Welcome, fellow stationery geeks!


I shall be using this blog to witter on about my stationery finds in general and diaries/planners and Filofaxes in particular. Please feel free to witter along with me!
Showing posts with label Compact. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Compact. Show all posts

Monday, 6 August 2012

Filofaxes for sale!

Hello all!

Due to a couple(!) of recent purchases, I am selling two of my Filofaxes that I don't use any more:

  1. Raspberry compact Finsbury (leather): Used but only for about 6/8 weeks. Good condition. Comes with box.Slight nick on the elastic pen loop (see picture) and minute wear on the front of the clasp (again, see picture). Was £48 new. £25 plus £3.50 Recorded Delivery (UK only).
  2. Aqua mini Finsbury (leather): Discontinued colour. Brand new in box. Free pencil with eraser. Comes with lots of inserts: 2012 year planner, WO2P diary, plain paper, lined paper, to dos, blank tabs, sticky note pad and plastic envelope with a slit made in the top to make it useable! Was £37 new. £25 plus £3.50 Recorded Delivery (UK only).

Compact Raspberry Finsbury:

My Compact Finsbury in Raspberry


Minor wear on the clasp

Tiny click on the pen loop - barely noticeable



Mini Aqua Finsbury:











If you're interested in buying either of my Filofaxes, please contact me at lucylocketcontacts dash blogspot at yahoo.co.uk.  Payment by Paypal or cheque (must clear before posting).

Saturday, 4 August 2012

Filofax Fail!

Hello all!

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try a style of Filofax that I haven't already got - a zipped Compact. I love the compact size (although I prefer the slimline and use one as my every day Filo). I thought I'd give the Pennybridge a go as a Filofax/purse combo. Obviously I used the 10% discount code and bought it from City Organiser. And here it is, in all it's purple glory!



The front

The back

The inside with inserts included
 Looks quite roomy in the purse section - loads of slots for cards.

The purse section

The back inside slip pocket
 So I decided to 'move in' and check it out. Here comes the FAIL...

This includes the contents of my slimline and purse

I could only just close it!
 It looked like a clutch bag and I felt a bit of a berk carrying it...

Just too squashed
What a shame!  I could only just fit everything in, and that's just with the contents of my slimline. There just wasn't enough room and I could only just get the zip to close. Bummer! So I returned it to CO for a refund.

Oh well, not every purchase is going to be a good one!  Now, onto my next... ;-)



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Monday, 4 June 2012

My new Filofax from Denmark!

Hello all!


Well, I had my first experience of ordering from a Filofax site outside of the UK last week.  And may I say, it was a very good one!


I love my pocket raspberry Chameleon but I really like the compact size because it uses personal sized refills but isn't as big and bulky as a personal.  For some strange reason, the UK site doesn't sell the compact Chameleon, but the Denmark one does!  And it's currently at 50% off, just like the Chameleons on the UK site!


Using Google Translate, I paid a total of £36.78 including oversees shipping.  What a bargain for a beautiful leather Filofax!  I ordered it on Monday evening and it arrived on Friday morning.  Amazing!


So, here it is . . .


The package


The lovely black box!


Tissue paper . . . and . . . here it comes . . .


Mmmmmm . . . delicious!


The first page


It came with a vertical appointment diary!


And this was a wonderful surprise . . . a set of black TOP tabs!  Wow!  I've never seen these in the flesh before.  I'm desperately searching for a slimline Filofax and these will work wonderfully with it.  As for the diaries, I might stick them on eBay.  Someone may want them as they're different to what the UK site sells but I prefer the 'week + notes' format.


Oh my gosh!  TOP tabs!!!


And a lined 2013 diary!  That was nice of them!
All in all, I'm over the moon with my purchase from the Denmark site.  Using Google Translate and Paypal, it was a very easy experience.


The only problem is, I've now transferred back to this compact from my pocket Chameleon and I actually thought it would be lighter (in terms of weight) and more flexible than the compact Finsbury I've got.  Well . . . it's not, really.  Dammit.  *sigh*


I wonder how long it'll be before I move back to my pocket . . .






If you're interested in buying my jade / teal personal Finchley, click here!


Click here to read my Malden revelation . . .


Click here to read my CiAK Duo diary review.


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Just can't get excited about Maldens . . .

Hello all!


It's quite clear to me that many people LOVE the Maldens.  Don't get me wrong, I really like the purple one but that's simply because . . . it's purple.  And I love purple.


I did manage to stroke a Malden in Staples once and I have to agree that it was indeed a very pleasant experience.  (Apart from the weird looks I got from people in the shop who clearly thought I had escaped from some kind of mental institution.)


Now please understand that I am NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, a 'girlie' girl.  I live the vast majority of my life in jeans and I don't decorate my dividers with pretty patterns, Washi tape or Hello Kitty stickers.  And I certainly don't have any teddy bears in my bedroom (I'm 35 for goodness sake!).  But I do lurrrrrve colour.  Deep, rich, vibrant colour.  I wear colourful tops with my jeans, I have some colourful handbags and jewellery, I always use a brightly-coloured Filofax and often paint my nails with nice colours.  So the fact that the purple Malden was released this Spring made me very happy.  Or did it???


As much as I try, I can't help but think that the binder itself looks rather . . . well . . . 'masculine'.  When you compare it to a Finsbury or the beautiful Chameleon (of which I have two of each), I think it looks quite 'manly'.  I tried to be excited when they recently released the compact Malden in purple (Yay!  Purple!  Compact!  Soft leather!) but I . . . just . . . couldn't . . . quite . . . manage it.


Oh well.  My husband will be pleased anyway.  At least I won't be buying one!






If you're interested in buying my jade / teal personal Finchley, click here!




Click here to see my new Filofax from Denmark!


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Tuesday, 29 May 2012

My (compact) pocket raspberry Chameleon Filofax setup (plus gorgeous handbag!)

Hello everyone!


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)


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 . . .


Ciccia leather bag




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.


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.


Sticky notes block made by Piccadilly


Inside sticky notes block


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.


My diary


Important telephone numbers


Passwords (blank for security!)
Petrol usage


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.


Sat Nav postcodes page
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.


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.


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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