Mini Cross Setup ...

First I want to say how much I love my mini Baroque. The leather is so very soft and tactile, the colour is gorgeous, theres so very many pockets its like a mini pink Tardis ... I will probably never let it go ...

But, I fancied a change for a while ...

So I was very lucky and found a Mini Cross on ebay. No idea what the colour is officially called, sand/tan/camel ...? Anyhow, as it is the same size as my Baroque I was able to simply transfer from one to the other.

The business cards fit into the card slots, christmas card list and stamps into the vertical pocket behind. On the rings is a plastic side-opening envelope containing stickers and washi, a flyleaf with mini sticky notes, followed by a full 2013 WO2P diary ... Not much change there then!

Still got room for notes and a magnetic clip ...

Addresses, lists, etc (I won't bother to show those as its exactly the same as before). The main difference is the back of the binder. The Baroque has a slot for a notepad, the Cross has a zippy pocket. I found I never really used the notepad as I have notepaper on the rings, so instead I wrote down all the important telephone numbers off my mobile onto a sheet of A5, folded the paper and tucked it into the pocket. So simple, yet now if my phone dies/gets lost/broken/stolen/whatever I have all my numbers to hand. I do back up my phone on my pc but chances are I won't have my pc with me when out and about and in need of numbers ...

Finally, I like the way the pen loop actually holds then pen away from the paper. Also theres a wallet pocket - fab! I really like this feature, alas the Baroque doesn't have one ...

The pen is a Lamy Agenda ...Its a nice pen, but its not gel and I really like gel pens. The next 'want' on my list is a black gel pen thats short enough to fit! Oh, and maybe a couple more mini Crosses in various colours, Cherry Red, Chocolate, Pale Blue, Black, French Navy, Pink ....  !!

An Interesting Charity Shop Find ...

Its just struck me that most of my recent posts have been about filofaxes, stationery, and the like. In fact I've been quite obsessive! Nerdy even! In order to rectify the problem this post is about a charity shop find. A treasure. A 'makes me smile' thing ...

I was on an evening power walk/run (we have a lot of hills. I run down them and power walk up ... Its easier lol!) with a friend. It was on a Monday ... I know this 'cos Monday night is torture night (very steep hills!) and as a treat me and my friend stop and look in the local charity shop window that we pass on out way back. Yes I know it sounds bizarre but that's what we like to do ...

Thats when I first saw it ...

The print.

Just hanging in the window, and only £4.99 ...

And it was vintage ... Bonus! I immediately got the 'I wants', of course the shop was shut. Boo!

So I went back the next day and bought it! Here it is ...

Its 'The Sporting Jug' by H Clayton.

I love it!

My Filofax collection has changed somewhat ...

Firstly can I just apologise for the rambling in this post! I'm just trying to get my thoughts in order ... At the beginning of the year I realised I'd aquired rather a lot of brightly patterned canvas filofaxes, a lot of which weren't being used. They did look pretty together on a shelf ... Here's a few of them ... Top left to right: Swift, Indie, Laurel. Bottom left to right: Petal, Spots, Metropol.

I also had a Fresco, green pocket Songbird and a purple pocket Songbird ... They were all nice in their own way but I ended up selling or giving them (I gave at least four away to family and friends) away as none of them were quite right for me. I've realised I really prefer horizontal card pockets, don't like mesh pockets, really like bright colour leather ... And so on ... Okay I'm actually quite fussy! At one point my collection looked like this ...

And today it looks like this ...

Still its not quite right as I only use five! The red personal Chameleon is my finance file, green personal Piazza is my journal, purple Finchley is my food diary, pocket pink Baroque is my health and fitness file and the mini pink Baroque is my daily carry-everywhere planner. So these are the filos I actually use, alhough the purple Finchley may be replaced by the pocket Aston in Orchid as the Finchley has both vertical card pockets AND a mesh pocket ...! Yuk!!

Which leaves these ...

I don't really know what to do at the moment. Mini Amazona (too dull), vintage pink pocket Malden (love the zip pocket, hate the vertical pockets), bright pink Opal (no pockets at all), and a BCC Lizard ... and probably the Finchley when the Aston arrives. Actually I may have a use for the Opal ... and I really do like the BCC Lizard even if it does only contain notepaper ... so that leaves the Amazona, Malden and Finchley to either find a use for or sell on eBay or Adspot. A serious think is in order! Its not good to see beautiful filos just sat on a shelf gathering dust! But can I bear to part with any...?

Maybe I'll just wait for Miss Pocket Aston to arrive first ...