i've done a guest post over at Ryman's!

I have a special announcement today! Recently, I was contacted by the lovely Rebecca over at Ryman's to write a guest post on their blog and today, it has gone live!

To see what my post was about, click here :-)

Miss X's Paper Lovestory

Today, I have a very special post for you. I have a guest post from an anonymous reader, who I will refer to as Miss X from now on, about her very own paper lovestory.

I hope you enjoyed today's guest post from Miss X. I certainly did and how lovely is her handwriting?! Thank you, Miss X, for sending in your own paper lovestory :-) it was a pleasure to read it and also a pleasure to see your lovely handwriting!

guest post: Esmé's planner

Today, I have a very special guest post. It is a post from the lovely Esmé and is about her planner and planning system.

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Hullo to the fabulous fans of Angela's Paper Lovestory; I'm honored to be here, and hope that you'll enjoy a peek into my planner -- just two nights ago, when I pulled out my wee book at dinner to check my weekend schedule, my sister-in-law laughed and said, "You're the only one I know who still uses pen and paper for that sort of thing." And yes, I am a tech geek, and have fiddled around with various apps and gadgets (TeuxDeux is quite nice, as is Wunderlist), but there's nothing quite as lovely as pulling out my planner, fiddling around with some washi tape and stickers, and making my days seem like colorful adventures. I bet you feel the same way.

On with the show!

So, a little backstory: I was deeply fascinated by the Filofax community for a long time, leading me to purchase several Filofaxes, including the infamous Affair, until I finally realized that being left-handed prevented me from fully enjoying using a Filofax. The rings were always getting in the way. I tried a Smythson, hoping that would be better; I tried the Levenger system, but the disc/paper system was always falling apart on me.

...and then I discovered Mon Journal!

Mon Journal is a non-dated journal produced by invite.l, a Korean stationery company. It comes without an extra, wraparound hardback cover, but I chose to pay for the hardback cover, which you will see here. I taped a Polaroid to the vinyl protective cover with washi tape.

This is what it looks like when you open the front hardback cover. As you can see, there's a convenient pocket on the left side for your love notes and million-dollar checks, and on the right, you will see another of my Polaroids, along with a sticker I've put below it that spells out the opening and closing dates of this particular Mon Journal planner. With regards to the left-handed issue: I find this planner so rewarding to use in part because the spiral wire holding the book together is small, though still sturdy, as opposed to the unwieldy, big rings that hold Filofaxes together.

Mon Journal is, as I've mentioned, a largely undated planner. The only part that isn't is a spread conveying the relevant years. I haven't found this section particularly useful, but I did put some inspirational words that are guiding me through the year.

All right! Here's the juicy stuff. Most of the planner operates week-by-week, with monthly calendars in between. The entire week is on the left side, while the right side is "blank" (with very small grid guidelines, which I love because I have tiny handwriting, and wide lines or wide  grids make me nuts). I use the day-by-day spaces to create to-do lists. Instead of checkboxes, I employ open hearts; when I finish something, I fill in the heart and put a checkmark next to the item. I also put events in their given days, such as dinner dates or meetings.

I use the right side to do more in-depth to-do planning. Sometimes a day will merit an entire column,; on extra-busy weeks, I need to tape a new sheet -- or a few sheets! -- on top of the given sheet with washi tape (only on the top, so that I can flip it to see things beneath).

There's a lovely bunch of blank (again: gridded) pages at the end for notes, but I found that I wanted more for journaling and note-taking, so I made a black top tab out of cardboard, stuck it about thirty pages from the end, and now use that back space, which includes both blank pages and the usual weekly pages. You'd think that having weekly pages as journaling space would be obnoxious, but Mon Journal's lines and grids are so pale that I don't find the discrepancy to be a problem. Here's an example.

And finally, the back of the book! On the right side is a big blue envelope for your bits and bobs. I keep postage stamps in there, for example. I snagged a sticky pad from my office to put on the envelope; it's the kind of sticky pad that peels off like a regular sticky, but each one is entirely adhesive, from top to bottom, and is still easy to peel off.

I hope you've had a jolly time looking at my planner system. Again, thank you to Angela for sharing her space with me.

RESOURCES:

I'm a writer by trade and vocation, a photographer, and a blogger. Though I write about all sorts of things, my blog has a primary focus on small, beautiful moments, as well as the ever-present odyssey of learning to live well with Schizoaffective Disorder. Find it at http://www.esmewang.com/.
I purchase many of my stickers and washi tape from AdoreNeko (Etsy).
Purchase the Mon Journal here.

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Don't you just love how cute the planner is?! And also how she's set it up?

Thank you, Esmé for sending in this guest post - I definitely thoroughly enjoyed reading and perving over the pictures too ;)

guest post from Alice :)

Today, I am honoured to feature a guest post from Alice (@45Ads on Twitter). She is one of my favourite tweeters (is that a word?) and she is also lovely! 

Basically, this post came about because we were talking about custom inserts. She then sent me an insert she had made herself and I loved it! I wanted to know more and that's when I asked her if she would like to write a guest post as to how she uses them and also how she made them. 

With the quality of Filofax paper a common gripe between users of ringed organisers, custom inserts are definitely increasing in popularity as they offer that personal touch and you can choose what paper to print them onto! Now you can see why I'm so interested in Alice's custom inserts :) 

Without further ado, here is Alice's post. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did!
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Angela has generously offered me the chance to write a guest post for her blog. I hope that I can live up to her expectations!

For starters, I own five binders. One is a cheap red wanna-be and he is falling apart around the rings. It is a personal size and I only use it for storage. I have two other personal size binders, both from Filofax. One is a beautiful brown calf leather Winchester from the 80s, my first Filofax, and the other is a red Domino. I also have two A5 binders. One is a red Filofax Sketch and the other, my favourite, is the sunflower yellow Dolce Vita from Succes. It is for the Succes that I wanted to make inserts myself.

The standard inserts by Succes are superior to Filofax. The paper is ticker and better suited for fountain pen ink. However, after a huge change in schedules (unreadable and/or messed up with white-out), I needed a new, clean set for the remainder of the year. Like many, I use fountain pens and the Pilot G-2. On ordinary Filofax inserts, they feather and bleed. So despite being able to get a 2012 set at a good price, I choose not to and started my quest for better inserts at a fraction of the price!

In Word, I opened a text box and inserted a table. I gave the table four columns and about 25 rows. My setting for the column widths is “autofit to content.” By simply using the standard features, I printed in bold the days of the week, the hours, the headers “notes” and “exercises” and gave them a colour.

The advantage of the “autofit to content” setting is that the first column remains very lean. It only needs to contain a few numbers representing the hours of the day. As you can see, I only used whole hours and did not insert 30min increments. Why? I don’t need more details. My work from home gets detailed in another binder, the Winchester, so I really do not need more time increments in the daily planner. However, if you do, just delete the extra lines under “notes” and/or “exercises” to make room for those increments. See why I love this? Flexibility!

At the bottom on the page where I have “notes” I do not list regular to-do things. Those go on a separate insert. Under “notes” I place things that are happening that day that I want to keep track off such as “fieldtrips” or “presidential debates.” The “exercise” row also at the bottom is to help me actually do my exercises. I do not like to go to the gym (major confession, you heard it here first! :D) so by making it visual, I shame myself into going just so I can check the box. Yes, it is that basic! 

My design is very rudimentary but what I love about it is the following: anything that is fixed such as school drop off and pick up times can be printed in advance for the whole school year. The same counts for holidays, birthdays, early school release dates, etc. Also, by typing things that are fixed you create “blocks.” With “blocks” I mean that if you type in advance what is fixed and for the rest write by hand, you can see where the gaps are for activities, time for yourself, etc. Do you want your calendar week to start on Sunday? No problem. Just change the days in the columns. Do you want to start the first of each month on a separate page? No problem, just stop at the 30^th/31^st and start on a fresh table with the 1^st of that month.

 

A word on printing: I make a week-on-two-pages on one sheet in landscape and then print it. Since I use an A5 binder, I only need to fold the page in half and punch holes in it. If you do not like a folded page in your binder, you can print it double-sided, cut the page in half, and then hole punch.

My weekly planning or “to-do” list is also made with Word. I used a text box with a table, three columns, 25 rows, and again “autofit to content.” Why? I need more space in the first column to write and in columns two and three; I only place a check mark. As you can see on the design, it has a “home” section with plenty of space for you to add other to-dos. I added a “miscellaneous” section at the bottom for everything not “house” or “work” related.

I might start printing the to-do sheet on a different colour paper. If you insert the to-do sheet in between the week-on-two-pages, you can see Mon-Tues-Wed on the left and if you turn the to-do page, you see Thurs-Fri-Sat/Sun. Need to see the whole week? Just hold it up and the week-at-a-glance is right there!

On both inserts, I used text in the background but you can add a picture here as well to personalize it. Other options for personalizing your inserts are by printing it on coloured paper or on relief paper if your printer can handle that. You could also consider (but this is very time consuming) cutting out the tables, pasting them on card stock and covering the edges with washi tape.

I am using my own inserts for the rest of the calendar year so I can be critical of my own design, see if it is practical, and of course, add/change where needed.

Everyone’s schedule is different and the best thing about making inserts yourself is that it is tailor-made for you. Have fun!

Alice (@45Ads) on Twitter

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Thanks, Alice, for running through your custom inserts. I can't wait to start work so I can use similar ones! I love her planning system and also how the inserts are folded in half! Such an awesome idea.

And, as if this post isn't awesome enough, Alice has kindly included a PDF of the time planning insert :)

And a link to the PDF (without the watermark).

Don't you just love seeing how other people use their organisers? And doesn't it just give you so many ideas for your own?

all stars guest post: Vanja of Vanjilla!

Today, I'm featuring an All Stars guest post from the lovely Vanja. You might know her as the blogger over at Vanjilla :)

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Uh oh... as if page fright wasn't enough by itself, now here's Angela's blank page staring at me.

Can you imagine that? Geeee. :)

Is there possibly a way of not messing it up?!

(must not think of her ever immaculate chic posts, must not think of her ever immaculate chic posts...!) 

Well, I'll try and do my best and play it safe: I'll show you my favourite Filofaxes.

1. Mini Balmoral in Black and a Personal Malden in Vintage Pink: my current daily Filofaxes.

The Balmoral is one of the Filofax "dinosaurs" that I wish were still produced: stylish, glossy, hardwearing, screaming quality! I was after one for a long while - having been seduced by Cat's magical one - and I say: if you encounter a Balmoral, grab it without thinking!

I love it as a wallet and have therefore rewarded it with a Filofax pen - and now they shine together in my handbag! 

And the Malden? Ahhh, the Malden! :) Need I say more, majority of you has, just like me, been bitten by the Malden Bug last autumn! 

It wasn't love at first sight though (I bought it online without seeing it in person first), I loved the colour and the leather, but not the pockets for some unknown reason. So I kept it in my drawer for a year, installed it recently because of my longing for its creamy colour  - and now it's a fresh romance! Go figure! :)

2. Personal Amazona in Black and in Almond.

They are my two princesses. Seriously.
When still fresh in Filofaxland, they were THE OBJECT of my dreams and I kept watching them and daydreaming about them. I'm not sure, maybe I even said good morning and good night to them during some periods of time! :)
Then along came Imy with her uber-cute Amazona series; she mercilessly pushed me into acquiring the Black one and when I got it, the Almond one was just a question of time: pure love!

 3. Personal Piccadilly in Apple Green.

I'd probably never know about the Piccadilly hadn't I incidentally seen this. I was intrigued, yes, but as it was nowhere to be found... well, it was obviously meant to be, though, because my mother got me one as a present! Mind you: a person without a clue about Filofaxes stumbled upon a brand new Piccadilly in 2011! :) 
I called it my ultimate love affair and it still is; because of its racy colour (how I miss this in current Filofax range!), cute button on the clasp (a thing of mine...), perfect pocket layout (there are 7 horizontal pockets on the left and I cannot tell you how very different they feel compared to those vertical ones - sorry Malden and Baroque!) and beautifully padded soft grained leather. And the sentimental value and beautiful memories, of course! But there's also something irrational about it, like some supernatural powers to it! :)
I keep it in my collection but I don't use it currently; it got some scratches and I began to panic about it!

 4. Personal Baroque in Teal.

My very own enchanted forest, gained after much sacrifice and pain. Need I say more? :)

5. Personal Finchley in Vintage Pink.

Courtesy of Angela's. :)  I wasn't into Finchleys until I saw Angela's Finchleys in use. When I saw them, I was smitten. How she manages to make them supercute and so ladylike both at the same time is beyond my understanding. :)   This one is brand new, I got it extra cheap just two days after loosing one extremely expensive on eBay - again, talking about meant-to-be-s! I plan to use this one as my next everday planner, its warm colour could be perfect for wintertime!

6. Personal Finsbury Zip in Pink.

My journal. And one of the prettiest models around, if you ask me, which by some strange injustice just didn't get the attention it deserves: it is beautifully shaped and sleek and the zipper - oh the zipper! I know many of you don't like it, but to me it feels like a lock on the door of my untidy creative studio: I can leave it the way I want to and when I return, all is still the way I left it.
And if I didn't convince you, try this! :)

Well, now I have really let you directly into my Filofax soul - I hope you have enjoyed the trip! :)


Angela, thank you so much for letting me appear on your blog, I feel like a really grown up blogger now! :)

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Thanks, Vanja for this lovely post! I really enjoyed reading it and you're way too complimentary about my posts! My personal favourite in this post is the green Picadilly. The colour is amazing and it's a model rarely blogged about.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did :)

guest post by Angel, all the way from Spain!

Today, I am featuring a post from one of my lovely readers: Ángel  from sunny Spain. He was actually the recipient of a set of late 2012 and 2013 white week on two page inserts and he has kindly agreed to do a post on how he manages his time and also a snapshot of his week.

Thank you, Ángel, for this guest post. It was a pleasure to read it (and the links are just brilliant!).

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A few years ago I used to use a binder I got as a gift (a Finocam 500 organiser in brown) as my diary (planner), notebook, and reference book. I really liked it, although it was a bit too bulky and heavy to carry (paper insert size was 117x182 mm) and I often felt embarrassed to take it out in public. I guess I though I'd look too pretentious using such a cool organiser at my age then. At some point I decided it wasn't worth it carrying around with me to not really use it much, and I started leaving it at home until I stopped using it altogether.

For a few years I didn't use a planner or any other organisation system. Sometimes, I'd write things down on a piece of paper I'd keep in my wallet, in my pocket, or in a folder I was carrying around with me. Even though I usually remembered everything, and just keeping random information (phone numbers, addresses, etc.) in loose pieces of paper was usually fine, some times I would forget small things (not appointments, meetings, or anything really important) and eventually I decided that I needed to get more organised. I thought I could use my nice Finocam binder again, but since I remembered it was too bulky to carry it with me all the time and it already had some marks and the pen loop had almost fallen apart, I decided I would look for something else.

In my search for my ideal organisational system I came across the hipster PDA, with which I played around for a while, and then I found the PocketMod which I found a really cool idea. I've been making and using pocketmods as diaries (planners), reference booklets (phone numbers, English vocab I was trying to learn, information on places I was visiting...), small notebooks, etc. I still love them and always carry a few of them with me in a plastic A7 folder.

At some point during this summer I decided that I needed to get more organised and that I should seriously implement 'Getting Things Done' (GTD) in order to achieve it. I went back to the internet to learn about how other people where using binders (Filofax in particular) as part of their organisation systems. I specially enjoyed Neil's ideas and videos, but it was Imy's enthusiasm and lovely videos what inevitably drove me to Filofax and the incredible phILOFAXY community. I've been reading blogs, watching videos, and searching (and buying) for binders on Ebay since then (I guess you guys don't need details about that, do you? :-). It doesn't seem to be easy anymore to find Filofax (or nearly any ring organiser) products locally in Spain, or at least not in the city I live in.

After looking at so many, interesting setups, I thought that a slimline binder could work for me, and so I bought a quite nice (and very cheap) slim organizer (not a Filofax) to try it out without investing an extortionate amount of money. I was about to make my own inserts or try some of Ray and Steve's when I found out Angela was giving away a set of 2012 and 2013 personal sized white week on two pages inserts for free on the For sale section of her lovely blog. I emailed Angela and asked her whether she would post them internationally, which she kindly agreed to and she sent them my way immediately.

As soon as I got them, I inserted 2012 weeks 39-52 into my slim organiser, which I like very much, and I couldn't help transcribing week 39 from my PocketMod one week on a (mini)page into my new Filofax inserts. When I saw the two of them together, it became obvious to me that the best way for me to thank Angela was to offer her 'my week' for her to publish it as one of her 'my Filofax week' series of posts. I asked her what she thought, and she told me I was welcome to be her blog guest. And here I am, telling you about my transition from PocketMod (A7) to personal size. ¡Muchas gracias, Angela! :-)
I think the International Standard (ISO 216) of paper size series is brilliant and, honestly, I thought I wouldn't like the weird proportions of personal size, being so tall and narrow. It's not that I need much more paper real state. A7, in both, hipster and pocketmods forms, has been enough for me for a while, since I only write appointments, meetings, classes, talks, or any other dated events or pieces of information relevant on a particular day. After I transcribed week 39 to the one week on two pages and took some notes on a couple of personal size sheets (from a different brand, not Filofax) I was sold. I see no problem at all with the odd proportions of personal size inserts, and the size and weight of my nice slim organiser are fabulous. I'm very happy with this setup and I think it's going to work very nicely for me. At least for the time being. That might change in the future, when I'll expand on my small side business and I'll have more appointments with customers.

In relation to 'my Filofax week' (or my PocketMod-to-Filofax week, if you will) I have to say it doesn't look as nice and interesting as Angela's and other's featured in Angela's blog. I only write down time specific information, usually in blue (no color coding, or nice colourful stickers, or washi tape. Sorry! :-) Although this week I added some red ink to record a couple of thing, for example when I got the inserts from Angela (I like the contrast, so I might start using more than one colour). Coincidentally, it was on Ángela's birthday (also recorded on the same page), but that is a different Ángela, my five year old niece, who, in a picture, stars the dashboard of my slim binder, of course!

Fortunately, I usually don't have so many appointments with doctors, but this week I had a general checkup on Friday and a checkup to my ankle sprain on Wednesday. By the way, I felt over the moon when the doctor said my ankle was much better, that she didn't need to put the bandage on again, and that I could start walking on just one crutch... It was really liberating!

Finally, as you can see on the images (I tried to take pictures with my phone, but they were of such a bad quality that I ended up scanning the pages), I have some English related activities four days a week. I take English classes every Monday and Wednesday evening and I also attend, usually a couple of times a week, to an informal 'language exchange' group in a cool local bar (run by an lovely English lady), where locals and visitors meet to help each others practicing spoken English and Spanish, and sometimes other languages too. Make sure you don't miss it when you come to Granada if you want to meet some local people and practice your Spanish. :-) By the way, excuse my poor English. I started learning it only as an adult, although I like it a lot and I practice it in every occasion I have. As you can see on the pictures, I even write down things in English in my diary, my notes, and most places intended for my own use only.

I hope some of you might find this post interesting or somehow entertaining, even at a fraction of what I like reading other posts about Filofax, planning, organisation, etc. I've really enjoyed planning and writing this. Thank you for reading it, and thank you, Angela, for allowing me to post it on your fantastic blog.

-Ángel, aka NeonLicht@MyOpenId.com

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Again, thank you, Ángel, for sending this in :) It was very interesting to read how you used your diary and also the different systems you have used in the past. Although the post does feature his Filofax week, I thought it would be better for it to be a standalone guest post due to the excellent content in it :)

Hope you guys enjoy reading this as much as I did! 

guest post: Mai's setup!

Today, I have a post from a lovely reader called Mai on how she has set her planner up. I don't know about you guys but I love seeing other people's planner setups and when it is as cute as this, it doubles the pleasure ;) Anyway, enough of me; here is her planner setup!

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Hi, I’m Mai [Hi Mai!!!] from the lovely Southern California, and here is my weekly planner.  I don’t actually own a filofax.  Eventually I will one day.  Until then, here’s my Mead weekly planner designed by the popular textile designer, Thomas Paul.  I just love how it’s colorful and yet simplistic at the same time.

Inside I added a personal touch to the front.  Yes, that’s a pokemon ball on the bottom left.  A fellow craftster of mine hand-sew it from felt.  All the random and colorful papers in the pockets are note cards and scrap paper that I use to write notes on.  They do come in handy.  Now on the right is what I use as a decorative cover sheet.  Isn’t that a beauty?  I am a big tokidoki fan.  What I originally wanted to do was make my stationary into note sheets.  I had the stationary for years, but sadly in this technological world nobody writes to each other the old fashion way anymore.  After cropping the paper down to size, I realize it makes a cute front cover.  The front plastic piece makes not only a great protector, but a cool frosted look.  Unfortunately, the tokidoki stationary doesn’t exist anymore. 

I can change the tokidoki sheets to change up my planner’s look.

So here’s one of my week.  Both my boys’ birthdays are in September.  I promptly took the day off from work and brought the boys to Disneyland with my sister.  Anything in red indicates that the bill is due.  And I have a huge amount of pens lying around my desk at work, so I really have no indicator of color (except red).  I just use the one I see closest to me.  If you look closely, you can tell that I’m a knitter and crocheter.  I’ve been setting goals each day to make a certain amount of stuff.  My sister and I are going to sell our craft goodies at Anime Expo next year.  Never too early to start!  Also, I made a book club at work.  So on the bottom right, I indicated the books that I’ve read or currently reading.  I don’t favor any particular subject, SO DON’T JUDGE ME.

Unlike Angela, I’m not as decorative on the weekly planner itself.  That would probably change in the future as I just bought an extensive amount of washi tape.  Most of what I write in my planner is usually work related.  I’m second in command in the office and as of late, my boss lady has been out of the office for her quarterly boss ladies meeting.  This means I’m the one in charge of the office for the days she’s out.  Good news, I do A LOT of staff games.  Bad news, I have to deal with corporate politics.  I have a sign on my desk that says “I don’t get paid enough to care.” That sign gets pointed at on a daily basis…Sorry, I’m ranting.  I did note a historical moment where Friday the space shuttle Endeavor flew around California before landing on LAX.  Sadly, it was not close enough to me so I just saw a little speck.  Dumb broker I work for was like, “I don’t know why this is such a big thing.” THERE’S A SPACE SHUTTLE ON TOP OF A JUMBO AIRPLANE AND IT IS FLYING!  Seriously, how often do you see that?  Actually, never.

On the notes section, I’ve made a wish list.  Christmas is coming up after all.  I’m a Doctor Who fan (I’m a big fan of anything time traveling, but I’m going to be realistic and I don’t think my husband will buy me a DeLorean).  I’m going to have to do a lot of nagging, whining and pleading to receive the last item on the list… On the other note, check out that washi tape decorating on top of the note paper.  I got inspired by Angela :D

Last but not least, I printed the awesome custom insert Angela made and I added a bit of color to it to make it look awesome.  I’m telling you, washi tapes are the best.  Personally I don’t like scrapbooking, but I LOVE scrapbooking supplies.  My to-do lists are basically my weekly cleaning chores and groceries that need to be bought.  If I don’t write it down, I won’t do the chores.  I hate cleaning up, especially after three boys (that is including my husband).

Thanks again Angela for letting me guest post for your blog!  My planner is forever changing due to new inspirations.  I’ll leave with one last note: my planner weighs 418g.  Oh and don’t forget to follow me @maizahn on twitter. Thanks a bunch!

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What do you guys think? I love how colourful and creative it all is. I also love the Mead inserts! I particularly liked the joke about cleaning up after the three boys hehe but my sense of humour is peculiar like that! And I love her Christmas wishlist - it reminds me that it is time for me to write mine (and not receive anything on it cos I write unrealistic things... like a footballer's name or something silly!).

all stars guest post: imy from imysworld!

Today, I have the pleasure of hosting a guest post from Imy of Imy's World. Not only are her blog posts a pleasure to read, her videos are too (seriously, I've watched every single one) and also, she is so lovely. I've not met her yet in person (though I would love to - hopefully at the next Philofaxy meet?) but through Twitter, I feel like I already have met her! Doing it in real life would just be a formality :) 

Anyway, Imy's done a comparison of the Compact size vs the Personal size. As some of you may know, I'm very tempted by the Compact size at the moment - a Compact Osterley to be exact and as a result of this, Imy very kindly suggested doing a post to compare the two. 

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I promised the wonderful Paperlovestory a blog post on my review between compact and personal, I cant really talk much about the pockets as the pockets will be different on any Filofax, but still, I will show you the difference in size and tell you my thoughts.

Thank you  lovely for letting me post here!

So here are the Filofax I will be comparing, it is the Personal Amazona in black and the Compact Regency in brown!

First of all I will show you some pictures comparing the width from the back and side…

As you can see there is quite a difference in thickness of the empty binders (I kept them empty to just show how they differ easier).

The Regency is a lot softer and more bendable so it’s a bit narrower still.

Here is a comparison of the amount of paper you can fit in the binders when they are stuffed to the maximum, on the left is the paper I had in the Amazona, which is all my spare inserts, instead of keeping them in the packets.

On the right is the inserts I use in my Regency, which is still a lot more than you should probably have in a compact, but I need a lot of stuff. I will explain the reason why I am still in a compact in a minute!

The best thing about the compact is what you will see next, the difference in ring sizes!

As you can see from the two pictures above the compact rings look so much smaller, they are exactly 0.8mm smaller than the standard Filofax rings which are 23mm, the compact rings are 15mm, which is tiny! But it is amazing how much they can hold for such small rings!

Because of this difference in ring size it has a more comfortable writing position as they do not stick up as much and it makes it more like writing on a flat notebook, it is so amazing, I love the difference in writing with the smaller rings, but it is looking like I will have to up size to a Personal again as I am needing to use too much in my Filofax, but I am going to try and last out in the smaller rings as long as possible!

Thank you again Paperlovestory for letting me guest post on your blog!!!

I really love your blog and I like to check it daily for new posts!!!! 

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So, now the question is; personal or compact? Compact or personal? I think I may just have been converted to the Regency too! I didn't like it much on the Filofax website but after watching Imy's video on it, and also seeing it in 'real life pictures', I think this may be the Compact I plump for. Especially if I can find it on sale like she did :)

Thank you for agreeing to do a guest post on here, Imy :) If you haven't already, do check out the post I did for her in return :)

guest post: Becca's travel journal

Today, I'm featuring a guest post. This is not part of the Philofaxy All Stars' tour; it's a guest post from someone on Twitter who shares my obsession love of stationery and we actually have a lot in common when it comes to it! Her name is Becca, though you might recognise her as beccatiendoh on Twitter. She is lovely and she also takes really awesome photos, and if that isn't enough, her flickr has more too!

Thank you, Becca, for writing this post and showing us your travel journal :) I turned green with envy when I saw how creative it was and I have a feeling some of you readers might too!

Without further ado, here it is...

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I really wanted to make sure I had the perfect travel journal for my trip, and I couldn't find anything *quite* right, so I ended up customising my uncle's (unused) 1978 journal (pictured below, with the pen on top of it). I really loved the vintage feel of it, particularly the closely packed lines (I have v small handwriting). I split it into a scheduler, a diary/journal, and general notes.

Inside it I customised it a couple of ways, using homemade washi tape and watercolour. This can be seen in the next picture, which is the 'overall schedule' but basically turned out to be an aide memoir of what we did when. I got the dates a bit messed up!

Next is a journal extract from Las Vegas. Most of the journal part is pretty text heavy but I broke it up a bit with some cute Korean stickers.

In the following picture is the journal log I designed on Photoshop to keep a track of the road trip, modelled after a flying log (I'm a big airsports fan). I've shown a blank one because my maths is too embarrassing on the bit we filled out...I stuck it in using the same technique as below.

The next picture shows the 'notes' part of the journal. I found the 1978 dates too distracting for the notes part, so using some homemade tape (an A4-size label and some internet-sourced vintage graphics) I got rid of them.

Finally, the photo below shows the envelope I made to put over the expense account bit, to keep little bits and pieces safe for the scrapbook (airplane tickets, etc).

I've also just got into Scrapbooking this summer, which can be seen below. It's pink, flowery and Cath Kidston, with brown paper interior and I'm using it for my whole summer. There's a small photo of the American Trip (called 'Route 666' because I think I'm funny) title page as well just for kicks. Stickers mostly from Cavallini.

There are some photo sets from the trip here if you're interested:

Some animals: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29970824994/some-animals-i-met-road-tripping

Las Vegas: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29988578822/las-vegas

Utah: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29988987380/zion-national-park

San Francisco: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29989838625/san-francisco

Santa Barbara, California: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29990060341/california-pacific-coast-highway-route-1

Death Valley: http://xue-ying.tumblr.com/post/29990705704/death-valley

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Personally, I loved this sneak peek into Becca's travel journal. Her handwriting is so pretty and she is clearly very creative! All of this makes me want to keep a travel journal like this so that in years to come, I can look at it and take pleasure in re-reading what I got up to in the summer of 2012. 

Thanks, once again, to Becca for allowing us to take a peek into her journal! It's a pleasure to share this with you all as this is scrapbooking/journaling at its finest.

all stars guest post: pennybridge as a travel filo

Today's post is an All Stars guest post courtesy of Carou from Wandrrlust.org. It's an honour to feature her today as her blog is her blog is well written, has a lovely design and the content is varied but relevant!

She has done a post on how she has used her Pennybridge as a Travel Filo.

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Hi everyone!~ I’m Carou from wandrrlust.org, and I’m so honored to be writing a guest post for Angela as part of the Philofaxy All Stars Tour 2012. Angela left the topic of the post up to me, and of course I grabbed the opportunity to show off (yet again!) my brand spankin’ new compact Pennybridge in purple (which has very unoriginally been dubbed Penny).

I read that Penny isn’t made of real leather, and being a leather snob, I was a little worried that I wouldn’t like the material. But all fears were unfounded when I finally received her – the “leather” (or whatever material it is!) feels as good as real, and is heavenly to touch!

The plan has always been for Penny to be my travel Filo – to plan trips, packing lists, shopping lists and any other details. I plan to use her in conjunction with my Moleskine city notebooks; Penny will fill the gap for all general travel information and details.

The above picture was taken before I formally moved into Penny – she holds my frequent flyer cards, Priority Pass lounge cards and my Krisflyer co-brand credit card. I’m still undecided on how to decorate the “dashboard” – right now, I just have a plain sticky with notes on what to wear in winter (I’m planning a trip this winter, and being from a tropical country where it’s summer all year round, I’m at quite a loss as to what materials suit a winter climate best. Hence the research.)

Pre-moving in: A temporary list of things I want to include inside Penny – including a photocopy of my passport, all important info like Frequent Flyer numbers, and of course, itinerary and packing lists.

After the Filofax registration page, I have a central information page which lists passport information, frequent flyer numbers and hotel loyalty program numbers. On the reverse, I list the 24-hour hotline for my Foreign ministry (I decided against having specific embassy numbers here, since that will go under Trip Details. The 24-hour numbers work for anywhere in the world) and phone numbers for my various banks in case I lose my credit cards or phone while overseas.

Planning the sections inside Penny. I’m still undecided if I should separate them based on function (e.g. packing lists in one section, trip details in another, etc) or if they should be divided according to trip (e.g. packing list + trip details etc together). For now, they are split according to the former, because I can just re-use packing lists for different trips. I don’t want to have a separate divider for each trip, but that might change in the future.

An overview of my dividers and how each individual divider looks like (they’re all on different paper). I made the dividers from scratch again as I can’t stand using the standard dividers (more on that in a separate post on my blog). I also used a trick I learned from Angela – each divider title is written on washi tape, which allows for some flexibility in changing their use if or when I decide I want to separate things based on trip.

An overview of how my sections look like – itinerary, packing list and outfit list. The pages are still pretty empty cos the trip is currently in the planning stage, but they should start getting filled quite soon.

And that’s how my Pennybridge looks like for now. Thanks again Angela for letting me write a guest post! 

~CAROU xx

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Thank you so much, Carou, for agreeing to write this post for Paper Lovestory :) It was a pleasure and honestly, isn't her handwriting so beautiful? I love how she has organised it as well and it really makes me hope that I'll be going on holiday later this year!

What do you guys think?