Day Timer Garden Path inserts – old vs. new

 Filofaxing
Jun 192014
 

In a previous post reviewing the Day Timer Garden Path Desk Binder, I briefly mentioned the inserts.    I’ve been using the Garden Path inserts on and off since 2008 or 2009.  I loved the pastel colours and the faded flowers that filled the pages.   Then, when I bought my 2012 calendar I was disappointed to see that they’d changed the design (to this day I believe they still have the old style pictured for the note pads).

Gone are the pastels, gone are the soft floral images underlying on every page.   The pages are plain, though slightly shaded and all there is now is a squashed photograph of flowers at the top of the pages.

current diary

This is the current style

pre 2012

Pre 2012 style

notepad

Current style notepads

notepad

Pre 2012 notepad

Franklin Covey have done a similar thing with their Blooms range of inserts.  Shown here are Pocket size “Cut away” inserts.

blooms

New style on the left, older and prettier on the right

Fortunately for me, I have a stash of the older type of both Garden Path notepads and Blooms Cut Away pages.

Update on Garden Path binder cleaning

 Filofaxing
Jun 162014
 

It took me 2 attempts to get a response from Daytimer UK site.  My first message via their web contact form was missed or ignored, so today, I sent an email to the address on my invoice, asking about care and cleaning of the Garden Path binders, as I’d mentioned in my previous post.

Here is their response :

Dear Gill,

Thanks for your email, Sorry for the delay in responding.

Please see the response from our head office.

For Garden path binder, you can only use clean DRY CLOTH. Any chemicals will harm the product, as it is a special finished leather.

Kind Regards

To which, my response was :

Thank you for replying. 

 However, I do think that this should have been stated in the product description.  It was already marked when I received it and from your response, it would not be practical to carry it around in my bag or use anywhere other than the clean environment on my desk at home.  Had I known this I would not have bought it.

 Regards

Ah well.  Lessons learned.

Day Timer Garden Path Binder

 Filofaxing
Jun 072014
 

Happy Saturday 🙂

I’ve been using Day Timer’s Garden Path inserts for at least 6 years and I’ve always loved their “prettyness”, although since 2012, they have changed the design and it’s not so much to my liking.   I think maybe I’ll go into that thread in more depth in another post (yes, I have just written it in my To Do list 🙂 ).

I first saw this binder quite a while ago, but I’d been put off by the fact that it was a zipped binder, not a snap tab.  I’d never had one before and always thought that the zip might get in the way or it wouldn’t open fully and lay flat.    Then, earlier this week I found me a little purple PennyBridge binder to use as a “carry all” in situations where I didn’t want to take my bag with me.  Of course, the PennyBridge is zipped and so it gave me an idea of what my lovely GP binder may be like.

Then I remembered that last time I’d looked (on the UK site) that it was out of stock and would be back in at the end of August, but I went there anyway, just to have another look at it.  I was pleased and surprised to see that the desk size WAS in stock, so although I’d been contemplating the Portable size (Filofax equivalent is Personal), I’ve now got quite a number of that size but only 2 of the big ones.  My trusty old pink leather Day Timer (the Desk Monster as it’s affectionately known) and an A5 Paperchase “Vintage London”.  I considered that after years of faithful service that my Desk Monster might like to take a well earned rest, so that was decided for me – I’d have the desk size instead.

binder

My first impression was that I’ve never felt leather like this before.  It has a very matt finish and almost but not quite feels like suede.  The description on their website says “The leather for this gorgeous collection has been specially treated to give it a silky, feather-soft feel that you have to touch to believe! ” which is quite correct.  It does feel lovely but that made me a little concerned with care and cleaning.  I normally used Lord Sheraton Leather Balsam on my leather binders, but I’m not sure how it would react with such a different finish, so I’ve contacted Day Timer about my concerns.  Being a Saturday afternoon, I don’t expect a reply before Monday so I’ll update on that when I get it.

OK, on to the photos and a few thoughts from me…

rings

The rings are good and, like my Desk Monster, they’re very stuffable!

slots

On the left hand side there are 12 card slots plus 1 identity slot,  There are also 2 full height slots behind these.  Not short on slots then 🙂

Back pocket

At the back there’s a pocket for a notepad.  The pen holder is here too.  This is a little bit on the skinny side for me.  I had difficulty pushing my Paperchase pen into it and the pen isn’t what I’d regard as chunky.  Mental note to self – find a slimmer pen !

contents

Here it is, now stuffed with contents – everything from the Desk Monster now transferred.

contents

I only have what remains of June’s DO2P inserts left.  At the moment, I don’t have the need for such a large space every day so from July on, I’ll be using WO2P instead.

contnets

Even though it’s stuffed, there’s quite a bit of space left in the rings if I wanted to add more.  You can also see from this photo that brand new, this binder lays perfectly flat which I love.

closed

I zipped it up after being filled.  No problem with space, but I did find that  the zip stalls a little at the corners and needs a little coaxing to get round.  This could be because it’s new…I’m not sure yet.
The pretty mug on my desk was a gift from my talented friend Gill Rogers who sells her lovely prints in her Zazzle store.

deboss detail

The debossed leather in close up

charms

There’s a small leather loop at the top of the binder.  Attached to this on a small chain are 2 leather flowers and a small locket.  Not quite sure what would go in the locket but it’s there anyway 🙂

comparison

Now the comparison with my old Day Timer “Desk Monster”.  The Garden Path binder is considerably taller.

comparison

The width is marginally bigger

comparison

…and the depth – it’s difficult to tell, especially as Desk Monster is now empty.

made in india

And finally this which I was somewhat surprised to see hiding under the pen loop.

So, for now, apart from the 2 little niggles mentioned above, I’m happy with my purchase and will find out how we get on in the coming weeks.