Another Journal on Off the Wall Friday

 Is anybody out there just a glutton for cool stationary supplies?  Maybe it's because it's back to school time and the shelves are full of the coolest ones.  Or maybe it's because Cindi Gay has a whole series of lessons about journaling, but it got me in the mood to give journaling another try. 

 I have had several failed attempts.  Once I set one up for quilting.  Barely used it. I mean really, blogging about my quilting journey was plenty,   I did have pretty good success with the The Happy Planner series, mostly because it was a planner and not a journal.  Plus, they have a whole lot of stickers that you can buy with it.  (Does it say something about me that I still love stickers at 60?) But now with my phone on me all days, the calendar on it keeps me straight so that fell by the wayside.  

With this new venture into rug hooking though, I thought it was time to give it another go.  I really do wish I had a record of those early years of quilting. This way, I have another shot at getting all the ups and downs of a new art. So down the Bullet Journal (aka BuJo) rabbit hole, I fell...again.

This time though I knew what works for me and what doesn't.  I picked a quality journal with quality paper that didn't ghost or bleed through with whatever pen I used.  I also wanted all the materials of the journal to have a good texture.  (For me it's always about how does it feel in my hand).  With a little bit of investigation, I settled on the Scribbles That Matter Pro.  It has 160 gram paper weight and a nice soft vegan leather cover.  It's not too cutsy and had a lot of colors to choose from.  I settled on aubergine.  It has nice prenumbered pages, 4 big index pages, and little dot guides so you know where the center of the page is.   Oh and the pages are pure white - which apparently isn't the norm in journaling strangely enough.

Luckily, I had everything I needed...pens...stickers...rulers...templates.  But how to set it up?  I did some research, and shockingly, I couldn't find one for a "Maker" that used a journal just for their creative journey.  That seemed crazy to me.  I mean isn't there a video on anything you want to learn on YouTube?

I decided to just wing it.  I thought about how I wanted to use the journal and what purpose it would serve.  I wanted to keep it minimal, personal and low maintenance.  I don't want journalling to become a chore.  Things that I wanted to include in it where:

• An index
• To-Do List
• Blog Ideas List
• Books/Videos I like
• Names/Emails
• 2025-2026 hooking tracker
• A big section for Projects
• A big section for Class notes 
• A list of supplies I bought/where/how much

That didn't seem too difficult.  Also, I set up some rules for myself.  I wanted my journal to look well put together but not become a form of creative expression in itself.  I also wasn't going to worry about imperfections.  My handwriting wasn't good in school and it hasn't gotten any better after 30 years of keyboarding.  (But I can type about 90 wpm - just 'sayin').

I've sprinkled what the pages look like around the post.  Like I said nothing fancy, but still I like to have everything rug hooking in place.  I have a feeling that a big part of hooking is traveling to meet other hookers.  What better way to keep everything straight than a little journal?

I'll get to put that to the test because this weekend is my first Hook-In.  Don't worry, I'll take pictures and fill you next time!

Now for this week's . . .

Rug Watch

The pink grapes were hard again. I really think that part of the issue is that the pattern wasn't plainly drawn.   When I take pictures, I can see the lines well enough, but when you are hooking they all kinda jumble together.  Might be the age of the pattern.  I really am enjoying doing the grape leaves though! 

So, What Have You Been Up to Creatively? 

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