I have never in my life felt important enough to review anything. But today I am thrilled, and I want to share it because I know that some of the followers of these rambles are also stationery addicts. I bought this gorgeous traveller’s notebook a few months back (ah, I guess that was actually the first review). What has, however, been a bit of a challenge was to find the perfect notebook inserts.
My current planner notebook is a cheap and cheerful made in China A5. Hectic bleed through on the pages, but it is doing the job.
For separate inserts, I purchased these from Brush and Canvas. They work wonderfully for doodling and even a little watercolour painting but because they are relatively thin (40 pages) I wanted something that could be the every-day planner. And of course, it needed to be functional as well as pretty.
I have been stalking the Shwezu website for a couple of months because I have lost my heart to a pair of shoes that I don’t need. I did, however happy return there because I remember that they had notebooks as well. Pretty and functional.
I ordered the A5 Indigo Mandala one with bullet pages. You can also choose to have your pages blank or lined. Although the pic indicates that it is 100 pages, mine has 160 bullet pages.
And then I did something else that I have never done before. I did a bleed through test. I chose the stationery that travels around with my notebook and used the first page of my new treasure to see what we are working with.
My pencil bag includes an Artline Fineliner 0.4 that I use for headings, a Faber Castell SpeedX 10, that I note with; a set of Stabilo Point 88 Fineliners for all the colourful bits and a set of mini Croxley create highlighters, to cater for my colour-coded life. I am not completely devoted to any one of these except for the SpeedX 10. I bought this pen (by happy accident) on Takealot about two years ago, and it is now the only thing I write with. My handwriting is tiny and this pen is just a perfect fit.
You will see that there is a tiny bit of bleed-through, but it is minimal. I do however think that if you are going to use brush pens or Sharpies, this may not be the journal for you.
I am however, thrilled. There is just enough bleed through to make the pages feel alive and make me feel that every new page is building upon the previous one, without making me think that a ruined day cannot be fixed. If you require a beautifully crafted notebook, this is definitely one to consider.