Reader Under The Spotlight - Lindsay

This week I would like to introduce you to Lindsay 

Hi everyone, I'm Lindsay, a 38 year old accountant, living in Switzerland with my wonderful fiancé Ben, and our two gorgeous (if a touch crazy) sons age 5 and 7.

When I'm not working or chasing children around (or just plain being driven crazy by said children) I blog at LJ's Blog of Stuff, and read Philofaxy. There are many other things that I should do, or want to do, but I haven't quite worked out how to fit them in yet :o)

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

I bought my first Filofax in February 2011 after seeing Lucy's raspberry personal Chameleon. After much researching online and reading of Philofaxy I decided on a personal Finsbury in aqua, which is currently in the process of becoming my happiness binder... yep, that's taken a while to get going :o)

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

I haven't used any other brands so far, but since purchasing my first Filofax I have become a total stationery whore and feel that I am developing a fetish for notebooks. I have looked at many of the other available planner inserts, but haven't been brave enough to try any of them yet - apart from homemade ones.

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

Now this is a tricky one, that's like trying to choose your favourite child (which is actually easy - my children know that the favourite child in our house at the moment is Roomba, never argues and actually cleans stuff). I love them all (well, almost all - maroon Panama knows who I'm talking about). At this precise moment in time I am totally loving my A5 Kendal - there are no words to describe it (apart from rugged, rugged and hell yeah - rugged!!!). There is just something about him that makes me feel like I have chosen the bad boy - in a very good way :o) But my pocket ochre Malden also comes everywhere with me as it holds my rail cards (nothing else in it is actually essential - I just love it).

4. How many Filofax organisers do you own?

Can I plead the Fifth on this one? No? I have 14.715 Philofaxy's... that's not so bad... OK - in 'real money' I have 3 minis, 4 pockets, 2 compacts, 17 personals, 14 A5's and 2 A4's. I could claim that one of the A5's isn't really mine anymore as my other half uses it to monitor his exercise and food at the moment (he is so dedicated - I need to take a leaf out of his book/Filofax). I admit, 42 may be a tad excessive, but you know, a girl has to make sure she can fill the display case, right? Oh *whisper - there is another personal and an A5 on the way to me too*. 

5. What do you use your Filofax for?

Well, I like to write things and carry stylish accessories *simper*... JOKING!!! I use my Filofax very successfully for work, resulting in me now working pretty much my standard 42 hour week, instead of the extra three hours that I used to manage most days, and I can categorically state that while some of this is due to changing procedures etc, a large part of it (including fitting in the time to review and change said procedures) has been achieved purely because of my use of my beloved filo babies. I also try to organise my personal time using my Filofax, but I'm not so good at this yet, and I guess that until I accept that my personal time is every bit as important as my work time I will struggle to do this. I have some binders set aside for specific things (happiness binder, Goddess Circle, scrapbooking), but these will only really start to be used properly when I sort out my mindset regarding my personal time...

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

I just love how you can make it do whatever you want (within reason obviously, I mean, it is paper - you're not going to be able to get it to give you a decent neck massage when you've had a tough day - although it can help you organise your time so you can get someone else to give you one). And I love that you can hole punch all kinds of stuff and just stick them straight in there.

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

Pockets!!! I love my pockets... I barely use them at the moment, but just knowing they are there makes me feel somehow secure - yes, I am a freak :o)  It would feature beautiful inserts on nice paper (I would say fountain pen friendly as I would love to be grown up enough to use one, but my writing with one of those things is shocking), but pens tend to write smoother on decent paper. And it would be magic - I could wave my wand and the setup would change to exactly what I wanted on that particular day, colours, patterns, everything - OK, I may need some help to design that as I can't actually do magic, but if I could invite Harry Potter to tea I'm sure I could get him to understand how important this would be to so many people... Ooh - I almost forgot the most important part - A5 compact!!! My life would be complete if I could get that size!!!

8. How do you carry your Filofax?

Usually in my work bag - currently just thrown in randomly without a care in the world, but previously I would usually put it inside my Waterstones canvas book bag first to protect it.

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

I have to say my collection is looking rather heavy on the red/purple/pink side of things, and although I was totally stunned by the colour of the plum Osterley, I have now seen the orange one - wow!!! However, I will probably not buy it as I have amazing willpower ;o)

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

Another tricky one... I know that I have paid full price for very few of my filos (personal Fins as I knew no better, A4 Metropol and maybe a couple of Domino's). I think the most was probably the personal ruby Deco, which was half price on Filofax UK towards the end of last year, although technically that was a Christmas present (even though I ordered it myself - I had to make sure it was the right one, you just can't trust non-Filofax fans to do these things, I mean, I could have ended up with an Apex *shudder*).

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

I love the fact that it shows me that there are other people out there that are as crazy as me, and it proves to other people who know me that my obsession isn't that odd. I love reading the web finds and all the posts for various things. I love FFAF and FFAT. I love Adspot. I just plain love Philofaxy :o)

12. And what do you not like about Philofaxy?

There is nothing that I do not like about Philofaxy - the only thing I struggle with is watching the videos that get posted on the web finds, but that's just me having no patience to sit still to watch it while people talk... I just want to skip straight to the guts of the binders and the setups. As a small child I hated having to sit down and listen while the teacher read us a story, I'd rather just have the book and read it myself, the only thing that was good about it was that whichever girls were sat behind me would constantly play with my hair and braid it and stuff while we sat there. Maybe I should get one of the boys to sit and mess around with my hair while I watch them... now there's an idea... lol :o)

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

I think it was Biffy Clyro - Live at Wembley. They are such an amazing band - definitely worth checking out :o)

Thank you Lindsay, I still think your 'Display Cabinet' it the 'ultimate' collectors item!

If you would like to to be a future 'Reader Under The Spotlight' please get in touch with us at philofaxy [at] gmail [dot] com