It’s the middle of the week, and I hope you’re all having a good one. It’s getting pretty warm these days here in Toronto, and we’ve finally turned on the ACs. The baby has been motoring around in his diaper most of the time, which has cut down drastically on the amount of laundry needed for him, but has increased the number of baths he needs a day by around 500%, basically after every time he eats or comes near anything remotely liquid.
I love Midori stuff: I have two Midori Traveler’s Notebooks, I’ve been loving their MD Notebooks, their brass stuff is great – I use their alphabet and number rulers all the time. If I’ve been writing letters to you, you may have noticed a whole lot of airplanes on your envelopes, which is one of the cut outs on the number template ruler. Jon jokes that I basically only use their number rule to draw airplanes, but actually, FYI, I also use the number ruler to write the numbers for street addresses and postal codes.
However, one of the most useful products Midori makes are these Brass Index Clips. You don’t really think about them or hear about them often because they’re so understated, but that is part of what makes them so useful! They’re not flashy, but they just sit in your notebooks doing their thing. They hold pages together in their sturdy brass grasp.
Actually, I think these were more designed to be used for organization in an office setting, on files or folders, to note dates and section things off, but I mostly use mine in my notebooks and to keep papers together.
The front of these clips are used to hold the label of your section, like a tab on a divider. The back of the package shows you how these were designed to be used. The frame can either be clipped so it sticks out from the paper, as a tab, or the frame can be used as the clip, flush with the edge of the paper. See the pictures below.
The frame sticking out from the paper as a tab.
But if you don’t want the top of the brass index clip sticking out, you can also use the frame part as the clip.
The frame flush with the paper. I mostly use mine like this.
I use these in my notebooks as page holders but also to mark different sections – the front of my notebooks is for everyday notes, but I typically have a back section for blog stuff or ideas in general that are ongoing. I’ve been trying to keep a bit more organized in separating between household things and daily business details and bigger ideas for the blog or business.
We’re thinking of taking a train trip next summer to the West Coast, go through the prairies and see the Rockies, and you bet I am excited about that. The section currently says “Train trip next summer planning” and is otherwise blank, but I’m working on it.
They are pretty sturdy clips so they can hold several pages together, if you just want to clip them like a paper clip. They’re much heavier than a standard paper clip, so if you just have it on one or two pieces of paper, your paper will definitely flop over.
I use these clips on my desk to help organize groups of papers or photographs or envelopes together.
I’m hoping for more Midori stock, especially that Blue Cover, sometime soon – maybe in the next few weeks, maybe closer to the end of August. We now carry quite a bit from the Midori brand, but I love that everything from this company, like these Brass Index Clips, is super high quality in material, paper quality, finishes, thoughtfulness – all of the details are just right.
Wonder Pens - Life Behind a Stationery Shop 