A Notebook from the Smallest Forest

Book,
beautiful book,
smallest forest,
leaf after leaf…
Pablo Neruda, Ode to The Book III

No matter how much I enjoy book binding myself, I will never have the patience or skill of a real book binder. I know, because I’ve watched a couple of them do their thing when I did take a class, and I know myself well enough to just admit it’s not my thing. And that’s totally okay because the journals I’ve made for myself so far have held together just fine, even through traveling, painting and everyday use.

But pretty notebooks is also a passion, a passion for beauty and potential. I think most of you paper lovers reading this post will recognize yourselves in this need to own a pretty notebook when you see it. Almost like it is a collectors item (I don’t mean a collectors item in that it should be exhibited in a glass case, but as a beautiful item that you can and will use, abuse and love). No matter how many empty notebooks I have, there is always room for “just one more”. That is why I sometimes, in the name of self love and generosity, give myself the gift of a special notebook. And it’s especially nice when it is made by someone you “know”, at least from the blog world…

This small green journal was made and shipped from Darwin, Australia, by awesome and very talented Natalie of the Smallest Forest (blog smallestforest.net), one of my favorite bloggers ever. It is called Aztec Feathers Handbound journal, and it is just as beautiful as I imagined it to be when I first saw it on her blog. It might have been love at first sight. Just look at the details, like the two-toned headband that is hand-stitched with embroidery floss – so pretty!

I love the fabric (Nat’s design too), the vellum-smooth pages called “Bianco Flash”, a creamy, gorgeous paper produced in Italy by Favini Crusinallo. Yum!

It is one of those notebooks that you need a special purpose for. Poetry perhaps, nature sketches – or special ideas. I am going to use it as an idea book for sketches and words, and slowly fill it for many, many years. A life journal that I can come back to for inspiration. Yes, a “seed book”, I think that is what this is! Like Nat says in her post about her Seed Book (Natalie’s Idea Book is called a Seed Book):

Not just art, but any project or endeavor that I can’t start right away, but would like to hang on to for when I might need it.

And she sent me some “extras” in the form of beautiful hand marbled papers and fabric, all in my favorite colors! Swoon, right?

I have way to many empty notebooks waiting for me, but I am still happy that I got this one as a gift for myself. A girl needs her notebook fix, right?

I hope you know that a notebook is a creative girl’s best friend! So get yourself a pretty notebook, and start recording those ideas that pop into your head! Maybe even a handmade one (I got this one from Natalie’s Etsy shop)!

I’m off to fill another page, a sketch for my next embroidery.