December 12, 2024
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
Dear Diary

Planning Ahead

Next year seems to be filling up fast!

I never used to carry a diary, but then I never really used to have a whole lot to do, and people very rarely asked me to make meeting or appointments. Then I became self employed, and all of a sudden my months fill up faster than something that fills up very fast indeed.

So I bought a diary. It wasn’t a very exciting diary. It came from the pound shop, but it came with me every where and now we are nearing the end of 2012 it looks like this.

2012 has been a little stressful for me. I seem to have worked twice as hard as the previous year and have arrived at the end of the year with a whole new set of skills (I’m a stylist, I’m a make up artist, I’m a freelance writer, I’m a social media guru!), but not much increase in peace of mind, happiness or financial gain.

So I’ve bought myself a new diary for 2013. This time I decided I was too good for the pound shop and I pushed the boat out and spend over a tenner on a diary. I saw these in a gift shop in Edinburgh in September, but I didn’t buy it then as it was toooo much money. So I went away and thought about it for over a month. Before saying “sod it”, looking them up and ordering one.

The diary is from Paperblanks and it’s just beautiful. Heavy paper, with an embossed cover that is “exactingly printed to recreate the luminosity and look of classic era silk”. This design is called French Ornate Vert and is based on Jacquard loom silk weaving in Lyon in the nineteenth century.

It’s also sparkly.

Me and my diary have made ourselves a promise. We hope to be very happy together next year, but as well as all those work appointments and meetings we’re going to make sure that such a beautiful diary has pages filled with fun days out, short courses on interesting things, picnics, walks in the park, days trawling charity shops and afternoons watching Poirot in my pyjamas with a cocktail.

Hopefully then I’ll have more interesting and beautiful things to show you on here and hopefully I’ll feel more inspired and less tired in those meetings I have to go to and less like the world is constantly shouting at me.

Me and my lovely diary are going to make a super team.

9 Comments

  • Emma Cossey November 7, 2012

    What a pretty diary! I’m a Filofax addict, but it does add a lot of extra weight to my bag, so a smaller diary is tempting,

    On the finding time for yourself point, have you heard of the 60 Things idea? It’s the concept that after work, commitments etc, you have time to do 60 new or exciting things a year. I write a list of these things – everything from visiting a city abroad to having a mulled wine night with friends – then plan vaguely which month I’ll do it in. As weird as it is to organise my social life in the same way I organise my annual work goals, it works!

    • Gemma November 7, 2012

      I did do something years ago that sounds similar. You made online lists and had to tick them off.

      Scheduling stuff in is a great idea though. That’s what I’m going to try and do! And treat those appointments just as seriously as the work ones!

  • Natalie November 7, 2012

    Cute diary šŸ™‚ I find that I get a little busy with my blog too and I have ordered a diary with my artworks printed inside.

  • LandGirl1980 November 7, 2012

    Ooooh! I LOVE a new diary to fill up with interesting things šŸ˜€ hurrah!

  • Perdita November 7, 2012

    Lovely diary. I think they have some similar patterns (though I don’t think they are the same brand) in TK Maxx at the moment, also note cards and wrapped soaps. As you can tell all I am planning is Xmas shopping.

  • Glee November 7, 2012

    IĀ“m glad to have found your site, I love what IĀ“m reading here. Like you, I too got to carry a diary most of the time since I got self-employed. My diary though consist more of blog topic ideas instead of schedules. My schedule remindres are still written in small chops of papers which I stick on my monitor or on my table where I can easily see them. I know I have to be more organized.

    Congrats for having a new diary for another year full of adventures and worthwhile experience.

  • Jess November 8, 2012

    I am in the market for a new notebook and am looking at Paperblanks but I need to fondle notebooks before buying. A trip to Jarrold’s is in order, I believe.

    • Gemma November 8, 2012

      Yes, I fondled this first in Edinburgh!

  • Robyn Lambert November 11, 2012

    In the Norwich Waterstones they have the notebooks from that collection. Still expensive but beautiful

Comments are closed.