New pouch insert for my travelers notebook

I bought myself a new insert for my Travelers Notebook and I thought you might like to see it! You can find them to purchase at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/lyraandco

PLEASE NOTE: I purchase this product with my own money. This review is my own personal opionion on the product / company, given in good faith and has not be sponsored or endorsed. None of the links are affiliate links. Unless otherwise stated, all photography is my own.

Fauxbonichi Flip Through - March, April & May 2015

It's been a while but I am back with a flip through of my fauxbonichi! Here is a look at my pages from March, April and May of 2015. I don't know if the Fauxbonichi / Hobonichi has gone out of fashion at all but I don't see anywhere near as many flip throughs as I used to. I still love mine, just that life sometimes gets in my way and I have lots of other interests that I like to do too so it is a case of juggling them because I can't do everything in the evening!

Hope you enjoy my flip...

I've got it covered!

If you have been following my fauxbonichi journey for a while you will know that I didn't have a cover for my notebook. The book that I am using is the grid A5 notebook from Paperchase which is identical to the Miguel Ruiz stocked by Barnes & Noble and the same size as the real Hobonichi. I have been enjoying using my Fauxbo and the cover I was just decorating with random stickers every now and then. I have often been tempted by a 'real' hobonichi cover but have always been put off by the shipping and taxes so I kinda just floated along quite happy with my tatty cover.

One day I was browsing on Etsy as I regularly do when I came across a UK based lady who makes fabric notebook covers. She didn't have any A5 listed only A6 but I thought it didn't hurt to get in touch with her and ask if she would be able to make a custom size for me.

The shop is called Masters and Matthews and the lady who runs it is called Karen. She was really friendly and so speedy at coming back to me. I literally gave her the sizes and she came back to me with a yes and a price. I already had my eye on the 'festival' fabric as it reminds me of my camper van. Literally the next day my gorgeous cover arrived on my door mat.

It fits like a dream and I love it!

You have seen this spread before but I just wanted to show you what it looks like once open.

Here it is shown with my Websters Pages Color Crush just because I thought it made a lovely photo!

I really wanted to share this with you all as the quality and service was amazing and the lady is UK based so for all you UK and probably EU peeps this is a really great cost effective cover. I think I paid £11 with postage but don't quote me on that because I can't remember 100% and I don't want you to be disappointed if the price has gone up.

I do love shopping on Etsy, you get to me some lovely people who are very talented and I couldn't be happier with my purchase. So if you are interested head on over to Masters and Matthews to take a look. Remember to ask for the size you want as she doesn't have them listed so it has to be a custom order!

And if you haven't seen it before, here is my camper called Zippy!

February Fauxbonichi Flip - "It's Lacking and that's OK!"

It is that time of month again where I share my Fauxbonichi with you and what I have been journalling about and how over the month. Well as you know this month has been quite disasterous for me in many ways but noteably my boiler and my Splodgey bear. Around the 12th of the month I just gave up journalling all together for emotional reasons and also for energy and enthusiasm reasons. For me that's OK though and I am not going to apologise for not having so much to show you because ultimately it is my journal as your journal is yours. Your journal should be your sanctuary and something that you enjoy and want to do and not something that is a chore or that you need to do in order to share a video on it. I just wanted to say to you that it is OK if you don't feel like journalling and it is OK to miss days. Just have fun with it and journal when you want to.

So off my soap box now and here is my flip...

January Fauxbonichi Flip Through

It is time again to share with you my journal pages from the last month in my Fauxbonichi. I have been blown away by the amount of people who asked if I will share again this month. I am incredibly flattered that so many of you would like to see my pages so of course, here is my flip through. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as I enjoy creating my pages and then revisiting them again.

I also like to pick out a few of my favourite pages to share in photograph form here on the blog. I think Tigger has to be my top fav though!!

December Fauxbonichi Flip Through

Wowza! Where did December go? I don't know about you but for me December went by in such a blurr. I had a blast but it was also very busy and towards the end I was so grateful for the Christmas break and vegging out.

So here I am with my monthly flip through of my Fauxbonichi journal. As you can see the busier I got the more tired I became in the evenings which led me to less art and more sticking things in which is fine because I really enjoyed doing that and my journal is supposed to be a place where I can have fun and enjoy myself.


Here are some of my favourite pages from the month...

As I said I just love sticking things down and I really enjoyed just randomly sticking down stickers without a care in the World!

 I also used more washi tape and other embellishments like this Father Christmas die cut.

I love to draw Paddington, he is just so easy to draw and lots of fun too. He pops up at least once in one of my journals!

 

I also experimented with printing out a photo to add to my page.

 

And then towards the end of the month back to doodles the same way as I started.

Why I am sticking with a Faux rather than real Hobonichi

As you know (because I have mentioned it a lot of late) I am using a faux version, my own made up version of the hobonichi journal / planner. Prior to purchasing the fauxbonichi which is actually just a grided notebook from Paperchase, I deliberated quite a bit as to whether to splurdge on the real deal or just go faux. The price of the hobonichi is what has put me off, ok so not the price but the fact that you have to double that because of the import tax duties. Eeeeek! If it wasn't for that then I probably would have just bought the real deal.

So fauxbonichi I went with and fauxbonichi I am going to stay. Why?




I actually really like this notebook. I like the feel of it, the floppiness, the chunkiness, the paper quality and the fact that it is gridded paper. All in all it is just a really lovely book to work with.

Having looked at the flip videos I have seen of the real thing, I wouldn't be using it as a planner as I love my ring based planners too much. I like to be able to take things out and move them around which you can't do with a bound book. The hobonichi comes with both monthly pages as well as weekly and daily. I just don't know what I would do with the monthly and the weekly spreads so that would be a total waste for me.

On the daily pages they are already pre dated. Whilst at the moment I am journalling everyday, if I miss a day it is no big deal because the page isn't dated. Maybe it is my OCD but I don't like the idea of having a blank page if I miss a day. I missed a day recently and went back to it but it was really hard trying to remember what I did on that day. I know I could probably just use the page for random drawing as such but I have other journals for that.

Also on the daily pages there is a strip at the top of the page for all the date information and then a strip at the bottom for (not sure what), some is in Japense and I think it is a monthly calendar block. To me this is wasted paper, I want to have the option of using that space for journalling. There may be times when I can't fill a page but it is nice to know that I can if I want to!

So there we go, those are my reasons for staying faux. I would however most likely buy a cover. One day. If I have the pennies. I am not in a rush to buy the actual book. Of course I may change my tune if I ever do get to have the real thing because all of this opinion and the like is based on me having seen other peoples versus my faux.

What do you guys think?

My First month in my Fauxbonichi & Flip Through

When I first shared my Fauxbonichi with you a month ago now (wow where has the time gone!) I said that I would come back again and update you with how I have been getting on etc and I was really flattered that so many asked to see more of my journal. I really am very flattered and of course I am happy to share.

I am using my fauxbonichi as a method of recording the day so there isn't really anything confidential in there, I am still using my written journal to process thoughts and feelings as and when I need to. I am really enjoying using this journal though, I can see why everyone loves it. I love the gridded notepaper and I really like the style of journalling.

As you can see my style is evolving and starting to show through, especially towards the end of the month. You will see that some days are more art based and others more writing based. I like to do whatever I feel like on any particular day.

I thought I would share with you in my video the entire month flip and then on the blog here I thought I would share some of my favourite pages.

Even the more mundane things in life like doing the laundry are worth remembering!

I got Jon to doodle in my journal on holiday to see his point of view. I love his little pencil doodles of us. He did them in pencil so I could rub them out. Why on earth would I want to do that!

I have also been using stickers to decorate and embellish my pages as well as doodles.

Using watercolour in my Fauxbonichi

Last Tuesday I shared with you my new Fauxbonichi and I was met with some lovely lovely comments from you guys both here on the blog and also on YouTube not only welcoming me to the Hobonichi / Fauxbonichi community but also about my style of journalling in said book. I have joined the fauxbonichi group on Facebook (although I don't use facebook all that often) and have been looking on Pinterest and watching flips on YouTube. I am really loving how so many people are embracing this style of journalling far more than  people have with other journals and I hope everyone keeps it up as I love looking at what everyone is creating!

Some may argue that this style of journalling is not new and has been around for years which is true but I am all for anything that gets people to journal more and get creative so bring it on I say! I for one am thoroughly enjoying my journal time of an evening.

Some of the comments that I received were also about using watercolours in my fauxbonichi. To recap the book that I am using is the leather look grid notebook by Paperchase which I actually purchased on Amazon but I believe Barnes & Noble stock one that is very similar. Now I have been using watercolours for years and years, the ones I use are by Winsor & Newton. People were both concerned and interested about using watercolours in the journals on non watercolour paper. In my experience you can use watercolour on any paper. Any. The key thing is to practise, practise with your watercolurs, learn how they work and how much water you need to acivate them.

Unless you are doing lots of wet in wet techniques then you can use any paper. The key is to keep the paint / paper fairly dry. The only paper that I have had difficulty with (although not impossible) is cartridge paper as the fibres come apart a lot more easily. As long as you keep the paint and paper fairly dry you will be absolutely fine I can assure you and don't go agressively at it either.

The type of watercolours you use will also affect this but again it all comes down to practise and learning how your media works. Cheaper paints will typically need more water to activate them and will be less pigmented, this means that you will be applying lots of watery colour to your page to get the colour intensity you want. If you can stretch to a better quality set this would be best.

In the video I talk more about this and also show you how I have coloured my page in with watercolour and how it works...

This Hobonichi Journalling Thing!

I have been following people like MissVickyBee and Hoodlums on YouTube for a while now and have been really enjoying watching their monthly Hobonichi flip through videos. I have been really inspired by their videos and I have been deliberating for some time now as to whether or not to bite the bullet and get one myself. When my MIL asked me what I wanted for Christmas I decided to do some more serious research into it. Whilst I could justify the price of the book and cover, I couldn't justify doubling that price for the customs charges! To me paying over £60 in total for what is essentially a note book just seemed insane, even if I wasn't paying for it.

I also couldn't get my head around what it was about the Hobonichi that interested me so! Was it the book itself with the grid paper or was it the style of journalling. Either of these I knew could be replicated in a 'faux' book so that is what I did!

I actually bought the book myself from Amazon with a gift card that I had. The book was £9 with free shipping and is the Paperchase brand. The paper is lovely and I am using water colour to colour in my doodles and the paper just takes it really well, although you can water colour on most paper as long as you don't get it too wet!

I am really enjoying just spending five or ten minutes each evening whilst watching telly, making little doodles to represent my day and a few words to go with them. I love this style of journalling and I am loving the book that I am doing it in too. Who knows I may one day spend the mega £ to get the real thing but for now I am happy with my little start into the Hobonichi style of journalling.

Do you Hobonichi or are interested in starting one? I would love to know your thoughts on it too!