14 March 2014

Free For All Friday No. 278

I came across a new (to me) phase the other day, 'every day carry', put simply it is what you carry every day. And if you empty your bag or your pockets, we do carry a lot of 'stuff' don't we??

So what is included in your 'every day carry' ?

But of course this being a Friday you are of course free to discuss any related ring bound organiser topics.

51 comments:

  1. I have seen a couple of references here to Tomoe River Paper from Japan. I tried it. All I can say is wow!!! It is available from Jet Pens in personal (bible) and pocket size. It is quite simply the best, comparable to Smythson light weight.

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    1. Hi Crofter, where do I get some of this paper? I've seen a lot of 'web chatter' about it, and all unfailingly positive. Is it pre-punched for FF Personal rings, or did you have to punch it yourself?

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    2. @David. jetpens.com They carry it under the name Raymay Divinci, and yes, it is pre punched. They have free shipping on orders over $25.--. It comes lined with either 5mm or 6.5mm spacing. I am sure you will be pleased with it!

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    3. Thanks - I'll definitely check that out. I've heard so many good things about the paper, it's got to be worth looking into.

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    4. You can also look at www.paperforfountainpens.com

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    5. hi Joseph....I suspected I could expect a comment on this from you! Any paper which can take Noodlers without feathering has to be worth checking out.

      Hope all is well with you over there, and that you're not (and haven't been) too snowed up?

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    6. Alas, the free shipping on jetpens only applies within the US, and it's pretty steep otherwise (to the UK). Nothing on ebay.co.uk under either Tomoe River or Raymay Davinci - looks like I may have to keep that on my 'wanted' list for a while longer!

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    7. I did take the plunge a while back and bought a 100 sheets of plain A4 Tomoe River white paper from Jetpens. I think it came to about £20 including shipping to the UK - which isn't cheap but isn't *too* expensive. It is lovely stuff but really strange - very very thin, much stronger than it looks and I have yet to find any ink which feathers or bleeds on it. Its thinness does make it feel a bit flimsy, but the writing performance is superb - velvety smooth.

      I wonder how nicely we would have to ask to get Filofax to make up a range of their own inserts on Tomoe River paper? There's no excuse for bad paper in this day and age!

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    8. years of dedicated Filofax use notwithstanding, the one thing which would tempt me away from the fold these days is the much better paper quality available elsewhere (yes I *know* about all the hyper-expensive Sythsom and Mont Blanc FF patterned refiills, and I'm not interested in paying £15 for a very thin pack of paper). Rhodia pads are great, and the writing experience is a while new thing for me. Sometimes I get my Rhodia writing tablet and make lists just for the sheer pleasure of the writing experience. Which is also why I'm so interested in the Tomoe River - as soon as they get a UK distributor, which I'm sure will happen. If I could bind the Rhodia paper together in some way I'd be converted - but I don't do cutting and punching. The Quo Vadis refills are on great quality Clarefontaine paper, but they *are* that little bit wider, which spoils things somewhat.

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    9. @David. If you will e mail a mailing address to hillcrofter at hushmail.com I will arrange for you to try this paper. Thanks David.

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    10. I get all my Tomoe River Paper from www.paperforfountainpens.com. They have A5 and A4 and letter size in white and cream and very good customer service. Oh, and the paper comes in tablet form or loose sheets too.

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  2. I'm familiar with the phrase, 'every day carry', and i recall my good friend David Quinton in the US introducing me to it (I think) a while back. Sometimes I see it shortened to the acronym EDC.

    My EDC is, has been for some time, and I guess will be until it 'dies', my FF Personal Hampstead. I've tried moving to the Cuban on a couple of London trips (the Cuban looks so much like a 'London' binder to me!), but the lack of flexibility to lie flat always brings me back.

    (If anyone has any clever tricks for 'training' a Cuban to lie flat, do please tell me!).

    The Hampstead is the All Terrain Vehicle of Filofaxes - it looks great in a business meeting, at the gym, in a restaurant, on my desk, in my hand.....in fact I have yet to find an environment where it *doesn't* look like an appropriate carry. Plus it's rugged, and it tends to get thrown in the passenger seat of the car, jammed into the door pocket, etc etc etc (y'all know the sort of thing I mean).

    I can't see anything superseding the Hampstead any time soon........

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  3. Can anyone help?

    I have been trying to find the right planner, settled on A5 and ended up with an Aston as its about as thin as I can get in that size. I really want slimmer rings but just cant get them in Filofax.

    After much deliberating I have found a leather worker who will create the perfect binder for me - as long as I can supply the rings.

    here's the problem, I can find 22mm rings on Amazon and Ebay and various other places, but really if I'm going to the trouble and expense of a fully bespoke planner I want to be hitting at least 20mm or even 17mm rings if I can. I know most on this site crave for larger rings but for my purposes I really want it as slim as possible.

    is it possible to get Filofax compatible rings that size in A5?

    Would I be better off dumping the Filofax inserts completely (I use the Time management ones as they are just right for me) and finding a different planner / insert combo?

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    1. I believe the A5 Boston has 20mm rings :-)

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    2. If you can find one, an A5 Portobello (discontinued model) has 19 or 20mm rings and is less bulky than some other binders. I got mine from eBay as NOS.

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    3. There is a UK seller who sells A5 rings in 20mm and 30mm size. Here is the 20mm listing: http://www.ebay.com/itm/271037460316?_trksid=p2055120.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

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    4. 20mm (or 19mm with the very old Executive and Portobello models) is a slim as you'll currently get. When I converted a Filofax Flex to create a slimline ringed A5 (as featured on Philofaxy in July 2012) I had to use 13mm Time Manager rings. The drawback is that that used TMI A5 ring spacing which is the same as Filofax Personal rather than Filofax A5.

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    5. Paul, I'd be interested in the details of your chap too, as I'm also very interested in trying the concept of a very slimline A5. Any idea what he will charge for putting it together, if you supply the rings?

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    6. Hi Paul. The guy in dealing with is excellent. Mail@hrothgarstibbon.co.uk. Really good quality stuff. The big problem is finding the ring mechanisms. The ones on ebay are all 22mm and i want to go less than that. You'll have to let me know how you get on with sourcing some as well.

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  4. My every day carry - My Osprey Messenger Bag, A5 Lyndhurst Filofax, Slimline Cuba Filofax, spare packs of white & yellow filofax notepaper, approx 1000 post-its, (see why here http://ow.ly/unRRc ) about 20 coloured pens/highlighters, credit card wallet, Breath-Freshener Spray, Pain killers, Sweetners, USB Phone Cable & Emergency Charger...

    OMG I really do carry all that stuff with me every day, do I have a condition? Am I suffering from filopostititus? Hehe he, seriously though I. didn't realise until I saw the post and emptied my bag this morning.

    Love what you do

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  5. My EDC is a 19 inch Kiplinger bag with my Personal Malden, Kindle HD, iPhone, Chameleon Pocket (my wallet), Totes umbrella, Dooney see-thru cosmetic bag, and my frozen to go lunch bag. Malden is stuffed with blank pages and post-its and stickers in addition to my planner pages. In winter months bag includes scarf, gloves and hat.

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  6. You mean leaving the house, right? Cos I don't do that a whole lot ;) (stay at home mum + anti-social writer)

    When I do, it's with my very small hand bag (about A5 size, and flat), which contains a mini sized filofax (my wallet + week on 2 pages 'calendar'), my beloved Nexus 4, a couple of pens, a pocket sized Moleskine cahier, and my keys.

    When I'm out I'm always too busy to ever need my big, heavy, main binder, so it never leaves the house. My wallet contains my basic calendar which syncs to and from my main binder, so if I need to make an appointment while I'm out I can schedule it in there.

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  7. I carry a lot of stuff in my (large cross-body) bag every day. Planner, Bullet Journal, wallet, pens, sticky notes, hand cream, lip balm, mirror, ponytail elastics, nail file, hand wipes, tissues, snacks for me and my kids, band-aids (plasters), paracetamol for me and kiddos, lady items, and a fold-up carrier bag. I also take my water bottle with me everywhere too, but leave it in my car.

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    1. And my phone, forgot that but it's always with me. And keys of course too.

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  8. Breaking news? I went into WH Smith yesterday to see if they had an aqua Malden, which they didn't, but I did find something else exciting! They had something called a Clipbook there - and under the name it said Filofax, so I had to investigate. It is a soft leather-look cover with the usual ring mechanism coming out through the cover and going back in again (sounds weird, but bear with me) so that when you pull the cover, the rings open ... and the best part of it is that it is a TRUE A5, opens/flops pretty flat and is much smaller and slimmer than a regular A5 Filofax! Because of the way the rings goes through the cover you probably couldn't fit more into it than if it were a 15 mm ring, so maybe something for the many of you who long for a slim A5? It has no clasp but a see through plastic cover which clips onto the outside bit of the rings, I suppose you could use it as a closure, I just took mine off. It also has no inside pockets but you can fit plastic wallets in it, though they might stick out a bit. All in all it seems a great alternative for those who need their FF to be A5 and carry less, but still be able to move content back and forth. I will be using mine as a constantly refillable notebook. It comes with a fold-out two year at-a-glance calendar, a year's worth of month per view and 13 weeks' worth of week per view diary pages (no dates, so universal) plus plain, ruled and squared note paper. I am oddly excited about it - it is hardly taller than my Personal, obviously a bit wider, but still seems a lot slimmer. I have tried to google it but there is very little info on this product. Has anyone else seen them?

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    1. Just thought on - you can even have notes on one topic at the front and flip it over to have a different topic, as it has no obvious back and front but for a small embossed stamp on the back. It can also be folded back completely to save even more desk space or if you are holding it when you write. And the pen can slide into the back of the rings!

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    2. This sounds exactly what I need. Could you post a photo or two of yours, if possible? I'm really interested to see what this looks like. Thanks.

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    3. I just bought one of these today, so if you watch this space I should have a blog post up about it tomorrow... would I be allowed to post the link here when it's up? Is that within Philofaxy rules?

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    4. I have been trying to find out more about them since I saw them when I went into work on Wednesday! They're smaller than the A5 yet larger than the Personal, and for £18 I think it could a great step in to the world of Filofaxes! I couldn't resist taking a sneaky peak inside it while the shop was quiet and I really liked the layout of the dairy included.

      It included a undated week on page (I think), yet was laid out similarly to the Moleskine diaries with the extra blank space on the other side (I'm not the best at explaining things so I hope you get what I mean). In addition to this, it had 6 months worth of monthly planners - ideal for goals AND important events - and it also had a fold-out year planner.

      I am beyond tempted and for £18, yes please. We had stock of black, white and a tealy/aqua colour, not sure if it's going to be available in a greater range of colours in larger stores but funny that I came across this, I was just about to see if anyone else had found out anything about them!

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    5. Snowyowl, I'm sure its fine to post the link. Its also helpful for Steve and the Editors, so they can your blog to the list of web finds. Really looking forward to this, it sounds like an ideal compromise for those of us who want an A5 but in slimline.

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    6. Well in that case, here's my post... http://addictedtostationery.wordpress.com/2014/03/16/new-product-the-filofax-a5-clipbook/ I haven't started to properly use it yet so it's just a "first impressions" post, but it is rather photo-heavy!

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    7. Brilliant! Thanks so much for this. I searched on the web for it yesterday but couldnt see a single reference or photo. Bizarre that FF would release a product without any marketing. (Steve, have you seen any releases about this product? ). Now that I have seen your photos, it makes it a lot clearer. I will definitely check this out in WH Smith, and see how heavy it feels. Thanks a lot, Snowyowl

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  9. Wow! I've been tidying the garage and found a Lefax binder that's been in careless storage for about 20 years - no box or padding or protection of any kind. I've given it a polish and it's like new. It's a black, iridescent leather with Krause rings which are still in perfect condition and open easily. I don't know what model it is but I remember buying it in the mid-80s from the women's bookshop on Mutley Plain in Plymouth. (I lived that shop. Is it still there!) it's going to be my personal binder for capture and brain dump. How could I have forgotten it?

    I also carry a blue pocket Tejus as my health Filo to track my diabetes so that goes everywhere with me plus emergency jelly babies and a banana. If I need a purse it's the Swarovski Special Edition and my wallet is a Portobello pink M2. iPhone, kindle, tissues and water and I'm good to go.

    For work days, I also carry a yellow A5 Finchley which contains my main diary, weekly teaching overview and lesson plans as well as a section for each group I teach. Thus is weeded weekly so that it does nt become too full.

    Three Filofaxes may seem overkill but it works for me. I separated work and personal because work is public and personal is, well, personal. I separated personal and health because a pocket size is easier to manage with my insulin pens and testing kit. Sometimes I merge personal and health into the A5 eg, if I'm on a course. I tried using an ipad for everything but it didn't work. My work A5 is my brain and my ipad is my filing cabinet. It's taken me since January, when I started a new job, to build this system and I'm really pleased with it. All the forms and pages I use I have designed myself except for my diary which is from Life us Crafted - I love the colours and layout. My diabetes tracking pages are on sticky labels because I hate cutting and punching pocket size pages!

    It may sound as if I need a suitcase to carry around but all my personal stuff fits into a medium size handbag and the A5 is in my briefcase. I tried to get it all into one bag but I couldn't carry it!

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    1. Kate, I'd love to see the vintage Lefax. Here is a link to a photo of my Lefax Chelsea, 1984 model. I wish FF would recognise the customer demand for a premium line (and NOT a la Temperley, I mean quality materials - Krause rings, beautiful leather, no ring problems, decent quality control, etc). http://www.flickr.com/photos/burjmax/sets/72157630883763592/

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    2. Paul, I just checked out your photo of the LeFax...it's beautiful!

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    3. Thanks, I think so too. I am sure that Filofax could learn a lot if they went back to basics and looked back on their 1980s products.

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  10. In my kipling rucksack carry personal fluro pink filofax, 2 Lamy safari fountain pens, phone, pills lots of:(, purse, tissues, Burts Bees lip balm, Radar key for disabled loos, think thats it:)

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  11. I keep it simple for my own sanity:
    1. Backpack
    2. Wallet--mini Filofax with a pen and note paper
    3. 1 pouch for medicine, foldable hairbrush, dental floss, mirror
    4. 1 pouch for woman stuff
    5. Filofax
    6. In my pocket....2 chapsticks (I'm a teacher so I talk a lot and have to keep hydrated--I'm not a minimalist when it comes to my chapsticks!)
    7. Keys which contain: pen, small nail clippers, work and personal keys
    8. Sunglasses
    Because I'm a teacher I lug home different projects or unit binders, but that varies.
    On the weekend, I'll pull everything out of the backpack, toss into my purse and I'm ready to rumble. :)

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  12. My EDC is:

    1. Saddleback Leather Medium Satchel in Carbon Black
    2. Hand Sanitizer
    3. iPad Mini
    4. Moleskine Large Journal
    5. Book I am currently reading.....Jane Eyre, at the moment.
    6. Business Card Wallet
    7. Lamy Safari, medium nib
    8. Lamy Al-star, broad nib
    9. Pilot Metropolitan, medium nib
    10. Moleskin Large Volant, Writing Notebook
    11. Some highlighters
    12. Orbit Cinnamint Gum
    13. Pill Organizer
    14. Kingston Thumb Drive, 2 GB
    15. Case XX Pocket Knife
    16. Nivea Essential Lip Balm
    17. Keys
    18. Rosary
    19. #ChocolateChameleonLove Personal (Wallet)
    20. #ChocolateChameleonLove A5
    21. Cell Phone

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    1. I've seen photos of your bag, and it is *awesome*.

      I didn't realise we were meant to be including all our extraneous 'bits and pieces' in teh carry list, so here goes again:-

      Filofax Personal Hampstead
      - also contains debit cards, other plastic, postage stamps, business cards, supermarket discount vouchers etc

      Keys

      John Rocha messenger bag *if* I'm taking my Kindle or a book.
      Wheeled rucsac when I'm going to London, which ahs in it my files and *very* occasionally my laptop.

      BlackBerry Q10 smartphone

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    2. Thank you, my friend! I do love my man purse!

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  13. I did a guest post for Janet Carr a while back on my work EDC - the post is at http://thisbugslife.com/2014/02/10/guest-post-by-paul-whats-in-my-bag/ . Basically a Tom Bihn 'Pilot' with laptop, A5 Portobello Filofax and lots of other stuff...

    It didn't include my phone (iPhone 4S), because that lives in my trouser pockets along with keys and a card case.

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    1. Nice bag.....I do find my John Rocha a bit difficult to access (although *very* nicely made), with the wrap-over top flap....I think I'd go for a different design another time......

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  14. Car keys, iphone, personal holborn and personal malden. Second bag that I carry netbook, charger and 3 ring notebook.

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  15. For about 3 years, around the time I got my first filofax, I started a mental checklist which I chant to myself every time I'm getting ready to go out- "keys-glasses-purse-money-cards-mobile-ipod-headphones-filofax". Although filofax has now been replaced my Midori as my planner! However, when I was at uni my actual daily checklist was much longer to pick through as needed, including pencil case, notebook, lunch, sunglasses, umbrella, gloves, scarf, memory stick, netbook, charger, camera... and lots more!! I had a backpack, handbag, netbook bag, lunch bag, and canvas bags inside my backpack in case I needed them to carry books home! I looked like a pack mule!!

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  16. This changes for me depending on what's up at work, but for the last two months:

    Coach Carryall handbag - functions as work and personal bag in one
    Kate Spade Elyce Personal (Personal size)
    2-3 pens
    keys
    wallet
    card case - holds all those gift cards and dept store coupons
    wristlet with gooey stuff - lip balm, eye drops, pain killer, tissue pack, etc.
    sunglasses
    2-3 file folders - work and personal
    security card holder

    Before I added the Kate Spade planner, I had a bound planner AND a mini Moleskine Volant for scratch paper. They were slightly lighter, but less flexible.

    It's a heavy bag, but it's durable and has the right slots for organization. The only thing that would make my setup better is a cross body strap. With a winter coat, it's hard to get the shoulder straps to stay on.

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  17. Bree, what is a wristlet that carries your messy stuff in your bag, separate from your Kate Spade... presume it stops your planner from getting messed up?? This sounds so interesting, I'd love to know what this is about, and if admin allows, can you share a link? I'm always looking for cutting down handbag items and general stuff into smaller carry solutions. Thanks Bree. xx

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  18. I have 3-4 handbags that I rotate depending on how many Filos I want to carry. My largest one can hold 4 Personals plus an A5 notebook or my tablet. I own a lot of pens and lip balms so a bunch of each live in each bag and I don't have to worry about transferring them. I have chargers in my home, office, and car so I don't have to carry one. I would love to have water, hand cream, sunglasses, and a hairbrush with me as well, but I always seem to lose those things. I'm hopeless, I guess.

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