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! :)