Traveler’s Notebook Collection: 2022
** I have done a 2024 update of my Traveler’s Notebook Collection on my Patreon in a public post here (click the link of image below): Travelers’s Notebook Collection – Updated 2024
I bought my first travelers notebook back around 2011/2012, so I have over a decades worth.
People always ask why I have so many…
I have always been great about asking for them for gifts, and finding them on sale (I have so many ACE Hotel editions because I would buy whenever the Ace Hotel online shop had 25% off!) and my collection grew over all these years. One of them I purchased used because I loved the wear on it and snatched it up to give it a new home.
I am an avid journaler – this is just my TN collection, I also have Moleskines, handmade stitched and ringed journals, and other brands. I have been journaling in one way or form since I was a kid and started blogging in 2004 which evolved into the art journals I started to share, and I have amassed so many over all these years. I have bins of much older ones in our attic, and I have others sprinkled around our house in various nooks and shelves.
For these TN’s specifically, some of them are housing permeant inserts form amazing trips, or series of trips that sit on our bookcase in the living room. Others are for certain purposes, one is for housing my vintage Photobooth strips, one for traditions, one to collect quotes and bon mots, one for my weekly agenda journals, a few are art journals with various topics, some are handwritten journals, and once of each size are everyday notebooks.
I do swap around covers as the mood strikes me. My oldest one is brown and is so loved and worn it is a favorite, but lately I have taken to a Camel.
I just ordered one fo the new limited edition covers, the traveler’s hotel (shown above), which is what prompted me to pull the whole collection together.
Here is a break down of my collection, with photos:
Brown: Brown have always been my favorite, and are some of my oldest covers. The leather on it is so nice, it is the nicest of any I own. Quite a number of these have permeant inserts in them. One is a travel journal from multiple trips to see all the space shuttles, two are reverb journals (one cover I will eventually swap out) and One is my recent birthday trip to the UK. One regular, and the passport are both art journals that I work in off an on. The last one is a journal of traditions and rituals that I like to keep. As for the new traveler’s hotel, I actually think I am going to put card holder inserts in to hold my collection of hotel room cards that I keep after each trip!
Blue: I have 2 regular, one is stuffed full with journal prompts from a project I started for the year, so it is just 4 months and stuffed! The other is a To&Fro edition that I have yet to find a purpose for. One of the passports holds quotes and bon mots, and the other I forgot I had and recently found so is not being used.
Black: I do love the black versions, but they do not wear as nice as the brown. I have both the larger and smaller PRADA editions, the larger one I house my daily agenda journals. The smaller one I swap out often with my passport camel to carry in my purse for quick notes. One of the other regulars is one of my first ones from over a decade ago, and I use as an art journal, it has spreads such as THIS and THIS in it. I also use one one of the limited edition black paper inserts to store my vintage photo booth strips (which you can see here). The other passport is currently not being used.
Camel: I have 2 regular Camels editions, the Ace Hotel one is my everyday journal and the other regular one has two large permanent inserts from a tip to Australia a couple years ago (you can see some of that journal HERE). The passport camel is one I carry in my purse to jot down notes, I swap the cover out often with one of the black ones. (you can see some of that journal HERE)
Olive: This is my one I actually purchased used. When the olive edition was released, I had a lot going on and did not rush to purchase it. By the time I realized I wanted it, they were marked up so much. One day on a whim I decided to search on eBay for one and the prices were even higher, so I decided to look at used – and I saw this, wonderfully aged cover and scooped it up. I really love the color and wear.
So that’s my collection. I hope this post answers the usual questions but if you have others feel free leave them In the comments.
I post to Instagram often – which you can see here if you want to keep up with more often than I post here.
Leanne Shawler
I only have the one Camel TN, the blue ones looked so pretty but I have seen ones that are almost black so I can’t tell if people are using filters to up the color or what. The olives are also delish.
Elena
What a beauty! They should do a brand collaboration with you. This is so inspiring. And I love how they become scratched and torn a bit 🙂