The Story of the Happiedori

If you are not familiar with what a Happiedori is, let me explain.
A lovely blogger in Malaysia creates fauxdori's (which, is to say, homemade Midori Traveler's Notebooks), and she calls them "Happiedori"s, because her internet handle/screen name/user name is Happie Scrappie.
You can find her blog here and her BigCartel shop here - and I highly recommend both!

What drew me to the Happiedoris versus any other fauxdori I had seen was the amount of color involved. These are made using a fauxleather, two layers which are glued together, so you can have one color on the inside, and one on the outside. And goodness are these colors bright!

I purchased the Winterdori pack, in color selection A (more on that in a bit). I made my order on December 21st, it shipped out on December 28th, and it arrived here last Tuesday (January 13th).

Alright, on to the photos! I took these as fast as I could, because I knew I needed to, but I really just wanted to start assembling everything as soon as it arrived!

The "Winterdoi" pack comes with a bunch of extras - what you see on the right, and in the picture below.

Also included, which you can sort of see at the bottom of the photo, is a blank/unlined notebook. I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for, as I've grown rather fond of the notebooks I made using templates from Nina is a Paper Nerd (which I have actually been using since the 1st of this year, while waiting for this little lady to show up).

The "Winter" part of this name comes from the winter theme - each Winterdori pack comes with a Snowman charm (see first and second image) and a snowflake bead on the top of the spine (which even when it turns into summer, I will probably keep on!).

As I said earlier, I had ordered selection A, which was for rose gold outside and a peach inside.
Except about three hours after I placed my order, I received an email from Sam (the lovely woman behind Happie Scrappie) saying that she was terribly sorry, but she was out of the peach, and that I could either get a refund, or she would put a hot pink inside instead of the peach. I (obviously) said yes to the hot pink. I'm sure the peach would have matched the gold on the outside better, but I do love how it turned out!

It took me a bit to figure out how I wanted the notebooks to be set up. I tried the basic way and hated it.
I had the kraft folder around the third notebook and hated it.
I had the kraft folder around the middle notebook and hated it.

Then I tried it this way (with the extra elastic behind the main elastic), and said "meh, it will do", with the kraft folder still around the last notebook.

With three notebooks and a folder, there is still plenty of room for more (see all that pink?). I do know, from my internet searching, that a standard Midori does not hold much more than three notebooks and a folder without creeping out past the edges, and as this is something I wanted to avoid, I'm very happy with how Sam does her sizing.

My least favorite part?
Because there is so much room for so many notebooks, the elastic closure nips into the fauxleather quite a bit.

Which I have hopefully solved with a pen. So far, it's working out quite well.
Also, sadly, the Leuchttrurm pen loop I ordered from Amazon will not fit my Coleto pen. It was much smaller than I thought it would be, but as it's fully elastic I thought I could stretch it out. And then realized that the grip of my Coleto is rubbery, and there was no way it would ever fit. So I've resigned to keeping just the pen-clip-bit in the loop, and it's actually working well (as it's secured by the pen loop and the elastic that goes around the book).

And now I'm done fiddling with it, because I found the Perfect Layout.
Two notebooks, elastic together, behind the main elastic. Do this twice. Then, kraft folder attached to the main elastic in the middle.
Seriously, it's perfect. And there's room for more!

In the end, I'm really glad I ordered this.
One, because it is everything I had hoped it would be, so far as the color goes.
Two, because the main elastics are orange.
Three, because it can fit so much.

But, honestly, one of the more important reasons? It's fauxleather. I'm using this as a scripture journal/church notes journal/etc book, so that means it goes to church with me. And I had my hands all over it for quite a bit of time yesterday. My hands sweat quite a bit, and I don't think a leather Midori would stand up quite nearly as well as this will - this won't end up with wet hand prints all over it! And if it gets a bit dirty, a swipe with a wet cloth will clean it up.

Sam's customer service is top-notch as well. She emailed me very quickly about the peach not being available, and then double-checked with me a few days later to make sure that I really did want the pink (she makes these by hand, so that time in between was to be expected).
Granted, I did not find out that my package had shipped until the 9th of January, but I follow her on Instagram, and she had stated that her orders were all caught up with and that she was going on vacation, shipping notices would be sent out afterwards (but everything was out and on its way).
And the little Christmas tree tag in the first two pictures? A little note wishing me a happy new year.

Seriously, I'm in love with this thing.
Oh, and I'm naming her Lydia. :)

~Havok

P.S. Just a quick note. I was not asked to write any of this, and this is all my own opinion. All of the links here are added of my own volition and were added to share information, and not in any way am I being offered anything for showing you over to Sam's shop. I paid for Lydia myself, and was not asked to write a review on her - I just really wanted to share how gorgeous she is!