Maker of the popular pocket-size notebook in a wide variety of designs, Field Notes Brand has given an occasional nod to sketchers and visual thinkers over the years. Although the original Kraft notebook comes with an unruled option, the first product that attempted to look like a sketchbook came out in 2014 – the Arts and Sciences limited edition. In a larger, 7½-by-4¾-inch size, Arts and Sciences offered a unique page ruling: unruled on one side for sketching and either graph or standard ruling on the other.

A couple of years later, the Chicago-based company rocked the notebook world with my (and I think Ana’s) personal favorite, Sweet Tooth, which not only had blank, 70-pound paper – but the paper was brightly colored! I hoarded and happily filled many of those sweet books.

In 2017, the mid-sized Dime Novel limited edition (and later, the longer-term Signature edition) became the first all-unruled notebook with near-white, good paper – the closest to a true sketchbook yet. One year later, the lovely End Papers limited edition offered a unique format, heavy paper, and again one side of the page left unruled for visual entries.

That was the last time we saw an edition that invited drawing. Nearly five years later, it was high time we saw “some proper Sketch Books” from Field Notes, and the latest spring edition is that: Streetscapes. In the same 4 ¾-by-7 ½-inch format as Arts and Sciences, the limited-edition books come in packs of two for $14.95.

In addition to one pack each of the two sets, annual subscribers receive a No. 2 Woodgrain Pencil (not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I’ll just say that the pencil is not my favorite) and a “Big Pink” Graphite Eradicator.

The distinctive covers are more than eye-catching. Line drawings of four major US cities by bestselling coloring book artist Steve McDonald are meant to be colored – by you! If you’re familiar with New York City and Miami (Pack A) or Los Angeles and Chicago (Pack B), you’ll have fun identifying buildings, signs and other landmarks in the scenes. The intricacy of detail is astounding, and the drawings are beautifully colorable: Lots and lots of small, closed spaces waiting for you to fill in.

The inside front and back covers contain the usual Field Notes irreverence plus information about color, the history of coloring books, and facts and figures about the specific city depicted.

The 48-page innards are completely blank, 70-pound, “Ultra White” Mohawk Superfine paper. Three staples hold the books together, which is a big relief. When I’m standing on the sidewalk to sketch, I always fold the side I’m not using to the back. (Most of Field Notes’ perfect-bound editions, which looked attractive, were not well-suited to folding back.) The format is a super-sized variation of the traditional pocket-size book we know and love.

A long-time user of standard-size Field Notes for my daily-carry notetaking, I gave Streetscapes a more thorough workout than I typically would when I review Field Notes. Since it’s a “proper Sketch Book,” I reviewed it the way I would a sketchbook.

Although I’m a veteran sketcher, perhaps surprisingly, I have not used a coloring book since I was probably eight or nine years old. Other than my own DIY abstract coloring pages, adult coloring books have not engaged me, so coloring these covers was a new adventure. As a west coaster, I chose L.A. for my first try (I love the Hollywood sign).

Noting that Field Notes started carrying Blackwing Colors colored pencils in support of this release, I pulled out my own set of 12. At first the cover stock’s slightly waxy-feeling surface was strange to color on, but I got into it after a while, and the colors blended nicely. I loved coloring all those trees! For the Hollywood sign and Field Notes logo, I used a red Marvy Le Pen Flex Brush Pen, which also took to the paper well.

Because of that waxy-ish surface, I questioned whether the covers would take to wet media. For the second test, I picked NYC featuring the Flatiron Building. I was too lazy to color in all those windows (and I call myself an urban sketcher??), so I used a dark ultramarine Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencil to color only the shaded sides of the buildings. When I used a waterbrush to activate the pigment, the cover stock took the water just fine. No warping is evident. I didn’t try watercolors, but I’m sure they would be fine, too.

Now came the all-important innards. First, I ran through a test page of various media. As expected, the Staedtler Lumocolor Permanent Marker bled through badly. The Sharpie came through at points where I paused the pen. Applying water to the water-soluble materials caused a bit of bleed-through. 

My first semi-wet media test sketch of a man’s profile (reference photo by Earthsworld) was done with a Marvy Le Pen Flex Brush Pen. I used a little water in and under his ear, which bled through a bit. (If you’re curious about that “righty” note, it’s because this lefty has been practicing drawing with her right hand as an expression of solidarity with a sketcher friend who has had surgery on his dominant hand’s shoulder. I figure it’s always good to keep both hands drawing, just in case.)

Next, I took my juicy Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen fountain pen loaded with Platinum Carbon Black ink and a Streetscape out for a walk. I expected to see more bleeding from that juiciest of nibs, but nothing came through. 

Likewise, a Pentel Milky Brush Pen and a Uni Posca Paint Marker were no problem for the Mohawk Superfine.

Although I wouldn’t put a lot of water on this paper, I’m not compelled to, since dry media are where this stock really shines. Not too smooth yet also not too toothy, it’s a beautiful surface for graphite, colored pencils and even ballpoint. 

People who “can’t draw” and don’t think of themselves as “artists” would still find these books useful for diagrams, mind mapping, sketchnoting and other forms of visual thinking. The ample real estate encourages big ideas. And if everyone would keep a set of colored pencils or markers on their desk, I bet they couldn’t resist coloring in a few trees or windows while trying to stay awake in Zoom meetings. (You’re welcome.)

If Streetscapes had been billed a full-service sketchbook, I would have frowned on the paper’s sizing, which isn’t ideal for wet media. But as a Sketch Book for drawing fire hydrants on my walk, making portraits of strangers and squirrels, and coloring the Hollywood Hills, it is as “proper” as I need it to be. Well done, Field Notes. (The only thing missing from this release is a set of Blackwing Colors co-branded with the Field Notes logo. I would have easily bought another set of those pencils!)

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

The post Sketchbook Review: Field Notes Streetscapes Edition appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

When I first discovered urban sketching and began documenting my life with sketches, I almost immediately discovered a dilemma. Admiring the works of many sketchers who use this method, I especially loved the concept of putting sketches and writing on the same page. As a lifelong journal writer, I saw the value and appeal of noting observations or other commentary related (or maybe not even related) to whatever I was sketching. The “story” seemed more complete that way. But for a variety of reasons – not finding the right paper for both writing and drawing; wanting to share sketches but not thoughts; messy handwriting – I ended up keeping my sketchbook and written journal separate.

Early in the new year, I took a short online workshop with cartoonist and teacher Jonathan Smith on how he keeps a sketchbook. Sharing some pages, which he generally doesn’t do on social media, he showed how his sketchbook is a hard-working tool filled with sketches, doodles, visual and written ideas, observations and business notes. He even uses the same book for monthly and weekly goal and task planning. Calling himself a “sketchbook fiend,” he has filled more than a hundred volumes by now. 

What impressed me most about his attitude and methods was the “unpreciousness” (his term) of his sketchbook. Jonathan encourages his art students to “make bad drawings” in their sketchbooks as a means to experimenting and trying new things. Although his own work is mostly cartoons of imaginary characters, in his sketchbooks he draws more from observation (life or photos), which he believes “gets you out of your head.” I appreciated this insight because one aspect of urban sketching that I value most is that it keeps me focused on the world around me – not inside my head.

Learning about Jonathan’s sketchbook rekindled my desire to integrate sketching and writing. It occurred to me that while I like to think of myself as experimental, when I pull out my daily-carry, A5-size sketchbook on location, I am more interested in the “story” of my urban sketches (however mundane that story might be). It’s not the same kind of working sketchbook that Jonathan advocates. 

Mulling over this dilemma, the proverbial light bulb switched on: In addition to the A5 sketchbook, I also carry at least one, usually more, pocket-size notebooks for hasty sketches made on my walks or for surreptitious portraits on public transportation. These spontaneous sketches have always felt less “precious,” even though they tell no less of a story than most of my larger sketches do.

In addition, I always carry at least one other pocket-size notebook for memos, quotations, blog post ideas, other ideas, shopping lists, references, observations and other on-the-fly writing. My apparent need to segregate my writing from my sketches had resulted in multiple portable notebooks used concurrently.

This year, I am trying something new. I still want to keep my “storytelling” sketchbook of urban sketches free of writing. But as a step toward a more integrated, working sketch journal of the type that Jonathan shared, I took all the various small notebooks out of my bag and began a fresh one. I now consolidate all contents into that one Field Notes. That means that I have also stopped fussing about what kind of Field Notes paper is better for light washes or fountain pens or whatever. The easiest way to be “unprecious” about my sketchbook is to not care if the ink bleeds through or the page warps. 

I filled my first Field Notes with this process in less than a month, and I just started my second. A recipe for tahini sauce is jotted right next to corny, glued-in jokes that fell out of a Christmas cracker. A Photoshop Elements tip I learned on Facebook is noted on the same page as a sketch of a squirrel eating from our bird feeder. Over breakfast one morning, I described the previous night’s COVID nightmare, then decorated the opposite page with washi tape. It’s a messy brain dump of words, sketches, ephemera and scribbles. It’s definitely not pretty (I’m not sharing much of it), but it is perhaps a more accurate reflection of my life than any other single book I keep. I don’t know whether this new process will stick permanently, but so far, I am thoroughly enjoying having a single place to store my daily whatever.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

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We can hardly believe it but Field Notes is celebrating the release of it’s 50th quarterly edition this month! Though 50 is traditionally the “golden anniversary,” Field notes opted instead for bright red covers with silver ink, flyleaf colors reminiscent of past editions, and a special die cut.

For our 50th edition we wanted to go back to basics, but as usual we couldn’t leave well enough alone,” said Jim Coudal, cofounder of Field Notes. “So while it looks simple, we’ve incorporated little nods to techniques and materials we’ve featured in the past, and then we created the ‘Subscriber Anniversary Desk Ledger’ to go along with the 3-Packs, and that, I think, is the most complicated, and most fun, thing that we’ve ever made.

Each three-pack of notebooks is filled with silver graph grid paper (48 pages per notebook).

There’s also a bonus for annual Field Notes subscribers (including brand new ones): a retrospective book, the “Anniversary Desk Ledger,” filled with historical details, trivia and wisecracks.

One of the things we love most about the Field Notes editions is the  video that they put together for each edition, and this “behind the scenes of a short video” is no exception:

Congratulations to Field Notes – here’s to another 50!

This limited edition set is part of Field Notes’ Quarterly Edition Series, which is available individually or as a year-long subscription that includes two packs of each quarterly release, as well as frequent bonus or exclusive items. Annual subscriptions are $110 including shipping in the U.S. (For all other countries there is a one-time $20 shipping charge that covers the full year.)

The post News: Field Notes 50th Quarterly Edition! appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

The Newton Design Co. Memo Books ($10  for set of 3 books) are hand screenprinted with Zach’s stellar sense of humor and superior design chops. Printed in yellow on black cardstock covers, the books are classic in looks but modern in sensibility.

The books measure 4.5×6″ and feature 60 pages of paper in either blank or dot grid.

I was tickled to discover that the paper was more resilient to fountain pens than most Field Notes. None of the pens I tested feathered or created wider-than-expected results.

The dots visible on the reverse side of the paper are due to ink that wasn’t dry on the facing page. There was no actual bleed-through or show-through.

When adding in some brush pens, I still had no real issues… other than my green fountain pen ink was not drying in a timely manner and I kept sticking my hand in it. I do not blame the paper as all the other inks dried at a consistent and fast rate.

Even from the back of the page, there was no bleed-through and only some show-through.

These memo books are witty and well-designed and stand up to most day-to-day pen carries. While this particular edition is currently sold out, a new limited edition of black-on-black “Crook Looks” is available. Get them while you can!

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Newton Design Co. for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Since it took awhile to get all the editions and then I received the notification for Group Eleven, I just waited. I decided to just do a great big round-up of the currently available editions for 2019: Group Eleven, Autumn Trilogy, National Parks, Mile Marker and Wilco. It’s been awhile since I have talked about Field Notes at any length.

If you subscribed to the Colors Quarterly Editions, all but the Wilco edition would have been shipped to you over the last six months. If not, you can subscribe starting with the Group Eleven edition. As a subscriber, there is often a subscriber “extra” included that is not available with individual purchases. The Autumn Trilogy “extra” was a screenprinted cotton bandana that featured the leaves printed on each cover. Mile Marker shipped with a map of the US and Group Eleven shipped with a 2020 desk calendar.

In the case of the National Parks edition, subscribers received all twelve editions. In order to get all twelve editions in open stock, you have to order packs A, B, C and D at $12.95 each.

After some thought, it seemed that the best way to see the differences between the features of each Color Edition (and the Wilco set) was to put them in a spreadsheet.

All the books feature 48 pages per book regardless of whether they have 60# or 70# paper.

When lined up like this, it’s easier to see that over 2019 dot grid has reigned supreme if you don’t count the sheer volume of National Parks edition books. If dot grid and the heavier 70# textweight paper is your jam, then you’ll want to grab the new Group Eleven books.

At this point, this is almost a “which Field Notes of 2019 is your favorite?” post.  So, I’ll roll with it.

While the Wilco edition has not clearly been stated as a regular edition or limited edition, it’s still available. From an aesthetic standpoint, its my favorite. But I have to confess, I am not actually a Wilco music fan. Don’t shoot me.  The Wilco x Field Notes is still a total treat.

While a 6-notebook set seems like a lot of notebooks, it’s not as big a commitment as the 12-notebook set of National Parks. The slipcase box for the Wilco set provides great storage for the notebooks too for a mere $2 upcharge. The 60# text weight paper is just right for most people and, even if you’re not a Wilco fan, the colorful graphics are fun and who doesn’t like dot grid? I think it would make a perfect holiday gift for the “paper curious” or the music enthusiast.

The National Parks edition is great for the outdoorsy folks. Pick an edition with parks that might be places they’ve visited.

The Group Eleven is almost elegant in its simplicity and the latest edition to feature the heavier 70# text weight stock inside. It is also dot grid so it should satisfy most paper fanatics. Autumn Trilogy also features 70# text weight only with lines instead of dot grid.

In 2019,  Field Notes created an edition to satisfy the most discerning tastes or the most ardent collector. Which edition is your favorite?

The post Notebook Review: Field Notes (F)All Editions appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

Since most pocket notebook users are probably writing in them and not drawing, unruled pages are harder to come by than ruled. When I find one, I’m always interested in trying it. The Blackwing Clutch (pack of 3 for $14.95) was next on my curiosity list. (Ana included the Clutch in her review of three Blackwing notebook formats a couple of years ago. Check out her post, if only for the eye candy of her Lady Sheaffers!) The Clutch is also available with dot grid or ruled, all in a choice of black or white covers.

First, I should acknowledge that I’m a faithful Field Notes user for both notetaking and sketching, so I tend to judge every pocket notebook against that standard. However, Field Notes’ regularly available, blank-page, pocket-size Kraft contains paper that I don’t care for, so any competitor with unruled paper is worth considering.

Like Field Notes (and many other competitors), the 5½-by-3½-inch Clutch is sold three notebooks per pack, wrapped with a bellyband, 48 pages per book. The creamy paper is 100 GSM with sewn signatures instead of staples. A notable Clutch distinction is that the book’s format is designed to be landscape instead of portrait. Of course, if your pages are blank or dot grid, it doesn’t matter, but the orientation of the back cover’s logo and inside-cover printing indicates that it was designed in that direction. The ruled-page option is ruled in the landscape direction with a vertical center line that might be handy for list-making. (The bellyband hedges bets: It’s landscape-oriented on one side; portrait-oriented on the other.)

The matte-finish cover is a hard cardboard that is substantially thicker than that on Field Notes or most other paper cover notebooks. It’s also less flexible, so pants-pocket carriers might find it a bit stiff. As a bag-pocket carrier, I like the sturdy cover with a pleasant touch. The cover alone justifies the nominally higher cost compared to competing notebooks. The only branding is a debossed logo in back.

I was pleased to see that the signatures are stitched, since such bindings usually open easily and stay open (as do stapled books). To my surprise, the attractively rounded spine and stiff covers tend to make the book snap shut, and I learned this while trying to photograph page spreads for this review: I had to hold the pages open against the table. Despite that, I could easily bend one side of the book all the way back so that the two covers touch. This is my preferred way to hold a notebook while sketching in it, so it’s an essential quality I look for. The spine recovers completely without visible creases afterwards.

As for my media tests, the only pens that bled through a bit were the Derwent Paint Pen (which bleeds through everything) and my juicy Sailor Naginata Fude de Mannen fountain pen with Platinum Carbon Black ink (review available as well), but neither fountain pen I tested feathered. The paper surface is smooth and pleasant to use with all pens and pencils.

Since I like to use a lot of dark, broad brush pens (all of which perform beautifully on the paper), my only disappointment is that the paper is not more opaque. In the photo of my sketch below (made with a Uni Pin brush pen), you can see the ghost of the sketch on the previous page. But for 100 GSM paper, this is typical, so I’m just being picky. And I’m pleased that the Uni Pin’s pigment ink did not feather or bleed at all.

Final Impressions

It took me a while to try the Clutch, but I’m happy that I finally did. It’s a great unruled-page option with paper that holds up to most writing and casual sketching materials. The sturdy cover is a bonus.

DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

The post Notebook Review: Blackwing Clutch appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

If you hang out in the Field Nuts Facebook group as I do, you’ll know that fans of Field Notes Brand notebooks have been clamoring for years for an edition honoring our National Parks. Iconic America, the great outdoors, back to our roots – the National Parks seem to fit right in with the basic principles behind Field Notes’ simple pocket-size memo books.

It turns out that Field Notes Brand has been thinking about the idea for as long as we’ve been demanding it; the Chicago company was just looking for the right way to execute it. For its summer 2019 quarterly limited edition, Field Notes finally gave us what we’ve been wanting: the National Parks series. A collaboration with artists associated with Fifty-Nine Parks, the series includes poster art featuring nine beloved parks. To further support the cause, Field Notes is donating 5 percent of sales of the books to the National Parks Service.

The nine books are offered in three three-packs: Series A (Yosemite, Zion, Acadia), Series B (Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree, Mount Rainier) and Series C (Rocky Mountain, Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone).

In addition to the gorgeous cover art, the cover stock is one of my favorite features of this edition. The 100-pound French Pop-Tone paper is colored – each book in a different hue – and the printing involved “a custom, five-color process that started with under-printing white ink. This allowed us to incorporate the color of the paper into the artwork.” I read this information before receiving the books, but I didn’t appreciate what it meant until I had them in hand. Colors pop beautifully, and images are sharp and vivid. (Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’ve never been a fan of the deliberately low-res landscape images used in America the Beautiful.)

As soon as I got my packs (OK, I ordered several sets, and so did my spouse guy, and he isn’t even a notebook user), I ripped them all open to decide which I would use first. Should I pick my favorite park? Ooh, that would be tough. . . Yosemite? Joshua Tree? Zion? Or vote my allegiance to my own hometown park, Mount Rainier? Or simply choose my favorite cover art? Oh, no – tough again! Rocky Mountain’s stag is a beauty, but the bison roaming near Old Faithful . . . ! Or stunning Half Dome. . . !

After much shuffling around and changing my mind, I chose Joshua Tree, which gets points for being one of my favorite parks so far (though I still have many to explore) and for having an especially gorgeous cover. I was delighted to open it and see that its cover stock is purple! It’s been my daily-carry for several weeks, and the cover’s edges are beginning to wear beautifully, exposing a bit of the stock’s color.

The space for “Pertinent Coordinates” that typically appears on the inside front cover has been replaced, appropriately, with a space for a visitor’s official National Park passport stamp. (This is the best reason I’ve seen yet for “collecting” Field Notes!)

Other cover stocks are not quite as bright as Joshua Tree’s purple, but they were all selected to bring out the best in each cover art.

The inside back covers also depart slightly from Field Notes’ tradition. Instead of the more typical “Practical Applications,” information about the featured park is provided (plus the usual paper and printing specs).

The back cover recognizes the collaboration with Fifty-Nine Parks. Now, I didn’t check every single Field Notes I own, but as far as I recall, this is the first time a quarterly limited edition was made by collaboration and acknowledged as such.

The graph-ruled innards are 60-pound Finch Paper Opaque Smooth. It’s not a paper I would generally choose to sketch on (I much prefer the 70-pound innards of Sweet Tooth, Workshop Companion and Dime Novel), but it works in a pinch. I used a Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen to make a sketch, and wherever my pen point paused, the ink went right through to the reverse side (and even a bit onto the facing page).

But I accepted long ago that sketching with brush pens is not what these simple notebooks were made for, and I don’t expect 60-pound paper to meet that need. More typical writing instruments fare perfectly well on this paper. I grabbed several implements on my desk to make test scribbles. Nothing feathered, and only the Derwent paint pen and pause points of the Zebra fountain pen bled through. The Finch surface is perfectly compatible with all the pencils, ballpoints, gel pens and other utilitarian writing instruments that most users (including me) typically grab to jot in Field Notes.

A long-time user of Field Notes, I have several all-time favorite editions – for their designs as well as for what they represent – and National Parks is right up there with Night Sky, Lunacy and Coastal. In fact, National Parks has moved to the top, if only because this one edition has nine cover designs to put into rotation. I can’t imagine tiring of it.

Rumor has it that the National Parks quarterly edition might be only the beginning of a full series possibly featuring all 59 parks (similar to the unlimited County Fair edition honoring the 50 US states, Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico). I certainly look forward to using (and more important visiting) all 59 someday.

P.S. Below is my solution when I like a cover design but don’t care for the 60-pound paper inside: I just Frankenbook it. At left is a Pitch Black cover that was Frankenbooked for me by a fellow Nut; at right is a Graduate Hotels edition cover featuring my alma mater’s Suzzallo Library that I Frankenbooked myself. I have big plans for a lot of red Sweet Tooth paper going into National Parks covers.

Disclaimer: All Field Notes Brand notebooks reviewed and mentioned here were purchased. (Ed. Note: No compensation was received for this review, all opinions are the reviewer’s.)

Tina Koyama is an urban sketcher in Seattle. Her blog is Fueled by Clouds & Coffee, and you can follow her on Instagram as Miatagrrl.

The post Notebook Review: Field Notes National Parks appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

On the cover of most of the MiGoals notebooks is a lovely debossed foil stamped “Get Shit Done” lettering. The notebook I tested had the lettering small, in a tone-on-tone look which was subtle and not so in your face that I couldn’t carry this book to work.

The cover is very heavyweight cardstock. Inside, is a slip sheet with inspirational info about MiGoals and the GSD (Get Shit Done) mission. It’s pretty charming and life-affirming. On the first page of the notebook is also an uplifting quote.

On the next page of the book are tips for how to tackle your daily to do lists. This may be helpful if you don’t have a system in place already. I also included the flip side of the slip sheet and the next page of the notebook which is what all the subsequent pages look like.

The interior paper is 100gsm. There are 48 pages in each book and the paper is a warm white color. At the top of each page is a place to add the date and the first three lines are numbered one through three for your top three items. If you want to continue to number things you certainly could. At the end of each line is a dot that can be used to check off or mark when the task is completed or migrated to another page.

I tested lots of different pens to see how the paper handled ink. The lines are pretty close together (about 5mm spacing)  so I didn’t push to super broad points.

I went ahead and continued my writing samples on the back side which means you can see if there was any bleed through. No. That 100gsm paper is pretty thick and durable. There is no feathering either.

For size clarity, I photographed the A6 next to a Field Notes for scale. I like the A6 size. While it’s probably not back pocket pocket pocketable, the A6 fits nicely into the pocket of a bag.

The nice thing with the MiGoals notebooks is that you can purchase these individually instead of in sets of three like many other pocket notebooks. The paper is good quality and the covers are heavier weight than a lot of books.

The Giveaway:

Thanks to MiGoals and Milligram, I have two Get Shit Done A6 Pocket Notebooks to giveaway. One is in an out-of-print color (bright blue with white lettering) and one is black-on-black. So, I  will pick two winners for this giveaway.

TO ENTER: Leave a comment below and tell me what shit you need to get done and what color notebook you want. Play along and type in something. It makes reading through entries more interesting for me, okay? One entry per person.

If you have never entered a giveaway or commented on the site before, your comment must be manually approved by our highly-trained staff of monkeys before it will appear on the site. Our monkeys are underpaid and under-caffeinated so don’t stress if your comment does not appear right away. Give the moneys some time.

FINE PRINT: All entries must be submitted by 10pm CST on Wednesday, June 19, 2019. All entries must be submitted on wellappointeddesk.com, not Twitter, Tumblr or Facebook, okay? Winner will be announced on Thursday. Winners will be selected by random number generator from entries that played by the rules (see above). Please include your actual email address in the comment form (where it says “email address”) so that I can contact you if you win. I will not sell your email address to anyone — pinky swear. If winner does not respond within 7 days, I will draw a new giveaway winner. Shipping via USPS first class. We are generous but we’re not made of money. US and APO/AFO only, sorry.

DISCLAIMER: Items included in this review were provided to us free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

The post Notebook Review: MiGoals Get Shit Done A6 Notebook appeared first on The Well-Appointed Desk.

All the small notebooks are 3.5″ x 5.5″ with 40 pages of 24lb white paper and 100lb covers. The blank books are available with black, white, gray or kraft covers and are available with square or rounded corners.

The lined books are only available with kraft covers and square corners. They feature 0.25″ (6.5mm) lines and a 0.5″ (12.5mm) margin at the top. The lines are a medium grey. The lines are a little darker than I prefer since I do like some lighter and brighter inks and pencil but if you are using standard black or blue ink, the lines should be fine. This is why I tend to choose blank paper and place a piece of guide paper behind my working page rather than use pre-printed lined or graph paper.

Beech Tree Press mentions on their site that their notebooks are unbranded. When they arrived for review, they were wrapped with a plain paper band. Since I received mine for review I wasn’t sure if the plain paper wrap was standard or if all orders were shipped this way. As such, once the band is removed, there is no indication as to where the notebooks were purchased. If you use your notebooks quickly, and decided to order more, you may remember where you purchased them. If it takes a bit longer to use them up, you may not remember so I recommend writing in the back cover, the name of the company so that you remember that these are Beech Tree Paper notebooks.

I’m all for minimal exterior branding so that, as users, we can draw, sticker or doodle on the books to our heart’s content. However, I also appreciate being able to flip open a notebook and have some indication of who made it should I want to buy another one or should someone ask me, “Hey, where did you get that notebook?”

I knew the 24lb paper was not going to perform as well as Clairefontaine or Tomoe River but for notebooks that cost less than $1.50 each, it was worth testing these for a good option for the budget conscious.

Some wider or wetter inks showed a little bit of feathering but not as bad as I was expecting. Once I got to a stub nib though, it became much more noticeable.  Fine and extra-fine nibs seemed to do okay though. Gel pens and water-based brush pens performed well too. Of course, pencils performed beautifully.

Showthrough was visible with stub nib, flex nib, parallel pen and a tiny bit with the rollerball. There was bleed through with the parallel pen and the flex nib to the next page but only dots of ink.

I tested these heavier tools only because I sometimes write or draw with whatever is in my bag or on my desk which is not always the most appropriate tool. I try to carry a gel pen and pencil in my bag for sketching and for using on papers that are not fountain-pen friendly but occasionally, I turn to my pocket notebook and jot the name of a pattern, something I heard on a podcast or and idea I had while working before I forget what it is with whatever I was last using.

The brush pen had no showthrough at all.

These were the pens and pencils used in the test, in case you were curious.

Overall, these notebooks are on par with many of the pocket notebooks available on the market at a fraction of the price. I prefer blank notebooks over lined so I appreciate that but if you like graph or dot grid, you may be less inclined to purchase these. Rounded corners are only available in the blank notebooks as well so I definitely think they are the more flexible option with a guide sheet. While the paper is not 100% fountain pen-friendly, it’s on par with many pocket notebooks.

DISCLAIMER: Some items included in this review were provided free of charge for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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Unfortunately. I’m not a particularly minimal human. So I had to improvise a little to make the Vanguard work as a not-so-minimal wallet. And I did my best to pare down what I carried, I promise!

As you can see, my Vanguard is a bit overstuffed and modified to accommodate a good deal more stuff than it was designed to hold.

I don’t carry many rewards cards (I use an app on my phone called Cardstar for most frequent flyer, frequent buyer and even my library cards) and I only have a one debit and one credit card. However, there are a few cards that cannot be stored in Cardstar: my health insurance, Panera (for some strange reason), Barnes & Noble, and our local museum card. There’s also a few local coffee shops that still use punch cards and I carry a few business cards in my wallet as well.

To accommodate the extra items, I added a Plastic Zipper Case & Kraft Folder Refill Inserts for Passport Size Travelers Notebook (2-Pack for $7.95). I attached them to the Baron Fig Pocket Vangaurd notebook (3-pack for $9) that I slipped into the back cover with a rubber band from the bundle of vegetables from the grocery store. I think the rubber band was holding the stalks of broccoli together. (We joke at our house that we save everything like the its the Great Depression. Does anyone need 37 quart-sized yogurt containers?)

The plastic sleeve for cards includes a zipper pouch to store loose change and arcane things like CASH. I use the paper folder for receipts, postage stamps and bits of paper ephemera.

So, while the wallet/Gaurdian is a little overstuffed its mostly the result of having more cash and change in it than normal. This is “worst case scenario”. I am definitely going to do a purge of receipts, change and other detritus. I probably can take another look through the cards and whatnot and determine exactly what I do and don’t need. But overall, if you can trim down your wallet needs, this is a lovely case that can keep your ID, cards and a notebook handy  for grocery lists and other to-dos.

I was worried that the light-colored leather would soil but, after almost six months, there is only a little darkening of the leather around the edges. Mostly, it just looks lived in, not dirty.

If you’ve been considering one of these leather covers, I recommend them, just keep in mind they are designed to hold Baron Fig Vanguard (3.5×5″) notebooks or Traveler’s Passport sized books. Field Notes are larger and will not fit — they are 5.5″ tall.

DISCLAIMER:Some items in this review include affiliate links. The Well-Appointed Desk is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.  Other items included in this review were provided free of charge by Baron Fig for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.

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