A minor collection

Well, August; the back to school month for retailers. It is one of the most amazing marketing tools - and I love it; such a great opportunity to browse aisles stuffed with matching stationery items. I started a fresh new notebook this week, and had a minor panic when I saw that my collection was down to about five! Really, I could have enough nice notebooks to last my lifetime and still want more. I favour the ring bound, easy to lie flat, A6 versions, with lines or squares. The bonus of the odd plastic pocket or tabbed marker page makes me swoon. Or of course, the traveller's Moleskine. Just because they're reminiscent of an era I didn't experience and like a journal, full of blank paged potential. This is why I bought a Bind It All - I couldn't believe the possibilities. And then I sold the Bind It All because I didn't manage to create anything from the possibilities; turns out a browse round Paperchase, WH Smith, The Range - anywhere - could save me hours of faffing and swearing over hole punch alignment! Ok, but the hours part is true - I decide really quickly! Each of these notebooks is currently in use; the actual collection of unuseds are dotted around - mostly so Mr D doesn't recognise another obsessive tendency in me! I really am such a 'one job at a time' person that I like a notebook for each job too......weird huh! The one with the black rings contains notes and ingredients lists for cards I've made for workshops - that way I can photo the cards, deliver originals to the shop for display and a couple weeks later turn up with all the right stuff. It works, mostly, but there have been some spectacular near misses. Like the time I was 3 hours into a five hour journey to Aberystwyth to demonstrate at Abercardabra and had to ring Bethan; I'd left the cuttlebug plates behind. It was a cuttlebug demo. Saved by Bethan's customer and some adrenaline!

The big silver wire book is actually my first attempt at Journal Your Christmas - Shimelle's famous and fab online class. It is unfinished. It was a month of discovery for me; that as much as I like the medium, I'm not a journaller. One of the smaller books is full of domestic nonsense, stupid passwords for online shops and things that you can never remember, another is for recording the challenges and finances for Ludgershall Crop and another records bookings and details for the 2 Scrap Ladies events. So you see, it is a madness, but I need notebooks. And even at this great age, I therefore need a back to school month to appear on the high street. The most silly part of this shelf is the narrow silver ring bound and the red leather spine you can just see - two previous year's diaries. I like them too much to ditch them. I'll be over them soon.

Wanna share your mild madnesses? Do you even recognise them?