Brussels & Amsterdam

Last week I took a long overdue break and went on holiday with my sister to Brussels and Amsterdam. It was my first time in Belgium and the Netherlands and also my first time using Airbnb. The Airbnb was a fun experience and I was really pleased with the place that I found in Brussels. Similar places in Amsterdam were way out of budget, I'm glad I went to the hostel that I found instead. The Brussels hosts were really lovely and relaxed the dates that we booked meant though actually in residence I thought it be a little awkward saying somebody's home but it worked out fine. 

I did enjoy Brussels the highlight was the Museé Hergé as I'm a big fan of Tintin but I have to say overall I'm not that taken with Brussels. On the other hand I completely fell in love Amsterdam, unlike Brussels I will definitely return to Amsterdam. I had the same feeling that I got when I was in Japan that I could easily live here but I'm sure lots of people leave that thinking the same thing. 

In Amsterdam I went to the Van Gogh Museum I wish I had time to go to the Rijksmuseum but travelling with my sister she's not as interested in arts and culture as me we had to make some compromises on this trip. Being in Amsterdam also give me the opportunity to meet my long time pen pal Chanou or @gnoe as she is on Instagram. We hit it off straight away as I've mentioned before I've been really lucky with meeting up with people from Instagram in real-life everybody's been fantastic. 

It was great spending time with Chanou and my sister we had a great first day in Amsterdam together. The stuff that we got up to was really fun we started at a cat cafe Kopjes and then to the Miscellaneous stationery shop followed by walking to central and then dinner. I've written about Kopjes and Miscellaneous in separate posts. What I loved about Amsterdam is that it had all the feel of somewhere like Shoreditch  but without being over priced and the pretentious. I will definitely be making a future trip it as probably the best place I could've gone to for a break. 

Traveler's Caravan Company

This a very bleated post and had I not become lazy with blog this is definitely something I would have written about at the time.

So, imagine my delight when I heard that the folks in Japan behind my beloved Traveler's Notebook were coming to Europe and that London would be one of their stops. A pop up shop and make your own notebook event was held at Ace Hotel in Shoreditch. Not only was this a hardcore stationery fix but it also meant that I got to meet Stephanie or on instgram @weepingwillow84 and writer of The Paper Explorer. Here I found my stationery soul sister she gets me. This made it doubly worth going.

At the event we were able to chose from a variety of different papers lots of different colours, weights and textures. They had a station for customising your notebooks and stickers and stamps. The event took place in Amsterdam and Berlin too. I arrived late and little out of start I wish I had brought my Traveler's Notebook and spoke more to the guys there and made a bit more of an effort but oh well.
  

 You also had a choice of different covers

A paper buffet

 Mr Ishi binding my notebook

I really hope they do something like this again or at least try and have more stockists in Europe particularly the UK. The people from the The Journal Shop provided the stock for the pop up shop. However, while they do offer a wider range of Japanese stationery including other Midori products I find them overpriced. If you are able to get there JP Books just around the corner from the Japan Centre is much better bet though their range is limited.

Only now have I started to write in my notebook. As much as I love to admire it the paper and notebook is too good just to sit on my desk and admired. I'm going to make use of it and do my best to fill all the pages. I have even started a new instgram hash tag #rehanajournals This year I wanted to write more for myself not just to others in the form of letters. The notebook is part of that as well as my Traveler's Notebook I hope to put it to better use. Writing more got for my blog too so hopefully you will be hearing from me more in future.

 Customising section

Loved all these stamps

 My purchases and notebooks

mt x G8

As you know I'm in love with the 3 M's, Moleskine, Midori and mt!!! So you can imagine my excited at this mt event in Tokyo. While I only got the check out the shop and none of the workshops it was still fucking amazing! My IG buddy and now friend Aya found this and suggested we should check it, she's such a cleaver girl! This was out first meeting and it was so much fun. You just just make us out in the first pic!

mt x G8  was an mt event at the Creation Gallery G8  in Shimbashi. They held workshops for kids and adults, sold tape, had clothes made with masking tape and a workspace area for making you own badges. Work was displayed by Anzai Mizumaru, Ed Emberley, Philip Wise Becker, Paul Cox, mintdesigns and Tadanori Yoko who had also designed tapes or hod tapes made from their original artwork. The clothes made with masking tapes were amazing and totally wearable. The patterns and colours for the masking task would totally work as fabric.

There were plenty of limited edition tapes by the artists as well as well as tapes from other events around Japan. This made it very hard to resist! My fav and I wish I had bought an extra roll was by Tadanori Yoko. Of course Aya and I made our own badges while we were there. The workspace was decorated with artwork from the workshops earlier in the week. Checking out the space is worth it alone specially as admission is free but of course how could go and NOT BUY any of the tape! Photos of my purchases at the bottom!

Creation Gallery G8
Recruit Ginza 8 Bldg., 1F
8-4-17 Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8001
TEL：03-6835-2260
Open 11:00 a.m.—7:00 p.m.
Closed Sundays and holidays.