Personal Zipped Holborn

A note: All the highlighted words in my blog are clickable links.

Just a quick note to say A5 Kendal sale/swap here.

After seeing lots and lots of Filofax blogs about the Personal Zipped Holborn in wine, I decided to phone City Organiser and order myself one and because I used Philofaxy's 10% discount code, I got it for £55.....fantastic!  Even better, I ordered it at 2:30pm on the Friday afternoon and it came the following morning.  Now, how's that for service!

The lovely black box

Inside was a 2012 diary and a free Sunchie Ball Pen.

Behind the tissue.....A thing of beauty!  Notice the lovely leather tab on the zip.

 An outside pocket.

The inside....I noticed right away this wasn't going to lie flat without some training.

Then I saw the rings.........

And noticed if I try to lie it flat, it puckers really bad in the corners and forces the rings to open further!

I've wanted this Filofax so much, I thought, can I live with this, would I be able to fix it myself?  Then I saw the back cover.... OMG!  Look at those creases!  Believe me, they were a lot worse than the photo shows.

So to continue with the rest of the review.....This is the back pocket, inside there, is a zipped compartment too.

Overall, this is a lovely Filofax and I was in two minds whether to keep it or not, but there were just too many niggles with it. I've read a few blogs where other people have had problems with the zipped Holborn too, so I thought best to send it back and get something else instead!









Scruffy Personal Classic.....Sorted!

Dreadful isn't it!

Yes this is my Personal Classic after only a few months of use:

I was pretty upset when all the creases started to appear, especially as I really take care of all my Filofaxes.  On closer inspection, it looks like the leather has a plastic type coating over it, and it was pealing away.  I didn't want to use any cleaner on it, in case it made it worse or discoloured the leather.

Last week, I was reading someones blog and they were talking about their Classic doing something similar, made me wonder if this was a fault with the Classics?  So I e-mailed Filofax UK, who promptly got back in touch, telling me to return it free post to them.  Tuesday, I posted it off and got a call from them on Thursday saying they would replace it with another Classic in Black or Chilli.  I told them I wasn't really happy with the Organiser because of what's happened, so they said I could have an Ochid Aston.  Well it's a nice organiser but I wasn't sure on it to be honest, so the lovely Filofax lady said, I could choose any I wanted up to the price of the Classic, which is £80.  I informed her I would have to phone her back, a decision like that can not be made lightly! lol

So I spent 4 hours last night toying with the Aston (after all, it does come with cotton cream inserts) and a Blue A5 Finsbury .  I so badly wanted the Personal Purple Malden, but Filofax UK don't have it?  Then I decided the Personal Zipped Holborn would be ideal, but that too is out of stock.  I went to bed with a huge headache after staring at the screen for too long and still not sure what I was going to get...though the Orchid Aston was in the lead by this time.

This morning I looked again on the net and suddenly thought....why not get something I really want and just add the extra money!  Duh!  So within minutes I had ordered This little beauty!  The A5  Holborn in wine.  I only had to pay £15 towards the cost, which I'm really pleased with......so roll on next week when it gets delivered.  I already own the A5 Black Holborn and adore all those extra pockets.  Not sure what I am going to use it for just yet, but I am sure I will come up with something!

The service I have received from Filofax is second to none.  If any of  you have a damaged Filofax, it  really is worth contacting them, to see if anything can be done about it.  You just never know!   I had this Classic sat on a shelf for the last few months, I'm just pleased I didn't throw it away now!
Thanks Filofax

Filofax Labels Part 2

Just thought I would do a quick update about the Filofax Labels I did last week.  A lot of people have given me positive comments on them and would like to make their own.  So I would like to share mine freely with you all....all I ask is, if you do share them with others, would you mind linking them back to me. 

First Set: (Click on the links)

Second Set:

Blank Template:

When the pages opens, click the Download button to open the file and I hope you enjoy and share what you make.

Kieran's Organiser

Last weekend, my 12 year old son Kieran was watching me use my Filofax and said "I wish I had a Filofax!"

Hmmm, I thought....could I bear to part with one of my babies.....no, absolutely not! lol  Already done that for hubby, but I recalled I had a "Filofax" copy I bought from Argos in 1996, so I dug it out along with my Filofax stash of inserts and we started to put something together.

The binder is just a little wider than the personal size Filofax but it looks the part.

Next, we added some Filofax inserts. Kieran's Bus Pass, Medical Card and Lunch Card, fit in here lovely.  We also added some Sticky labels to the inside front cover.





On the flipside we have more Medical Cards and a Hall pass.  Kieran is Type one Diabetic, so these medical cards are perfect in here.  We also have the registration page, though I'm hoping, if he ever lost it in school, it would be handed in to a teacher.

His first page is a picture of our late German Shepherd Dog, Shadow.  He passed away 2 years ago yesterday and we still miss him very much.  Kieran adored Shadow, so he made this picture of him a little while ago.

This is his planner when he goes back to school in September, as you can see, Kieran has decorated the page marker with stickers.....but what 12 year old doesn't like stickers!

More stickers used to decorate the dividers.

One of his drawings.



We inserted a world map, thought it might come in useful during some lessons.

The back inside cover has a pocket so he's placed his spare stickers in there.

Behind these Sticky labels we have emergency contact information.

Then because this Organiser does not come with a pen holder, we wondered how to attach a pen.  Looking through my pen stash, we found this little pen with a ring on it, they come in packs of four from staples and cost £1.99.  I found a clip and added it to the pen.



As you can see, it hooks onto the rings very nicely.







So this is Kieran's "Filofax! (well almost). I've explained that if he takes good care of this one, then I will buy him a "real" one, or even give him one of my own...I think my personal Chino would be a good one for a student!  I've noticed more and more Filofax users, Children are getting into them too.  Maybe this generation will bring them back like they were in the eighties!  It would be good if Filofax brought out a "student" refill pack!





Filofax Labels

I would like to show you some Sticky labels I have just created for my Filofax.

These are Avery Mini Inkjet Lables that I bought from Staples. You get 4725 labels in the pack...that's a lot of labels.

Each A4 sheet holds 189 Labels and there are 25 sheets per pack.

Next, I downloaded the Avery Template and set to work on inserting some Clipart and Wordart  into each square. (Copy & paste came in very handy here).





I've enclosed some close up shots so you can see what Stickers I've created:

Where I live, we have alternative weekly refuse collections, I can never remember from week to week, which Wheelie Bin to put outside.  A little sticker in my diary is going to sort that problem out.

I pay my rent every 4 weeks and it's nice to have a little reminder in my Filofax.  The picture underneath, represents holidays.  The disability badge is a personal reminder, then it's Valentine's Day, Hallowe'en and I use the Rose to represent a memorial of a passed love one.



Next  is a No School sticker to remind me when the school holidays are here and better still, the Back To School sticker.







Some More Back to School stickers, then Optician, Hairdressers, Doctor & Hospital appointment reminders.





Car Tax Reminders and lots of different Birthday stickers.

Then I have Weddings & Anniversaries, Dentist, Vets.  The doves and rainbows are again Memorial Passings.  Then finally Car MOT.



This is a personal sized, week on one page format diary and as you can see, the sticker doesn't take up a great deal of space, but does stand out from the writing.

I'm actually pretty pleased with the way these have turned out.

Hope you enjoy.  x







My Collection

Thought I would do a little update on my Filofax List.  As of the end of June 2012, I have 25.

And I still don't own a A4 sized one.

A5
1. Identity Black     2. Metropol Brown     3. Kendal Brown
4. Cuban Brown     5. Holborn Black        6. Malden Ochre
7. Domino Red      8. Chameleon Red      9. Chameleon Rasperry
10. Finsbury Pink     11. Flex Magenta

Personal
12. Domino Violet         13. Domino Electric Blue         14.Domino Black
15.Malden Ochre          16.Malden Crimson                17. Finsbury Raspberry 
18. Metropol Raspberry       19. Chino Black              20. Classic Brown
21. Ranger Brown         22. Holborn Black                              

Pocket
23. Metropol Red          24. Windsor Black

Mini
Finsbury Raspberry




Most expensive - A5 Malden Ochre £105 from The Pen Shop
Least Expensive - Mini Finsbury - 99p from e-bay



A5 Collection

Flat View

Personal / Pocket / Mini Collection

Flat View

Altogether

My favourite....can't deciede between the Malden or Holborn.....if only they did the Holborn with the Malden Ochre Leather......sigh.....I can dream!

Filofax Puzzle Book

I made this a Filofax Puzzle Book a couple of years ago but thought I would share it with your all now.  It just gives another idea of what Filofax Organisers can be used for.

I enjoy doing Puzzles so wondered if a puzzle book could be made to fit into a Filofax.  I had an A5 lying around unused, so got to work.

First I got myself a Puzzle book from WHSmiths.

Then it was time to take it apart.  First I pulled all the pages out the book, then got my cutter out and sliced off the the raggy edges.

Next for the holes to be punched....this was a daunting task as I didn't have a Filofax hole punch  and there was an awful lot of pages to get through, so I came up with this idea.....hubby's cordless drill ....

It kind of worked, but the holes were a little rough, so I spent the next hour with my single hole puncher, doing it manually.

Lordy be, was I glad when that task was done!  Next to put them into my Filofax.  I used a A5 Metropol in brown.

The finished result:









I think it looks quite smart.  I can imagine sitting on a train or plane journey and pulling this Filofax out, people will think you're been very busy, when in fact, you're doing a relaxing puzzle.

Just want to apologise for the picture quality, I reduced the size of some of the photos so they would upload a bit quicker (like I usually do), but this time I lost a lot of the quality.  Lesson learnt for next time.