Tag: journaling

How I’m using 7 Planners/Journals for 2020

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I’m not crazy, I’m just a hopeless stationery addict!

The planner craze of September (when all major brands released their newest designs and layouts for 2020) is over. I’m left with an overwhelming sense of indecision. There are SO MANY great planners and journals out there, which one should I use?

This major life decision I have to make at the end of each year is one I’m looking forward to most, and also the most excruciating because it’s SO hard to choose. There’s also the period of waiting for the dream planner and new items to be shipped and delivered so that I can actually test it out with my pens and see if the layout works. Thankfully, I didn’t regret any of my decisions and were able to nail down the analog system I’ll be using for 2020.

For 2020, I’ll be using 7 planners/journals

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You didn’t count wrong! One was just a cover and it will house the 5-year journal

Ring in 2020, I’m armed and ready with 7 planners/journals that I plan to use consistently. Before I scare anyone away with the crazy quantity, let me further explain myself. Continue reading →

13 Reasons Why I Love Using A Hobonichi Techo

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My name is April and I’m a Hobonichi addict.

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As an avid user of the Hobonichi brand since 2014, I can’t help but take this time of the year (the time of frenzy when everyone’s ordering the new releases and getting their planner plans in a row) to think about this techo and appreciate what it means to me all these years. Here are the 13 big reasons why I loved using since I fell head over heels into this rabbit hole, and why I’ll continue to use it for the foreseeable future.

1. It’s the perfect playground for my daily stories

I grew up using schedulers/planners/journals, whatever you called them in your culture. I’ve blown through the flowery phase where all my book’s pages are filled with cartoon characters, to more nicely illustrated planners that are formatted with weekly pages. To be honest, when I first was gifted a Hobonichi Techo (the original size) by my aunt in 2012, I thought this boring, white, blank planner is the book that’s going to propel me into the adulting world with work notes and meeting schedules…how wrong was I!

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Today, I don’t use my Hobonichi as a planner, but instead, I use it as a journal where I record my daily events—the people I talked to, the things I did, the food I ate, the feelings I felt, and more much. Furthermore, the blank canvas that is a Hobonichi page allows me the freedom to record my stories in whatever ways I want! Whether it’s through a doodle, a patiently lettered quote, or simply, a cute sticker,

2. The perfect paper for all my favorite pens

How does a notebook like a Hobonichi Techo hold 365 individual pages and manage to stay some nimble and portable? The team that designed it needed to balance the fine line of thin paper but durable enough for the everyday wear.

You might have heard of the Tomoe River Paper, it’s a special Japanese paper that is ultra-lightweight but surprisingly tough against most inks you can think of. This is why most fountain pen enthusiasts flock to this paper because of its unique surface that could handle ink and in many cases showcase the beautiful sheen of a fountain pen handwriting. I always feel confident writing in a Hobonichi Techo, using my favorite pens—Uni-ball Signo, Pilot Coleto, Zebra Mildliners, Sailor Shikiori brush pens, Kuretake fudegokochi brush, Twsbi Eco, and many many more.

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How I’m Using The Hobonichi Weeks MEGA for 2020

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It’s that time of the year!

On the internet, everyone who’s into planners or journaling is living for the hyped-up planner season. September is when the Japanese planner/scheduler market went above and beyond to create fantastic new layouts and release new designs for the year 2020. Because planning 3 months ahead of the year is not too crazy, for us stationery addicts.

I’ve continued to use my trusted sidekick, the Hobonichi Cousin Avec set throughout the entire 2018, and is still going strong this year as well. However, the overwhelming peer pressure and FOMO in the Hobonichi community had led me to pull the trigger on adding a new techo to my line up for 2020—a Hobonichi Weeks Mega.

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An apple green one, to boot. (Did you know that green is my favorite color?)

To be honest, following the release and being able to look at the entire lineup of Hobonichi’s 2020 designs in August had really hyped up my anticipation. Continue reading →

2017 Hobonichi Unboxing

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It’s here! It’s finally here!

The sun was bright and the sky was clear as I happily skipped my way to the Post Office to pick up my Hobonichi order.

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“Shoes?” The lady behind the counter asked as she processed my yellow box

“Um…yeah.”

“Girls and their shoes~” She replied

Girl, you have no idea. Sometimes it’s hard to explain one’s stationery obsession with someone who’s not interested in this hobby 😉 I was grinning from ear to ear as I carry my prize all the way home!  Continue reading →

My Hobonichi Adventure in Seattle

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In Late August, I embarked on a week long trip to Seattle to visit some friends. Of course I have to bring my Hobonichi along with me to journal and record the things I see and the places I’ve been. Although I’ve already built up a system or a habit of journaling in my Hobonichi, the hard part about doing it while you’re traveling is that your day schedule is so full, you’re usually exhausted at the end of the day. Fortunately, many of my plans in Seattle actually are stationery and planner meet ups with fellow journaling addicts, so we spent a lot of time in cafes writing in our Hobo or Traveler’s Notebook!

My simply set up consisted of a pen case with my favorite pens: Uni Pin fine line waterproof pigment ink pens for drawing, Uni Style fit for journaling, my TWSBI Eco fountain pen, washi samples, some sticker sheets, a small sticker book, and a portable watercolor palette! (For a more comprehensive read about how to keep a travel scrapbook, or you can check out a post about my traveler’s notebook!)

img_5700(This was taken at Sea-Tac airport while waiting for my flight back to Boston.)

I’m just going to jump right into it and show you my first fabulous meet up with three amazing girls in Seattle: Phyllis, Leah, and Sandra. They were kind enough to make time for me to meet and we all gawked and geeked over our Hobonichis. Of course we brought multiple journals, and there’s always the inevitable Planner Tower: Continue reading →

Hobonichi July News Teaser

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Oh Hobonichi, you drive us crazy.

Hasn’t it only been a few month since the last announcement from Hobonichi, which was the 2016 July-December Avec? How evil of the company to be feeding us tidbits and getting us all excited about next year’s planner when it’s still summer!

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(Photo credit from 1101.com)

However, being an avid fan of the Hobonichi Techo, I’ll happily take whatever they hand out to us. In fact, I had just penciled in that burst of excitement on the day of the news onto my Cousin Avec (July 19th, when Hobonichi made me scream in my bedroom and scared the hell out of my roommate).

Here are a few highlights of the news release and how I feel about them:

1. 79 Covers will be announced on August 19th! 

Ladies and gentlemen, mark your calendars! I’m positive Hobonichi will be sneaking a few peeks here and there of the new covers through various social media outlets. Continue reading →

How to use a Traveler’s Notebook Passport as a wallet

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I do lots of my creative journaling in my Hobonichi, but I also love all other things stationery. That includes the Midori branded Traveler’s Notebooks (TN for short). My first traveler’s notebook was a full size to utilize inserts when I travel. I would fill it with sketches and journaling while on a trip such as this Tokyo flip through. However, I was inspired by many friends at meet ups to use the passport size traveler’s notebook as a portable journal/wallet!

In May I visited Tokyo just in time to catch Traveler’s notebooks’ current release: the Camel traveler’s notebooks! It’s a color like caramel and a brown beige. I think it’s just the right color to carry for the summer.

So, i’m temporarily retiring my black traveler’s notebook until winter rolls around again. Here’s the unboxing of the set up I’ve prepared to turn my new Camel TN into a personal wallet!

  1. Passport Size Midori Traveler’s Notebook in Camel
  2. 004 Passport size plastic Zipper Case
  3. 010 Passport size Craft File

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To have the traveler’s notebook function as wallets, the most important part is to have compartments. My old black traveler’s notebook only uses the plastic zipper case, but I decide to customize this new one with a Craft file as well.

Unboxing the Camel Traveler’s Notebook.

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I’m so happy they included the green string to go with the Camel color (just like the Red string that pops on a black TN). They included extra rubber strings for the purpose of securing multiple inserts and accessories. I’ll only be using one in this case. Each new Traveler’s notebook set also comes with a blank insert (not shown in picture). I’ll be using that as my portable sketchbook when I finish with my latest insert.  Continue reading →

2016 Hobonichi Techo Avec review

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It’s that time to buy new planner again! Or is it?

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(image from 1101 website)

Well, Hobonichi is definitely a smart company, and they came out with the half year Avec Hobonichi Techo this June to entice people to try out and use their planners. I willingly fall for it every time. I fell into this rabbit hole from an A6 Hobonichi Techo, to the English planner, then to the A5 Cousin size, and finally to the A5 Cousin Avec Hobonichi Techo I’m using this year.

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(image from 1101 website)

During the normal planner sale season, you have to buy the Hobonichi Avec versions as a set: The January – June, and July – December booklets. As we are approaching the half of 2016, you are now able to purchase only the July – December Hobonichi techo planner (or Avec, as they named it) for the second half of the year. You can find information about how to purchase it in Hobonichi’s online webshop.

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I’m a big advocate for the Avec, because if you are a decorative girl like me, your Hobonichi tend to bulk up before the year is over. Continue reading →

Daily Hobonichi: April 06 – 09

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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…

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How to Journal Everyday – Build a Hobonichi Habit

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I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I’ve embarked on this journaling adventure with my Hobonichi. Every single page of my A6 English Planner was filled to the brim with doodles and writing. I couldn’t be happier.

How does she do it? 

Many of you might wonder how much time I spend each day journaling? How do I go about writing in each page and fitting in illustrations? In this post I’ll be breaking down my journaling process for you, and hopefuly it’ll be a motivation for you to start writing in your Hobonichi today!

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The size of the Hobonichi Techo may seem small (A6), but on days when you don’t have the time or motivation to write, that gridded space could be pretty daunting. This realization is more apparent this year since I’ve switched to the A5 Cousin size Hobonichi. Moreover, I’ve challenged myself to make time and journal in those pages EVERY SINGLE DAY, because I know how lazy impulses can turn into two days or even weeks very fast. With the larger space of the Cousin, I would feel more guilty if I have to flip through blank pages. Then again, I don’t want to turn this into an assignment. Journaling is fun! This is definitely a time I look forward each day to play with my ‘toys’ (stationery, art supplies). The most important thing is to enjoy the journaling process and eventually it’ll become a habit.

Journaling is a time of reflection and enjoyment. It’s not a timed task where you’re rushing toward the deadline. 

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Step 1: Setting up your journaling space

There’s a Chinese proverb that says: A workman must first sharpen his tools if he wishes to do his work well. I guess this speaks dearly to all of us stationery addicts’ heart (turns to look at my hoard of stationery items). You’ve bought all those stickers and pens and decorative washi tapes over the holiday, now put them to use!

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