Myke and I looked back at our favorite brands from 2018 and discussed what we want to see from them specifically in 2019. In short: We want all of the things!
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(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)
Early in September, I began thinking about what planner I wanted to use in 2019. I’ve been using the Hobonichi A5 Cousin (review here) for several years now, and although I love it, I wanted to use my William Hannah A5 notebook more (review here). I thought about replacing my Hobonichi with the William Hannah notebook, so I ordered a set of calendar pages and something new called “Intentions Pages.”
William Hannah paper is amazing. It’s super thick (100gsm) and luxurious. There’s almost no show through, even with the wettest inks.
However, when my calendar and Intentions Pages arrived, I immediately discovered a problem. I couldn’t fit even one month of daily calendar pages and Intentions Pages in my notebook. The paper is just too thick! I like to have an entire semester’s worth of daily and monthly pages in one calendar for work, and my William Hannah couldn’t hold that much. So, I ordered another Hobonichi to use at work.
But, I immediately fell in love with the William Hannah Intentions Pages. What are Intentions Pages, you ask? Well, the Monthly Intentions Pages help you think through your goals for each month and to reflect upon them when the month is over.
The front page asks you to consider the following things:
The next two pages provide a monthly grid where you can write important dates. There’s also a daily tracker at the bottom of the pages.
The back page asks the following reflection questions:
Daily Intentions Pages provide a guide for thinking through your goals, evaluating your mood, and contemplating other questions each day.
The front page has the following items:
The back page provides a checklist for your critical action, key actions, and stretch target. There’s also room for the following:
I put my Monthly Intentions Pages at the beginning of the month followed by a month’s worth of Daily Intentions Pages. This much fits perfectly into my William Hannah notebook.
I’ve been doing Intentions Pages since September, and they’ve helped me to track my mood, record what I am grateful for, contemplate creative and positive ideas, record what I’ve been learning, and analyze how I’m progressing on my monthly and daily goals.
This fall has been one of the worst semesters I’ve ever experienced. We had major cuts at my university, and many of my friends and colleagues lost their jobs. In addition, my mentor of many years died. So, I had to deal with more grief and stress than normal. The Intentions Pages helped me work through my rollercoaster thoughts and emotions and also reminded me to record grateful, creative, and positive thoughts each day. This was really good for me because many days I didn’t feel positive or grateful, but when I dug down deep, I could find things that brought me a tiny bit of cheer.
I recorded my mood in terms of weather, because I discovered using a weather metaphor was easier for me than trying to come up with words to describe my mood each day. I have to admit that most days this fall were gloomy, often with thunder and rain. But, there were some sunny days as well.
Even though I was disappointed that my William Hannah notebook didn’t work out as my daily calendar, the Intentions Pages were a wonderful surprise. I journal regularly, but the Intentions Pages provide me with a structured set of questions and prompts that I work through every day. My William Hannah notebook sits next to me on the side table in the living room where I drink my coffee each morning and cuddle my kitties in the evening. I’ve been pretty faithful recording my intentions each day, and I think it’s benefitted me greatly.
You can purchase William Hannah A5 notebooks at William Hannah. Intentions Pages come in monthly (£8.00=$10.00 for 2019) and daily format (£10.00=$12.70 per 50-day pack).
(I purchased my William Hannah notebook and Intentions Pages with my own funds.)
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(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)
We pocket notebook lovers are so spoiled for choice these days that it takes something extra special to turn our heads. Well, these Yamamoto Ro-Biki Notebooks have my head spinning in circles. With these tall, narrow pages--perfect for lists--you can make a nice long list of all the cool things about them.
To begin with aesthetics, these are just gorgeous notebooks. The cover design is elegant in a way that is both fun and professional looking so the notebook can travel between work and play with ease. The colors are rich neutrals. This star map version with the navy background and parchment-colored constellations and script looks like it might have time travelled from a hundred years ago, or been found in a stationery lover's time capsule.
The cover is light cardstock that has been treated with wax. The texture feels a bit grabby at first, but it soon burnishes into a beautiful gloss that looks almost like vintage leather.
The binding is sewn with a lot of sturdy stitches. Inside the cover is a white endpaper, and then 60 pages of cream colored recycled paper. Like most recycled papers, it's not entirely impervious to liquid ink, but it performed very well. My broad fountain pen and flex nib caused some bleed-through, but all the other pens I tested barely showed through at all--not even my firehose of a TWSBI. The front of the page shows no feathering, even with the wetter nibs and inks. Unless you're really laying the ink down, these would work fine with fountain pens.
Branding on the notebook is very minimal--only the subtlest brand is printed on the back bottom in black ink on the blue background.
The dimensions are 3.6" x 8.3", so they're not quite the right dimensions for the regular sized Traveler's Notebook covers, but I think they would still work with it. The height is the same--these are just a bit narrower. I don't think the paper performs quite as well as the Midori paper of the Traveler's Company notebooks, and they are, at $9.00, about $1.75 more expensive. They have more sheets of paper, though. And the irresistibly stunning covers.
I like what I've seen from Yamamoto notebooks so far, and I'm looking forward to what they do next.
(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
Enjoy reading The Pen Addict? Then consider becoming a member to receive additional weekly content, giveaways, and discounts in The Pen Addict shop. Plus, you support me and the site directly, for which I am very grateful.
Membership starts at just $5/month, with a discounted annual option available. To find out more about membership click here and join us!
