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!

Last few days- update!!

Hi everyone!
So lots of interesting stuff has happened in the last few days, and instead of breaking it up into innumerable separate posts, I decided to do 1 long one!!

I last blogged about my vintage Filofax purchase. After playing with it for a couple of hours, and cleaning it, I decided that I didn't want to keep it. Thanks to all the advice from everyone about how to treat it, but I was just too worried about damaging such a precious filo. It felt like the designer bags I saw at the Bristol meet-up with Imy- I would be scared to use it, or even touch it, because I was worried about damaging it! But for a couple of hours I gave it the TLC it needed- I cleaned it with a baby wipe- it needed it as it was really dusty- and I smothered it with a thin layer of unscented face cream (as I didn't have any Nivea). Immediately you could tell it was sucking in the moisture from the cream, it really needed it!

It absorbed most of the cream, then I wiped the reminder off with a tissue. After:

It felt noticeably smoother and healthier!
But I decided that I didn't really like the vintage Filo. It was a combination of how I was worried that I wouldn't treat it properly, and that it wasn't quite as nice as my Malden!! I guess I have been spoiled!
So I put it up on ebay. This was a big deal for me, as I have only ever sold 1 thing before, and that was a handbag for my mum years ago! I put it up on Buy-it-Now, and within an hour and a half it had sold!!!!! I was shocked!! After many emails back and forth (stressful!!), 24 hours(!) later, the buyer paid for it, and today I posted it :)
In the meantime, due to the lifted confidence brought by the success of my first filofax ebay selling, I put my A5 raspberry Finsbury up for sale! This is the one Filofax sent me as a replacement for the one I got earlier this year, which was damaged (although, according to the seller, brand new!!!). This sold quickly too! The buyer of this one also had lots of questions, and needed it to be delivered quickly because it's for her birthday in early January, and Christmas post/Christmas break will mean Royal Mail is slower in the next week or so. So I had lots to organise and think about with selling these filofaxes!!All I can say is that ebaying is stressful!!

I also bought a Filofax, an A5 brown Kendal! The trouble is, the seller on ebay said that he was away until 3rd January. This is fine, I thought, and when he comes back to work he will dispatch it on 3rd or 4th January, so I might as well send it to my Liverpool address, as I will be back there a couple of days later!
BUT actually, it turns out he wasn't away, he just put that he was so people didn't expect their parcels to arrive by Christmas! Well, Mr seller, you shouldn't say this unless you really ARE away, it's a LIE and has caused me a big problem!!! If I had known you were going to dispatch it now, I would have asked you to send it to Plymouth, where I will be able to receive it in the next couple of weeks! But instead, it has been dispatched to an empty house, where the 'You weren't in' red slip will sit on the doormat for 2 weeks, and my Filofax will sit all lonely in the delivery office, waiting for redelivery!! I will just have to wait until I get back to Liverpool to arrange redelivery so I can finally get my hands on my Kendal, which I have been wanting since April!! It's going to be my uni assignments filofax, to replace the Finsbury I just sold!
And a few days ago I received the personal red Butterfly Filofax I bought very cheaply from ebay, as a reward to myself for finishing my dissertation proposal a day early!! The clasp is a bit damaged, but will serve me great over the next couple of weeks when I don't have any of my other filofaxes here (except for my trusty ochre Malden of course!)

In other news, today me, Imy, Anita and her husband met up in Plymouth! It was brilliant, because this is where I live!! Well, during the holidays, at least! We went for lunch at Spud-U-Like (although I had Burger King!), went to Lush, Paperchase, Boots, Fat Face, and House of Fraser where Imy bought lots of expensive make-up and we looked at- and tidied- the Filofax shelves!! And I had the most gorgeous Ferrero Roche hot chocolate drink in cafe The Americano!! Hope we can do something fun like this again soon! Or in Liverpool!

Hmm... there are probably other things I have forgotten to say!! But for now I will tell you what my plans are for the next few days: Arranging my brother's Christmas present- (horrible) Apex filofax, which I will fill with notepaper and teach him how to use the dividers and arrange the sections in the way he wants! Converting the world to Filofaxes, 1 person at a time!!
I will also be sorting out my new A5 Ochre Malden. I need to put my current assignment stuff in it, because it's the only A5 I have at the moment, and it's full of other papers, so it needs sorting out, as well as setting up to be my proper MA dissertation planner! Then when I finally get my hands on my Kendal, I will set that up to be my 'other assignment' planner- the essays etc I'm doing that aren't for my dissertation (which needs to be my focus over the next couple of months), while my A5 ochre Malden will be my proper dissertation planner! I can't wait to get them sorted!
And I will also be sorting out some more important filofax things! In my Butterfly Filofax, which will serve as my excess filo at the moment, because my everyday filofax is full to the brim, I am going to start a Reading section, which will eventually go into a Reading Filofax, and my 2012 Happiness Project stuff. In my reading filofax, I am going to write a list of books I want to download for my ereader I am getting for Christmas, and start writing reviews of the books I read! And next year I am going to try to stick to my Happiness Project, because I didn't stick to it last year! So I need to write a list of 2012 resolutions and goals, and sort out monthly improvements charts. These will go into my teal Finchley when I get back to Liverpool!

OK, that's enough from me!!
I wish everybody a very Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! 
I will post again soon to talk about the exciting things I received at Christmas, and hopefully about how much my brother loves his new Filofax!!!!! ;b

Bristol mini-Philofaxy meet-up!!

Hello everyone! Uni term has finished and I am now home for Christmas!! I promise I will write lots of blog posts over the next few weeks!

Yesterday was the mini-Philofaxy meet-up in Bristol, organised by the lovely Imy! Coming along were me, Nicola, Emma, and Tali and her husband.
Imy was coming from Cornwall on a train which went through Plymouth, so I went on the same train and she saved a seat for me! We sat there on the whole journey chatting and having fun! Imy was sooooo excited!! She's like a little puppy!!!
Then we arrived in Bristol and waited by the exit for Tali and her husband, then made our way outside to meet Nicola who was picking us up in her car! She drove us over to the shopping centre in the centre of Bristol, Cabot Circus. We decided not to go to the mall on the outskirts of Bristol, Cribbs Causeway, because it would have been packed full of Christmas shoppers and we might not have been able to get back to the train station on time. But Cabot Circus was great! A very impressive shopping centre, with amazing architectural features, sweeping platforms and cool Christmas decorations! Nicola drove us up to quite a high level in the multi-story car park, we went round and round and round and round the corkscrew to get up to that level and we got quite dizzy! But it was really fun!!
Then we met Emma who came in her car, and she gave everyone a Christmas card with a little envelope full of cute stickers in! So kind! And those weren't the last stickers of the day!!
Now we were all together, suddenly we all got very very excited!! We went over to Nandos to try to book a table (Imy wanted to book it under the name 'Filofax'!) but they said we don't have to book, just come back later and stand in the queue. Tali's husband went off to do his own shopping and would meet up with us again at lunch.
Then we started shopping! We went over to House of Fraser because Imy wanted to visit the handbag section which had a Mulberry concession in it- she's a Mulberry addict! But I must admit some of them were quite nice!!
Then we went over to the Paperchase concession! We all love Paperchase!! The concession in House of Fraser is huge, bigger than the shops in both Liverpool and Plymouth!! We were there for about half an hour, and I think we helped to pay quite a chunk of their rent bills for the day!! We all bought a LOT of stickers!! Well, they are so cute and pretty, and only £1 or £2 for a pack!! And we are all children in our heads!!

This is my haul from Paperchase! (+1 lipgloss I got later in the day!) As you can see, I bought LOTS of stickers!! Plus I bought a pretty tin for them to live in, or else I'll lose them around my room. It's supposed to be for pens/pencils, but it's the perfect fit for the slimmer packets of stickers, although the £2 packs that are wider won't fit in. I also bought some really pretty sticky notes, some tab markers for my new MA filofax, and some bookmarks, which I am going to turn into Filofax personal today markers! Possibly the best thing I got from Paperchase, which is saying something because I really love it all, is my pink Lamy Safari fountain pen!! I love Lamy pens, and have wanted a pink one but it's hard to find because they were last year's special edition one, so they're quite rare, although Paperchase do stock them. I'll do a post on this soon :)

Then, after we had managed to pull ourselves away from all the pretty things, we walked out of the shopping centre to the other shops in the city centre. At 1pm we met outside Nandos and queued for a table, finding a table for 6 on a busy Saturday was difficult! Emma took me to a cashpoint, and by the time we got back the others were seated inside :) We ordered our meals, I had a chicken breast burger, medium heat, which was very nice! After that I ordered the chocolate cake, but it wasn't very nice because it was like chocolate mousse made into a cake, and I don't like chocolate mousse :(

While we were eating, we got our shopping out and played with our stickers and things!! Again, we're like little kids!! And we got our filofaxes out and made a mini stack!! Nicola brought lots, including the WHSmith one masquerding as a filofax at the front! We compared filos, and they were sent around the table for people to write messages in! Like a proper Philofaxy meet-up!!
Then we went back to Paperchase! Yes, I know, we were addicts!! But Imy had seen some cute highlighters Nicola had bought and wanted some for herself, and my sticker tin was a bit dented so I wanted to exchange it. But when I got there, there were none left! Oh well! Then we went to a few more shops like WHSmith (more filofaxes!), and I went in Boots while the others went in Build-a-Bear workshop.
Then we made our way out of the shopping centre again, and went into Harvey Nichols. We found our way over to the Chanel hand bags, and there was the Chanel man there. Rude rude man, insulting our non-Chanel hand bags, and saying living in Cornwall must be like living in the fashion middle-ages!!! Imy was upset and we were all very angry at him!! We walked straight out, and were fuming about it for a good few minutes! We wanted to slap him with our 'cheap' handbags!
Then after a bit more walking around, we went to Starbucks. Everyone ordered their drinks, but as I don't drink hot drinks like that, I had a quick look around the Christmas market for presents, and finally got my mum the present I couldn't find in Plymouth! Yayyy!!!
We got back into the cars and went to Staples!! We are stationary geeks!! We all had a good look around, although I didn't buy anything, Nicola found a good pen that was made by Franklin Covey and is a multi-pen, with black, blue and red ink and a pencil all in one! I have been looking for a pen like this for ages! But Nicola got the last one, and the shop assistant phoned the Plymouth store for me, asking if there is one in stock, and there might be, so I'll have a look soon!
We had a while to wait until our trains, but we went to the station anyway because we were all shopped out! There wasn't a McDonald's/KFC/BurgerKing in Temple Meads station, and knowing I wouldn't be able to eat until 10, I bought a sausage roll- which was huge!! Well, it kept me filled up, so I could only eat 1 slice of the pizza my mum cooked for me!
On the train Imy found out we had free wifi! So we spent most of the journey on the internet on our phones, and chatting! :) It was a really fun journey!

It was a very very fun day, I really want to do it again soon!! Thanks everyone!! Have a great Christmas!

Philofaxy Meet-up London November 2011!!

Hiya! Sorry this is quite late, the time flies when you're researching your dissertation!!

Last Saturday I went on my very first Philofaxy meet-up!! And it won't be my last! It was so much fun!!

I woke up very early on Saturday morning to finish getting ready and get an early train to London. I'm used to trains, and I'm used to much longer journeys than this, it's 6 hours from Plymouth to Liverpool, or the other way around, so 2 and a quarter hours to London was a breeze! The only problem was 3 chatty, noisy ladies in the same carriage, but I managed to get on with some work on my netbook, which was really good!
I arrived in London on time!! which is amazing for British trains! But then the troubles started! Euston overground station was the station I arrived at, and then went down onto the underground- only to find the tube route I had planned was unusable because of engineering works! I had to get to Marylebone station to meet my brother, and the changed route meant it took me double the time to get there!
I found my brother and we went back to his flat and he showed me around. My mum had left a bag there for me to pick up, which had my winter coat and A5 raspberry Finsbury in it, which I had left at home but wanted to bring to the meet-up because Steve said he would have a go at fixing the rings for me.
I left my brother's flat later than planned, but still thought I could get to the meet-up on time. I wanted to go back to Marylebone station, but my brother was walking another way and wanted to chat with me while we walked, so I went to another station. The trouble was, the east-bound part of the line I wanted to get on was closed, so I had to get on the west-bound train to double back on myself! But the west-bound train was delayed with some sort of technical problem on the line in front of us! And it was getting close to 12pm by this time, the time we were supposed to meet! The train finally arrived in another station, I crossed over to the east-bound track, then had to wait for the train to take me to the south bank. After a couple of changes, I got there, very late, and then had to go through a very busy food market packed with hundreds of shoppers and tourists, and lots of cobbled streets for my wheeled suitcase to struggle over, then more tourists to weave through on the south bank!
Then I remembered my promise to make a video of the day, so I took some panning shots of the Thames and St Paul's and the bridges. Finally, I found the Tate! Quite an ugly building... but I'm sure there are some lovely pieces of art inside (unfortunately I didn't get to see!!)
So I made my way over to the cafe... and look who I found!!

I kind of went up to the window with my camera like a weirdo... but then everyone recognised me so it was OK! Filofax-fanatics must be instantly recognisable!!
Here's everyone as I found them when I walked in!

Going clockwise: Christa, Imy, Tracy, Anja, Adam, Sharon (hidden), Steve and Anita!

I sat next to Anita, on the "excited" end of the table! The other end was quiet and subdued, not like us girlies at the other end!! We were all squeally and chatty, comparing filofaxes and being a bit over-the-top! 

We ordered food...

... and my Filofaxes went away as soon as I splashed a drop of vinegar in their direction :S

They came out again when the food disappeared, and we proceeded to build the obligatory filofax pile!

We tried to make it on the table, but soon it became a leaning tower of Filofaxes, so we built them up against the mirrored wall instead! It creates a lovely effect!

Standing up with Imy holding them :)

I measured the horizontal pile with my A5 page marker, they stretched out to about 94cm!

Then with Filofaxes safely packed away in our bags, we made our way through central London, Sharon shepherding us! Unfortunately Adam and Anja had to leave early, I didn't get a chance to speak to them :(

We saw lots of interesting things on the way, including sand sculptures on the beach of the Thames, a woman who looked like Lady Gaga, and most importantly for me, Cleopatra's Needle! 

We walked through Covent Garden, a place important for both my mum and dad separately- where my dad used to steal potatoes from the marker stall-holders' veg stalls to sell at his block of flats, and where, 20 years later, my mum used to eat her lunch on her lunch breaks!

Then we walked up Neal Street- very exciting of course! I didn't realise it was such a big street, it was teaming with shoppers! I was looking out for the Filofax shop the whole way, and then noticed something I recognised- the MAC shop! I remembered I had been here a few years before with my mum! I can't believe I had been so close to the Filofax shop before and never even noticed it! (this was before I was into filofaxes, though!)

Finally, we found it!!!

I didn't manage to take many good pictures of the inside of the shop, I was too excited!!

I spent ages looking at all the beautiful filofaxes and interesting inserts and accessories. I watched Imy and Tracy making their video, and having a debate over who should buy what colour bag!! We all flooded Dee with questions and sent her looking for obscure things, but she was very friendly and hospitable, I don't know how she does it! She even knows how to handle Imy ;b

When I was there I was looking for 1 thing- an A5 Ochre Malden. But... It wasn't on the display stand, and however had they looked, the staff couldn't find it in the stock room :( But that was kind of good, because epic-enabler Imy had about 99% persuaded me to buy it, and if I got my hands of it I would have found the other 1% and my bank account would have quickly been a lot emptier! So I guess it was good that they didn't have it!

But I felt very deflated, because I had been really looking forward to seeing it, and I didn't want to finish this fun day having bought nothing in the Filofax shop!! I looked around for something I wanted or needed, but bought... NOTHING!!! This happened before, when I went to the Conduit street shop in the summer. Then I was pleased with myself, but this time I was disappointed! What's wrong with me?! Steve says some people can get overwhelmed, and not buy anything. I'm ashamed to admit, I think that's what happened to me!!

So at 17:00 everyone made their way out of the shop, and we went our separate ways to our respective stations. I got home quite late, after a lovely day!! I have lots of photos and memories I will hold forever! I hope to go on another Philofaxy meet-up soon! And I'm really looking forward to the mini meet-up Imy's organising for December, in Bristol! Can't wait!!

Philofaxy trip preparation and Poll results!!

Tomorrow is the Philofaxy London meet-up! I'm so looking forward to it! I've got a bit to do to prepare for it this evening, mostly packing- lots and lots of Filofaxes! So thank you everyone for helping me to decide which filos to bring!

Here's the graph representing the votes for each filofax-

As you can see, the Cuban Zipped and the Raspberry Chameleon are the sure-fire winners! closely followed by the Teal Finchley, then by the Raspberry Finsbury and Personal Kendal :) I'm not surprised by the votes for the Cuban Zipped, because it is an interesting filofax, with it's 30mm rings and zip. I was surprised by how many votes the Chameleon received, because I thought it was a Filofax quite a few people owned, but it's a beautiful filo! The Teal Finchley is a gorgeous filo and quite unusual, so it would be nice for people to see it :) I was surprised by the votes for the Raspberry Finsbury, because it's quite a basic filo, I thought quite a few people owned one! The Kendal is a lovely filo :) The Finchley mini received quite a few votes, it's lovely too!

So it's time to decide which filofaxes to take to the meet-up! Unfortunately I can't take all of them!
Ochre personal Malden- my main filo
Red A5 Amazona- my uni work filo
Cuban zipped*
Raspberry Chameleon- has the rest of 2012 day per page planner in it
Teal Finchley* (I'm using it as my Happiness Project binder, but I haven't finished setting it up yet, so I'm going to empty it)
Mini Finchley- has notepaper in it for on-the-go notes, shopping lists etc (I don't use it much)
A5 vintage pink Malden- I think I am going to take this, but I haven't decided yet!
*Ones with a star are empty, basically I'm just bringing them for the binder itself

I'm not going to take some of them because I think people will already own them (e.g. the crimson Malden), or be able to see them in the shop. I wish I could take them all!

Soon after the meet-up, I will post a detailed description of the day with lots of photos! And I'm planning on making a video of the day too!

Poll :)

Hi again!

I have made a poll, on the side-bar of my blog :) Please help me by filling it in!

Next Saturday (19th Nov) is the Philofaxy London meet-up! Everyone brings lots of Filofaxes out on the table in the restaurant and has a good nosy at everyone's set-up! So I need to decide which Filos to bring!
I have a small wheely-suitcase which I am going to use to take my filos to London. Fortunately it has backpack straps, so I can wear it on my back when necessary. It is quite spacious, but I am possibly going to put other things in it too, so I need to organise what I'm taking!

I'm definitely going to bring the filos I am currently using, which are my main personal filo, my ochre personal Malden, and my uni planning filo, my A5 red Amazona! Both beautiful filos!

But what I want to know is which of the filos I'm not currently using you think I should bring. Basically, they are only good for looking at the binders themselves, because most of them only hold spare paper, they aren't interesting for their set-ups. So what I really want to know is, if you are, or would be if you could, coming to the meet-up, which filos would you like to see?

Thanks for voting!!