This week I am going to share a few a little stationery haul. This all started when I got an email from The Journal Shop about their summer sale. The Journal Shop is a UK based website and they sell some of the more obscure brands which aren’t really found on the UK high street. Brands like Midori and MD Paper. These are both companies I’ve come across before but never bought any of their products.

MD PAPER NOTEBOOK

The MD Paper Products are Japanese notebooks which according to the website use the inherent appeal of paper to enhance the writing experience. The Notebooks come in a number of different sizes but the notebook I bought was in the classic A5 size.

The highlights of the notebook are its ability to lay flat on the table and the paper. This is slightly thicker than the Tomoe River Paper which Midori uses in some of its notebooks. But is still a really nice surface to write on, being very smooth and handling inky pens well with only slight ghosting.

The downside of the MD Paper Notebooks is the cover. The cover uses a thick cardboard, I wouldn’t say it was very sturdy on its own. It certainly won’t stand up to being carried around everywhere. The MD Notebooks are designed to be used with a separate cover (similar to the Mossery notebooks). Either plastic or a paper cover like the one I’ve bought. This means you can reuse the cover when you finish a notebook. I’m not sure if I like this as it adds another expense but the cover I bought seems to be very nice.

MD 2018 PLANNER

It seems a little silly to be buying a 2018 planner halfway through the year. But this MD Notebook Diary was half price on The Journal Shop and I really wanted to see what it was like. My first impression is I love the size of it. This is my first A4 planner and I’m kicking myself because I’ve never bought one before now. This is the perfect sized planner to sit at my desk so I can see an overview of the month.

Inside the design of the planner is really nice. I much prefer this minimal layout, for some reason my brain works better that way. I would love to try the Happy Planner or Erin Condren but I hate the elaborate decorations both have. The Japanese and South Korean notebooks have a very minimal design which I love. A lot of them are also undated meaning you aren’t limited when you use them.

The weekly pages are so simple they are almost non-existent. You have 12 spreads at the front for the monthly pages, then the weekly pages are just lined paper split into four. I love that MD has left this part undated. It means you can start when you want, miss out days or even weeks if it suits you. And the planner can be used as a regular notebook if you want to do that as well.

FINALLY

I hope you enjoyed my little stationery haul. If you’re in the UK check out The Journal Shop. They have some really nice stationery products. Especially the Traveller’s Notebooks and Hobonichi planners which can be hard to find. I’m looking forward to trying out my new planner and notebook. More detailed reviews will be coming after I’ve had the chance to use both a little more.