How long are the notes? If typical sentence length or less, I created a file type for the purpose of keeping notes in my media folders and maybe this'll work for you. I like it over text notes because as soon as I open the folder I can read the note without having to open and close something.

Copy and paste into text file and save as .reg file, then merge...

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.note]
@="notefile"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.note\ShellNew]
"NullFile"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\notefile]
@="Note"
"EditFlags"=dword:00130000
"NeverShowExt"=""

; change this to where you're going to keep the icon
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\notefile\DefaultIcon]
@="D:\\Profile\\Icons\\NOTE.ico"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\notefile\shell]
@="open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\notefile\shell\open]
@="Do Nothing"

; this command does nothing and is here so you don't get the open with dialogue
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\notefile\shell\open\command]
@="rundll32.exe \"%1\""

Note icon - http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=06658323922699688066