A Resolution Solution & A New Year

As the new year approaches and as Anna and I have worked to launch this blog, I have thought a lot about hobbies and creative outlets that I used to really enjoy but haven't kept up with very well as I  have gotten older. One of these things is keeping a journal. I was a hardcore daily journal writer from the age of 10 until I was 18. College brought with it not only independence and excitement, but schoolwork. All of these put together meant busy days. Busy days then meant that I had less time to devote to a daily (very detailed) journal and a lot more to write about as I learned more about life, college, and myself. So as time has worn on, I have barely written in my latest journal. It is nowhere near consistent or complete. I have finally come to the conclusion that I just can't keep the type of daily journal that I had kept in the past. Below are pictures of the journals I have kept over the years. The stack contains nearly all of them (I think two are missing from this stack), the green puppy one was my very first journal ever (the entries in that one are hilarious), and the brown one is the last one I completed fully.

Over time, I kind of just let go of such chronicling of life events and stuck to taking photographs and enjoying life in the moment, trying my best to remember the details myself. It's been great! Life is good even if I don't journal, but I do miss it. I miss physically taking the time to think about my day. A while ago, I came across the idea of a "calendar journal" in the blogosphere. One of my favorite blogs Wit & Whistle had this post about a calendar journal, which was inspired by this post at Design Sponge. A calendar journal consists of a box that contains note cards with the date of every day of the year written on each of the cards. Every day you write a single thing about the day on the appropriately dated card. This way you can continue through the years and look back on what you did on each day in years past.

After seeing these journals and learning about this kind of chronicling, I fell in love! It's perfect! It is a way to keep a journal and take the time out of your day to reflect on events past. Not only that, but I think I'm going to enjoy the challenge of writing only one thing about my day, rather than fleshing out all the details/thoughts of the day thoroughly, like I once did.  I completely agree with Amanda of Wit & Whistle; if I'm going to be looking at the box every day, I think it should be beautiful! With this in the back of my mind, I kept an eye out for a box to use. I finally found this one (left), just in time for the new year of 2012. It doesn't look like much yet, but I plan to burn a neat pattern into the wood and stain it. I'll keep you all posted on that as it progresses! (I still have one other, larger woodburning project, so we'll see if I can keep up!)

So this is my new year's resolution: to begin and keep a calendar journal.
I hope you find one that helps you be happier, healthier, and all around a better you!
Happy New Years!
- Jenny

Happy New Year!!

The greatest speech ever made. For those of you who know me in person, I have shared this video before. I just got to thinking about it & the beginning of the New Year & thought it was fitting. This video is about what's important in life, not so much about resolutions as about doing what's right & following your heart. Everyone has a choice on how they will impact the world & I thought it was something good to think about while entering the new year. happy new year & may it be the best for you & your friends! ~Anna

Introduction

Hi!
We're Anna and Jenny and this is our blog.
We welcome you to our space and hope you enjoy our adventures.

This is a blog based on friendship and because of this, much of the things we'll be posting will be things you would share with a close friend, for example stuff in our lives, stuff we're up to, things we think are cool, or more generally, anything that interests us. It's gonna be random.

We hope to invite you into a world of friendship. We hope to inspire you and your friends to keep close. That's one of our goals by making this blog: to stay close to one another. We know that we'll find a more defined direction and style the further we get into this project. This is our first blog and attempt at blogging - but we are both very faithful followers of other blogs. :) Bear with us as we get the hang of blogging and regular posting.

That being said, we hope you enjoy it and happy reading, friends!