[Open Journal Discussion]

[annofowlshire]

How goes it? It's been a while since we've had one of these!

Comment to tell us about what you've been up to with your journal, planner, or other stationery related items. Tell us about a new pen or a coveted notebook. Consult the hive mind with a problem you've been having. Post a picture! Whatever goes as long as it falls in the realm of journals and planners. Remember, you can always make your own top-level post, to

Comments

[lunabee34]

I will be back to comment here and on the other posts of the past few days but would you mind unlocking this post? It won't let me edit that setting. :)

[annofowlshire]

Done!

Never settled

[annofowlshire]

So I started the year with the Legendary Planner, but I trailed off using it around March. I really like it, except that I found a weekly planner is just not enough notebook for me, particularly a need for a daily plan, not just a weekly one. So then I had started carrying around a second notebook for all the other stuff (daily plans, musing, sketches, etc.), and I didn't like having to have multiple notebooks with me. Now I'm just using the second notebook--Clairefontaine softcover A5 Age Bag. It's totally plain. I'd gotten it in December with plans to use it for sketching.

Swiftly, it's becoming everything. The weekly spread. The daily lists. The occasional sketch. Musings on witchy topics, knitting, homeschooling, the garden.

So I carried that around for a while, and then I was thinking maybe I should get a pen loop or something to keep it contained, and then I dug out the Galen leather portfolio my partner had gotten me for Christmas, and... yeah.

I'll keep tinkering, but at the moment it's got a couple of pens, a pencil, and a pack of watercolor pencils in hopes it'll inspire me to sketch more. Not seen is a small detachable notepad slid behind for those times when you just want to write something on a leaf of paper and hand it off.

I'm debating migrating phone (a slim iPhone mini)/wallet contents as well, and then it's all in one package, but I'm not yet sold on that idea. It seems a bit cumbersome to have to root around in my portfolio to get my card to pay for the groceries.

Hm.

Re: Never settled

[okrablossom]

This is so gorgeous!!

I keep debating the Galen portfolios. Thanks for sharing a picture of one in use :)

Re: Never settled

[lunabee34]

I really covet a Galen Leather portfolio in crazy horse gray. Omg so pretty. Is yours the blue?

Re: Never settled

[seleneheart]

That's a great way to keep everything contained and easy to find!

Re: Never settled

[thistleingrey]

Pretty as well as practical!

[thistleingrey]

On one hand, I really like the Kleid Kraft diary, and on another, I think it's partly because my usage has been very uneven, which the notebook's format forgives silently. Not how most folks here approach journal use, it seems :) but it's great for me! Low key means not pinging my old sense of "Oh no, I've wasted all this good paper" and discouraging me the following year.

[annofowlshire]

I need low key and forgiving, personally :D

[lunabee34]

Oh I definitely don't journal every day. I wish I did because I feel better when I do, but it's not something I have made stick as a daily habit.

I don't have a planner as such but a calendar and u do look at that daily or I'd miss meetings but I don't write in it daily.

[seleneheart]

I like undated notebooks for my daily life type thing where I can use as many or as little pages as I need and never feel shame for spending money on a thing I didn't use and now it's too late.

[the_broken_tower]

Currently trying to figure out a travel journal situation.

Traveling happens frequently. And there is a deep deep fear of a journal being lost or stolen, so once a journal is used for a trip it doesn't go on another one.

The current solution is using small/thin ones. But! Thin journals are very flimsy, while small hardcovers are hard to write in. Sigh. Might have to consider making one...

- Dogstar (he/him)

[annofowlshire]

Perhaps a binder/loose page system? One home binder where it all lives, and the traveling binder (or similar) that goes with you?

[lunabee34]

Could you do the traditional travelers journal with the inserts and just remove the insert(s) you used after each trip?

[havocthecat]

I have a Traveler's Journal, which is very small and thin, and can be swapped in and out of its cover, which makes it nice for two reasons: The cover is very luxe, and also the book is very easy to use up quickly. But it's sturdier in the beautiful cover.

[seleneheart]

I've shown pictures of my journals and planners many times, but never my pen case:


To the right in the middle, you can see where I made the mistake of taking a fountain pen on an airplane.

This holds my fountain pen, mechanical pencil for sketching, a metal ruler, mildliner, whatever brush pen I'm using for that month, two sizes of microns, a gel pen which is a back up for the fountain pen, and 9 colored fine liners to bullet each different category of tasks in my bullet journal.

Also, correction tape, extra leads and erasers for the pencil.

[lunabee34]

Oh no! Fountain pen fail. Lol

I didn't even know that was something you aren't supposed to do until I read someone posting about the ensuing mess when they did it.

[annofowlshire]

Love the pen case!

I usually put my fountain pens into a ziplock bag when traveling on planes. I've never had a leak, but figure it's possible and I get stained enough in regular life.

(Such as when I was once having tense meeting with a colleague and was flicking my fountain pen (uncapped to take notes) and it ended up spewing dark blue ink--across the table, my hands, my face... thankfully not her!)

Good Timing!

[okrablossom]

I had just been thinking how pleased I am with my goal spread for this month. I'm not a visual artist at all but I really like how this turned out:

Re: Good Timing!

[seleneheart]

That's really lovely! I'm sure it's a pleasure to use.

Re: Good Timing!

[lunabee34]

I love the flowers!

Really delightful.

Re: Good Timing!

[annofowlshire]

That's a great spread!

[havocthecat]

I've barely had time to get anything done, much less planning or journaling. I love seeing what everyone else has done, though!

[lunabee34]

Me too!

And then I want to buy what everyone else is using. Lol

[lunabee34]

I have found the most wonderful notebooks! Here's a couple examples:

https://www.jetpens.com/Nakabayashi-W-U-Notebook-Horizontal-B6-5-mm-Graph-Smoky-Black/pd/38484

https://www.jetpens.com/Kokuyo-Campus-Half-Size-Notebook-Half-B5-Dotted-7-mm-Rule/pd/33440

They're half-size and designed to fit in front of a computer keyboard. I have such an issue at my work desk because it's in an L shape; when I'm looking at my computer, the blank work surface is to my right and most of what is in front of me is taken up with monitor and keyboard and phone. I do lots and lots of taking notes and writing about what is on the computer, and it is so awkward to try to fit even an A5 notebook into the available space. This is a total game changer for me!

[okrablossom]

Oh, I'll have to check these out! I often write near my keyboard.

[feast_of_regrets]

My first quarter was not great (Christmas family dysfunction after effects, sick twice, did a little depression, just generally an off kilter start to the year - nothing disasterous, but nothing going as desired). And so I pretty much did not touch any of the lovely books I had planned until February (outside of tracking things in the Jibun Techo Days). Then I decided in Febrary to switch sizes in the JT Days. (I don't know why I needed to be in an A5s, but I did most urgently.) My weekly planner (a Nolty) didn't work out for me, so I swapped it, then swapped it again, and now I'm thinking about ditching it completely in favor of just doing everything except daily planning in a Stalogy. I have really been enjoying a B6 Stalogy, but I really wish I'd randomly picked up the full size B6 instead of the half year B6. If I had stayed in a B6s JT Days, I would switch to a Nanami Cafe Note and put them both nice and snug in the same cover, but I didn't, so I guess I will continue on feeling itchy about my planner/journal system. (I could do that in July when the JT Days half year runs out, but then I'll have two different sizes in JT Days for the year. Which is also itchy.) So that's how 2024 is going over here.

I'll try to get back in here and read everyone else's catch up tomorrow. I enjoy seeing what we are all doing.

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I'm sorry the start of the year was rough for you. I hope things have improved.

What didn't work for you in the Nolty?