New year, new hobby. Why not?! With all these apps at my fingertips, it’s easy to flip through them on my spare time and convenient to find myself nonetheless entertaining a new hobby. This time around, I became enamored by those Midori travelers’ notebooks, and for some reason, everywhere I click, it only seems to be pointing me in the direction of more of these Midori notebooks and paper stock. Those darn retargetting ads!

Well, I’ve always been fond of Japanese stationary, pens, notebooks and paper. If you leave me in Maido, I might by the entire story… that is if my credit card can handle it.  Just to give you an idea of the damage, I bought two leather covers from Asia, another from the UK, packets of paper stock and calendars from Toad Studio, extra rubber bands and a handful of accessories — and that’s only to get started. Now that I’ve got all  my supplies, I can begin journaling (!)

When I think of journaling, I think of keeping a diary. It’s easy for me to get overwhelmed and hard for me to make a commitment. There’s this new thing I’ve been meaning to try — and it’s not your traditional journaling, it’s more or less bullet journaling, or what they would say “the intersection between mindfulness and productivity.” It’s a method jourrnaling that is customizable and more forgiving, and it combines my passion of journaling, creating to-do lists, doodling and line drawing. It’s notebook and sketchbook all in one, and you can get as creative as you’d like with ink and paper, and other memorabilia.

One of the goals for this year is topping  my Goodreads Reading Challenge from last year. The number to exceed is the lucky number of 44. Am I up for this year’s challenge? Heck yes, and with my Midori notebook in hand, I’m ready to begin tallying up those books.

Hope you have a Happy New Year and may your year be filled with new hobbies and habits to take you to the next level.