Midori Traveler’s Notebook

In a previous post I plucked up the courage to go public with my stationery nerdiness (partly because not many of my “real life peeps” read this blog 😀 ). This continues.

After posting a couple of photos of my planner on one of the lovely communities I’m privileged to be a part of, I had a request for doing a blog post on it. So here goes; a journey inside my Midori Traveler’s Notebook.

When I first saw one of these (a little over a year ago?) on one of Crazy Suburban Mom’s awesome YouTube videos, I was still using a Filofax. It was going not so well; I hadn’t really figured out the perfect system for me and I wasn’t using it effectively. So when I realised that there was life beyond Filofaxes – and beautiful life, I might add, I just had to dig deeper. A little googling led me to Patrick Ng’s Flickr feed and blog – a point of no return.

I found an online store in The Netherlands that carries a lot of the inserts, and regularly ooh’d and aaah’d on their site. It took me over six months to finally make the decision to get one, and I was very pleased that my husband wanted to treat me and pay for it (I guess sometimes it pays off to have patience loud sighing noises and eyes glued to the computer screen). I chose the brown one in standard size and a bunch of different inserts (I’ve since ordered some more of the ones I like and taken out some that I don’t like to use that much).

The Traveler’s Notebook has an elastic band which runs along its spine. That is where the notebooks are attached. There are various ways to fit more than one notebook in. Mine currently holds 5 (two of which are on the same elastic). The TN comes with one plain notebook insert, many many others are available.

It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do with it, but when I had figured out the order of the notebooks, it’s been all smooth sailin’ ever since. I have not looked back on other planners.

So without further ado, here it is:

The front cover. Thick, beautiful, superb quality leather that will only get better with age. All the scratches show love and only add to its character. I use a Pilot Coleto and a basic ball point on the go. When I fill the pages at home, I have various other pens that I like to use.

Mine’s quite the chunker! I like it.

The inside front cover. I bought a packet of stick-on pockets for my TN, there are three different ones in the pack. Here you can see the credit/business card stick-on and another one on the bottom. They stick to the leather really well. I keep a tiny yearly calendar with Finnish national holidays in the bottom pocket, because the Midori calendar is obviously Japanese with Japanese holidays. 😀

Here I store some stamps, kids’ photos, a few of my business cards and some random papers. The photo collage on the cover of the Kraft file used to be in my personal Filofax. It was a pretty good size in here, too. 🙂

I love my Kraft file/business card insert. It holds a ton of stuff! I put both of them in the same elastic, and it works like a charm for me. I also stuck my Leuchtturm pen loop in the credit card insert (didn’t want it on the leather in case I wanted it removed). Some things I keep in there:

• Some more of my own business cards
• Some more stamps
• Kids’ tiny drawings
• Arrow paper clips and Oli clips
• Other people’s business cards
• Important info
• Index flags
• Stickers!

On the back of my Kraft file I have put a Moomin comic strip. It says:

Excuse me Mister, but I have just found a large and dangerous BOMB!”

I love it. And I love the navy blue color of the diary insert. That’s next y’all. I decorated the first page with some stickers (’cause I looove stickers! 😉 ), and there’s also a bit of personal info that I have covered up here.

There are both yearly (2013 and 2014) and monthly calendars, which is great. I don’t make any markings on the yearly calendar, because I like it clean and simple. I only need it to look at anyway. The monthly calendar is for birthdays.

Here are a few of  my weeks (can ya tell I like sticky notes?!) 😀

I don’t color code, the different pen colors are just for my amusement and eye-pleasing 🙂 I like to decorate with washi tape (as do quite a few other people) and stickers. I write down to do’s and appointments and regular routines beforehand (naturally), but I like to add some things later. Feelings, funny stuff, sometimes the weather, what was on TV… And I take up every excuse opportunity to add a little washi or a sticky note, a ticket or a receipt (who doesn’t?!).

Then I have a Kraft paper insert. At first I was gonna use it as a weight loss diary, but at the moment it feels like that’s going south big time, so I think I’ll just use it as a general brain dump. I love the eco-feel of the paper.

Finally I have my absolute favorite insert – the light weight paper. All of the other Midori notebooks have 64 sheets of paper, the light weight has double that. You can see from the photo that there is some see through, but  z e r o  bleeding – even with fountain pens. The paper quality is so excellent!

I use this as my journal. I don’t write every day or even every week, just when I feel like it or something has actually happened.

I love the well-used and -loved feel the light weight notebooks get when the pages are written full. I love the bumpiness when I stroke the paper (and I do that a lot!). There’s nothing better than a notebook filled with love, stories and memories.

I just love it.

At the inside back cover I have one more stick-on pocket, which currently holds a few Moomin stickers.

I’ve stocked up on some inserts. There are four light weight inserts, extra elastic bands and a repair kit, double-sided stickers, a grid refill, a blank one and a plastic zip envelope.

So there you have it!  I hope you enjoyed a peek in my beloved. 🙂