Jen of JT and the Sea always has such a chill nautical aesthetic that keeps me coming back for more. I can almost taste the Atlantic breeze when I read her blog - which is overflowing with beautiful, casual photos (some of which you can even purchase from her Etsy) of her laid-back Maryland life. She and I have never met in person, but we're united by so many of the same dear friends and family back home, it feels like we already know each other in real life. Jen just had her first child (a beautiful little boy named Owen!) so be sure to visit her blog to congratulate the new parents!
Hello Of Anselm readers! I am so excited to be guest posting for Naomi while she welcomes her new baby girl. Congrats Naomi! With the excitement of little girls, pretty bows and ruffled skirts, I just kept thinking about one of the quintessential parts of growing up girly: keeping a journal.
At one point, I switched from keeping a journal to scrap-booking, but the effort that I put into it was way too great for what I really wanted: a simple place to store knick-knacks and memories. I started using moleskine notebooks as little storage containers for ticket stubs, stickers, photographs, letters from friends and song lyrics.
I gave one to my husband, then boyfriend, for his birthday and he loved it. Having a little place where you can flip through your memories is so sweet and makes me want to keep every little piece of our vacations and journeys.
While we were engaged, my husband and I would pass a moleskin book back and forth to each other, keeping it for days at a time. We would write little letters to each other or stick a photo on one page and a poem on the next. I loved getting to share this book with him and I still adore looking back through it.
I had friends who would fill up journals with thousands upon thousands of words and ramblings and I was always a bit dismayed that I just didn't have it in me to sit and write night after night about my life. I just don't have the patience to do that, which is one of the reason I think blogging is so nice, because it's a great little journal of sorts that takes half the time of writing by hand:) But, there is something so special about taking the time to write and really think about what you want to remember. I definitely have a grumpy teenage journal and that one really isn't very fun to look back on. So the journals that I adore are the ones that remind me of my sweet college friends in Idaho, my adoring grandmother and sun-soaked summers spent with my husband. These are the memories that I want to keep and remind myself of.
I can't stand hoarding things that I am not going to use, so these books give me a way to keep things organized in a place that I know I can find them and really treasure them. My journals are my junk box: bits and pieces of my life and history that I can keep and love and share.
The banner for the Thank Heaven for Little Girls series was created by the talented Oana Befort.
