London Philofaxy Meet-up and Haul!!

Hiiiii guyyyyysss!!!!

I had such an amazing day yesterday!! It was the Philofaxy London meet-up, and it was soooo brilliant! If you ever have the chance to go, please make sure you do!!!
I didn't take many photos, but Steve will be publishing the photos he took soon, so look out for them!


I woke up at 4:30am (after going to bed at 12am because I was trying to make my Filofaxes look pretty!!), and got to the train at 5:35!
It was a good journey- I was in 1st class because the upgrade was only £1.50 extra, and I wanted a quiet journey so I could sleep! British trains are famous for being late, but the journey went great, until someone didn't shut a door properly leaving Reading station, so the emergency brakes went on, and it took 30 minutes to get the train started again!
I departed at Paddington station, and went down on the underground to Oxford Circus, which is central to the shopping area in London (Oxford Street, Regent Street etc), and directly opposite the H&M store I had arranged to meet Susie (http://belzira.blogspot.co.uk/) and her friend Alina!
We browsed in H&M for a while, then walked down Regent Street, going into Body Shop, a very posh coffee shop, and finally J P Books, which is in the Japanese Department store Mitsukoshi, where I bought a notebook and a credit card insert for my Midori Traveler's Notebook!
Then we walked back down Regent Street, and went to the Filofax Shop on Conduit Street! I had arranged to get a replacement for one of my faulty filofaxes from there, because I've had problems with replacements that have been sent to me in exchange for faulty filofaxes being faulty themselves! So I chose an A5 Holborn in Wine as my replacement Filofax, and Susie was shopping for a Boston A5, which happened to be on the 30% off shelf!
Then we left and went to the restaurant, Vapiano. It's a very nice restaurant, and everyone was waiting upstairs! Some people I had met before, but lots I had never met, and I've been reading their blogs and chatting to them on facebook and twitter for ages!! We ate our lunch, then went around and chatted to people, showed off our filofaxes, and of course, did the famous Filofax pile!!

 

Then we went to the Filofax shop (again, for me!) We browsed the shelves etc, but actually we didn't stay there long. I bought 2 translucent A5 rulers (I've never been able to get them anywhere else!), and an A5 top-opening envelope, because I seem to keep losing mine!

Then we went to the Mulberry store, because Imy wanted to get her Mulberry pink Postman's Lock organiser! BUT... they apparently didn't stock it! In fact, apparently, the organiser DIDN'T EXIST!!???? You should have heard the gasps from us! There were about 10 of us standing around Imy like her posse, and when we heard that she couldn't get her longed-for binder, we were outraged! Not only did they say that they didn't have it, but the shop assistant had the cheek to say it didn't exist because he couldn't find it on the website! Well, of course it exists, because Imy has been staring at it on the website for months! So we insisted he phone the Covent Garden store to see if they stocked it, and when the man came back, they had miraculously found one! After an inspection, Imy found that there were scratches on the metal closure, so we asked if she could have a discount... and the answer was No!!! So Imy didn't buy it from there. And I'm glad, because I don't think the rude staff their deserved her custom!

We walked to Covent Garden, and went to the amazing Artbox!! Oh, I've been longing to go there for absolutely ages! My mum had given me £20 for some birthday money, which I knew I was going to spend all in Artbox, plus some more out of my own money! Below are photos of what I got! I went around once with my little basket, and then decided to have another quick look around the store... big mistake!! Eventually, after putting even more stuff into my basket, it cost £39.50!!! But well worth it!!!

We split up, and Imy, Steve and I went to the Mulberry store in Covent Garden to see if they stocked the organiser. They didn't, but the shop assistant was nice, and he was horrified when we told him that Imy had received terrible customer service from the New Bond Street store, and he said if she ever needs anything, she should contact him!

So me and Imy went to the VERY busy Covent Garden underground station, and made our way back to Paddington with plenty of time to spare! We stocked up on food for our journey home, and even went to the Paddington Bear shop!

On the way home we chatted, looked at our pretty purchases, and chatted some more! I think I talked way too much!!

It was a fantastic day, and now I shall have to start saving up for the next one!! :D 

Here are the photos of my haul from yesterday!

All of my haul- from Filofax shop, Body Shop, Artbox, and freebies!!

My A5 Wine Holborn!!! :D

2 A5 frosted rulers, and Philofaxy cards!!

A Midori TN Notebook (squared) and a Midori TN credit card holder, from J P Books

Artbox haul!

Hello Kitty stickers, Rilakkuma notepads- 1 A6 and 5 A7, Rilakkuma tape, and a Hello Kitty stamp! I bought more than this in Artbox, but as they were out of my birthday money, I have to wait to get them :(

Some very generous people gave me some freebies! I won a competition on Susie's blog, and she said I would get a Moleskine notebook as a prize, but she also gave me a Paperblanks notebook! Thank you sooooo much!!! I love Paperblanks, they are so pretty!!! Christa gave me some A5 inserts which she won't be using, and there are even unopened packets of some things in there!! Susie, Alina and I also swapped some inserts that we won't be using out of our A5s! Ray (http://mylifeallinoneplace.blogspot.co.uk) , who makes amazing Filofax inserts with Steve, and Midori Travelers' Notebook inserts, gave me a lined insert, which was so fantastic, because I have been wanting to print out his inserts for ages, but my printer is broken! And the lovely Lindsay gave me some tabs which I have been wanting for ages, but can't get in the UK!!

Thank you so much, guys!!!

On a train to London!!

I'm on my way to the Philofaxy London meet-up!
I'm so excited! We're going to go to some fabulous shops, and I can't wait to see everyone, some people I have met before, and others whose blogs I've been reading for a long time and I talk to on facebook and twitter!

Currently I'm sitting on the train in 1st Class, and I'm the only one onboard this carriage; but don't worry about me, Mr and Mrs Malden and their adopted daughter Maru Midori are keeping me company!

London Baby!! part 2

Here's part 2 of my London adventure!!

After I had dragged myself away from the sale section, I happily made my way over to the main wall, where all the new and current filofaxes are! They are all so beautifully positioned on the shelves, in size order and so pretty! On the left-hand side of the shelves are the cheaper, non-leather varieties. I didn't spend much time looking at these.
    Instead, I immediately went for the Osterley! It's a gorgeous filo! I love the plum colour, the pattern on the leather, and how professional and stylish it looks! I found the leather better than the Amazona, but I still didn't like it as much as the buttery leather of the Malden! Being a big fan of the personal size, I picked up the two that looked like personal sizes. I had forgotten the Osterley was available in the Compact size, and when I saw it I really liked it! It would look brilliant with a whole year of day-per-page diary in it, so professional! There is a noticeable difference between the compact and the personal sizes, not only in the thickness of the filofax because of the smaller rings, but the filofax itself is also narrower (see the differences on the filofax website). It would fit very well inside a brief-case! Personally, I didn't like the inside pockets much, but then I am a fan of zipped compartments rather than card sections, but that's just me! I think the design is great, and would suit a range of people- business people, anyone who likes to look well-dressed and wants accessories to match, or anyone really! I would be VERY happy to receive one! I think it's a gorgeous piece of leather!!
    When I dragged myself away from the gorgeous Osterley, my eye immediately found the vintage pink Malden, which I had wanted to look at for ages! I am a huge fan of pink, and LOVE LOVE LOVE the Malden- I have 3 of them (2 personal and 1 pocket)!! I had wanted to see the vintage pink Malden in person since some of the people who went on the Philofaxy London trip described the colour as looking like Pepto Bismol! I had a look at it near the window to try to see the natural colour, and although I don't think it looks like Pepto Bismol, it's not one of the various shades of pink I like. I am quite glad I didn't like it, because a few months ago I was wondering how to justify buying ANOTHER personal-sized Malden, and I really don't think I need to buy another one! I am very happy with my crimson and ochre-coloured ones!
    Speaking of the ochre Malden, I was interested in seeing another one. I had my ochre Malden with me that day, as it is my daily filofax at the moment. I had read that other people had complained about the leather, as it is a bit different than the leather of the black and crimson Maldens (I'll talk more about this when I do my review of my Maldens), and I had also read that because of the nature of the leather, the colour and wear pattern on every ochre Malden is slightly different. I compared my ochre to the one on the shelf, and I think mine is nicer- the colour is more natural-looking, and slightly more worn and antiqued looking (a good thing!)! Mine came from America, I don't know if that made a difference!
    I looked at a few more filofaxes, I can't remember them all now! It was a very busy and stressful day, so I can't remember a lot of the minute details. I wish I had made a list of the ones I looked at in the shop, but I was just so in awe that I couldn't take my eyes off the filofaxes! I think the shop is so brilliant that there is definitely too much to look at in one trip! I wish I had been in London for more than one day! I wish there was a filofax shop in other places- I don't know why they have 2 filofax shops in 1 city! Maybe they should build one in another city, for example Birmingham! That is quite close to a number of other cities and is easier for some people to get to than London. Being in Liverpool for most of the year, I would definitely make an effort to get to Birmingham a few times a year just to go to the filofax shop!
    Now that I think back at it, I can think of a few filofaxes I wish I had looked at more, or looked at at all, as I can't remember if I even saw a few of the newer models! But I'm very glad I got the opportunity to go to a filofax shop and see a lot of the filos I had been longing to see!!
 

London Baby!! part 1

Wow, I never knew "tomorrow" would turn into "5 days", sorry!! I've had a bit of a stressful week waiting for my degree results, I'll tell you about them soon once I've received a letter I'm waiting for!

So last Thursday I went to London to help my brother move out of his uni Halls of Residence. I left him to finish packing and went off for my mini adventure in London! By the time I had left his room it was 1:30 so I didn't have much time, we had to meet back up again around 4 to eat dinner, finish packing and get a taxi to the train station!
Of course I used my filofax to help me plan my day in London! I wrote down all my train times, then wrote down the addresses for the two filofax shops and also the British Museum. I used maps online to work out which order I would go to the different places, and a free tube map picked up from one of the Underground stations to plan which tubes to take! Unfortunately I don't have a tube map that clips into my filofax permanently, but the little free foldable one worked fine for one day! I wrote on a nice piece of filofax pink notepaper all of the tube stations I had to go to and even colour-coded the Lines I needed to take, e.g. Piccadilly dark blue etc! I had some fun! But then I got annoyed and stressed because after all my planning, when I looked at the map of London my mum gave me, I realised it was too complicated! The journey I had planned was too long and I wasn't doing things in the right order! So my filo behaved admirably, while it was my own brain which failed! So I just used my brain on the day to work out where to go and how!

First off, I went to the Filofax Centre in Mayfair! It was off the lovely Oxford Street, but being so time-constricted, I managed to resist going into any of the shops! I was quite proud of myself! I followed my map towards Conduit Street...

Every filofax fan will know what this means!!

I anxiously looked out for the Filofax sign, and got very excited when I finally saw it!

I walked into the shop and knew I had to control myself! There was so much to see, and I kind of felt like it was all going to run away if I didn't look at it quickly enough! It was amazing seeing a whole wall full of filofaxes; I have only seen small stands in WH Smith and Staples etc before! I immediately saw a few I wanted to have a good look at, but first I somehow managed to take an overview of the whole shop. I went to the back and saw the Flex stand and the sale item, and decided to start off here!
I looked through the sale items first, and there are some really lovely filofaxes there! I don't know why they are discontinuing them! Some I had only read about, some I only seen pictures of, and some I very much would have liked to buy!! In particular, I would have liked to have bought the Teal Finchley mini and the Spring green Chameleon personal! But unfortunately fortunately I am taking part in Caribbean Princess' No Shopping Detox, plus my mother would have killed me!! I also got a look at a couple of filos I had always wanted a good look at in person, in particular the red Amazona personal. I have liked the look of this from the pictures I've seen and Imy's video. I came close to buying one online a couple of times! But now I'm really glad I didn't go ahead and buy it without seeing it in person. When I held it in my hands, I didn't like the feel of the 'crocodile-print' leather- it felt kind of plasticky to me! I've heard other people call it luxurious, but it didn't feel like that to me!
I had a quick look at the Flex and now I realise that I definitely don't need it, it's just a glorified notebook holder! Yes, it may be useful and flexible, but I don't NEED it! I'm glad I can save a lot of money by putting that one out of my head!

That's all for today, I'll write the second half of this tomorrow (I promise!) because otherwise this post is going to turn into an essay!
I'll leave you with a photograph of the Filofax shop I took from the door (I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside).

Have a lovely Wednesday everyone!!