Philofaxy: Van der Spek

Showing posts with label Van der Spek. Show all posts

27 July 2025

Keeping a Journal

I have been keeping a journal now on a regular basis since 2013. I tried before then to keep a journal in my Filofax, but it wasn't so successful, and I would frequently forget to write anything in each day.

With my hopeless short term memory if a couple of days pass without writing anything down, then the details will be lost.

I started using a Quo Vadis Daily 21 page per day planner as my journal in 2013. It is a bit of an overkill for my average level of writing each day. But it keeps things tidy and well laid out.

Each day has the day and date in six languages the first two being English and French. The others are Italian, German, Spanish and Dutch.

Each page has some timings against the ruled lines, but I tend to ignore the exact timings.

It is close to A5 in size, slightly narrower and I keep it in a Van Der Spek Codex cover. I've done reviews of these here.

If you are just getting started with journalling or you want to improve your style of journal keeping. I recommend picking up a copy of Ray Blakes book 'Journalling School: A Short Course in Personal Journalling' It helped me a lot and I need to re-read it again.

It was also available as a series of blog posts:

Or one simple link: http://www.mylifeallinoneplace.com/search/label/Journalling%20School

There are plenty of other on-line resources on Journal Writing.

This is what my stack of journals from 2013 to 2024, 2025 being in my VDS cover and still being written in each day.

I already have my 2026 Daily 21 ready for next year. They seem to become available earlier in the year these days.

You can of course use a separate diary insert in your Filofax as a journal it doesn't have to be the same format or size as the one you use for planning, but long term storage might be easier if it is the same size.

You will find some suitable Philofaxy inserts here: Diaries 2025 and some undated planners are included in our Files Page here: Files

Fun Fact: When I look back at my 1987 Filofax diary insert (the first full year of using one) the entries are more like a journal than a planner! I didn't know any different at the time! It is just amusing to see them now!

Do you journal each day?

30 November 2023

Van der Spek Advent Calendar

24 days of Give-Aways, Discounts, Fast Shipping, Offers, Freebies and more...

For the details of each day, go to https://blog.vdsshop.com/advent-calendar-2023

1 December | Win 2x VDS Gift Card of € 100,-
2 December | Special Leather available: Rainbow Noël
3 December | 30% discount on all Touch Me Planners and Touch Me Pen Pouches
4 December | Fast Shipping on ALL custom made planners in ALL stock leathers
5 December | Win a planner --> Special Nomad in JL Brown
6 December | All orders above € 150,- will get a FREE 'Bagusbag by Petra' brown wallet
7 December | Win a planner --> Codex Standard Mega in Nubuck Écume
8 December | Order up to 10 FREE leather samples (no real ostrich) and only pay for shipping
9 December | All Custom Made planners that are ordered today will include the VDS Embossed Logo
10 December | Fast Shipping on ALL custom made planners in ALL stock leathers
11 December | Free Chunky or A4 Clasp with a Custom Made Planner
12 December | Win your exact same VDS planner for a friend
13 December | Free Nomad Layout with a Custom Made Planner
14 December | Win the planner that Petra is holding on the picture of December 1
15 December | 15% discount on JL Leathers for Custom Made Planners and Bags
16 December | Win a Custom Made Bag
17 December | Win a Facetime talk with Petra
18 December | All orders above € 350,- will get a FREE 'Bagusbag by Petra' Grey Shopper or Big Shopper
19 December | Win a planner --> VDS Collector's item: Senior in Fine Grey Croco + Brown Nappa
20 December | 20% discount on all Touch Me Stock Leathers for Custom Made planners and bags
21 December | All Custom Made Ring Planner orders (except Mini an B6) will receive a Touch Me Planner in the same size
22 December | Win a planner --> Custom Made A5, inside leather = TM Mauve
23 December | Free Squared Corners with a Custom Made Planner
24 December | Win a Real Ostrich Full Quill Burnt Pink Junior size planner

That’s it! We wish you all a Very Merry Xmas and a Wonderful New Year! 🎄🎁🧑🏽‍🎄

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm.

The VDS Team.

Further Information.

Web Site: https://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Facebook Group (Bags): https://www.facebook.com/groups/vdsleatherbagfans
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

12 October 2023

Van der Spek Leather (Bags)

Van der Spek recently launched their new custom leather bag range. You can find out more here.

https://vdsshop.com/shop/c/custom-made-bags/cid:244/

However, they have also introduced some new leather options, so you can request these new leathers for their custom organiser range as well as the bags!

Petra Van Der Spek has done some short videos explaining the differences between the different leathers in their range:

And to finish off this following video is used to promote their craftsmanship in the making of leather organisers.

Thank you to Petra for sharing all of the details.

Further Information.

13 July 2023

Van der Spek - New Touch Me Collection Launch

The TM Collection in the NEW colours TM Alezan, Rhapsody and Thuya will be available online from July 14 on! (July 13 for those who subscribed to the launch notification).

All items will have a Chunky Clasp

Shipped within 5 workdays

The new Collection will be online on July 14 at 12:00 CET

These new colours are in addition to Noir(black) and Tabac (light brown).

Further Information.

25 May 2023

Van der Spek Custom A5 Manager

I have to confess I have a weakness for the Van der Spek A5 organisers. It is a few years since I last ordered one back in 2019! I thought 'that will do me' who was I trying to kid!

The announcement of the new 'Janet Leather' colour leathers which were decided by a poll in the Facebook group was the trigger. At last a blue Janet Leather and I liked it as well. It's very similar to one of my earlier Van der Spek Standard size (Personal size) but I don't think that leather is still available. A similar blue but darker in tone.

Here is my 'new' A5 Custom in Blue (Cobalto - Cobalt Blue on the outside) and Grey (Cenere) on the inside with contrasting stitching which is quite subtle until you look closely.

As usual I went for my usual internal layout which I have a couple of other A5's it is known as 'Steve Layout' on the website! It gives me all the pockets I need in the front and back.

Just three credit card pockets two other horizontal business card/brochure pockets and two full height vertical slip pockets with leather and elasticated pen loops on the front and back covers.

The fly leaf is also in the two contrasting leathers.

The rear inside cover is again my usual layout with a single vertical slip pocket and a zip pocket as well.

I didn't opt for a full width back pocket on this one. Less bulk and it lays much flatter without it. The clasp is normal size as well. Although other sizes are now available.

Thank you to Petra and the team in Puttershoek I've already 'moved in' and I'm loving the new colours and the gorgeous smell of new leather on my desk next to me.

Further Information.

18 May 2023

Van der Spek - New 'Janet Leather' colours

Van der Spek Leather Goods have recently added three new colours to the 'Janet Leather' range of custom leathers.

I was fortunate enough to be sent some leather samples of all three colours, therefore I've scanned them in on a flat-bed scanner, so you can see the texture and colour in a larger image.

Cobalto is a very light blue, but to my personal point of view not too light or 'washed out'

Cenere is a plain neutral grey colour.

Iris at first glance looks very similar to the Cenere grey above but at different angles you start to see just a subtle hint of purple

At a more acute angle and using a camera, you can start to see the purple tone in the leather!

'Janet Leather' is described on the Van der Spek website as thick, firm, natural grain, smooth and pebbly parts, delicious smell, rich leather. These full-grain cow hide leathers from Tuscany, Italy.

The original Janet leather is the brown one with number #104. This leather is sensitive to water and dirt since it does not have any finish, just an open structure. Therefore you have to love leather that will change and get a patina look as well.

These three new colours are available now for Custom Orders. Please see the VdS website for details.

Thank you to Van der Spek for the leather samples.

Further Information.

27 October 2022

Van der Spek Announce New Leather Colours For Their 'Touch-Me' Range

Van der Spek recently announced some new stock colours for their Touch Me Range. In addition to Noir (Black) they put a choice of colours to a vote and the three colours below were the ones chosen.

Van der Spek are very excited to let you know the New Touch Me Collection Colours that you chose:

TM Alezan | Sandy Fawn Beige-Brown
TM Thuya | Deep Forest Green
TM Rhapsody | Dusty Purple

The TM Collection in these New Colours will be available on their webshop at the end of April 2023.

Please note that TM Standard Wide will only be available in TM Alezan.

You can sign up to receive a Launch Notification when we know the exact launch date, and you will be the first to be able to purchase these items before they will become available to the general public.

How to sign up?

· Go to the Touch Me Planner of your choice

https://vdsshop.com/shop/c/touch-me/cid:217/

· Select the new Touch Me Colour that you are interested in and fill in your email-address underneath that colour.

The 3 New TM colours will also be available as stock leathers for our Custom-Made Collection:

TM Thuya is already available right now

TM Alezan will be available from today on

TM Rhapsody will be available from December 1 on

The current TM Parme, TM Perle, and TM Poussiere will still be available in the TM Collection in the coming time. They will also still be available for all Custom-Made items.

In addition Van der Spek decided to offer a different 'brown' to the established 'Tabac' TM leather.

Again another vote took place on Facebook and Instagram for a new shade of 'Brown' to replace Tabac.

And the winning colour is... TM MOKA!

The TM Collection in TM Moka will be available on their webshop at the end of June.

How to sign up?

· Go to the Touch Me Planner of your choice

https://vdsshop.com/shop/c/touch-me/cid:217/

· Select the colour TM Moka and fill in your email-address underneath that colour.

From today on TM Moka is also be available as a stock leather for our Custom-Made Collection.

TM Tabac will still be available in the TM Collection in the coming time.

It will also still be available for all Custom-Made items.

Thank you to Van der Spek for sharing this news with us.

Which colour do you like? I quite like Moka and Thuya.

16 March 2022

UKRAINE: Van der Spek Special Planners For Auction

Once again Van der Spek have risen to the challenge and produced two very special planners that are being auctioned this week.

All of the proceeds of the auction will be going to a charity in the Netherlands to give humanitarian aid in Ukraine. The planners are in the colours of the Ukrainian flag. Each one is one of a kind and has the VDS embossed stamp to show that they are special editions.

The two planners, one with rings the other for bound planners are being sold on the VDS Sales Group, this is a group for fans run by fans, but as a special concession we have allowed Van der Spek Leathergoods to sell these two special items in the group.

If you want to bid, just comment on the posts. Not a member already, just apply to join and we will make sure you are accepted quickly.

The full details are as follows:

We have 2 very special planners that we are auctioning to the highest bidders.

100% of the proceedings will be donated to humanitarian aid in Ukraine

via the Dutch foundation of Cooperating Aid Organisations (Samenwerkende Hulporganisaties) https://giro555.nl/
The 2 planners are available in the VDS Sales Group, where you can place your bid in the comments.
–> Please always look at the latest comment to see the highest current bid and then add your own bid as a new comment.
–> You can bid as many times as you like.
· On Friday 18 March at 12.00 CET we will close the bidding and contact the winners. Worldwide shipping is included in the bid. The winning bids will be expected to pay in full by Monday 21 March. The planners will be shipped immediately after payment.

Standard 30mm | bids start at € 250,-
https://www.facebook.com/…/Vand…/posts/3257399041197147/
Outside Leather: TM Bleu de France
Inside Leather: Lemon Nappa
Stitching: TM Bleu de France
· 30mm Silver Rings
· Stiffener: Bontex
· Big Back Pocket
· Blind Embossed VDS Logo on the right bottom pocket
· Chunky Clasp
· Flyleaf

Codex Standard Mega | bids start at € 250,-
https://www.facebook.com/…/Vande…/posts/3257403747863343
Outside Leather: TM Bleu de France
Inside Leather: Lemon Nappa
Stitching: TM Bleu de France
· Big Back Pocket
· Blind Embossed VDS Logo on the right bottom pocket
· Chunky Clasp

Thank you to everyone at Van der Spek Leathergoods for making these two planners and for donating 100% of the proceeds to benefit the people of Ukraine.

16 January 2022

Silent Sunday

Stitching on custom standard Van der Spek

27 December 2021

Van der Spek - Standard Wide - A new size in the Touch Me range.

A lot of people asked Van der Spek for a Touch Me 'Personal Wide'. After some thought they have brought out a 'Standard Wide' version in their popular Touch Me range of ring bound organisers.

Petra asked me if I would like to review a sample from the first batch that went on sale about a week ago. Of course I said yes.

I'm not particularly keen on 'Personal Wide' as it's a size that was invented, it's almost ISO216 B6 size. To me using B6 size makes more sense because it is easier to scale inserts to that size.

B6 is 125mm x 175mm whilst 'Personal Wide' is 121 x 172mm. The additional height of B6 is less of an issue and it's only 4 mm wider than 'Personal Wide'

Obviously trying B6 or Personal Wide in a normal Standard even with 25mm rings isn't going to work, the pages stick out beyond the edge of the organiser! With 30mm rings the B6 paper pushes hard against the clasp!

The line at the edge of the B6 paper is where Personal Wide would finish, not that much different, but it just confirms that normal Standard size just isn't wide enough for every day use with the wider paper in 'Personal Wide' or B6.

Standard fitted with 25mm rings

Now it is time to try out B6 in the new Standard Wide Van der Spek Touch Me.

I'm pleased to confirm that even with 30mm rings fitted to the 'Standard Wide Touch Me, B6 fits perfectly and Personal Wide is 4 mm narrower, so no issues with that size either.

The Standard Wide Touch Me has been made generously sized to cope with being fitted with 30mm rings or 25mm rings if you wish.

I used a stack of normal personal size inserts either side of B6 size paper to make sure that the B6 stack was in the middle of the rings, the peak of the arc of the rings and therefore at the widest point.

Standard Wide fitted with 30mm rings

The rest of the design of the Standard Wide is the same as the normal Standard Touch Me, they both feature:

Full width back pocket for larger sheets of paper
Two pen loops,
Two full height secretarial pockets
The inside front cover has a vertical slip pocket and also a full height zip pocket and a card pocket.
The inside back cover has 6 horizontal card slots on the front of the secretarial pocket.

Standard Wide in Stardust Velvet Matt Croco Leather

It should be noted that the inside leather goes the full width of the organiser, it's not cut out like on some other brands. The inside of the full width back pocket and the reverse side of the secretarial pockets are finished in a synthetic leather like material.

The Standard Wide is also available in Noir(Black), Parme, Beige Croco and Stardust Velvet Matt Croco leathers.

The Croco leathers are slightly more expensive because they take the trouble to line up the pattern on the interior and exterior leather covers as well as the clasp. Even at this price point Van der Spek go that extra distance to make sure your organiser looks perfect.

Other than the choice of leather and the size of the rings it's not possible to customise the Touch Me range, but they are 'ready to ship' within 5 days of ordering subject to them being in stock.

They come boxed in a black box featuring the company logo and were well packed and shipped by FedEx to my door within a few days of despatch.

The Touch Me Standard Measures:

HEIGHT	194mm \| 7.64"
WIDTH (CLOSED PLANNER)	146mm \| 5.75"
WIDTH (FLAT OPEN PLANNER)	310mm \| 12.2"
DEPTH	46mm \| 1.81"

The Touch Me Standard Wide Measures:

HEIGHT	194mm \| 7.64"
WIDTH (CLOSED PLANNER)	172mm \| 6.77"
WIDTH (FLAT OPEN PLANNER)	362mm \| 14.25"
DEPTH	46mm \| 1.81"

See the full Van der Spek Touch Me range here.

Thank you to Petra Van der Spek for making the samples available to me to try out.

Now the exciting bit......

Win the Van der Spek Standard Wide featured in this post.

To win the organiser you need to answer the following questions:

1. In what year was Van der Spek Leather Goods first established?

2. What is the title of Steve Morton's new book that will be released on 3rd January 2022?

3. What is the name of the plannercast (podcast) that Steve co-hosts with Karine Tovmassian?

Answers to all questions are in this post or recent posts on Philofaxy.

Please send your answers to philofaxy@gmail.com the competition will close at 23:00 GMT Monday 3rd January 2022. Please title your email 'Van der Spek' or similar so they can easily be filtered.

Again a big thank you to Petra Van der Spek for her support.

The boring but essential bit....

Terms and conditions of the Van der Spek give-away:

Only one entry per person.
Last date for entries 3 January 2022 at 23:00 GMT as specified by the United Kingdom National Physical Laboratory at Teddington.
Entry is open to anyone on planet earth.
The number of prizes available is 1, the only colour available is as shown in the post. There are no alternatives.
The winning entry will be selected by a pseudo random generator more complex than Ernie the Premium Bond machine.
The Judges decision is final.
No cash alternative is available.
No correspondence will be entered in to.

Further Information.

29 April 2021

My first A5 Van der Spek after 7 years of use

I did my original review of this particular organiser in July 2014

There is also a 'making of post'

Looking at that post makes me almost feel like I'm back at the workshop in Puttershoek with the Van der Spek family, watching them put together my actual organiser and it drives my memories to remember the sounds and the smells of the workshop.

I did a post after using it for three years in 2017,

Almost 4 years further on I was reminded by someone in the Facebook group asking about this particular leather, so it was time to do another update. There is sometimes no short cut to see how a particular leather will withstand daily wear and tear other than actual long term use.

The leather colours are 6202 (Ciocolatio) on the outside and 6208 (Cuoio) on the inside.

Here are the photos taken this week.

Whilst this particular organiser hasn't been in constant use for the last 7 years, it has certainly travelled a lot of miles/kms. I used it for our North American trip back in 2015.

The outside has become quite 'shiny' the interior nappa leather shows 'finger scratches' easily as you can see, but these disappear with a gentle rub with a damp finger tip.

The Krause rings are still perfectly aligned and show no signs of any gaps.

Overall it continues to be a useful organiser.

Further Information.

Web Site: https://www.vdsshop.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/VDSleathergoods
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanderspekorganiserfans/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vdsshop/

28 April 2021

News: Van der Spek updates

News from Van der Spek.

Custom Junior Organisers.

A minor design option change for the Van der Spek Junior size (Pocket size)

You can now include the following additional option via our webshop: Bottom pocket on the left-hand side of the Custom Made Junior (at the same height as the bottom pocket of the right-hand side) See the website for details.

Van der Spek Touch Me Ready Made Collection.

The Touch Me Collection is restocked in all sizes and colours

Your TM order is sent to you within 5 workdays.

Pages

27 July 2025

30 November 2023

12 October 2023

13 July 2023

25 May 2023

18 May 2023

27 October 2022

16 March 2022

16 January 2022

27 December 2021

29 April 2021

28 April 2021