The Colouring Notebook and a Different Kind of Advent Calendar

Tags

advent calendar, coloring notebook, hannah braime, journaljoy

Hi everyone. Tonight I wanted to tell you about a Colouring Notebook that I purchased on a whim; I saw this video and promptly went to the link and ordered one. I don’t do that too often but I just had to have one.

I have been watching JournalJoy’s videos for a while now and always enjoyed them. A few times I have been tempted to buy a notebook she has reviewed but usually the companies either do not ship internationally or the shipping is prohibitively expensive. But this time everything was in my favour; Colouring Notebook ship internationally and right now the price is only $14.95 US! You can order one yourself at https://coloringnotebook.com/. You can choose blank, lined, or dot grid. Mine arrived in a little over a week. The postmark on the package said Ukraine.

I have some adult colouring books which I use on occasion but as soon as this arrived I started colouring in it right away. The 100 gram paper is very smooth and creamy. There are about 50 beautiful illustrations in it, interspersed with lined pages for writing. I will not be using my fountain pens in it due to feathering, as mentioned in the video. But my gel pens look fantastic in it, for writing or for colouring. I used my Staedtler Triplus 0.5mm markers for colouring and there was no bleed through.

I’m thrilled with it and would recommend it for a Christmas gift or a treat for yourself. It adds a new dimension to your journaling. I didn’t post any pictures of mine as I thought the video did a wonderful job.

And the second thing I wanted to talk about was the Hannah Braime Becoming Who You Are Advent Calendar. I get weekly emails from Hannah and her site is an amazing resource for journal writing and self-awareness. Her articles and classes encourage authentic living with compassion and courage. Her weekly emails are free for subscribers, as is her library with tons of thought provoking material.

I signed up for her Advent Calendar where I will receive a prompt each day, focusing on the year that has passed and the year to come. I’m so excited! Maybe I will write about them in my new Coloring Notebook. 🙂

The Phenomenon of Bullet Journaling

Tags

bullet journal, doug lane, livescribe, modern stationer, ryder carroll

How many of you keep a Bullet Journal? I don’t currently but the concept appeals to me. I first heard about Bullet Journaling on Youtube; can’t remember which of the many journalers I follow mentioned it. I just did a search on Youtube for “bullet journal” and it returned over 38,000 videos. And if you google the same you get over 34,000,000 hits. Quite the phenomenon.

It seems that Bullet Journaling is the brainchild of Ryder Carroll, and he has an excellent website describing his system. I’m not going to repeat it here, you can visit his website or Youtube or the millions of other blog posts about it. What I like about the system is the index, which I sometimes long for in my many journals, and the flexibility of the system, where some days you can write five pages and other days nothing at all. And it still all works.

Livescribe published an interview with Ryder Carroll in April of this year in which he discusses the system and the feedback he’s received. His system has had an especially positive effect on persons with learning disabilities and psychological disorders. At the heart, people respond to the method or they don’t; and he’s always open to people modifying his system to suit their unique needs.

At the end of the day, the big thing about the Bullet Journal is that it’s a series of methods so if a method doesn’t work for people, then I always advise not to use them. If they do work for them, great. And if there’s something they need the book to do, that it doesn’t, then they should go ahead and invent it. – Ryder Carroll

Doug Lane at Modern Stationer wrote a great article on how he learned to love paper again through this system.

…I find sitting down with my pen and notebook very relaxing. When I combine it with some music and perhaps even a Guinness, it is even better. It doesn’t feel like work. It feels like me getting my shit together. – Doug Lane

I would love to hear from you how you use this system, if you do, or if, like me, you would like to and are thinking about starting yet another journal to organize thoughts and dreams and tasks. Whatever system you use, have fun journaling the night away.

Scribbles on the back of a barn door

Tags

diary, lists, nature, notebooks, UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Reserve

The weather has its own methods of screwing up people’s ideas of how they can outwit it.

Bonus post for you today as I missed one last night. Below is a beautiful video put out by the UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Reserve showing the power and value of a couple’s 30+ years of observing and chronicling weather, flora and fauna patterns. The couple are from my part of the world, and the shots of their farm house and property bring a flash of home for me as I watch. Their collective journals have been studied by environmental students at Mount Allison and definite trends emerge from the analysis of their data. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did; as soon as it was over I went outside, took photos of my irises which are glorious this year, and filled up my bird feeders. It’s all about paying attention to what’s going on in your backyard.

…calendars, journals, or even scribbles on the back of a barn door…all hold value.

I need to borrow some money…

Tags

classic fountain pens, fountain pen geeks, omas, shakespeare

I love anything to do with the bard and I recently watched FPGeeks’ video about the OMAS William Shakespeare Limited Edition fountain pen. What a thing of beauty. And only $2,800!!

And you can read all about it here at Classic Fountain Pens. I LOVE how the handmade box turns into a mini writing desk. Sigh.

Maybe I can dip into my RRSP…… 🙂

 

Letters Live

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caitlin moran, guardian, letterslive.co.uk, matt berry, russell brand, shaun usher, simon garfield, stephen fry, the reading agency

Some videos for you to watch tonight. I recently stumbled upon Letters Live, a charity event put on by Canongate Books, to aid The Reading Agency in Britain. The event brings together high profile performers reading out “correspondence deserving of a wider audience.” They celebrate the power of a letter in a remarkable and worthwhile way. They also want to highlight two of their titles: Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, compiled by Shaun Usher, and To the Letter: A Journey Through a Vanishing World, by Simon Garfield. Both are available on Amazon.

Check out this year’s performers (including Caitlin Moran and Matt Berry): http://www.canongate.tv/discover/letterslive/ They are all worth watching.

Always remember that, nine times out of ten, you are not having a nervous breakdown. You just need a cup of tea and a biscuit. You would be amazed how easily and repeatedly you can confuse the two. Get a big biscuit tin.

And for some other video bits from Stephen Fry and Russell Brand on letter writing, check out this Guardian link.

Sitting at Table

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anna brim, paulus berensohn

In her video Emotionally Attached To My Journal Anna Brim said she was inspired by a video called Soul’s Kitchen, featuring Paulus Berensohn, in which he talks about the workshops he conducts on making your own journals. It’s a beautiful, inspiring video indeed, so I thank Anna for the recommendation. I hope you watch the entire video and, like me, are making plans on how to get my hands on his documentary film, To Spring From The Hand. Our local library doesn’t have a copy. Neither does Amazon. Oh well I’m sure I will stumble across it when I’m meant to. In the meantime watch Soul’s Kitchen and go write in your journal!

[Journal writing] is sitting at table with the questions we carry.

Dear Lena

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documentary, handwriting, letters, pen pals

In my post of January 9/13, Email Just Not As Satisfying, I talked about Melissa and Lena who had been pen pals for 36 years. Well I found a preview of the film, which is scheduled to be released in April this year:

http://vimeo.com/75961926

Cannot wait for the film to be released! I just hope it is released in Canada in wide release. If not I will hunt it down online!

Happy letter writing.

Ink Nouveau

Tags

goulet pens, ink nouveau

Lately I’ve been watching videos from Ink Nouveau (the folks behind Goulet Pens) and just yesterday they posted Episode 9 of Goulet Q&A: Paper and Notebooks. Brian Goulet hosts and is very knowledgeable about all things to do with pens, fountain pens, paper and notebooks, and he’s entertaining as well.

The channel has over 300 videos on everything you could possibly ever ask about pens and ink and notebooks, to tips on running an online business and losing weight (Brian has lost 50 pounds in the last two years).

Some of my favorites:

Sula Jane & Earl Leather Pen Cases

Midori Traveler’s Notebook Arrangements

Goulet Pens Harlem Shake

and of course, The Fountain Pen News

Enjoy!