December update! Philofaxy Meet-up and Planners- Midori TN and Filofax!

Hi guys!! Long time no see!!

I've not posted for 3 months, I'm sorry about that!
In September I was busy looking for a job, and then in October I started a full-time job!! So for the past 2 months (although it feels longer), I've been working 40 hours a week and travelling 2 hours a day, then I've been very tired after work, so I haven't had the time or energy to blog!

Philofaxy meet-up!!

At the end of September I went to the Philofaxy meet-up in London! I won't write a full blog post about it, and I didn't take enough photos, but it was amazing!!!
It was lovely to meet the people I hadn't met before, especially Mella and Chrissie, who I shared a hotel room with, and also seeing others again, like Debbie (who we also shared a hotel room with) and of course Steve! The Friday was amazing, as we had lunch together, shared Gillios around the table (I didn't let myself touch any of them until I'd washed my hands after lunch!), then popped to the JP Books shop to look at Midori Traveler's Notebooks and other Japanese things before making our way to the station for our evening adventure! There we met all of the others, and we chatted until everyone got there and Steve bought tickets for our visit to Filofax HQ at Burgess Hill!!
    It was amazing there- the staff were brilliant and passionate about their products!! There was a table of vintage Filofaxes which were absolutely incredible to see in person (and I was trying to think of ways to smuggle them out...), and a presentation about the past, present and the future of the brand, and a Q and A session. Then we mingled, inspecting a wall of current-range Filofaxes, spoke to the staff, answering their questions and showing off our expertise!! Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the new Filofaxes for next year, but we did see the options being considered for the patterns for the non-leather Filofaxes for the future!
    On Saturday, we went to a lovely French cafe for some amazing pastries and gorgeous hot chocolate drink (think melted chocolate!!) for breakfast, then made our way to the huge Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road! I was very good, and didn't buy much- but I could have moved in quite happily!! Then we made our way to Vapianos for lunch, where we got to see most people from the night before, and some others too, and had a nice session of sharing Filofaxes and eating Italian food!! Then we went shopping, including making our way back to Paperchase!! Unfortunately people had to start making their way back to train stations and airports, but it was an amazing weekend and I would love to do it again soon!!!

Planner update!

As you probably know, over the past year I've been chopping and changing between planners, and that's still been happening over the past few months!
    However, over the past couple of months I've been happily using my Midori Traveler's Notebook for my calendar diary/agenda/planner. (Video from October here) I love this thing for lots of reasons, but using it as my calendar diary (by which I mean my WO2P diary calendar, not a journal diary), I really love it because I prefer bound diaries rather than the loose-leaf diary pages in my Filofaxes because I wouldn't archive them properly and I'd lose them. Also because I'm not worried about taking my Midori out and about with me like I am with my Filofaxes, if it gets some scratches on it, it just adds to the character, and there's no rings to damage!

My Midori on my messy desk a couple of months ago

However, I'm going to be tweaking my system a bit over the next couple of weeks. I'm trying to perfect my planner system before 2014, so this is my challenge for December. And yes, I'll be going back to a Filofax again! BUT I'll also be using my Midori...
    Although I love my Midori TN, it doesn't work perfectly for everything for me. As my only planner, I have my WO2P calendar diary, organisation lists, and notes. However, I can't fit everything I need in it, and so I need to spread out into other planners. Also, I don't really like having so many serious things in my Midori- my diary with serious appointments, my organisation lists with serious to-dos, and my notes which aren't very fun either- all of these serious things, shouting at me to "Do this! Do that!" aren't fun, and are making me not want to open my Midori! And in the past, I've planned better and managed my life better when I use both an A5 Filofax for planning in conjunction with my Midori.
    So my plan is this: I'm going to continue using my Midori TN as my calendar diary, which I love, and I'm going to put my current organisation lists (which have been in a separate notebook, but I'll move them to save space) onto a monthly dashboard spread in here. My diary in here will be my everything- I will put all of my appointments, to-dos, plans and everything in here, I won't have one in my Filofax or anywhere else, because I don't want to get confused or forget an appointment. After this insert, I'll have the space for 2 more notebook inserts, which will be fun and creative sections- things that make me want to open and use my Midori! I think I'll have one notebook for creative writing- poetry and short stories, and I may have another creative notebook (I'd like to sketch or paint, but I'm not good at it), or more probably a notebook insert for random notes, ideas, lists and other things. My Midori will go everywhere with me, around the house, to work, shopping, etc etc!
    Then, I'll have my A5 Filofax, probably my Aqua Malden or Espresso Siena, switching between them! This will be my main planning place, having the things that won't fit in my Midori- it will have all of my planning lists (except my 'current' lists, e.g. shopping list, waiting for list, keep in mind list, etc etc, which will stay in my Midori), projects, goals, reference information, long-term notes, random lists etc. This is my brain, it will hold and organise my life- and the flexibility of a Filofax is perfect for this, which I can't achieve with a bound notebook or even my Midori, and the A5 size is ideal- and it will be a perfect companion to my Midori. They won't overlap, so I won't get confused. My Midori will hold things I need with me all of the time, and things I want with me too, whereas my Filofax will stay at home and hold things I don't need with me when I'm out. Every Sunday evening, I'll flick through my Filofax, and find things that I need to do that upcoming week, or things that I want to, or should, try to fit in that week; then I'll write it into the diary in my Midori!


So there's my update! I'll be setting up my Filofax and my Midori over the next couple of weeks, and I'll try to do a video on them soon! :)

Competition!!! A5 Aqua Malden! CLOSED

Hiiii!!!

Today I have a very special post for you... I'm launching a COMPETITION!!!


In yesterday's post, I told you all about my A5 Aqua Malden!! They are now for sale at www.filofax.co.uk in Pocket, Personal and A5!

Pocket

             Personal          

                                                                             A5


If you read my post Introduction to my A5 Aqua Malden... you'll know that I accidentally got sent two A5 Aqua Maldens from Filofax UK!
I've been in contact with Filofax, who have agreed that I could give away one of them as the prize in a competition!

*** COMPETITION!!! ***

So today I'm giving you the chance to win this gorgeous Filofax!!

The A5 Aqua Malden is made of antiqued buffalo leather, has 2 pen loops, 30mm rings, on the left a zip pocket, 3 credit card pockets and 3 larger pockets and a full length slip pocket, and on the right a notepad pocket. The A5 Malden is worth £105!

The binder you would receive if you win is the one you can see me unboxing in this video!

To enter:

Leave a comment on this blog post to answer this question:

What is your best piece of organisation/time management advice for using your Filofax personal organiser?

Rules:

• The competition runs from 1st August 2013 (today) to 15th August 2013.
• 1 entry per person. Any additional entries will be ignored and won't count.
• This competition is open worldwide.
• If you would like your piece of advice to be featured on Filofax's Facebook or Twitter page in their organisation advice series, please write (Yes) at the end of your comment. If you DON'T want your piece of advice to be featured, write (No) at the end of your comment. Filofax and Ideas Network have the right to choose which Filofax tips they wish to post on Facebook and/or Twitter, and may not publish all of them. 

Good luck!

Introduction to my A5 Aqua Malden... with an interesting twist!!

Hi guys!!

If you are part of the Facebook Philofaxy group, or if you've watched my unboxing video on youtube, you will have seen my A5 Aqua Malden! If you haven't, there are lots of juicy photos here!!

I think this one's really special because I believe it's the first Aqua Malden to be released in the UK- read below why!

Since I learned last year that Filofax were going to be making an Aqua Malden, I knew I had to have it! I love the Malden range, and in the past I've had quite a few, although my collection has decreased a lot recently! How would I get my hands on one? :)
    For the last few months I have been in contact with some people from Filofax UK about replacing a couple of faulty Filofaxes. I swapped one for my A5 Wine Holborn I picked up from the Filofax shop in March at the Philofaxy meet-up! I asked for the replacement for the other faulty Filofax to be the Aqua Malden, and they said they would send me one as soon as they are released! The original release date was mid-June, but in the end it was delayed until 24th July. I heard from Margaret Rennie at Write at Home that she would be sending her stock to their new owners (bought through pre-order) on the 24th, so I guessed mine would be sent from Filofax HQ then. Actually, it was sent from Filofax HQ early, even earlier than the retailers were allowed to dispatch theirs, so I guess I was the first person to receive an Aqua Malden! The post man came earlier than I thought, at lunch time on the 24th... the only time that week that no-one had been at home!!
    I had received one of the dreaded "You were out" cards from the post man! My long awaited-for Filofax had been sent to a local Post Office! And, even worse, it said I had to wait 24 hours to pick up my parcel!! Well, I couldn't wait, knowing it was only a few streets away!!! I phoned up the post office, and the lovely lady there said I could pick it up that afternoon!!! I walked there with my dad and my dog, and finally the box was in my hands!!!!
    I knew you guys were as excited as me to see an Aqua Malden, so I filmed an unboxing video...

And loaded lots of photos onto the facebook Philofaxy group!!

I got lots of comments, questions and likes! Most people said it was lovely and they couldn't wait to get theirs, some people said they actually didn't like it now they've seen one, lots of people saying the creases are too wrinkly, and some comments on the colour!

The colour is very difficult to capture on camera! It looks MUCH bluer on the camera/monitor than it does in person! Actually, I would describe the true colour to be a spearmint or jade green!

Closer to the true colour, although this photo doesn't show the depth of the colour.

We had to bribe Chloe to take this photo, by putting cat biscuits on top on my Filofax!

That evening I set up my Aqua Malden by moving the contents of my A5 Raspberry Chameleon over. Fortunately, the dividers match perfectly!
I was busy at work last week, so I wasn't able to play with it much :( But then on Friday (2 days after I received the Filofax), I got an interesting email from someone at Filofax with whom I have been in contact...

"Further to my recent email I am pleased to advise you that 

we have today sent you an A5 Malden aqua organiser by  

Royal Mail Recorded Signed For delivery."

At first I was confused, and then I laughed... they had accidentally sent me 2!! I had been in contact with 1 person about my replacement Filofaxes, and then I think my case was handed over to a second person, who didn't realise that the first person had already placed an order for an Aqua Malden, so she unknowingly sent a 2nd one!
I knew I would have to reply and send one back, but I realised something... when I received the 2nd one, I could open it up and compare the two Filofaxes, and keep the one I preferred and send the other one back! The leather on Maldens tends to vary between different binders- some are more crinkly, some are smoother- so I was glad I had the opportunity to compare them!

When the 2nd Aqua Malden arrived, I was pleasantly surprised!

1st Malden on the left, 2nd Malden on the right!


The 2nd Aqua Malden is much smoother than the 1st! Everyone on facebook agreed how much better the 2nd Malden looks!!


I'm happily setting up my Aqua Malden, adding new sections and striving to improve my time management and organisation techniques. As soon as I'm happy with the set-up I'll make a video and/or do a blog post!

So what will I do with the Malden I'm not keeping? Well, I was happy to send it back to Filofax, but I thought that I could ask them if they would let me keep it to give away as a prize in a competition on my blog... and they agreed!!! So TOMORROW I'll be launching my competition to win the A5 Aqua Malden!! Stay tuned!!!

What's in my Filofax June 2013 :)

Today I made a video to show you 'What's in my Filofax' in June 2013 :)

It's a little bit different to my other 'What's in my filo' videos- in the past, these videos have been on my planner (day-to-day lists, diary, to-dos etc), but now I'm not using a Filofax as a planner; instead, I'm using my Midori Traveler's Notebook as my planner- see my new Midori video here! I am still using my filofaxes, but for different things, for example, my A5 Ochre Malden is my Egyptology research filo and my yellow Original A5 is my hieroglyphs and Egyptian language filo, but the Filofax I show in my video today is the only one I use on a daily basis- it's like my brain :)

This is my 'notebook' Filofax- but it's hard to explain, this filo is more than a 'notebook'. It does have a basic notebook section, but also specific sections for notes for projects; notes and lists for hobbies which I actively do throughout the week; and a 'storage' section for the lists and notes for lots of random things and hobbies which I don't need all the time. I'm also playing with keeping a DodoPad diary in here for planning out what I need to do in my projects and hobbies throughout the week!
I asked people on facebook what I could call it and some great suggestions included 'Genius Book', 'HQ' and 'Companion Book', but my favourite I think is 'Command Central', suggested by Lori, which is great because I can shorten it to CeeCee!!

Enjoy!! xx

Review: Filofax 'The Original' A5 Yellow

Hi guys!
Another review for you all!!


I'd like to firstly say thank you to Jess from The Ideas Network for sending me this sample to review, and Steve for his support! P.S. All opinions are my own, and I wasn't paid to do this review!

It arrived in a box, wrapped in some lovely blue tissue paper, with a note. I must say I had already opened the package and unwrapped the Filofax, and then had to rush off to work, so I rewrapped it quickly- it was wrapped much more nicely than it is in this photo!!

I chose the 'Original Yellow' colour because I wanted something a bit different from all of my pink, red and brown Filofaxes! It is a lovely warm colour, very sunny!

The Filofax is wrapped in a plastic covering, as you can see above. This is a new type of Filofax cover which I haven't heard of for any other Filofax, and I don't know if Filofax intend to use this type of cover for all of their new Filofaxes, but I have to say I prefer the traditional boxes. I understand that this cover means that the Filofax can be handled in a shop without the leather being touched too much by people's hands, but I think that if this is the only cover being used to protect the Filofax when posted to you from Filofax directly or by Filofax online stockists, it wouldn't protect the Filofax and the ring mechanism as much as the traditional box!

With the cover off, the leather is gorgeous! It is very smooth and supple, a lot more so than I thought it would be, as I expected it to be stiff, similar to the Domino! There is no cardboard type 'stuffing' inside the leather as there is in other Filofax- just 100% leather! In fact, the leather is made by The Leather Satchel Company, a UK satchel company, so you know if should be great quality leather! You could even get a satchel to match your Original Filofax!
I'm excited by the fact that this Filofax was made in the UK, where the majority of Filofaxes were made in their heyday in the 1980s and 1990s! This is something people have been asking for for a while, so Filofax UK is listening to us, on this and a number of other features I'll talk about later.

The leather is so supple that this Filofax lays perfectly flat... not only that, but...

... it practically bends back on itself without any effort!

The Outside:

I think The Original binder has clean, classic looks. There is definitely a close resemblance between this style and the older Filofax binders of the 1980s and early 1990s, with the simple design, small clasp and button popper, as it is supposed to look like, being called 'The Original'! Many Filofax users love the 'vintage' binders of Filofax's heyday, and I think Filofax are trying to recreate that style to meet their users' desires. I hope that the quality of The Original is as good as the vintage binders!

I really like the button/popper- it has a very classic but cute design, and gold writing, which is a lovely touch to an otherwise plain exterior.

Down the spine you can see the rivets of the ring mechanism, similar to on the Domino.

The Interior:

I think this is the most controversial topic about this Filofax among the Philofaxy community. Many people haven't been impressed by the interior pocket layout, and I have to say I agree with them.

On the front inside cover, there are only two card slots- these are not pockets, because the card goes straight through to the underside of the yellow strip of leather, there's no fabric or leather lining or pocket that the card would sit in.
The elastic band in the middle is divided into three, with two pen loops and a wider 'loop' that is designed for a phone or something similar. In several of their products, Filofax is trying to sell to technology lovers by encouraging smartphone and tablet users to also use their paper products by making it possible to integrate their phone or iPad within a ring binder organiser, such as in the Pennybridge ipad case with ring binder attachment, or this strip in The Original to hold your phone. I'm not sure how effective this elastic strip is- once you insert your phone, you will have a big strip of elastic over your phone's screen/keyboard, so this feature must be designed for phone storage rather than being able to use the phone while in this holder. Also, I tried to insert my Samsung Galaxy S2 phone into the elastic band, but it wouldn't fit, as my phone is quite wide at 7cm, and trying to do this left the elastic almost out of shape- so I think this strap is designed for a narrower phone like the iPhone.
The placement of the pen 'loops' isn't well designed, in my opinion, as the loop on the left is too far inside the binder and the pen pushes down on the divider tabs when the divider is closed, and when a pen is in the right loop, it sits against the middle of the pages and creates a lump, which is especially annoying if trying to write on the left-hand pages when the pen is still in the loop. Moreover, it is difficult to get any cards out of the slots when a pen is in the right loop.

I love this stamped area, which also attests to being 'Made in the UK'.

The layout of the interior back cover is simple, with two slots into which the cover of a 'jot pad' can be slotted. There are two slots, so theoretically you can use the binder upside-down, with the pad on the left for left-handed users, as with the Domino. The slots aren't big enough for to insert a traditional A5 notepad that most A5 Filofaxes come with, however, with some cutting down of the backing card of this A5 notepad, it would be possible to insert an A5 pad!
There's no zip pocket on this Filofax, however in the inserts of this binder, Filofax have included a zip-lock pocket insert.

The cover of this Filofax is 100% leather, and besides the pocket area of the interior, the remainder of the interior is made up of the very smooth underside of the satchel leather. The photo above shows some marks in the leather of this binder, which are barely noticeable!

The ring mechanism on this binder isn't too bad, the 2nd and 3rd rings don't come together completely, but they don't snag on the paper, which is the important thing. I do wonder how the plastic cover will really protect the ring mechanism of The Original binder during transit and shipping!

The Inserts:

There are some very interesting inserts in this Filofax!

The first insert is the flyleaf, which on first glance looks like it has this partial Union Flag design on it, but on closer look it's a plain, regular flyleaf, with the Flag design printed onto paper underneath it.

The dividers are 1-6 blue and green dividers, similar to the ones available in the Chameleon range. Interestingly, there are no A-Z dividers in this Filofax.

The paper inserts in this Filofax are different than inserts available in previous organisers.

The organiser comes with lined white paper, which I suppose is intended to make up for the lack of the lined white notepad. Additionally, they have provided sheets of gridded paper- interestingly, this isn't squared paper like normal, but rectangles! The Filofax also comes with plain paper inserts.

The coloured paper inserts provided are three colours- dark blue, green and pink. I've never seen green coloured A5 paper made by Filofax before, so this is new! In fact, all of the inserts in this Filofax are dated 2013, so they are all new; Filofax isn't just using up its old stock, but making new inserts for us!

The To Do and Contacts pages are white, but are based on the design of the cotton cream personal pages. Members of the Philofaxy community have been asking for cotton cream inserts for the A5 size for ages, because the cotton cream paper is much better quality, and the layout of the cotton cream for personal size diaries are generally better designed than the white diary inserts.

The diary inserts provided in this Filofax are the WO2P horizontal 2013 July to December multilanguage format, and the 2014 WO2P vertical format. It's nice that Filofax would provide 18 months of diary, but I think it's a little strange that they provide two different types of diary! 

The vertical format is based on the cotton cream format with its fonts and non-capitalisation of the names of the days, again on white paper, which is interesting! I've tested this paper briefly with some inky fountain pens, and I must say that, on first look, it looks like it handles ink much better than existing white Filofax paper! I will be doing more paper tests on the inserts provided in this Filofax in another blog post. I would say that Filofax have been listening and trying to carry out Filofax users' wishes for future inserts!

I'm quite pleased that the Filofax comes with a frosted ruler and an ziplock pocket insert. Until recently, I had never seen a frosted ruler for A5, and had to buy two of them in the Conduit Street store because I had never seen them for sale anywhere else. Many people have complained that the black rulers that are typically provided with Filofaxes are annoying because they get in the way and you can't see through them, so it's great that Filofax have started to provide this ruler as standard! It does seem like Filofax are listening to their customers! Also I've never used a Filofax brand ziplock pocket, and as there is no zip pocket in the Filofax itself, it's a great touch that Filofax have provided one in here.

All in all, I really like The Original Filofax Organiser! Filofax have tried hard to listen to their customers and make positive changes, such as manufacturing this Filofax in the UK, using 100% quality leather, and making improvements to their inserts and the accessories they provide with it!

Thanks again to Jess for providing me with this sample of The Original!