Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Fifty-Four

Hey Journal Gang,

Happy Monday, and welcome to the week of Thanksgiving! One of the coziest (and busiest!) weeks of the year. We always look forward to this holiday. All of the traditional foods and sharing them together - what could be better? This year of course, (saying this yet again!) it’s going to be a bit different than we’re accustomed to. Smaller celebrations, staying closer to home, and perhaps even some changes to the menu. That being said, just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it can’t still be special! How are you planning to make Thanksgiving 2020 memorable, despite the circumstances? What dish are you most excited to make? Let us know in the comments!

We’ve been thinking a lot about gratitude, how our perceptions have changed throughout this year and the importance of finding reasons to be grateful, even in (especially in) challenging times. Pondering the array of things we potentially took for granted in simpler times (sorry for anything bad we said about you, 2019!), silver linings of this year in our lives, the importance of social relationships and keeping strong connections; the blessing of our most basic needs being met. All of these things come to mind! Being grateful isn’t blind to hardships or struggles; it’s more like seeing everything through a wide lens, and building a solid foundation of gratitude to weather through the storms.

How has this year changed your perception of the things in your life that you’re grateful for? What are you feeling most thankful for this week? It will be interesting to refer back to our entries from last Thanksgiving, and see how our new reflections compare. Take a few moments this week and enjoy spending time with your journal.

We hope that you have a wonderful, safe week full of rest, good food, gratitude and warm feelings.

Happy Journaling and Happy Thanksgiving! 

xoxo

The Antiquaria Team 

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Forty-Nine

Hey Journal Gang,

Welcome to the third Monday in October! The weather is fully turning here, and it’s a lovely feeling. Were you able to reflect on some positive thoughts with last week’s prompt? Hopefully it lended some moments of gratitude by thinking back on times when people were there for you. And hopefully you found an opportunity to pay it forward in a small way! 

This month of the year is usually a busy one for us, and moreso this year as we figure out new ways of adapting to the world. Holiday snail mail season is gearing up, so we know the holidays are just over the horizon - starting with Halloween in just under two weeks! Always a fun holiday. School is in swing, lots of projects and new endeavors in the works, for the business, and in our own creative practices and homes as well.

How about your October? What things are filling your days as of late? Which are working for you, and which aren’t? Sometimes it helps to take a little mental inventory of what we’ve been up to and how we can adjust things in order to optimize our feelings of thriving. Sometimes we’re just hanging on in surviving mode (um, like most of this year!), and that’s ok too. It could be a sign of a need to rest and reevaluate. That's just a part of life sometimes! We're feeling hopeful and excited about the things we're working on, so that's a good sign. 

What is bringing you joy or making you excited lately? Do you have something you’ve been working on that you’d like to continue to pursue? An idea you have, but haven’t executed it yet? What activities are you most feeling these days, and why? Are things going well in your studies, at home, or at work? What things aren’t? Take a few moments to jot these things down and take note. If working in your journal is on your list of feel-good things..you’ll be ahead of the game! :)

Happy Journaling,❤

xoxo

The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Twenty-Five

Life began with waking up and loving my mother’s face.

-George Eliot

Hey Journal Gang! Well, seems as if we’ve officially made it through another month of 2020. Little victories here! Despite our new normal, we’re staying busy and positive, enjoying journal club from afar and the time it allows for reflection. We hope you are staying well, feeling strong, and embracing the lovely simpler things in life..like journaling!

We’re in the full swing o' Spring now, and one of the most well-deserved holidays of the year is just under one week away. The day we honor and celebrate the life-giving, strong, hardworking, the loving; Mother’s Day! Moms are magical, really. There is an unrivaled bond between the shared experience of mother and child. They bring life, love, support, advice, encouragement. They make good things happen and, essentially, make the world go round. Moms rule.

So this week, let’s honor Mom in a small way by scribing fond memories of her to our journal pages. If you send your mom a card, you can jot down some things you remembered to give her a smile. If you’re a mom yourself, (Happy Mother’s Day!) you could also write from another angle - your favorite Mom memories, from your own perspective in that role! What does Motherhood mean to you? What are the golden moments? Everyone’s family relationship dynamics are unique, so feel free to write about Moms or Mother figures in your life that inspire you in other ways, too. If your mom is no longer with you, writing about her is a sweet way to honor her memory on a special day. ♥

We’re sending a ton of love and admiration to all the Mamas out there. Thank you so much for everything that you do, seen and unseen, every day. Happy Mother’s Day!!

Happy Journaling,
xoxo
The Antiquaria Team 

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Thirteen

"Never give from the depths of your well, but from your overflow."

Rumi

Hey Journal Gang! We hope you’ve had a great past week with your Journal and exploring the world of Haikus. How did your experience go? Do you have a favorite Haiku from the week? If so, let us know about it in the comments! 

We’re officially halfway through Winter, and it’s been snowing a lot here in Colorado recently. As the season goes along, it can be easy to start missing the sunshine, warmth and greenery of Spring and Summer days. Are you feeling that way? With Valentine’s Day coming up this week and Winter weather going strong, we’ve got our mind on self-love and self-care.. Often Valentine’s Day is love focused outwardly; expressions of love for others being the central theme. This is definitely something to appreciate and it’s important to let people know you care! But expressions of self-love and self-care are also important, and a big key to feeling content, empowered and confident. With busy lives and caring for others, it’s all too easy to let it fall to the wayside. This week, we want to get in touch with those little things and make way more time for self-care.

So, what are some of your favorite ways to nurture yourself? Maybe it’s embracing the Hygge lifestyle, especially in Winter. Hygge: “A quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being, and is regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture.” Think candles, warm blankets, mood lights, hot tea, and a general cozy, simple living vibe! If you’re extroverted, maybe your self-care involves making time to be social and relax with friends. If you’re more of an introvert, maybe it’s allowing yourself time to be alone, rest and recharge, free of guilt. Maybe it’s getting a manicure, getting into skincare, or indulging in various small simple pleasures. A gourmet chocolate bar, buying nice sheets, getting yourself flowers, less screen time, reading a book, spending time with pets, finding time for physical activity, or working on a passion project that you’ve been pushing to the back of your mind.

There are SO many ways to take some time for yourself and make your own wellbeing a priority. Take some time to reflect on the ways you’d like to embrace self-care, and explore those things in your journal! So this week, treat yo self. Buy yourself those flowers, eat that chocolate, take that nap. You deserve it! Enjoy the small things.


Happy Nurturing, and Happy Journaling!

xo
The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Twelve

creative outlet 

pages fill with memories

journal club is grand

Hey Journal Gang! We hope you are having a wonderful start to the new month and enjoyed last week’s prompt! Did you find the mood tracking to be insightful? It’s a great thing to incorporate into journaling as an ongoing element. Staying in touch with how you’re feeling, and why, is a key to being mindful and living in the moment - one of the intentions we set for 2020. Pretty neat how things build and give you momentum when you’re keeping a journal!
This week we want to continue building on those things and growing as people, so we’re going to try incorporating another element into this prompt - poetry, specifically Haikus! “Poetry - but I can’t write poetry!?“ If you just had that thought -- don’t worry! Absolutely anyone can write a Haiku, including you!!

What is a Haiku, anyway?
A Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. They are short poems that use very few words to capture a moment in time, create a mental image, or convey a message. Traditionally, a Haiku is composed of three lines, and broken down into syllables - 5 in the first line, 7 in the second line, 5 in the third line. 5, 7, 5.



For example:

1. creative outlet   (5 syllables)
2. pages fill with memories  (7 syllables)
3. journal club is grand   (5 syllables)

See? Not so intimidating! You can be literal with your Haikus and keep them very straightforward, or go for more conceptual and imagery-based content. Many Haikus are inspired by nature and the seasons. You can write one about a moment or event, a feeling you had, about a memory, or as a summary of your day as a whole. You would be surprised how much can be conveyed in just three short lines of text! Since there is a simple and set format for these little poems, anyone can approach them and add a little poetry to their life. Once you get into the swing of it, writing them is so fun and easy! So we encourage you to think outside of the box, try something new and 5-7-5 your way through the week!

Happy Haiku-ing, and Happy Journaling!!
xoxo
The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Eleven

Hey Journal Gang!! We’re back with a new prompt, as we enter into our eleventh week of The Antiquaria Journal Club! Can you believe it’s been almost THREE months since we started? We’re super grateful for this community that we’ve bonded with through journaling, and truly look forward to seeing the things you make.

Last week we were feeling all kinds of the blues, in the best possible way. Did you enjoy this take on the prompt? We can’t wait to see how you all interpreted the color-theme! As we worked on our spreads, the notion of how much color can effect your mood was in the forefront of thoughts. Just seeing all the soothing and vibrant blues on the page inspired a certain emotional vibe. Color is essentially a visual emotion!

So this week, we wanted to take a deeper dive into the world of moods, by tracking them each day. Various trackers are a great thing to incorporate into a journal, and are ubiquitous in bullet journaling - for good reason! Keeping daily tabs on our moods, goals or tasks can help us analyze trends and make changes where needed in order to succeed. Sounds good, right?

If you’re keeping a bullet journal, a mood tracker is a very intuitive incorporation. You can color code things, make graphs and embrace an almost scientific approach to tracking your moods. If your vibe is more art journaling and improvising, taking an art therapy perspective on it could be right up your alley. For example, you could paint a visual representation of how you felt that day, using colors to signify certain feelings. Of course, mood tracking is a natural fit for reflective journaling as well! Simply writing out how you felt, what happened and how your moods ebbed and flowed throughout the day can be enlightening in retrospect.

Having a catalog of moods can give a greater insight into how events, habits and actions affect us. It can be a guide to allow yourself to rest more than you thought you needed to, or show you where your trouble points are. Maybe you realize your mood shifts when you need to sleep, when you get hungry, when things are out of balance, or if you haven’t seen friends in awhile. Awareness is power!


Wishing you a wonderful week filled with all the good vibes.


Happy Journaling!


xoxo
The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Seven

Hey there dear Journal Club friends! We hope you’re still basking in a warm and pleasant holiday afterglow. Did you enjoy partaking in your favorite holiday traditions? Which one did you enjoy the most this year? Maybe you started a new one? We can’t wait to see how you’ve incorporated them into your journal pages!

We are just a few days away now from a whole new year! The stretch between Christmas and The New Year is always a unique threshold of time; the buzz of the holidays is waning, but the anticipation of a new year builds with each sunrise. There’s a sense of looking forward with excitement and reflecting in retrospect, simultaneously. Each passing year seems to approach and fade with a quickened pace. Can you relate to that feeling?? This year has gone by at light speed..seriously, weren’t the leaves just reappearing on the trees? The days are long, but the months fly by! What is a year but a collection of these days, each one holding unique events and memories.

2019 has been a huge year for us. On the cusp of a new decade, we experienced so many firsts. A flagship and new location for our business, Bailey welcomed her first child, our little team grew, we incorporated brand new product lines, and really started feeling our roots settle into our Downtown Littleton Community. This is a special New Year celebration, because it not only marks the beginning of a new year, but really, a new era! A whole new decade. SO much has happened over the past 10 years and we are feeling extremely blessed for everything in our lives up to this point. We can’t wait to see what the next year holds. We’ve got a feeling it’s going to the one of the best yet!

This week we encourage you to look back upon your year with a twinkle in your eye as you recall YOUR very favorite 2019 memories! From the smallest moment to the biggest life event, and anything in between. Whichever things stand out the most to you and bring a smile to your face - journal all about ‘em!!


Wishing you the best New Year ever, filled with all the good vibes and warm memories.

Be sure to join us on Tuesday, January 7th at 11am for our first Journal Club Meetup of 2020!!

5654 S Prince St STE A, Littleton, CO 80120

Happy New Year, Happy Reminiscing and Happy Journaling!!


xoxo,
The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Six

It’s HERE - not only another prompt to kickstart your journaling this week, but Christmas is mere days away!! This is a special week of the year, surrounding by anticipation, preparing, and excitement. It’s filled with the joys of giving, receiving and reflecting.

All around the world, the holidays stand out as a time to make memories and share warmth and joy. One of our absolute favorite parts of the holidays is the opportunity to engage in traditions we have, not only within our cultures, but within our own lives and families. Traditions give us a chance to reconnect with ourselves and those we care for. As the years go by, we engage in traditions and as families grow and life changes, form some new ones along the way! How fun is that?

So - what are your very favorite holiday traditions?? Maybe it’s baking cookies and treats to share, or perhaps putting up a tree and rediscovering your special ornament collection as you go. It could be ice-skating or going to see all the twinkling lights. Some people travel to warm weather locations to celebrate, or return to their childhood home. Do you look forward to a gift exchange or writing your holiday cards? Maybe you go to a favorite restaurant every Christmas Eve, or have a specific movie you love to watch. 

Christmas and the holidays can be stressful, but this week we invite you to take some time for yourself, reflect on the heart of it all, and the traditions you cherish. You could make a list of traditions you currently keep and some you’d like to incorporate in the future!

Regardless of how you spend the holidays, we are wishing you THE best one yet, and hope you enjoy every moment of it!!

Happy Journaling, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!!

xo
The Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Five

A warm winter welcome to you all as we enter our FIFTH week of Antiquaria Journal Club! We've spent the past week dreaming about all of the things that inspire us. This world we live in is a wellspring for inspiration! Did you have a theme come through in your inspiration spread? What was your number one inspiration for the week? 

One thing we tried to keep in mind when reflecting on this topic was the fact that something doesn't have to be monumental or transcendent to evoke a sense of wonder and inspiration. Embracing mindfulness and tuning into more subtle channels of being inspired; It's amazing what you'll find through doing that! 

Something that has inspired endless paintings, poems, photographs, stories and adventures - is something we all experience every day. Maybe some days you revel in its glory and perfection, and other times sigh about its current state. Mother Nature's mood of the day (or hour, especially here in Colorado) - the weather!!

Exchanging words on the weather can be seen as a default topic for a friendly exchange, but there's a reason for that. It's something we all experience and are subject to, and we relate to one another through our experiences of it. We're all for making connections and finding ways to relate, even if in a small way!

Winter is fast approaching and with the shorter days, it's SO easy to default to indoor mode 24/7 - (hellooo there, cozy hobbies from last year!) but the soul needs fresh air! This week we invite you to bundle up and just take some time to experience the view of the sky and the feeling of the air, if only for a few moments - and then share about that experience in your journal, in your own way! It's a quick and easy way to reconnect and recenter. 

Just a few more days until it's officially winter!

Happy Solstice and Happy Journaling! 

xoxo,

Bailey, Emma and the Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Four

Happy Monday to all of our Journal Club friends! Mondays don't have the best reputation (come back, weekend!) but we're starting to warm up to them, because new Monday = NEW prompt & NEW journal spread!

Can you believe we are already in WEEK FOUR of journal club?? That's a whole month of journaling goodness! It's been such a fun and interesting experience so far, with each week holding its own challenges and discoveries. We hope you are really finding your personal groove with journaling and enjoying the process. After all, that's what's at the heart of this club's intentions! Last week we used alll the verbs, nouns and adjectives to summarize our days, in three words. This week, we'll focus on another word - Inspiration! 

We seek to tune into what most inspires us and sparks that fire within. You could view this as defining what serves as your creative inspiration, what motivates you to succeed, other people that inspire you, a song or a phrase, books, inspiring emotions, thoughts, experiences and beyond. We're excited about this prompt because there is inspiration to be found in SO many places, on so many levels. 

Speaking of inspiration, you all constantly inspire us with your amazing journals! We can't wait to see your latest spreads and share more from our own team throughout the coming days, weeks and months. On that note, we have another awesome thing in the works - Antiquaria Journal Club Meet Up Group! We're establishing a weekly meetup, all about journaling and community. 

Antiquaria Journal Club Weekly Meetup

Tuesdays, starting 12/10
11am-1pm

Antiquaria Mercantile

5654 S Prince St STE A, Littleton, CO 80120

This is a great opportunity to get together, work on our journals and simply enjoy the process in a relaxed social setting. So stop on by and get your journal on with us!

Happy Journaling!

xoxo

Bailey, Emma and the Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | The Blank Page, Vol. 1

One of the most enriching aspects of Journal Club so far has been the sense of community we are building around this process, from start to finish. For yeeears we’ve wanted to be able to take a beautiful notebook, really breathe some life into it and build a steadfast habit of journaling. Not only for today, but for all of the tomorrows; peering back onto journal entries gone by. How COOL will it be to look upon your stack of completed journals with a sense of proud accomplishment?! With the establishment of the club, we are all well on our way to doing just that!

It has been AWESOME to see everyone’s vastly different perspectives and personal takes on journaling. Seeing your personality infused into the page is something else - seriously, we can’t say how excited we are every time we see a new Journal Club spread!!

So, to fully honor the wide range of unique perspectives, we felt we needed an outlet to verbalize and share not only our own experiences, but YOURS as well! Enter 'The Blank Page' Interview Series.

Within this series, we’ll feature various members of our journal club. Every single perspective and experience is valuable. The featured member will answer questions, share photos and offer other insights they’ve gleaned so far!

With that, our first featured member is Grace Hill, Studio Manager with the Antiquaria team. 

Grace Hill

Journal
Strathmore Visual Journal

Journal Personality
Art Journal

Toolkit
Charcoal, Washi, Dot grid paper, Pens, Stickers


What is your primary goal in keeping a journal?

My primary goal in keeping a journal is to continue to working with art and try different techniques and medias.

How do you approach the blank page?

I’ve always struggled with the blank page, but recently I realized that you just have to sit down and make the first mark without thinking too much about it. I’ve started setting aside 30 mins every other day to journaling and drawing. I tell myself just to make something, it doesn’t have to be good but to just do it.

Do you use a certain paper or page style? What do you like about it? 

I do not use a certain page style. I’m still really new to journaling I’m trying as many page styles as I can. If I find one I like then I’ll start using that one, if not then I’ll keep jumping around.

What is your favorite journaling tool and why? 

I don’t really have a favorite journaling tool at the moment. I’m using charcoal because I’m really comfortable with it, but I plan on getting into medias that I’m not comfortable with. The whole point of my Art Journal is to explore creativity and try new things. Although if I had to pick I’d probably say scissors and tape because even if I create something not in my journal, with scissor and tape it can become a part of my journaling process.

What drew you to the type of journal you chose to keep? (art, bullet, reflective, etc)

I choose Art Journal because it seemed the most unstructured of the options. It can also encompass any of the other journal types. So if I wanted to try bullet journaling or reflective journaling I can easily incorporate that into my Art Journal.

Do you prefer to write at a particular time of day or place? Why?

I don’t have a preference on time for journaling. I usually do it when I get home from work or before bed just because that’s the most convenient time for me to do it, although I’d rather do it when the sun was up and the lighting was better. I have set up a small desk that I journal on, for me it’s nice to have a separate space to journal so I won’t become distracted by the tv or my phone. Once I sit there the only thing I’m doing is journaling.

What do you love about journaling?

What I love about journaling is that it gives me time to sit down and be creative. With a busy life it can sometimes be hard to find time to do stuff that you enjoy, it’s also easy to get side tracked. With setting time aside to journal, I’ve found the time to do the creative things that I’ve pushed aside the past few years.

Do you consider journaling therapeutic? If so, why?

Yes I consider journaling therapeutic. It’s one of those activities that you can sit down and start doing and not realize how much time has gone by. I always say I’m just going to sit down for 30 mins or so to work on my journal but I end up doing it for a few hours without even realizing it.

What is the most challenging aspect of journaling for you?

The most challenging aspect of journaling for me is finding time. I’m an active person and love to go out and do things. I always feel like there are a million things I want to do and never find time for all of them.

How has the way you’ve journaled changed over time? (If you’ve seen a progression so far)

I only started journaling a week or two ago so my journaling has not really changed yet.

How has journaling benefitted you?

Journaling has benefitted me by just giving me the time and space to be creative and try new things.


A big thank you to Grace for being our very first Journal Club 'Blank Page' feature! If you're interested in being featured, (yay!) please leave a comment here or reach out to us on instagram @antiquariadesign and we would be thrilled to have you share your experience!

Stay tuned for the next volume, and until then, Happy Journaling!

xoxo
Bailey, Emma and the Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week Two

It’s officially WEEK TWO of Journal Club! Yay!

We hope you had a stellar experience getting into the swing of things with last week’s prompt!! Seeing everyone's page spreads has been so exciting and inspiring! Taking the time to reflect upon the highlights of our daily lives over the past week has really reinforced all of the wonderful things about even the most average of days - and the fact that there are SO many things to be grateful for. Seriously, when we think about it, the list goes on and on!

As we enter this week of bountiful Thanksgiving celebrations here in the US, we’d like to take some time to further reflect upon those things large and small that we’re most thankful for! From gorgeous sunsets (there have been so many here lately!) to having a loving, supportive family, and everything in-between.

Perhaps some of your highlights from the past week can act as inspiration and serve as a reminder of what’s most important in your life. Holidays can be super hectic and busy, so we invite you to (in between servings of pumpkin pie!) allow yourself some moments to reflect and simply soak it all in.

We are so looking forward to continuing the journey with all of you! This has been such a great experience so far, and we are GRATEFUL for the community of journaling enthusiasts and everyone that supports us along the way in this life - there’s another thing for the list! Wishing everyone a wonderful week of rest, time with family, friends, feasting and journaling!

Happy Journaling, and Happy Thanksgiving!!

xo

Emma, Bailey and the Antiquaria Team

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week One Team Update

Week One is well underway and we hope that you're enjoying the process so far. I know that we sure are! It's been fun to see what everyone in our studio is working on...as well as what Y'ALL are working on!

Before we get to our team member's plans, we wanted to share a couple more helpful tips that have come up this week in the process of diving into our journals...

➺What do you do with the first page??

Usually....SKIP IT! Why? Because journaling is a process and you never know exactly what the journal will end up being. Will it encompass one week or one year? Will it include plans or just thoughts?

If you don't know, then there isn't harm in moving to another page to begin. It can also be fun to skip around - there is NO rule that it has to go in page order!

The first page could end up being a table of contents, a manifesto a summary...or anything else you want! So just skip it right now and we'll circle back!!

➺I want to improve my layout (something is just not quite right) but have trouble seeing where I need to fill in.

The easiest way to "see" your work for design evaluation is to take a photo of it. Luckily, these days taking and viewing a photo is a 2 second process on our phones! Maybe this little trick will be JUST the ticket to helping you finish your page off so you can move onto next week's with confidence.

BTW, this trick works for calligraphy or design as well ;)

Bailey's Plan:

Journal - Midori Traveler's Notebook (watercolor insert)
Journaling Type - Art Journal
Toolkit - Watercolor palette, Calligraphy Pen & Ink, Micron (.01), Stickers, Washi tapes, Rubber Stamps
How it's going - "So far so good! Once I got past making a mark on my page, everything started coming together. I am really liking the way that it's turning out so far! It's kinda addictive and I'm so excited to finish this spread and make more!"

Emma's Plan:

Journal - Strathmore Watercolor Journal
Journaling Type - Art Journaling
Toolkit - Paint and Pencil
How it's going - "I'm still staring down the blank page..."

Sarah's Plan:

Journal - Midori Travel Notebook (watercolor paper and dot grid inserts)

Journaling Type - Art Journal - Primary, Bullet Tracker - Secondary
Toolkit - Collage (printed and painted media), Stickers, Washi tape, LePens, Acrylic Paint, Pencil
How it’s going - "I’ve really enjoyed infusing different elements together to start creating a personality for my first spreads. I’m learning what works best as I go and am find that journaling is a wonderful opportunity to take a few minutes to channel some creative energy. It’s so fun to see the page coming together." 

Grace's Plan:

Journal - Visual Journal by Strathmore

Journaling Type - Art Journal

Toolkit - Charcoal (vine, compressed, pencil), Dot paper, Washi, Le pens, Stickers

How it’s going - "It’s going better than expected! I’ve always struggled with the blank page, but I feel like having prompts and something to help get me started is making it easier. It has been awesome getting back into using charcoal and I’m excited to start using other mediums I’m not familiar with. There is no pressure which I think is the best part!"

Katie's Plan:

Journal - Paper Source Brand blank journal

Journaling Type - Art/reflective journaling style

Toolkit - Le pen, fountain pen, pencil, acrylic paint, washi tape

How it's going - "It's exciting to start, hard to know if it will stay looking this way or transition into something totally new! I've been craving more of an artistic outlet lately so I'm excited to use this as motivational and reflective time to help bring that into my every day life even if it's just a few moments a day."

We are so excited to continue on with our journaling and we hope this week has gone well for all of you! Please tag us if you share your creations, @antiquariadesign #antiquariajournalclub 

See you Monday with next week's prompt!

Happy Journaling,

Emma, Bailey and the Antiquaria Team

Getting Started | How to Conquer the Blank Page

Making the first mark on a page is ALWAYS a super daunting aspect of starting a new journal. Like, for everyone. There's a sense of permanence and a fear of making a mistake. I mean, I've gathered my notebook and tools, it needs to be PERFECT. What do I do? Will it look good?!

Perhaps you're overwhelmed by all the possibilities. We can TOTALLY relate to those thoughts. After all, the blank page equals endless opportunities. Endless opportunities seem great, but giving yourself certain guidelines within to work can actually help you move forward and start using your journal!

Just keep going back to everything that we discussed last week, the selections that you chose and the helpful tips. It's why we laid those out before even starting!!!

Just like building a house or writing a paper, giving your pages a foundation to build upon eases the sense of being overwhelmed and stuck. Bailey started with one element to define her space, some strokes of watercolor. From there, she added in other elements, like date stamps, stickers and written text. Sometimes just diving in with even one element makes ALL the difference!

It's as simple as that! 

Sarah overcame the blank page syndrome by starting with defining spaces for the days of the week. She found a typeface she liked, printed, cut and pasted each day onto the pages. She still has plenty room for other elements, but now has a basic page structure to work off of!

If you find yourself still struggling with the blank page, here are some other things to keep in mind or try:

➤Experiment with formatting

Try using a ruler to draw rough guidelines. You can do this directly in your journal or on a scrap piece of paper! Try sketching light lines and designating visual compartments into your page. You don’t have to map everything out before starting, but giving a rough spacial framework helps SO much. It’s amazing how quickly things start to fall together after you have a general layout, or even just a few marks!

➤Work in Pencil First

You can go back afterwards to fill in with ink or paint, if desired. This takes a lot of the pressure off and gives you a chance to see how something would look in your journal before you commit to it!

➤Do some Research

It helps to see what others have done. Take some time to research inspiration for the type of journal you’re interested in keeping. But be careful, because it can also feel super overwhelming, so keep it simple!!! Choose one or two layouts you like, and incorporate some elements from them into your own page.

➤Be Bold

Sometimes we only make progress by just diving in and GOING FOR IT! So be bold, try something new and learn from the process! If you truly don't like what you make, you can always paste another piece of paper over it!

Have you struggled with the blank page? We'd love to know your own tips for moving past it!

Happy Journaling!

xoxo

Emma, Bailey and the Antiquaria Team 

Antiquaria Journal Club | Week One!

Are you READY!? WE SURE ARE!

It's WEEK ONE (yay!) and this week our prompt focuses on recording the BEST part of your day. Days seem to fly by SO fast (ahem, where has 2019 gone?) that we wanted to start by recognizing the good in the every day however large or small.

This could be your first cup of coffee in the morning, the way the sunrise looked or a job promotion. It could be written or drawn or painted. It could be expressed with poetry or jotted down in a planner. It's up to you!

Don't worry if you're short on time this week (or every week for that matter), these prompts really do lend themselves to simple answers by design. But if you have the time or desire, they can easily be expanded upon as well.

It's week one and we know that starting is definitely the hardest part...making that first mark, word or plan can seem overwhelming. We're all here to support one another and enjoy the process!

We're looking forward to creating with you all! We will be back later this week sharing our team's journal plans with you and an update on how it's going for us so far this week. It will be so fun to see everyone's different ideas and interpretations in their journals! 

Happy Journaling!

xo
Emma, Bailey and the Antiquaria Team