28 March 2007
Well, now here's a blast from my crafty past. Actually, this is from before I started getting seriously crafty -- just before, as a matter of fact, when I was studying in Scotland. I've always needed to have creative outlets, but during my first few years of college, those outlets were music (both organized, in the wind symphony way, and not, in the teaching myself to play guitar way) and general artsy things. I mentioned this journal a while back, when I made that other organizer, so here it is:
I made the front and back boards by cutting up and covering the back of a pad of paper. I can't remember now, but I probably bought a pad of drawing paper extra cheap at Woolworth's and used the back for the covers and the cut the paper for the inside. I 'laminated' the covers with clear packing tape, so they've held up pretty well. The front has a picture of Mew Mew -- one of my favourite shots of her -- and some crocus petals from the grounds somewhere. We lived in a massive house outside Edinburgh -- one of the (many) real treats about meeting Cally was that she knew exactly where I had lived!
The front cover says, 'give your heart to somebody' -- a line from a Paul McCartney song; the back has a quote from Jack Kerouac: 'Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.' A lot of my friends were in art classes, and although I wasn't, I spent a lot of time playing with watercolours that spring. I discovered Winsor and Newton watercolour sets while I was in Edinburgh and fell in love. There's a little art shop near the George IV Bridge that sells all the individual little pans -- they're like candy!
The journal was part diary/schedule book, part scrap book, and I took it everywhere. It evolved into a treasure from my time in Scotland; it's just filled with memories and all sorts of bits and pieces. Like. . . photos I took and printed in the makeshift darkroom in our basement:
There's a magic in film photography that doesn't exist in digital, but I never shoot on film anymore. I like to take a million shots of something without feeling like I'm wasting resources, and most of my photos wind up on a computer screen anyway.
Let's see, we've also got teeny, tiny watercolours:
Painted while sitting on a hill in the Lake District, overlooking Lake Windermere. I saw Miss Potter last week (an unusual movie, but I'm in love with it), and Beatrix, if you didn't know, moved to and lived in the Lake District, so there were many lovely shots of the landscape. My mother asked if it really looks like it does in the film and it really, really does. Forgive me for being a complete sap, but it gets lonely sometimes, feeling like I've left a part of myself in the places I love. Part of me is forever hiking around Windermere.
What else? Well, there are my schedule/journal entries, of course:
I could have kept a better record of my days, to be sure, but it's funny to see what I did write down. That February, I was about as ill as I've ever been, and those days on the calendar read 'Sick' 'Sick' 'Sick' and so on until I was finally 'Less Sick' and 'Hardly Sick at All'. It wasn't fun being so ill, and I wound up being stuck in Edinburgh alone over a long (traveling) weekend, but now I can see how fortunate that was. Traipsing around the city, just as I was beginning to feel healthier, really made me feel connected with the place.
Lastly, there's a bit of scrapbookiness:
A lot of Americans study in the UK because there's not really a language barrier, and they treat it as their home base while they explore the rest of Europe. I was very happy to stay in the UK; I could spend a hundred holidays traveling only in Britain, and not due to any small mindedness on my part (so I say, of course).
This journal is my favourite memento from a favourite time of my life. I've never really got into the whole scrapbooking craze, and this is so much better in my eyes. It traveled with me, saw what I saw, and is part of the entire experience.
Anna,
There's nothing sappy at all about missing that part of you that gets left behind somewhere wonderful! I've left several bits of myself behind in the U.K. (The Lake District IS beautiful! Lucky Beatrix!) Sometimes I get so England-sick I can't stand it. Then it's time for a cup of Yorkshire Gold, and a bit of armchair travel with one of my England books!
I think it's wonderful that you have such a lovely record of such a happy time in your life!
posted by Kate at March 29, 2007 01:08 AM
Hi Anna
First of all I *love* your blog. You are one of my daily reads and the colours (and your house) are so calming and peaceful.
I agree with Kate in the comment above I get really England homesick as well. I spent 2 1/2yrs there and sometimes it seems just like yesterday and other times it's like a lifetime ago. I miss it terribly but hope to go back for a visit next year. I love your journals. Such priceless memories. ;)
posted by Sarah at March 29, 2007 08:23 AM
Did they ever get into the part of Beatrix's life where she wrote a scientific paper which argued that a lichen really a fungus and algae living in symbiosis? And how all the men never took her work seriously because she was a woman, but what do you know? She was right all along.
I abolutely love her art, but I love her even more because she was sharp as a tack!
posted by Taryn Domingos at March 29, 2007 08:30 AM
I love your journal. I use to have something similar when I was younger i use to stick and paste everything that I love in there. Thanks for sharing. :*)
posted by feli at March 29, 2007 08:38 AM
Anna,
that's a fabulous journal - much better than "Scrapbooking," in my opinion. I could go on a rant about the difference between visual journaling and scrapbooking, but there's no need to alienate anyone. It's just when I took classes about bookbinding that were really about visual journaling, I learned to value the immediateness of the journal.
posted by Heather at March 29, 2007 11:24 AM
I have to say I really enjoyed your post. I lived in Italy for two years a long time ago...and I have special momentos of the paper kind, mostly empherma... Wish I had kept a personal journal too. Yours is perfect; and your watercoulour skills quite remarkable!
posted by carol at March 29, 2007 01:54 PM
Do you mean Greyfriar's Art Shop off George IV Bridge? I love that place. (Yes, I'm an Edinburger!) I like to lurk around and touch all of the sketchbooks and almost always end up buying something I'm not sure how I'll use!
Beautiful journal :)
posted by Sarah at March 29, 2007 03:00 PM
Sarah -- Yep, that's the place!
posted by Anna at March 29, 2007 03:22 PM
do you remember the book you made for me? I still have it sitting on my desk (along with just about everything you've ever sent - I love it all). I never made it into such a beautiful scrapbook like your's above, but it was started. Looking through it now, I'm remembering the awesome time I had on my short vacation out to see you.
If you go back anytime soon, take me with you? we can even take the "easy" way down the hill!
posted by mo at March 29, 2007 07:24 PM
That's exactly what (I think) scrapbooking should be--you included things as they happened rather than later on. In high school I was required to keep journals for my art classes, and they took shape similar to yours. Now, they're the one thing I'd save in a fire!
Now I think my blog serves a similar function, and I look forward to coming back to it one day to reminisce.
posted by kayla_d at March 29, 2007 10:05 PM
No way, I can't believe you studied in Edinburgh? I'm from Edinburgh and now live just on the outskirts.
Lovely sketchbook of memories x
posted by Zoe at March 30, 2007 08:46 AM