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Recently I've been running my life out of a collection of little notebooks which I keep in different covers because of their differing sizes. I got it into my head that I could make a single cover to accommodate all of the individual notebooks if that cover contained elastics of different lengths. Is this a good idea? Who knows! Will I tire of its bulk? Maybe. Point of departure was this: An X17 cover containing 3 A7 notebooks: (1) Calendar, (2) Daily Tasks and Time Tracker, (3) "Scratch Monkey" for ephemeral scribbles and notes. A passport size Traveler's Cover containing 4 B7 items: (4) Medication tracker, (5) Medications in a mustard colored cloth zipper insert, (6) Medical history, Passport. A leather cover containing one pocket sized notebook: (7) Epictetus' Enchiridion, where I'm slowly coping Elizabeth Carter's 1750 translation of same. The result is this: I've used a 3mm thick piece of leather. It's quite stiff. It had originally been an A6 notebook cover I'd not used in years. I've arranged five columns of three pairs of holes (one pair for each notebook size) in a space of about 3 cm. I've added an additional pair of A7 and B7 holes outside of this area for additional small notebooks. These notebooks are narrower than pocket size, so they can be hung a little farther forward from the spine without jutting out past the cover. I prefer to hang my notebooks on thin elastics which distort them less than thick elastics. This thinness allows smaller holes which means I can run multiple elastics in parallel and don't have to faff around with jump bands. I'm using a length of 1.5mm rainbow colored elastic cord I picked up years ago through Amazon. I ran a single length of elastic through the appropriate holes for each notebook size. Using only three lengths of elastic means a little more work assuring even tensioning but also fewer knots to tie. I've chosen to use two closure elastics, both run horizontally across the cover. Both emerge from the spine: one high, one low. This arrangement seems better than a single central elastic for holding a pen to the cover. The closure elastics shown in the photos are temporary. I intend to replace the single strands with a braid of three. I've done this before on my Traveler's Notebook and I like the way it looks. All the previously mentioned notebooks fit, though I've exchanged the A7 "scratch monkey" for a pocket size notebook with the same function. It's an ugly duckling, but it's my ugly duckling!

Hey y'all, I've been thinking about getting a Sailor Chalana, as I've been able to find one from one of my friends. He's offering me a great price for it, as it's only been used once or twice and the box is a little damaged. I've been itching to get it, but I thought I'd come here for thoughts before my ...... hobby.... gets me into a situation I may not want to be in. I've also heard that the Chalana's are being discontinued? Anywho... Sailor Chalana, Yay or Nay? -Charles