End of Year Review

Phuuh, this is my first post in a very long time. Lots has happened since the last post and I really think this blog at least needs an End of Year Review.

So this has been my first year in the Filofax. I still love the flexibility of my Filos, even though I still haven't found the perfect calendar yet.

At the moment I am using an A5 Teacher's Planner (punched to fit my Filo) because as a teacher that's the obvious thing to do. It has all the sections I need and everything else I can customize on my Mac. And even though I think the Filofax and the Teacher's Planner are quite a good match I kind of miss having a section for goal planning. So I purchased the SuccessChoice Planner and I will try to figure out a way to use this in a combination with my Filofax next year.

This is the Teacher's Planner in my Cuban Chili Red. I thought I'd move into a christmassy color Filofax this time of year! And see my little reindeer pen in the left pen loop? Isn't it cute?

I have also found out that A5 is the only size working for me. I wish I could find a way of using Personal as there are so many beautiful Filos in that size, but it just doesn't work for me. Which also means I will try to sell all the non-A5 Filos I have.*

Apart from all the Filofax experiences I gained this year, I have also had the opportunity to try out a lot of new (to me) products.
New pens that I bought include (but are not limited to) the BIC 4-Color Pen, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C Coleto, the Pilot Hi-Tec-C, a couple of fountain pens (like the Lamy AL-Star, a Parker Esprit), Muji Highlighters, Schneider Topliners, etc. I might do a review of one or two of these pens next year. Any one pen you'd like to read about?
I also won in two internet giveaways, one was from RhodiaDrive and one from CityOrganiser. RhodiaDrive sent me a Webbie with dot-grid (and other cool things) which I really, really enjoy. CityOrganiser was really nice and sent me a SplitterBot and Andy Morse seems like a really nice guy. I will hopefully get to know him and his store in a couple of weeks when I'm in London! :)

My stationery goals for next year are:
- complete Filofax Finchley collection (still looking for an A5 in Teal!)
- sell non-A5 Filofaxes
- not spend so much money on stationery! (ha! like that's gonna happen!)
- find the perfect layout for my Filo
- try more pens! (I found a Germany based company that sells some of the pens I would have to order overseas, so I'm looking forward to ordering more pens!)
- tick off a couple more goals on my Day Zero Project

So, what are your goals for next year?

*if you are interested in a Mini Finsbury (light blue) or Mini Piazza (light blue), a Personal BCC or a Compact Metropol Kingfisher Blue, let me know. Except for the Finsbury they are all in MINT condition and I will consider all offers!

Mix-Monday 8

First Mix-Monday in a while. I (should) have been really busy correcting final exams and I'm also enjoying the great weather we've had lately. Looking forward to having some friends over tonight to BBQ. What are you looking forward to today?

Filo-Fail? Filo-Frenzy!

I've been on an odyssee filo-wise these last couple of weeks.

First I didn't really warm up with the Baroque, but after it did a great job in Iceland he and I have become good friends.
Then I decided to join in on the Malden-hype. The Malden in Vintage Pink was on sale in the UK, so I didn't have to think about it long, I ordered it and eagerly awaited the package. I had always thought I didn't like the color, but I saw it (behind glass) a couple of weeks back and thought it wasn't so bad.

So when the Malden finally arrived I was quite disappointed that there was a scratch on the latch.
I contacted Filofax UK and they answered right away, telling me to send the Malden back. I just had to make the choice of whether I wanted a replacement or refund. I decided I wanted the refund. Why? Well, I had seen the Malden before, but the first time I touched it was when I opened the package from the UK. Now, from what I'd read on forums, blogs, etc. I expected a really, really soft leather. So I was disappointed when I found out that my Holborn Zip knocked the spots of the Malden's leather. Mr Holborn's leather is so much softer. And prettier. And smells better*. And ... everything! I guess Mr Holborn, for me, is Mr Right!

So after I sent the Malden back, I found out that Filofax Germany is having a sale on Finchleys (and other models, for that matter). The Finchley is my favorite model (except for Mr Right of course) and I do know this for sure because I am the proud owner of a Personal Imperial Purple Finch, which I use as my Postcrossing filo. I had been looking for A5 Finchleys in Mustard, Jade Green/Soft Jade and Teal for a while**, so finding out that Filofax Germany still had the A5 in Mustard available and it was 50% off... well, you can imagine what happened.

A day or two later I learned about the Great Philofaxy Adspot Sale (by the very friendly Erin) and was able to score two Cuban A5s, one in Ink and the other one in Chili. I already own a Cuban Zip, so I am aware of the fact that the leather is not even close to being as soft as Mr Right's leather, but I do like the clean, adult look (and feel!) of the Cubans.

I think I really need to cut back on spending money on Filos. I mean, really, how many can you use at a time (yes, I'm begging you to enable me here!). ;-)

*The Malden did smell very unpleasant. Somewhere between leather and lots and lots of dye. 


**I'm still looking for the Teal and/or Jade Finchleys. A5 is my preferred size, but I will consider Personal. Just in case you have one that you don't need, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Postcrossing

Maybe some of you have heard about Postcrossing before. I came across it a while ago when I started my Day Zero Project and thought it was a great idea.

Here's what it's all about: You register with your full address and start sending postcards to random people in the database. Each postcard has an ID, with which they are registered. You have to write the ID on the postcard you send and the person receiving the card will then register it. You can only have a certain amount of postcards travelling, depending on how many of your postcards have already been received and registered. Shortly after sending your first postcard(s) you will start receiving postcards from random places.

I was a little anxious about leaving my full address online at the beginning, but so far I have only received postcards from around the world, and have not noticed an increase in advertisement sent to my home.

I love this project. I think it is so much fun sending postcards and even more fun receiving them. Finally there's real mail in my mailbox, not just advertisements or bills :) So go check it out!

Travel Filo

Last week when I was on a class trip with my 7th graders, my new Baroque Personal Black arrived from Italy. I think it's pretty and everything, but I had my doubts whether I'd find a job for it and whether we'd make good friends.
Today I finally gave it it's purpose: From now on it's going to be my travel filo! I already told you about the Travel Journal by Moleskine (look here), but I really wanted to a filo to keep all my documents save. So I punched holes into all the vouchers we need for our next trip (to Iceland! Yippie!), punched the e-tickets for our flights and the train journey to Frankfurt and back and even found that my passport fits nicely into the pocket on the inner left.
Here's a picture:

So, do you have any other ideas of what to include? Please let me know!

Mix-Monday 7

This week is going to be very busy with work, as lots of stuff had to be left on my desk last week when I spontaneously accompanied my 7th graders on a class trip because their class teacher was sick at home. 

But: Spring has sprung and my fiancé and I are leaving for Iceland on Sunday! Two weeks of vacation, spent with my favorite guy in the whole world, in my favorite country, visiting friends and enjoying the beautiful nature of that island in the North Atlantic... (does the anticipation show?).

That also means that I won't be able to blog very much (if at all), but I have a couple of posts planned. Also, in the meantime, check out our Filomaniac Forum. There's an English section as well!

Travel Journal by Moleskine

A while ago I came across the Travel Journal by Moleskine. I bought it and have used it to plan our trip to Iceland over Easter.
Here's a little something about it:

The journal has the usual "Personal Details" page, but with travel related info as well (e.g. vaccination, travel insurance, ...). This page is followed by 4 pages of Airline Loyalty Card information, so there's space for the information on 12 (!!) cards.
Followed by this are two pages that I personally find incredibly useful: Don't Forget - Standard Checklist. There's loads of space for the standard items you take on a journey (pre-printed: toothbrush :)), much more than you could ever wanna take, but again, I find it so useful.
Next there's a fold out page containing yearly overview calendars of 2011-2018 with a Travel Timeline on the back of the folding out part.
Then there are 14 pages of useful information, for example Time Zones, Temperatures and Days of Rain, Flight Durations, etc.

As a main part the Travel Journal has 5 tabbed categories: Wish List, Planning, Weekends, Short Trips, Long Trips.

The Wish List contains a couple of pages where you can write destination names and have some (limited) space for notes on each destination.
Next is the Planning tab. This contains pages where the left hand page contains space to answer the five Ws (where, when, who, what, why) and the right hand page gives you space for budget planning (what - price - total).
The Weekend tab has a "before" part on the left page (destination, date, how to get there, travel guide, travel companions, notes and checklist for this trip) and an "after" part on the right page (memorable moments and half a page for photos or clippings).
Next is the Short Trips tab, which is similar to the Weekend one, just on four instead of two pages. It gives you one whole page for your checklist, another one for memorable moments and one more for photos and clippings.
The Long Trip tab gives you a luxurious 8 pages per trip. There's the "before" part (see Weekend) on two pages, one page where you can just write the places you have been and the dates, one page for maps and notes, two pages for memorable moments and two for photos and clippings.

Behind all this there are five more tabs to label as you please. The first two give you 20 pages of lined paper, the next has eight divided pages (5 lines per page), then come two tabs giving you 15 pages for photos and drawings and 15 pages of blank paper.
At the very end of the journal you can find an index with pre-printed page numbers.

In the back of the book there are also two fold-out pockets and some stickers.

Now, as I said at the beginning I use this journal to plan our trip to Iceland. I really like the structure the journal gives me, but there are also some things that I won't be using (e.g. the photos/clippings pages, I've got my SmashBook for that). One thing that totally annoys me is the fact that the paper is not very good for fountain pen writing. Writing with my Lamy (medium nib, Lamy blue) leaves some bleed-through and the paper is so thin that you can read everything on the next page as well.

If you are still interested, though, have a look here.

Mix-Monday 6

So hopefully by this afternoon I will be three quarters on my way to getting the security of tenure. Is there anything else exciting going on in your lives?

DIY CD Sleeves for Filofax

Today I want to write about making my own CD sleeves for my Filofax. I know that CD sleeves are available from Filofax, but I think they are ridiculously expensive, especially when you can make them yourself for a fraction of the prize (and have fun while doing so)!

Quite a while back I found those CD sleeves for A4 folders in my local discounter.

There were 5 of those sleeves, holding 4 CDs each. First thing I needed to do was cut them in half.

Then I put some colorful adhesive tape on the sleeve, right where I wanted to punch the holes.

I folded it over and taped the backside as well. Almost done already! The only thing I still had to do was punch. I use a one hole punch, so I had to use an original Filofax insert as a stencil and punch through the tape and sleeve. I found that doing it like ripping of a band-aid (fast!!) was easiest. And now - TADAA:

My CD sleeves hold 2 CDs each plus either a list with tracks on the CD or whatever else you want to insert into the small pocket on each side (I chose to store little stickers in there, see above). I spent about 3€ on the sleeves and half an hour working on them. I now have 10 sleeves for my A5, holding 2 CDs each, which would have cost me nearly 100€ had I bought the original ones. Granted, mine probably won't survive decades, but still, I am very happy with them!

Filofax-Forum

Iris from Filomaniac just posted the link, so I'll just go ahead, too! Some of us readers over at Filomaniac thought it would be nice to have a forum to talk about all things Filofax, so we just made one. It took some work, especially on Izzies part, but now it's here:

filomaniac.plusboard.de

I really hope you enjoy it and that soon we'll all be posting away!

PS: There's an English section as well.

PPS: In case you were wondering, I go by Sverri on the boards, it's my nickname. 

Mix-Monday 5

So another week has gone by and I found a heck of a lot of new stationery stuff I just need to have. Like a personal planner (www.personal-planner.co.uk or www.persoenlicherkalender.de, thanks to Plannerisms) or Smashbooks, which I had never heard of before, but I think sound like a whole lotta fun. I also became a member of the Ink Drop at Goulet Pens and can't wait for my first inks to arrive.

And one of my best friends will be spending her Easter vacation in Japan with her boyfriend, so I am thinking about what to ask her to bring me. Any suggestions?

Oh, and I also ordered a BCC and a Metropol Compact Kingfisher Blue at www.filofax.co.uk. But don't tell my better half ;)

Mix-Monday 4

Here in Germany the weather has been quite mild during the last week or so, so I'm tempted to say that spring is in the air! Don't get me wrong, winter is still my favorite season, but spring means so many positive things to me this year that I just can't seem to wait!
So to get ready for spring I cleaned out my closet and donated 8 (!!) bags of clothes to charity last week. I should probably also clean out my office, too, but I won't be able to part with any of my pens, notebooks, etc. ;) I am planning on changing my Filofax setup, though, which I am sure I will blog about once I am satisfied with it.

Is there anything you are looking forward to this spring?

Lamy AL-Star Coffee (m)

First, let me say I'm sorry for not blogging during this last week. A pretty bad case of the flu made both me and my fiancé lay around and quietly suffer most of the week. So much for a great birthday. And it was the big 3-0, too! :(
Anyway, there was something very special about my b-day and that was my significant other finally acknowledging the fact that giving me a fountain pen is better than pretty much any other gift.

So here it is, my newest addition to the Lamy family: The Lamy AL-Star coffee with a medium nib.
He even got me a very nice box:

But let's start at the beginning:
I got my first Lamy when I started elementary school. It was a Lamy abc and I still own it. In Germany kids learn to write with a fountain pen at a very early age, which I personally think is great because it makes the handwriting look so much better. Which is also one of the reasons why I still love to use a fountain pen.
When I started secondary school, my parents bought a white Lamy Safari for me. I still own this one as well (isn't that great value? The Safari nowadays costs about 18€ and my oldest one is 20 years old and still does its job!).
The Safari really did it for me. Over the years I bought more colors, black, blue, red and vista from my pocket money. During the last couple of years two Lamy nexx, a new white one, an aquamarine one and a silverblue AL-star joined my collection.

Enter AL-Star coffee

I love this pen. What's great about all Lamys is that you only have to put in the cartridge and you can almost immediately start writing. The pen is comfortable to hold, even with the weird way I weave my fingers around pens. The ink flow is smooth and even and the AL-Star has that cool aluminum feeling to it. I personally enjoy the medium nib most, although I have some broad and some fine nibbed (is that even a word?!) Lamys and also some extra nibs to switch around, because every once in a while I might just enjoy the fine nib better for a short period of time. Changing the nib is quite easy on the Lamy, too, which is another reason to love it!

So, what's special about the AL-Star coffee? Well, all of the above PLUS the color. I think it's more of a chocolatey than a coffee brown, but since I like both coffee and chocolate that's fine by me. The brown looks very sophisticated (as sophisticated as a Lamy AL-Star can get, that is) and I like that it goes well with my Filofax Holborn Zip in Wine (the replacement, by the way, arrived back home on my birthday, too!). So now I have an AL-Star to go with my Ultra Violet Domino (the silverblue one) and one to be put into my Holborn.
There's just one tiny little thing I am sad about: it does not fit into the pen loop of the Holborn. But that really isn't the Lamy's fault ;).

PS: I see another AL-Star joining my collection in the near future: The ruby is coming to Germany this year. I had already looked into buying it online as it was only available in the States so far, but I couldn't yet get myself to spend 35$ or more plus shipping and handling (and customs) when the fountain pen costs 24€ in Germany!

Mix-Monday 3 / Mix-Montag 3

This is the third Mix-Monday already! Tomorrow is my birthday and I hope I'll get some nice stationery - more to blog about! :)

Mini-Review: Filofax Piazza Mini Blu

I got this Filo on eBay for a couple of bucks. It was a bargain. I never thought I'd win the auction, but was happy when I did.
I'm making this a mini-review as I don't have much time to write (plus, it is a Mini-Filo ;)):

On the plus side:
+ color: I'm a big fan of all things blue!
+ feeling: "Deluxe Smooth Leather". Pretty much says it all.
+ cotton cream: Love the paper. Wish it was available in A5 (review coming sometime soon).
+ full length zippered pocket (see "size")
+ full length wallet pocket (see "size")
+ size: Mini is a cute size, although I haven't found the perfect purpose yet. It might become my travel wallet as it doesn't have enough storage space for an everyday one, but I guess it would do great when travelling. I could also use it as a travel journal.

On the down side:
- pen loop: I really, really wish Filofax would make all pen loops elastic (or at least part elastic). This one is big enough for the common pencil, but not for my Lamy fountain pen, which I like to use for any journalling activity...
- size: see above, it just isn't big enough to be used as an everyday wallet (not for me at least) and it's also too small as a work filo.

Even though I'm still partial about the size I love having this little beauty.

Mix-Monday 2 / Mix-Montag 2

Another Mix-Monday. Please feel free to discuss anything, give me feedback, tips or anything else stationery related!

Rhodia Drive's Valentine's Giveaway

If you haven't yet visited Rhodia Drive, do so today to enter for one of 14 Rhodia Unlimited Pocket Notebooks!

Click here

How I came to own two Domino Italia / Wie ich dazu kam, zwei Domino Italia zu besitzen

After the virus had gotten a hold of me, I searched the web for good deals on Filofaxes. And found a reduced Domino Italia on filofax.it (who'da thought it?!) in a magnificent mustardy yellow. Shipping costs were also reduced to zero-nada-nix within the EU, so I ordered one in Pocket size as I had somehow had the idea to carry the big A5 as a work-Filo and a Pocket as a private Filo. Turned out that system doesn't work for me at all, but I didn't know that back then.

A couple of days later I finally received my beautiful Domino Italia. There is really only one difference between the "common" Domino and the Italian version: the clasp. The common Domino has a rubber band going all the way around it, which is fastened on the back of it, the Italian version has a button and a small rubber loop that goes around the button, not unlike the Songbird.

What surprised me, as the owner of an A5 Domino, was the suede-like inside of the Pocket version. It feels much softer than the A5 version and I really like that, although the rings leave prints on it pretty fast. I also expect it to get dirty much faster than the more rough inside of its big brother. Here's a pic:

The Pocket also only has one (non-elastic) pen loop, which, had I used it as a private filo, would have been enough. For a school-filo, though, I definitely need two pen loops and most of the time even those aren't enough.

The pen loop is also the reason why I now own two Domino Italia Pocket in Mustard. The very first time I tried to insert a pencil (not even a mechanical big one, just an ordinary pencil) a piece of the suede came of when I just held on to it. The suede material makes it hard to insert any pen that is not absolutely smooth (or tiny) into the pen loop, making it necessary to hold on to one part of the loop. Now, maybe a pic will give you a better idea of what my Domino Italia looked like after I tried to insert the pencil:

As you can imagine I was quite upset after this happened. It's not like the Domino Italia is an expensive vase that fell and shattered into a thousand pieces, but still... it was new, I liked it, I was upset.

So a day or two later I decided I'd email Filofax Italia to let them know what happened to me. I also attached two pics, but I never intended for them to do anything about it really, I just wanted to let them know that things like these happen and that I was sad about it.
Therefore, the email I got a day later was a nice surprise: They were very sorry about this and a new Domino was already on its way to me. I could just dispose of the other one.

Wow!

This is what I call customer service! I received a new Domino a couple of days later. Without the inserts, obviously, but still.

I now own two of these filos and haven't quite figured out what to do with them yet. One holds some inserts I got from Hema and one has a birthday calendar inside that I hardly ever use cause I also have all the birthdays written in my work A5. But until I assign them a purpose I will just let them sit on the shelf with my other filos and let them remind me of the perfect customer service of Filofax Italia.
I just hope that Filofax France (where I got my Holborn Zip with rings that don't close all the way) has good service as well, but that's a whole different matter which I will discuss in another post.

Gibt es irgendwen, der die Posts gerne auch auf Deutsch hätte? Sonst spare ich mir die deutschen Versionen.

Mix-Monday 1 / Mix-Montag 1

Mix-Monday is the day to talk about anything stationery, ask questions, etc. I'd love to hear from you!

Mix-Montag ist der Tag zum über-Büromaterial-Quatschen, Fragen stellen, etc. Ich freue mich auf eure Kommentare!

Review: Pilot Hi-Tec-C 0.4

Being the stationery nerd that I am I read about new pens somewhere on the net. They are called Hi-Tec-C by Pilot and are not (yet) available in my part of the world. So what better did I have to do than look for them on eBay (which has been a great ressource for me stationery-wise!). And as there is nothing that you can't find on eBay, sure enough I found them. And ordered a bunch. This is my review:

The Pilot Hi-Tec-C are available in a range of colors and four tip-sizes ranging from .25 to .5mm. I decided to go for the .4 tip size and different shades of red and blue mostly.
When they first arrived I was excited to be getting a package all the way from Taiwan. The seller did a great job wrapping the pens and I can only recommend them to you. (Send me a message if you want me to tell you their eBay-name.)

Now, the pen is fairly short. I usually don't pin the cap on top of the pen when writing, but I started doing it with this pen. I guess the pen was made for small Asian hands and I'm not trying to say I have gigantic hands, but seeing as I'm nearly 6 foot tall, my hands are pretty big.
When the cap is put on top of the pen, though, it is a pretty standard gel ink pen. The pens write really smoothly and the colors are rich. I read that some people have problems getting the ink to flow when starting to write, but I have not yet have such problems.

To sum it up it's a very nice pen which I wish was available in Germany because in that case I would probably buy more of them. Having them shipped in from Taiwan (or someplace else in Asia for that matter), especially considering that every once in a while one of the packages is picked out by customs (which involves driving to the other side of town, waiting for the items to be cleared (no, they are not fake, but yes, you can keep them for another 2 weeks or so to make sure!) and being really annoyed by the whole procedure), is not an option for me. I am willing to go that extra length for some pens (which I am going to blog about some other time), but not for these.


Please excuse the crappy quality of the pics, they were taken with an iPhone4.

Hi-Tec-C compared to a regular BIC 4Color. The difference in length doesn't seem spectacular, but it does make a huge difference! Vergleich mit einem BIC 4Color. Der Unterschied in der Länge scheint nicht so riesig, macht aber einen großen Unterschied beim Schreiben!

The Pilot pen with the cap on top. Der Pilot mit der Kappe auf dem Ende.


Irgendwann, irgendwo las ich also von den Pilot Hi-Tec-C. Leider gibt es die in Deutschland noch nicht, aber natürlich findet man sie, wie alles andere auch, bei eBay. (eBay ist schrecklich - so viele tolle Stifte, Notizbücher, etc...) Jedenfalls habe ich mir mal ein paar von diesen Stiften gegönnt. Hier ist meine Review:

Die Pilot Hi-Tec-C gibt es in einer ganzen Menge Farben und vier verschiedenen Strichbreiten (0.25mm bis 0.5mm). Ich habe mich für die 0.4mm Breite und vor allem für verschiedene Rot- und Blautöne entschieden.
Als sie endlich ankamen, war ich doch schon etwas aufgeregt, immerhin erhalte ich nicht jeden Tag ein Päckchen aus Taiwan. Der eBay-Verkäufer hatte sie gut und sicher eingepackt und für einen angemessenen Preis versandt. (Wenn ihr seinen Namen haben wollt, schreibt mir eine Nachricht.)

Das erste, was mir auffiel war, dass der Stift recht kurz ist. Normalerweise gehöre ich nicht zu den Leuten, die die Kappe eines Stiftes auf dessen Ende setzen und so schreiben, bei diesen Stiften habe ich mir das allerdings angewöhnt. Die Länge der Stifte scheint doch eher auf kleine asiatische Hände ausgelegt zu sein, nicht auf mitteleuropäische Hände einer 180cm großen Frau.
Wenn man den Stift allerdings mit der Kappe verlängert, lässt sich damit wunderbar weich schreiben. Die Farben sind satt, die Linien präzise. Ich hatte gelesen, dass einige Leute Probleme damit haben, die Gel-Tinte beim ersten Schreiben "ans Laufen" zu bekommen, aber ich habe damit bisher keine Probleme gehabt.

Insgesamt lässt sich sagen, dass die Pilot Hi-Tec-C wirklich schöne Stifte sind, die ich sicher häufiger kaufen würde, wären sie in Deutschland zu bekommen. Sie jedes Mal aus Taiwan einfliegen zu lassen, eventuell noch beim Zoll vorbeifahren zu müssen (um dann nochmal zu warten, bis die die Echtheit der Stifte festgestellt haben), ist mir aber für diese Stifte zu viel Gedönse. Es gibt Stifte, für die ich das gerne mache, aber davon erzähle ich euch später mal.

My First: A Love Story / Mein Erster: Eine Liebesgeschichte

My first Filofax was/is an A5 Domino in Ultra Violet. I ultimately opted for this model and size out of a number of reasons:
1. affordability. It was my first and I wasn't so sure whether I'd be infected by the Filo-fever, so I looked for a Filofax on the lower prize-range.
2. I knew what it looked like as my colleague also owns a (quite battered) A5 Domino. So I knew beforehand that I'd like it.
3. Size does matter. I needed an A5 model because most of the loose paper I carry around with me is A4 size. Which, as we all know, folds nicely into A5. I was also sure that I needed the extra space the A5 paper gave me to write down all my every-day-stuff like lesson planning, appointments, lists (I seriously wouldn't be able to survive without my lists), etc. I actually took an A5 paper and drew a Personal sized paper onto it for comparison.

Altogether I must say I'm quite happy with my decision. I ordered online and I couldn't wait for the package to arrive. When I first opened it I was a tad disappointed by the fact that the Domino didn't come in one of those beautiful black Filofax-boxes, but I figured it wasn't worth is from Filofax' point of view as it was a rather cheap filo.
I was also kind of surprised by the smell of the Domino. I didn't expect it to smell like leather (as it isn't leather), but I did also not expect it to smell this artificial. So I left it lying around openly for a night or two and the smell disappeared (thank goodness!).

Talking of lying: It lay flat from the very beginning. Like right out of that box it didn't come in. I did not appreciate that quality until I started using (and writing in!) my Finchley recently.

I love my Domino so much I even made my own set of dividers to match it, but I'm going to tell you about that some other time!



Mein erster Filo war/ist ein A5 Domino in Ultra Violet. Ich habe mich damals aus verschiedenen Gründen für diese Größe und dieses Modell entschieden:
1. Er musste erschwinglich sein. Ich wusste ja nicht, ob ich ihn wirklich auf Dauer nutzen würde und ich wollte keinen 150€ teuren Regalhüter haben. 
2. Ich wusste, wie er aussieht. Eine Kollegin hat einen Domino (der in seinem Leben schon viel gelitten hat) und er gefiel mir.
3. Die Größe spielt eben doch eine Rolle. Ich brauchte mindestens eine A5-Größe, weil alles Papier, was ich so lose mit mir rumtrage A4 groß ist und sich daher gut in A5 falten lässt. Außerdem war ich mir sicher, dass ich den Extraplatz, den A5 über Personal bietet, gut gebrauchen konnte mit meinen ganzen Unterrichtsplanungen, Listen (ohne die ich nicht leben könnte), Terminen, etc. Ich hab mir sogar die Umrisse eines Personalblattes auf ein A5 gemalt, um vergleichen zu können.


Insgesamt bin ich mit meiner Entscheidung sehr glücklich. Der Domino brauchte ein paar Tage, bis er bei mir war (Online-Bestellung) und ich war nur ein bisschen enttäuscht, dass er nicht in einer dieser hübschen schwarzen Filofax-Boxen geliefert wurde. Naja, ist halt das Einsteigermodell. Allerdings hat mich der Geruch des Filo (sehr künstlich!) doch am Anfang etwas irritiert, bis er nach ein oder zwei Nächten des Auslüftens verflogen war.


Übrigens lag der Domino von Beginn an flach wie eine Flunder. Dass das eine wirklich gute Eigenschaft des Filo ist wurde mir aber erst klar, als ich anfing, meinen Finchley zu benutzen! 


Vor kurzem habe ich meinem Domino sogar selbstgemachte Divider spendiert, aber davon erzähle ich euch ein anderes Mal!

How it all started... / Wie alles begann...

It all began with me looking for the perfect calendar (once again). I embark on this journey at least twice a year: somewhen at the end of the year and at the end of the academic year. I was also looking for a better time-management-system as I am prone to procrastinating. Big time! (Isn't writing a blog another way of procrastination?)

Anyways, I did some research and found out about GTD (Getting Things Done). I decided to download the book to my Kindle and had a look at some pretty cool calendar templates. And from there I found a couple of blogs about Filofax and then I went to have a look at the filofax.de website. Big mistake.

I spent the next 3-5 days (I don't remember exactly, it all seems so far away already) searching for an affordable Filofax that I thought I'd actually use longer than just a couple of days. I found the Domino A5. I bought it. I used it. I bought a couple of great additions to it. I fell in love.

By now, about 8 weeks after my initial purchase, I am the proud owner of 9 filofaxes. And yes, this pretty much defines me. I go after stuff I like and sometimes I go a little crazy over it.



Es begann damit, dass ich (mal wieder) nach einem neuen Kalender gesucht habe. Das passiert mir mindestens zweimal im Jahr: So gegen Ende November, Anfang Dezember und ungefähr im Juli, wenn das Schuljahr sich dem Ende zuneigt. 
Außer einem neuen Kalender musste ein neues Zeitmanagement-System her. Ich neige zur Prokrastination. Big time! 
Jedenfalls surfte ich durch das Netz und fand "Getting Things Done" (GTD), ein Buch, welches ich mir sofort auf mein Kindle lud. Passenderweise fand ich GTD-Kalendervorlagen zum Selberdrucken. Und ein Blog über Filofax. Das wollte recherchiert werden und so fand ich mich die nächsten 3-5 Tage in einem Filo-Nebel, aus dem ich herausfand, als ich mich für einen erschwinglichen Filo (den Domino A5) entschieden hatte. Ich kaufte ihn. Und ein paar zusätzliche Einlagen. Es war Liebe auf den ersten Blick.

Seit ca. 8 Wochen nutze ich also täglich einen meiner inzwischen 9 Filos. Ja, das ist etwas verrückt. Aber so bin ich nunmal.