New Hobonichi Cousin

I'm really feeling the relief of a brand new year and a fresh start! 

My main goal is to spend as much time as possible outdoors and with my camera. In November I started walking each morning and I've really been enjoying it. I have coffee with friends at Starbucks almost every day and it's a nice way to get some fresh air AND exercise. These photos obviously aren't from my walks but they are my favorite winter colors. 

I finished my 2017 Hobonichi Techo pretty strong! I didn't miss a single day since August, when things got busy, I was away from home or felt stressful I made a note in my phone of what I might want to write about and when I had time, I went back and filled in the days. That approach worked really well for me. It became something I genuinely looked forward to working on each day! I'm using the monthly page to write a seasonal quote about the month and track the weather and moon cycles.

For 2018 I went with the larger Cousin because I wanted more space to include photographs, practice hand lettering and use lots of stamps + washi. I realized I can walk to Rite Aid and have photos printed really inexpensively on nice quality paper. I have a Canon Selphy printer but I don't love it. Walking for photos = fresh air and encourages me to get the photos off the camera! I  have a 64GB card with close to 15,000 photos from just 2017. I don't know why I don't share or do more with them so that's definitely a big goal!

I recently took advantage of the Makerist sale and picked up a few hoodie patterns. My goal is to eventually make this one. I'd like to sew a bit more but I'm just not sure what. I definitely find fabric shopping more fun sometimes than actually sewing. ;)

I did recently make Pattydoo's Lynn out of some hilarious Christmas fleece from Joann Fabrics and *loved it*. It's currently in the washing machine but I'm going to do a blog post about it soon. I lined the pockets and hood with some bamboo fabric and it is SO soft. A total snuggle fest. I'd like to make it again but I haven't quite figured out how to lengthen it and take in a sides a tiny bit. 

I hope you had a Happy New Year!

Hobonichi Techo 2017

In August I began using my Hobonichi again. Life slowed down a bit and I didn't need the agenda/planner layout of the Happy Planner! I also wanted a bit more space to collage, stamp and write more. I like to work on it before bed or first thing in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. I got my first fountain pen, a Lamy Safari in Petrol, then Eric surprised me with a rose gold Lamy LX for our anniversary which I absolutely adore. 

I've really enjoyed journaling so much that I decided to go big in 2018 with the Hobonichi Cousin. I was so excited when it arrived, it feels more like a big squishy notebook! But I think I will miss the compact fat size of the techo a tiny bit. I am looking forward to having all the space, especially to practice my lettering! I've been really obsessing over some of the traveler's notebooks on Instagram and have pinned a lot of inspiration here. I love all the unique stamps, washi and ink options out there. I especially love the very full and layered pages of some journals!

I haven't had any time to sew lately but I picked up fabric to hopefully make a few gifts. And maybe a hoodie for myself! :)

Tombow Irojiten & Hobonichi Techo

It is a seriously gloomy day here! Our power has been flickering, it's pouring out and super windy. The perfect day to journal, read and nest! ;)

Yesterday I received some happy mail- Tombow Irojiten colored pencils in the Woodland set. Last night I swatched them in my hobonichi techo and today I'm playing around with them, I thought I'd share my initial thoughts! 

I want to try colored pencils more this year as opposed to brush pens, markers and ink because while I love my hobonichi, I really get frustrated with ghosting. Ghosting is when the image shows through onto the back side of the paper. It's not physically bleeding through the paper, it's just a hint of the previous image. Tomoe River paper is truly wonderful. It's smooth, feels so nice to draw and write on. But it's incredibly thin so ghosting can happen. 

I had a set of prismacolor pencils that I played with a tiny bit towards the end last year and I enjoyed them. My set was from college and has lived a full life, including many drops and sharpening issues so the lead isn't in the best shape. ;)

I was drawn to this set of colored pencils because the packaging is beautiful, the colors are really unique and the swatches from other artists looked interesting. 

You can see the ghosting from January 7th on January 8th- I had used some rain cloud stamps because: rain. I'm never quite sure what to do when ghosting happens. Do I cover the images? Do I just ignore them? Add washi? It's something so small, I don't know why it throws me off! :D 

I ended up tracing the clouds and filling them in with one of the pencils and swatching all the colors. The pale and light grayish tone sets are so, so, so subtle. I didn't really press down, I just started a little firm and gradually lightened the pressure to create a gradient. I'm not sure if the pencils aren't super pigmented, if I need to use more pressure or if i should layer them more!? 

I have a feeling I'm going to like using them but will have to build up layers. It'll be fun to experiment through out the year with these! I found this review which is really comprehensive about these pencils in case you'd also like to know about them. Mostly I'm looking to do some sketches and filling in stamped images. Previously I used Kuretake ZIG Clean Color brushes and they are SO GOOD. They do take forever to dry and sometimes I smudge things or over mix the colors. Also they can wrinkle the pages which doesn't bother me but towards the end of last year my hobonichi was so fat and hard to close!

The right hand side under the paper cut was done with the brush pens and it was really fun! I like watching people on youtube do galaxy paintings so it was my inspiration. 

In case you'd like to know my favorite comfort food from my entry and poor penmanship. ;) Cranberry Mustard Chicken Tenderloins! My mom made this when I was a kid, I found the recipe last night after thinking about it all the time lately! It turns out it's super fast and easy to make. My mods were tapioca starch instead of flour and I halved the butter/oil because I cooked the chicken in one batch. I like that the first comment says they've been making it since 1998! :D

This post contains affiliate links to amazon.com. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I earn a tiny percentage of your purchase without any additional cost to you. All items I talk about are things I've purchased myself with my own money. :)