Finding The Right Journal

Today I want to show you my new Journal.... well I should say Journals because I have spent the last few weeks trying to find the right one and anyone who has kept a journal will know, one of the most important things is finding the right one.  After all, you are going to be using it for a while and you need to get comfortable with it.  Only wish I had read Ray Blake's Blog post first, before trying to search for one.

I wanted a journal that was smaller than A4 but maybe larger than A5 and it needed to have a lot of pages, 250 plus would be perfect.  I didn't want spiral bound but would settle with it if I had to.  I searched high and low and here is what I came up with!  Can you guess which one I have ended up using?

First notebook I tried was the A5 Notebook by Filofax. at £10 it doesn't come cheap, plus you need a cover for it, but I already had a Flex cover so it wasn't too bad.   A bit of Washi tape on the front to bling it up, these covers are so plain, surely Filofax could come up with something a little nicer!

I started to fill it in, but after a couple of days though, I knew it wasn't right.  I was out shopping and I came across this.  It's very similar to a Moleskin type of notebook, it's got a little pocket at the back, but was far cheaper than  Moleskin, just can't recall what the name of it is now.  But anyhow, it was way to thin, am sure I would have had it filled up in no time.

So then I was in another shop and found this one.  Its a  Cross A5 Purple Gingham Journal.  It comes with a Cross pen and it is beautiful.  The paper is of great quality and it has a little envelope at the back, it also has a pen tab built into the cover.

Unfortunately as soon as I opened it, I knew this wasn't going to be the one either.... so if anyone would like to buy or swap this, then let me know!  I will consider any reasonable offer!  I've never used it, it's still in all it's original plastics.  It has 248 perforated pages and is 100 gsm acid free paper and a silver Cross pen.

I begin thinking that maybe I needed something bigger, so while looking in WHSmiths, I came across one of their own brand Pukka type project books.  With 200 sheets (400 pages) I thought, YES this is going to be a hit. I got home, made a cover for it and started writing in it.  After 2 days I gave up! It was too big!  (Bearing in mind, every journal I started, I was copying my previous entries into the new one!)

By now I was going mad, I thought about going back to the Flex notebook, but I still wasn't happy with it.  I was wracking my brains trying to come up with something.  I was looking through a pile of notebooks I already own when I came across this.  Its a journal from a company called Tallon.  (My mum got me these from some place like Boyes or B&M or some discount store).  They have about 120 sheets in them and are a little larger than A5, I had two of them (different covers) so I pulled the rings out of them both and put all the sheets together, I had the perfect chunky notebook with lovely paper...but then the problems started.

I had no idea how to bind the paper and cover back together. I went to Staples to see if they could bind it, they could only do 100 sheets, I had 240.  I asked them to use a wire binder, but again, because holes were already in the paper they couldn't do it.... unless I went home, cut the hole area off, then go back to have it wire bound.....at a 60 mile round trip (which I already just done) and at the loss of losing more paper, I declined!  Hubby and I walked around staples looking for something that would hold this journal together....hubby was desperate for me to find something, he was fed up of taking me journal hunting!  So this is what we came up with.

Just threaded them through some of the holes, then put some duct tape down the spine then covered it all in washi tape to keep it all neat looking.  I came out with a pretty decent sized DIY Journal and I was really happy with it..... until.....

I was in Paperchase earlier this week and came across this little beauty:

It's hard to see from the pic, but it's an A5 size notebook with graph paper and 300 pages.  It's quite floppy so I needed a cover for it and guess what fitted it perfect .....

..... my Magenta Filofax Flex Cover.  

I love this and know this is the one.  I managed to fill in my previous journal entries, I only write when I feel like it and not everyday, so I guess this one is will be with me for some time to come.

Lots of room for small writing and the paper isn't too bad, if you look towards the middle of the page below, I actually used a rollerball pen here, not a lot of bleed through so I'm really pleased with it.

See how thick this one is.....

And it all fits snugly inside the Flex cover.

So did you guess the right one?  It took some finding but I eventually got there and it was worth it.....to be honest, I am secretly pleased to be back with the Filofax range!