Herlitz Traveller´s Notebook- style in a4

I found something interesting while I was shopping for groceries. There were notebooks in Traveller´s Notebook- style by Herlitz both in a5 and a4 sizes. They are made of strong and pliable plastic and have grooves on the spine to secure the placement of rubber bands. Unfortunately the buyer of the grocery store must be of the hellokitty-sort since these delights only came in light pink and light green. Understandably the pink one was left on the shelves as I opted for the green version. 

This my.book flex cost me only 7,95 €. Notebooks alone are worth as much, let alone a hard wearing cover such as this.

Herlitz offered information on the paper band that this thing actually comes in variety of sorts, plastic, canvas-look and leather-look. One can also opt for different hued rubber bands. 

Inside the a4- sized covers came two notebooks. One lined (9mm spacing) and a grid (5 mm spacing) notebook. Both perforated. When ripped off the perforation very neatly gives the paper in without any extra wiggling- this is not a common phenomena in the world of perforation. Paper quality is not too shabby but it is not great either. Now, I will be the first to admit to being a complete paper-snob so I will gladly just excuse myself at this point. What needs be mentioned that even the wettest ink does not feather nor does it bleed regardless if you even held the tip of the pen at place for a while. Being 80 gsm weight, it does shadow but clearly their paper quality extends the average 80 gsm. paper.

Despite the "high quality" pictures I quickly snapped with my phone, the paper is white, not ivory as it seems. 

Rubber bands to the covers would be easily changeable. Herlitz promises that the my.book flex is light weight and they are not lying about it either. I have actually used this in my personal planning as I have completely transferred to a4-sized notebooks and it does hold what is necessary quite nicely. One alteration I had to make immediately was to tie knots to the rubber bands holding the notebooks. They were just too loose and the notebooks had too much give to wobble about the spine area.

I actually have thought about spray-painting this to black or simply gluing a piece of nice quality leather atop the light green. The covers themselves do not show any signs of use and I have tossed this about in my bags, on my desk, on table tops, on my bedside tables etc. Where ever I go, this goes with me. 

I found Herlitz´s video from YouTube- Land. In the video it is mentioned that the my.book flex comes in "plastic, leather and linen". However, in the band around the notebook it is clearly mentioned of the linen-look and leather-look options. 

I wanted to mention this because if I happened upon ordering a "leather" cover (based on the product promoting video) and ended up with a synthetic product on my greedy hands, I would not feel tremendously entertained.  

From ring-bound planner to planner Elysian Fields

From the beginning of this year I have tried my very best, nearly every system and every size available and I have even both made and printed sizes that are not readily available. This year has brought new responsibilities and tasks along, albeit my ideal size would be a4 (or a5 if we feel the need to cinch)... however, these sizes are not the most portable. I had this a5- sized Malden with gorgeous leather but it was unusable due to low quality rings. One would suppose that when you end up paying 175€ for a binder, it would not have cheap Chinese rings that give up on their duty before two weeks are in, and in such assumption...one would be wrong. Considering I bought two of these a5 binders at the same time, having the same occurrence happen to both of them... I´m inclined to suspect this is not a coincidence. 

However the leather was wonderful. For several times I considered removing the rings. I had done this before on the other binder already. 

Then Kent from Oz happened. My life now had purpose. I knew what I was expected to do.

Sky was clear, my planner plans whispered of conclusion, the fruit of my hips recovered from his fever to be able to go to school leaving me opportunity to perform pilgrimage to stationary stores, it was as if all the Faeries of the Universe had maneuvered cosmic conspiracies and I was willing to play. 

Above is where it all started from. The bane of my peace of mind was gaping even when the rings were closed. Not for much longer, mind you.

I don´t have awesome manly powers on my hands. My joints are categorized as legally disabled but I was a woman on a mission and you do not get in a way of a woman with a mission.

As you can see, I needed the help of pliers and bending and wiggling etc. But I got the job done eventually.

Last time,on the case of another binder, I opened and then sewed the seams but this time along, my mission was to get the rings out ASAP and throwing a sharp knife on the case seemed like an appropriate thing to do. I glued and hammered the leather back to where it belonged to. Looking at the edges, you would not know that there ever was a slit. See the picture below.

  

This is what emerged from the insides.

The beauty without low- quality rings. At this point I felt unnaturally victorious. I applied my richest hand creme to my hands to mend the scratches from wiggling the pliers and applied it to the newly liberated friend as well. We were joint in the prospect of a better and brighter future. The amount of lists we would join our forces in! The hills were alive with the sound of music.

Size sans rings is considerable larger than a5 would ever be. 

Even while closed. Could it be a hybrid between an a5 and a4? Would my life, finally be complete? Is it angelic voices and brass flutes I hear? Tomorrow, shall we all join hands and sing "cumbaya" and will the wars finally end (how uncanny would it be if all the pageants would have to come up with a new go-to answer!)  

YYYYEEEESSSHH! Ok, so the world peace didn´t quite work out, unfortunately, but can you see how beautifully the leather cover sits atop an a4- sized wax cover notebook.

And this pain in the ... places found its rightful place in the bin.

My parting words for this monstrosity would be...

NSFW and for the love of all that is good-do not start the video while children are nearby!

And the last two pictures of it on use. Majority of these pictures were taken in direct daylight, to give as accurate idea of leather, as possible. The following two pictures I took in my bedroom, where the light is harshest, this noon. This really shows the rich grain of leather.

I bought a4 notebooks for this and cut them to size 22 x 18,5 cm´s. Given the size of the binder, I´m surprised of how easy it is to carry. The absence of rings gives binder much needed rigidity. I admit to having shoved another notebook that could be stored next to desk but I chose to add it as well... because I could. I also chose to carry Commonplace Book in the covers as well. 

It makes planner peace quite blissful when you can include two weeks on a spread in which one has ample space to write both appointments and reminders. After planner- notebook I have a bullet journal to delve into detail like I meant it. 

This is how I managed to thread the rubber band. I used a long- corded circular needles to pull rubber band through the back of the covers. I have five rubber bands in the spine.

I cut small slits on both ends of the notebook spine to hold the rubber bands in place, since the openings are considerably far away from notebook edges.

All in all... the only regret I have is that I did not do this earlier. I recommend this very warmly to everybody considering this.