Something No. 7

7.  I like using a Datebook as a Journal.

I didn't realize how much I liked that method until the last couple of months, mainly because I did not order a datebook for this year. 

I stumbled upon the first datebook and ordered it from an online book club.  I think it was a fantastic sale price, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

I found it was a great way to keep track of things in a spur-of-the-moment kind of way.  After all, I make books, I don't buy them.  So this was not to be my real journal.

But at the end of the year, when I was thinking all I did was work and missed having time for art, I looked back through that book, where I had quickly added pictures and notes of things I had done, places I had gone... and I realized I had done more than I thought.  So, I ordered another one the next year, and the next, and the next.

For 2010, I have really wanted to get back to making my own journal, with some good hot press watercolor paper.  I never got around to it, so I am in journal limbo right now.  I am realizing the advantages of that datebook.  It has a nice sturdy cover and it opens flat.  It has interesting things printed on the pages (which can sometimes be a problem, because the interesting things there are more interesting than what is going on in my life, and I don't want to cover it up!)  Of course there is no reason why I could not do the same thing with a composition book or a sketchbook of some kind.  But I am really drawn to that stack of spiral bound books.  I have to rethink this for next year.

P.S. --

I was asked where I got these datebooks.  They are from QPB (Quality Paperback Book Club at http://www.qpb.com/).  However, they only sell the date books at the end of the year, then they are gone.  The closest thing they have listed right now is a Stephen King book, but there is no inside view, so I don't know if it is like this one.  If you scroll further down here, you can see the one for 2010, called One Spirit Book of Days - a spiral calendar and small blank paperback book to match.  I searched for this particular 2010 calendar and saw several that were way overpriced, and also saw some that looked like the same thing but were Not the spiral hardback calendar.  Mine is 7.5 x 10 when closed.  There is a two page spread for each week.  As you can see above, I left the words visible that say "Bird Brainiacs Unite" as it fit in with some of my photos for that week!