It's Up!

It's UP!

After much further ado, I have finally listed Adventures in Guided Journaling:  Pocket Journal no. 1 in the shop.

This comes after no small amount of worrying fretting careful consideration about how to photograph it, how to describe it, how to price it, how to package it, how to send it, how to make sure I get everything perfectly right the first time out (which may, in fact, be impossible), and how to anticipate every possible unknowable glitch (which may also be impossible, but about which I have also spent a considerable amount of time fretting thinking).  You know, the usual.  For me.

Anyhoo, you can choose from one of four colours:  pink, blue, green or purple.  (I thought about trying to come up with less conventional names to describe the colours, but when I looked up the name choices for the hues I'd chosen, it turns out that I did, in fact, choose pink, blue, green and purple.  Possibly, the green could be also be called lime, but I couldn't be 100% sure.)

Here it is in pink with the other choices also pictured.  In the shop, blue, green, and purple are each given their proper due and are listed separately.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is the size of my pocket journal, other than to say that it is pocket-sized.  Which, given the variety of sizes of today's pockets, is definitely open to interpretation.  This pocket journal is 4.25"x5.5".  About a quarter of the size of a sheet of letter paper.

These are the two inside photos I've included in the Etsy listing:

And finally, this is one of my mailing envelopes, which will give you a sense of what a single order might look like.  I'll be including a pocket journal, of course, and one of my business cards.  Oh, and that note card and envelope sticking out from behind?  Well that's a little extra I've created to include with each package.  It's a little something dedicated to friendship.  Something you can fill in, colour, and pass along to a happy recipient -- and it isn't available anywhere else.

Now that I've finally managed to finish pocket journal no. 1, it's time to get back to work on pocket journal no. 2, which should be available sometime this summer.  :)

hugs,
Christie

Business Cards! and an update, too

I ordered some business cards.

In many, many colours.  As has become my way.

This is what a box full of Christie Zimmer Journal Design business cards looks like:

That box.  It makes me smile.

This is what my new cards look like when placed, checkerboard-like, on our well-loved, well-scratched, well-drawn-upon, well-dented coffee table:

(Notice how I have strategically covered up all of the scratches and dents with business cards?)

This is what they look like up close, so that you can see the front and the back:

I have decided that, if at all possible, every single piece of paper you ever receive from me will have a spot for you to take a moment and write something on it.

Because that is what we do.

And there is more to come.  I am nearing the end, I think, of the process of listing my pocket journals.

Yesterday, I spent hours and hours taking photographs to go with the listing.  After at least a zillion shots, I decided that I hated each and every last picture.  I really despised them.  All of them.  And my lovely children, who are lovely, and my lovely husband, who is unflinchingly supportive of my every endeavour, had to listen to a long list of reasons why it would never work, this particular endeavour of selling simple pocket journals.  Never work, I say.  And don't even try to tell me that I might be overreacting.  Because I am the very essence of a rational thinker.

Looking back on the photo fiasco, I know that I set an impossible standard.  I knew that yesterday, even as I was struggling to meet it.  Exceedingly perfect was the standard.  Simple, yet sophisticated.  Uncluttered, but warm.  With angelic light and brilliant colour and perfect clarity.  And I wanted it to come together magically in my happy, but recently neglected, home.  Oh, and in a couple of hours, while the girls were at school.  And when school was finished, but I wasn't, I was left grappling with fading light and tired, hungry children, and my focus was gone and it pretty much went downhill from there.  To the dark places, where I suck at everything and I'm failing everyone.  Which is hogwash.  And definitely signals the moment at which an adult-strength timeout is required.

Anyhoo, I had a light bulb moment today and I think I may have figured out how to take those diabolical photos.  So wish me luck.  :)

This weekend is crammed full of schedule-busting, non-journal-related commitments, but I'll be back at it every moment that isn't already taken and with any luck, next week will be the week.

Happy weekend to you!

hugs,
Christie

More pocket journal sneak peeks

While we're on the subject of goal-setting (and, in due course, goal-achieving) I wanted to show you another Big Ticket prompt.

I love the process of moving toward a goal -- not just the actual, step-by-step work of doing that thing, but also the thinking involved.  I love to mull ideas over (until they cry uncle!) and suss them out and try to figure out why this goal? and why now?  (I think 49 journal pages might have something to do with my tendency to mull over and suss out and wonder about.)

For the Big Ticket prompts, not only did I want to provide space for you to record the nuts and bolts of the work involved, but also to record the meaning behind the work.  To have a space to remember why your goals matter to you and why you started working toward them in the first place.

And then there are the threes.  To me, lists of threes are a delightfully perfect length.  Short enough to complete in one sitting and long enough to record the gist of just about any subject.  For the pocket journal, I've gathered together some threes, just for fun.  There are two more a little further down that page . . .

The next step, I hope, is to list the journals in my shop.  I'm still working behind the scenes to finalize packaging and sort out the postage and write descriptions and fight with my camera and dream up a teeny, tiny extra that might find its way into each package.  I thought about writing about all the little details, but then I wasn't sure.  Is that something you'd like to read about?  Let me know and I'll whip up another post.  Or not.  You know, depending.

hugs,
Christie

Do that thing update -- Sneak peek

This post is part of my do that thing series.  For previous updates, in handy reverse chronological order, click here.

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First off, thank you so much for your comments on yesterday's post.  You have always made me feel like I can achieve anything here, even when I don't always believe it myself.  Sharing this space with you means the world to me.

There is so much that I would like for this journal (and those to come . . .) to be.  I'd like it to be a super-quick, easy-peasy, no pressure, fill-in-the-blanks space for you to record the ups and downs of your day-to-day.  Because those little details are so important; they both shape and reflect who we are and where we are headed.  (And later, it's so much fun to look back at these snapshots in time.)

I'd also like these journals to be a place where you can confide in yourself.  A place where you can put your big thoughts, your scary thoughts, your wild dreams into writing.  Even if you're not ready to pursue them or share them with others just yet.  A place to work out your ideas and questions, in just a few words, here and there, when you have a sec to write them down.  A place to hatch your goals and keep track of them. 

One thing I definitely wanted to add was a new category of prompts directed toward goal-setting.  Goal-achieving, too, for that matter.  I decided to call it Big Ticket Items.  And there's an extra, qualifying thought lurking in the subtitle:  In this space, nothing is impossible.  Because wouldn't it be nice to have another way to remind yourself that yes, you can do that thing and to have a quick spot to record the steps along the way?

Needless to say, this blog, this little pocket journal, these are my Big Ticket Items.  What's one of yours?  Are you still doing that thing?  I'd love to hear about it!

hugs,
Christie

Do that thing update

Fresh from the printer . . .

You guys.  I did it.

And now I'm so full of nervous energy that I almost can't type.  Which, as you probably already know, is par for the course around here. 

This is the project I described in my last post.  It's here.  And what is it exactly?  It's a pocket-sized guided journal that you can take with you wherever you go.  Simply made and staple-bound, with thick pages for notes and coloured markers, it features all new prompts and doodles, even new categories of prompts.  There isn't a single blank page to be found.  Not even the back cover is free of my doodling and wondering and querying. 

You guys, I couldn't be more proud of this, my first printed journal and I couldn't let the moment pass without sharing it with you, who have been so good to me through thick and thin, through 49 journal pages (with more to come) and a whole lot of wondering where it all might lead.

I think this just might be it.

Tomorrow I'll be back with a sneak peek inside.  And sometime next week, I'll list a few in my shop and we'll continue on, as we always have, from there.

hugs,
Christie