Campo Marzio Design

If you love Colour. You will LOVE Campo Marzio Design Notebooks.

They are so beautiful and distinctive – I had to buy a whole collection all at once.

I ended up with 3 pack of A6 sized notebooks and two A5 exercise notebooks. All with different dual colour combinations. Red and Pink, Blue and Grey, Pink and Green, Lime and Green and Grey and Red.

On the Campo Marzio Design website they seem to promote their leather goods and luxury goods for working professionals which are lush and vibrant and well worth a look  – unfortunately while they say they are a paper company – there is not much evidence of their paper goods online – only some of their country specific websites and stores include their calligraphy and paper products.

These notebooks have been a perfect addition to my monthly notebook collection. They easily slip in my bag, in my filofax or wherever I need it, all colours of pens, ink and pencils work well on the plain (no lines) and vibrant coloured pages.

These notebooks are FUN! and that is what inspires you to get writing, drawing, sketching, designing or whatever it is that you use notebooks for.

Desk Pad or Mouse Pad?

A few years ago I wrote about using a mousepad as my to do list using the Knock Knock 5 days a week mouse pad which has since my original post become readily available in the UK. (Yay!!)

However, I have now bought a Woodlands Desk Planner from Paperchase.  This one is not a mousepad but rather a desk planner pad and is about twice the size as the Knock Knock Mouse Pad which is the size of the standard mousepad.  I am still using it as a mouse pad which works very well (and saves precious desk space as it takes the place of both my mouse pad and acts as my to do list (with extra writing space)).

The weekly desk planner is great for work as it brightens up my desk and includes all the things I need from notes, to-do list, email and call back list, daily blocks, key info and cute sticky notes. Yes – it includes sticky notes. What is not to love.

Other Desk Planners available from paperchase at the moment include:

• pinboard desk pad
• dotty stripe desk pad
• London desk pad

Why would you ever want to use a regular old mouse pad ever again? Use a mouse pad as your to do list instead.

Impulse Buy: Airport Shopping

For me there is something about hanging around airports bored that makes me make impulse buys. Sometimes I think i do it because it cheers me up and I usually have some leftover foreign money.

Last year I bought my metropol Filofax among other great notebooks in an airport. This time I bought a pencil case.

Why?

Mainly because it was cute!!

But also because I thought it was a great solution for my many pens floating round my bag. It will save me digging through its multiple pockets, stop the pens staining the lining and make them easy to find. After all, it is so streamed it won’t take up any more space.

The brand of the case is called Nici and it is stocked by many different stockists but plush paws seems to have the biggest collection for UK readers.

Yay! Stickies!!

My latest purchases:

Would you believe I have never bought Filofax branded inserts for my Filofax? (other than those that came with it of course). Every thing I use is homemade, but I saw these stickies and was tempted. Many Filofax users on the web have beautifully organised and decorated filofaxes that include stickies… So I though why not enjoy 🙂

Squared notes – my Filofax mini lists

A couple of years ago I went on a shopping binge in the states one of the items I bought was a rainbow spiral notepad of square post-it sized paper. I had 5 minutes before the shop closed and bought it thinking they were sticky notes. No such luck.

Nevertheless they proved a great addition to my desk and handy for writing quick notes down on in the office (and also quite funny watching people steal them thinking they were sticky notes and try to stick them).

One great thing is they are perfect for slotting into my personal Filofax. I tend to use them for the additional mini Iists that I need, whether it is my todo list for the week (to make me look at it) or a list to things to pack like in the one pictured.

Bright, vibrant and eye catching. I do keep a running to do list towards the back of my Filofax, but it is nice to put the immediate or important todos right at the front where I will see them – after all the thing I use the Filofax for most is checking my diary.

Paper Chains from the gifted penguin

Balcony decorations for the Jubilee sorted thanks to the gifted penguin… now all I need is for the weather to be on my side.

Knock Knock: 5 Days A Week

I totally love Knock Knock Products: plus I love their tagline: We put the fun in functional

When I was in the US I said I had to get at least one Knock Knock Product. I ended up getting the  5 days a week paper mousepad – which is basically – another to-do list!

However, what is great about it is:

1. it takes up no extra room on my already cluttered desk!
2. I always know where it is, unlike my legal pad for to do scribbles or my to-do list notebook. (Not to say that the to-do list notebook isn’t great for the more detailed stuff, but lately everything I’ve been working on is all one big project and it isn’t so much about remembering everything that needs to be done and who for, but the focus of my to do list is more about allocating a time to do it and keeping an overview perspective – for which this weekly planner is great)
3. I can view and plan my week.
4. It is easy to jot things down if people drop by with requests unexpectedly
5. it includes 60 sheets (more than a years worth); and
6. it brightens up the desk.

Obviously for me the attraction of this product is its simple organisation of my working life – but there are other paper mousepads which may suit your needs more – for example the surf notations one would work well for me at home.

Cavallini Sticky Notes

It is like Marmite. You either love post its or you hate them. I simply love them and go through PACKETS of the yellow Sticky Notes at work. But it has been a nice treat to use sticky notes which I received as a gift. These are from Cavallini:

They come in a lovely little tin and split into 5 different pads. This particular set – the to do set –  is great for the typical organiser, and can be used in the office or a home for many different uses.

These are so pretty I was initially reluctant to actually use them at work. Part of me thought what a waste – but then I decided that they are even more of a waste if I just let them sit.

How do I use these?

• FYI: I like to leave these ones when I leave a document on someone else’s desk and they are not there.
• Appointments: I rarely use this one unfortunately. It has more use outside of work  – and I frequently put them in my diary if I am trying to schedule something and I know that the date is going to move around a lot.
• Remember: For important notes.
• To Do List: This is normally used in relation to a particular file as a reminder of everything I have to do with it. This type of note can also be used well by the sort of person who wants to achieve a number of targets a day.
• The Week: Perfect way to plan the week, and see the broad picture at a glance. This note gets stuck to my monitor.

Cavallini do a whole range of sticky notes which come in a wide range of designs, which reflect a lot of their notebook/paper ranges. They are obviously doing something right because Waterstones have now added a similar product to their own stationery range.

Stockists: US: Touch of Europe. UK: Papernation; The Paperie and Bohemia.