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.