Introducing Ms. Cali My New Calipso Deep Pink A5 Filofax

So I thought I would share Cali in her “original state” before I completely move in and settle down with her. She’s an A5 Calipso in Deep Pink and she’s beautiful. I literally grabbed her at Paradise Pen at the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, GA. 

The super nice sales girl wrapped her carefully in tissue paper. 

She was on sale which means zero guilt for me. If something is 1% off it makes me feel guiltless. 

I love the texture of the strap it makes me feel fancy. I pretend that it's gator :)

Yeah, she's a boss!

She has 6 credit card/business card slots. I put my business card in there because I run this show. I also put my Hyatt Gold Passport card in there because it's gold and it came in the mail that day. Gold = Fancy. Also, back in September I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Downtown Miami and that trip meant a lot to me. So when I see the card it reminds me that dreams do come true and that when I grow up I can live in the Downtown Miami Hyatt Regency on the Concierge Level (23rd & 25th floor). I asked, it's not cheap but it's possible. I also fell in love in Miami (Yes, I'm in love with a city). Hopefully in a year or so I will become a resident of North Cuba. :) I speak Spanish so the language thing is not a big deal for me at all. Being down there and actually having a chance to speak Spanish again was better then lame Rosetta Stone.

How can you not love a place where mannequins have implants!

Selfies with Palm Trees

Ok, sorry I completely went of on a tangent. That's how I roll. Bare with me or scroll :) <- did="" i="" just="" p="" rap="" rhyme="">
I put some work order forms in the secretarial pocket. I'm going to punch holes in them and shove them in the back. A huge part of my job is sales and I need to make sure that I always have order forms on me. In case a client calls. I think they have radar because they always call when I'm in the car, shower not at work.

I love the Filofax multi color cover page. I have a fly leaf on top but I had to remove it because it was reflecting light during our photo session.

Looks like an Island Carnival!

                      

I already started making dividers for her.I'm not 100% sure if I love the paper but that's the beauty of DYI inserts. They cost next to nothing so I wont feel guilty when I change them. 

I went with a dot, stripe, chevron remix :)

  

I need to find the perfect paper for custom inserts.

October seriously sucks for being new to Filofax and Planners. All the retailers have already sent back their 2013 inserts. :(

>_<

So I ended up doing my own thing for my MO2P Calendar Pages, some blank Filofax paper and some super thin Sharpie Markers. The bleed through is no joke. I should have known better.

I'm also not a fan of this MO2P layout. It reminds me of an appointment book. It wont work for me. Luckily I found some cheap 2013 MO2P on Ebay. I don't have the patience to sit and make my own. 

These are the dividers she came with. The colors are nice but not so much for me. So they will serve as templates. 

She came with a zip pocket in the back. As you can see I'm not sure what I want to put in there yet. 

So that's really it for now. With Cali. She's going to be my home Filofax. I plan on using her for my schedule (I will keep her synced with Demaris calendar wise) Home related To-Do's aka Apartment Projects, Notes, 365/30 Journal, Secret Keeper, BFF :) 

I also realized that she's not super heavy in my purse. I carried her on some errands as an experiment. I do prefer to keep Dulce in my purse as my go to PA (personal assistant). I've been bringing both her and Dulce to work with me. I don't think she's ready to be home alone yet. I also like to bring her so I can "work" on her during my breaks and lunch. 

Super Secret travelling stash bag. Shhhhh

I will update more as I move in. I want to take my time and get everything just right. I rushed setting up Dulce because I was so excited and I've ended up having to do things twice which is no fun. 

Dulce felt left out of this post so I had to include her. She was under the impression that she was going to be an only child like her mother. :) 

I also learned what not to have so much dang planner envy. I feel like everyone has better layouts, cuter washi tapes, better stickers, awesome sections. Then I realized that just like people all planners are different and we are all awesome in our own unique way. 

XoXo 

My Week #45

I hope everyone had a good week! This is how my week #45 panned out. I went with a Hello Kitty theme.

I can look at Hello Kitty all day everyday!

I love writing random quotes in the empty spaces! Since I always have Dulce open on my desk I re-read them. I wrote some quotes in Spanish because I've been neglecting my Rosetta Stone. :(

I do need to take my color coding a little less seriously. I lost my purple Frixion Pen for two days and I was like the end of the world. >_< I've ordered more so I have backups. Of course as soon as they arrive I found my misplaced one...

So far this is my Color Code Key.

Purple - Personal
Red- YouTube/Blog
Blue - Work
Pink - Personal (I noticed that I'm starting to use Pink for my YouTube and Blog

The heart and star stickers have the same meaning. They also make things stand out a bit more. Who can ignore a sparkly star or heart? Ok well I can kinda ignore it if it's something that I don't want to do.

I did add to my Filofax Family this weekend!



I will formally introduce her to my blog soon. Dulce was starting to become a little spoiled. So I gave her a sister. I named her Cali because she's a Calipso. So her full name is Cali Calipso. I was going to name her Demaris. I was going to give all my Filofax children D names. But Demaris doesn't suit her. When I think Cali I think of fun, bright, sunshine, warm air, palm trees, frozen drinks and fun. It's ok if there names don't start with the same letter.

I don't know how I ended up with her. I was driving home Friday night and thought. Hmm, I should go to the mall. I pass two malls on my way home from work. Neither mall has any Filofax retailers. Lenox Square is 4 exits out of my way and requires hitting traffic and a toll booth. So I went on purpose just to "look" in Paradise Pen maybe get some inserts or something. Then I spotted Cali. :)  I honestly was not a fan of the Calipso line from pictures online. In person. I snatched her. It was the last pink one. They also have a bright blue A5 Calipso that I side eyed. She was also 10% off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-bSmViy_0E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Isn't her color & texture stunning?

Dulce (top) & Cali (bottom)

 Me & Cali filming 

 Cali in her plastic wrapping. No black box :( 

I ended up hand making my MO2P Calendar for her. I'm tired of fighting the finding 2013 inserts in October fight. :/ I covered the spots where my lines were a bit off with washi tape, but I removed it because it was to "busy". 

I hope everyone had an awesome week. I will post this weeks layout soon as well as my plans for Ms. Cali

XoXo 

Thankful Thursdays

Is it normal to be thankful for my Filofax? Well I am J. We've only been together a short time but once I got her all set up and started using her. I noticed a change in my life and behavior. I’m getting stuff done! I can be super scatter-brained and straight up forgetful at times. I always have the best of intentions but I majorly fail sometimes at following through. Now that I have Dulce (let’s call her by her name). I've noticed that I’m getting things done. I'm remembering to following through on the little things. I’m still ignoring some things that I don’t want to do.. I’m working on that…

Seeing check marks makes me feel like I accomplished something, which is a good feeling.

Week #44 (Which was Week #1 for me)

Week #45 So Far

What are you Thankful for today? 

My New Filofax! Let's Start From The Beginning..

Oh Hello! I'm back! I've decided to dust off the old blog and start back up again. I'm still fiddling with code and layout so please excuse me if anything looks a little off. I've been putting off posting because I'm not 100% happy with the layout but that's an excuse to procrastinate. Besides, this is on my to-do list and I get super excited when I get to "tick" something off my list :)


Ok, let's start from the beginning.. I'm a gadget geek. I love electronics! I sleep with my laptop, Galaxy S3, and sometimes I snuggle with my tablet. Even though I'm all "digitized" I've always had a secret love affair with paper. Yep paper! That stuff made from trees. I freaking love paper, pens, sticky notes, stationary, binders, planners and stickers. I also hoard notebooks. Every notebook that I buy/hoard has a purpose. I usually justify the purpose to myself by making up an "excuse" like this Hello Kitty notebook will change my life, it's going to be my Youtube Notebook all my video plans will go in there! Or this will be my purse notebook. I have a bunch of notebooks that I buy for the purpose of journaling but I usually never follow through which is a shame because the super serious journals that I used to keep are HILARIOUS! 

I also have always had a love affair for planners. Just the idea of a special book to keep my schedule, calendar! Awesome! But I admit I usually start hard and fall off.. For the last few years I've always had the same work schedule. So no point in writing that over and over *yawns*. 

A few weeks ago a friend of mine from “down under” opened my eyes to everything that I'm missing in my life. The world of Filofax! A binder that's a planner, notebook, journal, to-do list, life planner! They come in pink and purple! (I’m not concerned with other colors, maybe red or black, maybe.) I couldn't contain myself! Then I did the worst thing a person can do. I went on YouTube. I watched videos on Filofax for days. I watched reviews on colors, textures, size options, uses, customization, decorating, making your own dividers. I think I've read every single post on Philofaxy! Jen from My Purpley Life became my BFF in my head. I was all over A Bowl Full of Lemons & Paper Love Story  While watching YouTube videos and reading blogs, I realized that I'M NOT ALONE! There are other people like me who enjoy this kinda stuff. Where have they been all life? How did I not know about this. What else can I learn? The most important question. Which Filofax do I want? 

For days I was torn between two sizes. 

Credit: Filofax USA Website Size Guide

Did I want an A5 or Personal Size? I narrowed my choice down to one of those sizes. Each has pros and cons. Would the Personal Size be too small? Will I feel comfortable with it? Do I want something bigger? I want to have lots of writing space. Will it feel to heavy in my purse? Can I commit to carrying a larger size planner in my purse? This thing is going to be my new brain! I watched more videos and more blogs. Someone has to have the answer. I learned there is no one size fits all answer. Some people have different sizes for different purposes. After a few days of studying sizes I decided to just go for it. I had about 5 different binders and accessories in my cart on the Filofax website. I forced myself to just pick one. 

I ended up picking a Personal Sized Saffiano in Raspberry (which is not available anymore). It was also on sale $10 off :) 

Credit Filofax USA 

So I ordered it and waited.. I kicked myself once I realized that they ship via FedEx Smartpost which means it's FedEx'ed to your city then delivered by the Post Office. :( ANIT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT! Guess I didn't do all my "research". I'm also a spoiled Amazon Prime Member who tends to forget that everything isn't shipped and delivered in 2 days. When I received my confirmation email and looked at the shipping estimate it said 5-8 business days! So I did what any logical person would do. I decided to order another one and suck up the $35 overnight shipping charge. I was going on a business trip and I had to have my Filofax before I left. Problem, it wasn't available. Did I get the last Raspberry one? I don't know but I wasn't happy. So what's the next thing a logical person would do. See if there was a Filofax retailer near me. There are 3 but I didn't have time to stop by one before my trip.  I was disappointed and went on my trip without my shiny new "brain". 

I survived my work trip and decided to stop by Lenox Square Mall on my way home from the airport. There's a Filofax retailer in there called Paradise Pen. I decided that I could just buy one there and send the slow shipping one back. So after being molested by TSA in Tusla, OK,  I arrived in Atlanta picked up my car and headed straight to the mall. I used my Point Inside App because I've actually never been to the Lenox SquareMall and I didn't want to wander because I was on a mission (Point Inside is the best app ever for airport and mall maps). I parked my MACY'S and headed up to the third floor (if you live in Atlanta, I just did all the work for you). I marched into the store and looked for the magical F logo and headed straight to the back ignoring the displays of shiny pens and other brands of planners (I was Filofax oriented). I saw the color pink and became giddy with excitement then I realized that they didn't have anything in pink or purple in Personal Size, only Pocket and A5. I was so bummed.. The girl in the store was super nice and she’s a Filofax lover. I decided that the A5 is too big for me to carry in my purse every day. We did experiments, she let me put it in my purse walk around. We put some inserts in there to stimulate the added weight of paper. She let me put hers in my purse. It was too heavy in my bag (I have a what’s in my purse video on YouTube someplace). I did note that it would be a perfect home or work only planner. The Pocket size was just too small. So I left super sad with a bag of refill papers and some other Filofax goodies to make up for the sadness and headed back to my apartment with an attitude.

They have awesome bags!

I decided to check my mail because I ordered some washi tape and other small extras for my Filofax and figured I should clean out my mailbox so when my Filofax came the Mail Person couldn’t pull the there’s no room so I left it in the office or took it back to the post office excuse. So then the most awesomest thing ever happened. There was a box inside my mail box. The other items I ordered were super small. So I grab the box. IT’S SUCK! It was so stuck. At this point I was sleepy, excited, jet lagged (yes an hour time difference jet lags me, I think) and hungry which meant I was in no position to deal with foolishness. It was dark out. It was also freezing out! So I try and try to grab it out, wiggle it out, pray to Baby Jesus to release the box from the devil mailbox. I have no idea how they got it in there. Luckily there was a nice girl checking her mail and I asked her if she could help me. The same thing has happened to her and she claimed to be an expert! We had to open it but got it out. My Filofax came! Three days ahead of schedule! I was on cloud nine! I was also super tired. I brought her inside and looked at all the different sections she came with. Vlogged a bit. Instagramed and tweeted my bliss. I pulled out my list of sections that I wrote down and just marveled in her beauty. I couldn’t really dig into setting her up completely because I was exhausted. I think I had been up for 24hrs at this point and I climbed into bed with my phone, my work phone (I was supposed to be writing my report), laptop and my Filofax and fell asleep watching Filofax decoration videos on YouTube. That’s how it all started J

Out of the ripped smushed box!

Our first Morning Together :)

A peek inside before I personalized her :)

P.S. Her name is Dulce :)

Inside My First Filofax

I don't know why I didn't post my video here :)

XoXo