August is here and a few weekends ago, I spent some much needed downtime putting the finishing touches on my summer journal (watch my process here). I know, I know, summer isn’t over just yet. But if you happened to follow along with me last year, you know my absolute favorite part of summer is approaching.
I simply love when the sharp edges of summer start to fade to a blurry golden autumn. It’s not an overnight change, but a slow, deliberate thoughtful shift spanning August and September. It simply makes my heart sing!
These days, the seasonal drum continues to beat constant in my life with each sunrise and sunset, morning, noon, and night. It was essential that my next journal celebrate this favorite time of the year with imagery and words aligned to the golden, twilight-y hues only the end of summer can bring. I couldn’t wrap it all up on in one kit, so I created two Summer’s End kits now available in my Etsy store.
The first kit is a vintage junk journal kit with a cover and back cover image, six signatures and a few extras to compliment the design. This listing can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1268832246/summers-end-vintage-junk-journal-kit
For the cover, I chose a favorite painting of mine by Winslow Homer, The Bean Picker, an American Realist oil on canvas from 1876. I selected a beautiful vintage floral wall paper as a companion to the cover that picks up the warm earthy tones indicative of the seasonal shift. Those dainty flowers conjure wind-filled prairies, large blue skies, and harvest days from a time long ago.
I picked the six signatures carefully, filling them with soft muted florals from the season, a scanned vintage handkerchief, and even an old poem called, When Summer Goes. A red and gold-hued scanned vintage doily and a few extra images are also included to add a special touch to any given journal page.
Watch me assemble this junk journal here:
I also felt compelled to create an entire Vintage Digital Collection to use with this journal or on its own. This collection can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1282863445/summers-end-vintage-digital-collection
This collection includes vintage images, paintings, words, and poems indicative of the end of summer. A few favorites are the 1884 Song of the Lark painting by Jules Adolphe Brenton, an 1883 poem, The Golden Days, countless muted florals, introspective women, as well as imagery and words that represent this seasonal transition.
For the majority of my life I have always felt such a sense of possibility during these weeks with ever-present butterflies at the tippy-top of my fingers in anticipation of what’s around the corner. This year is no different.
Happy August, friends.
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