Lamy Safari Fountain Pen

  My husband gifted me this Lamy Safari Fountain Pen for my birthday. It was ordered from amazon.com

My first introduction to the Lamy pens was on this group I'm on at Facebook - Stationery Addicts!
Everyone raved about how beautifully the Lamy pens write!!

Now I have my own Lamy Safari in a nice charcoal grey colour. Yes, it writes like a dream. This one has a medium nib which is incredibly smooth! That seems to be a highlight of the Lamy pens - great smoothness!




I wonder if this is going to lead to the start of a collection? :)




On Amazon.com, the Lamy Safari is around $20. Here's my Amazon Affiliate link to the Lamy Safari http://amzn.to/1EPx4Td

On Amazon.in, it's around Rs.1800/= Here's my Amazon Affiliate link to the Lamy Safari on Amazon India
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen - Medium Nib

MATRIKAS Panache notebook

  Now the Panache notebooks come in 3 sizes, A5,  A4 and Std sizes and have 192 pages. These are perfect for office use, or as in my case, in a medical clinic or even for senior school and college students. The hard bound cover has a good design which is not apparent at first glance, but can be seen particularly at some angles. 






The A5 one is easy to carry around in one's handbag. The paper is smooth, like in all Matrikas products, but, like for the Personality Journals, I'd have liked a bit thicker paper. The binding is good, the satin page marker is useful and convenient.







The A4 ones are priced at Rs.190/=
A5 at Rs.110/=
STD size at Rs.135/=

Yes, this one gets 4 stars on 5.

MATRIKAS Personality Journal

This is a nice journal from Matrikas. It's a good size of 24.5 x 17.5 cms., hardbound with a design of a famous Indian personality on the cover. The pages have inspiring quotes by the personality. They are available in 6 designs, with Mahatma Gandhi, Sai Baba, Vivekananda, Chanakya, Mother Theresa and Dr. Ambedkar as the personalities.




I wanted to use the Mother Theresa one for my personal use since I'm a doctor and her work for the sick strikes a chord in me. The cover is a beautiful one in different shades of blue and white. The cover is foil stamped to give a special embossed kind of effect. Nice to the touch.













The journal has the usual pages for personal data, addresses and telephone numbers, etc. There is also an interesting page for the biography of the personality.

Each journal has 224 pages.










What I particularly liked were the 12 pages dedicated to each month where one can have the whole month at a glance. These pages are followed by regular pages with space for a date but there are no dates given, unlike a yearly diary. Each right hand side page has a thoughtful quote made by the personality.







The paper quality is nice, smooth too; but it would have been better to have slightly thicker paper, considering that it's not a notebook, but a journal. The journal has a satin page marker, useful for marking your place.

All in all, quite a decent journal. Each one is priced at Rs.215/= I'd give it 4 stars out of 5, simply because I'd have liked a thicker paper quality. But it's a good one, Matrikas!

MATRIKAS Cube Works - Ring Book

The Cube Works Ring Book is a spiral bound notebook available in two sizes of A4, A5 and A7 and offering a variety of 8 colours -black, blue, orange, green, yellow, white, pink and red.






The pink, red and blue ones are probably more suited for use by younger age-groups where the splash of colour makes these notebooks stand out. The other colours are perfect for office use - sober yet attractive. And for those who want to use these at home, use whatever matches your mood and personality!!





The notebooks have the special cover like the other Cube Works books - a very attractive design. However these spiral notebooks do not have slip covers but the water-proof covers are fixed.











The paper quality is good as usual, but the layout of the pages is better in the Cube Works Flexi as compared to these. The Cube Works Ring Book (A4 and A5) has margins (the spiral binding eats into the margin of the right side pages) and double upper lines . In my view, the top line could have been dispensed with and the regular lines could have started higher up. The pages have a section for Date and No. The top and bottom lines have small dots to make drawing of vertical lines perfectly symmetrical and easy.  Each notebook has 160 pages.


I would give these A4 and A5 Ring Books 3.5 stars out of 5.

The A7 Ring Books are a delight. Perfect for a pocket or a purse, esp. if you want to have some paper handy.   These too have 160 pages and have the spiral binding at the top, just like other little pocket diaries.

Their layout is just fine for their size and use.

I give these A7 Ring Books 5 stars on 5.



Update: Avoid using ink pens on these books. The paper is not thick enough to prevent ink from showing on the other side.

MATRIKAS Cube Works Flexi

Cube Works Flexi by MATRIKAS are good notebooks in vibrant colours.  Attractive plastic sleeves over a soft cover give them just the right amount of flexibility and protection.

They come in two sizes - A4 and A5.

The A4 sized ones are good for college and office use for making notes or keeping records.
The A5 sized ones are perfect for school use or casual use.

A5 and A4 together

They have 160 pages and are available in eight colours.

They are centre pinned and lined with a section on the top right of each page for the date. 

The paper quality is smooth and allows for writing with ink on both sides without smudging.  I particularly like the fact that the top line is darker but not double. I also like the non-margined look.

I am known to be finicky about my stationery but I must say that these notebooks pass my quality test with high grades. The only negative from my point of view is the date column. I would have liked to have the notebooks without it since I'm not a college student anymore!


All in all, these Flexi notebooks would get  4.5 stars out of 5!! A pleasure to use!

For more information on their products keep watching this blog!
You can also drool over their products at http://www.matrikas.co.in

Notebooks, journals and more!

Aren't these great? I received these wonderful looking stationery products yesterday from Matrikas. There are notebooks, journals, ring books, little notepads and more.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to review each product on this blog so keep visiting!

Yes, the creators at Matrikas sent them to me. But rest assured that my reviews will in no way be biased. And if there is enough interest generated, maybe we'll organise a contest and have a give-away!