Diary pile 2008
In 2008 I filled three whole journals with my almost daily writing; complaints, thoughts, plans, calendar drawings, questions, doodles and lists.

I think I do this because it’s habitual. I started as a kid and I just never stopped. It’s like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast, habits you keep doing even though you’ve forgotten who told you and why you do it.

I don’t write daily because I don’t have to. I’m in the habit of coming back. It can be a week or so between entries but after that I start missing writing and I come back to the page. I have no rules and that’s the way I like it. I do what ever I want, when ever I want, how ever I want. I do it because it grounds me. I think it’s out of diary keeping that my notebook love has grown. And I grow too, because my diary is my best friend

Diary pile 2008

The first book for 2008 was a blankie that I bound myself in the beginning of 2007! I made it while I was in a bookbinding class with Charlotte as my teacher. I didn’t think I’d ever be brave enough to fill it, as it was my first hand bound notebook, but when January came I was ready for a new diary. And this one was ready to be written. I don’t know how this happens, but the right time always come to start working in a blank book and then it transforms from “being pretty as it is” to something that belongs to me. I take possession over it. I make it my own. How do I do it? One page at a time!

Now the turquoise notebook is not a blankie anymore, it’s a used diary, and it’s chock full and retired, and more beautiful than ever. The amazing marbled paper in turquoise is now threadbare and the spine is falling apart. This is how a loved notebook looks. I think love always is messy, because it’s about emotions.

Diary 2008 The second book is a Moleskine Plain Notebook with a bottle label that says “Hanna Quality”… The Moleskine is a great size for putting it into my handbag when I’m on the go, and this year I’ve been carrying my diary around with me everywhere! This is a new practice to me and I quite enjoy it, almost to the extreme. So that when I’m on the train at night I get irritated when there is not enough room on the train for me to sit on my own and finishing what I want to say in my diary.

Diary 2008

The third diary of 2008 is the patchwork notebook I dressed up this summer. It has blank pages too (no lines) and was just finished in the beginning days of January. I love when that happens, as it is nice to align year ending with journal endings. And post endings, though then I had to write about my etsy finds…