Guest Post - Maria's Travelfax - Competition Winner

As you all know I had a competition to win a Domino Personal Filofax a few months ago! 

Well here is a guest post written by the person who received this wonderful prize, I wanted people to see how she has got on with it and what she is using it for. 

It is all in her words! I hope you enjoy!!!

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Personal Domino- My Travelfax 

A few weeks ago I was really surprised and happy when Imy told me that I had made first place in her filofax competition.

Soon afterwards these lovely things arrived in the post: I got a Personal Domino, some cool stickers and a Frixion Pen, Yay

I love travelling but as I’m a broke student it will be some time until I can afford to travel more frequently especially overseas. But until then I can at least dream, right?

I like taking a cheaper binder with me on holidays so that I don’t have to change the setup in my main one and also not to mess it up when I’m out and about, on the beach for example.

In the past this has been a green personal Apex that I have also won through a competition (yes really! can you believe my filofax winning streak?) but for some time now I have used the Apex for a different purpose. So when Imy’s Domino arrived I knew at once that it would make a perfect new travel filofax. I also really like the colour, it’s a very rich purple (unfortunately the screen doesn’t really do it justice) and it looks more grown up than the Apex.

The Filofax actually serves double-duty. I constantly use it at home to plan or dream about future vacations and to archive the information on all the places I have already been. When I actually go on a trip I take out all the pieces that are irrelevant for this particular trip and take the binder with me. I then add all kinds of useful information and data such as hotel addresses, phone numbers, reservation numbers, train schedules etc.

But as I’m not going away at the moment I decided to show you my set up that I use when I’m at home.

I really enjoy making my filofaxes look pretty and personal. For this one I couldn’t decide and made 2 cover pages. For the first one I used a picture from an old calendar that I got in Ireland when I was there a couple of years ago. I still had a movie brochure of the film “away we go” and as I thought the saying fit quite well I glued it on.

The second cover is simply made of pretty cardstock

The dividers are also made of old calendar pages (I think old calendar pages are ideal for making dividers as they are often sturdy but not too thick.

Now let’s have a little tour. Behind the cover there’s a contact sheet, including my address and ways to contact me should I ever lose the Filo. It also contains some emergency contacts.

Behind the first tab, there is my wish list of places I want to go someday which is quite long!. Some destinations are very generic, but some get more specific over time when I add cities, regions etc.

Next we have a section dedicated to Munich. It’s the next real city from my hometown (about 2 hours) and there are still lots of things I want to do there. Places to go, Restaurants I want to try, Shops I have heard of…

 

The third tab contains more concrete plans for the next trip that is coming up.

I do my real planning here, adding new information constantly and writing down ideas that cross my mind. At the moment this section is used for a trip to Cologne for a friend’s birthday party on New Year’s Eve. As I have never been there I’m going to combine the party with a short city trip and explore the place for some days, yay :D

The fourth tab is reserved for checklists. I have a huge holiday checklist/packing list that I always consult before going away for a longer time (more than 2-3 days) so I don’t forget anything. I now have a permanent copy stored in the Domino which will come in really handy in the future and will save me the trouble of always printing a new one.

Lastly, there’s my holiday wish list. It’s for all the things I would like to buy abroad. One of my favourite things to do on holiday is to browse the supermarkets of the place I’m at. So interesting and fun to find all these new sweets, drinks and national dishes that we don’t have at home. So I make sure to keep a record of the things I liked best. (Mint chocolate and orange jelly from the UK how I miss thee :D)

But it’s also for all kinds of other stores that I would like to go to. (Paperchase!! Everyone has made me so jealous with their hauls :D)

The next section was actually inspired by the alphabetical tabs that came with the Domino. Behind each letter I store the information on places I’ve already been to. At the moment this is only Barcelona under B and Scotland under S because I have been a Filofax user for only one year yet. But over time this could get a lovely reference library. After each trip I also write down my highlights of the holiday and things that I didn’t have a chance to see and really want to include should I go there again. I think this will also be helpful when a friend asks me for advice before going to that same place.

At the very back I store maps that I printed off or cut out

And finally there’s a small plastic envelope for stamps or little scraps of paper

Woops, this got really long (awful tendency of mine)

Thanks to the Philofaxy community for giving me so many ideas for my binders and just for being such nice and helpful folks

p.s. the cool stickers Imy sent along also found a new home (in my main filofax)

Thanks again, Imy

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Thank you so much for doing the post!!! It is great to see what others do with their Filofaxes!