Travel Stickers in my Travel Filo

I recently blogged about my travel Filofax set-up. But I felt the dividers were looking a bit bare. So when I spotted these Cavallini & Co travel stickers for sale in Waterstones, it seemed like the perfect solution!

They come in a lovely little tin and there's 24 sheets of stickers altogether. I won't bore you by showing you ALL of them! But here's a little selection.

I think you'll agree, they do a good job of brightening up the dividers in a topical manner!

Holiday time!

As you'll have gathered from the last few posts, I am now on holiday back to my beautiful homeland of Scotland.  While I'm away I'll have limited internet access, so I won't be able to reply to any comments. My posts will still keep coming, though, due to the magic of Blogger scheduling!

See you when I get back!

My Ideal Week

Philofaxy recently ran a guest post from Helen about her Aston Personal Set up. It was a great post which was interesting for many reasons but the thing that really caught my eye was her insert for her "ideal week".

I always feel like I'm being pulled in a million different directions. I have lots to do between being a masters student, a full-time mum, running the home, being asked to organise family parties, being the person who has to buy all the birthday and christmas presents and cards (and write and post them all!) and a million other day-to-day things that keep me busy. I feel like I should have enough time in the week to do everything, and have a bit of "me" time as well as quality time with my husband, but it never seems to work out that way. Which is why the idea of using an "ideal week" to timetable what I feel I should be doing and when I should be doing it really appealed.

Helen had included a link to the website which details the idea in full, so I investigated further. The post on Michael Hyatt's website made for very interesting reading, the key being to live your life "on purpose" rather than "by accident". Although I schedule my study time on a weekly basis, everything else is pretty much left to chance, trying to squeeze it in between one thing and another.  This is one productivity tool I can really see working for me, and if I keep it in my Filofax where it's easily seen every day, so much the better!

Now I just need to find the time to be able to sit down and work out what my "ideal week" looks like!!

My Holiday Filo Set-up

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about my new Compact Finsbury that I was going to set-up for our holiday to Scotland and promised to update you all ... so here it is! My newly set-up (and still WIP) holiday filo!

As you can see the training has worked pretty well, and although it doesn't quite lay flat it's a lot better than it was.  I have set it up using the Filofax blank subject tabs which are great as they're so easy to change when you need to.

I have 9 sections! Travel info, Packing, Sightseeing, Timetables, Restaurants, Houses, Schedule, Other and Maps.

"Travel info" holds all the details on our flights and car parking - reference numbers, flight times, etc. It's an easy "go to" section for all the important information. I think "Packing" is probably self-explanatory too!!

For "Sightseeing" I have printed off some sheets containing all the details for places we might want to visit including address and phone number information, opening times and how far it is from where we're staying. The last thing I want to be doing on holiday is doing all this kind of research when we could be out and about!

"Timetables" holds train timetables in case we want to go out somewhere for the day without the car. National Rail have a great "print your own timetable" section which generates a PDF of your chosen route. This then makes it very easy to print direct on to Filofax paper.

"Restaurants" is similar to the "Sightseeing" section, with information of places nearby to eat and how far away they are. Again, handy to have when we're out and about and have a hungry toddler!

Part of the reason for our trip North is to have a look and see if we want to return to Scotland. So the "Houses" section has been set up with details of local estate agents and things we need to bear in mind when we're looking around. It's a big decision to make so we need to ensure that we've covered everything on this trip to enable us to make a decision.

The "Schedule" section contains 3 sheets of a standard WO2P Filofax diary so I can record who we're meeting and when. Our trips North are so infrequent that invariably we have lots of friends and family we want to try and meet up with, so keeping track is important!

"Other" is a kind of catch-all for everything else that I need to capture. While we're up in Scotland it's my birthday, my son's birthday and my parents' Golden Wedding anniversary, so we have some parties and bits and pieces that need organising.

Finally there's the "Map" section with a few key maps printed out. These have just been printed from Google maps then punched and folded to fit in the Filofax.  Although they stick out a bit, it's not too bad and I've put them at the back of the binder so they're out of the way.

 

As you can see, even with all this information the binder is still looking beautiful and isn't in the least over-stuffed!  It really is the perfect sized binder to set-up for this kind of thing. Look out for a post-holiday review on how the binder managed "in the field"!

 

Travelling with a Toddler

Although I now live in Kent and my husband is from Kent, I am originally from Scotland and my family still live there. This means that twice a year (usually) we have to get ourselves from a place that's almost in France to the right side of the border.  Pre-child that was usually easy enough, but now that the toddler has come along it takes a bit more planning.

We have a first generation iPad which has now been fully devoted to toddler apps which is a great travel aid. We have it loaded up with Peppa Pig apps, colouring-in apps, counting apps, letter apps and almost endless episodes of Chuggington. It's enough to keep him amused for a fair old time. Of course, not wanting to irritate all the other passengers, we have invested in some headphones to go with the aforementioned iPad. It took a bit of searching but we managed to find some children's sized headphones that are also sound limited, limiting how high the volume can go. This is great as it means we don't need to worry about him turning the volume up to ear-splitting levels!

Along-side these two essentials we also pack a backpack with reading books and colouring-in books, a new magazine with lots of stickers and a small Aquadoodle. I have to say that since I've been introduced to the world of "toddler toys" the Aquadoodle still holds the place in my heart reserved for the cleverest of inventions as it enables multi-coloured drawing with a pen containing nothing more than water. It makes it the dream toy to use while travelling.

We have chosen to fly this time as driving with a 3 year old didn't appeal and didn't have any advantage over flying as we can borrow a family member's car while we're North of the border and getting the train on a weekend is more frustrating than anything else. When flying, we always make sure we make ourselves known to the ground crew and ask for a pre-board. As we are flying scheduled flights, it makes boarding so much easier without having a hundred huffy business men and women standing behind us waiting for us to get all our clutter away.

Of course, planning a 2 week trip to Scotland involves a lot of reference numbers, packing lists and a lot of information in my holiday Filofax, which I'll be reviewing soon (with pictures, of course!)

Journalling

For the last few weeks, Ray from 'My Life All in One Place' has been running a series of posts called 'Journalling School' which has really got me thinking about starting a journal. I have started journals previously, but have never kept them up beyond a few days. But the hints and tips that Ray has been publishing have really been very useful in changing my way of thinking, and with the Philofaxers' 350/30 lists that began on the 1st of September requiring a daily entry, it's as good a time as any to get into the habit.

I bought myself a lovely purple-covered journal from Paperchase a couple of weekends ago and put aside some time to clean my favourite fountain pen and get it set up with some lovely purple ink to match the journal. I'm hoping that by having the right tools and by choosing things I like to work with, this will help ingrain the habit.

Fingers crossed!

Staples' ARC system

The stationery giant Staples recently launched their own brand ARC range in the UK. This is a series of notebooks which are held together via a system of disks rather than by rings as shown in the picture below-right. This has the huge advantage that, much like a filofax, the pages of the notebook can be moved around to suit the user.

 

The whole range is absolutely fantastic. Special mention must go to the quality of the paper used which, at 100 gsm is absolutely beautiful and which comes in lined, plain and squared flavours. There are a whole range of other inserts including dividers, pocket folders and 'to do' sheets, all of which can be inserted just where you want them!

On top of that there are three sizes of rings which are interchangeable meaning you can increase the notebook's capacity to suit your needs. I ended up with a 200+ page monster in the run up to my masters exams this year!

 

The notebooks are also available in the USA where the range also includes a hole punch, which UK Staples assure is going to be released over here in the Autumn. In the USA the punch costs $40 and really is the only item missing from the UK range to make the notebooks truly customisable.  After a lot of searching I did, however, manage to find an alternative on eBay - a Rollabind punch which is a very similar system with very similar size and shaped holes for the discs. If you really want to get the most out of this fabulous system, a hole punch is essential, so keep your eyes peeled for a Rollabind punch on eBay until Staples UK manage to get their stocks on the shelves!

Weekly Task Lists

I was in Canterbury the other weekend and couldn't resist popping into Paperchase to feed my addiction! I came across these lovely weekly task list pads for the bargain price of £5 for 50 sheets.

They're A5 size so will be perfect in my Finchley Filofax. I reckon they could be handy for meal tracking and menu planning.

Unfortunately they're only printed on one side, but it wouldn't take much to scan the design and print it on the other side to double their use!

If you could tell Filofax anything ...

... What would you want to tell them?

Following on from the comments on my post about Filofax focus groups, I thought we could create our own little focus group, gather some comments and send them to Filofax!

Website Review - Stationeryart.com

I am absolutely loving using the Coleto pens that I blogged about recently. Unfortunately they're not available in the UK yet, so stocking up means scouring eBay or foreign websites. I recently found some on a website called Stationery Art and decided to give them a go.

Postage to the UK was only £3.20 which struck me as being excellent value in the first place. I know a lot of UK places that charge much more than that for postage, so I was impressed. The organisation itself is based in Hong Kong so I reckoned I'd be in for a long wait for the pens. However, only 7 days after placing my order, they dropped through my letterbox in perfect condition. Again, service that puts many UK-based companies to shame!

I really can't fault this company at all. The only danger is that their website is so tempting, you may end up spending more than you intended!!

White Rabbit, White Rabbit, White Rabbit!

It's the 1st of September and that means that the Philofaxers' 365/30 Lists have officially begun!! Today's question ... what are your goals for the month?

Don't forget to check Imy's blog and Kate's blog for more updates.

London 2012 Line Burst Filofax

This week, Helen from the Philofaxy community wrote a guest post about how she uses her Line Burst Filofax as a health and fitness Filo.  I've been meaning to set one of these up for a while now, and the London 2012 Line Burst seemed the perfect binder to use. After a bit of investigating I discovered that Staples were selling the personal size for £4! That's an offer too good to miss, so after a bit of fighting with the online system, I ordered one to be delivered to my local store.

This is the first non-leather binder I have ever owned (to my recollection) and for £4 I wasn't expecting much - certainly nothing more than a cheap plastic binder that could be chucked around the gym! But I have to say that first impressions of the binder are much better than expected.

The colour is a vibrant pink - not necessarily the colour I would have chosen, but the only one they had left - with yellow elastic ties to secure the binder. The cover feels smooth and not unlike my Filofax Classic.

One of the biggest surprises is that this Filo lays flat out of the box, unlike my Compact Finsbury I blogged about yesterday.

Inside the yellow and pink combination continues, which again, is a little garish, but not too bad. There is only one pocket on the front inside cover, and one pocket on the back which, unusually, is open top and bottom!

Hopefully you can make that I've put the page marker in the pocket to show what I mean! Talking of the page marker, it's the beautiful London skyline marker which I must admit I've been coveting since I first saw the Line Burst Filofax. What a shame they don't come in A5 size!

The attention to detail is lovely. At the bottom of each diary page there is an Olympic fact and the logo on the left hand size, and then on the right, the London skyline logo again.

 

There are lots of non-standard inserts in the binder, including information and key facts about all the Olympic sports and fitness planner sheets.

There is information about the Olympic games, including the traditions of the ancient games and the birth of the modern ones, information on the torch relays, a rail map and a map of the olympic village itself.

There are even stickers with each of the olympic sport icons on it, and the London skyline logo again in sticker form.

The tabs that come with the binder are also non-standard. In this Filo there are 4 tabs - Plan, Play, Events, and My Games. These are obviously very Olympic-specific and will need renaming for when I come to set up the binder.

The attention to detail even extends to the front cover where there are two little divots for the elastic to sit into to keep it firm. As you can see, the stitching is absolutely perfect too!

Overall I am immensely impressed with this binder and for the money, I doubt you can get a better binder anywhere! Obviously a lot of the content is specific to the Olympic games, but this doesn't make it any less usable once the games finally come to a close in September.

If there are any left, I heartily recommend logging on to the Staples website ASAP and picking up this bargain!

My New Compact Finsbury

I finally have my new compact Finsbury that I purchased last week from City Organiser in my grubby little hands, and I have to say it's a beauty! The plan is to set this binder up as a "holiday binder" for our forthcoming trip to Scotland and I have to say it looks ideal.

It's a beautiful yellow colour - more mustardy than on the website, but definitely a nice colour. I'd say it's a golden yellow in reality.

Because it's a compact it's nice and slim ...

Just look at the size of the rings!!

But it's going to be perfect for what I want to use it for. It's got plenty of credit-card slots inside the front cover which are going to be ideal for carrying tickets, frequent flier cards and other bits and pieces:

And I have to say the yellow-on-black combination is stunning. 

However this Filofax has one MAJOR issue. It doesn't lie flat ... in fact, it doesn't even come close to lying flat out of the box!

Yes, honestly. That is a picture take of me trying to lay it flat. This binder needs some serious training!

But I have to say it's absolutely gorgeous! I'm definitely becoming a bit of a Finsbury addict as this is number 5 in my collection. But they're all beauties!

Filofax Focus Groups

I should have been bringing you a post today about my brand new Filofax, but unfortunately, despite arranging re-delivery for today, the postman has been and gone without my new Finchley *sobs*

Instead, I thought I'd post about something quite interesting (for Filophiles anyway) that I discovered tucked away in the depths of the Filofax UK website - a form to complete to join the Filofax Focus Group!!

The blurb says ...

The views and opinions of our customers are extremely important and the Filofax Focus Group allows you to directly influence future products/advertising. You will be asked to complete occasional questionnaires via the web which are simple to complete and you can unsubscribe at any time. In return for your time we offer discounts on website purchases and the chance to win £100 worth of vouchers! To join the Filofax Focus Group, please complete the information requested below and click the Submit button.

Discounts?! A chance to win £100-worth of vouchers?! AND a chance to influence Filofax UK? What more could a Filophile want except the all important link!

http://www.filofax.co.uk/signup/

Inside my A5 Imperial Purple Finchley

This binder is an absolutely stunning Filofax which is my main filo during term-time. Seeing as the 1st of September is fast approaching, I am in the process of setting up the filo again for day-to-day use. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed using my Aqua Personal Finsbury over the summer as detailed here, and will be sad to leave it back on the shelf, I'm looking forward to getting my A5 size back again!

The outside of this filo is a beautifully soft and puffy leather, with a gorgeous finish to it.

As you can see from the top view, it's not overly stuffed at the moment, but I'm sure that will change as I add more diary pages and notes into it as the academic year gets going!

Inside I decided to make some of my own dividers to jazz it up a little. I was really inspired by Wandrrlust's recent post about making dividers, but unfortunately I couldn't find any really nice card in our local art shop, and no "smash" tabs or rub-on letters were to be found anywhere. I think I may have to wait for a trip to London to stock up! I did however find some nice printed cards in muted shades which do the job well as an interim solution.

As you can see I have yet to label them up, but I think they look quite nice. Inside I have a nice picture of me and "my boys" (which is quite old now and really should be updated!) and I usually keep stamps, etc, in the card pockets which I need to transfer over. I have to say the layout of the card slots on the Finchley does niggle me a little bit, and I do think it could be better designed. But it's a small niggle and doesn't take away my love for this binder!

I also recently discovered the Filofax Time Management inserts which are tucked away in an unassuming corner of the Filofax website. I use the week to view inserts and find them absolutely brilliant. I work on a weekly schedule as with trying to work my masters 'round a toddler, my day-to-day schedule sometimes (oftentimes!!) gets disrupted. So instead I know what I have to get done by the end of the week and keep track that way.

The picture is of a week from the start of the year as my diary is quite empty at the moment with it being the holidays, but it gives you a good idea of how the insert can be used. The left-hand side of the TM insert has 4 sections - Notes / Action Points, Personal Reminders, Expenses and Delegation Reminders, as well as current and next-month calendars at the top. I keep my weekly reading list in the "Notes / Action Points" section and score it off as I do the reading (as you can see our reading list each week is quite extensive!). Expenses are good for tracking up-coming bills or daily expenditure and the "Personal Reminders" section is used for just that - personal reminders! - usually what I've planned for the week's meals. The right hand page has a "Main goals" section at the top which I use for counting down to important assessment deadlines  and underneath that there's the weekly diary with "Priority Activities" and "Phone, Write, Fax, E-mail"sections to the right of that. There's plenty of room in the diary section for daily appointments and the "Priority Activities" section is good for keeping track of my weekly "To Do" list. Overall the set-up works really well for me.

One of the best things about the A5 size is how easy it is to print your own inserts and find interesting things to put in your filo, like this acetate of the Eiffel Tower which I found in the local art shop:

Or this picture I found which was easy to print on to A5 and keep at the start of my notes section:

I have also made inserts to keep track of restaurants I want to try, photographs and photographic techniques I want to read up on and try, and books I've heard about that I want to read.

It's just so easy to customise the A5 size Filofax and while there is nothing quite as nice as an over-stuffed personal Filofax, the customisability of the A5 definitely gives it an edge.

Philofaxers' 365/30 Lists

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog is now well aware of the Philofaxers' 365/30 which has been set up by the lovely Imy from Imysworld and Kate from The Life of the Perpetual Student. It even has its own Facebook page.

The idea is that every month for the next year, a list of 30 questions (or 28 or 31 depending on the month!) will be published for you to answer. You can do it on a blog, in a filofax, in a journal, or wherever else you like! It's just a bit of fun and to give a bit of inspiration for what to write.

If it sounds like your kind of thing, definitely check it out!

Day Zero Project

A while ago I set up a Day Zero Project but in my Lazy Perfectionist manner, I didn't get very far with it. So I've decided to re-do my list and resurrect the project.  For anyone who hasn't come across the website you set up a list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days and then check them off as you go. It's good for giving you a bit of a focus, and getting you to try some new and different things.

I did cheat slightly and put two things on the list I knew I was doing the following day - going to the zoo and having a picnic! But at least I've now done 2/101 tasks! Some of them might be a bit more challenging like saying "yes" to something I wouldn't normally do. But some of them are things I've wanted to do for a long while - like get (another) tattoo, go to Brussels (where I lived for 2 years and want to take my husband), or finally visit Wimbledon which is a long-held dream.  There are also a lot of lists on there, questions to answer and little bits of journalling inspiration.

Of course, this will require a section in (or a whole new!) Filofax for the purpose ... pictures of which will be forthcoming once it's set up.

Filofax inserts

I know a lot of the regular readers of Philofaxy bemoan the lack of choice of Filofax inserts and I am afraid I have to agree.

After enjoying using my personal aqua so much over the summer, I was looking into the possibility of continuing to use it come October when my MSc restarts. I am doing my MSc part time in between being a full time mum, looking after the house, etc, so I work on a weekly schedule. I know what I have to complete by the end of each week, but it's fair to say that my day-to-day schedules don't always end up panning out the way they're meant to! I have found the A5 time management inserts work perfectly for me - there's enough room on the daily diary for appointments, etc.; plenty of room for notes; and even space for important reminders and expense tracking. It's perfect! But it only comes in A5 size. Much as I adore my A5 imperial purple Finchley, it's not very portable and there is still something so appealing about an over-stuffed personal size filo that you can chuck in your bag and carry everywhere.

The only personal-size possibility for a weekly schedule like mine is the week to view with notes but this comes with my personal pet hate - multiple languages!! Why take a diary insert that's already small enough as it is, then clutter it up with 5 different languages? I just don't like it. I could of course use the wonderful templates from Ray and Steve, but I'm afraid I neither have the time nor the patience to print, guillotine and punch a year's worth of inserts.

It's such a shame that Filofax can't just get the basics right alongside trying to tempt the fashionistas with their £400 designer binders. Let's face it.  In a year's time when the Temperley crowd are looking for new, stylish, functional inserts on good quality paper to refill their designer binders, they're going to be extremely disappointed!

Hot or cold?

This weekend in the southern UK has been a scorcher! It was 30 degrees yesterday and today is looking like its heading in the same direction. Being Scottish I'm not used to such temperatures!!

So my question is ... Would you rather be too hot, or too cold?

Without a doubt I'd rather be too cold. It's much easier to warm up by piling on some more layers, snuggling under the duvet and having a hot cup of tea. It's just not so easy to cool down when you're hot, flustered and grumpy!!

So which do you prefer?

A Shocking Confession

I love my filofaxes, it's true. I am also a bit of a neat-freak, handwriting-wise, and never quite like how my writing looks. To my mind, computer generated text with its equal-height ascenders and descenders and evenly spaced letters looks much nicer than my scrawly handwriting. So it would seem that I would be the perfect candidate for a filo full of stickers - all nice and neat and uniform.

But ... I don't like stickers in my Filofax! I feel like I should and I do like them per se - my son barely gets a look in when we play with stickers! But in my filo they just look out of place. I don't know what it is, but I just don't like the look of them.

I think washi tape may be my saviour in the sticker department as it's pretty, but functional and you can write on it too. But I have to say, day-to-day stickers just don't do it for me.

Am I the only girl without a filo full of stickers?!

Me and my Camera

As you have seen from the previous couple of posts, I quite like taking pictures!

2 years ago our faithful compact camera got misplaced ... as these things are wont to do! With our son's 1st birthday fast approaching we needed to get a replacement. I decided to have a look for a DSLR and found a Canon 350D with kit lens on eBay for a good price. As soon as it arrived I was hooked! I slowly built up a collection of lenses and starting shooting everything I could!

Within a short time I felt it was time to upgrade my camera and decided on a Canon 40D. I've had this camera about 18 months now and I still love it as much as I did when I first got it! It takes brilliant pictures and I love getting out and about with it. My lens collection has also grown, as has my camera bag collection, and memory card collection! But it's a hobby I know I will continue to enjoy for years to come.

One of my favourite shots is this one which I took in London last March:




Unfortunately between being a full-time mum and a part-time MSc student I don't get much chance to get out and about these days. But I know I'll be back out with my camera again very soon!