Traveler’s Notebook Story Time

I have been hauling at traveler’s notebook around since 2017. In 2016, I had joined the Field Notes craze and pocket-size notebooks were my home until 2020. At the start, I would scribble through one notebook at a time. Sometimes it took a week or two, other times it would take a few days. While I admire the Traveler’s Company brand, I have never actually owned one, preferring a different size. (I almost got the train one… but held strong because I knew the passport would be too small for me). Since I was knee deep in Field Notes I started looking for a leather cover that could hold them. Thus, I found a wide world of creators who were making their own string covers in different sizes.

My first TN was a Story Supply Co. Simple Plot notebook in burgundy (they still make them). It was a wonderful first notebook cover. It was simple and gained character quickly. I always wedged three pocket-sized notebooks in it - usually a combo of a bullet journal/to-do list, a brain dump, and a creativity book where I could work on stories. That book got hauled across several states and went on a lot of adventures. It was a feature in the early days of my Instagram when I started it in the summer of 2017 while I was working in Yosemite National Park as a summer ranger.

This picture is about 5ish years old… my Kaweco fireblue was new to me then too… it’s gotten some wear and tear along the way!

In 2018, I discovered Chic Sparrow and quickly fell in love with several of their leathers at the time. I snooped around for a long time until I finally took the plunge on their, now discontinued, blue jay deluxe in pocket-size. I adored this cover. The color reminded me of my grandmother and visiting her. She was constantly scribbling on legal pads at her spot at the kitchen table. I learned much later that she was writing her own romance novels. I selected to engrave the quote ‘in the center of chaos keep writing’ as a tribute to Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (which is one of the few books on writing that I’ve found useful). Despite hitting a phase in 2019 where I thought the grass might be greener with another notebook cover, I kept coming back to this one. It’s the only one of my pocket notebooks that I never re-homed.

I still have that charm on my newest notebook :)

It was when I was perusing a buy-sell-trade group on Facebook that I found my current notebook. I would often check just to see if something interesting had popped up and back in 2020, there was a lot of people downsizing collections for various reasons and stuff that wasn’t offered any more was popping up. A few weeks before my birthday, the perfect notebook cover appeared. It was a hand-tooled raven sitting on a pile of books. Ravens are an important animal to me symbolically and I am a total nerd for the Corvid family scientifically (if I ever got called to give an impromptu program about anything, it was always local birds). There was only one problem with the notebook… it wasn’t a pocket! However, I knew that if I waited it would be gone. Out of curiosity I had gotten an A6 stalogy in a JetPens order, just to see if the extra 1/2 inch on each side really made that much difference. It would be fine. And it was my birthday anyway.

My current TN from the early days. It’s now has some lovable water stains and some leather paint when I was in an experimental mood.

The notebook cover turned out to be more than fine. It was love at first sight and it’s still my constant companion three years later. I don’t see that status changing any time soon. I’m an A6 convert and I also like how easy it is to take loose-leaf A5 paper and make notebooks. No cutting required.

Sometimes there are items that were just meant to be and this cover is one of mine.

It arrived right when I needed it.

Currently Inked

Ferris Wheel Press Grand Central Skies - Kaweco Sport Dark Olive BB - This is one of the newest inks from Ferris Wheel Press (I was sent a bottle as part of their Creative Ambassador program). It’s one of three inks in the New York New York collection and was inspired by the ceiling of Grand Central Station. It’s a green-leaning turquoise with a silver shimmer that ends up looking light green. It’s a really interesting color and evokes oxidized copper to me.

Colorverse Hippocamp - Kaweco liliput green B premium - This is an ink I think about too much and haven’t even used up my sample. I keep talking myself out of getting a bottle because I have other light blues, but I love Colorverse ink sets… and it’s got me in a conundrum. Since part of my hobby project for the year is seeing what I actually have, I want to compare this with some of my other light blues and see if I can actually justify that bottle purchase… or not!

Colorverse Rising Reflections - Kaweco Sport Macchiato 1.5 - Still playing with this one as a header color. It surprisingly fits well with my other ink choices so far this month. I have about 1/2 a cartridge left.

Ferris Wheel Press Stroke of Midnight - Kaweco liliput copper 14K B - Yep, this one is still in the pen with about 1/2 the cartridge left. I’m ready for a change up when it runs dry.

Ferris Wheel Press Workshop Wishes - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M “journaler” - Another new release from Ferris Wheel Press. This brand has some really pretty browns (Writing Desk is one of my favorite brown inks) and this one is a great addition. It’s a soft golden brown with silver shimmer. My first impressions of this one are good and I’m going to be playing with it a bit to see how it holds up.

Papers of the Week

Chewing through a lot of pages of a Rhodia square pad at work as I’m trying to update the operating procedures for staff and actually have everything written down. We’ll be getting a lot of new staff this year (hopefully) and it would be nice to standardize things rather than people making it up as they go along. I have made myself two little fauxbonichi notebooks for work out of Kokuyo printer paper. It’s a useful one for running through the printer for printable inserts.

Still enjoying my two notebooks of Kokuyo Perpanep sara sara and zara zara paper. I might need to make another A6 with the zara zara since I used it up about two weeks ago. Scribbled the draft of this blog post in the A6 I made out of sara sara paper.