City Organiser - Last Time Buy...

Sad times... at the time of writing this post City Organiser's online shop is no more, and the store in Bow Lane will be closing very shortly, by the time this post is completed the store will have closed it's doors for the last time.

I never had the good fortune to visit the shop, but I have had great service from them online previously. As they were closing down and had some great online offers, I though it only right that I should make up for never visiting by buying a stack of stuff from them.

I shall let the pictures do most of the talking today as there is just way too much to write about all of it.

The two main coveted items (that I must have put in my basket about 100 times previously) and finally saw in the flesh at the Philofaxy meet up were these two babies below...

It's quite a big box, so we're assuming A5

Can you guess what it is yet?

Loops are top and bottom instead of at the sides, how odd - and
why did I not already know this?

One minor ring issue, but I'm sure it's fine :-)

the gorgeous Osterleys - grey A5 and compact orange.

These two were top of my futures Filofaxes list, and at these discounts I wasn't going to hang about.

Once these two beauties were done (the main purpose of my visit to the website) it was time to look at inserts etc. The following is just a stack of photos of what I chose...

Deskfax inserts (which I had totally forgotten I'd ordered)

Really bad picture, sorry - you'll have to believe me when I
tell you that these are A5 cream ruled paper and zip lock envelopes

Personal plain cotton cream (ready for printing) and pocket
zip lock envelopes

City Organisers own brand pocket sized reminder sets, so
cute, and very cheap so I just had to get lots of them :-)

Then came the Moleskine onslaught:

Hobbit ruled and plain notebooks that I've wanted since before
they released them

What self-respecting female wouldn't want
one of these?

And this was an essential - another one
that I wanted before they were released

On sale and places I intend to visit :-) And some plain cagier
notebooks (somehow I have managed again to choose plain
instead of ruled - I am an idiot. Never mind, they will get used.

By the time this little lot was in my basket I wasn't far off the spend required to push it up into the next discount bracket. So bravely I added this gorgeous darling, which basically made it free :-)

My compact black Holborn - this my make me move out of my mini Chameleon as a wallet for a while...

Also, with each of the Filofaxes I got a free pen (one was hiding when it was photo time, clearly a little camera shy), so I will leave you with my favourite pic...

LJx

Dividers - Shopping for Materials

Woohoo!!!

I got an afternoon off work on Wednesday and I was so excited, and I know it's a bit sad to get so excited about the chance to go shopping for stationery, but I had heard about a shop in Zurich that may sell scrapbooking papers, cardstock and all the other bits and pieces that go with scrapbooking. So when twelve 'o' clock came, I was out of the office faster than you can say "Malden rocks" and on the tram into the city.

I got to the stationery store at 2pm as I wasn't sure if they'd be one of the places that shuts for two hours at lunchtime, which is quite common in Switzerland. They had quite a good selection of stickers, and various bits and pieces, along with patterned origami papers, Success personal organisers and inserts, plain coloured paper and some rainbow stuff. Unfortunately though, they didn't have what I was looking for. No patterned scrapbooking paper, and their plain coloured paper could only be bought in packs of ten, and as I don't want to be making a load of dividers in the same colour I didn't really want to be buying these packs. But I did manage to buy metallic pens to write on my black dividers, and some packs of coloured pipe cleaners for the boys to make things with, as they love them.

But what had I done with my two hours between leaving work and arriving at the stationery store...? As I was on a stationery mission, I thought I would check out the stationery sections of a couple of the department stores (Co-op and Globus). I was impressed with both as Co-op had a good selection of A4 coloured papers available individually for only 50rp each, and they also had boxes of photo corners which I will be needing soon for customising my dividers, and I will potentially be using one of my FFs as a photo album.

Globus on the other hand... oh my word!!! They stock Filofaxes!!! Admittedly I would never buy a filo over here as the prices are extortionate, but they had loads. Amongst the shelves of inserts and pens, they had a glass cabinet devoted entirely to FFs - stunning!!! I longed to touch them, but they were locked away - but I had a good look to check out their stocks, Chameleons, Maldens, no Deco, but what did I spot, top shelf as it was so exquisite - THE OSTERLEY!!! Please excuse shouting, but IT IS GORGEOUS!!! The plum Osterley will be the next filo on my list of coveted filos to own. As the Deco is coming for Christmas, then maybe I will be lucky enough to get the Osterley for my birthday.

And then, what did I see to my right, on the open shelves running along the side of the stationery department...? Dominoes in all colours and sizes, along with... eeeuw the dreaded Apex... in all it's vile colours. I actually picked one up to see why anyone would buy one (unless it was their first one, and then they know no better), and really cannot see the appeal. While I was looking at the dominoes - the orange one is very nice and isn't available on the UK site - a lady came over pushing a buggy and went straight for the black Apex, I felt a wave of panic come over me and moved off slightly to the inserts. She then picked up the frightening green one, it was like she knew what she was looking for and just couldn't decide which colour to get. All I could think of was how I could approach her (with my very poor German) without seeming like some total freak!!! If she was buying for herself and has that bad taste, then fair enough, or if she was buying for someone of school age, but if she was thinking of buying for someone because they love filos, then it would be the worst decision ever. Thankfully she stepped away from the Apexes, and went off to another area.

Is it wrong that I had to fight an urge to stalk her until she left the store to make sure she didn't buy it as a present for someone?

LJx