September 1st is my New Year's Day; it's time to review, reflect, and refresh. The carefree summer vacation days are winding down, and folks are heading back to school and work. It's time to start thinking about Halloween costumes, who's coming for Thanksgiving, and, for the super-organized, ticking off that Christmas gift list. It's the beginning of the end of the year.
The local farms are in full swing for the final harvest and soon they will be preparing the fields for a long winter's nap. The landscape colors begin to turn from lush greens to shades of gold and amber, and the air has a familiar musky scent of Fall with some unmistaken invisible energy.
My Septembers past have been filled with school shopping, apple-picking, foliage-gazing, hiking, and Fall festivals. I've sent children off to elementary school with new lunch boxes and sharp crayons and older kids off to college with new sets of cotton sheets and towels. I've deep-cleaned corners of my living space. I've moved. I've traveled.
But my absolute, all-time favorite September thing is a brand-spanking-new notebook.
September is a fresh start. A new page. There is nothing so inspiring as a crisp, white empty page! Journals, planners, notebooks, notepads - all the things. I love to surround myself with beautiful places to write my story.
After summer daydreams and wishes, my mind begins to turn inward in the Fall. I refresh my goals. I make lists - oh, the lists! And I begin to think about how I want to end the year. Too many times I've let the busyness of a holiday season completely drain me and I dragged myself through the months just barely surviving. I'd much rather live in the moments as they come and as I create them, and feel alive in doing so.
With that in mind, I have created some very basic calendar planner booklets (coming in September) that provide some structure to the weeks, but also contain blank pages to allow for individual creativity. Each monthly booklet will begin with a month-appropriate quotation tucked under a translucent vellum sheet for texture and aesthetics (think old-fashioned wedding invitations with the tissue tucked in the envelope), followed by a list of suggested "moments" to inspire you to intentionally celebrate the time with traditional activities and tasks. You don't have to feel left out or get to the end of a month and think, "I never did get around to..." or "I really wanted to..."
For Fall 2020, I've chosen a paper collection that includes copper, gold and silver cover sheets that give the illusion of hard metal. Each booklet has a simple foiled icon on the cover. The interior pages are a smooth, bright, pure white, allowing markers, paints or colored pencils to show their true colors.
You may use the booklet on its own, or you may purchase one of our leather journal covers to bind them together in one book. I like to keep a leather cover with a year-at-a-glance calendar, followed by a couple of monthly booklets and a blank notebook for special projects.
I'm ready for a new chapter - a clean slate. A new September.
What kind of story are you going to write for yourself for the next season?
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