friday and someone asked a question about the Ostrich filofax. This reminded me of Ro, who uses an Ostrich and it is her one and only, everything Filofax. For years she has used this and it is beaten up but each scar tells a story. You can read about Ro's Filofax obsession here on Philofaxy's Reader Under the Spotlight.

This is what I would call a One True Filofax (copyright: Me!! I'm coining this phrase and taking out a copyright on it!!!!! OK, not really...). 

Mr Ochre Malden here would be my One True Filo!!

So I'm particularly interested in what you guys think about this:
Do you desire an OTF? Do you crave finding the perfect solution? For you, is it a search for the perfect binder- the right leather, perfect colour, pocket layout? Finding the perfect size for you? Or, is it about the insides- finding the perfect set-up of inserts, dividers, planning pages, that will last you through the years. Or even finding the right diary format? I know Jotje extols the virtues of a one-life, one-planner philosophy- and I can see the virtues in this, definitely. Laurie has spent years, and established a wonderful blog, trying to find the perfect planning system for her.
Or, do you like the flexibility of being able to change between different binders, and even different sizes, as your life requires it? Do you value the ring mechanism of the Filofax for the ability to change the set-up of your filo with ease? Do you like change?

I think I am going to turn this into a regular blog feature, with guest posts and even a competition or two!! In the comments, please tell me if you think this is a good idea for a series, and if you would like to do a guest post! It could even be a guest video! Don't tell me about your One True Filofax or One True Set-Up yet, wait for the relevant blog posts :)
Get thinking about what you would like to say!!

Stationery Haul Wednesday 6th June!

Hi everyone!

This Wednesday I did a little bit of shopping in Liverpool City Centre, and also pick up a really exciting parcel! So technically I haven't bought everything in this stationery haul, but it still feels like a haul because there is so much reeealllyyy cool stuff in this lot!!

So I had to go to the Royal Mail delivery office to get a parcel which I had missed on the original delivery. It turns out going all the way to the delivery office, a few miles outside the city centre (but by a very easy 4 minute train journey) is an easier way to safely get your parcel, than having to wait for the lottery that is redelivery, when the post man only delivers your parcel to your house of the arranged day if he feels like it!!! After a 10 minute wait, I had my parcel in my hands! I couldn't wait, so I opened it while sitting on the platform waiting for the train.

It was the prize from Christa's blog competition! The competition was to do a blog post or a video about the set-up of your filofax, and I won!!!! :D :D

There's some amazing stuff in here!! I absolutely love the Avery tabs (can't get enough of them), the Post It super sticky notes- such a brilliant invention as they actually stick now!!, and the Get the Hint page markers- but I think my favourites are the Hello Kitty post-its (although they are so cute and I don't know where to find more of them, I kind of don't want to use them!!), and my absolute favourite is the Filofax pen!!! It's sooooo pretty!! Such a gorgeous colour! It's so sleek and beautiful!!
Thanks so much Christa!!

So after I made my way back into the city centre by return train, I went to some of my other favourite shops. Here's what I bought from them:

First I went to one of my favourites, Paperchase. I absolutely adore Paperchase, I could literally buy out their stock!! I really had to restrain myself! I had been wanting those magnetic page clips for weeks, and I finally bought them! They will go very nicely with my new dividers! I also bought some index stickers, buses and owls, as I will have lots of sub-sections in my dissertation filofaxes! And my favourite thing from there, some really practical and useful sticky notes, which are lined or squared, for lists, notes, diagrams etc for my dissertation filos. I know in North America they do quadrilled post-it notes, but 3M don't do them here, and these are the next best solution until they do, I think!!

Then I went into Rennies, which is an art/craft shop, also with a gallery/painting shop. They had some loose scrapbooking paper/card, and I had a really good look through these, changing my mind several times and putting some back and choosing some more! Finally I settled on the 3 sheets above, which were all under £1 each. I really love the Cath Kidston-esque prints at the moment, and I am going to make these into dividers for my new A5 purple Malden!! They also had packs of scrapbooking paper, but these were expensive, around £15 for a pack of about 50 sheets, with duplicates of each pattern, and I definitely won't use them all. I had a very good look around the rest of the shop, and the staff were very helpful. I have been living in Liverpool for almost 4 years on and off, and I don't know why I never thought of going in here for filofax pretties before! I had a look at their sticker collection, and I found some Blue Nose stickers that I don't already have! I love these so much, I am never going to use them, they are too cute!!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! I am going home tomorrow for a couple of weeks! :D

Au revoir!!

Poll: Which filofax arrangement?

Hi everyone!
I want you to help me work something out. If you have 2 filos (of the same size), 1 for your personal day-to-day stuff and 1 for your uni/work stuff, but you only want to carry one with you when you are going to work or to the library to study etc, do you think it is better to:
a) Take your personal day-to-day filofax with you to work/the library with a section full of the relevant work papers you will need that day, or:
b) Take your uni/work filofax to work/the library with a section of the personal/diary (i.e. planner) stuff you will that day?
There's a poll in the top-right corner of my blog, or leave a comment below!

Thanks! Have a lovely Bank Holiday!!