notebookism

Quote/Unquote Bookends

Designed by Eric Janssen, the quote/unquote bookends are for the truly literate with books that speak to them in image alone. concrete core with synthetic rubber exterior.

Unica Home

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Sudoku Pencil

Sudoku is all the rage! For the connoisseur or addict there is only one companion: the new Sudoku pencil from Retro 51. With the same design as the Tornado pencil, it has a Sudoku puzzle printed right on the barrel. Equipped with a 0.9 mm lead and a huge eraser, the top twists to retract the lead. The pencil comes in a cute cigar-style box with button and string tie, so it makes a perfect gift. But buy two, because you'll want one for yourself.

Sudoku Pencil @ Kate's paperie

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Blank Page # 45

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.

Every Wednesday at Notebookism we open a "Blank Page" -  your chance to ask, answer and discuss anything notebook-related.  Keep it nice, keep it relevant.

Blank Page, an Open Thread.

G.O.D.

A store called G.O.D. might raise eyebrows in the West, but pronounced in the Chinese dialect of Cantonese and translated as “to live better,” it makes perfect sense. (The acronym in English stands for Goods of Desire.)

Living better is something creator Douglas Young envisioned for consumers in Hong Kong when he launched G.O.D. in 1996.

A burgeoning retail chain offering desirable contemporary furniture, home ware and lifestyle accessories, G.O.D. is the result of Young’s ambition to build a brand far removed from the traditional images of the dragons and skyscrapers one might associate with Hong Kong.

Young wants it known though, that by “living better,” he doesn’t want the residents of Hong Kong to simply buy G.O.D. products, but to build a greater sense of identity and culture together. A lofty goal, perhaps? In a society like Hong Kong, where you’d be forgiven for thinking that the common goal is to make enough money to move elsewhere, Young feels a sense of duty to help locals find pride in their own identity, which he feels would lead to the formation of a stronger, less transient community.

By Adeline Chong

Read the full post at BrandChannel

Store Link

Direct link to notebooks section

[Thanks Karen D.]
 

The Rhodia "Essential Box"

Each Rhodia Pad is staple-bound, made of 21 lb. vellum pH neutral paper, are micro perforated on top for easy and clean tearing. The stiff back cover provides the support required, and the staples do not appear on back. Each pad contains 80 sheets.

The company making Rhodia pads was founded in the city of Lyon by Henri Verilhac in 1920. Rhodia pads were designed to be easy to use, with a fold-around cover and hard board backing. The pad was considered as a professional tool, so high quality was essential, with details like good paper and coated board. It immediately overshadowed other notebooks of the time because of its quality materials and the innovative design of the scored folding front cover. The famous orange cover dates back to the 1930s - it was a standard hue for cardstock at the time. It remains unchanged to this day. Over time, Rhodia has become the most popular pad in France.

The Essential Rhodia Box
Rhodia l'essentiel

Available at Vickerey

Pencils also available at Pencilthings

Visit Rhodia Drive

28,689 pages and counting

DENVER - Every morning, Rose Kelly takes out her pen and paper and starts writing. Rose isn't writing a book, she is writing to herself.

Rose started journaling 15 years ago after reading the book "The Artist's Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity."

Rose has always loved art and had a degree in art, but wasn't using her artistic skills, until she read the book.

The author encourages readers to begin by writing three pages in a daily journal.

Rose says her first journal entry was "How on earth will I ever write three pages?"

Needless to say, that worry ended quickly.

Rose numbers her pages and at last count has 28,689 pages in her journal.

Dan Boniface
9News/ Colorado

Read the full article

In Memoriam

Day is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep,
peaceful sleep.
May the soldier
or sailor,
God keep.
On the land
or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night,
Must thou go,
When the day,
And the night
Need thee so?
All is well.
Speedeth all
To their rest.

TAPS
Memorial Day 2007

Image: © ABF

Man's Best Friend

Strong Stiff Scotch writes about a classic binder so convincingly I may finally get one:

"I seldom leave the house without the paraphernalia of my day to day existence: wallet, phone, keys, train pass, pencils and pen, my ipod, some loose change, perhaps my laptop and a novel - and most importantly...my Filofax. (For the youngsters, this last item is a data management system that runs on leather, metal, paper and ink.) Since I was 17, my life has been bound securely within its leather cover and snappy six rings: I couldn't live without it.

It's chunky, made from lovely English calf leather and I've had it since 1988. It holds my diary, appointments and address book, (I download my diary onto it), things to do, my myriad ideas and dreams, notes, central Glasgow street map (or whatever city I happen to be in), sheets of music manuscript, pages for drawing, a leather jotta at the front, some photographs and various bits of useful information. It occasionally carries my cash and bears my credit, but mostly, I let it smooth out the creases in the intricate folds of my busy life.

I have managed perfectly well with this beautifully designed device for nearly 20 years. I also have a well thumbed A5 version that I use as my notebook and calendar at work. But recently I found myself having to defend my use of a paper based system to a lady from the BBC who looked slightly pitying when I admitted to having no PDA or smartphone..."

Read his full post.

© 2007 By the author

[via Philofaxy]
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Rhodia signature pencils

The perfect pencil to complement your Rhodia notebooks and pads! They are triangular pencils, lacquered Rhodia-orange, with black wood throughout, black ferrule and black eraser. They write elegant prose and poetry with a nice dark, smooth line.

Lear more at Rhodia Drive

Inspiration: Do Nothing

Every once in a while I come across something that I might totally agree with:)

"while digging in the library once again i found another book i've been searching for, "the one-straw revolution" by masanobu fukuoka. it is one of these gems that sadly is out of print (though i did manage to find a used copy for $30 on amazon), but his ideas seem to me crucial and relevant to the world we are living in now. Mr. Fukuoka developed a method (or should i say "non method") of "natural" farming. As the book describes it "farming as simply as possible within and in cooperation with the natural environment, rather than the modern approach of applying increasingly complex techniques to remake nature entirely for the benefit of human beings." At some point he began using the term "do nothing".

"My way was opposite. I was aiming at a pleasant natural way of farming which results in making the work easier instead of harder. "how about not doing this? How about not doing that?" --that was my way of thinking.".

His methods advocate no machines, no prepared fertilizer, no plowing, no chemicals, non of the standard techniques employed in today's modern agricultural world. And his farm would yield as much food as a modern farm of the same size, (but with much less effort). Masanobu believed and demonstrated that the land would provide rather easily if you did not upset the natural balance of things, effectively working with nature instead of trying to tame it or control it. He asked, "what is the natural pattern?"

Keri Smith
Read the full post at "Wish Jar"

Art © by Keri Smith