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inlovewithjournals

~ musings on the hand-written life

inlovewithjournals

Tag Archives: journaling

Monday Miscellany

18 Monday Jan 2016

Posted by inlovewithjournals in monday miscellany

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Tags

fastcompany.com, journaling, michael grothaus, moleskine, najowrimo, the well appointed desk

Now here’s an article from fastcompany.com that claims journaling is incredibly beneficial to your overall health. But we all know that, don’t we? 🙂 Seriously though, Michael Grothaus gives 8 tips for starting and/or maintaining a journaling practice that will have long lasting benefits. I think my favourite tip is You Needn’t Be Shakespeare; down that road lies pretentiousness.

This is a fun exercise for your journal: 50 Wide-Ranging Lists for Your Journal from the NaJoWriMo site. Some of them sound like a ton of fun, like #6 (list of cities you’ve slept in for at least one night) and #25 (list of the first sentences of your top ten fave books). Others, like #36 (list of personal secrets) might be best kept to yourself, or in a very secure place.

Moleskine Notebooks can get a bad rap for the quality (or lack thereof) of their paper. The Well-Appointed desk took a second and very deep look at the paper in the Cahier, Volant and standard soft-cover Moleskine notebook and presented the findings in this post. Might surprise you; it did me.

Until next post, happy writing!

My Christmas Journal

27 Sunday Dec 2015

Posted by inlovewithjournals in ideas for themed journals, journal writing, my journal collection

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

celtic colours, christmas, journal prompts, journaling

In my December 9th post I mentioned One Book December and how it has inspired me to start a Christmas Journal. I’ve been working on it and I wanted to share my progress so far.

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I did end up using my Celtic Colours journal. I decided to fill up the TWSBI with Waterman Absolute Brown to use as my primary pen for this journal.

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Here’s the first page. The paper seems super absorbent because the TWSBI usually puts down a thicker line. But the brown ink looks amazing on the tan paper.

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Here’s the contents page and I left an extra blank page for all of the entries. So far I have written about making our traditional tourtiere with my father, exchanging gifts with friends, my family’s Christmas celebration this year, some samples of wrapping paper from the gifts this year, and some Christmas journaling prompts.

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I really like this page. I love wrapping paper and in the past I have put pieces in my everyday journals over the Christmas season. So I definitely wanted to capture that in this dedicated Christmas journal. I think it adds some much needed colour to otherwise boring brown pages of writing.

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On this page, for the journaling prompts, I decided to change up the ink a little bit, incorporating some red and green.

I’m only up to page 14 and have lots of ideas for this journal. I want to talk about family traditions and treasured memories of past Christmases. I thought I might take photos of my favorite ornaments and paste them in. Even though it would make the journal bulky I might include some favorite Christmas cards too.

I’ve been conscious of having an audience for this journal some day, so there are recipes and observations and facts, details of family celebrations and gifts exchanged. Not a lot of emotion in these pages but that’s ok, I have my every day journal for that. I wanted this book to be a positive memory keeper for myself and for others who might read it down the road. We have so much to be grateful for and I hope my writing reflects that sentiment. Merry Christmas everyone.

Journal Writing Wednesday: 9 pages

01 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by inlovewithjournals in journal writing wednesday

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birdman, ed norton, england, journaling, michael keaton, scotland

What I’m currently using: the Paperblanks Blue Filigree journal, Winnable Executive Journal and the Believe In Yourself journal

Total pages written since last JWW post (June 24): 9

Total pages to date since project inception (Dec 11/13): 1051

Total pages written in 2015: 211

Absolutely loving using my Manuscript pen with Waterman Harmonious Green ink! Using it everyday in my journal.

Purchases: The sticky notes and dashboard from Mrs Brimbles arrived yesterday! And Anna was good enough to put the digital files of the diary inserts into Dropbox for me. I aim to review them this weekend. I have not made any purchases of the notebook/pen/ink variety this week.

Some points covered this week in my journals:

  • Saw the movie Birdman with Michael Keaton, Ed Norton and others. It was ok but a little weird. Ed Norton was brilliant.
  • My co-worker just got back from a fantastic trip to England and Scotland. She mentioned she has to catch up on journaling about her trip. So I made a mental note that I have to talk to her about journaling in the future.
  • I reviewed my pen present from my Dad in this post; I’ve been using it (along with the Manuscript pen) in my journal.
  • Last Saturday my sister and I went shopping for a dress for her for an upcoming family wedding. What a day! We had a lot of fun trying on dresses (her) and giving honest opinions (me). At the end of the day she went home with two gorgeous dresses with matching wraps! So much fun.

Until next week, happy writing!

My Mother’s Diaries

10 Sunday May 2015

Posted by inlovewithjournals in journal writing, my journal collection

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blueline, diary, handwriting, journaling, mother, mother's day, the brown brothers, zellers

I thought I would talk about my new Monteverde Prima in Tiger Eye today but then I changed my mind. This day is always a wildcard; I never know how I will feel on the day we celebrate Mothers. I haven’t mentioned my mother’s diaries before, probably because I knew such a post would be hard to write. I did talk about her in this post from May 2014 but today as I remember her and marvel at the 15 years since her death, I find myself reading her words.

For as long as I can remember my mom had a diary. They were usually coil-bound, the date stamped right on the front, with vinyl covers, the kind you buy in drug stores and Zellers in the fall and early winter, for the following year. Most of them are made by Blueline or The Brown Brothers of Toronto, and all are 8.5 x 5.5. I remember my parents discussing the weather, when we had the first frost, when we saw the first robin. And my mom would dig out past diaries and prove to my dad that she was indeed right about that Christmas it was so warm and green, or that year the power was out for 5 days straight.

When my mother died my sister and I wondered what to do with the journals. We cherish them but how to preserve them for posterity? We might not always live in the same city as we do now. We thought about having a complete duplicate set made somehow but we haven’t done anything so far. She has a few, and I have a few. They will be placed in the Box of Things to Save in Case of Fire (that I have organized in my mind).

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1974 is the first year in my stash; our mother would have been 36, I was 4, my sister 16. In the photo above page flags mark particular passages that I want to share or just remember. Or maybe copy into my own journal.

Mother was very much a chronicler of events; there is no drama, no page after page of angst or indecision. Every day lists the weather, what she did, where she went, who she saw and every once in a while, how she felt. So different from my own journal writing!

Over the years my sister and I have read to each other passages from these diaries, on special occasions like birthdays or Christmas. Often it is a game of “Who is that?” when a strange name is mentioned; “Where were they?” when a reference to an unfamiliar place is made; or “What on earth can she be referring to?” And often the passages are bittersweet; details of the “friendship turning into something more” of my sister and her now-husband are delightful to read, but also remind me that no such entry will ever be written about me and my husband, as she passed away before we even met. The story of our “friendship turning into something more” has been written by me, in my own fashion and I guess that pays homage to this tradition. My sister also keeps a journal, again in her own fashion that is different from mine and our mother’s. But it’s nice to know the urge to write is the same for all three of us.

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It’s amazing to have such an abundance of handwriting examples; one notices patterns and rhythms to the entries, and even secret codes (which we think we have figured out!) As I read them I can hear her voice in my head, which is sometimes hard but always comforting.

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The rest of my mother’s diaries that currently live with me. They smell a little musty still, and some of them have sticky spots (something spilled from 8 year old me, or an accidental coffee mug topple?)  I would have to double-check with my sister but I believe we have a complete collection from the early 1970s to 2000. Thirty years of first snows, robins, vacations, birthdays, weddings, babies, storms and sicknesses. And love. Lots of love.

Nice visiting with you Mom. Miss you. And Happy Mother’s Day.

 

Monday Miscellany

23 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by inlovewithjournals in monday miscellany

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costa rica, incowrimo, journaling, letter writing, miss vickybee

In honour of InCoWriMo, this is a beautiful story of a loving, illustrated correspondence between a man and wife, separated during wartime. I especially love the envelope featuring a fountain pen and ink bottle. What a wonderful keepsake of their love and understanding of each other.

Miss Vickybee made a beautiful Youtube video on why journaling makes her happy. She makes a very good case as to why no one’s life is boring and every one’s life is worthy of pen and ink.

Ok this has absolutely nothing to do with writing or journaling or fountain pens or really anything that I usually talk about here. But it’s just so darn cute I had to share. Guaranteed it will make you want to go to Costa Rica. Enjoy!

 

Journalling School

08 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by inlovewithjournals in bloghopping

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Tags

journaling

Journaling comes easy for me. I’m happiest and at my best when I’m writing. But it’s not that way for everyone. Some really want to journal and have no idea where to start. Well Ray Blake can take you through the process step by step in his Journalling School, featured on his blog, My Life All In One Place. You can even download the book for free! It’s an excellent course with tips on how to get started, what to do when you’re stuck, keeping things fresh and keeping your journal going. I found real value in this course and I think you will too, no matter what your current commitment level is to your journaling. Most of all, have fun with it!

Photo taken by inlovewithjournals.

Photo taken by inlovewithjournals.

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