All Stars Guest Post: Lime Tree - Filofax Swap 4!

This is such a treat, people: a guest post from the JUICY LIME TREE for all of us to read! :)
I'm so fascinated by her intense character, amazing Filofax photo shoots and artwork - if you need a daily pick-me-up and a reminder for your Inner Goddess, just pay a visit to her blog! Oh, but you already know that! :)


Yessss!!!!!!! here we go!!!!

I am moving on with my Filofax Swap Saga, showing of a gorgeous Filofax AND guest posting for a blogger that totally "gets" this Filofax gorgeousness! What a treat!!!! Thank you so much Vanjilla for having me here showing it all! :D

Soooo, what came after Chamomile?

And what am I talking about, you ask.

I am talking about my quest to find the perfect Filofax fit for me.

Oh, and I said perfect! sure thing that won't happen, HA!
Which is good, thou, I can keep going with my Filofax Swap posts indefinitely, hehehe

So, here is the swap list in case you need to catch up:

• Filofax Swap (The original!)
• Filofax Swap 2 - The attempt
• Filofax Swap 3 - The "Chamomile" attempt!

So, now, let's get back to the question: What came after Chamomile?

can you guess? can you guess?

Take a peak! hehe

yessss!!!! The love of my life, BAROQUE!

Now, seriously, I am totally in love with pink, yellow, orange and the like.

Did you notice what happen there? ME with a BLACK Filofax?
That is something I had never envisioned. Only a Baroque to make me take the leap!

And I liked it :D

We had a lot of fun!

Yeah.... had, I said. :-/
That was just ONE major reason that made move out of it. And it is not even the Baroque's fault! (it is never the Baroque's fault obviously!*)

But we will get to it :)


Let's check out the good times we had:

Totally filled with good times!

I literally transfered the juices of Chamomile into the Baroque.
I still don't like those vertical slots, in case you are wondering. So I kept the pocket card slots in there for easy access.
On the left hand side I just stuffed in some informational cards, business cards and a decorative card.

I have a set of month per view and a week per view. The month per view is very straight forward - the standard one from Filofax so I am not going thru that one.

The week per view is my problem.

Since the beginning of the year I am trying to figure out what kind of combination works for me.

I need to have a glance of the week but need daily planning as well.
I tried Flavia 2 pages per day and despite of its gorgeousness I could never make it work.
Finally a couple of weeks ago I found a good home for it! :)

So, the week per view.
I certanly deeply dislike the white cheap paper with weekends squeezed in.
A while back, Josh was very nice sending me his week per view in cotton cream. Wonderful! Great paper and equalitarian distribution of space! yes!

I was happily married with that set up for a while.
I spread out my tasks throughout the week with a little check box on the side of each task. Like this:

Pretty straight forward!

It worked well for a good chunk of time.

My problem started when I couldn't do something, say on a Monday, and would re-write for Wednesday and most likely again for Friday. That, I gotta say, made me always feel very bad as I wasn't accomplishing my little deadlines. I always had to "postpone" the deadlines to later in the week. Made me feel bad.

So I decide to play a trick to disguise my mind.
What if Thursday was the final deadline but I could visually do something that implied I should start working on pieces of the task on Monday?

I then started writing my tasks along long lines that would encompass more then one day.
The page on the right was my first attempt:

See how that worked?

For example "post Spring A5" I gave myself from Thursday till Sunday to accomplish. That way I didn't feel so bad if it wasn't done on Friday; I was still on the "time-frame".
I sure got excited with my idea, but besides the fact that is a pain to turn the whole organizer to write vertically like that (and later on the neck, to read it!), I couldn't connect days from the left page to the right page.


The solution? Steve & Ray's inserts of course!
After a lot of struggle of my part and help from the authors I altered their Vertical Week Per View to look like this:

Now I could connect all the days I needed with a big line! Plus the absence of lines would help with my irregular writing. And there it is a week in use:

See that I could assign a huge task to the entire week like "prep for NY trip" at the bottom.

I was very happy with it!
No lines make me feel more comfortable to write AND I didn't feel a total failure because a task was retricted to a day and I didn't finish it that day. Very happy with it!

One thing thou: the darn rings.
I mentioned here how I really dislike those humoungous rings that don't let me write close to the edge of the pages.

My solution this time?

A mock up of the Circa system.

I did little cuts on each whole.
That way I could easily slide the pages away from the rings, write on it and put it back in place.

That worked very well for its original purpose but certainly because the design of the wholes is not made for it, I had to be careful turning pages. If I turned single pages too eagerly, they would just fly away!
I had no problems at all turning chunks of pages together.

Ok, so to almost finalize, pen loop struggle!
Why not right? I am yet to find a Filofax that holds my fat Bic 4 colors.

In this case I can't even hang it by the little "arm" because the pen squeezes my tabs. I ended up just sneaking in the pen between the snap closure and the tabs.
And it actually sits great on the tabs. It doesn't squeeze them much:

The problem is that most of the times I forget the pen is not secure at all, open the organizer and there the pen goes straight to the floor. Hehe

Now, last pic, I promise!

I know there is no need to show my stickers' storage but that is my excuse to show off that pattern gorgeousness again, hehe:

So, I got to say, all that juicy beauty and it would mostly stay closed inside my purse. Occasionally at work I would remember something and would take a quick note and put it back in the purse. 

Not fair to that gorgeousness, isn't it?

To finalize - now seriously! -  here we go, the reason I had to move out of that delicious Filofax...

pen loop? nah! 

humongous rings? .....mmmm.... well, related to it because...

...it was just TOOO HEAVY people, too heavy for me! Too bulky, too much!

(*see, it wasn't really a Baroque's issue per say, it was my struggle with personal size. Baroques are always awesome! hehe)

It certainly was VERY convenient to have all my notes with me all the time, including travel plans but oh boy...... I really couldn't handle the weight.

I love you darling Baroque but you sit prettier OPENED on my desk at home. ♥

So, I moved out.

If you hang around on Twitter and/or  Instagram you may had seen already where I had headed to?!

No?

Here it is a sneak peek of what is coming next:

oh yeah!

Don't miss it! 

The saga continues. Always! :)

--------------------------> Filofax Swap 5 - A Classy Attempt! -------------------->

Coming soon , on a blog pretty close to you!

Many smooches and hugs to you all,

LT

****

PS: Thanks Vanjilla again for hosting my Baroque post! I really had fun writing it :)

Dear Lime Tree, I hope this is just the beginning of your guest posting here! :)  And I'm fully inspired by your ideas again, my Sister in Baroque! :)

The Great Mini

My first Filofax ever was an A5 Graphic Zip (I was still a student back then and needed something spacious and secure, so this seemed a great option and I turned it into a tote crammed full of things!)
When I went to work, I lugged it around with me for a while, but suddenly it was so bulky I couldn't stand it anymore (and its masculine look as well - I suppose that was a sign of me growing up, hehe).
So off to the pocket size we went - a pink BCC surely was the real opposite, wasn't it?

For more than a year now this was my main Filofax size (but not the binder, obviously, ah!) and I somehow struggled with its much smaller size, keeping in all my stuff: diary, to-dos, notes, even a journal.
Just as I'm writing this a thought occurred: how come I switched from A5 to pocket size directly, without even considering personal size? But then I remembered: I wanted something of a personal size, but there was a thing about it that was always bothering me: the look of a personal sized sheet. I simply didn't like its proportions - so narrow in comparison to its width, they were similar to nothing I was previously writing on! So I chose pocket size instead, its papers look lovely - more compact, more squarish and chubby!

As my needs developed and because I invented a need needed a gift for myself after finishing my Master's degree, I finally got the personal sized one. I got used to the enigmatic personal size in an hour or so and am loving it ever since!

Before I get too carried away with my filohistory - I just wanted to illustrate how the mini size Filofax was never even an option for me - at the time I cannot imagine even using pocket size (which is a pity with some lovely Sleeping Beauties dreaming away in my drawer!). But I saw some posts on philofaxy (of course! this site is making me obsessed!) that made me curious and I knew the mini experiment was just a question of time.

And so I knew the time has come when I I found an used mini Amazona in what was once called "brown" (because when I saw it later in reality it was rather "brown beaten to almond"!). I have always had a huge weakness for Amazonas and even the quite poor state of this one didn't stop me, I thought it will be a good trial wallet anyway. And oh yes it was! In both dimensions: as a size and as a poor little beaten Amazona, too.

So, how is this mini working for me?


I keep my most used cards in the front so they're easy to reach (the little white dandelion post-its only cover personal info!). I added a few post-its for my quick notes.
In the secretarial pocket that is so awesome an invention that I-couldn't-live-without-it-now-that-I-have-tried-it are my driving license, receipts and some coupons. The first page is a plastic envelope filled for decoration only, I keep some photos of my family on the back of it.

 And then it goes as the tiny icons show: credit cards, loyalty cards, expenses sheet, to-do lists and documents.

My to-dos here are in fact my shopping lists - it's great to finally actually have them with me when in store!

The expenses sheet is how I try to keep track of my consumerism - a major underreporter I am!

Then there's also the back zipped pocket - see how innocently it looks when closed? But I assure you, this thing can really hold a lot of coins! This is what I was especially happy to get because the coins were one of my biggest issues when deciding to try a mini as a wallet. I just didn't want to carry a coin purse as well! 

 

 OK, the pen does get in a way a bit, but it is no struggle, and it writes so smoothly and looks so cute due to its mini size that I cannot bring myself to replace it!

As all minis (I think), this one, too, has a full length pocket where I keep my banknotes.

 So this is it in the pictures and words. Now how about an explanation or two?

1.Why I love the mini size so much?
= because it is not that small at all, it actually gets too big sometimes! And because it holds my cards comfortably - you know, no fiddling when paying. AND because it is big enough to make some necessary notes and shopping lists, too.

2. Why do I love this poor Amazona? :)
= It really looks battered, but I somehow got used to it and what I love the most about it is the softness of its hard used leather! It's amazingly soft and I didn't know that Amazonas age so well  until now -  the other ones that I have are brand new and still feel somewhat rough. Can't wait for them to age (although... knowing how careful I am with them, they'll never get the opportunity to develop a character like this one did).

So things have come so far that I loved the size of the mini so much I decided to buy a real one after this successful trial period, and already got a stunning one, and also prepared it ready to go. But... but I somehow just cannot part with this Amazona! Which is outrageous, I'll show you why:

The mini in waiting is a mini Balmoral, a gorgeous style that isn't produced anymore - what a pity, I'd buy it in every size!!! It is amazing one...  I tried my best to make the pictures that will show it in all its glory, but I'm no photographer and - damn, these shiny black things are difficult to capture! I had similar problems with my post on personal Amazona, it just turns silvery on the pictures no matter what the surrounding light is! So, please, before you proceed - imagine a blackest black, glossy leather that was lacquered over and over!

No secretarial pocket in Balmoral, though, I really miss it! But it has a cute popper-pocket for coins at the back!

And the binder has two popper positions so you can adjust the strap - isn't that a luxury?! I wish every binder had that!

I wanted to show the dimensions here - both of the pen and the binder. And to show them both off a little, I admit! Yes, unlike the Amazona, I treated this one to a genuine Filofax mini Barley pen. I didn't hear too good reviews on it, but I must say it writes and feels lovely.

The full length pocket again...

  
See? This is my dilemma: the Balmoral is just awesome and so chic... but for some reason I'm stuck on the Amazona and cannot move on! :) What do you think, which one would you use? Please, post in the comments!

I know, this has been a marathon-long, picture heavy post, but I'll just explain shortly about the accessories that I used for setting this mini up:  I made the credit card holders out of the old plastic documents folder that I tore apart, while the little icons pictured at the beginning come from an old Moleskine. I got the idea from this beauty, but since I am nowhere as neat as she is, I just stuck the Moleskine icons on Avery divider tabs and cut those to the right size.

Thank you for reading this all through, and to rest your eyes a little... please sit back with me and take these  4:38 minutes more!

This is the loveliest time of the year and this song that just has to be a part of it... It brings so many beautiful memories to me, I hope it does the same for you!  :)

With love,

Vanjilla.