That's such a shame. 😪

@Cynthia Moss I also use papermate inkjoy - these were actually once marketed as left handed pens and prove easy for me and my son to use without the smearing. Might be worth a try for your son??

@Dee Smith That's really interesting Dee. I bet your stuff is creative though!

@Zoe Zayco thanks for mention the youtuber. I'd not come across her stuff before so snother to add to my list. Mine is sort of a scrapbook too!!

@Cynthia Moss Oh that sucks if you've had your confidences broken several times with people reading your journal. That must have felt so bad. How do you trust someone after something like that? Would you mind sharing how you turn a cover into a travellers notebook? I'm interested in trying something like that. I'm really glad you've found a recording system that works for you now.

@Zoe Zayco Hi there. Hope you don't mind me asking but do you think the tombows are worth the price tag? I have been looking at them forever but the price puts me off and I bought cheaper brush pens but would splash out if they really do offer something 'more'

i always feel whatever way we choose to journal is the right way for us. There are many, many people doing exactly what you are doing (I'm one). This quarter I'm using a 'traditional' planner for more serious stuff and a dot-grid book for all my 'personal' stuff A fun one that I have just started is 'Songs that come into my head' page/collection - If I find myself suddenly thinking of/or singing humming a song out of the blue i write it down with a note of what I was doing at the time. It's fun to see if there are any patterns to pick out. Same sort of thing with randomly thinking of a person/event something that just 'pops' into my head for no apparent reason'. I also like keeping a note of things I want to look into when I have the time i.e. greek gods or whatever. I also keep a list for potential information resource,s so possible webpages, you tube creators etc and I go back at the end of the month and quickly see if I still think I want to keep them on the list and they go on the 'Mothership' list -which I will migrate to a new diary/journal when I start. This keeps me from loosing hours falling down a rabbit hole watching videos because I fear I wont remember the name and never find it again. To begin with I tried copying others that I was seeing online but found nothing was exactly me. Mine is just a messy colourful download of the thoughts, feelings, things that might interest me. I like it though and that's all that matters. Do what makes you smile! I beat yours looks amazing and one day your loved ones will have an emotional little journey flipping through the pages. Hope today is a better day pain wise for you.