I decided to start sharing some of my Hobonichi pages here along with some anecdotes that goes on in my world filled with stationery. Let’s start this series of post with my adventure to New York over the weekend for a company tour hosted by AMA Emerson.

(Since this is late night impulse post, please excuse the grayish, scanned version of my pages. Guys, daylight is definitely the ONLY time to take pictures)

The Hobonichi challenge for April 6th was peppers, so I decided to draw both variety that dominates my life: chili pepper and bell peppers. Before you ask, this was done in very saturated watercolor to achieve that marker effect!

Stressin’ out on the day before the company tour at Tumblr, Thinx, and PSFK at New York. You know you’re stressed when you start using “stress” too much in a single sentence. As always, I took a 5 hour ride on the Megabus to New York immediately after work. The journey was slow and excruciating. I feel sorry for the guy sitting next to me though, he is so tall, he literally have to contort his legs in a weird position to get his whole self into the seat. Then he stayed in that weird position for hours…

This Suica penguin was a cut out from a brochure I grabbed when I was in Tokyo. Suica the penguin is Tokyo’s metro mascot! How cool is that his luggage even matches mine!

On Friday, the agenda was to run all over Manhattan, visit cool companies, ask them intelligent questions, and then quickly stop by Enveloper Ink for their closing sale. This amazing stationery place is closing on Sunday (April 10th)!

(The Hobonichi challenge for April 8th was “sakura”)

When we stopped by Chelsea market for a quick lunch, I visited the artisan markets again for Pamela Barsky’s witty pen cases and pouch. It’s a great place to find good gifts for your friend back home where you’ll be visiting soon (Hint hint Esther, if you’re reading this… 😉 )

The news of Envelopper Ink’s closing was actually acquired through a blog post from a Taiwanese girl visiting New York! (See how we Asians really love our stationery?) I remember visiting this place on my second trip to NYC, making my stationery map and rounds. This stationery store stocks beautiful paper and letter sets, basic writing and art supply tools, lots and lots of wrapping materials, and many arts & craft gadgets like stamps and even washi tape! Most importantly, EVERYTHING IS 50% OFF (70% off for seasonal items.)

So I planned ahead and started doing my Christmas shopping in April.

Bye bye Envelopper Ink. Thank you for giving me MT Washi tapes at a discounted price of $2.

On Saturday I met up with dear Hobonichi friend Whitney for a NYC Hobonichi Meetup. Phyllis was able to join us this time as well, and we went all out on our stationery game. We commandeered a table at Tous Le Jours in K-town, and soon we can’t even see the table top anymore. (Does the strawberry tart look familiar? Because I cheated and drew it on an earlier page!)

The gradual takeover…

We had such a great time. The enthusiasm at each Hobonichi meet up is so contagious, because one after another we would pull out more and more of our “toys”. Squealing and gushing follows.

Of course, we have to do the mandatory Hobonichi tower. It’s a tradition and a test to see if the tower stands our Hobo’s bulkiness. Whitney and I have twin Hobonichis! (Basic black/coffee Cousin cover and the Rainy day cover on cover!)

Phyllis converted her Hobonichi into the most genius fusion: HOBODORI!

(For those not well versed in stationery speech: she punched a whole in the back of the Hobonichi cover, put a rubber string through it and tied it, fashioned it into the secure band used in Midori’s Traveler’s Notebook styles)

Behold…the TOWER.

We all took turn writing in each other’s Hobonichi pages. It adds to the authenticity of the Hobonichi being the place where you collect thoughts and record memorable things! Here are their feeds for you to follow!

We are all reluctant to wrap up the meet up, but Phyllis has a plane to catch and a man to marry. We’ll meet again next time for sure! (Everyone stay tuned for a meet up in June!)

My friend Cindy and I decided to do a bit more shopping, so we checked out Envelopper Ink again for some cheap postcards. We also stopped by Paper Presentation, Flying Tiger, and Fish Eddys for some cool items (Triangular notebook anyone?).

Nothing beats the rainy and dreary weather better than a hot cup of chocolate. We were soothe by this comforting drink at City Bakery. Again, I whipped out my Hobonichi to catch up on these two days of excitement. Perhaps I was too excited from the whole morning of Hobonichi marvel, I almost fell asleep while journaling…

The pack of scrap material is from Phyllis! It was a thoughtful surprise pack of collage materials, little stickers, and nice note papers to use in my Hobonichi. Here’s a live shot of me in action (or rather, sleepy and tired state.)

That’s my adventure for the weekend! Hope you like this series 😀 Your comments will be the motivation for me to continue these updates~ Let me know what else you’d like to see!