You may remember not so long ago that I discussed my compact raspberry Finsbury setup here. Well . . . it didn't take long for the itchy feet to set in!
I really really really LOVED my compact Finsbury, but I just found it too heavy. I was longing to downsize my handbag and use something a bit smaller for the summer. So out came my (compact) pocket raspberry Chameleon again!
I got this little beauty on my birthday shopping trip right at the very beginning of March at a heavily-discounted price (of course) and used it for a short while. Unfortunately, I'd moved from a very fat (non-compact) aqua pocket Finsbury and was struggling to fit everything onto the smaller rings. Pocket rings are normally 19mm but the Chameleon's are 15mm. At the time, this bothered me, so I wasn't very happy with it. Then along came the compact Finsbury and my Chameleon was put back in my Filofax drawer!
Anyway, enough rambling. After I decided that my compact Finsbury was too heavy, I thought I'd go back down to my pocket Chameleon but slim down the innards immensely. I thought I'd try a 'week on one page with notes' diary (albeit made by myself 'cos I can't stand all the different languages that take up room on Filofax's version), so I bought a 'week on one page' and stuck a page of lined paper in between each page. I got a bargain though; the diary only cost me 50p! You can read about that here.
Anyway, I took lots of unnecessary stuff out of my pocket aqua Finsbury (that weighed about the same as a newborn baby) and slimmed it right down. Boy was I happy! The 'week on one page with notes' has been working really well for me. I don't have a vast amount of appointments - just work hours (which do change), my daughter's commitments and the odd appointment here and there for me and hubby - so I've managed to fit everything reasonably well. I do have a lot of things to remember to do though, and that's where the 'notes' page has worked a treat.
Here come the photos, and be warned - there are lots!
Firstly, this is the bag that I wanted to change to. It looks fairly small but is actually massive inside. It's butter-soft leather and the make is Ciccia (an ex Radley designer I believe). It retails for about £115 but I got it for £40 at TK Maxx. It's really gorgeous! (Just put 'ciccia flower bag' in an eBay search; there are a few available at the moment for about £89.99)
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| Ciccia leather bag |
I have absolutely LOADS of handbags, despite selling some on eBay earlier on this year! I've always had a thing for handbags and living about a mile and a half away from a TK Maxx store doesn't help . . .
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| Ciccia leather bag |
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| Pocket raspberry Chameleon |
One thing you'll notice is that whilst I absolutely LOVE bright, rich colours, I'm not into stickers and home-made dividers. I'm not very creative and I prefer to save the girly stickers for my six year old daughter!!!
The first thing I see when I open my Filofax is my shopping list (not food, just general stuff I need to buy when I'm out and about). My shopping list is stuck to a top-opening envelope that I use for receipts for things that I might need to exchange. General receipts for food and other stuff go on a spike at home.
I also have a couple of important forms in the slip pocket and library/business cards in my card pockets.
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| My 'welcome mat' |
Here are the sticky notes I use for my shopping list at the front. They are lined which I always find useful. I got them from TK Maxx - I think they were £2.99.
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| Sticky notes block made by Piccadilly |
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| Inside sticky notes block |
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| Reverse of sticky notes block |
To prevent bulk I just use the basic Diary, Notes, Information, Financial and Addresses tabs came with one of my (many!) Filofaxes.
In the diary section, I firstly have a year planner that contains birthdays and important perpetual dates. Then comes my 'every day diary' after the year planner. Appointments and the odd day-specific reminder/to do on the left. Blue sticky dots are for birthdays and red ones are for important reminders, such as MOT due. I can check my year planner for full details. Using sticky dots saves space! Then there's a list of notes/to dos on the right with boxes drawn in to tick when they've been completed.
I stuck a cut-down sticky arrow on my ruler so I can instantly see what day it is - very useful when I'm in a hurry.
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| My diary |
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| Important telephone numbers |
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| Passwords (blank for security!) |
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| Petrol usage |
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| Overtime & My Spends |
My sat nav postcodes page again - all my templates are the same as the ones I made for my compact, but smaller! I love this sat nav page because it's like having an address book with me at all times, without the bulk.
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| Sat Nav postcodes page |
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| Sat Nav postcodes (continued) & work holiday log |
My final top-opening envelope contains odds and ends I need to keep with me, such as repeat prescriptions. I also have a few blank sticky notes on here to use inside my diary for anything important.
My zipped pocket contains stamps and a few business cards etc.
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| Card/jewellery sale log & farewell envelope |
As you can see from the top view, the contents aren't very bulky. It looks it a bit because of the full-length pocket at the back.
I can fit my mobile phone in the front of the full-length pocket, or in the back zipped pocket or the shopping list envelope at the front, which comes in very handy.
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| Top view |
So there we are. I'm loving my new setup, and I really love the raspberry Chameleon. I admit I could do with a bit more room to write, but a personal is just too big for me. If only they made Chameleons in the compact size. Sorry? What was that? They do? Oh, great stuff. I'll just have a look and see if I can find one. Oh! Would you believe it, they have them on the Filofax Denmark site, with 50% off!!! Holy cow. That's tempting. Oooooops! My fingers just slipped on the keyboard . . . one's on it's way to me . . .! How did that happen?! Well, for £36.78 including overseas postage, it would be rude not to. Thank the Lord for Google Translation!
Now to sell my Teal Personal Finsbury to fund it . . . click here if you're interested!
Click here to read my Malden revelation . . .
Click here to read about exciting Filofax news!
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