#dreamnus

my bujo planner arrived todayyy!!

it’s fabric-bound in ivory with hot-stamped gold foil sparrows, has 192 pages of 160-gsm dotted ivory white papers, elastic band enclosure, expandable utility pocket at the back, and it comes with 3 ribbon markers. i bought this at PhP 598.00 only.

june 5, 2021 — it took me a while before i chose koi fish for my theme this month so here it is

i used my pigma micron pens in sizes 08 for the borders, 02 for the headings and 003 for daily writing. then for the colors, i used koi coloring brush pens in coral red and warm gray. it’s kinda interesting how i decided on koi fish and used koi brush pens to color the fishes. i swear it wasn’t intentional.

thoughts on hiraya journal 📔

Once upon a time, I stumbled upon Hiraya Journal shop at Shopee and fell in love with their notebooks.

Basically, what happened was, I was looking for a notebook for my 2021 bullet journal. Initially, I wanted to buy Moleskin or Archer and Olive but they were quite expensive. So, I started looking for an alternative. Something that has the same quality but for a less expensive price. I spent a few days browsing in Shopee. I was so sure I have seen all of the journal products there but I had to take a second and third look just to be extra, super sure.

Then, I found Hiraya Journal.

At first, I was skeptical because what if this is the same as those shops who markets their products really well but the actual item is just a cheap knockoff of the original. So, I checked their profile in Shopee and Facebook then learned that Hiraya Journal is a local Filipino brand. It recently launched in 2020 and it is owned by women. They even had a teaser video for their products, so, when I discovered them they were fairly new. Back then, they were only offering two kinds of journals, in black and pink, with two different designs, Kalachuchi and Sampaguita.

Knowing that it is a local brand, I immediately considered buying from them. I checked the specification of their journals if it will satisfy my criteria and surprisingly it did. I thought no product will ever meet the set of criteria I made. But Hiraya Journal is different. The things I am looking for in a bullet journal is that it should be dotted, 120 or more GSM, white paper and has a leather cover. Hiraya Journal’s notebook is dotted, 160 GSM, ivory white paper and has a leather cover with gold embossed design. For such a high quality product, you would expect this would cost more than PhP 1,000 but they’re selling it for less than PhP 1,000. I bought mine at PhP 649 and it was one of the best purchases that I made in my entire life.

When I got the delivery, I was extremely pleased with how they delicately packed the product. It came in a box, then inside it was this beautifully wrapped notebook. They used parchment paper to cover the whole journal then added some kraft paper, artificial leaves, twine and stamped everything with this black sealing wax.

Just looking at how they packed the journal, I was sure then that I had bought at the right place. Anyone can see they had put a lot of thought on how to deliver their products to their customers.

I initially wanted the black one but when I was about to add the item to my cart, it went out of stock so I settled with the pink Sampaguita instead. Then I instantly fell in love with the pastel pink when I got my hands on it. The leather cover is thick and I love how the gold embossed Sampaguita is just sitting there so prettily on top.

The journal also has an elastic closure and a ribbon bookmark all in pastel pink. Since the paper is 160 GSM, it’s thick that I can even use it for a light watercolor painting. I also love how the dots are not dark so it doesn’t stand out too much on the ivory white paper.

But what really stirred my heart was the first page. It has the same design as the one on the leather cover then followed by the words, “Ito ay kay,”.

There is just something special about seeing those Filipino words on the front page. It sounded so sincere, genuine—a propriety feeling that this journal is, indeed, mine. When I wrote my name over the dotted space, a sense of pride washed over me. It’s  like I finally had something to call my own. Then, to make it more personalize, I added these washi tapes and a vintage sticker below it.

Visiting their shop again today, they are now offering the journals in more, different colors and designs. They are also selling bags and color pens. I recommend checking their sites for more information:

Hiraya Journal Official Website

Hiraya Journal Shopee

Hiraya Journal Instagram

Hiraya Journal Facebook

july 26, 2020 — inspiration finally came to me.

i dedicated two pages for seventeen’s june comeback with henggarae album in my june bujo spread because why not? it took me a whole month before i felt motivated to start making it then without noticing the time, i finished the design a few hours later. i was really on a roll that particular day. 

for the playlist, i just looked up a bunch of bujo playlist designs on ecosia & decided to incorporate spotify’s specifications to it since there are only six tracks in the album. kidult is definitely my favorite. 100% gonna recommend this because it’s THAT good. the instrumentals are simple, the vocals are superb and the lyrics hits home.

june 1, 2020 — finally, here is my bujo spread for May. 

We’ve now reached the end of July and I just recently started working so my free time had been reduced tremendously which delayed my posting this.

Anyways, I’ve been having fun drawing plants and flowers for three months now. So far, I’m loving the simplicity of my spreads, plus I added this SEVENTEEN page wherein I put a collage of pictures of my ultimate K-pop boy group. I actually didn’t like the way I put it. At first, it was okay, but the more I look at it, the more I feel suffocated, probably because it’s way too systematic. I don’t like how neat it looks, especially the placement of the pictures. But that’ll do for now. It was my first attempt at it, after all. 

Then my weekly spread has 6 boxes in total. I put Saturday and Sunday together so the number would be even and there’s nothing much to do during the weekend anyway. At the bottom, I have my notes wherein I put any reminders for next week or for the next month so I wouldn’t forget them.

may 5, 2020  — i’m back!

Well not totally but I just want to share that I’ve returned to bullet journaling again.

It’s been a while & it took me a long time to select a theme & start the set-up. My previous bullet journal was in a grid, spring notebook but now, it’s in a dotted, spring notebook which I bought from Shopee for 50php (my friend bought it in bulk that’s why it’s cheap).

What’s good about this notebook is that it’s not too pale in color. It’s not completely white, which is great because I detest pristine notebooks. It makes me not want to draw on them because of how clean they look. The texture is nice too. It’s borderline smooth & rough at the same time. Also, my pens don’t bleed through the pages. I’m using a 0.3 Pilot G-Tec pen & a Dong-A Fine-Tech pens in black & gray. I will only be using these two colors & hopefully, I can commit myself into doing just that.

Anyways, instead of having different themes for every month, I’m going for a single theme throughout the year & that’s leaves & flowers. Nobody can go wrong with that classic choice of theme. I didn’t go crazy with the design because I wanted it to reflect how much I love & prefer minimalist designs in contrast to what I’ve been doing until now. I left a few negative spaces on the pages & put in an accent color. Basically for this bullet journal, I’m only going to use three colors at most: black, gray & brown. I may incorporate different shades of those three just to give the entire look of my bullet journal some depth. Although, a messy look would’ve been awesome as well, it takes too much time & I don’t have much of that. I wanted a design that will be easy to draw while on-the-go hence this super simple set-up.

Since I started this bullet journal with the month of May, I didn’t include a 2020 calendar at the beginning because I wouldn’t be using it anyway & it will just take some space. So far, I like how this turned out. Actually, the entire spread for May is already completed but I wouldn’t be sharing those yet until I finished filling in the contents, so I’ll probably put them up in June.

That’s it for now.