Home is where the Filo is...

I have been taking my gorgeous A5 Amazona to university every day since I received it, and I am worried it is starting to show some signs of wear. It's just not designed to go inside my big, full back pack! Thankfully I have my red A5 Domino that will serve as my on-campus university planner while Amazona stays at home :) Now I just have to decide which inserts I should duplicate, and which ones I will transfer over each day...

My A5 red Amazona Part 2: Unboxing and review!

Hi everyone!

If you haven't read Part 1 of this 2-part post, please read it now :)

Sorry I didn't post this on Sunday like I said I would, I have had so much work to do this week! But my Amazona is helping me stay organised!

So last Wednesday I was eagerly awaiting 2 deliveries, 1 was of course my lovely new A5 Amazona on its way from ebay, and the other was a HUGE bookcase I ordered for my new uni room. Unfortunately I had to go to work that afternoon, but my housemate stayed behind to wait for the deliveries (thanks very much!) and soon texted me to tell me that the bookcase had arrived... and then a minute later texted me to tell me that a package had arrived for me too! I was very pleased to know that they had both arrived safely :) But I had to make sure I didn't get too excited, because I still had 4 hours at work, and couldn't play with either of them until I got home!
I have to admit something, readers... I was more excited about the bookcase than I was about the filo! But don't scold me too much, I have a valid reason- I am a very practical girl, and I have been looking forward to getting my room organised properly ever since I moved to this room without any storage- because everything was on the floor until I set my bookcase up! And one especially good thing about my new bookcase was that it would have a whole shelf dedicated to my Filofax collection!! So I wanted to get this sorted out before I opened the package with my new filo in it, because I knew I would not be able to do any housework at all that evening once I had my beautiful new Filo in my hands!
My new bookcase is huge! I tried to get it up the stairs myself and nearly managed it, but in the end I had to wait for one of my housemates to come home and help me. Finally I got it into my room and cleaned it, then I let myself go downstairs and open up my parcel!

I was so excited, I wanted to rip it open right away and see my beautiful new filofax, but of course, being a good blogger, I made sure I took photos of the unboxing for you guys!

With my phone covering up the address

It was REALLY well wrapped! But I was so tired I couldn't be bothered to go all the way back upstairs to find my scissors, so I spent about 10 minutes trying to rip open the thick packaging with my finger tips!

The first sneaky-peak of the 'Filofax' sign :)

I finally got all the packaging off to reveal the lovely Filofax black box!

I reeealllyy had to hold back, because I wanted to rip all the packaging off to see my lovely filo! But I wanted to take it all in first!

An actual A5 Amazona :D OOOHHHH!!!

Grrrr!! Why all the packaging! I just want to see my filo as soon as I open up the box!!
Actually, considering this was second hand, I am really surprised it had all this packaging! Proof that it is in great, almost-brand-new, condition!

Finally! I cast my eyes on my beautiful new Filofax! Isn't it gorgeous!!!

I can't tell you how much I love this Filofax! Well, I can, and will do so in bullet-point form!

• The colour is gorgeous- fun but professional, grown up and delicious
• I love the print, and the feel of it. This was an issue for me when I saw the Amazona (pocket and personal sizes) in the Filofax shop. But I'm so happy with the print on my filofax! It doesn't feel plasticky, but gorgeous and leathery like other people have described. I think I love the print on my A5 and I didn't on the smaller sizes, because it's such a large print that it's out of proportion and looks too big on the smaller filos, but perfect on the A5! 
• The size- as I said, perfect for uni work organisation
• The secretarial pocket, which I LOVE! It's so handy!
• The vertical card pockets- I really prefer this configuration than horizontal slots

Amazona, Amazona, how'd you get so pretty? 

As I said before, the communication from the ebay seller was brilliant. She told me when she would dispatch it, and once she had sent it off she emailed me to tell me. She didn't have to, but she did, and I think that was brilliant, so reassuring! She even included a really sweet touch:

She put a card inside the filofax! That was so sweet! And I love sweet peas too!
Here is what she wrote inside it:

How lovely!

So a couple of days later I took photos in the proper day light, to show you my Amazona in its full glory!

Hmm... actually, you need to see her in person to REALLY appreciate her! Anyone coming to the November Philofaxy meet-up will get to see her and a lot more from my collection! I can't wait!!
And a couple more shots for some gratuitous filofax p*rn-

My gorgeous new A5 Red Amazona! Part 1

I'm so happy to have the internet back, so I can blog again, and what's better than to start by telling you all about the latest addition to my Filofax collection!

Well, I don't want to moan too much, as I've already expressed my disappointment with the debacle that was the German 9 Euro sale, but my heart broke a little bit when I found out I wouldn't be receiving my A5 Rose Finchley :( I had intended it to use it as my uni filo, and so (although I could use my A5 red Domino), I kind of still wanted a new Filofax to use for that purpose.
Then I saw the BBC programme Page Eight, in which one of the characters has a Filofax on her desk, which I think was a brown A5 Amazona. It was gorgeous, sophisticated and sumptuous! If a luxury chocolate company could design a Filofax for their Managing Director, this would be it :) In fact, the shiny brown mockadile pattern kind of looks like chocolate, and I want to eat it! I loved it so much, I searched all of the websites I know to see if there was one, or something similar, for sale. Unfortunately, there wasn't... yet!

I have always loved the Amazona Filofax range, ever since I saw Imy's video about her personal black Amazona, I have thought it was a gorgeous Filofax! I saw them on Amazon (haha!) and ebay a few times, and a couple of times I came close to buying one. If I had bought one, it would have been the personal in red. But... something was holding me back. Until I went to London, I had never seen an Amazona in person, and I wanted to see one before I spent loads of money on one. So when I went to London, I made sure to check it out in the Conduit Street Filofax shop. It was in the sale section because Filofax are discontinuing it (which means it was relatively cheap :) But when I got my hands on it... the crocodile print leather felt plasticky. So I put my desire for the Amazona on hold. But then I moved over to the main shelves, I saw the Osterley, Filofax's next crocodile print range, and was captivated. But the price tag leaves a lot to be desired...

Anyway, I guess my disappointment with the leather was overcome by how gorgeous the one on Page Eight looked :)
So, in my regular checking of ebay for Filofax deals, I found an A5 Amazona in Red! It ticked so many boxes-

• It was red (I'm much more of a pinky-red girl than any of the other colours in the range)
• It's A5, the perfect size for my uni planning
• It's an Amazona!!!
• It had a buy-it-now option on the ebay auction, which I prefer to a bidding war!

When I saw it on the ebay app on my phone, I thought it would be very popular, and the bidding would start very soon. I think the auction was started at about £25, but as yet no-one had bid on it, and there was a buy-it-now price of £70. As I always do (except with things that are ending very soon), I decided to sleep on it- although I was risking the bidding war starting (after which the buy-it-now option would disappear). The next day I went to the library- real internet on proper computers, woohoo!!!- and it was still there, and no-one had bid on it!! :) I looked at the pictures again, because they didn't come out well on my phone screen, but on the big 19 inch (at least) computer screen, they looked gorgeous! I ummed and erred for a few minutes, tried to put my mind on something else, but I kept on coming back to the ebay page. I was looking at the £70 buy-it-now button, my finger determined to press the button on the mouse... But something in my stomach still didn't feel right. Normally I don't let myself buy things that I don't want 100%... and for some reason my instinct was holding me back. Maybe it was the fact that it was £70 that I don't really have, and I didn't really NEED it... BUT my heart won over my head! I clicked through all of the buttons to buy it now, without actually BUYING it yet... and then I decided to just GO FOR IT! So I clicked confirm, and it was MINE!!

What was exciting was that it was next-day delivery! So I wouldn't have to wait long for it to arrive!

A little while later, I received an email from the seller, saying that she would dispatch it the next day! I always like getting communications from ebay sellers when they don't have to, it just makes it seem much more personal and reassures you :)

So I waited for it to arrive... and you will have to wait until tomorrow for part 2 of this post, because it is already too long, and I want to take some photos of my gorgeous new filo in the daylight, to properly do it justice! So come back on Sunday :)

Have a great weekend!