Journal Journey: Archer&Olive

Hello my Lovelies, 🙂

Wednesday is a great day. It is half of the week and you know that you’re on the way to the weekend. 🙂 Because we are on our way to relaxion or a great time, I thought it would be nice to talk about the new Archer&Olive Traveler’s Notebook.

As you all know, I tested a notebook with black pages of this brand and liked the paper quality but a completely black notebook wasn’t really my cup of tea.

At first for those who haven’t come across this brand, are here some quick information.

Archer&Olive – The Famous Notebook Brand

The company Archer&Olive was founded by Bonnie Kuhl. Journaling helped her to learn organise her life with her mental illness and to reach her goals.
The cute part about the company is the name idea. The mascots of the company are the two cats Archer and Olive. On their website there is a part called „about“ and there you can read Bonnie’s story and some facts about the cats.

The product range is great. So you can shop:

• notebooks in different sizes, colours, and with different paper (white, black, kraft paper, neapolitan, watercolour)
• a subscription box (which isn’t available at the moment)
• pens and markers
• notepads with different paper
• planners
• stickers
• pencil pouches
• washi tape

The design of the notebooks is simpel, minimalistic, and very elegant. The colour range for the notebooks is really beautiful and with the elegant design the notebook looks amazing.

What Notebooks Did I Order?

Well, I couldn’t decide which colour I should take. The only thing I knew was that I wanted to try a Traveler’s Notebook. So my husband encouraged me to buy two of them. I bought the North Star and the Green Deep. Both notebooks cost 31 dollars each.
To be honest with you, it is a lot of money for a journal. On top came shipping costs of 19.19 US Dollars.

I ordered through their website and waited for five weeks. It is quite ok because during COVID orders need more time.

The Deep Green Traveler’s Notebook

The journals come in a beautiful white boxes with green leaves and in the center you can read the company’s name. I always keep the boxes and store stickers or washi cards inside. I absolutely adore the box design.

Around every journal is a little white paper wrapping which gives you some short facts like the pages, thickness of the paper and the promise of no ghosting or bleeding. Even this little sheet of paper is simple and elegant in its design. You can see a floural design on top and bottom of the sidelines.

The size of the journal is 11 x 21 cm (4.33 x 8.25 inches) which is the size of a Traveler’s Notebook. The journal is covered in cloth and it is a really soft surface. On the front of the cover you can see a little design like a leave or a star. For the Deep Green, the cloth is a really dark green. My only worry is that the cloth is getting dirty and I’m not sure if I could clean the cover easily. It would be really sad if it got dirty. And I know me because I take my journal with me and the risk that it will get dirty is huge.
The little design is imprinted and in golden colour. So it stands out and looks really lovely.

There paper weight is 160 gsm which is a really thick paper. From the thickness of the paper I know that you won’t have trouble with fountain pens, pencils, pens, highlighters, and markers. I watched YouTubers who even used watercolours in their Archer&Olive. So it is a perfect paper to be as creative as you would love to be with it. 🙂 The surface of the paper is very smooth and soft. The paper is bright white.

When you open the notebook you have a page to write down some information. After that you can start journaling straight away. There are 144 pages with dot grid. The pages aren’t numbered and there isn’t an index either. You can decide to number the pages or maybe the two dark green ribbons (bookmarks) are enough to find the page you are looking for. On the bottom of one ribbon is the logo of the company in gold.
The dot grid is great to see but it isn’t too visible which I really appreciate because that way the dots will disappear in the background when you fill in the pages with your thoughts and ideas. 🙂

The binding of the notebook is really good and stable. It doesn’t matter which page I opened, the notebook lays nearly flat on the surface. By that you can write in it easily.
At the back of the journal you have a pocket where you can store washi samples or stickers, and there is a pen loop as well. So you can have your favourite pen always with you. The pen loop is black on the Deep Green Traveler’s Notebook. To keep everything together you can use the elastic band which is in deep green as well.

Final Thoughts

As you know, I love everything in green so I adore this green because it is a rich deep green. I like the cloth but I have some doubt to keep the journal clean.
I appreciate the ribbon, the back pocket and the elastic band.

I like the simpel design because it looks really elegant. At the moment, I am using a Traveler’s journal with the inserts. My weekly insert is nearly full and I am thinking about using the Archer&Olive next but because it was so expensive and because of the mentioned worry for the cloth, I don’t want to use it. I don’t want to f* it up. Sorry for the f-bomb.

So I’m thinking about using it as a travel memory keeper instead or as a reading journal.
We will see, I’m not really sure about it yet. 🙂

And the most important question for me was whether it would fit in a Traveler’s Notebook cover. And: Yes, it fits! That is great so the cloth is protected but unfortunately I can’t put another insert inside the cover as well because the Archer&Olive is too thick.

Wisdom of the Day: Sometimes beauty can be found in simplicity.

Love to you all and stay healthy,
Chrissi
Evil Journalista