The EMS guy always comes at about 6.30am so he finds me in my dressing gown with hair all over the place. Sometimes he gets to see me with my bite plate still in….But what a lovely start to the day for me when he comes!
Today the Hobonichi arrived. Wow how gorgeous! I am a novice user and so I was delighted to explore. In case anyone was wondering I did not get hit for customs duties and import taxes, but I hardly ever do – maybe once in a year. So this worked out fairly cheaply compared to other diaries with leather covers that I own.
I bought a leather cover but if I had to buy another one I would like a patterned textile one with a cover on cover over it for protection. For example this cover.
But back to my Robin’s Egg one, the leather on the cover is lovely – for the price it is really good quality. The undyed leather is pale and creamy because it is new. With heavy use it will turn to deep amber. The blue outside is a gorgeous robin’s egg blue. The website showed the different textures it could have and mine actually has all three – it goes from matt and very smooth through slightly textured to shiny and wrinkly (like a Malden). The colour in the photos below is true to life.
I love the planner as well – the fact that it lays flat is absolutely fantastic (why oh why do so few planners lay flat?), the thin yet sturdy Tomoe River paper is to die for. I have used it before and had forgotten how fantastic it is. Would love a journal with this paper as you could fit so many pages in it without adding bulk.
A wonderful combination of layouts and features – I spent the weekend looking at different ways of using your Hobnichi pages and as soon as I saw them I started thinking of things I could do.
I really like the A6 size. I carry things with me and so they have to be light and portable and everything about this is light, from the leather to the paper. And it is small so it does not take up much space.
The colours below are really washed out as I took these photographs in strange afternoon sunlight (the ones above were taken in the early morning). All the others are better depictions of the shade. A beautiful grey blue edging towards light turquoise.
Below are two pages from the planner – the paper is lovely and light and thin and how gorgeous are those bookmarks! As half the year is gone you could tape over the ‘expired’ dates with washi and use these pages as a journal, art book, goals lists. Look for more ideas in the link I gave up top.
hey there 🙂 i’m looking for the robin egg cover for ages now. i really wanna buy it preowned. is there a possibilty that you might sell your robin egg? that would be amazing ^_^ many greetings and merry xmas from luxembourg/europe! <3
I would actually. Could you remind me about a week into the new year? We can take it form there then. It is in very very good condition apart from a tiny pen mark on the front cover.
That cover is so pretty – Next year I might go for a leather one
Do you have any advice for DIY refills? I’d like to start using my granddad’s Filofax as a novel writing kit, but I’d need to create the inserts for it for the idea layouts I use, and I have no idea where to start.
Janet, I just have bought the Taro Okamoto’s cover, but our shipping service is slower than your so I am expecting again for a while..; It will be a great cover to have some colors in my working life. I think I will put in a6 notebook to take notes during my meetings.
Janet, you may be interested in the Seven Seas Notebook (recently renamed the Writers Notebook) available at Nanami Paper online. Owner Dave has these notebooks made according to his specific specifications. They consist of sewn signatures of lined Tomoe River paper… lots of it, in A5. Lovely.
Thank you so much – am off to have a look now!