Filofax

What’s on My Coffee Table: Books and Planners

December 28, 2022 at 9:03 am by Claudia

The scene just in front of me and to my right.

Lordy.

I’m nearly finished with Bad Actors. I renewed the Alan Rickman diaries yesterday so I don’t have to finish that as quickly as I thought. I also have more time available on the Michael Connelly, so my panic about finishing all of these before I had to return them has abated.

Also on this TBR stack (there’s another stack by the dollhouse and, of course, lots more upstairs in the bedroom) the newest Maggie O’Farrell, which I started but just wasn’t in the mood for at that moment, Louise Penny, and Something Wonderful, a book about Rodgers and Hammerstein. The title refers to the song from The King and I, a song I sang many, many moons ago when I was in a production of that musical.

Both of my planners are also on the table. I have a big A5 planner for everyday use and I love it. I also have what is called a ‘personal’ size (the one in deep red.) I haven’t used that one much in the last year but I resurrected it recently so I have something I can toss in a tote or handbag. The large A5 lives here permanently.

I’ve spoken before on this blog about planners and Filofaxes. I’ve been using some form of planner since high school. For years, I used a pocket planner, like the one I gave to Don for Christmas. They consisted of lots of little squares – too little, frankly – denoting days of the week. (My writing tends to be large-ish.) In the late eighties, when I was teaching at Boston University, I became obsessed with the Filofax. A woman I worked with had one – it was stuffed with receipts and a calendar and all sorts of things interesting things and I knew I wanted one. I didn’t earn a lot in those days – in fact, I’ve never earned a lot! – and I saved up for a planner cover that wasn’t a Filofax, but a wanna-be. It was perfectly fine for a while. Eventually, I was able to purchase an actual Filofax cover and boy, oh boy, I used that for years and years. I still have it. A reader of this blog graciously gave me a Filofax Malden a few years ago, which I alternate with the red cover you see on the table. She also gave me an A5 cover that I use for brainstorming ideas – it lives upstairs near the desk in the office. Deborah is so kind and generous. And I got a deal a few years back on the beautiful brown A5 planner you see here. I love it.

I tried electronic planners and they just don’t work for me. I need to write things down, to see it on the page in my writing. My planners work as a kind of journal as well, with a list of things that need to be done, yes, but also notes on the weather, quotes I discover that I want to remember, the books I’m reading, the programs I’m watching, rehearsal schedules, random thoughts, and the occasional sticker added to enhance a page. I keep all the pages at the end of the year, tie them up with a ribbon, and stack them inside the pink cabinet in the office. I often refer to them if I need to remember when I coached a certain production, when I was out of town, etc.

I also love to flip through the planner throughout the year and especially near the end of the year. I’ll do that this week. I look back through the days and I’m filled with memories – good and bad. Between the blog and my planner, I can usually track down anything I need to know. I don’t write in a journal, as you know. The blog and my planner are my preferred form of journal.

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t remember much of anything if I didn’t write it down!

Also on the table: a pine-scented candle, some souvenir matchbooks, two pieces of McCoy and a plant. My phone isn’t there, but it often is.

Side note: I’m currently eating a piece of apple pie for breakfast. Oh, it’s heaven.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

A Little Story

January 11, 2020 at 10:41 am by Claudia

A little story today.

As you might remember, I am a longtime Filofax user. For those who don’t know, a Filofax is a specific kind of planner made in Great Britain. They’ve been around a long time. I first discovered them when I was teaching at Boston University. One of my colleagues had one – stuffed with all kinds of calendars and addresses and information – and I was fascinated by it. I knew immediately that this was the kind of planner that would work for me, one that would meet the challenge of recording class schedules, rehearsal schedules, to do lists, etc. (Even with the advent of iPhones and laptops, I still need to write things down. That makes them real to me.)

But I was poor. So the best I could do was to buy the Filofax inserts (the calendar, etc.) but use an cheap cover, which is all I could afford. Over the years, I strayed at times, trying Day Planners, Year at a Glance, even a Palm Pilot, but I always came back to Filofax. When we moved out east, I started working in the city a lot and I found the perfect stationery store which carried Filofaxes. I finally bought a planner.

Here it is, from a post in 2013. It’s been well loved; a little battered, but beautiful. I will never give it up. It’s the Kensington model, which is, sadly, no longer being produced.

Okay. Fast forward to a blog I love called Philofaxy – all about planners and how people use them (which I find utterly fascinating.) I recently learned there was a Facebook group associated with the blog and I joined. I’ve been thinking of updating my planner so that all the wear and tear isn’t concentrated on one planner, so I posed a question about my Kensington and a model called Malden and whether changing over would be a good idea. I had lots of responses, very helpful and generous information. Many urged me to hang on to my Kensington because they’re so well made. (I will.)

I received a notice of a comment from a woman who contributes to the blog and remembered a post I wrote on MHC circa 2013 about how much I loved my Filofax. I was chuffed that she had read it! And then another comment followed, from Deborah, in which she said she was a longtime reader of the blog (2 people who had read the blog!) She expressed her appreciation for MHC and said that she had a Malden that she wanted to give me. Could I DM her my address?

I was stunned. Give me? Are you kidding me? Needless to say, I expressed my gratitude at her generous gesture in my reply, as I still couldn’t get over her offer. We exchanged information and this arrived yesterday:

It’s simply beautiful.

She included some dividers that she thought I would like.

She was right. Aren’t they absolutely charming? Just the kind of whimsy that I love.

I’ve since transferred my calendars, etc., from the Kensington to the Malden. The Kensington needs some polishing and restoring and I’m going to do that.

Over the almost 12 years I’ve been blogging, I have been humbled again and again by the generosity of my readers. I’ve been given so many gifts, simply because readers want to thank me for the blog. I don’t deserve it. I say this because I mean it, not to illicit any responses of “Oh yes, you do.” I’m not making light of those responses – they mean the world to me. When someone writes a comment saying how much this blog, or a certain post, has helped them, or how it provides a pocket of peace and sanity in these times, my eyes tear up. I often share those responses with Don and I start to cry. So your words and actions mean a great deal to me.

I simply write from my heart on any given day, hoping it strikes a chord of some kind. It helps me. That you appreciate those words or pictures is the icing on the cake. So I’m not feigning humility, it’s truly how I feel.

Thank you, Deborah. Thank you so much! And thank you all for being out there, for comforting me in times of loss or fear, for sharing your thoughts with me, for being my friends. I never take you for granted.

_____________

One quick note: I’ve received some questions lately that have come via a response to the email version of the posts. As I have said many times in the past, I am unable to respond to those because that email is from my server and is only for the posts. If you have a question, please come to the blog and leave it in the comments. I believe you can click on the post title in the email and it will bring you to the blog. Failing that, send an email to me via the envelope icon at the top of the sidebar on the right and I’ll gladly respond. Thanks.

Happy Saturday.

Potpourri on Tuesday

January 7, 2020 at 10:23 am by Claudia

• It isn’t easy to stay positive when the skies are gray and overcast and the leaves are gone from the trees and my gardens are taking the winter off and Christmas is over and we’re into January. Yes, I know all about a positive attitude and, truth be told, I’m pretty positive most of the time. But some days are just harder. This is one of them. I’m also what I call ‘sinusey’ (so is Don) and that isn’t helping.

I have things to do, of course. The top priority is to work on Jane Eyre. And I’ll do that after I finish writing this post.

Anyway, enough of that. I’m sharing my current mood because a) it’s my blog and I talk about that sort of thing, and b) I know some of you suffer from the same winter blues and it might help you to know you’re not alone.

• Dove Cottage: A few days ago, I realized I was going to have to paint the window trim before I did any more of the stone work, otherwise it could get messy. I had a picture in my mind for a long time of a pale blue window trim, which I think I’ve seen in pictures of French stone houses. Never mind that this is an English cottage. I mixed up some light blue from the paints I had on hand and painted two coats on all the windows.

I hated it.

So I decided to paint over the blue and use the same color I used on the roof.

I’m not nearly a precise enough painter to keep the window trim from bleeding onto the stones, which is why I stopped and painted the trim before I add the next round of stones. You can see the pale blue in this photo. It just looked like it shouldn’t be there. Somehow, the combination of the dark gray, the stones, and the blue was too much.

I can’t wait until I get to the point where I can add the grout between the stones. I think it will make a huge difference. I have do some touch up to a few of the stones that were already next to the windows, as they have a bit of trim paint on them. Better a few than all of them!

• I’m also working on updating my Filofax planner for the year. I sort of fell away from it in the last half of 2019 (probably because I didn’t have much coaching work) and I miss having a sense of order and structure to the day that a planner provides. Plus, it helps me to see that even though we both seem to be semiretired these days, I actually do quite a bit every day. Also, it’s a way to record the days I’ve worked on coaching jobs, the shows, when the contract started and when it ended. I also write purely personal stuff like what movie we watched, what book I’m reading, and my thoughts about them. I’ve been using planners for over 30 years and I got my first Filofax in 1990. I have an app on my phone and laptop called Wunderlist to remind me of certain things like when a bill is due, but as for planning, I function best when I have to write it down. If I don’t write it down, I often forget about it.

So I bought a 2020 calendar insert and I’m ready to roll. Don used to keep a calendar in order to remember what days he had to travel into the city for auditions, what the travel expenses were, and what days he worked. He hasn’t done that in a few years, probably because Margaritaville took up most of his time. So he bought a planner the other day, though his is much simpler than mine. He likes a small planner that he can put in his pocket.

There’s a big ‘planner’ community out there and it’s fascinating to see how people individualize their planners. One could easily be distracted by all the photos and YouTube videos of them. Take it from someone who knows.

The Hill-Sparks household is determined to be organized in the coming year!

Happy Tuesday.

What’s on My Coffee Table: Books and Planners

A Little Story

Potpourri on Tuesday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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