Birthday delights!

It's my birthday and although I am dismayed by the passing of another year (how have I got to this age?? When did that happen???) I am having a delightful afternoon with a pot of tea and a heap of new stationery to play with! I have some new pens, ink and paper to play with! How well people know me!
Here's some of the haul:

• a Conklin stub nib pen
• a selection of Iroshizuku inks
• a little leather-bound notebook with Tomoe River paper
• a writing set made from recycled elephant dung and recycled paper (no, it doesn't smell!)

Thank you everyone!!

Paper, Pens and Ink is One today!

Well, a year ago I would never have predicted that my blog would even still be alive and kicking, never mind getting as many visitors as it does. This time last year, my first post felt like a lone voice, crying in the wilderness, wondering if I was the only one out there who felt like this…

Well, I am most glad that I am not! And to celebrate my year of blogging, here are five top fives about it:

The five top reasons I’m glad I started this blog:

First and foremost the fabulous community of like-minded people I have met through this blog (and through following others). I am in regular email contact with a number of people I wouldn’t have otherwise known and the support from them and from others is tremendous. Thank you!

2^nd The realisation that actually, I’m not alone in my weird love of paper, pens and ink (and filofaxes).

3^rd The fact that the blog makes me write something regularly. All too often I can get insular and start to wall myself in and writing the blog makes me look outside (and of course, any replies make me realise that someone is looking back).

4^th The exchange of ideas and advice. Many of you have helped me with issues and offered some great solutions to things. Thank you!

5^th Following the links to other sites that people leave (and disappearing down the wormhole of blog-land!)

And now for some numbers…

The five most popular posts in the last year were:

1^st Book-o-fax – a staggering 1142 hits. This one surprised me. Not in so much as it was the top but that it had almost 50% more hits than the next most popular.

2^nd Jade Finchley Goes to Work – 838 hits

3^rd Personal or Pocket – 619 hits

4^th The Writing Filofax – 558 hits

5^th In the bag test of the Baroque – 552 hits

In general, the highest hit counts were on posts about how to use a filofax in different ways. I think that most of the traffic was thanks to being mentioned on the Web finds on Philofaxy! Thanks Philofaxy!

Five posts most commented on:

1^st  Still no Finchley in Purple (the one that wasn’t to be) – 15 comments

2^nd Another Filofax is on its way (except it wasn’t!) – 13 comments

3^rd Traitorous thoughts – 12 comments

=4^th New Filofax and Top Tabs – 11 comments

=4^th Book-o-fax – 11 comments

=5^th Turquoise Baroque is here – 10 comments

I find it interesting that the posts that were read the most don’t really overlap with the posts most commented on!

Top five referring sites:

1^st Philofaxy (but of course!)

2^nd Google.com

3^rd Filomaniac

4^th Stumbleupon

5^th Google.co.uk

Top five countries reading:

These surprised me. Well, not that the US and the UK were first and second, but that Germany and Australia were so high. I don’t know why, but I didn’t expect so many readers from there… Of course, the German traffic could be due to Filomaniac. Anyway, the scores on the doors are:

1^st US (8095 hits)

2^nd UK (7639 hits)

3^rd Germany (1975 hits)

4^th Australia (913 hits)

5^th Ireland (887 hits)

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who has read the blog and supported me over the last year. If it wasn’t for all of you, this would have withered on the vine.