Help your lil ones get inspired by giving them a kid-friendly journal that they can hold onto for years. Whether they choose to write, draw, or paste together collages, it'll be a great way for them to exercise their creativity. We've found a wide range of age-appropriate picks, so check out these fun, colorful journals that are sure to spark some inspiration.
How are your New Year's resolutions going? One of my resolutions was to carry a journal everywhere I go to jot down notes and ideas. Sadly, I still have to buy a journal! If you've resolved to keep a journal as well, I've rounded up some fun choices.
Keep track of your adventures (both naughty and nice) with the Shenanigans Letterpress Journal ($10). It would be perfect for party planning or keeping track of great new cocktail recipes — or however you choose to participate in your own personal shenanigans.
For the guy in your life, give him the Pelle California Handmade Leather Travel Journal ($40). Handmade in California, these journals are made with FSC-certified, eco-friendly linen and paper and US-sourced oil tanned leather. Each journal comes with a stringed book marker, a protective cloth travel bag, and an extra elastic band.
Looking for a lovely feminine option? The Rifle Paper Co. Botanicals Notebooks ($13) from Chronicle Books are a perfect choice. These colorful notebooks feature oil-stamped covers and vintage-inspired interiors. I love the gorgeous colors and dreamy blooms that decorate the cover.
Have your eye on another choice? Click on the image to shop!
I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank during my melodramatic teenage years and thinking — OMG! I hope no one reads my diary, they'll surely be disappointed with my embarrassing crush confessions and banal frustrations with my mother.
But as I got older, I started to appreciate the chronicles of my mind and emotions. And I'll admit I sometimes imagine how my thoughts would come off to other people if my journals someday made me (ahem!) posthumously famous.
While you might not be connected to famous people — like Farrah Fawcett, whose friend is set to publish the diaries she kept while Farrah fought cancer — would you ever want someone else to read your diary?
Source: Flickr User Barnaby
I've written in a journal (what I decided to call my diary after the 5th grade!) since I was a wee girl. I'd write poetry, observations about classmates, and complaints about life in general. (I was way Emo.)
If I stacked all the journals I've kept since I started, they would reach the ceiling. I love Meade's wide ruled notebooks (my life tends to go well in blue journals, as opposed to yellow ones), and I have to use a gel ink pen.
A journal can be so many things — a place to write reminder notes to yourself, to analyze stuff that's going on in your life, and just generally practice writing. I remember telling someone once who asked if I were a writer, "Not really — I just write daily in my journal," and the person said, "If that's not writing, what is? Only writers would do that!"
Sometimes it’s fun to go back and look at what was occupying your mind in the past, and to see how far you’ve come. Have you ever written in a journal, or do you still?
Truth be told, my husband and I tracked our kids' feeding and diaper changes on a scrap of paper for about a day before the sleep deprivation kicked in and all we wanted to do was stare at our new bundles of joy. I'm not the perfect mother, so I understand why other women and men take the task more seriously. Perhaps five years of parenthood has us more organized to take on this task for baby number three. We'll see, but in the meantime here are some pretty cool products up for the using.
It's hard to know what to say or do when a friend loses a child or finds out her offspring is ailing. So rather than trying to read another woman's mind, hand her a journal so she can empty her thoughts onto its pages. Mothers tend to take care of others before themselves and in trying times, it's nice to give them a medium to express their fears, frustrations, hopes and wishes in private. We've rounded up some journals that might help mamas do exactly that, check out our slideshow for the options.
