12 March 2014

Boston Meet-up March, 2014

On March 8, a sunny and surprisingly warm Saturday, Philofaxers from all over New England converged on Bromfield Street, an narrow street in an old part of Downtown Boston. Josh and Juan came by coach from Hartford, Connecticut, and Yvonne and Doug came down from their snowy wonderland in New Hampshire. For Nan and Leilani, it was a much shorter trek from their respective Boston suburbs.

First things first. On the NYC meet-ups I've been to, we start with shopping. In Boston, we went straight to lunch. A delicious lunch—at Marilave, one of the city's oldest restaurants, dating back to 1795.

Once we placed our orders, though, it wasn't long before the Filofaxes appeared. Our waiter even commented, "You sure have a lot of leather books." He was interested in what we do with them when the year is over, expressing concern that we might through the whole leather cover away. So we showed him how the rings let you simply replace the insides.

Josh brought along a couple of his vintage, made-in-Britain, calfskin organizers, with the 5/4" rings. I got to see (and smell) some of the fabulous Gillio covers for the first time, too.

After lunch, it was a short walk to the Bromfield Pen Shop, which had a modest selection of Filofaxes and a huge selection of beautiful fountain pens and inks. I scored a purple A5 Flex cover (sadly, they had no Flex notebooks in stock) and a few vintage refills, like plain green paper and a clouded cream A-Z index.

The store has a custom display which was built into the wall by the Filofax company itself. I was hoping to see more newer models, like the Original, but there were none.

We're all hoping to do it again, maybe when the snow is gone and the 2014 models are here!

L-R Nan, Yvonne, Doug, Josh, Juan, Leilani





24 comments:

  1. Looks lovely and that you all had a nice time together in Boston. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful week. With best wishes from Berlin, Sylke

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    1. Looks like you entered it twice, they are timed a minute apart.

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    2. Thank you Steve. I think that the publishing process went through twice, despite the first attempt looked freezed up before I hit the upload button the second time. Nothing what would happen on my paper based processes :-)

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  4. Looks like you had a great time, I wish I could have been there with you all!

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  5. Nan, thanks for the write-up and photos of your meetup. I like the Filofax tower and the curious expressions of diners at the next table. And your smiling faces, of course. :-)

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    1. I like the look of intense concentration on my face! I really did fear it would topple over!

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  6. Looks like everyone had fun! I do love the looks from the table next to yours. LOL

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  7. Ohh I adore Boston!! Looks like a wonderful meet up. xx

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  8. Wow! A lot of the text I wrote is missing! I'll try to recreate it!

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  10. What an awesome tower with curious-to-shocked looks on other people's faces! I wish there's a Meetup here in San Jose, California. I'd surely attend. :-)

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  11. It looks like you had a nice time and the weather was good. What is the name of the large spiral bound planner on the table next to the stack?

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    1. It's Erin Condren (http://www.erincondren.com). They're made to order so you can create your own book. (This one is Leilani's.)

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    2. Thanks for the information Nan. My compact Luxe looks small compared to all of the planners in the stack.

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    3. Aloha B,

      Nan's right; it's a customized Erin Condre. Life Planner. I use it as a lesson planner/IEP meeting tracker, although there's another one geares specifically for teachers. The quality of the paper is good, and I love how spaciois and well-organized it is. However, the laminated cover isn't as good. I've had mine for about three months, and there's already some bubbling. In a perfect world, Erin Condren would create inserts for Filofax!


      Leilani

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    4. Sorry for the typos. I'm using my phone. Bad teacher, bad!

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    5. Thanks for your reply Leilani. I noticed the colorful cover of your planner. It looks like you would have a lot of room to write in it and some extra note paper because of the thickness of the planner.

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  12. Looks like you all had a great time! I'm just south of Boston, so I hope I can make it to the next meetup! :)

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  13. Beautifully written, Nan. Looks like a fun time was had by all! Josh, I didn't know Juan is a planner aficionado too. How cool!

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  14. Nan, thanks for the write-up! It was awesome to finally match faces to Philofaxy names. I can't wait to attend the next meet-up!


    PS
    Peek-a-boo grandmother is just precious. I loved how she and the waiter were genuinely curious about the Filofax organizers rather than giving us "saaay whaaaat?!" side-eyes.


    Leilani

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  15. Could not imagine a better group for a lunch date! Yes, Sharon, Juan dabbles in planner but is not nearly as (ahem) dedicated as many of us are. He has a Kendal which is absolutely jammed full.

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  16. What a fun looking day. I've read about meet-ups in other parts of the world; I had no idea there would be one in Boston. I live in the Boston suburbs--would love to meet up with fellow Filofax fans :)

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