Journals Waiting

Property of Stormberry

Yesterday I had a chat (via WhatsApp, mind you), with my dear and Best Friend Arjen about all things related to post, paper and how much we totally and absolutely love each other, and how we make each other's lives so much better. Well, for sure Arjen makes my life a million times happier and brighter. Do you have any friends like that? You know, the kind of friend with whom you feel so well, share tastes, someone with a like mind, and with whom suddenly you have the absolutely best ideas in the planet? Well, that is Arjen for me.

So, Arjen and I were talking about how long it takes for a parcel or a letter to fly between Costa Rica and Belgium, mostly because both of us sent out our letters pretty much at the same time. Let me explain this quickly for you: I actually wrote to Arjen sometime in Spring. She got the letter and was sending me her reply. However, life has happened and with all the things in my life (thesis, friends gone, friends found, etc.), I HAD to talk to her. Sure, I could have sent an e-mail or chat her up on WhatsApp as we often do, but these things needed the long winding quality only handwritten letters can provide. On the light of this, I sent her what we call now "Letter Volume II: The Second Installment". I can't wait for her to get the letter! I even sent it with the courier service because: 1. it is faster, 2. it wasn't that much more expensive than the normal version, and 3. it comes in an uglyu plastic bag that will at least save the letter from water damage.

Source:  Fendrihan Canada

She showed me then a notebook she's going to use for a Bullet Journal Workshop she's taking. Oh my! I was so envious! :-) Can't wait to see the end result of it. That brought me to remember the A5 dotted, copper Leuchturm 1917 notebooks we've bought last year in Budapest. I remember that day with such joy! It was December 2017, and the both of us went to the 11th district looking for a paper store called "Fiók". It seemed like we would not find it in time, but then we did, and when we went into it, there they were, the beautiful Leuchturm 1917, hardcover notebooks! By then I had been on the hunt of A5 blank, lined or grid copper notebooks, but never found one. I didn't even think much, just grabbed the notebook.

Though normally I prefer blank pages for my journal, somehow I wanted this book to be more of a bullet journal (ain't gonna happen), and for that I wanted dotted pages. Arjen decided she wanted one too, and she also got the A5, dotted copper notebook. After that we were taken by the copper love and grabbed copper metallic Sharpies and other coppery washi tape.

Source: Pen Heaven

By the begining of the year she was already bullet-journaling in her copper notebook, while I was pondering what should I do with mine. I mean, I bullet-journal, but I do so in my A5 Malden filofax. In other words, my prized copper Leuchturm was an impulsive purchase I had acquired for the visual pleasure of its supple aesthetics. Then it went into my trunk, which is being currently heavily guarded by all the books I've bought since June... that no longer have a place in my bookshelf. (This is the reason why I'm posting pictures from google rather than pictures of my own blank notebooks). For my regular journaling, I've been using lately books from BomoArt. These books have blank pages and the paper is thick enough to handle fountain pens, which is what I use for... anything that has to do with handwriting.

In this same trip I was refering previously, Arjen and I went to Bomo Art in Budapest, in the Régi Posta utca, close to Váci utca, and I've bought that would have been my next journal. 

Property of Stormberry

Would have been? Yes. I had planned to use the latest Bomo Art book as my next journal, but after yesterday, we decided to return to our A5 coppers. You see, while talking about the paper world, Arjen mentioned that she had abandoned her copper Leuchturm. I'm myself on the last pages of my current journal, so the next logical idea came to mind: we should retake our copper Leuchturms at the same time! Isn't that the most fabulous and totally Super Best Friend thing in the world?

Since the journal is copper colored, and I have some copper washi, I thought it would be cool to use it with copper ink. Yeah, it would be cool... if there were copper ink. Now Arjen and I are on hot pursuit of cooper ink. The closest we've found is a Diamine Caramel Sparkle she has spotted. The closest I currently have is a Pelikan 4001 brilliant brown.

I know, who would have thought that the world of pen and paper could be so complicated?