Archive for October, 2011

What’s your Halloween costume?

Posted October 31, 2011 by
in Editorial | 6 comments »

The freak snowstorm kept me away from Halloween parties on Saturday, and since I’m too old for trick-or-treating, I’ll have to content myself with watching the local kids this evening as they make their rounds in the neighborhood.

Ordinarily, I love getting dressed up for Halloween. My costumes have ranged from the overly conceptual — in college, I wore slouchy pants and spoke reverently of Kurt Cobain and Quentin Tarantino as “Generation X” — to the questionably conceived (James Dean; but I couldn’t get my short hair to gel right, and my bicepless arms swam in my plain white t-shirt). Last year, I was an easier-to-identify Sherlock Holmes.

Do you celebrate Halloween? What’s your costume this year?

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What makes our paper so smooth?

Posted October 28, 2011 by
in Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »

The Clairefontaine paper we use in our planners and notebooks is noted for its smoothness, and we recently fielded a comment from Tom about what, exactly, makes it that way.

I’d heard about the “velin velouté” finish, but I didn’t know much about how it was actually produced. Fortunately, Karen soon clued me in: calcium carbonate. This mineral is found in chalk, limestone, marble, and travertine, and according to the Exaclair website, it “gives Clairefontaine notebook paper its trademark qualities of extra white and ultra smooth.”

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The Quo Vadis planner hotline

Posted October 27, 2011 by
in Planning Tips | 5 comments »

You look at pictures. You read reviews. If you’re still not sure which planner best fits your needs, you can always drop us a line and ask questions about the different formats that we offer. A reader from Massachusetts, for example, recently wrote:

I’ve been using a weekly-medium planner, but I need a larger planner with more space vertically–for each appointment, so I can have more room to write and to write bigger and not have everything squished together.

Our advice? Try a Trinote or Prenote, which both offer exactly that.

Got a question of your own? Email us, or post it in the comments below.

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Frankenplanners

Posted October 24, 2011 by
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Planning Tips | 3 comments »

Unless you take the time to make your own planner, chances are there’s a thing or two about the one you use that you’d do differently. My question is, if you could make a mashup of your favorite planners, what would it look like? Which features would you merge, and why?

For my part, I’d take the layout of the Space 17 and replace its lined daily boxes with the blank ones of the Sapa X. I’d also lose the address book, since I don’t use it, possibly exchanging it for more notes. And if there were an unobtrusive way of enabling it to give me automatic appointment reminders, as my Outlook calendar now does… then we’d really be cooking with gas.

What about you?

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Do u use text slang?

Posted October 21, 2011 by
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 4 comments »

I was old enough, or curmudgeonly enough, when texting became popular that I refused to use slang and abbreviations like u and and 4 and ttyl, even as I scoffed at fusty journalists who were diligently explaining the new lingo to my parents’ generation. As a writer, I try to be fastidious about my use of language regardless of the platform, and I don’t see any reason I shouldn’t condense my thoughts if they won’t fit the constraints of the genre. Typos? I hate to receive them, so I try my best not to give them.

However, I now have a touch-screen phone, and my resolve is softening. Not on the text slang front; I’d feel much too ridiculous (though for a time I used “yr” since I’d read it in some of Ezra Pound’s letters and figured it had provenance).

But oh, my clumsy fingers! The letters slip between them and are lost, and I am growing tired of trying to reposition my cursor to correct them. Which means… I guess I understand why text slang was invented.

Do you use it?

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Keep the Lights On

Posted October 20, 2011 by
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »

As fans of arts and culture, it’s always fun to see our products featured in films. Meryl Streep carried a Habana planner in It’s Complicated, and a Clairefontaine notebook in Julia and Julie.

Over the summer, we found out about another project in which we’ll play a supporting role: Keep the Lights On, a film by Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning director Ira Sachs that follows a gay couple in New York City in the late 90s. You can watch an interview with Ira above and a concept reel for the movie — which isn’t finished yet — at the Filmmaker Magazine website.

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Congrats to our winners!

Posted October 19, 2011 by
in Announcements | 5 comments »

Thanks to everyone who entered our weekly planner giveaway! Our software’s run its random course, and we are ready to announce the winners:

If your name is on this list, check your email and look for our message on how to claim your prize. If not, and as always, check back here soon for our next giveaway!

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ABP1 – Daily Planner

Posted October 19, 2011 by
in Editorial | 4 comments »

I have been meaning to write about the ABP1, and the message I received this morning from Richard in Oakland, CA was a good prompt:

“I have used the ABP1 for over a decade. I love it because I enter phone messages/numbers on each page as I get them. It keeps a record of each day that helps me track mistakes and liability issues. There is also enough room to keep personal notes, etc.  Last year I had to have it shipped from Britain. Now I see you want to kill it. I understand the economics if no one is buying…but major disappointment if it is gone.”

Richard, here’s some good news for you!  The ABP1 is back on the Quo Vadis website with some retailers that have it available for purchase here in the U.S. – click here.

The ABP1 was discontinued in the U.S. in 2010 – meaning we took it out of our catalog and off our website.  And, yes, the sales didn’t make it feasible to continue a print run for us – we opted to go with the more popular daily, the Journal 21.

However, people who use the ABP1 are fierce and loyal fans, and stand by this edition.  In response to their requests, we have put the ABP1 back on the website - click here. U.S. retailers can also order it for their customers if requested.We do maintain stock at our warehouse in Hamburg, NY.  Quo Vadis Canada also has the ABP1.

In my mind, I fought for the ABP1 because it has two features particularly unique:  1) it goes from pre-7 AM to 10 PM.  It also lends itself to list-making. An ABP1 user- a park ranger in one of the western national parks – told me she used the appointments column as her daily list area.  And, as Richard mentioned, there is lots of room for notes and memos.

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Audiobooks

Posted October 17, 2011 by
in Editorial | 1 comment »

Now that I’ve gotten reasonably comfortable with my Kindle, I’ve branched out into a different, and I suppose much older, way of reading: audiobooks. I got the idea this summer while stuck in traffic en route to a weekend hike. One iPod and an Audible account later, I was ready to get going in earnest.

Like the Kindle — which works for me only with straightforward, linear narratives that don’t inspire me to go back and reread earlier passages — I’m discovering that audiobooks have their own set of requirements. In the car, it has to be gripping. My husband and I began with John McPhee on a 4-hour drive up to Westport. It was great for the first half hour, but you couldn’t get distracted or you’d lose the thread of the story. On the way home, we listened to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It was perfect. I lobbied for Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London once we’d finished, but it wasn’t engaging enough to dull the pain of a bumper-to-bumper backup on the FDR. However, I still wanted to read it, so I started listening on the subway and discovered it was great on the go. It was also a great thing to listen to while vacuuming or doing the dishes.

I’m a big fan of mental downtime, so I don’t like to overdo it on the sealing-myself-off-in-a-personal-bubble front. But given how many menial tasks there are in a given day, audiobooks are a great way to stay engaged during chores.

Do you listen to audiobooks?

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Friday review roundup

Posted October 14, 2011 by
in Product Reviews | Add your comment »

Happy Friday! We’re keeping it short and notebooky today with reviews of the Habana and an Exacompta journal:

  • At Rhodia Drive, Stephanie takes a look at her travel book of choice, the Habana.

  • Diane at Pocket Blonde tries out the Exacompta Nostalgie journal.

If you see any other reviews — good or bad — you think should be featured here, let us know!

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