I Love Notebooks
I have an undying love affair with paper notebooks. I even have Moleskine-looking covers for my iPad and iPhone. Don't get me wrong, tablets are AMAZING. I adore my iPad; I use it to read books, Pocket articles, recipes on Evernote, and anytime my computer is just too bulky to deal with. It's an unbelievable invention, really. And I love the idea of being paperless, sharing, and never being without important files. But notebooks are just begging you to scribble all over them and draw elephants on the page corners. You can tape ticket stubs inside, use all your neon highlighters to make rainbow notes, and you don't have to take them out of your bags at airport security checkpoints. I find it's good to have a balance of fancy screen technology and good old paper things that you can throw at a wall without worrying about. Not that you should make that a habit. But sometimes you want to watch Kitchen Nightmares in bed with your nose nearly against the screen, and sometimes you need to test out your new neon Sharpies.
I have lusted after journals and diaries my whole life but would only ever write in a few pages. If I made one false move and scribbled in the wrong place, they were no longer the perfect manuscript I had envisioned and the book was dead to me (not wasteful at all). But recently I finally filled up an entire journal because I quit worrying about it! I just wrote in my lazy cursive and told myself to calm down. I have always been obsessed with aesthetics and wanted the things I made to be p-e-r-f-e-c-t and if they weren't I would give up. But once I threw up my hands and quit being so ridiculous, I actually accomplished something! Perfectionism (and snobbishness) has always gotten in my way before, but now I feel grown up enough to just get things done. If you wait until all the conditions are perfect, you will wait forever.
Anyway, Friday at work I noticed there was a 50% off sale table full of Moleskine and Moleskine-looking notebooks that looked awfully lonely. My coworker that runs the museum store must have seen me coming. I kept putting off my inevitable purchase (or otherwise missed my chance by not getting to the store before it closed) but after I watched last week's episode of Parks and Recreation and saw Leslie' little red friend-ranker notebook I could no longer help myself. I figured at the very least, a new journal would help me on my journey to becoming more Knope-like (next I need to make some idea binders).
I think Leslie's notebook is actually a Moleskine, but there was a red Leuchtturm (a German notebook company) at the museum store that looked similar and I GREATLY DESIRED IT. Turns out that no one was buying them because 1) Leuchtturm isn't as familiar as Moleskine and 2) Europeans love square grid notepaper and Americans are confused by it outside of math class. Anyway, I got a blue Leuchtturm and a Moleskine sketchbook; as you can see they're still in shrink wrap but I checked out the display copies and I am in love. I even got a pen holder that sticks onto the back cover of the Leuchtturm (Germans think of everything). I have a paper day planner as well, but these will be for my exciting new sparkly life across the sea. I feel like running around a museum requires a neat little book (and a pencil so you don't mark up exhibits by mistake) and I can see myself writing in a notebook on trains and in front of the National Gallery. It's just such a nice feeling to bring home a nice clean notebook and fill it with all kinds of things. And it really comes in handy when you are renting a flat in London for a week and the wifi goes out and the landlord's number is in an email saved on your iPad. Paper saves the day!
So if you are in the market for some nice writing things, and you LOVE NEON like I totally do, get thee to Leuchtturm!
P.S. I just like to spread the word about products cause I love them, I'm certainly not getting any money for this. But if any companies wanted to make me their spokesperson I have a list of favorite things :)
The Year of Eve
I got in. I got into the Royal College of Art. I'm going to live in London for two years and study history of design. Please excuse me while I scream loudly in another room because LITERALLY ALL MY DREAMS HAVE COME TRUE! There has never been any person in the history of the universe that is as happy as I am right now. I have my victory song picked out and I plan on blowing out my speakers with it later on. And yes, it is Daft Punk.
Now that my happy happy news is out and about, I feel great: partly because I have a great near future ahead of me, and partly because I promised myself that this would be The Year of Eve. The Year of Eve is meant to be the exact opposite of The Three Years After College When I Did Nothing and Complained About My Life To Anyone Who Would Listen. At some point this past October I realized that no one was going to jump-start my life except me, and I started volunteering at the art museum and began the RCA application. Now I have a part time job at the museum and a two year MA program to look forward to. It's amazing what you can do if you start small with baby steps, and have some kind of plan in place for yourself (and a Plan B). This January I did what everyone does (and then throws away); I made a resolution list. Well, it's more of a poster. And now looking at the word poster I think I will turn it into one...
Anyway, I made a list of really reasonable things to do this year/every month/every season. It worked out pretty well for me last year since I did go to London, watched Star Trek Into Darkness and started a (failed) blog. This year I decided I was tired of sitting around waiting for thing to happen to me, and instead I want to go out into the world and do all the things. But I didn't want to set myself up for failure, so I made two really big goals and a lot of smaller ones (so I felt like I accomplished something):
1) Four detoxes. I read somewhere that you should detox your body every season to flush out all the toxins. This time I won't try to be hardcore and jump into the Clean program cold turkey.
2) Twelve books. Reading one book per month doesn't sound like much, but I can never find ones that I like. I do have a Goodreads account, and it's good for keeping track of what you want to read (you can even scan barcodes of books to save to your little bookshelf on your phone--we are living in the future).
3) Lose 50lbs. I am almost halfway there. I've lost 22 pounds running so far and even though it's been rough lately with all the Reese's eggs peeping at you around corners at CVS, I think I can reach my goal well before the end of the year.
4) Natural beauty. In 2008 my friend brought me to a Sephora for the first time, and since then I have built up a rat hoard of luxury beauty products. But most of them are full of chemicals and they're CRAZY expensive, so I've decided that when I run out of something this year, it will be replaced with a natural version (or something I make myself from Henry Happened: that woman is a genius).
5) Mint. I. Need. To. Stay. On. BUDGET.
6) New City. It was either London or Houston and I think we know who won.
7) 5K. I haven't run a race yet (I was in England when my running group ran theirs) but I can run for five miles nonstop, which I think is pretty impressive for someone who prayed for death when I had to run a lap in P.E. Also, half-marathon training really shows you how having a plan makes reaching your goal not scary.
8) Thank You Notes. Nothing is better than receiving a hand-written letter in the mail, unless it's a cute little thank you card saying how awesome you are for that thing you did.
9) Buy from Etsy. There are lots of really unique handmade shops on there, and since I am unbearably picky I can usually find something there when I can't in regular stores.
10) Draw from books. A while back I got some super cute How to Draw books for animals, dresses, plants, and people. I just like to draw cute things and make my planner happy.
11) (how stupid is it that I have eleven things and not ten) Green/Aveda tea. I must have been tired at this point in the poster process. Basically I need to buy my yearly bottle of Aveda tea (the best tea you will ever drink in your life) and drink less English Breakfast.
So I've done pretty well so far; there are still some tiny things I can do that I haven't gotten around to. I might even make some new goals for myself this year. Although I don't think I can top moving to England and studying in the coolest program ever. In the best city. At the most amazing museum.
AAH! ❤❤❤
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
