Mini madness

I’m not sure which Philofaxy blog or comment triggered my latest Filofax acquiring session (possibly Wallet pockets http://philofaxy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/wallet-pockets.html) or Lime Tree’s guest blog (http://philofaxy.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/a-mini-solution-guest-post-lime-tree.html) but I’ve been on a bit of a spending spree!

With the upcoming Spring season here in the Northern Hemisphere, I like to change handbags to something smaller and/or lighter.  Whilst I love my Baroque, where size matters, it’s rather chunky.  Also, most of my handbags have dark interiors.  I use a black purse and a black handbag organiser and I was losing the black Baroque.  I want to open my handbag and my mini Filofax is immediately visible.

A quick look on AdSpot on Philofaxy and I found a gorgeous vintage pink Malden.  A beautiful spring colour and lovely and soft with lots of pockets.  I’ve not taken any photos as there are plenty of mini Malden photos on the web.

However, I was also prowling Ebay and not one but two possible mini’s finished at similar times – and I won both. 

Allow me to introduce my two gorgeous purchases (along with my other mini’s).

As you can see, the Scarlett Piccadilly has no wallet/note pocket but this means it is the slimmest.  The deep red vintage Windsor oozes class and refinement but is a little stiff.  So which of those four has won my heart and a coveted place in my handbag . . .

The Scarlett Piccadilly has temporarily won however, now it is easy to swap and change my Filofax along with the weather, season, occasion or handbag. 

Which is your favourite mini?

As always, thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you below.

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Quick disclaimer; I am not a medical practitioner so therefore I’m not prescribing.  All of my blog posts are based on complementary therapies and not as a replacement for conventional medicine.  

I finally got a Baroque

Long ago when Doris wrote her wonderful Philofaxy blog post on her range of Baroque Filofaxes (click here), I must admit I suffered with planner envy. I constantly watched Ebay just so I could own a Baroque. I wanted to stroke the super, soft, embossed leather and see for myself if the Baroque’s really were as beautiful in real life. After months of waiting, bidding and a few fails along the way I finally got my wish. So (drum roll please), here are the requisite photos:-

I’m using my mini black baroque as my daily carry around Filofax. Whilst I still adore my A5 Cuban filofax (for further details see here), sometimes carrying around an A5 Filofax is just too heavy and bulky. Even when I trim the contents down to bare minimum pages, A5’s can still be a bit of a beast.

However, a mini filofax is no hardship to carry or fit into the smallest of spaces. On occasions where I don’t even carry a handbag, the mini baroque serves as a filofax/wallet too. As I print my diary pages out from Outlook, downsizing them to mini size is not difficult either. Yes, it makes the print a bit small but still readable.

Here is a quick tour; The black leather is soft and smooth. The embossing on the inside is . . . just divine – classy and understated. In the front there are several card slots where I slip a debit card if I’m using the baroque as a wallet. There is also a small zip compartment where I keep my money if using as a wallet.

I print out my Outlook calendars using the Microsoft Calendar Printing Assistant and shrink it down via pdf to 50%. Next I just have some lined paper for notes, shopping lists etc..

At the rear is the cutest, little notepad holder I have ever seen. I put my business cards in there to save on bulk.

And that’s it. Baby baroque earned its stripes when I helped host a burger stall at the village Christmas fete a few weekends ago. I didn’t want to carry a handbag but I also didn’t want to be without pen & paper. Baby baroque was able to write down drinks orders, quickly show me my appointments to arrange meet ups, hold my money and provide safety for my business cards.

As always, thank you for reading this blog and following my crazy flitting from one filofax (size and style) to another. If you have any questions or comments, please chat to me below.

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Oops I did it again!

As an avid follower of Philofaxy, I have read other people blogs with interest (read envy).

Firstly, Amanda at PaperPens and Ink blog is going to think I’m stalking her. My filo envy not only extended to wanting to try an Aston but an Aston in an identical size and colour as Amanda’s (In all fairness purple is my favourite colour and my original BCC Pocket has a broken strap).

However I managed to sway my envy until I saw this blog post on Philofaxy. I like my Filofax’s to be bulging and I just don’t get the narrow pages of the Personal. I blame Doris (in the nicest possible way!) - her Emma Filofax is beautiful.

I’ve also been carrying around two filofax’s. I originally re-started (I had a Filofax in the 1990’s) my obsession with a BCC Pocket which worked fine for several months. However, I was using a Windows Mobile phone and manually printing out my Outlook calendar. Surely it would be much easier to upgrade to an A5.

Again, this worked beautifully . . . for a few months until I changed from a Windows Mobile phone (I no longer use Outlook for my electronic diary). With no need to print out pages, I down-sized to a gorgeous Lilac Cross in Personal and manually write out my diary. I love the colour and the smoothness of the Cross but I just don’t like the size of the pages. In the narrow personal pages, the only diary which suited my needs was the WO2P horizontal. It’s ok but I’ve got planner envy.

I’m also carrying around a mini Piazza which although cute, rarely gets used and each week I’m checking my Personal against the mini against my phone and the kitchen calendar. It would be one less step if I have just ‘one-life, one filofax’.

I just happened to be perusing EBay when a new Aston Pocket in Orchid appeared at a price which was too good to be true. It was fate I told myself; I was destined to buy it!

Then I noticed the clever gentlemen Steve and Ray are starting to work on Pocket sized diary templates. Yet another sign that I was meant to move back to the Pocket size!

I can’t wait to meet the Aston and check out just how tactile the leather is and meet the Orchid colour in real life. Hopefully it will arrive today (and not tomorrow when hubby is home!) and I can spend the next week setting it up, taking photos and writing another blog post.

Pilot bringing out a multi-pen for their Frixion range would almost be my Filofax nirvana – well for a few months anyway until my situation changes again but that’s what we all love about our Filo’s. The fact we can change our system as and when our situations change.

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How is your 2012 organisation going?

Returning to the subject of organisation (as we are a few weeks into the NewYear) how is your 2012 so far? Have you missed any appointments or birthdays? Can you tell at a glance what plans you have for the next week or month? When shopping do you have a list of what you require or do you grab your purse and hope?

For me, 2012 has been a success so far. I don’t believe I missed any birthdays or appointments. My family can quickly tell who is meant to be where and at what time by a variety of means. I’ve even changed phone and although I’ve had a slight change around (my old phone linked directly to Outlook and I manually entered data in a Yahoo calendar whereas now I link my IPhone to Google which then syncs to Outlook) I think I’m still on track.

However, I still use my Filofax’s to help organise everything. So below, may I introduce you to my (very cute) mini Filofax. I love the mini size as it’s easy to slip into almost any handbag but still retains its functionality. This blog could be photo heavy so please bear with me (although I’m sure my Filofax friends won’t moan too much):-

With ruler to show just how small it is.

The inside has two card slots (ideal for business cards or credit cards) and a secretarial pocket (is that the correct term?)

There is a full length pocket ideal for paper money:-

This shows my tab labels. I always like a map of the world with me as my geography is shockingly poor. A shopping list, segregated by which shop I want to go to (so encompasses a wish list too)

I try to keep a Week on two pages for the coming month and then Month on Two pages for the next 12 months. These are only basic appts and don’t take too long on a Sunday evening to copy across from my A5 main Filofax.

Showing my home-made Today marker (using re-cycled plastic from one of the boys Xmas toys)

The back has a zip suitable for coins, stamps, receipts etc








So what do you think to my mini Filofax? How do you (or do you) organise your time? As always, please do not hesitate to ask me questions or add comments below. Thank you for reading

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