How to start writing in a beautiful notebook….

I used to keep a diary, briefly, but always found when i read it back, it was all very bleak and negative. So what i decided to do instead, was keep, for every year, the family calendar that i had used throughout the year. I have done this for over 15 years now. When i occasionally flip through them, i am astounded at the amount of things i got through in a week. And how quickly we forget, the amount of school clubs, doctors and dentist appointments, birthday parties, hospital appointments, babysitting commitments to name but a few. How did i ever fit it all in, and hold down a job and caring for elderly parents? Its a real eye-opener, and makes me appreciate the far slower pace of life i enjoy now.

NanKate

I love beautiful notebooks too. This Xmas DH gave me a small pack of 3 Matthew Williamson note books. I am using the first one as a day today note book of tv shows/series I want to watch, a To Do List, in fact anything that needs listing. I put it in my bag when I go out in case I need to make a note of anything. The pages have a gold rim.

Do look them up they are fabulous small gifts.

Thank you for mentioning Matthew Williamson, just looked him up. Such fabulous designs.
I'm a sucker for that style of work.
Think I might get some cards from him.
Just love it - I have wall paper in downstairs loo very similar to his type of style. Only one wall, cost of wallpaper bit eye-watering but worth it.

I'm doing some zentangling in mine - look up Sandra Rushton on YouTube for some lovely ideas. (Sanntangle). It is a kind of mindful doodle but the results are amazing.

I was amazed how many people, both women and men, still keep journals! It’s something I used to do as a teenager, and I used to keep all of them, till I got married and burned them all. They would have made fascinating reading now!

My friend who has just published her first novel at 76 has also started posting little memories which are very interesting. For example she tells of missing the bus and lying to her dad one dark night, of her granny teaching her how to bake and other little events. You could write something like that.

Like Jillyjosie I have my next A5 journal waiting. But with a few pages left in the current one can't bare to start it! Also, I was So hoping Covid 19 would be contained in just two.
The first page is left blank and fills up over the year with pleasant thoughts and sayings.
This year's haul includes many from GN - many thanks for keeping me going folks.?
"Yesterday's Magic is Tomorrow's Science"
"Don't cast Nasturtiums"
"A gentleman knows how to play the bagpipes - but doesn't"

The next page is for important info: The odd password ie: BBC I player & some I can't remember what they were for! ? Dates of my vaccines.

Last year's started with a note to my GC & any future GGC wondering if they would like to know what it was really like - just as I wonder what life was for my Grandmother during the war. I ponder, will they even be able to read them with technology moving at such a pace.
Every few days I might add something - what I've been doing, a walk on the beach with GD, visit to GSs. world events, political OMG! moments.
It also has a page for TV I want to watch, "After Lock-down" list ( I know we're not, - but it feels like it)
Garden plan, the odd doodle, recipes I've come across on tv, and dare I say - a data log of C19.
Flicking through it, notes from TV on Chelsea flower show, family history notes, books page.

I fill mine with poems and sayings that touch my heart.❤️ Also my favourite songs.

Oh, gosh, I have an entire storage box full of beautiful notebooks that I've collected over the years and can't bear to spoil with my writing. My overall favourites are Fox and Fallow (Australian).

I once decided to be 'a writer' but found I couldn't bear writing creatively - just can't do it well enough - but loved the notebooks and the 'idea' of writing. Now I just guiltily collect the notebooks knowing I will never write in them .

What a wonderful way to start a new year with a blank page in an open book and a beautiful pen.

I always have a page a day diary which I use as a diary, scrap book, journal and creative place just to let my mind wander and I too write in fountain pen.

I stick in photos, clippings, quotes, pretty postage stamps, tickets etc and I write besides them. Each page looks pretty and I don't have that feeling of walking in untrodden snow as there is something there first.

Another thing I do is visit craft/art supply shops and buy decoupage sheets and stickers to illustrate my pages.

In the back of the diary I always glue an envelope to keep my stickers, cuttings and what-not so that it is safe and always with me when I need it.

What dear daughters you have to buy you such a happy and lasting present.

What an excellent idea from your friend Willow65.

I too have had a beautiful hardback lined book from my DD. It was a birthday present last week. She knows I love my note/sketch books.

As I already keep a diary, which also doubles up to include my dark thoughts, a gardening note book, plain art sketch book for my craft ideas and a jottings book for poetry, I have decided to change how I approach my poetic thoughts! My current little book will continue with collecting ideas (words) but the new book will be the creative one.

Good luck with your's Willow65.

Many years ago, while still in hospital recovering from the brain injury, my physiotherapist encouraged me to set myself goals and write them down. They were things like ‘today I will put my T-shirt on by myself’. I was also encouraged to write down how I felt, what I was struggling with and what I did. The purpose was so that I could look back and see how far I’d come. I still do it now, no set format.

Such lovely ideas already….thank you! And great ideas re beautiful books.
I agree about not wanting to write about too much angst or soul searching…..have certainly done that in the past!
A friend just sent me this idea…..
“The ‘ best’ creative writing I’ve used is wherever you go just sit and write down random words about what you see, feel and hear. Maybe texture’s temperature etc then in all that downtime write a poem - you could illustrate it too!”
I will try this and as I’m an artist may have to buy another book with watercolour paper to go alongside it…..
Looks like I have an interesting project for 2022!

Google ‘bullet journaling’.
I agree that it’s so difficult to actually write in nice notebooks. I have about a dozen that I can’t bring myself to use (another example of my blooming stuff!)

Do you use fountain pens on the pages? I find the ink sometimes goes furry and soaks into the paper too much.

£14 not £15 !

I’ve just looked on the Matthew Williamson website and they do some beautiful pens for £15.

I love beautiful notebooks too. This Xmas DH gave me a small pack of 3 Matthew Williamson note books. I am using the first one as a day today note book of tv shows/series I want to watch, a To Do List, in fact anything that needs listing. I put it in my bag when I go out in case I need to make a note of anything. The pages have a gold rim.

Do look them up they are fabulous small gifts.

I am enjoying this thread, now to find that notebook from a couple of years ago I haven't yet used. It's silly not to get the pleasure.

I was given a thick plain notebook and a fountain pen by my friend about 5 years ago. She told me to just write the thoughts that came into my head.
I have done as she said and find reading back that I have worked out worries and problems by writing them down.
Also interesting things that have happened and long forgotten are there on the page.
Hope you all enjoy your new notebooks as much as I have.

There is something so awesome about a new book. I find the same about a new novel.
I have one with a pretty hardback cover exquisitely decorated with seahorses in delicate shades of blues. I write recipes in and will give to my daughter one day as a momento of things I cooked and she (hopefully) enjoyed. She can make them if she wants to.
As others say : inspirational quotes; poems that touch you; accounts of momentous occasions through your eyes.
Enjoy your new notebook Willow ?

This is a fascinating thread! I have three beautiful new journals acquired as gifts over the last year, I journal sporadically in A5 and A4 ring back notebooks! I write about life, poetry sometimes, quotes from books.

I have no idea why I can't face breaking into the beauty of the new, lavish notebooks. Some prohibition from childhood about spoiling perhaps? I also sometimes lurch into depressed, black thoughts and perhaps I don't want to spoil lovely notebooks with those. Am I odd?!

Oh Doodledog, you sound like my twin! Willows new stationery sounds lovely. I would also use it for quotes, poems, personal sentiments etc.
I now need to source a notebook and get started, I am truly inspired.

How lovely! I love good stationary, particularly when it’s been a present.

I know what you mean about the pristine pages though?. I write a lot (poetry mainly, but other things too), and I always struggle to start a new notebook- the more beautiful it is the more I want it to be used for something Very Important, in my best writing. I tend to use fancy covers with refills these days, so I get the best of both worlds - the lovely book without the fear of spoiling it.

Do you like poems? Or interesting quotes and words of wisdom? You could use your book to copy out things like that? You would have your own curated collection of things you enjoy reading, and it would make a great heirloom for your daughters in years to come.