Posted June 23, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 4 comments »
Many writers keep idea notebooks — myself included — to catch the random thoughts that cross their minds all day. One savvy reader has an intriguing method for keeping things a little more organized; in an email exchange, he explains:
i use planners to keep notes and ideas. i find it’s easier to refer back to the notes and ideas by just flipping back through the days or weeks. it’s much more organized than if i just kept an ‘idea’ notebook. that was just chaos.
Afterwards, our correspondent uses a Habana notebook to elaborate on the ideas he wants to develop. Pretty cool system, huh?
Posted June 2, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People, Product Reviews | 1 comment »
Here’s something I bought in one of Vienna’s many stationery shops: this cute Clairefontaine Vokabelheft, or vocabulary notebook. It’s a small, staplebound book with a vertical line down each page, the idea being that you write your words down one side and translations down on the other. Afterwards, you can cover up each half if you want to quiz yourself.
I’ve always preferred notebooks to individual vocabulary cards — less chance of losing things. Another advantage, at least for me, is that a notebook enables you to organize your words sequentially, as you learn them, which helps you remember the context later on. By reviewing the words that I learned while reading Ingeborg Bachmann‘s story “Simultan,” for instance, I review the progression of the narrative and am reminded of certain scenes. And when I walked through Vienna on Sunday and saw a sign for a “Dolmetscher,” I remembered that it was a word I’d encountered in the story (which is about a translator who’s traveling in Italy).
At any rate, it’s a product we don’t currently carry in the U.S. (foreign language programs aren’t as robust here), but it certainly wouldn’t be hard to make your own with a Basics notebook…
Posted May 18, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Beautiful Creations, Pens, Paper & People | Add your comment »
How cool is this: reader Cole Wardell, whose lovely cursive doodles we featured back in April, just made herself a new journal with four different types of Clairefontaine paper: a Graf It sketch pad, DCP paper, a Calligraphy Art Pad, and the Ingres Pastel Pad. “All the papers serve very different functions,” she writes, “so binding them into one journal is a way … to keep me artistically on my toes!”
You can read more about Cole’s journal and the different papers that she used over at her blog.
Posted April 14, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Product Reviews | 2 comments »
Lauren from Prescott, Arizona took one of our large Habanas for a test drive recently; here’s what she had to say…
I’ve developed a true respect and affection for this notebook. I use it to record my textiles activity: ongoing projects, lists, dreams, materials, reference charts, etc. It’s a perfect size to throw into any type of project bag (or handbag). The construction feels ballistic solid: I imagine it will last the years it will take me to fill the journal, and that it will look as new when that time comes as it did when it arrived last November. The elastic piece that keeps the journal closed is perfect.
I use the blank pages in the front to write up reference charts, the pocket in the back for miscellaneous patterns. The Clairefontaine paper is delightful. I write mostly with a mechanical pencil or fountain pen on the paper, and both look great and hold up like new. The paper is beautiful, smooth, and accommodating. The bookmark perfect for setting the place where I’m working. (Does make me dream of a notebook with a few, different colored bookmarks! 
Thank you so much for this wonderful notebook! It’s truly a delight. Inspirational. Practical. I’m fantasizing about one for each category of my life! (And a larger one for each of the smaller ones.
Posted March 16, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People | 3 comments »
I’ve been meaning to blog about this great post at Plannerisms for weeks, and was reminded of it recently during our discussion of switching planner formats. If you’ve got an extra planner, Laurie has some great suggestions for putting it to use — a phone log, meeting notes, a meditation record… which in turn reminds of one of Stephanie’s old posts, where she talked about using a Notor as a daily journal.
I used to use a Notor as a bird watching journal, but alas, the habit didn’t stick: we don’t get enough species here for me to want to record everything I see each day, so eventually I just decided to keep a running list in one of my Habanas instead. I do use a Monthly 4 as a garden planner, but other than that, it’s just me, my Sapa X, and my meetings and appointments.
Do you have any other creative non-planning planner uses?
Posted January 25, 2010 by Guest Author
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People, Where to Go? | Add your comment »
Guest blogger Lito Apostolakou is a freelance author, historian, and feature writer at Suite101; she also has a fascinating blog on the history of writing instruments. Here, she writes about seeing one of Leonardo’s notebooks.
It doesn’t look like much, in fact the humble notebook is no bigger than a pack of playing cards, yet it is one of the most precious objects on display in the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The notebook of Leonardo da Vinci which dates from 1490-3 is one of five owned by the museum and it was bequeathed by English collector, John Forster in 1876.
It is packed with tiny handwriting, notes about geometry, hydraulics and weights and (curiously) with drawings of hats. At the time Leonardo compiled his notebook he was working for Duke Ludovico Sforza in Milan and he was probably required to create costumes for court festivities – hence the hat drawings. The notebook seems to be suffering from ink corrosion (due to the iron gall ink Leonardo used) and is very light sensitive. It was a privilege to have seen it.
Posted January 8, 2010 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 4 comments »
Stephanie forwarded a link to this terrific post at A Penchant for Paper about deciding what to do with a new Habana notebook.
Should I just keep it for the future? … Perhaps it would be better suited to a pocket-sized, portable sketchbook? Or perhaps I could use it to write poetry in. Or perhaps to keep notes on the books that I am reading, and lists of books I want to read in the future. Or perhaps…
I often purchase notebooks for specific purposes — a Bloc No. 8 to use as a reporter’s notebook (fits handily into back pockets), a Steno pad to keep on my desk for work-related to-do lists (the red line down the center helps divide essential from inessential tasks). But there’s something really lovely about getting a notebook without a specific task in mind. There’s the sky’s-the-limit joy of speculating about potential uses, and the joy of experimentation, then the joy of discovery when you find the use that fits…
Mind you, I’m not trying to endorse mindless consumerism here (buy now! think later!). I just think it’s nice to be open to possibilities.
Posted September 14, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Editorial, Pens, Paper & People | 1 comment »
Fall is back-to-school season for many of you, and I’m wondering: how many notebooks, sketchpads, fountain pens, and art supplies do you bring with you? Do you wait and buy new supplies at school, or are there certain essential items that follow you from home?
I moved at least twice a year from the age of 18, in college, till I was 28 or so, and there was always a core set of books I’d tote with me no matter where I went (Beckett, Musil, Woolf). But I never brought any writing supplies except a couple of Pilot V-Balls — I’m a pretty recent fountain pen convert — which gave me a nice excuse to visit a stationery store in whatever new neighborhood or city I was going to. I suspect that’d be different now (I was careful to pack one Habana and two Rhodias on vacation last month), though of course I’m now quite happy in my little Brooklyn house and have no plans to move.
What’s your routine?
Posted August 4, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Cabinet of Curiosities, Pens, Paper & People | 2 comments »
I know we say it a lot, but Karen and I are so awed by the creativity of the people we’ve gotten to know through this blog. The most recent example: this lovely, subtle, and evocative drawing that Gentian made on an Exacompta sketchpad (see a close-up here).
Keep it coming, everyone…
Posted June 29, 2009 by Leah Hoffmann
in Pens, Paper & People, Planning Tips | 11 comments »
Thanks to Pentamento for the first review of our new Equology eco-friendly notebooks and planners… Reading it reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post my own photographs and impressions, so here goes.
I, too, love the heavy duty rubber-like cover, to which pictures don’t really do justice—it’s soft and bumpy and dry, sort of like a cat’s tongue:
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