I’m a notebook addict. I can honestly say it’s deep down in-my-core who I am. I used to spend what little allowance money I got (and CERTAINLY birthday money) on notebooks. Staples has always been one of my favorite stores.
We’re not talking fancy notebooks, either. I mean, sure, who doesn’t love walking through a Barnes & Noble’s journaling section and ogling those pretty leather-bound gems? But no. The notebooks I’d burn my cash on were Memo notebooks. Spiral bound. Composition notebooks. Literally, anything with college-lined pages. I wouldn’t DO anything with them, but the idea of using them was so delicious. I loved the feel in my hand, the smell of them. The taste? Okay, maybe that’s too far.
All this to say, lately I’ve been locked in the deep, deep pits of NOTEBOOK ENVY. What is this, you say? It’s when I fall in love with OTHER PEOPLE’S NOTEBOOKS and WANT THEM. SO MUCH. And this particular phase has been extra silly, because I’ve been completely torn between two very different styles: clean, almost minimalist commonplace notebooks and journals, and art notebooks that are explosions of colors and stickers and washi tape.
Behold! @kimelliontcreates :
I mean…. OH MY… Just look at that spacing of data. That HANDWRITING. Those gorgeous notation stickers that (I presume) indicate note subject matter (!).
It’s just so NEAT and TIDY and I can only imagine all the thoughtful insights recorded there that would be SO HELPFUL as a creative. It’s too pretty! I can’t bear it!
Or, if the pocket-size doesn’t do it for you, just behold THESE, from @plansthatbloom and @theoryof.lauren :
OMG, the MONOCHROME of @theoryof.lauren! The MULTI-TONAL GLORY of @plansthatbloom ! And that neat, tiny, perfect handwriting, spaced and laid out SO FREAKING PERFECTLY!
But then, THEN-! I also can’t stop obsessing over scrap journals and explosions of stickers and visual art journals, like THESE by @jenniejoy.journals and @foreverfocusing and @journalthea and @nighttime.hues and @jose_naranja and @coldbujo :
Why? Why must I be so entranced by two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT aesthetics? I want both simplicity and streamlined clarity and WILD creative energy! Have TWO notebooks you say? BRILLIANT! Now when do I work in BOTH? What are they USED for? What am I capturing in each one? I think the problem I run into is that I like the clarity of the commonplace notebook for written notes, but I also like the freedom of the art notebook for creative purposes. But I feel like both of those serve the same purpose, which is a repository for creative thoughts!
So why not have ONE notebook that does BOTH? Neat and tidy and crazy and wild, just maybe separated by spread? THIS IS A GOOD QUESTION. I think part of my hesitation is that I like the idea of a searchable notebook that has all those careful notes/thoughts in one place where I can easily review them (for the purposes of making those random spark connections between thoughts), and I worry that things will get too muddled in a wilder notebook… Hmmm…
My current day planner is a bit wild and chaotic, so maybe there’s a side of me hungering for something that lets my mind rest a bit. On the other hand, my day planner doesn’t really have enough space to rock out to all the creative energies I might like to trap from time to time…. YOU SEE THE DILEMMA?