I’m done!!
My sketchbook is finished and ready to send to Brooklyn.

Here’s a look at it, page by page.

(btw I’m posting this directly from flickr – a bit of an experiment!)

I’m really happy with the way the sketchbook looks, perfectly imperfect binding and all. I probably should have included a fork or spoon related self-portrait somewhere in there, but I thought of that too late – there is no more paper, and I don’t have a printer. I am reflected in the spoons in front of Lizzie’s eyes, so I guess I am in there…

Thanks to my SIL for letting me use her printer for Xmas and to Lizzie for letting me photograph her silverware drawer.

Jo:)

I loved (the idea of) my 5 year diary, even though it took 6 years to fill (I took a year or so off between mid 2009 and late 2010) but I am excited to have only ONE diary to keep up with in 2012.

In every area of my life I swing between wanting only one thing (my minimalist side) and wanting to try a lot of different things (my scanner side) – usually the scanner wins out. At times during the last couple of years I have juggled a blog, brain-dump journals, a 5 year diary, a planner, a sketchbook, letters to my family, and photos, all competing to document my life. The truth is I can’t keep up with all of them AND live my life. I can’t even keep up with a few of them. This year I have decided to concentrate on the forms that I love – enthusiastic photography and a daily diary.

In 2012 I have a simple black page-a-day diary/journal. It has enough space for a recap of my day and a short commentary (or a longer page of thoughts with only a minimal day review). It has a space to note the weather and I am writing the name(s) of the books I am reading at the top of each page.

I enjoy knowing what I was doing on a given day more than I enjoy reading or writing a lot about my feelings. Using the 5 year diary I would go back read previous years to see whether we were busy at work, what the weather was like, if we forgot our anniversary (or Halloween one year) or what I was reading or watching. Even without writing down my feelings I could tell whether I was busy or lonely, sad or too busy with life to worry about anything – the activities of the day would often trigger memories of my mood.

My morning pages/brain dump journals didn’t quite work for me – I would re-read them and wonder how I could have not written about important things I remember were going on – often the most emotional things in my life would be the least reported in my journal.   They did help me think – sometimes I worked out pretty tricky problems by writing them out. But I still wanted to keep a diary showing what I did each day…

Maybe I should just let the past be the past, but it really bothers me that I have nothing to anchor certain memories in time. I can’t even remember exactly when I got chicken pox (I know I was in my early 20s, but was I 21? I think so, but I don’t know for sure!) There are events that I think were going on around the same time, but without the diary to confirm the chronology I can’t be sure. And that’s drives me crazy!

I have a small vintage suitcase full of journals, writing, planner pages and other personal papers. I have one diary from intermediate school and even a few little books from primary school with my childish handwriting. These papers help me feel anchored in reality!

I’m looking forward to seeing how my page-a-day one-diary plan works out.

10 days into the year, I’m optimistic!

Jo:)

I took all of these within a 2 block radius.

Green goes with everything. Nature’s neutral.

Jo:)

So I went on a purple photo walk…

The eye and the camera don’t always agree when it comes to color. And some things are not the color we assume them to be.

Jo:)

I went on a photo-play-date with Kli the other day.

We were lucky to have a sunny afternoon free.

We took pictures of yellow…

a collage sampling of my photos.

I used the Hi-Matic and lomo x-pro film, so they are happy pictures.

My pictures are not so yellow though. It has to do with only having 36 exposures and using a camera that doesn’t focus well close-up. But that’s OK because I had fun!

I was happy with most of the pictures. Some made me very happy…

Coming soon, purple…

Jo:)