I created my winter journal in sections during the holidays, between celebrations and December journaling. So the design was in large part determined by my current mood during those days. I was feeling snug and warm, all bundled up like Laura in her little house in the big woods and I was spending a lot of time with my kids creating cozy holiday moments. So naturally, my journal “aesthetic” followed these feelings.

Since the summer I had been working in soft and cushy fabric-covered journals and I really loved them. So my winter journal followed suit, fashioned with vintage green gingham and a lovely little winter envelope I had in my stash from an estate sale. I even experimented with a rustic embroidered heart at the top of the spine.

Take Notice of the Struggle and Ask Yourself Why
The cover gave me some trouble as I couldn’t figure out how to best incorporate the rectangle envelope. I finally settled upon a little faux quilted look and I do love it very much. For some reason, I was less meticulous with the interior signatures. I used a lot of ripped and worn pages and sort of haphazardly assembled and sewed them inside of the journal. Then, the journal sat on my desk, waiting.

I didn’t turn back to it until I was filming last week’s video. Surprisingly, I was struggling to find inspiration on the inside. This happens sometimes, especially with a new journal, so I wasn’t too concerned. I worked on the inside front and the first page, but kind of got stuck. So again, the journal just sat on my desk waiting. While in my craft room, I would look at it, but not do anything in it, even though I had plenty to update it with.

Use Older Journals to Identify the Problem
One night during one of these instances, I pulled down some older journals from the shelf just to page through. I opened one from two springs ago and I found it so inspiring.

I noticed the base of the signatures was primarily neutral vintage papers from books and magazines, as well as some writing and drawing paper. If I added a patterned piece of paper, I did it during the journaling session by gluing it down on the neutral page. I looked back at my winter journal and noticed what disarray it was in and immediately began pulling out the signatures.

Make Changes to Align With Your Current Season of Life
As I was pulling and cutting and unsticking things, I began to think about where I was mentally when I made the journal versus where I was now. It was already about a week into January and my overall disposition had noticeably shifted. I was no longer in casual holiday vacation mode. My feet were firmly planted in January and I had already begun my annual January declutter. (After the holidays as I am tucking all of the Christmas decorations away for the year, I always without fail get the desire to start purging and cleaning. I know this is an activity “normally” reserved for spring, but there’s something about removing all of the Christmas trees and decorations that really revs up my cleaning and decluttering spirit.) After all of those days of blurred lines, I was clearly craving structure and routine, so naturally, I would crave that in a journal as well.

I tore out the back inside cover and replaced it with a beautiful Maggie Holmes paper print. I built two signatures and carefully sewed them into a piece of cardstock, hiding the sewing and gluing them down into the spine. I was so pleased with the result that I started working in the journal right away.

I also chose to incorporate the style of journaling from the old spring journal into this new one, which was much longer and more of a diary style. Lately, I have been longing for the days of old where you could go to the Hallmark store and find a gorgeous diary with a lock on it. So to satisfy that urge, I sought to recreate that type of diary entry style in this new journal.

As you may know from my YouTube video, I am underwhelmed with Etsy digitals at the moment. So I am enjoying rediscovering my stash full of both purchased papers, ephemera, and stickers, as well as printed and fussy cut images. In a new video on Saturday, I will be exploring how to use a sheet of scrapbook paper to create little die cuts and ephemera. Here’s a sneak peek at the outcome:

My point is that it’s ok to be flexible in your journaling. If you’re like me, there’s a tendency to avoid ripping out pages and moving things because of a fear that I might “ruin it all.” I can say that 99% of the time, I have loved the alteration I made in a journal. Just like the seasons change, we must give ourselves room to do the same.