We live in a technological world, but sometimes there is no replacing the joy of actual paper and the turning of pages.
I have been collecting unusual and beautiful journals for a few years now. I use them mostly for jotting down design ideas for my shop, organizing imaginative displays, drawing new floor plans, and keeping track of new products or home furnishings on the market. I also love to have them with me on my trips and enjoy collecting items along the way to place into them. Here are a few from my own personal collection:
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| My bookshelf at home stacked up high. Great for recipes, daily musings and work/design ideas.The cute windmill was a New Year's Eve Hat gift from St. Germain. |
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| I love anything with fabric or embroidery along with handmade paper. The prettier the better. |
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| My poppy-covered personal journal which is hand-embroidered in silk and cotton. I use this as my diary and dream journal. |
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| This is an example of a large travel journal in the making. I've collected lots of bits and pieces. |
I purchased a few of these at Anthropologie (which always has a nifty and cool journal selection), and several I just picked up on trips and have saved for future use. Some are half used, some are specific to one project, and some are meant for my purse (got to have a handy way to jot down my thoughts on the run). The red leather one below is my all-time favorite as I purchased it on a trip to Paris and it was the first one I ever used to document my shop ideas. Most of the ideas I drew up in this journal have come true. A nice thing I discovered was that "if I draw it, it will appear", or at least some form of it will appear. Thoughts, feelings, then action, often all come together. I highly recommend this method if you are stuck with an idea or thought and want to finally see it come forward.
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| I heart Paris stationery shops.... |
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| One of the first drawings I did of our current gallery was placed in a red leather Paris journal. I was trying to visualize the placement of objects and art. We did not end up using "Galleries Ballard" as our name but that's fine. Our real name, R.H. Ballard Gallery, works just great. |
I also often use Moleskine for my go-to journal, and use the larger more ornate ones for when I am alone with my creative thoughts and want to dream and imagine new possibilities in my life and work. Here are some amazing journals I found. You can use these ideas as a starting point for creating your own journalistic masterpiece. Take a peek. These little gems are artful, crazy, unique and inspiring.
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| Handmade House Journal from etsy.com |
What a wonderful post. I confess to liking paper in this computer world too. I keep a kitchen journal to jot ideas, recipe creations/testing, menus etc. It's so neat to be able to leaf back and see what I was thinking several years ago.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sylvie! Journals are a great history-keeper for sure. I bet you have some lovely recipe journals. I too enjoy going back and looking at design ideas I had, old drawings and musings. Appreciate your comments. xo
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