Posted on by Karen Castro

Daily Journal – September 7, 2023

(Hey guys, hope you are having a wonderful day! Is currently 12:47AM September 8, 2023. Forgot post this.)

I wanted to share my ‘drawing’ for today’s daily journal and basically life update. I currently am using a Hobonichi HON A6 2023, I got this journal in early April. I really didn’t have any plans on buying a Hobonichi A6 this year but while ‘surfing’ through their website I noticed there was one in stock and I snatched it and added to my order that I had on hold (sadly that’s no longer an option, but is okay, I will manage), but since I started using it I have not stopped. I missed a couple days but nothing like a whole week which i am proud off since I used to not touch my past Hobonichi Techo original in weeks and later feel bad about it haha

I always journal and if I miss a day I go back to fill it up with what happened or write about something that I was doing or thinking that day. I am not a person who have specific things they journal in their journals. I am a messy journaler* sometime but I am fine with that, each page have it’s own unique story.

I wrote an extra ‘r’ on very, I am verrry sorry!

This was todays drawing. It’s been hot the past few days and today it was in the 90*s. We live in a camper van and my van sometimes get’s more hot than it is outside.

I also received my Hobonichi 2024 order on Wednesday 6 and finished editing the unboxing today, did the voice over as well and as soon as I could I uploaded the video.

I might stop recording videos soon, I feel like I force myself sometimes to make a video, it used to just be relaxing and fun, now I am not sure. I do feel that I have done a good job this year keeping my channel flowing with at least one video a month, either way, I haven’t made my decision yet, we will see.

I always wanted to use my fountain pens as my “watercolor” pens but I really didn’t knew where to start and how should I do it. I have tried many ways and learned what works best or best for me.

This is the first time I make something that is supposed to be fluffy or hairy and it ends up looking exactly how I wanted! Haha
This is the microphone I use in my phone to record the voice over for the Hobonichi Unboxing. It have a dead cat on, I really did liked how this end up looking.

I think they call this technique “Ink wash” but I am not sure because there is a lot of art that looks more like they added the ink and end up making something out of it. I draw mine and used a brush to activate the “watercolor” style. Does this count as a Ink Wash? I am new to all of this, I don’t really know the proper words, I try.

I am using Diamine Graphite, this color works so well with water. I don’t noticed odd colors when is wet, is easy to use and the ink activates quickly when using my water brush. It blends very well, I have a couple other Diamine inks and their inks is so good for drawing/watercoloring.

I am also using Sailor Fountain Pen Pro Gear – Fika II Christmas Spice Tea – Special Edition (2022) in a M nib. (STORY TIME) Since I laid my eyes on this pen I couldn’t forget about it, unfortunately it was pretty expensive and I just didn’t have $300 laying around so I let go of the idea of buying one. A few of months ago this was around $200 in a website but I still couldn’t afford it. A month or 2 ago, EndlessPens have this pen in Pre-Order and with a sale going on and another extra discount, I paid $124 for this pen including shipping. Best buy ever, I just couldn’t believe it, there it was, in my favorite, unhealthy, website!

Sailor Pro Gear – Fika II Christmas Spice Tea, (M) 21k gold nib.
(2022 Special Edition)

The theme of Tea Time Around the World #2 is ‘Christmas Tea’. Tea is enjoyed in England and other European countries during the Christmas season. As winter approaches, tea blends are released by various tea manufacturers, and many of them contain spices such as cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, etc. and mixed with dried peels. Sailor celebrates such a concept with the introduction of three new models
Christmas Spice Tea, Christmas Pudding, and Christmas Tea.

The Regular Pro Gear Christmas Spice Tea fountain pen is a limited production regular sized that comes with same cut-away cap and inlaid Sailor anchor logo on the top. It features a bright translucent red orange barrel and cap, with cut away cap in caramel color. Accented with gold plated trims.

I love the color of this Fountain Pen, I am a fan of tea (although I haven’t tried that many of them) and a lover of Christmas, this pen was basically release for me! Haha
The fact that I was able to find this for less than $130 is crazy and I just couldn’t believe my luck!

I think I would be the last person to review this 21k gold nib since I don’t have much knowledge in gold nibs. All I can say is that the nib does write pretty smooth, not scratchy or anything. Ink flow is great and I loved using this pen for drawing, pretty comfortable.

I own a, Sailor Manyo Fountain Pen Set II – Special Edition – Overseas Exclusive (2023) – Grass / Medium. (I copy this from my order).

Sailor Manyo II, Grass, (M) 14K gold nib

I enjoy this pen, is a pretty pen too, I love the color combination. My experiance when I received this pen was different. I first inked it up with a Ferris Wheel Press Down the Don Valley and I am not sure if it was the shimmery ink or what but the nib didn’t feel as smooth as the Fika II Christmas Spice Tea.

I also felt that the 21K nib was a bit more “flexible”, this (M) nib actually write like a (M) nib which I enjoy. The (M) nib of the Sailor Manyo II writes more fine than medium.

Currently using a Diamine ink and it seems like the Ferris Wheel Press ink I initially used was not the problem is just this nib makes finer lines.

But either way, this are my current sailor pens with gold nib that I own, and I have been enjoying this journey. I want to say that I have no interest in any sailor pens but that would be a lie. I still hope I can buy a Sailor Habanero but they are pretty expensive and I don’t think I can afford expensive pens right now, it have been a pretty expensive month already and is only the start haha!

This was a crazy update but I been trying to be more artistic and learn how to draw and watercolor and just try things out.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your day! Hopefully is not too hot out there for you guys!

You can follow me on:
IG & TikTok @TheJournalingType

Posted on by Karen Castro

Multiple Journals

Hi guys I hope you all having an awesome start of the week. Is labor day and well as much as I want to be one of those people who earn money from home and living the life, that is not me!!! I am not much of a people person and is funny because all my jobs have been either working as customer service, being a teacher or my first job that was teaching violin. I prefer working alone but seems like all my jobs tells a different story. Right now I work as a support advocate, at least that’s how they call it here. I work helping people with brain injuries, hoping that in some future they can be independent and go back to the community. It can be a very rewarding job but some weeks are harder than others.

So let’s talk about journals. When I first started journaling I bought an A5 notebook from AliExpress, I didn’t know about different type of papers and pens I just knew I wanted to journal. I am not saying I never journal as a kid, I did I just can’t remember much and I don’t even know where they are. I knew I had one and I left it in my grandmas house and my brother took it to write his stuff, I was mad haha

I used to do a lot of drawings, I miss doing that. This was the third page of my first A5 journal.

So I think after a week or two I got interested in a Passport, that was an eye opening. My first passport was from AliExpress too, at first I was just using it for planing, it looked like a nice size for that, quality of the cover and insert was very good for the price. So I used my passport none stop, I would show it to my parents all the time even if they didn’t found it that interesting haha

I would a lot of drawings and be like “hey dad look at this” and he would ask me if I draw it myself, was it hard to believe that I could draw decent things? haha

The cover that this passport haves is from Chic Sparrow, after I received the TN from AliExpress I liked it so much and started getting into TN’s.

It was still 2018, I got interesting in journaling around end of October, start of November. I always been a paper/notebook type of person, I LOVE notebooks.
I stop by Walmart and found a pocket size notebook and well being the person that I am I bought it for $3 I think, it was made for painting I believe.

That’s when I was like “well I am not going back to A5”, pocket felt like such a comfortable size that I just didn’t want any other size.

NLP

From that day until July 2019 I used the pocket for everything, at first I wanted to journal about Criminology terms, different type of sick people that will bring them to kill someone, type of sickness and all that. I love it, I wanted to also study criminology and forensic science. I watched a lot of Criminal Minds and NCIS and that’s how I learned about all that and I wanted to journal about it, do my research and keep it in a notebook. Whatever I found interesting in the series I would write it down and do more research later.

Unfortunately that didn’t last long because after doing that for 2 to 3 weeks I started using it for everything, that was my main journal.
After I used that journal for a couple of month and was reaching the end, I started looking into journals for the other haft of the year. I have seen hobonichi before and I really wanted one, I think before I got the A5, that AliExpress notebook was a test before I actually bought a Hobonichi one.

So that haft of the year I decided to get a Hobonichi A6 avec, Weeks and an A6 week planner. I did not utilize this notebook like I though I would. Having the dates on top made me feel like I need it to journal everyday, that I couldn’t miss a day and I didn’t like that feeling.
So I start using the passport as my journal, it was great, I took it to my Cruise trip and I journal everyday, I even took my camera in the library and recorded a journaling section. Passport was the best size I could have ever discover haha

This here is the Hobonichi A6 weekly, I end up taking it with me when I would go to work. I was a cashier, when I was in the register I would document my day with time stamp. It was on of those journal that I didn’t care much for stickers and extras. Some day it was a bit slow, journaling helped.

I did a flip through of that traveling journal if you guys are interested in see it. Here

So after testing so many journals, writing in them and traveling with them this is what I am using today.

Hobonichi Weeks

Tim Holtz washi tape is so awesome!!! I also love the distress ink, I use it all the time 🙂
Went crazy with Tim Holtz distress ink.

After using this for daily journaling for the first time last year October, I liked the idea so much that I end up doing it for a couple of months. I stoped and a few months after 2020 started I decided to use it as a regular journal and not as a daily journal. I mean come on, who can write in that tiny rectangular, one daily? Nope. I also liked the idea of writing in a 2019 planner in 2020 haha

I finished the 2019 planner and I started a new one in August. I know is a planner but something about using this planner for another purpose feels good, I should go to jail for not following the rules for this planner haha

Police: Why you here?
Me: I used a planner as a journal
Police: Excuse me?
Me: I should be punish but I will let you know that the moment my pen touched that paper there was no going back and I will do it all over again.

Okay, let’s stop joking around, so my next journal is:

A6/Pocket Notebook:

Lady Catherine, Chic Sparrow. Love this color, matches with my weeks. Is this month TN color (and I also have it in a passport size :O)
simple journaling
(seems like every time I journal and I come back to read it I misspelled a word or used the wrong word)

Using Leuchtturm1917 A6 Graph

So pocket is the easy journal for me. Is graph paper, sometimes I just journal which is the purpose of it. Sometimes I want to document so I add paper, labels or receipts. I journal but I also document, it can be more personal sometimes.
I like it, I am not haft way through but by the end of this year I probably will. Any traveling that I do or will do is going into this journal, so is basically my travel journal.

There are a couple projects that I am doing and I like to write about it here. When it comes to daily journaling, the pocket is the best option.

Passport:

Now passport I have said this before, I think, is my favorite size (just in case I didn’t). I finished an inserts 3 months ago I believe and I decided to give it a rest since I am using Weeks and Pocket for journaling.

Like I was saying earlier, the first pocket I own, I wanted to make it into a little book. Just information of things I find interesting and there I was sitting, thinking, “well I have new inserts, maybe I can start doing that again but in a passport” and that’s what I did. I called it “The Book of Knowledge”, I came up with this name when I was using my pocket. I always though it was an awesome name, hopefully there will be multiple volumes of this, for example, 2 to 3 inserts (little notebooks) you know, I think is a great idea.

Dream Analysis and well my theory. Is just a though but it would be cool if it was like that.

So I am currently using 3 journals and each of them haves a purpose in my stationery life.
Lately I been kind of neglecting my journals, some weeks I work 56 to 60 hours. I been a bit tired and just a little drain, I am saving money for a project that I am doing which I will tell more later although it does not have to do with journaling or stationery. My family is traveling again from PR to help me with this project, this will be the second time they will be here for this. They are so supportive, so I am working hard to save money for that.

So yeah guys, this are my little babies for now, I love my journals, I treat them with care haha
I am happy I did this, I been meaning to talk more about my journals and how I started journaling.

If you want to share how did you started journaling that would be great. Actually I am very interested to know what TN size you use and if you have a notebook/paper you prefer. Also your prefer fountain pen if you use one or gel/ballpoint/rollerball, I WANT TO KNOW!

If you have gotten this far, thank you, you get a gold star! I hoped you liked it and follow for more.

Have a wonderful day, take care and God bless you all.

Posted on by Karen Castro · 2 Comments

Welcome Writers

Hello, I am Karen. I been in this writing community for years, I decided to make another blog for my stationery passion.

For the people that don’t know me I am “The Journaling Type” on YouTube and Instagram and any other social media haha
Sometimes I feel like talking about some products, notebooks, pens or whatever it is and well Instagram is not the best place, YouTube well you know so I felt like a blog will be the right choice.

I will be honest with you guys, my English was never good. I try to improve my writing every day but I keep making so many mistake in my writing. So if you see me write the wrong word or something I am always open for any help. Also my first language is Spanish (not that I am 90% good at that too. Spanish is very hard LOL)

Well I just wanted to do an Intro to this blog and hopefully you guys like what I have to talk about. If you are following me from my YT or IG, “Hi!”, thank you for being here and supporting me.

I am hoping that here I can share all my love for stationery, share my creations since I am planning on opening my sticker shop on Etsy by the end of the year and maybe have at least one clothing item for sale with the logo of my YT Channel!

Well that is it for this, I will share more in many others blog post.
Have a nice week, take care and God bless you all!