Anne's Notebooks Part 2

I have always kept a notebook, but usually I had one at a time. When I was close to filling up one notebook, I'd start hunting for the next. I have only recently started hoarding notebooks. Recently like in the last 5 months. This is the beginning of my little stash.

The two little pink ones in the bottom row are Iconic "free note", meaning they have lined, grid & blank page (most of Iconic's notebooks also have calender / planner type pages). I have two of them because I thought I would be clever & take the first one apart to re-arrange the pages. I wanted the pink grid paper (!) dispersed throughout the notebook rather than all lumped together at the back. It was the first time I'd tried to take a notebook apart but since it bound by 2 little staples I thought it'd be easy. Know the problem? The stapler wouldn't reach  to the middle of the book!! So I bought another one. Eventually I figured out a way to stitch the binding on the first one, so now I have two.

The little cream coloured notebook next to it is an "Antique Diary" I got off of ebay. There were 3 other varieties of these, but of course I wanted the one with the butterfly on the cover!

 It has weekly & monthly calender pages as well as lined & grid pages. All of which are absolutely gorgeous.

The last notebook in the top row is part of a series I had had printed long, long ago with my artwork on the covers. I found several recently when I was cleaning my room. I used one to make a home-made smash book for my sister. But this one I decided to keep because the cover art is still one of my favourite drawings I've ever done. :)

original drawing

The next two in the middle I got from Writer's Bloc. I love hot air balloons & anything with a blue sky & clouds motif so I couldn't resist the "Write More Happiness Into the World". It has great, decorated lined pages & quotes scattered throughout it.

Write Now Journal

The one next to it is my Clairefontaine notebook. It has nice multi-coloured lined paper which is blank on one side.. however I hated the cover. So.. I washi-ed it!

Much better!
It also wasn't fat enough for me. I like my notebooks to last at least 6 months-a year. So I ended up ordering another one of these notebooks. I took it apart & added most of the pages to the 1st one... I also added a few to my smash book for extra writing space. :)

Last but not least, my "Steamboat Willie" Mickey Mouse notebook! My amazing friend Sara brought this back for me from Disneyland.

Isn't it great? :) Oh Mickey how I love you, let me count the ways....
The notebook is is a good inch thick! That's a lot of paper. :)
It has extra large rings holding it together- which means it will be able to expand & hold all the junk I stuff into my notebooks!
The paper is great- not even my Sakura Gold Shadow pens bleed thru it! And they bleed thru EVERYTHING!
It has four adorable vintage Mickey designs on the papers.

I think the Mickey & Minnie in the little airplane is probably my favourite :)

And it has a little note on the first page: "To my lovely Anne" <3
Sara said when she saw it, she knew it was made for me.  And that she figured it had enough pages that I could rip some out to use in other notebooks, and still have a nice fat Mickey notebook. Which is exactly what I was doing (she knows me so well!)

Lately, I have been thinking about trying to keep a real art journal... Which means I might have to add a sketch journal to my collection, as none of these are really suited to that purpose. But you can never have too many notebooks, right? :)

I have made SO many cards and things for friends & family in the last week or so! There's a lot going on: my sister just got married & moved across the country & my brother's expecting his first child..

I managed to snap pics of a few things before they got sent out.

doodle for a girl in the Smash*aholics group with a cool name ;)

goodbye card for my baby sister..

Postcard for my friend Beverly who wanted a doodle peacock

it sparkles!

first piece of happy mail to my sister's new place

inside

Spider Wars

Seriously! Almost everyday this week, I'm sitting at my computer typing away & all the sudden there's a little 8-legged invader charging at me! Or worse: climbing up my leg! And they are all different kinds of spiders. They have formed an alliance & declared war against me! O.o

My friend Sara insists that this results from my practice of not killing the little suckers- but taking them prisoner & releasing them in the garden. She advises that I be merciless & make them fear me.

But I'm still hoping for a peaceful resolution....

*gulp*

Notebook Doodles Journalling Cards

Some journalling cards I made for my etsy shop.

These were fun to make. Remember middle school & doodling in the margins of your notebook during class?

Oh who am I kidding- I doodled in the margins of my notes right thru university! lol
I'm a life long doodler.  ;)

Notebook Doodles Journalling Cards (now in my zibbet)

Woodland Pages

My favourite pages in my notebook... They developed a woodsy theme as I went along. I'm kinda sad that I'm finsihed writing on them & have to move on to new pages.

under the photo flap

Thank You Cards

I spent my Saturday making thank you cards for my little sister's bridal shower....

The decorations for the shower were in green & purple so I used the same colour scheme.. And since she was going to hand them out rather than mail 'em, she wanted them sans envelopes... I think they came out nice :)

Anne's Notebooks, Part 1

These are my notebooks (the ones that have been written in at least).

The only one I don't still have is the very first one which my sister bought me in 5th grade. She got herself one with a kitten on the cover & one for me which had a puppy.  Ever since, I've HAD to have a notebook. It is a necessity. It is my brain on paper, it is how I process my thoughts & remember experiences and (because my notebooks have always been read) how I communicate.

A friend of mine dubbed my notebooks "The Anne Chronicles", which I like. :) So here are The Anne Chronicles (in chronological order!)

Early Notebooks

After I filled up my very first notebook, I went searching for another one. I found the little mint coloured diary in a box in our garage. At first I thought the cover was not cool enough for my awesome 13 year old self & hid it with a bunch of neon stickers. After a few months tho, I changed my mind & tried to peel them off.

When that one was almost full I explained to my mom that I just HAD to have a notebook to write in & she got me the Winnie the Pooh one. :)

Pooh title page..
the early notebooks had warnings about not reading without permission.. my friends & sisters were allowed to read (and even write in) them... but NOT my parents & brothers lol

High School

The Footprints was also a gift from my mum & is one of my favourites. One reason is that it is from my Sophomore & Junior years of high school where were a fairly happy time. Also, while I had this notebook I acquired quite a few nice pens, a book on lettering and received a HUGE gift set of stickers. So it has some very pretty pages.

18th birthday

The next one, little one beside it, is my least favourite. The notebook was part of a stationary set, and was not bound well. It started falling apart when it was about half full & it also was not a nice time period in my life when I was writing in that little book.

notebooks from my early 20s 

These are my notebooks from the time I was about 19-22. The only one that was filled is the tiny one in the left corner. The other ones were abandoned. I learned that I cannot write in regular, cheapy spiral bound notebooks & that blank, white pages make my mind go blank! I ended up ripping the pages out of the blank notebook & using it to make a homemade Smash*book for my mother. Which is why it's now just a pack of stapled paper.  After trying to write in the dragon journal, I ended up keeping an online diary for awhile. I also spent more time drawing & less time writing.

mid-late 20s

I bought the first Victoria Frances journal  because we were required to keep a journal for my writing class. So the first half of the notebook was that assignment, which changed the way I wrote. After that, I wrote less about my daily activities and my notebooks became more of a writer's notebook than a journal.

Current notebook

Smash* title page

My current notebook is the "pretty style" Smash*book. I had originally wanted to get another Victoria Frances journal.. but I couldn't find it. I ended up getting the Smash*book because I liked the fact that it had decorated pages, and different pages rather than the same design over and over. However, because I had such a hard time finding a new notebook before settling on the Smash*book... I started buying and hoarding notebooks for future use.. >.>

But that's a story for another day!

The Wall

I am a paper addict and I LOVE the scrapbooking aisles at stores! Visions of pretty paper & alphabet stickers & coloured pens dance thru my head at night. But I never really got into the actual scrapbooking. I do have two lovely 12x12 albums.. with a few finished pages in each... but they've languished in my closet for years now.  When I'd get photos back from birthdays or other fun times, I would always briefly contemplate doing a page for them in one of my scrapbooks.. but they always seemed to end up stuck in my journal or pinned to my bulletin board instead. Finally, I had to admit that I wasn't going to be pulling out those albums anytime soon. And I decided to do something else with my hoarded scrapbooking goodies.

Behold:

The Wall

hehe

I put up some 12x12 pages that matched my room colours & printed out some of my favourite pictures of my friends on regular printing paper (because then there's no glare.. and it's not a big deal if they fade a bit..).

I used my sparkling alphabet stickers to spell out the names of my friends... and found a place for some of the dimensional butterfly stickers that always seem to want to come home with me..

 It's easily my favourite spot in my room now. And I actually DO work on it.. cuz it's always right there in plain sight. :)