Clairefontaine Notebook Review

This Clairefontaine notebook came from Karen at Exaclair who had some extras and offered them up on Twitter. Lucky me! You can follow Karen at @exaclair if you're on Twitter.

The paper is lined and very smooth. The book lies flat when it's open, which is important to me. There is a slight bend to the front cover and the first few pages, but I think this could be from shipping.

First, I used my Lamy yellow Safari with the EF nib and the blue ink cartridge. It wrote very smoothly and had no bleedthrough. Next I wrote with my Waterman ballpoint pen and that was slick. I think I preferred the ballpoint on this paper.

Some pen and paper combinations are naturally a good fit and the ballpoint pen with the Clairefontaine was what worked for me.

In Letters & Journals we will have a regular section on product reviews. This includes notebooks, journals, stationery, pens, ink and much more. I love to read reviews by others but don't write a lot of them myself.

Postcard from Russia

This postcard from Russia is a perfect depiction of what I imagine Moscow to look like. Trading postcards through Postcrossing has been a phenomenal experience. You can get them as often as you like and are willing to send them, as you have to send one to receive one.

At the first level you sign up to send cards to whatever addresses are assigned to your account. You also receive cards from random countries each time one of your sent cards gets registered.

But on the next level you can sing up for the Forums on Postcrossing and choose to do tags, trades, notebooks, round robins, pen pals, postcards art, fan clubs and more. If you don't see one you were looking for, you can always start your own swap. If this is new to you then you should spend some time reading through what other people are doing here so you can understand what the expectations are, the lingo and how things work.

Stationery Shopping in San Francisco

A city-by-city stationery shopping guide is the sample magazine feature you see to the right. This one features San Francisco where there is a wealth of stationery stores and pen companies. Future editions of Letters & Journals will feature such cities as New York, Paris, Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Minneapolis and Denver.

This magazine feature is still being tweaked and Kathy Forss at DaisyMaeDesign is busy finding more stationery related photos to replace the more generic ones in this layout. Don't you love it? When I first saw this design it took my breath away. I don't think the scanned photo does justice to what should be a 2 page magazine layout (with more pages to follow).

Do you have a lot of stationery stores where you live? Where do you like to shop? What city would you like to see featured in the magazine?

New Stationery

I received this lovely stationery from Julie at We've Got Paper. Julie has a blog and an Etsy shop where she sells her unique selection of stationery.

I love finding and collecting different kinds of stationery. I have a box filled with an assortment of old and new papers that I've accumulated over the years.

This was my first purchase from Julie and she was generous with sending some unexpected extras; cute notepaper, lots of stickers, 3 postcards.

Julie is sponsoring a giveaway of some her product if you visit her site and leave a comment. Here is a link that tells you about the contest. But hurry, the contest ends on Oct. 14, 2009.

Travel Journals

Expedition Journal: A Logbook for Travelers (published by National Geographic)

We started this travel journal in 2000- the year our family took a vacation to Washington DC. Since then we have recorded visits to Mexico, England, Ireland, Chicago, Boston, New York, Paris, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco and a Caribbean cruise.

I love this journal and am grateful for the opportunities to be able to travel to the different places and record our little adventures. After nine years it's almost full, but we still have room for a few more expeditions before buying a new travel book.

This journal is great because it has a soft leather cover and is interspersed with vintage pictures, quotes and some bios of famous explorers; Shackleton, Earhart, Cousteau.

In the magazine Letters & Journals, we will feature excerpts from famous travel journals as well as reader submissions of some of their travel journals. Do you keep or read travel journals?

Writing Areas

Do you enjoy seeing or hearing about the writing areas of other people? I know I do! Desks like the one in this picture can be calming, inspiring and charming.

Letters & Journals will have a department devoted to this topic. The magazine will feature pictures of writing areas as maintained in famous people's houses or museums, as well as those of readers who choose to send in photos of their writing areas.

The Guardian ran a series of articles listing descriptions and photos of places where writers create. They include such writers as Roald Dahl, Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Darwin, Rudyard Kipling and many others.

I wish I could remember where I found this picture- possibilities include a scan from a magazine or note card. Possibly it was from some miscellaneous surfing on the Internet. Possibly it is an image from the writing room of Vita Sackville-West.

Help with the Tagline

I'm looking for help in deciding the wording and order of the tagline you see in the Letters & Journals image to the right. Currently it reads:

Mail Art
Journals
Blogs
Handwritten Letters
Postcards
Notebooks
Diaries

Although there may may be an occasional feature on Mail Art, I don't think there will be a regular dept, so I'm thinking I will shorten that to Mail.

I also wonder if I should change Handwritten Letters to either Letters or else Correspondence?

And what do you think of the words Pen & Ink?

I am leaning towards the following. What do you think or suggest?

Pen & Ink
Letters
Mail
Postcards
Diaries
Notebooks
Journals
Blogs

Thanks for your help! Please forward this on to any you think may have an opinion.