[Music] Hello, welcome to Omoy TV. My name is Nina. I’m one of the leaders here at Omoy Lifeg goods in Philadelphia. And I am going to talk all about travelers today. We have two other videos on travelers, both from our founder, Liz, as well as our web director, Monk. Be sure to go check those out as well. But today I’m just going to talk through my experience with travelers, what I really like about travelers, kind of explore my current setup, which is my work planner. It’s specifically just for work, and set up two new travelers, both for personal use. So, funny enough, despite kind of always preferably being around Japanese stationary and having a lot of interest in Japanese stationary, I hadn’t re really previously bumped into Traveler’s Notebook series or perhaps I just didn’t really recognize it at the time and was sort of introduced to it right as I jumped into the shop and was pretty quickly drawn to it. I’d found a lot of charm in the series. There was just something about it that felt really comfortable to me. I took a little bit of time before really jumping in and deciding on using it for a work planner. I think the timing just sort of worked out that I was finishing up a current Teto and was just sort of in need of something that was flexible to to my work needs and so I landed on this one. I think a lot of what drew me to Travelers right off the bat was the flexibility and the versatility and just how comfortable it felt. It sort of had this feeling of like walking into someone’s house and automatically feeling at home. It was very nostalgic, very charming and I felt a lot of possibilities amongst all the inserts. But I think I sort of fell into the trap that some folks do of just being a little bit overwhelmed with what what how would this apply to my life? What sort of inserts specifically would work for me? And so it it took time. It took time for me to really digest everything that that a partnershop would offer and see what worked for other people. I will say, and this is this is very common for people who dig into Travelers. It’s very easy right off the bat to just kind of think that this is my laundry list of the inserts that are going to work for me. I’ll start with these five and then I’ll be rocking and rolling right off the bat. Um, the way I thought I was going to use Travelers is not the way I ended up using Travelers. I think Liz mentioned that in her video as well. It’s it’s a transformative process and I think that’s that there’s a lot of beauty in that too of of tweaking and sort of like finding finding a system and finding a rhythm that that works best for you in the series. So the way I initially thought I would jump right into this planner was the leaning into the magic of an undated system. I figured it would be a really sweet and intentional way of writing down each of the dates that I would be working. If I took a week off, it would be really easy for me to jump back in the next week and write out those dates. And then I found that it was just a little bit too much of a pain for me in a work planner. Personally, I liked it sort of done out for me. So now I’ve swapped over to mostly dated inserts. So I have weekly plus memo as well as the monthly dated and a couple of blank inserts and accessories in here that all have synergized pretty well. Now, like many people, I feel like we’re all sort of drawn to Japanese stationery. One of the the big things that draws us in rather is this paper quality. And what really what I really enjoyed about Traveler’s paper quality is that it had just this perfect amount of tooth and weight and durability to it that wasn’t too heavy or overstimulating. It all kind of has like this breathable feel to it. I’ve I’ve been really pleased with every insert. I I have found that it takes to stamps really well and I think a lot of the reason why is that durability and softness within the paper. Um it doesn’t bleed onto that next page which is really helpful. Um it stays where it needs to be and it has just like a lot of travelers paper will have very soft tones. It’s very easy on the eyes and very breathable. So, I’ve tend to lean into into stamps that kind of complement that in earthy tones and just kind of have them along the borders and it it helps me chill out as I’m planning. I was immediately kind of drawn to the regular size because I was just sort of used to planning in that B6 A6 slim size, but I I’ve met a handful of people who really enjoy planning at that passport size as well. And I’ve paired my regular with kind of a passport size notebook here with my stology notebook that always just kind of sits on top. I found that I like both for different reasons, but this is the bulk of my system. And I do just kind of find that I need that space. It It really helps me. It’s sort of commonplace and just a little bit of a handy notebook for things like writing out notes or quizzes or pamphlets for staff members. Storyy’s bread and butter is their adhesives. And so I like that this notebook stays completely flat and a little bit selfishly I like that it stays really flat in a copying machine. And so that’s why it it hangs out there is because I don’t get any of that awful shading in the middle of my page. That is one of the reasons if it’s ever just a a quick task or a quick to-do that I like to break away from, I’ll have this notebook handy for me. Restocking the floor and writing out a quick to-do list, I’ll I’ll use this one. But the bulk of my planning and what really saves my butt is in here. One other thing that I want to mention about like what I really like about Travelers um and what sort of connected me to it was I had a tendency to feel really boxed in by other systems and that it was sort of spelled out for me. And what I really liked about Travelers was that that flexibility, right? So it was something that was going to kind of eb and flow with me as my needs changed as things came up or as things kind of wound up or wound down in my life. I like that you could kind of just like swap things in and out as you got inspired. And as things weren’t working out, I myself find myself in a position each year where I thought I found the perfect system. And then lo and behold, around like March or April, I just found things and issues with my planner that I had that I’d landed on. And so this is this has really worked for me. It’s it’s been a great way of sort of like editing and tweaking and finding solutions for myself. I think it’s a really great system for people who find like a little bit of satisfaction in that in tweaking things over time and figuring things out for themselves. Okay, so I’ll just go ahead and jump right into my travelers. So, this is my real deal work planner. Taking time to get here. I’ve had this one for about 4 to 5 months now. This is the Olive regular size traveler’s notebook and then a very small passport size on top. It’s held in place by the rubber uh the olive elastic band. Um I have a handful of charms here. I have N for myself so that people don’t mix up my actual planner with any of the samples in the shop cuz it’s very important to me. I also have one of the Traveler’s Brass charms and the small bead as well as this guy down here just as far as accessories. This bead does glow in the dark. Um so I like to joke that if all the lights in the shop turned off, at least I could find my travelers. So, I’ll go ahead and slide this guy off and then kind of get right into my notebook. I do have a little bit of some scratches and some wear and tear in mine. Um, as well as this really interesting shading down the bottom. Um, if you have any theories as to why that might be happening, feel free to let us know, but I can’t figure it out. There’s just a little bit of wear down that spine, but I like it. I think it’s very sweet. um it adds to a lot of the charm and just what’s beautiful about this series is that it grows and sort of changes up with you. So, standard regular leather notebook here and then I’ll go through each of the inserts that I have in mine. The very first one is going to be the Traveler 008. So, this is the zipper case. I’ve got mine filled out with a handful of soft earthy tone pens that I love to use on a daily basis. I’ve got those in here as well as some correction tape just at the very top. What I love about the zipper case in particular is it sort of has a dual feature. Like yes, all my pens and accessories are kind of right there in handy, but it also kind of acts as a lifter for the additional inserts that I flip through and as I work through them. And you can position it either way that you’d like. So if you’re a lefty and you’re primarily working on this side, you can sort of alternate that and have the zipper case on the on the other side of your travelers. I have it on this side. It’s a bit lifted and kind of stabilized now. I’m not bumping into any of my clamps. So, that is the zipper case that I’ve got right in that front section. And then we’re moving right along to dated monthly. Like I said earlier, I I’ve tried the undated. Unfortunately, it just didn’t quite work out for me. Um I just sort of needed something that was already complete for me and kind of ready to go when I jumped right into planning. That’s going to be that dated monthly here. And I also have a handful of the TRC pocket stickers. One of which is going to be right here in the front section of my monthly. I’ve got it dated for OMO 2025. And this actually holds some very sweet little affirmation cards. I really enjoy they help me throughout the workday. And so those are just kind of they kind of just sit right here. And it’s at the very least it’s just kind of nice to see them there and know that I can use them whenever I’d like. Jumping right into monthly, I have the Omoay shop, partner shop stamp. Primarily what’s going to go in here is just any sort of monthly planning that I need for work. So any events that we have going on, scheduling requests, deadlines, that’s all going to meet in here. Anything that really needs to happen that day as far as my system, I’ll highlight it in yellow. That would probably be the only thing that’s not going to be in those those softer tones. Everything else is going to just be in in those pens that I have in my case. So that is dated monthly. I have um sort of a tougher Penco Clampy here that wedges between the monthly and dated weekly inserts. And primarily what that’s for is two use cases. So it’s going to hold a lot of surface tension for the page just so I can really write down on a neat surface, but it also allows me to flip really easily between my month at a glance and my week at a glance. So that is that clip there. That would be my dated monthly. This is dated weekly. Now dated weekly I would say was really really essential for me for work. I love the undated. I love the additional memo space that it has. Um but unfortunately it was just a little too much for me to keep up with for work. So I’ve got dated weekly here. Grid memo on the side. Really helpful to just have a space where I can write through everything that I’ve got going on that week at a glance. if there’s folks I need to chat with or I’ve got meetings going on or ordering deadlines, that’s where that’s all going to go. And then on that alternate side is just sort of like a daily to-do for for each workday. I try to use stamps as well. It just sort of like softens up the space, makes it really approachable, and adds a really nice just pleasant accent to each of my weeks. I don’t know, it’s just nice to be around. So that is my dated weekly plus memo. And then I’ve got a blank insert here. This has been really helpful for me in just kind of brain dumping as well as like writing out any sort of insights I’ve had from meetings and having a space for that to kind of land on. I have another clamp. So, this is another version of the Penco Clampy that’s just in between weekly and blank. And that sort of also allows for just a really tidy writing space. part of just my note-taking style, I guess, lended really well to blank. It is one of the inserts that comes by default in each of the travelers kits. And so, I figured I would just kind of lean into that. I think grid is also really fantastic. I think perhaps I just didn’t want to get it mixed up with with the weekly grid here, but I really liked it. It sort of like it allowed for a really free system for me, I think, formatting and note-taking in any which way I needed to. But that is specifically for meetings. That’s my blank insert. This is going to be the back half of that zipper case from before. I have it sort of wedged through the entirety of my planner. So, all of my sort of paper inserts are going to be here. And then zipper case weaves through all of them behind that. My very last insert back here, um, which I I don’t feel like a lot of people talk about is the trifold folder. So, that is Traveler 029 insert, and that is this guy here. I have some notes from this video that are sort of wedged in there. But this is the trifold folder. This was sort of one of those inserts that and I think a lot of people kind of find themselves in this position of it was sort of like, okay, I really need to get into this because I had been using trifold folders for a really long time. I I loved having them for work specifically or if I was kind of running an errand where I knew I was going to get documents afterwards like doctor’s office, all kinds of boring stuff. But I love them for work because it’s a really nice way of maintaining documents as you’re moving from place to place without the hazard of a clipboard or rather just like can kind of fold it up if it’s a private document or something that like you don’t want to get damaged. The trifold folder is really handy for that. So that was something that just kind of automatically sweetened the deal for me was having it all in one place in one system. That was really cool. So that’s my very last insert there. I hear about some folks as well kind of talking about this bump on the back and it eventually being something that’s just a little bit annoying to write on top of. My suggestion for that is utilizing the zipper case. Travelers also makes a handful of writing boards which are just sort of like almost like the trifold folder as far as thickness that you can kind of weave into the back of that notebook and have as a level writing surface so you’re not bumping into that. My suggestion is a zipper case. They’re very very handy. I haven’t found that it really adds a lot of weight to my notebook. And so what I plan on doing as I sort of like make my way through this blank insert and I’m sort of towards the end and approaching that bump on the back, I’ll flip the zipper case. So all of these guys will be on this side. By then I’ll be kind of through a lot of this insert here and I’ll have my my neat writing surface back. So it’s all those sort of things with travelers. It’s like it’s really fun to sort of tweak these things over time. I see a lot of people coming in who have a traveler system and are sort of like, I hadn’t considered this insert before, but now I kind of want to try it out in this way. I think it’s really satisfying to figure those things out for yourself instead of and it’s also more sustainable, right? So, like I’ll have this notebook cover for life effectively. And each of the inserts are they’re not terribly expensive and they’re mostly paper. So I feel ecologically a little bit better about what I’m doing and not just kind of like chucking a plastic covered planner out at the end of the year. So that was another kind of benefit for me with considering travelers. So that is all of my inserts on my work planner here. And from here we’ll kind of dive into some new setups. So, having a lot of success with my work planner, I’ve invested in two more travelers notebooks, and I’ve just kind of jumped into it and accepted that I I really enjoy collecting them. There’s something that will be lifelong staples for me and the use cases will be rotated around and there’s a lot of beauty in that. They may stay at home most of the time or tag along with me and that’s kind of the whole idea. Um, so I have both a both brown leather covers here, one passport and one regular size, as well as a ton of inserts. I’ve got a handful of inserts here. These guys are all kind of planned out to couple into these. These were ones, like mentioned before. Um, didn’t necessarily work out exactly as I’d hoped they would. So, they’re kind of on the docket. And these guys hang out on my shelf. I don’t necessarily mind that to be the case. Like I said, they’re not going to waste. This is the second half of my year for work. This was a really beautiful edition from the Tokyo series, or rather a blank insert from the Tokyo series that I’ll be using at some point. And then undated monthly and weekly inserts, one lined insert. So, they’re not going to waste. They’ll be rotated and utilized at some point. And I kind of like that. It’s kind of like a one sketchbook versus many sketchbook kind of setup and situation, right? So, these guys are not for today, but perhaps in a week, in a month, in a couple years, they’ll get utilized at some point. I have a handful of other accessories that are not specific to travelers. Handful from Peno here. I specifically have the Penco clipboard. I believe this was the memo style or to-do style. I don’t have the heart to take off the paper sleeve just cuz I find it so charming. But what I really like with this one is that it does theoretically fit right into one of your travelers. What I use it for currently is feeling out an insert that I’m not totally sold on or I’m still trying to feel like feel the use case for. So for instance, a lined that I’ve got right here. I’ll fold up and then kind of clamp into the penco clipboard or I may just have it like so on a surface just to get a sense of the writing style, the paper. Is this something that’s going to work in the notebook that I’m specifically envisioning at this time? That’s what I use that for. We love Peno. Peno’s fabulous. I feel like a lot of Penco products just kind of go handinhand with Travelers visually. I’ve I’ve seen them styled together a lot online and they all kind of align with that sort of like nostalgic and comfortable feeling. So, that’s what I use that guy for there. All right, wonderful. So, we’re going to jump right into setup here. I’ll kind of walk through what my intentions are with both of these and how I would set them up. Um, so Passport is right in front of me. I’ll go ahead and jump right into Passport. This one’s very straightforward. I’m hoping to just have this as a pocket notebook for a easyto-reach phone alternative that’s just right in my coat pocket. I have this one partially set up already with that intention. So, passport size brown leather cover. Um, we have one blank insert and one craft insert. blank has sort of it’s somehow been my go-to for just like jotting down ideas, thoughts, um memories very quickly. And then craft I’ve I don’t know, it had this like really charming appeal to me. I thought about like flower pressing or having more like rough sketches on it. Um it’s just got like a little bit more tooth than the blank. It’s a little bit softer and and easier on the eyes. So, I’ve got that one there. Additional inserts that I’m hoping to have in this one would be one of the Travelers Company craft envelopes. These come in sets of eight as I have here. Um, they come in both a small and medium size. This would be the medium size. And I have a bunch of seed packets in this one. And that will be for this journal here that we’ll touch on in a moment. But the mini size I found kind of fits perfectly right into the passport size. So, my intention is to kind of glue this onto the back of one of the craft folders and have it as just a quick little keepsake pocket for things like my best friend gives me an Instax of me and my puppy. I want I want a sweet place to hold that where it’s not going to get dented. One passport file folder will be going in here as well for things like receipts, um, small bits of paper that I need to hold on to, just sort of like a landing pad for additional pieces of paper. So, I will jump in and set that up. So, I did have this partially set up with some of the connecting bands. I’m going to have to take that apart, but that’s okay. How I sort of there’s tons of different resources for this online, but essentially how I like to kind of set this up is I’ll visualize it in its completed form and then sort of imagine it split right down the middle. So, what I’d like first is craft file folder, one blank insert, one craft insert, and thinking about that being split right down the middle. It’s going to be the middle of that blank one. And then either of these two inserts are going to kind of flank it. So, those two I’ll go ahead and connect with one of the elastic connecting bands. So, those are sold in separate packs. Um, and they’re sort of essentially just like a very fancy rubber band. Um, but I found that these because they’re manufactured specifically for travelers inserts, they just sort of lay in a really nice way that’s not disruptive to the pages and minimizes that sort of like slinking around that a lot of people are concerned about. So, that’s what I’ve stuck with. I’ll go ahead and put that in there. And blank insert will just go right in the middle. And she’s done. It’s very satisfying. I’m getting speedier and speedier as I get through it. That is going to be that pocket one there. All right. So, we’ll go ahead and jump into this second planner um workbook here. So, I’ve got all my inserts planned out. So, initially my my hope for this sort of cover before was to use it as a personal planner. And so purchased one other dated 2025 monthly insert for that planner, but I had kind of purchased one other academic personal planner. Um, and so I kind of wanted to feel that one out prior to utilizing this one. And so I didn’t end up using this specific traveler’s notebook for that. But another use case arised. I really desperately needed a gardening journal and a place to kind of plot out what I was growing and what the year looked like. And so that use case came up and I thought this would be a really good fit. So I’ve got all the inserts I’m kind of planning on using for that here. And just very quickly at a glance, we’ve got dated 2025 monthly insert. I’ve got one blank insert, one line for additional note takingaking and perhaps diary entries, and then one watercolor insert where for some very ambitious hopes of maybe a bit of plain air painting out in the garden. So, we’ll see. But I’ve got those four in front of me, and we’re just going to weave them right into here. So again, just kind of like before, I try to visualize this like kind of opening up a standard book and what the true middle would be. So I’ve got four inserts. That’s pretty simple. Um they would just break up into two separate halves. So I’m going to connect the very middle first connecting band. Really essential part of this. So you’ll kind of notice and they are sort of creased in the corners. You want to give them a little bit of a stretch before putting them in. And I kind of try to line up those corners nicely to the top and bottom of the notebook insert. And then just kind of wiggle them around a bit. That’s half the notebook done. So that’s that top half. And then bottom half here. We’ll go middle and middle. So, finding those two middles and then little stretch and popping that over the bottom two first. Got those right in there. And then top half right in here. And she’s done. So satisfying. So, just popping um the elastic for the cover into this back piece here. I’ve never really seen a travelers without it. Um so, I’m going to go ahead and just put one right in. Um the spare elastics do come with the kit. If you do want charms on it, definitely put the charms on beforehand. Um but I think I’m just going to put one on just to start and get us going. So, tie a little knot on the back there. and then stretch it over the cover. A lot of the appeal for just kind of having one travelers for all of this for me is being able to just the mobility of it, right? Having it all in one place and not necessarily having to premeditate each place I’m going, like each cafe. Do I want to bring my personal planner? Do I want to bring my sketchbook? Do I want to bring my journal for the year? I love having multiple notebooks. It’s fabulous having them at my desk, but sometimes I do just kind of want one thing. And I think there’s a lot of like there’s a lot of beauty in just being able to up and go and like wherever the wind takes me. If there’s a really beautiful townhouse that I want to watercolor and sketch on the way on the way to work or on the way to a cafe, meeting a friend, um, I’ve got a spot for it. All right, so I’ll go ahead and jump into specifically what I think and what I’m hoping is going to help me out in the garden this year in utilizing this notebook. Got it all set up now. Um, which is super helpful. I’ve got a couple of notes just from my MD grid memo block pad. Highly recommend it as a desk tool specifically for stuff like this. Right. So, plotting it all out on grid. It really gives you a sense of page space um and how to sort of formulate your thoughts on on how you’re going to plan it. What I’m hoping to do with this is track temperature, rain, and whether I’ve selfwatered. Um, so that’s going to go each day into my monthly as well as any notes that I’ve had. So, for instance, I planted some cilantro. And I’m already starting to see a little bit of that anthocyanin pigment come in. Um, which is a very nerdy way of saying there’s a little bit of red and purple on the bottom leaf. And that can be due to stress, due to temperature swinging. And I want to kind of get the guesswork out, right? So, notetaking that on my monthly. So, we’ll put that in there. We’re worried about our cilantro. In this back section of the monthly, hoping to put more specific garden notes. Um, so that will be like plot layout. So, date that is going to be the use case for our monthly is more specific just like date specific gardening notes. Blank here is going to be more for quick notes. So, if I need to think more on rotating plants out, um, such as cilantro in Pennsylvania, at least from the growers that I’ve spoken with, says that they say that it needs to be receded pretty frequently. So, I want to notate each time that I am receding that lined insert here. I’m hoping to kind of journal outside and it’s nice to just kind of have it all in this one spot. So, I’m kind of thinking like while I’m notating and taking note of the temperature outside, in my monthly in the blank, any sort of insights that I have on my garden, um journaling while I’m outside and just talking about my day. And then we’ve got of course sketch paper or watercolor paper rather back here for whimsy for whimsy. Maybe I will use it, maybe I won’t. if it turns out to be the case that it’s just a little bit too much of a hassle to have all in one spot. The beauty of it is I can take it out. So, that is my my lofty goal and vision for this journal. Thank you so much for watching. I hope that you enjoyed this video today and a little bit of a deep dive with yours truly on travelers. Uh be sure to stay tuned with us. Feel free to subscribe and like um and share this video with all of your other travelers buddies and feel free to chat with us and shop as well. Being a partner shop, we have all of the inserts, accessories, and covers available in shop and we look forward to seeing you. Bye-bye.