Flower car

Journaling for Instagram

This is just a quick reminder to myself mostly, with the hope that it may connect with others:

You are doing your best and your best sometimes isn’t perfect, but it’s still your best. That’s all you can ever do under any circumstances.
Your journals and planners and notebooks and sketchbooks are for you. They may not be Instagram pretty, but if they work for you, don’t change them one iota. Some people create BOJO pages for social media, others create messy, working pages for themselves in terrible handwriting. Don’t let the first make you feel inadequate about the second.
If you think that tool X, bag Y or pen Z will make you a better writer, artist or human, think again. If you think that they will help make creating more of a joy, then feel free to treat yourself to them. It’s hard enough to sit down and start working as it is, so if you’ve discovered something that will give you joy in the process, feel free to silence any criticism, internal or external, and move on.

This week’s long run: cormorants

It’s funny going on a morning run and seeing the moon for a good part of the way.

Sunrise wasn’t too far away though, and with the waves and the clouds it painted a very pretty picture:

In the park a pair of hoopoes was shy enough to keep their distance, but I still managed to get a shot of one of them. Their colouring seems so bold until you see them by the mud of the riverbank.

Then it was cormorants all the way, from their usual tree, to a fishing pair in the river:

They really can dive, and I spent a minute or two trying to guess where they’ll emerge next.

All in all a good 10k run in pretty chilly weather.

Sailboats in the Winter

A quick watercolour drawing that I made today.

Some pencils keep getting better

I did not like the Blackwing 530 when it came out (too much bling for my taste), but now that pencil that I’ve been using has gotten worn down and dinged a bit an underpainting of verdigris has been revealed, and I love the effect. It’s just a little reminder that I should give things a chance even if I didn’t fall in love with them at first glance (also this pencil is super difficult to photograph, because of the bling, so forgive me for the potato quality photo).

Moleskine Denim 12 Months 2019 Pocket Weekly Planner review

The Moleskine Denim 12 Months 2019 Pocket Weekly Planner arrived today, and it is a beauty.

I’m not a big planner user, but over the past year I’ve used a weekly planner just to get a better idea of how my week looks like and how to plan ahead accordingly. The slim, minimalist setup of the Moleskine Pocket Weekly planners is perfect for this.

Beyond the regular planner editions, Moleskine offers a wide variety of planners in their various limited edition designs (Harry Potter, Star Wars, Peanuts, Le Petit Prince and more), among them in their Denim collection, which is one of my favourites.

The covers are covered in Denim fabric, with jeans-like labels on them. The craft sleeve around the planner turns with a few minutes of work into bookmarks perfectly sized for the planner:

The endpapers are really nicely designed to evoke various denim labels, and the red elastic closure is echoed in the small back pocket:

As usual with Moleskine limited editions, it comes with a little something extra in the back pocket, this time stickers:

As for the internals, it’s the same as other Moleskine weekly planners, with a weekly schedule on the left side of the spread and a ruler page on the right, monthly calendars and information pages at the beginning of the planner, and a few general planning pages.

If you’re looking for a pocket weekly planner that’s beautiful, lightweight and not overly structured, I highly recommend this planner.