… I just put some new journal designs up in the store, and if you’re reading this, then you’ll know that you get $10 off your next Five and a Half purchase if you type in SHOPIFY54JFJ193 when you checkout. Enjoy!

Elsewhere, in the mail: no matter how fast I put away, organize and reorganize, things seem to still pile up very quickly. We received a bunch of really neat stuff in the mail recently, to add to our collection of things we keep around and stare at in awe. From the guys over at Coudal, the amazingly illustrated Bearskinrug Swap Meat Scrapbook, and a set of beautfifully letterpressed and screenprinted first editions of the working journals; via Flickr, our own photographs on Moo NoteCards; and issue 10 of JPG magazine, where my photo journal tutorial was printed, which happened because all you wonderful people voted for its publication ~ thank you, thank you!

There is something so alluring about the thick white borders of polaroids. And there is something so pristinely simple and powerful about the way Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi frames her pictures in the white pages of her book Cui Cui.

With those things in mind, I came up with my designs for the new travel journals. Hidden beneath the clean and simple covers are the little conveniences ~ flaps and envelopes, a pen loop, and a little metal clasp closure that keeps the book securely shut. I’m going to keep one to write in myself.

It seems that a flock of festive birds has moved into the greenery near the back of our apartment. So the distant sounds of revving cars and sirens have been replaced by the very loud and tropical chatter of chirps, squawks and squeaks from our new neighbors. Summertime, in full swing.

I’ve been waiting all day for the sun to come streaming in through the windows. It’s usually so sunny in here that I need to have the curtains closed, but the one day I’d like it to be really bright (so that I can take product photos), it’s cool and shadowy in the studio. I’ve been waiting and waiting, and finally in the late afternoon, the sun peeked out for just a bit, so I was able to take pictures of these. Have a look!

We picked up the latest issue of Monocle magazine, which has some really great product features (plus some amazingly well-written and researched articles). Here are my favorites: Blanka’s limited-edition daily calendar journal, MUCU’s blank notebooks, and Bien’s leather pencil pouches.

I’ve been very quietly (and excitedly!) adding new journals and other printed matter to the store and I’ll be putting up a couple of other things in the following weeks. Thanks so much to all of you who’ve already started ordering the new designs! I’ll be making more of a ruckus about everything soon.

Now, time to stare at some plants for a poster to make next week.

Our stay in Taipei is drawing to a close and I’m filling my suitcase with things I’ve bought here that I’m bringing back to New York: Pilot pens, old school pencils, rolls of clear and double-sided tape (for some inexplicable reason, I prefer the Asian variety over the ones in the U.S.), design magazines (including zakka and ppaper), and a bunch of design books.

I’m really inspired and motivated by the stationery and accessory designs I’ve seen here. Almost every day, I’ve been scribbling sketches and taping together bits of paper to test out different ideas.  I’m excited to get back to my studio and materials ~ my new journal and notebook designs are almost ready, so if all goes according to schedule, they will be making their debut in mid-June!

Elsewhere: the mogu empire, the national stationery show through the eyes of design*sponge, and via Amy of Greenjeans, Craft In America: Memory, Landscape, Community, which I’m going to stay up and watch (I should be over jetlag by then).

My sketchbook is one big mess of rough-drafts, filled mostly with illegible notes and blobs. When I’m working on a new design, I start by going through my pages of scribbles and choosing a few that I like. Then, on pieces of looseleaf paper, I sketch out different versions of illustrations which I scan into the computer to add color and other effects (with the help of my more tech-saavy husband) to make a bunch of test prints.

Here’s a picture that shows the different stages of my Momofuku journal cover design, from the first scribbles to a detailed sketch, and then a printed draft. There was something off about that draft, and we worked at it for almost a week (wanting to completely drop that cover design) till we came up with the final version, which shows an image of only two bowls of noodle and very little additional color. We’d gotten so caught up in adding things to the design, when it was the simplest arrangement that looked good. That’s something I keep in mind these days when designing new things.

For a few more pictures of my sketchbook or those of some other designers, stop by the Trunkt blog for a spin!

I never thought about having models holding up my journals to take product shots, the way that t-shirts are often shown. It seems like that might be a good idea though ~ I’m loving this picture that the guys at Coudal took of the journals I sent to them for the Coudal Swap Meat. Leave it to these design gurus to know how to make things look good!

Since none of our friends have kids that are old enough to properly hold up a journal (they’re all still in the diaper-bundled gurgling stage), I’ll have to settle for getting our friends to model with the journals instead. Grown-ups just don’t look as cute, but I suppose they’ll have to do for the time-being!

{If you’d like to participate in the Coudal Swap Meat, there’s still time — they’ve extended the deadline till the end of April — find out more here. I can’t wait to see what I’ll be getting in the mail!}

It’s been an 11-month whirlwind, and on April 22nd (Earth Day), Five and a Half will turn one year old! I’ll save the birthday thank you’s (there are so many people to whom I am so grateful) till the actual day, in the meantime, we’re starting off the festivities with a birthday sale in the Five and a Half store! As our way of saying thank you for all your support, we’re offering a little discount so that all our journals originally priced at $28 are now only $22!

And while supplies last, we’re putting a recollected bundle in every journal purchase — a package stuffed with patterned, textured, colored, plain, artist, handmade, japanese, aged papers; vintage postcards and envelopes; and other bits and pieces of ephemera — precious papers I’ve collected over time but realize would be put to much better use in the hands of those who are more adept than I am with tiny scissor and sharp x-acto knives.

In the new year for Five and a Half, I’m looking forward to growing a little and maybe dipping my toes into other paper goods and accessory designs, to cooking up some fun new projects and collaborations with other artists and illustrators, and to sharing with each of you many more days of ideas, excitement and fun!

The boxes are almost all unpacked and my studio is set up to work in, but it’s still very sparse. It’s missing the settled-in feel of random books, pictures, and trinkets ~ the clutter that gives it personality and character as my studio. So I’ll be busy “cluttering up” my studio a bit today and tomorrow, getting it ready for an upcoming photo shoot we’re doing this weekend for a little feature on me and my journals in the spring/summer issue of a design magazine.

Elsewhere, some interesting things I’ve been looking at and reading: Danny Meyer’s Setting the Table: The Power of Hospitality in Business, Youngna Park’s adventures in Bolivia, and Nicole Strasburg’s Pentimento.

Two of the three new journals in our spring/summer line, featuring some stunning photographs of west-coast suburbia (printed in fade-proof ink on canvas paper covers), now available in the store, just in time for Five and a Half’s first birthday.