My Hobonichi Cousin (A5) and Thank you all cover arrived yesterday. I love the EMS postal service from Japan because they are so quick and always deliver to my door at convenient times of day. For security reasons I am unable to have parcels delivered to my work, so they have to come to my home. This means that most home deliveries take place while I am at work. But EMS always delivers them early, before I leave for work. I then have something to look forward to when I get home and I don’t have to worry about chasing up parcels later.
This cover is lovely! So much detail and feels really nice. Not fabric, not plastic but the feel is a gorgeous blend of both. Kind of satiny fabric. I love the bookmarks (I really missed having bookmarks in the Filofax Flex I have been using.) and the clasp closure (ditto. I can’t use a book without a clasp when it needs to be in my bag). You really do need bookmarks with a cousin because the book is divided into yearly, monthly, weekly and daily calendars.
I am not sure why I was so instantly enamoured with this cover. I usually go for plain neutral colours, usually brown or black. I don’t tend to gravitate towards girly, whimsical or bright things. I am not a fan of yellow or busy patterns. Yet I really really love this!
Each online order comes with little bonus items. This year’s gifts are a cover on cover (not applicable for this particular cover though), tri-colour pen, and a little melamine tray which I am using to keep my jewellery in when I take it off at night. Last year there was a lovely tissue holder.
The pen is amazing! Absolutely amazing. Not like a freebie pen at all (and I get loads of them at work). It is 0.5mm and the colours are epic. I loved it so much I immediately ordered a couple more! It is particularly good on Tomoe River paper, which is half the thickness of regular paper. Hobonochi didn’t used to sell these pens, just offer them as bonuses for customers buying a book and cover, but they were so popular they have now started stocking them as part of their regular lineup.
This uni JETSTREAM pen features a low viscosity ink that writes smoothly and works perfectly with the Hobonichi Techo’s Tomoe River paper. The 3-color ballpoint pen includes black, red, and blue ink with a 0.5 mm pen tip. This year’s color is a retro shade of light blue and features the Hobonichi Techo 2017 logo on the pen clip. Find these pens and refills here
I moved into my cover immediately but am using the same Cousin I have been using for weeks now. It is the mid-year one (April 2017 to March 2018). I will be staying in this one until I have fine-tuned my system. It has been a learning curve using four different calendars (yearly, monthly, weekly and daily) and learning all the little features of each page.
You can see I don’t decorate and I am not neat. In this I have nothing for work. I record and make notes about sales, auctions, my blog, and home.
You will see I mention Kaplans several times above. It is the local auction house where I am selling my fine jewellery and designer handbags. I love watching the bidding and I always go to the viewing the day before my things are auctioned because they display them beautifully. Look how nice my collier looks on their display! These are solid silver elephants.
Below you can see how lovely the pen is. It is a stunning bright red (so hard to find in pens) and is fine and nice to write with. The fact that there are three colours in one pen is a bonus for me as a teacher.
Speaking of nice red pens, one day I was marking exam papers at home and couldn’t find my red pen. So I ran down to the little corner shop and bought the only one they had. It was a cheapie from a brand I had never heard of. It turned out to be the best pen I ever had and when it ran out of ink I could never find another one. This Hobonichi pen reminded me of that one!
Below you can see my daily list. In no particular order and house stuff is mixed with sales stuff. SM refers to Stadsmissionen, which is the local chairty where I donate items. On the list for today is a green Juicy Couture bag, Seven jeans and gold and silver feather pendants.
Yesterday I found another bag I donated in a store far away from me! I am always happy that I can help the charity and also give the person who buys my things at very low prices a bargain and maybe a new favourite thing.
It is this one
Below is my very rudimentary sleep tracker. I have terrible trouble sleeping, so each day I take a minute to mark how well I slept. Doing it like this over a longer period can let you see patterns and also tie sleeping issues to something else like stress at work, hot weather, illness etc.
I want a Hobonichi so badly but I’m not sure I’d get around to using it enough, this post was really helpful! Super cute pen, love the shade of blue, and it’s encouraging that you liked it along with the Hobonichi. If someone doesn’t discourage me soon I might just buy both!
Intrigued enough to order a Hobonichi Teco to experiment with — even though only five months remain in 2017. (Not the first time reading this blog has cost me money.)
Some University of Alabama football fans would love that necklace!! I’m so glad to hear you say you’re using your older planner until you fine-tune your system. that is my struggle. so many ways to use this thing!
i hope you will share all the little features. i love knowing there are other messy planners out there. i am torn between my erin condren and the hobo. i have a chic sparrow A5 with the tomoe river 52 weight paper and a fountain pen. so…… i got the hobo, but i love my EC. i should’ve just used my chic sparrow for journaling, but now i’m going to feel like that $40 is such a huge waste if i don’t switch. HOWEVER, my EC was more, not to mention stickers. i want planner peace!!! does anyone else have this problem?
Have you checked you Vitamin D levels? I’ve been suffering from bad sleep almost all my life and it has been magically corrected recently, within a month since I started treatment for my deficiency. If you do check, make sure it’s the 25-OH Vitamin D (D2/D3) test, not just the serum D.