In an attempt to help clear my mind and get my head back on straight, I’ve returned to the idea of journaling. I’m hoping to find something that works better for me than pure bullet journaling because I find that to be too much upkeep. I’ve returned with a more relaxed approach that is more open to every day usage that is also mindful of the way my brain likes to work.
The Kit
Notebooks:
• Nitoms S4101 STALOGY A5 Notebook Squared
• Two A5 Tomoe river paper notebooks
Pens:
• Retro 51 Rollerball Pen (purple ink)
• MUJI 0.38mm Ballpoint pens
• Grabie erasable pens
• Midliner markers
Misc:
• Kodak Mini 2 Retro Portable Printer
• Case: Lochby Field Journal (brown)
Notebooks
Notebooks are such a personal journey, I feel silly kind of talking about these, but here are my thoughts as we move forward in the journaling journey.
The Good:
• Nitoms S4101 STALOGY A5 Notebook Squared
• Leuchtturm
The Nitoms was a notebook that I found after doing research because I wanted something with a lot of pages. It’s a Japanese notebook with Japanese paper. There’s no bleedthrough, but there is some ghosting, which may bother some people (ghosting’s never bothered me). The pages are thin so they aren’t bulky, but they’re very sturdy and have held up to a lot of use. I use some pretty wet pens (fountain pens, wet roller balls) and I have to try very hard to get any bleedthrough (markers are a bit easier to cause bleedthrough if you linger in one spot too long). There’s a ton of pages in here since it’s a 365 day planner notebook, but I use it as an everything journal - planner, diary, media journal. I really like that the grid is super small because I tend to write very small, but that’s obviously personal preference. I’ve recently started putting pictures in it and I was a bit worried with how thin the paper is, but it’s standing up to glue and rigid photo paper just fine. Awesome notebook, will think about it again as I reach it’s end of life just because of the awesome paper quality and how many pages you get in it.
I’m a big fan of Leuchtturm, and not just because they’re easily accessible to me at the store without ordering online. They’re high quality notebooks in standard sizes so that you know what you’re getting. They open flat, which is perhaps my biggest desire out of a notebook, and the paper is awesome quality without bleedthrough even with my pens and markers. It’s been a long time since I’ve used a Leuchtturm (see below) but I’ll be returning to them soon and will update with more of my thoughts.
The Bad:
• Moleskine
I can already feel someone reading this getting angry with me, but this is ultimately just personal preference. The notebooks themselves are fine, but I really dislike that they aren’t ISO standard sizing and I just don’t like the paper in them as much. I’ve tried to use Moleskine over and over in the years and I always wind up abandoning them. They’re fine journals and I see why people like them, but I just prefer Leuchtturm over them.
Pens
Retro 51
Retro 51 is a company that I came across while looking around at fountain pens. They make both fountain pens and roller balls. They are a company that builds pens meant to last: they are heavy and chunky and if this thing doesn’t last me until the day I die, I’m pretty sure it will be my fault. They sell cartridges for all of their pens (ballpoint or fountain). I ultimately went with a ballpoint for myself for the sake of ease of travel and use, and it’s what I’ve swapped over to using in my every day journal. It writes smooth every time, and the pen is ultra sturdy. Very good investment. I can’t speak for their fountain pens personally, but I’d trust it based on the craftsmanship of the classic torando I have.
The pen does tend to be a bit on the wet side, so it would not be optimal to use with paper that has issues with bleedthrough, and is definitely prone to ghosting for thinner papers (if that bothers you).
MUJI 0.38mm Ballpoint Pens
So one thing to know about me: I write small. I mean, I write small. I was so elated to have the Nitoms notebook becaues the grid is so much smaller than other notebooks I’ve bought in the past (along with the fact the grid doesn’t go all the way off the page, which tickles my brain in a good way). These pens are ultra thin and so it meakes it very easy to write in the small spaces without it looking chunky. These are honestly very nice - there’s minimal skipping (what skipping does happen is my fault for moving far too fast with such fine tip pens). My true favorite place to use these are my TTRPG notes as I make incredibly small lines for writing notes about characters in there, but I also use these for details or tight spaces in my day to day notebook. Since these are admittedly more for TTRPG notes I did get the multi-color pack, which is nice. The colors are vibrant and work very well. I will continue to buy these - I love an ultra fine point, and these check all the boxes.
Grabie Erasable Pens
These were a social media thing I got influenced into buying and, I’ll be honest, I do not regret it at all. I got the 36 pack which includes the originals, whimsicals, rustic, and lavendar packs and I’m extremely pleased with them. The colors may not be as bright as non-erasable counterparts, but the entire point of getting them is so that they can erase. The colors are good, the pens erase really well, I like the pencil shape as opposed to trying to be a pen. The color variety is so much better than everything else I’ve found and - I’ll be real - I absolutely despise the Pilot Frixion pens. I feel like that’s the only real option out there for colored erasable pens, and I hate it! I do! And I make too many friggin mistakes to get fine tip markers to write with!
One thing I also found myself really liking is that they have a black black color, and then there’s a black blue that was in one of the packs - I think the rustic reverie? I’m a big fan of varying kinds of black because it really helps to set the mood for creative projects. I really wish the kit came with a black red so that I could use those for my VTM campaign character notes, but there’s a lovely rusty red color that I’ll be using instead.
These are excellent every day writers if you like erasable pens. I admit that I was iffy when I bought these, but I swear by them now. Sometimes letting yourself be influenced is alright, and sometimes it even works out exceptionally. :>
Midliner Markers
I think we all know about these by now, don’t we?
When it comes to Midliner vs. Tombow, I ultimately picked the Midliners because they were (at least at the time) cheaper than the Tombows, and I wanted something less art marker and more highlighter. I’m looking for accents and things I can write over rather than things to draw with. I am artsy, but if I try to do too much in a journal then I will get discouraged and wind up quitting. The midliners allow me to create accent colors and themes without putting pressure on me to create these beautiful floral or whatever spreads, and that’s just how I like it! Both rock, but they have different use cases in my opinion, so pick the one that matches what you want to do. :>
Misc Gear
Kodak Mini 2 Retro Portable Printer
I spent a lot of time sitting on this purchase. Gadgets like these are a bit more expensive and incur a recurring cost (the paper cartridges), but I’m so glad I finally took the plunge on this. With the Mini 3 out now, this printer is far cheaper than when I was first looking at it. My first use-case at this time is to use it for printing out the covers of books that I’m reading to glue into my journal to mark what my thoughts/quotes/etc are for the current book. It works beautifully for that. I am really looking forward to using it for printing out and saving memories in my journal as well!
The resolution is excellent, and the colors are excellent. It lags a little bit behind on small text (Fujifilm just came out with a printer that specializes on specifically that, but it’s so new it’s expensive and there’s bareyl any reviews out there) but that doesn’t bother me - I’m not here to get perfect and crisp typography on a 2x3" picture that’s just there to remind me what book I’m talking about on the following pages.
Super duper happy with this purchase so far - I look forward to using it more. :>
Lochby Field Journal Case (brown)
This was something that came up years ago whiel I was looking around. It’s a waxed canvas journal cover A5 size. If you like the sort of rugged outdoor field journal feel then you’ll like the vibe of this. I definitely like waxed canvas more than leather (I feel that I don’t need to be as precious with it), but overall it’s just okay. For the price I paid for it I probably could have found something I like more, but it definitely does its job and it’s nice.
On the inside spine there’s numerous elastic bands to hold what are essentially signatures of paper - Lochby sells little notebooks of Tomoe paper for this purpose. There’s two big pockets on the inside front and back, and then the left inside has three pockets and a mesh pocket to hold various items. I used the back pocket to slide my Nitoms back cover in so that it stayed in, then used the elastic bands to hold my two little signature notebooks. THe left side pocket holds a slim little booklet of post it notes I have, and a lose paper of a few recipes I need to transfer over. There are two book mark ribbons that are very handy that I use in my daily notebook to mark my month spread and the current week. The outside of the case has a big pocket on the back with velcro, and then a fastener with a nice metal hook, and a cloth handle on the spine for carrying. There’s also a pen loop on the journal for one pen. (I also have their pen case, which is my favorite pen case that I do own - I use it to hold any fountain pens and cartridges I’m not currently using.)
Overall, it’s a nice rugged feel, and I do like it. I just don’t know that I’d pay as much as I did at the time to buy it again if I could go back, but I am glad to use it since I do have it. I have it packed pretty full so I don’t know how much use I’d get out of the pockets other than just shoving loose paper in there, but that’s more a me problem than anything else.