Sorry so long... (picture heavy)

Yeah, I took my time coming back to the blog, because, frankly I wasn't sure if I was coming back. The planner board I belonged to on Facebook imploded and the owner shut it down, quickly, and with very little warning. The reason was "drama," and although I'm sure that there were a lot of things going on that I was unaware of, I believe drama breeds drama, and I wouldn't have given in so quickly.

Just my opinion, and you know what they say about those.

So I found a new "home" to chat with like-minded people and so far it seems to be going along just swimmingly. And my own love of planning and the written part of organizing my life and my family isn't going to go away. Nope. So I figured I would come back and give this another shot. You can also find me on Instagram now under the handle Vodkasoylatte.

I still love Filofax. I did get a Gillio, and I'll be happy to post pictures if everyone is interested. I'm not currently using it, as I purchased it to be used as a wallet and for some very special reasons, I've gone back to a personal FF as my wallet. I'll get into that later.

If you note, I also took my own name down from my little bio thingie there on the side because I'm working on remaining just slightly anonymous. Most of you reading this will know who I am because I directed you here, but for those stumbling across it randomly, no offense. Something about drama. Ain't nobody got time for dat.

I have a rather large selection of Filofaxes. Surprisingly, many of them are in use. In addition to the stack below, which I will explain, my husband and I use two A5s for our finances and one A5 for our family medical records that might need to be accessed quickly.

Stacks and stacks of Filofaxes.

This group right here, though, is my own personal stack. The A5 Original on the bottom is used for notes on reviewing books and movies and blog notes for my author blog. Next up is the A5 Charleston, which I am in love with, and use for my work schedule. The A5 Malden is the true workhorse and is for everything else... home maintenance scheduling, sprog wrangling, meal planning, chore chart, etc. The personal Malden is my wallet/portable calendar. The orange one up there is a pencil case and the purple on the very top is a phone wallet and I'll talk more about that, too in another post.

The first one I want to show off is the Charleston. It's a relatively new model from Filofax, and I got it in (of course) purple.

Filofax A5 Charleston in purple. It's a very dark purple.

Card slots on the left, fabric interior.

I moved the cover sheet over with my calendar. See above for what the inside of the Charleston looks like. If anyone wants to see more pics of the binder without pages, please leave me a comment and I'm happy to do that.


It's a very classy and classic design. I read somewhere it's inspired by the 1920s era designs. Don't quote me on that. I love the simple gold popper on the tab. I'm using it for my work calendar. I was in just the A5 Original for my work binder for a long time, but when I added the 2014 calendar from KiddyQualia (on Etsy), I realized I would need more space.

This design really utilizes the entire available space. Color me impressed.

I have the month-on-two-pages and the week-on-two-pages views. The paper quality is exceptional and I love the simple designs. Plenty of space for writing.

I have tasks that repeat during the week, so I write them out on Sundays when I'm planning the rest of the schedule.

There's a space at the top of the left page for notes (I'm keeping my reading projects up there) and large spaces for each day. Like I said, the paper quality can't be beat and KiddyQualia lets you choose your color. I also have graph paper that I'm using for my daily focus pages. Find this wonderful product here.

So I pulled all my blog notes and reviewing notes out of the Charleston and moved them into the Original, which is working well.

You can find these sheet holder on Amazon.

I also found these awesome Avery sheet holders. They're not punched for a Filofax, but it's easy to fix that. I needed a place to keep printed travel information and other business info, so these are perfect.

This is a good way to carry around full-sized sheets you don't want to punch.

This is a confirmation for a writers' retreat next year. Wheee!

The A5 purple Malden is still my main planner.

Perfection in a planner.

Love this binder. It's perfect, really.

I love Buzz Lightyear.

I keep a dashboard with extra stickies and several pockets in the front. Under those orange post-its is a list of important phone numbers. Inside that pocket are clipped recipes or things I've held onto (the slip of paper Elder Sprog wrote our address on for the first time, a card that came with flowers, an anniversary card my sprogs made for hubby and me). The cervical cancer awareness ribbon is part of the reason I've moved into my aqua Malden as my wallet.

This is used to record days the sprogs are off school, my own travel plans, or hubby's days off and travel plans.

I keep a Filofax year-at-a-glance in here, as well.

I went crazy a month or so ago and purchased an Erin Condren Life Planner. I'd been using the Filofax calendar pages, but was really unhappy with the paper quality. I also felt like I was spending too much time with my list stamp making big sections of lined, checkboxed lists. While it was fun, in a way, it didn't feel terribly efficient, and after I saw the Erin Condren, I decided to give it a go. I ordered the Life Planner knowing I would be cutting it off a spiral binding and trimming it to fit in my Malden. I just knew I wouldn't function in a bound planner, because I move things around way too much.

Here's the result:

The "keep it together" folder came with the Erin Condren planner. On the left is a list of stores we frequent and their phone numbers and hours.

Here's a look at the ECLP layout. I did have to punch slightly in the inner boxes to make it fit in my Malden. No worries!

This is how I generally use the ECLP. Lists to the left, daily weather observations above, water intake, family members schedules. The bookmark is a Project Life divider I trimmed down and punched for in the planner. I keep stickies with our weekly meal plan, times for pick-up from after-school activities, and other little pretties on it.

I found this awesome little sticky note holder at Mochi Things. If you look closely at the Project Life divider, you'll see another clear plastic piece with Mon-Sun and MEMO printed on it. The flags fit on the days perfectly and I record the weather forecast and our dinner plans on a flag, then stick it to the day. Love this thing.

I even managed to get the ECLP notes section in my planner.

I use more of the Avery sheet holders in my Malden.

My husband made this awesome foldout notepad holder for me. I can pull the notepad out to make notes and consult my calendar without actually taking it out of the Malden.

I got a new pencil case. Just because.

I carry pens, a white-out pen, flags, and stickers in this thing.

Like I mentioned before, I purchased a Gillio, specifically a Gillio medium Mia Cara in black. I used him (named Leo) for quite awhile before I moved into my aqua personal Malden. Back in August, I lost a good friend to cervical cancer. Teal is the ribbon color for cervical cancer awareness. It didn't seem right to not use this color in her honor.

So I do.

And because this post is getting awfully long, I will leave my portable system update for another day.

Please, seriously, if you have questions, leave me a comment! I hate feeling like I'm talking at myself in cyberspace here. ;-)

So happy planning, wherever you are.