Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Collecting Collectible Calendars

Finding the perfect new calendars and journals for the year is a favorite part of my New Year's rituals. Like a number of you, I kicked off the new year by hanging a "Collectible Teapot & Tea Calendar," one of my favorites.

And I can't bear to throw away the old versions of this calendar, or of the pretty Sandy Lynam Clough tea calendars, so I just hang on to them year after year. I know I could frame some of the pages, but custom framing is expensive. I suppose I could cut out some of the images and decoupage a tray or something, but I just don't know. Inspiration will hit one day, surely!

I would love to find a Day Book with a tea theme, but until such a product appears, this is my new Day Book for the year, which I like since it resembles a vintage ledger. Some years I keep one of these perfectly, writing down a paragraph about my day before I go to bed each night. I got sidelined about halfway through last year, but so far this year I'm on track. I have enjoyed being able to look back and remember something about all the days.

For Christmas, my niece Cari gave me this cheerful little journal which I am using as my new prayer journal for the year. So far, I have remembered to cover my prayer list every single day thanks to this cute new journal. It even has glitter on the cover!

My friend Ashly gave me a new Vera Bradley Puccini calendar (and cute matching pencils) for Christmas, so I am using this for my "workplace journal," to keep up with appointments and deadlines. The "agenda" at right, which thanks to the Puccini calendar is now freed up to serve as my tea blog calendar, is a Cath Kidston journal I found at the beach over the summer. She's a British designer whose work I adore, and I have always regretted not buying a Cath Kidston cup and saucer I saw at the John Lewis department store in London. Maybe next time?

Her designs are sort of like Shabby Chic with brighter colors. Inside, I was delighted to find that pages in March feature a teapot!

And at the end, there are little note papers you can tear out to use, again with teapots on some of them. So it seems that no matter how many journals and calendars I receive as gifts, I can always put them to good use. Are any of you a journal junkie like I am?

5 comments:

  1. I also love the "Collectible Teapot & Tea Calendar". I have been collecting them for eleven years now and like you, I save them and plan to do something with them eventually. You certainly received a lot of pretty date books. I'm not organized enough to keep up with that many. I forget to look at my daily appointment book half the time.

    Let me know if you do find a day book with a tea theme. Thanks for sharing all the lovely photos.

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  2. Wow you are so organized! I have started journals before, but have never finished. Your calendar reminds me, I forgot to get my tea themed calendar for the year. I received a beautiful one from my brother and his wife as a Christmas gift, but it has pictures of nature and birds (I LOVE birds) and so it is my appointment calendar right now.

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  3. Oh yes, I love journals! They make such beautiful ones these days, don't they? I, too, use the Collectible Teapot & Tea Calendar every, single year...Will keep my eye open for a tea day book. (By the way, calendars from the years 1970, 1981, 1987, and 1998 can also be used for 2009 - days are the same!)

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  4. My favorite tea calendars were Sandy Clough's. I wish she would publish them again. Here's what I've done. I use an old calendar that coincides with the current year. I told you I really like Sandy's calendars!

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  5. I'm another one that loves the "Collectible Teapot & Tea Calendar." And for several years now they have been including a sheet of 12 postcards corresponding to their teapot photo of the month. Gotta love that! (But they're too pretty to use, so I keep them in a box and bring them out to admire now and then...) As for journals, I find myself buying them for the beautiful fabric or paper designs on the covers, and then never using them! (But like the postcards, I look at them and admire them now and then!) I guess I just love beautiful design.

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