Who needs the original Midori Traveler's Notebook zipper pocket refill when you can just go to your favourite stationery store and find exciting alternatives?
I think I must have just got lucky though. I was browsing the sale section in the flagship Paperchase store in London the other day, and I came across these fabulous traveler's notebooks with plastic zipper pocket covers. I think I paid something like £3 – can you believe it? Maybe I should go back and get more! Who wants one?
What's so great about them?
Well, they fit in my Midori Traveler's Notebook for starters!
They're not a perfect fit, but it definitely works. The zipper pocket bit is slightly wider than the rest of the notebook so it sticks out the side of my Midori slightly.
But that doesn't bother me, especially when I put the insert into the middle of my Midori so that it doesn't interfere with my pen loop which is stuck to the inside of the back leather cover.
The front inside-left has two long full-length slots and a cool card slot that flips out to the side.
I suppose now that I think about it, you could actually use it like a page marker to mark where you are at in the notebook!
The back-right has the full length zipper pocket (see picture with ruler below), and on the inside it has various card slots and sticky label slots, plus one full-length slot which I have shown with my ruler again further down.
The whole plastic cover can be used by itself or you can use it like a notebook cover protector.
Unfortunately the Midori Traveler's Notebook refills are ever so slightly too long height-wise to slip into the cover without the card warping, but only by about a millimetre, so you could just trim the refill cover and then it would slip in easily.
In all honesty though, you don't need to slip the refill covers into the actual plastic because the notebook is held in place with the Midori elastics anyway.
The cover is a clear and shiny plastic, which means it is fairly sturdy and not floppy. It has a cloud pattern printed on it which I think is rather cute. This means that the colour or design on your refill notebook cover will show through.
The cover is a clear and shiny plastic, which means it is fairly sturdy and not floppy. It has a cloud pattern printed on it which I think is rather cute. This means that the colour or design on your refill notebook cover will show through.
The notebook it comes with has mint green vertical stripes and then coloured stripes going across horizontally with an aeroplane design to show it is intended as a travel journal.
Here is a picture of my beloved brown Midori Traveler's Notebook with the new zipper pocket notebook inserted.
You can see it does show a little bit at the side, but if you like your Midori stuffed and groaning with goodies then you probably won't mind things sticking out.
I'm currently using the inside front slots to house my favourite stickers for quick and easy access, and I will probably use the zipper pocket at the back to store loose bits of paper, receipts... you know, that sort of thing :)
See you in the next post!
