Life With A Hobonichi by Trisha McQueen
Living with a Hobonichi took a few years in the making, in Oct 2015 I finally treated myself and 2016 to a Hobonichi Techno from pocketnotebooks, I had already signed up for their monthly subscriptions and I was lucky enough to order my hobo pre-sale.
I have been journaling for the last years, as a carer I wanted to record moments that really made a difference during times that at the time you would believe to be difficult, journaling brought out the best of times and pockets of golden moments. It reminds you that ‘this too shall pass’. I also used a planner when I started Slimming World with meal planning, food tracker and recording my weight and exercise, I successfully lost 3 stone and run 5 km with Park Run. Journaling gives you focus and helps you be your better self.
It’s not much of a secret anymore that there is an amazing planner world existing on Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook, I owned my first FunFax in Primary school, I have been addicted to stationery, recording and planning for most of my life and I cannot tell how amazing it is to be been to nerd out with so many creative people from every part of the planet. We are a very generous community sending Happy Mail here, there and everywhere and I was sent a Hobonichi 2015 Otomi Cover and Cover on Cover by a friend I made in the groups, just so happens she live an hour away from me.
I use my Hobonichi as my daily journal, when it arrived last October, I did what every stationery addict would do, lifted it to my nose and still, 5 months on, it smells of lemons, the pages were so delicate and smooth. I couldn’t wait to get started in it. I started to decorate it by colouring along the daily colour tabs to make it into a rainbow.
I only had to wait until 16th December to start writing in it and I was hooked, there has never been a day I have missed or couldn’t fill up completely.
I use the Yearly Calendar as a reference for holidays and birthdays. The Yearly Index I would write what I am grateful for on that day.
The Monthly Calendar I do a daily doodle of what happened on that day.
The Daily Pages I journal, I record the weather below the date (I live in Northern Ireland, it gets very exciting when there is any other than cloudy or rain at the moment). I also answer a listersgottalist question and then what happened that day.
I love how my pens and pencils flow on the pages, I change what I write with every time I write to make it more colourful and really brightens up the page. Fountain pens are just a dream to write on a Hobonichi and it has only been recently that I have been using a field notes pencil that I got with my pocketnotebooks subscription, it takes you right back to school. I haven’t had a problem with any of my fountain pens, rollerballs, ballpoints, pigment ink, colouring pencils, but I do use a Hobonichi Pencil Board which protects previous pages and reinforces your current page.
The Coming Up page I stick the monthly #listersgottalist prompts. On the Memo pages I started a Life Tracker to record health and wellbeing. I have Coeliac Disease and Fibromyalgia and using the tracker is a great way to keep track of my health, socialising, fitness, I also use it to keep me creative as my hobbies include crochet, sewing and jogging.
There hasn’t been a day I have missed, or forgotten to write in my Hobonichi, it is a joy to write in it and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow and fill up with happy times, it still looks brand new with just a few pages lifting, time will only tell if it will be able to close by the end of 2016.
