DIY Illustrated Recipe Journal

Hi everyone!  I’m happy to be back here on my blog after being gone a looong time!  Today, I’m sharing with you one of my past projects: A DIY Illustrated Recipe Journal.

Menu planning is really tough to do and it helps to have a body of recipes that I can easily choose from.  By the way, I love reading food magazines and cookbooks but I don’t know how to cook.  I like researching for new recipes and having our helper cook prepare it for us.  The food’s safer that way, hehe.

I used to have a family recipe journal but it was so well used and loved, it’s totally grossing me out now.  It’s oily with a lot of food splatters.  Some of the recipes have also become incomplete because the pages have faded.  It really needed a revamp.

I was heavily into illustration then, so I decided to paint each dish in my own style then handwrite the recipe.  I love how it’s unique and artful.  All the recipes I use in this journal are from magazines or books.

This new journal will just stay on my table and away from the kitchen.  The plan is to just have these recipes photocopied for the one that will actually be used in the kitchen.  I decided to use a clear folder so that I can easily move the recipes around according to dish type.  Keeping them in a clear folder also helps to protect it from food and oil splatters.

If you love developing your own recipes, you could create your recipe pages in this manner, bind them and gift them to your loved ones.

For a flipthrough of my recipe journal, go here.

Thank you for dropping by.  Do you have a recipe journal too?  Hope you can share about it in the comments section.  I would love to know about it.

Hello Hobonichi!

4 A6 Techos and 3 A5 Cousins

Ahhh, seeing  the new 2019 Hobonichi lineup  brings back fresh memories of my first Hobonichi Techo which I bought in 2016.   It’s been three years, and every year, I look forward to buying a new one.

A page from my #riatriesillustration project in an A5 Cousin

The Hobonichi uses Tomoe River paper, so it’s quite strong enough to handle watercolor and most types of ink.   Even fountain pen ink!   I’m actually using my A5 cousin as a watercolor sketchbook.

Love painting food!

I use my A6 for daily memory keeping so I’ve been loading it up with calling cards, photos, and stickers to help me remember past events.

Happy memories from 2017

This is why it gets so fat!

End of year, it gets really fat and chunky, but it can still stand on its own without collapsing.

The OC in me is actually bothered by the chunkiness!

This year, I bought the Japanese A6 to save a few pesos, but I struggled with it because the days were in Japanese!

Japanese Techo has no English days

Some tips:
1.  Other than for planning, you can use the Hobonichi as a journal or an ordinary notebook.

2.  Buy the English Techo if you’re going to be looking at the dates.

3.  If you’re starting out, best to start small with the A6. The A5 can be so big, there’s a lot of pressure to fill it in.

4. Don’t want it to get chunky?  Get the Avec.

5. Save money and skip the covers and other accessories (like I do!)

I resolved to use stamps more to reduce the chunkiness.

You can order directly through the Hobonichi website but here are other local options I have tried:
1. Crafty Lane
2. Mommy Jets Little Japan
3. Scribe Writing Essentials

I’m only getting the English A6 for now to use as my 2019 daily memory keeping journal (third straight year!). How about you?

Journaling Ideas: Book Reviews

Hi everyone!  A lot of people are afraid to start journaling because they always say they don’t know what to write about.   Really,  you can write about anything and everything!   Anyway,  I decided to start a series of blogposts (journaling ideas) about what I write inside my journals so that you can begin journaling too.    To start off,  reading is a big part of my life, so I like writing about books in my journal.

I have always been a bookworm and you know what?   I secretly loved doing those book reports in grade school.   Hehehe!

This year, I started doing a mini review of every book that I have read.   I add a very short synopsis about the book so that I’ll remember what it was about.   Some of the questions I ask myself while doing the review are these:  Did I like the book?   Why or why not?   What were my favorite parts?   Who were my favorite/least favorite characters and did I identify with them?   Are there any questions about the book that I have left unanswered?   I would also jot down some of my favorite lines if I could.   Most of all, I love adding the learnings I get from each book.

I like taking the time to respond to what I have read so that I’m not just breezing through the book with the aim of just finishing it, but that I also get to savor and learn from it as well.

By the way,  I love using the Everyday Explorers Co. Book Club stamp set to do my book reviews.  You can purchase it from here.

My goal is to read at least 25 books this year.   How about you?

#riatriesillustration Project

Hello!  Today I’d like to share a few bits about a personal project I started last year.   I want to improve on my watercolor and illustration skills so I’m trying to make a year’s worth of watercolor illustrations (so ambitious!).   I’ve been tagging my work online as #riatriesillustration .

I’ve been using the Hobonichi 2018 A5 planner as a watercolor sketchbook because I didn’t want to buy expensive sketchbooks.   I don’t want to feel pressured to produce masterpieces.   Just really glad to know that Tomoe River paper can hold its own with watercolor.   For my palette, I have the Sakura Koi 18 watercolor set.

I always paint with a reference photo from the internet.   At this point, I don’t think I’m ready to work from my imagination. 🙂

I paint at night when everyone has gone to sleep.   At first, I was able to paint daily until life got in the way.   Now, I’m lucky if I get to paint at least once a month (!!!).

Some days I felt really happy with what I’ve produced, and some days, my work is just so ugly, it makes me want to give up, hehehe.

Hopefully, with practice comes progress. I can’t wait to reach Day 365. I’m so excited to see how my work has progressed from Day 1.

I did a flip through of my first 31 days.  Hope you can check it out here.

Do you have a similar project going on right now?  Let me know in the comments. Thanks for dropping by!

 

Rhodia Goal Book: A Review

Rhodia Goal Book in Iris

I’ve been wanting to try the Rhodia brand of notebooks because I heard they were good for fountain pens.

I bought a Rhodia Goal Book from Scribe, here in Manila.  It came in so many beautiful colors and it was really hard to decide but I finally settled on the Iris.   I love touching its soft leatherette cover!

The Goal Book comes in A5 size with 240 pages: 224 numbered dot grid pages, a table of contents, and undated annual and monthly calendars.  It also has an expanding inner pocket at the back.

The Rhodia Goal Book as My Common Place Notebook

The Goal Book is fitted with premium 90 g. ivory, vellum paper.   The paper is so smooth to write on.   I used my Pilot Kakuno Clear Fountain Pen with a F nib and Versamagic inkpad in Midnight Black.   Love how there is no bleed through and the show through is very minimal.

No bleed through

I decided to use my Rhodia Goal Book as a Common Place Notebook.  It’s basically a journal where you can jot down notes that you think you can use at a later time.  I read a book by Regina Brett recently and I decided to copy the passages I liked into the Goal Book.

From Regina Brett’s book: Be The Miracle

If I could change anything about the Rhodia Goal Book, instead of being orange, I wish that the ribbon markers and elastic closure matched the notebook color.   I love this journal so much.  Stationery lovers, grab yours now!

You can check out the Rhodia Goal Book in detail here.

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