New Year, New Moleskine

But the convergence of the date and the new book is a coincidence.

Being sick in bed for four days straight and sick in a recliner for four more is bad enough, but to have to miss the annual family ski trip in Vail? What? There are no words! 

Two of these span roughly two years of use, one was filled in a year, and the fourth was a three week trip to Italy.

On day five of my fun-sucking illness I felt a little better and optimistically decided to make a list of things to do while home alone. (Ha! I've done none of them!) My Moleskine was filled but there was, of course, one in reserve, sitting right next to the stack of used ones.  

Ooh la la, brand new and waiting for me.

I opened the new one by writing the start date on the inside cover; we'll see how long it takes to fill it with the epherma of my life. The task now is to look through the one that is being retired and transfer any relevant information. A quick look and I find: 

• Contact information for people I've met.
• Yardage amounts for sewing and knitting projects I want to make.
• Verizon renewal dates for all our cell phones. This is more important than you might think, for some of us.
• Books and movies recommended by friends.
• Project ideas.

These journals are multipurpose, serving as planner, list repository, record keeper, and visual journal. Glue sticks are my friends, as you'll see.

Obviously, I love paper and find a way to use markers and pens and pencils as well as all the technology in my daily life. I am equally attached to my ipad and the fact that I can access Remember the Milk from my phone, ipad, computer, and ipod. So yes, I had that flight information on my phone, but it was also there in the book when I needed to refer to it and it will be there as a record of that trip in years to come. 

Leonard Cohen needs no caption.

Hastily sketched dimensions for kitchen window curtains.

Sometimes I combine electronic planning and my Moleskine. I like it.

These pages are the result of one of those times when there is so much on my mind I have to force myself not to think until I can get to a pen and paper and let my thoughts flow, so I don't lose anything.

I love keeping things like this last-minute map my stepfather drew of the Piazza del Populo in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, so we could identfiy the places he knew as a child growing up there.

A list for customs

A few years ago at Stitches, a huge knitting event, I had checked my felted tote bag and it was admired by my fellow knitters. One woman asked the attendant to tuck this note into the bag for me. How fun! It lives in the back pocket of the journal.

Pretty wraps from a very thoughtful present from my daughter, glued into a page, along with her note.

A cable pattern, written out while in the car because the chart was just too big to handle in the front seat.

It's been fun flipping through the books and sharing a few pages with the blog. Moleskine journals come in all sorts of configurations and their website is worth exploring. It's also interesting to check out what other people do with theirs, and you can spend a long break surfing around that subject!