My New Raydori- What colour is it?

I have been looking for an alternative to carrying various sketchbooks.  Having had a Malden filofax for 18 months, and use it every day for work, I decided to head off to Philofaxy to get some ideas and then You tube and various websites.

I found myself visiting My Life All in One PLace and found the posts about the Midori travellers notebook, this then led me to  look at You tube to see how they were being used. I then thought that this style of notebook was ideal, being able to add notebooks and archive them when they were finished.  The price did put me off, not really knowing whether I would like it and then the colours did not really do it for me.  

I then discovered that Ray Blake could make them and I got in contact.Several emails later the above arrived.

Wrapped carefully in tissue paper.

A surprise pencil with a clear lid.  Love that!

Oh , sticker upside down, sorry so impressed with the new pencil you see.

Some scraps of leather which I had asked if I could have if possible and I shall do a future post on this.

I asked for a deep purple.....and I was not disappointed.  It is lovely and my picture does not really do the colour justice.  I have a purple Malden, well two actually but we shall say no more on that and yes they are both in full use.  

There is matching purple elastic to keep all of the book closed, two slim bookmarks and two black inside elastics

I also took the option of having my initials added to the front. The leather is the softest I have ever seen and the colour ....well!  I could have made one of these but I could not find the leather and you do need to get the positioning of the holes etc just right, and I basically did not trust myself.

Plus a plain papered notebook inside with a blue cover.

The paper isIdeal for painting and printing in plus gluing in images and adding creative ideas.

I just kept looking at it and then I was really good and wrapped it back up again.

Why?

Well I had lots of work to do for the day job and if I allowed myself to be distracted then I would never get it done.

But it is now the weekend and guess what I shall be doing?

I shall be setting it up and deciding how I am going to organise this book and it is going to be my on-the-go sketchbook and will be used for many areas of Art and textiles that I do.

I have bought some inserts which I want to decorate and I shall come back and show you how and what I have done.

I dare say that one day I shall buy a full blown Midori but not just yet.  I managed to sell my Brown Zippered Collins personal size filofax so that has paid for this, therefore I am sort of guilt free.

I shall have hours of fun with this and I thought I would start with adding to the blue notebook cover with some white paint, not sure what design just yet.

So, thank you very much Ray, it is gorgeous and I shall really enjoy using it, looking at it and treasuring it.

Do you use your Midori Travellers Notebook as a sketchbook, journal or scrapbook?  How did you make that first move to actually draw or paint in it?

Have a good weekend.

xx