Wilko Travelers Notebook/Organiser Review!

Lots of people have been talking about this new TN style notebook/organiser that Wilko has recently released in their latest stationery collection. So I thought I'd get my hands on one, have a play around with it, and give you my opinion on it!

First of all, if you've not heard about it yet or haven't got your hands on one, here's a little info on the dimensions and nitty gritty 'boring' stuff. 

It's an A5 Travelers Notebook style notebook. It costs £5, and comes with four A5 notebooks/inserts inside. The cover is 'Leather effect' which is some sort of PU material. Inside there are four elastics, and there are two poppers on the cover to fasten it (which means there's a little growing room in this notebook!). 

They list it on their website as an 'organiser' but many of us know that even though the inserts might be for organising, the style of this notebook is very similar to a TN.

It is quite a chunk of a notebook, which personally I quite like. The material used for the cover is very floppy by itself, but with the four notebooks inside it holds its shape. Once you've opened the notebooks up inside and used them a little more, the whole notebook does lie completely flat. Which in my mind is definitely a perk! 

The double popper is a really nice design choice, I've seen a couple of people in the community mention that they like this feature. They've designed it so there's extra material on the flap, which covers the second popper. So if you choose to fasten it on the inside popper, the popper you aren't using wont be on show. It's a small design decision that makes a big difference. 

The inserts that come with it are very basic, they're undated and each one is decorated differently. It was really nice to see that they hadn't just put four of their classic lined A5 notebooks in there. Instead they've actually put some thought into each one, so it gives you a bit of a starting point on how to use this TN as a whole.

The first insert is the 'Daily Journal' which has a leaf design on the cover and the title is gold foiled.

Inside each page is split into 3 sections with lines, and a little space to put the date. I quite like this and think you could actually use this for a multitude of different things. Of course there's it's intended purpose of a daily journal, but it would work well as a gratitude journal,  or even a planner if you split one box in two, for the weekend.

The next one is titled 'Edit Undo.' which again has the gold foil on the title, and this time it has a pink ombre cover. 

To start with I thought this was just an insert of plain paper, but when you get to the halfway point in the middle, all the paper in the other half of the insert is actually gridded. I quite liked this as you almost have two notebooks in one, and the grid boxes are also nice and dinky.

The third insert is 'Notes', this one is probably has the most plain cover. It's just a really dark teal, very similar to the PU cover of the TN, and again the title is gold foiled (gotta love a bit of gold foiling!).

This one, as you can probably tell, is a simple lined notebook all the way through. When I have any sort of planner or journal, I always need some sort of doodle/scribbly note paper or insert where I can brain dump things. So even though it's very simple, I don't see it as a bad addition to this TN.

Last of all we have this insert which has the title 'This Year' on it. The cover has a green 'tiger style' stripe design. 

I feel like the whole Hypernatural collection that this notebook is a part of, has a jungle sort of vibe to it.

Inside each month takes up the front and the back of a page, with the dates going down the left hand side of the pages. Once you get to the end of December it goes onto some 'notes' pages, which are just lined paper. 

Of course this is undated so you could start using it anytime of the year. I suppose much like the first insert, there could be various different uses for this insert. Planning your year ahead, making notes of peoples Birthdays, or even a 'sentence a day' style of journaling.

I think the elastics were the only thing I had doubts about. As many of us who use Travelers Notebook style journals and planners know, you are swapping and moving inserts in & out of the TN every week, sometimes daily. The elastic used in here reminds me of the type of elastic they use on product packaging around Christmas time, basically it feels a bit cheap. 

Granted it's only £5 for the whole thing, but this is one of the main parts going towards the functionality of the notebook. If it snaps or weakens, you can't use it as intended anymore.

Saying that I've not fully used this for weeks on end yet, so I guess time will tell. I also don't think it would be too difficult to rethread with different elastic if something were to happen to it though.

All in all it's a pretty good little notebook. Still not 100% sure what to call it, but I'm definitely swaying more towards a TN because it's so similar to how those function. 

I'm also really excited to see if Wilko bring out more of these again in the future, and possibly expand on the sizes they offer. 

If you want to get your hands on one, they do have it available online here.

Have you used this TN style notebook yet? Do you like it? Let me know!

- Daisy X

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Momoka 53, First Impressions Review!

Today I have a beautiful brand to share with you guys, one which I've never heard of before!

I was contacted by Momoka herself asking if I'd like to review some of her notebooks. I get a lot of review requests and always take a look at the websites to see if anything catches my eye.

These notebooks definitely did!
(We will also be teaming up to bring you guys a giveaway over on my Instagram, so make sure you are following me on there so you don't miss out!)

A brief run down on Momoka and her brand, Momoka 53... 

Momoka is a textile designer & hand weaver. She finished a masters degree in Textile Design at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, and then went on to sell her designs worldwide.

She doesn't just sell notebooks on her website, there's a range of clothes, homewares and various other items. But today I'm here to share with you her very unique notebooks!

These notebooks are hand dyed and foiled by Momoka herself, so every notebook is completely one of a kind.

The packaging and presentation of the notebooks is also something to point out. I was sent a little catalogue and note from Momoka, they were in a little kraft envelope with twine & a wax seal.

Of course this might not be something she does with every order, but I wanted to share it because it was just too pretty not to.

Each notebook comes in a very sturdy grey box, with a gold foiled logo on the front. It's very simple packaging, but it helps to conceal the beautiful product inside. If you are considering getting one of these notebooks as a gift for someone, then these boxes are brilliant.

Seeing as they are such great quality, I'm actually going to be keeping them to store bits and pieces in! They definitely aren't boxes you would just throw away after using haha!

As I said before, the notebooks themselves are one of a kind. Each one has been hand dyed by Momoka, both of these notebooks came with a little card which I'm assuming is sharing the date it was made, and also which number notebook it is from the batch. This is something I've never had with a notebook before, and honestly it does make it feel that little more special. It's not something that's been mass produced. It's something that's had a lot of care and attention gone into making it, and really is, one of a kind.

When it comes to the notebook's details, I mentioned that they were hand dyed and gold foiled. From what I can tell, the material is a type of denim, and the mix of the blue denim and gold foiling is something I've not seen before on stationery, and I honestly really love it! 

As you can see above the gold foiling looks slightly 'worn', this is how it is meant to look. I've had a good scratch at the gold foiling to see how well it's stuck on there, and I can assure you, it's on there good and proper! There was no flakiness what so ever on either of the notebooks, and seem very durable considering it's gold foiling.

The notebooks also have gold metal corners & gold foiling around the edge of the pages. Again I think this sections of gold do compliment the material of the notebook really well.

I don't think the notebooks would have been the same if they didn't have those gold corners, they definitely give the notebook that's 'finished' feel.

The pages are dotted throughout the whole notebook. This may be a negative for some people, but personally I enjoy using dotted pages. I have dotted pages in my current bullet journal and I've found that they are a nice middle ground between gridded and blank pages. If you aren't a dotted page fan though, then this might be a con for you, as there's no option on the website right now for any other choice of paper.

Above is a photo of the whole cover, back & front, so you can see the overall design. This is the A5 notebook, and it has the 'Horizon' gold foiling design (there's four different gold foiling designs to choose from). The white sections where the material has been dyed will be unique to each notebook, so keep in mind that your notebook may look different to mine & the ones featured on the website.

This notebook is the smaller A6 sized one, and it has the 'Sun' gold foiling design. I think at the moment I do prefer this 'Sun' design, to the 'Horizon' design on the A5 sized one. This design also carries on to the back of the notebook, and as you can see the dyed sections on this A6 are different to the A5 notebook. This notebook is laid out exactly the same, the only difference is that it is smaller!

Both notebooks also have a little 'Hand made by Momoka 53' printed on the inside of the notebook. The branding is nice and simple with the product & packaging, there's nothing too overwhelming which I think is really good. It's there, but it's not in your face or ruining the overall look of the product.

When it comes to paper quality and pen tests, I decided to try out a variety of different pens on the paper. I went for a few pens I use very often, and also some pens that are relatively popular.

So from top to bottom there is..

Stabilo Green Point 

Generic Pink Highlighter

Generic Black Gel Ink Pen

Blue Coleto Pen

Nano Liner Permanent Ink

Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner

Turquoise Sharpie Permanent Marker

As you can see the only two that bled through a bit were the two permanent markers! (which is a given really as permanent markers are pretty intense!)

There was slight shadowing on the Stabilo Green Point because it's more of a felt tip type of pen. But the rest were completely fine! The paper isn't overly thick, and is definitely more on the thin side (80g), but it held up well considering, and it is very pleasant to write on.

Overall I'm honestly very impressed with both the notebooks, and also the brand as a whole! You can tell a lot of effort has gone into these beautiful notebooks, and Momoka really does an amazing job!

You can take a look at her website here.

I'll also leave links to the exact products featured below:

Graceful Decay A5 Notebook - Style 'Horizon' (£20)

Graceful Decay A6 Notebook - Style ' Sun' (£15) 

(Standard shipping to the UK is FREE)

Let me know what you think of these notebooks, and also be sure to keep an eye out over on my Instagram for the collaborative giveaway I'm doing with Momoka 53!

Thanks so much for reading - Daisy X

*Please note, even though these products were sent to me free of charge, this does not sway my views and opinions. I will always share my honest views on the product and company.

Smiggle Hardtop Pencil Case Review | August 2016

I thought it was about time I posted a review on this chunk of a pencil case.

I bought it about two months ago now, and I started using it pretty much straight away after I bought it, so I've been using it for a good amount of time to figure out the pro's and con's. Today I'm going to share them with you!

A couple of you guys actually suggested Smiggle to me, I've never really ventured in there before because it is of course aimed at the younger stationery lovers (which I think is awesome!!).

But I decided to have a nosey to see if there was anything in there I might fancy. Turns out there were quite a few things haha, but I limited myself to one thing as I shouldn't have reeeaaaally been spending any money that day. 

So this pencil case is probably the sturdiest one I own, when they say it's 'hardtop', they mean you could knock someone out with this if you filled it with enough pens! It's hard plastic! This does make it the perfect pencil case for travelling. If you put this in a suitcase or a bag, it will definitely be durable.

The con to the hardtop is that it does make it very bulky, it can't be squished into a bag or drawer. I personally just have it sitting on my desk with me.

Like most stationery items, the thing I fell in love with as soon as I saw it was the colour combination! The camera really doesn't pick up exactly how it is in real life. In real life it's a Raspberry Pink & Light Turquoise/Mint combination. I know in some photo's the pink can look a little bit neon, but it's far from it.

They do have a range of different colours available, the other colour I really liked was the blue one they had with a pink zip.

Around the edge it has a Pink glittery material, which just tops off the awesomeness of the colour combination! They could have gone with a plain colour, but nope! Glitter!!! It's definitely the perfect choice. The zip itself is nice and chunky, and I've not had many issues with it. It can be a bit fiddley around the corners of the case, but that's expected really. I have the same issue with other pencil cases and folios.

I've found that the zip does 'stretch' too, if I fill it up completely. It's not tricky to do up, it still glides around the case quite easily.

Inside there are three main sections of storage, above is the left hand section. I actually found this one the most difficult to fill, it took me a while to find something that I didn't mind having in there. I tried having the pens I use daily in there, but it was too much of a faff to find the one I wanted. I did have it empty for a while, but then I found it worked best for me if I had my coloured pens in there, as when I use them I tend to have them all out at the same time, so I don't need to dig about to find one.

Alternatively if you were planning to use this case somewhat like a folio, this section would be great to keep sticker sheets or paper pads in etc. They will stay nice and flat, and won't fall out anywhere.

In the little net pocket I've just put a rubber, I didn't really want to bulk this out too much.

You then have the main storage on the right hand side. This is where I put all the pens I use quite often. There's no way to secure them in there, they are just loose. The only bit that keeps them from jumping about is the little divider section in the middle. I have found that if I overfill this large section, it does make opening and closing the case a bit more of a faff because pens do jump out.

But that's purely down to me being an eager beaver and trying to fit as many pens as possible in there!

The middle divider is very simple, it just has some pen slots. Most of them are a good size, I could fit two Papermate flair pens in each one. Then there's a couple on the left hand side of the divider bit that are a lot smaller. I've found that one of them fits my little pair of polar bear scissors from Flying Tiger in there nicely.

Overall this pencil case is definitely bulky, BUT it's roomy, sturdy and the colours are just sooo nice (so much better in real life too, trust me!). If you are looking for something that won't get squished in a bag, and has a lot of space, this is definitely one to consider.

Or if like me, you are a sucker for glittery pink stationery and want to find a new home for your 'go to' pens on your desk... Then again, this one might be the one for you!

It was only £10, which for the quality & size of the case, I think is very reasonable.

It is available on their website, so you can have a look here.

It's very hard to tell exactly how the colour's are in real life, from the photo's on there, so if you get the chance to look in store then I'd recommend that. But the one I have is the 'Pink' one, and the other one I really liked was the 'Blue' one.

- Daisy X