New Year...New Notebooks!

Beginning Again

Photo by Amy LV

Dear Notebooking Friends,

Happy New School Year to many of us!  This year I look forward to spending time here, sharing more posts about keeping notebooks, celebrating the notebooks of writers, artists, and collectors of all ages.

Writing in a notebook can be a funny thing.  At times, I find it difficult to begin. But once I'm off...I'm off, and the more frequently I write, the more at home I feel in my book.  It helps me to set aside time each day to write, and it is during this time that I discover who I am right now, what means most to me on this day now.  My best rhythm is to begin each day by writing three pages, as I learned to do long ago from Julia Cameron's book THE ARTIST'S WAY.  Right now I am writing in this leather notebook.  I love that it is refillable and hope to write in it for years to come.

Tree Notebook!

Photo by Amy LV

I always save the first few pages of a notebook for quotes which I gather from my reading and listening.  These are word treasures.  I tuck photographs, cards, and other snips of paperlife into my notebook and sometimes glue these right to the pages.

Quotes & Bits of Life

Photo by Amy LV

At the moment, I am also keeping another small notebook, one I owned for a long time and kept empty for a long time. This notebook I am keeping for 100 days. I am keeping it for a special project, one I simply call 100 Carved Erasers.

Long Fabric Notebook

Photo by Amy LV

Each day for 100 days (today is Day #39), I am carving an eraser into a rubber stamp.  I stamp each one into this book, four per page.

4 Stamps per Page x 25 Pages =100 Stamps!

Photo by Amy LV

I will use some of these stamps to make cards and perhaps some to make wrapping paper.  Mostly, I like carving them because doing this each day forces me to think in images and to play with shape in new and surprising ways. 

Weekend Stamps

Photo by Amy LV

I am also learning that some designs look snazzy when they repeat, and so I play with the stamps in my big writing notebook too.

Saturday's Stamp 8 Times

Photo by Amy LV

The blank pages of notebooks provide endless possibility and place for play. Last year at The Poem Farm, I shared this poem about how even though I may struggle when facing the blank page, I love it all the same...

I love peeking into others' notebooks and having the opportunity to share many pages here at Sharing Our Notebooks. Please know that I extend this sharing invitation to you, whether you are an individual or a class of students.  If you wish to share pages with readers here, please just send me an e-mail, and I will get back to you.  If you are under 18, please send the e-mail with a parent or teacher as I will only respond to e-mails from adults.

Please make yourself at home exploring this space; you will find many notebook photos and videos and lists of great books about notebooking. And as the year goes on, I'll be tidying and moving things around a bit to make the site even more friendly.

Every page is a new beginning, and I am grateful to my notebooks for teaching me this over and over and over again.

Peace,

Amy

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