The Yamaha site in Japan has the coolest paper folding section. It has full colour models of motorcycles and animals that you can download, print out and assemble.
They are amazing! There’s an ultra-realistic section with a model of a Yamaha MT-01 that just takes your breath away.
There’s also a section on the Seasons that has the best Jack’O'Lantern pattern. Check it out!
The Sanwa Supply website has a Paper Museum section with a heap of cute paper folding craft activities.
The full colour pattern files are available for download in PDF format. You just print them out, cut out all the pieces, then fold and glue.
I thought this paper dogs and kennel pattern was really cute.
The site is in japanese, so navigating is a little difficult at first, but keep at it because there’s something interesting behind every link.
I’m starting to accrue a bit of a collection of Moleskine notebooks and it occurred to me that I may never get around to using them all. That got me thinking about all the different ways I could use them and this blog post was the result. What will follow is 52 posts on different ways that you can use your Moleskine notebook.
The #1 position on my Uses For A Moleskine Notebook list is taken by the Personal Journal. This is what I use my current Moleskines for. They contain daily what’s happening entries, responses to journal writing prompts, pasted in items such as movie tickets and programme clippings and anything else I feel like adding. As well as creating an historical record, journal writing is a great outlet for your day to day worries.
Moleskine’s make great journals, the paper is lovely to write on, the notebooks are sturdy and hardwearing and the back pocket is a great place to tuck mementos. I also love the size, the pocket Moleskine’s fit nicely in a handbag or pocket so you can take them anywhere. That said though, I have to admit that my next journal is a large sized one - all that more space to journal in.
There are some great resources on the web for starting your own personal journal. Here are a handful of sites to get you started:
My firend Andrea has just set up a Squidoo lens called Books to Read and Read and Read and Read … that focuses on her favourite books.
Well like a lot of people I love to read. Like most of them I have my “old favourites” (some of which are not so old) that are tattered and torn yet have to be read over and over.
Books can take you on the most incredible journeys, provide an old friend (and maybe even a few new ones) when you are all alone, they can inspire, challenge, or purely entertain. For all these reasons and more here are some of the books that I love to read and read and read and read…….
There’s a lot of great reading recommendations, so if you’re a book fan make sure you check it out!
I wrote yesterday about my first Moleskine and what a great little journal it was. I retired it at the end of 2006. I then went and did something very silly. I had a pile of blank notebooks I’d acquired over the years and rather than spending money on a new Moleskine straight away I thought I should use these other notebooks up first.
My new journal for 2007 was a pocket sized Debden lined notebook with a textured red cover. The red cover was cool - it went very well with my Moleskine 2007 red pocket weekly planner + notebook. The pages were a lovely off-white colour, a little more yellow than a Moleskine but still pleasing to the eye. The price tag wasn’t painful at all - I could afford to have a whole stack of these for the cost of one Moleskine! That was about as good as the notebook got though … you really do get what you pay for.
Firstly, there was no back pocket. Nowhere to stash the cool little bits and pieces I pick up and mean to someday glue into the journal. Then there was the fact that my ink bled completely through the page - I could only write on one side of each. (At least that meant I’d be finished with the book sooner.) Also, after only a couple of weeks, the cover was beginning to look grotty from bouncing around in my bag all the time. The Moleskine cover had obviously been a lot harder wearing, and the black had hidden any marks 
The most annoying thing of all though was how the notebook wouldn’t lie flat properly. It was such a pain to write in that I began to feel reluctant to journal at all.
By the first week of February I’d had enough. It had to go. The next Thursday evening I dropped into Borders and selected a nice pocket sized lined Moleskine. No price tag hesitancy this time - I knew this little notebook was going to be worth every cent. That night I carefully transposed the few journal entries I had made and then ceremoniously tossed the Debden notebook in the bin.
Lesson learnt!
When I first read about Moleskines it was in a post on 43Folders. I’d been link surfing through various articles on David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) method and came across the post. The notebooks sounded cool, but I remember thinking “what’s all the fuss - they’re just a notebook?”
Soon after I dropped into the Brisbane Borders store to grab a copy of David Allen’s book and noticed that they had Moleskine’s in stock. I picked up a pocket sized one for a look and was immediately struck by the feel of the notebook. I don’t know how to explain it, but they really do feel different from other notebooks. They’re very solid and have a nice weight about them. The pocket sized ones feel good in your hand. I liked them immediately.
They are a little expensive … I have to admit the price tag made me hesitate. I rationalised that the notebook would become my new journal and therefore a priceless possession to me, thus making the initial cost negligable. Ha ha! There was not arguing with that. A squared pocket sized one ended up coming home with me.
That little Moleskine became my new journal and has seriously been the most comfortable journal I have ever owned. It was comfortable to write in, comfortable to hold, a comfortable size to throw in my handbag (which meant it went everywhere with me), and even a comfortable colour with it’s plain black cover and off white pages. Beyond comfort though, I just enjoyed it. It added something extra to an already enjoyable pasttime. It was a sad occasion when I retired it at the end of last year, but 31st December 2006 seemed such a fitting day for an ending.
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