24 May 2012

Reader Under The Spotlight - Christa

Hi everyone, my name is Christa and I run the blog http://lovingmyfilofax.blogspot.co.uk/

I am 24, live in London with my partner of 7 years Tarik and our son Ty who is 4 years old, I work 4 days a week at an electronics company and am hoping to eventually work for myself.

I am organizing crazy, so Filofax fits in great with my organizational needs. I love having a nosy in other peoples Filofaxes to see how they organize themselves, so I can grab some pointers that may help me be even more ultra organized, as I am always on a quest to find the holy grail of set ups.

1. When did you buy your first Filofax and what was it?

My first Filofax was a baby blue piazza pocket which was bought for me by my mum for my birthday when I was 15, though to be honest I didn't really get into using it that much.

2. What other brands have you used or considered using?


It has only been Filofax for me, there is just something about the luxury nature of the leather Filofaxes that makes me never want to consider another brand.

3. Out of the organisers you own which is your current favourite (Style and Size)?


My favourite at the moment is my A5 Pink Classic which is my home binder Filofax

4. How many Filofax organisers do you own?

I have recently sold off quite a few of my collection, as I have realised that A5 is the size for me & so I could narrow it down to the 8 I really love below.
  • An A5 Black Amazona
  • A5 Imperial Purple Finchley
  • A5 Red & Black Adelphi's
  • A5 Pink Classic
  • A5 Black Domino
  • Personal Ultra Violet Dominio
  • Pocket Pink Rio

5. What do you use your Filofax for?

  • My A5 Black Amazona is going to be for business (when I start making enough money to acquire one)
  • A5 Imperial Purple Finchley - My ME Filofax
  • A5 Red Adelphi - Is my notes Filofax to make any rough notes on a day to day basis, then basically anything that doesn't have a section in my other Filofaxes gets filed in behind a-z dividers
  • A5 Black Adelphi - My on the go in my bag Filofax
  • A5 Pink Classic - Is my home binder Filofax, with elements of flyladys control journal
  • A5 Black Domino - Is my storage binder for my diary pages that I have used already that i want to keep
  • Personal Ultra Violet Dominio - Storage for colourful paper
  • Pocket Pink Rio - Storage for colourful paper

6. What was the feature about Filofax you like most?


I love how you can customize exactly what you want to have in your Filofax, either by using the selection of Filofax inserts they make or printing your own

7. If you could design your own Filofax what would it feature?

I would love something along the lines of the Osterley A5, but in a compact A5 size with the same print in black with a plain clasp but with the inside layout the same as the A5 Amazona

8. How do you carry your Filofax?


The only one that leave the house with me is my A5 Adelphi, which just gets chucked in my bag when I go out

9. Which Filofax in the current range do you like the most? Are you going to buy it?

At the moment it is the Osterley A5 in grey but i want to have a look at it in person before spending so much. Hopefully I can see one when I go for the Philofaxy meet up and buy some some others i have my eye on.

10. What is the most you have ever spent on a Filofax? Which model?


I spent around £150 on a new Filofax A5 Black Balmoral that I sold in the end as I just didn't like it enough for the money I spent

11. Turning to Philofaxy, what do you like the most?


The sense of community, how everyone is willing to help each other find hard to find items, things that are available in certain countries

12. And what do you not like about Philofaxy?


What is not to like, its great. I click on the website first thing every morning with a cup of tea

13. What was the last music album CD you bought or downloaded?

Drake - Take Care


Thank you Christa for agreeing to go under the Philofaxy spotlight

9 comments:

  1. Christa, lovely that you've joined in with this series of posts! I really enjoyed meeting you in November & I hope you find the filos you want this week end.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an amazing website! I first bought a leather Filofax the year I got married (1988), and used it for years in one internal format or another. I, too, as many of us did, fell for the electronic toys, and for many years was happy.

    Just recently though, I worked out how many times I had forgotten to update the calendar function on my toys with birthdays, anniversarys etc, and had consequently forgotten them.

    I got my old Filofax out, and, lo and behold, inside was a complete, but slightly out of date birthday and anniversary list.

    I had heard Filofax had gone bust, but upon undertaking a little research discovered this was not the case. I stuck my neck out, and bought a cheap College Personal for work (I was a Telecomms Engineer at the time), and have been using one again ever since.

    Unfortunately, I dropped my College under the works van one morning without realising (i had armfulls of stuff), reversing over it when I pulled out of the parking space, crushing the ring binder loops out of shape. Rather annoyed, I went staight to Staples and splashed out on an oiled Kendal (my poshest Fax to date), and gave my old leather one to my youngest son (which I have just rescued again due to lack of interest as it doesn't have a touch screen!!!).

    I am amazed by the enthusiasm of the other bloggers. I really did think these wonderfully useful products were on the way out. It is good to see that there is a solid core of people that still use them. I do believe Filofaxes are representative of the 'Boom and Bust' economy of the 80's. What I have noticed is that many people are customising inserts themselves, something we did back in the 80's as well.

    I have noticed the distinct lack of variety of inserts that are available now, presumably due to the lack of demand. Gone are the lovely marble effect indices )I still have mine!!!, and the onion skin paper. There was also a range of guides to various cities around the world, and many many more colours of paper to choose from. I have some bright scarlet paper still in mine. The layout of the Notes pad has changed too. Sigh. Bring back the 80's. All is forgiven.

    Happy organising!

    Kev

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christa,
    Can you tell us more about what is in your 'me' binder and your every day one?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'd like to know that too! You know we need a "peek" inside!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I bought a used Filofax Belgravia Travel wallet recently, unused and still in the box. Apart from a 1992 world map, imagine my delight to find a stack of unused TRAVEL inserts. Brilliant! I remember using them in the late 80s. I'll scan one both sides and send them to Steve for the website. Maybe some enterprising soul can recreate them. I remember the onion skin paper, it was brilliant. Why did they ever do away with such great inserts? The inserts now are a pale shadow of their heyday. Bring back the 80s.......

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks everyone, Anita are you coming on saturday? All these posts you want will be coming soon (in the next couple of weeks), there have been a few bumps in the road this year that have been unexpected but i hope to get back to blogging more consistently. I will need to get more organized then ever as i am expecting baby number 2 at the moment due january!!!!! just thought i would share that with the philofaxy community.xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely to hear your news about baby no 2!! I enjoyed reading your spotlight slot... It is always lovely to hear about our fellow Philofaxers. What a gorgeous photo of you and your son here too.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Congratulations Christa :), i'd also love to see how you use your other filofax's so look forward to those posts. I'm on a mission to get organised which is really hard with five children so I love being inspired with blog posts and seeing how everybody else manages it. I have to say though i'm getting much better since falling in love with filofax again, i'm religiously filling in my diary throughout the day, reviewing it all every night and looking at it and tweaking it so many times during the day, all I have to do is continue, that's the hard part!!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. HI Christa - firstly congratulations! You must be so excited to be expecting - you little boy looks delightful!

    Can't wait to read your new blog posts - I was very taken with your last one on the diary inserts so can't wait to hear all about your organising tips!

    ReplyDelete