Hobonichi Art Diary Update

I've started journalling in my Hobonichi art diary again, after a lull of many months. In general I really enjoy kawaii/cute journalling, but I sometimes have phases where I hesitate, because of feeling like it's not good enough (not cute enough?), comparison envy, not having the stickers, washi tapes, etc that I wish I had, or simply because I feel like my life is too boring to document.

Up until the start of this month, I'd only made about 5 entries in this years' book. At the start of this month though, I had an urge to write, not to draw or decorate, but pure diary writing. I didn't care how boring my day was, I wanted to document it. It also gave me a chance to use the beautiful fountain pen I was given as a going-away present from my last job (two jobs ago now, actually). I've been writing almost every day, filling up the pages and only using the bare minimum of decoration.

So for the past month, my art diary has been more diary than art. Don't get me wrong: I still love washi tapes and stickers and coloured pens. But it's my fountain pen and my need to record the little things that's been getting me to open up my Hobo every night, and whatever makes that happen, I'm happy with it.

Of course, some sections are too personal, but here are a few pages:

This spread has some washi tape samples I received in my Patreon reward from Rainbowholic, and most of the stickers are from Daiso.

The pages aren't meant to be arranged aesthetically, but just have a few stickers in strategic spots, and washi tape covering up the text at the bottom. This one is a little more like my 'old' style pages, with a separate box for a snippet of information, and I stuck in the business card for Coco Glez, whose Etsy shop order I received that day.

As you might have read in the pages, during this time I was watching My Mad Fat Diary. I started it after I began writing in my own diary again, but I think it spurred me to keep going. I loved the show and I'd recommend it to anyone who has mental health issues, is fat, is a teenager, loves 90s music and aesthetic, or just about anyone really!

More recently I joined in on Rainbowholic's Reset Kawaii Journalling challenge. It's all about self-care and relaxing ... not to mention journalling and decorating! More details and the challenge page to save/print are here. I love Rainbowholic's challenges because they're so chill -- there's no pressure to finish every prompt, and the time given is very generous.

Here the right-hand page is still in progress. I decided to draw my comfort foods as I don't have many stickers representing foods, plus I want to practice drawing. I haven't decided yet if I'll colour them in with pencil or watercolour.

The challenge is not only fun, but a good way to fill up all those blank pages. I know a lot of people who do kawaii (and other kinds of) journalling have swapped from a Hobonichi to a journal with undated pages, but at times like this, I'm glad I didn't.

And finally, here's a picture of my beautiful fountain pen!:

Patreon Reward and Raffle Prize from Rainbowholic

For a few months now, I've been a patron of Kaila of Rainbowholic on Patreon, and I've loved it. I've been on the "Sakura" level, which entitles me to a cute postcard in the mail every month, as well as access to secret videos, printable sticker sheets and a few more things. But more than that, a community has developed of like-minded cute stationery and journalling fans.

This month, Kaila was offering a copy of The ABCs of Journalling by Abbey Sy at one of the higher levels. It was a book I'd been wanting for a while, so I decided to upgrade. A stash of cute stickers and stationery was included -- plus the prize I won in the raffle that Kaila holds on her monthly livestream! I'm a very lucky girl.

I was too excited to do a real unboxing, so there are no photos of the outer packaging, but I can assure you it was pink and cute!

The ABCs of Journalling is a gorgeous book, beautifully illustrated and with lots of ideas for creating a diary and decorating it.

The stationery that came with it included some Gudetama and Little Twin Stars themed items. I love them all! There was a cute postcard with a lovely personalised message from Kaila, too.

Here is the raffle prize -- a notebook hand-made and decorated by Kaila, and some sticker sheets. (er, I didn't seem to get any photos of the stickers, sorry!)

I just love the notebook, which she made as a demonstration during one of her Patron-only videos. It feels so strange and exciting to see something I've seen on the internet, now on my own desk!

I love these retro patterned papers, and the 'postage stamps' are actually washi tapes with a series of different stamp-like images on them. It's almost too cute to use! I will have to save it for something special.

I've had mixed experiences with Patreon, but I've been entirely happy with my Rainbowholic experience. Kaila's positivity is infectious and she inspires me to keep making things cute every day! Her YouTube channel RainbowholicTV has frequent doses of kawaii journalling, crafts, DIYs and other fun things.



This post is purely my opinion and I have not received anything in return!

Winter Reading List

As the weather gets colder here in Australia, my nesting instincts have kicked in. I'm suddenly into reading again. My interests in reading are quite broad -- from non-fiction of all kinds, to classic literature, to cheesy romance novels, to toddlers' board books. (I like to know what the kids are up to!)

Before I go on with my reading list, I'd like to mention that I joined Goodreads earlier this year. I mainly joined so I could do the yearly reading challenge, but I'd really love to have some more friends there, so if you're a member, please friend me!


To begin my reading quest for this Winter, I've decided to sign up for an online course (sort of crossed with a book club) reading Ulysses by James Joyce. It's generally thought to be one of the hardest books in English to read, and it's certainly one of the longest. I've been wanting to have a crack at it ever since I was 14 and bought a copy of it at the local bookshop to make myself seem smarter. I never got around to the important part of actually reading it, of course, which is why I'm endeavouring to do it now. Hopefully doing it with a group will be fun and keep me motivated.

The course begins on 16th June, so there's still time to sign up if you'd like to do it too.

After that, I want to re-read The Lord of the Rings. I first read it when I was about 13 years old, over a boring Summer at my grandparents' house. That was an incredibly long time ago, and I think it deserves the justice of a re-read. I've decided to add it to my second 101 Things in 1,001 Days, which just happens to start in two weeks (there'll be a blog post about it!). Husband apparently has a copy of the book, but I can't find it, so I decided to buy a nice boxed set. (I recommend reading The Hobbit first as a prequel, but I'm not going to because I only re-read it a couple of years ago.)

Meanwhile, while I'm waiting for the Ulysses course to begin, I'm going to try and reduce the number of books I'm currently reading -- 14, which is a little long even by my standards. I've already given up on a couple, and there are a couple that are more like textbooks so I'm not sure they should count. Here's a short list of ones I'd like to actually finish. They're not the necessarily the hardest, or the easiest, the shortest or the longest. I guess they're just the ones that are piquing my interest right now. There might be reviews coming soon if I feel like writing them.