Loved this! Notebooks and planners are indeed magical, but I've also fallen HARD for the charms of Google Calendar: the colors! :) I don't carry a notebook with me, but I've used the Writual Planner (https://writualplanner.com/products/2023-writual-tarot-journal-paperback) for going on three years now, and I love it: space for astrological info, as well as Tarot cards.
Lovely essay, Alicia. Thank you for sharing your reflections and stimulating mine. Here's to the many notebooks I bought that were so magical I could never bring myself to fill them with the mundane!
The majority of my life from age 12 on is documented in small black Moleskin notebooks, 1-2 per year, which are covered in collages of stickers and magazine cutouts preserved by clear packing tape wrapped around the hardcover. I am a completist and once I establish a standard format I hate deviating, but I switched to Leuchtturm1917s in my late 20s since the dot grid format suits my hybrid writing/sketching/keepsaking style better.
I’m much more promiscuous when it comes to planners, and am currently planning to try the Saint Belford in 2023. I am buying a Hobonichi Techo Weekly as a backup though, and odds are seem good I’ll end up switching to that before January is over. Japanese planners have been among the best I’ve tried if anyone is still in the market.
This was quite lovely. Your words turned every notebook into a very tangible (palpable?) thing. Amazing writing (for me, who never really had/felt this kind of close relationship with a notebook - maybe a bit w/my research and lecture notebooks? lol)
I love notebooks and now I love journaling and full then up quickly.
I miss the little stationers that were around when I was a child in England. A new pen or felt tip pens and paper gave me a great feeling of potential. What magic would I create this time?
I like notebooks, too. I hand-make them and give them to my students (I teach in a continuation high school in Santa Clarita, CA). https://photos.app.goo.gl/hHkdhLhUXhe9sxhc6 They're really more like sketchbooks because the pages have no lines. I make them with 80lb drawing paper and cover them with fabric. The covers themselves are made from gesso and canvas covered cardboard made for painting. The books are hand-stitched. It is a relaxing way to spend time, and keeps me from going crazy sometimes!
Loved this! Notebooks and planners are indeed magical, but I've also fallen HARD for the charms of Google Calendar: the colors! :) I don't carry a notebook with me, but I've used the Writual Planner (https://writualplanner.com/products/2023-writual-tarot-journal-paperback) for going on three years now, and I love it: space for astrological info, as well as Tarot cards.
Deborah A. Cecere
Lovely essay, Alicia. Thank you for sharing your reflections and stimulating mine. Here's to the many notebooks I bought that were so magical I could never bring myself to fill them with the mundane!
The majority of my life from age 12 on is documented in small black Moleskin notebooks, 1-2 per year, which are covered in collages of stickers and magazine cutouts preserved by clear packing tape wrapped around the hardcover. I am a completist and once I establish a standard format I hate deviating, but I switched to Leuchtturm1917s in my late 20s since the dot grid format suits my hybrid writing/sketching/keepsaking style better.
I’m much more promiscuous when it comes to planners, and am currently planning to try the Saint Belford in 2023. I am buying a Hobonichi Techo Weekly as a backup though, and odds are seem good I’ll end up switching to that before January is over. Japanese planners have been among the best I’ve tried if anyone is still in the market.
This was quite lovely. Your words turned every notebook into a very tangible (palpable?) thing. Amazing writing (for me, who never really had/felt this kind of close relationship with a notebook - maybe a bit w/my research and lecture notebooks? lol)
I love notebooks and now I love journaling and full then up quickly.
I miss the little stationers that were around when I was a child in England. A new pen or felt tip pens and paper gave me a great feeling of potential. What magic would I create this time?
I like notebooks, too. I hand-make them and give them to my students (I teach in a continuation high school in Santa Clarita, CA). https://photos.app.goo.gl/hHkdhLhUXhe9sxhc6 They're really more like sketchbooks because the pages have no lines. I make them with 80lb drawing paper and cover them with fabric. The covers themselves are made from gesso and canvas covered cardboard made for painting. The books are hand-stitched. It is a relaxing way to spend time, and keeps me from going crazy sometimes!
Send me an address and I'll send you one.