At least the one I received looks cute...
I remember not being able to choose between the three characters, so I went with all three. They're extremely cute.
I bought them mainly because of their pastel plaid pattern.
There are two of each colour/style.
Two hearts have slight defects, but it's no big deal.
One thing I dislike about these stickers is their surface; it doesn't feel soft like normal stickers. The texture is similar to the white lustrous paper you frequently find on the front pastedown of a book; running your nails against this paper feels like that awful chalkboard screech. Not AS MUCH, but a little bit. Hm... it's hard to describe it clearly, but it's not a pleasant feeling.
The little pouch is so cute and practical. It closes like a Ziploc bag.
I accidentally cut some of its top part when I opened the package.
All of the stickers. Click on the picture to enlarge.
Very cute
It's not really apparent, but these stickers are quite "rigid". I was surprised when I first used one. I wouldn't say I'm a fan of the thickness, notably because I feel it makes them less adhesive. I remarked that lots of stickers seem to have this thickness, so I guess I'll have to get used to it.
This roller tape is so easy to use and the result looks awesome (see pic below). It works the same (and just as well) as correction tape. I'll definitely buy this product again and will look for other similar styles.
From primary school to high school, my favourite pens to write with were the Staedtler triplus fineliners. I had the pack of 10 and had grown my collection during high school, acquiring one by one the nicest colours from the pack of 20. After high school, I began to doodle less in my agendas and notebooks. When a Staedtler would become out of ink, I'd just throw it and not replace it; which leaves me with none left right now.
All this to say that I knew how important pens were, especially coloured ones if I wanted to have a cute-looking planner. I had thought about buying triplus fineliners again, but I was curious to try other brands. The ones below were cheap, came in different colours, had a Hello Kitty design and a 0.38 mm diameter tip. Exactly my dream pens!
Each pen is a different design and looks adorable.
The blue one has its colour name a bit faded.
You need to scribble a whee bit for some pens to write properly.
I used the black pen daily to take notes and it lasted around three weeks. The pens also ghost. I'm surprised that their diameter is 0.38 mm, it looks bigger to me.
Ghosting of black pen
Ghosting of the other colours
All in all, I won't buy these again. Despite being affordable, coming in nice colours and showcasing a unique design, I prefer to pay more for better quality pens. Out of all stationery items, I think I'm the pickiest on pens.
Pastel highlighters were a must-buy for me. I was in university when I noticed companies started to produce them, but I never bought a pack. My study notes were far from being aesthetic thus I didn't think it was worth it to spend money on pretty pens and highlighters.
As is the case for pens, there are lots of cheaply priced pastel highlighters to choose from on AliExpress. I decided to go with Milkliner. They seemed the most natural and comfortable to hold when highlighting (like a normal pen).
I got the colours pink, purple and blue.
I love the blue and purple highlighters. The blue one looks like a bright aqua on my camera, but it's definitely a softer blue in reality. The pink one reminds me of a normal pink highlighter (not a pink pastel), but it isn't too "flashy", so I don't dislike it.
I swore I had seen these highlighters before, but I couldn't remember where. A couple of weeks ago, I discovered that they're actually copies of Mildliner highlighters! They look the same design-wise. I looked at Mildliner swatches and there is a grey highlighter. Plus there are lots of different shades other than the usual pastels. I'd like to try the OGs someday.
So here's what I think of the stationery on AliExpress after this first haul: yes, some stuff is a bit damaged, but there's nothing that can't be fixed; you just need to be a little creative to hide the small defects. I'll definitely buy again on there.
So you're probably curious to see how I decorated my inserts with all the cute stuff that I bought...
Here's a typical week in my planner. 💀 Please, ignore the phone drawing.
Another one
I'm pretty sure these are among the ugliest planner snippets you've (and you'll) ever seen on the internet. Notably because it's plain and empty, but even a plain and empty agenda/planner wouldn't look as bad. I believe what makes mine truly awful is that I actually tried to make it look cute and failed miserably.
The main reasons for this result are:
- My unbusy life: I don't lead a busy life in general, especially since I've been staying at my parent's house because of the pandemic. I do have work and school, but I write my work-related notes in an ugly spiral notebook (for practicality). As for school, my courses don't require me to take notes every day of the week in my planner. I usually have one or more chapters to read in each course and that's my major work for the whole week, plus some assignments to hand in at certain weeks. So as you can imagine, I don't have enough schoolwork (thankfully) and other activities to fill up space.
- Not having enough time: Lol this is completely contradictory from the first reason, but it's the truth; I didn't have enough time to make my inserts pretty. I was already "forcing" myself to write in my planner on a daily basis until I stopped completely in October.
- A lack of inspiration: Even if I would've had time to decorate my inserts, I don't think I would've done so much of a better job. I just felt devoid of inspiration when I looked at the inserts. And even though I had bought so many cute stationery, I didn't want to use any of it. Weirdly, I felt I was "wasting" my stuff although I had bought it specifically for this. That's why most of the stickers you see in the inserts pics aren't from this haul—they're old stickers.
To clarify the reason why there's black ink everywhere and no colours at all: because I hadn't yet received my Hello Kitty pens from AliExpress, but really couldn't wait to start using my planner, I just grabbed a black ballpoint pen I already had. I hate using ballpoint pens when I want to make my writing look pretty, but it was my only option since I didn't want to go buy pens at the store when I was already waiting for a pack of 10 to arrive... I thought I could eventually fix the ugliness by adding stickers and stuff, but it didn't happen.
Some reflections following that planner fail...
At first, I thought it was the purple planner thingy that didn't fit my lifestyle (idk how to say it but I mean the 6-ring binder without the inserts). Then I started to watch penpal and bullet journal videos, and through more thorough thinking, I came to realize that the problem was the inserts that didn't suit me.
For example, I feel like the inserts unconsciously "blocked" me from decorating my spreads freely. You can see in the inserts pics that I tried to not "move" away from the original design, always writing the date next to each day of the week and not varying anything. I also tried my best for the content to not go outside the rectangle it "belonged" to. I remember hesitating to add cute sticky notes because it'd cover the line separating the current day from the next day and I'd be annoyed.
Also, because there was an assigned space for every day of the week, I felt like I had to fill each of them all, otherwise, there would be ugly blank spaces. I tried to put something in each rectangle (info or stickers), but as you see in the inserts pics, quantity didn't equal quality. Each rectangle is quite big, making it harder to fill when you have nothing to write about. And what's the relevance of having a planner if I feel compelled to write in it just to fill empty spaces? It doesn't make sense and just becomes a nuisance.
Nonetheless, even though I'm not the busiest person, there are still things I want to put on paper, for example...
- Random short notes: Quotes from movies or books, blog notes, lists of criteria for stuff, ideas for work or personal projects, etc. I have a great deal of these in my phone's notes and pictures, sitting there not doing anything. I try to delete or reduce the amount I have, but the best would be to put them on paper somewhere. I would love to keep only the most practical stuff on my phone. As I'm thinking about it, I also have similar notes on my computer that'd be nice to transfer on paper.
- Fashion inspo pics: I have way too many pictures on my phone, found on Pinterest or Instagram and saved for inspiration. I'm thinking of printing a bunch of them in high quality one day. I'm not sure if I'd put them in a journal or in a photo album yet.
- Random notes: During the month of October, for example, I was looking for a vintage or retro handbag. I visited so many online shops that I eventually had to write them down, along with my reflections. Because I didn't have the "proper" insert to take these kinds of notes, I picked a grid insert and put it right in the middle of my week. It looked weird.
Okay, I could've probably put the insert in another section, but I didn't want to!
I wanted it to be clear that I had been on a handbag hunt during this specific week.
- More stationery!: Below is a glimpse of the stationery I've kept in my room for years. Some are more than ten years old. I don't want to part from it, but I need to have an idea of what to do with it. A lot of it isn't my style anymore, unfortunately, but it can always come in handy at some point.
While thinking about all this, I had another epiphany (very typical of me): A dot grid journal was what I reeaally needed.
Not so long ago, I didn't understand the concept of "blank" journals (bullet journals?) at all. I had only used structured agendas provided by my school in the past, where calendars took a whole page and each day of the week was there. I would use it daily and always carry it with me. For this reason, I couldn't figure out how some people were able to organize and plan their schedule from blank pages.
Now that I've experienced using monthly and weekly inserts, I understand that in my case, I don't need to organize my days as strictly as I used to because my lifestyle is different than during my high school days. A journal allows me more flexibility. Some days I can write in it or not, a little or a lot, while other days I can just decorate it. Because the pages have no dates, I don't feel bound to write everyday a minimal amount.
After some research, I settled on the Midori A5 dot grid journal, with a plastic cover. Both were purchased online from Nota Bene, a stationery shop in Montreal. I have often passed by the shop while taking walks, but it was my first time as a customer. I was really happy to buy from them! For once, what I wanted was available in my country, and even better, in my province. Plus the shipping fees were super reasonable.
So securely packaged! The plastic cover, the journal and the receipt
are kept together with an elastic, and the whole thing is kinda vacuum-packed.
Stickers
The plastic cover
There's a pen holder on the inside of the plastic cover, but I don't use it.
In the first few pages, the journal has this hole always in the same place.
I suspect it is due to a defect from the thread-stitch binding.
It was advised to put a sticker on the upper part of the spine so as to prevent the little bookmark ribbon from detaching... alas, I had already set the journal in its plastic cover when I was aware of the suggestion. I attempted to remove the journal from its cover, but I felt I was about to tear something.
So I tried my best to place the sticker the best way possible as if it had been there before the plastic cover, and I may have stretched a bit of the cover in the process... not that noticeable... just sad.
I had ordered Slicci pens from Amazon a few weeks before, but I was too impatient to write in my journal, so I went to Renaud-Bray and bought some pens. I had a 25 $ CAD gift card from there that I hadn't yet used. 💖
First, I got these two grey pens. When I was talking about the
Staedtler triplus fineliners earlier in this post, I was referring to these pens.
I actually wanted a black pen with a fine tip, but there weren't any. Suddenly I thought about getting a grey pen, and Staedtler was the only one that had a grey pen with a finer tip. Unfortunately, it's not fine enough for me, but it'll do for now.
I also bought (other) pastel highlighters. I like the ones from Milkliner, but I wanted to have a complete set of highlighters. I was also curious to try a well-known, western brand.
The thickness varies from 1 to 4 mm depending on the angle you hold the highlighter.
Such nice pastels. I find the tip diameter to be perfect for me.
I think I slightly prefer the pink from Milkliner though.
Ghosting of the highlighters and grey pen
And then I finally received my set of Slicci pens!
After my dissatisfaction with the Hello Kitty pens from AliExpress, I had moved my pen search towards well-established brands among bullet journalers. Pilot was a recurrent one and I considered the G-Tec C, but I wasn't convinced to like them enough personally.
The G-Tec C reminded me of the Hi-Tec C Coleto, a fun and practical pen that can hold multiple colours all in one. I discovered it during my trip to Taiwan and from then on began my liking for very fine tip pens. I also thought about getting this one for my journal. Unfortunately, it's impossible to find it where I live, except online, and I prefer to not depend on the internet for pens.
While tidying my room, I came across my high school agendas and remembered I actually used pens with fine tips when I was younger, bought locally and well-appreciated by me. My high school coop used to carry pens called "Slicci". They were quite expensive (like 4 $ CAD), but they wrote amazingly. I only realize now that I most probably liked them because of their fine tip.
An excerpt of my 2009-2010 agenda. I remember getting the purple one first,
and then (not in order) the green, the orange, the blue and the baby blue.
After a quick search, I found out they're produced by Pentel. I ordered a pack of 8 on Amazon, but you can buy them individually at stores like Staples.
Writing with them felt a bit nostalgic! They didn't disappoint.
The colour shades are beautiful, extremely vibrant, with the exact tip diameter I was looking for.
Pretty much no ghosting on this cheap thin paper 👏
Slicci pens (top) vs Hello Kitty pens (bottom).
Quite a difference.
Finally, I proceeded to transfer the most important info between July and December 2020, from my purple planner to my Midori journal.
(I confirm it is written 拉肚子 in October.)
I admit it's a bit messy with all sorts of colours. I've always been messier when it comes to writing or doodling things by hand. I'd like a cleaner style, for example following a single theme or limiting myself to a colour palette, but it's not easy. Anywhoo, I don't regret making the calendars in grey, it looks softer and goes better with the pastels. However, I messed it with the ugly handwriting in black (the dates and events next to each calendar). And the months written in pink aren't of a nice pastel shade (remember when I was saying that I wasn't fond of the pink highlighter from Staedtler?)
In a nutshell, I made many small mistakes (didn't mention them all here) and still have a lot to learn from this first spread. Speaking of which, I did spend a good amount of time on it, but I only had fun. It's a similar feeling to when decorating cover pages, but with more possibilities and more than one page to decorate, which makes everything more exciting. I also felt that I was organizing my stuff according to my actual needs.
When I purchased my purple planner, I didn't evaluate my needs carefully. That's probably another reason why I wasn't satisfied with the way it turned out. In some way, having inserts that weren't right for me and recognizing it helped me find something more adequate. This means I won't be using my purple planner nor my inserts anymore, but I'm pretty sure I'll find a use for them one of these days. It's not impossible that I give them another try at some point in the future.
That's it for my haul and my first experience pertaining to planners, journals and stationery.
Thanks for reading or coming by.
