BIG Bomo, 3 months on
I started using the big (B5) Bomo Art notebook as a journal, almost three months ago, so I thought I would get back to you about how it's going.
I don't journal daily (though one of my goals for 2022 is to try to journal more, without specifying exactly what more is). I tend to journal when things are especially good or bad, or if I have time and remember to. I know. Not a brilliant system!
Despite using this for three months, I haven't actually written in it as much as you might imagine, but that's not because it isn't the most fabulous book for journalling. It's because of what's happened in the last few months.
When I started the journal, it was clear that my father was entering the last few weeks of his life. He died at the end of November, with the funeral in December. Sometimes I found it hard to journal because I was too upset; sometimes I had run out of time/energy for the day. Occasionally, I didn't journal because I didn't think I would ever want to re-read entries from those days. Part of me regrets that, but it's too late now.
But despite the sad start to the journal, the Bomo really does make an excellent notebook for journalling. Last week, Scrib talked about getting yourself a lovely notebook and special pen/pencil for recording life. I can thoroughly recommend the Bomo for the notebook part.
In the past, I've often struggled to start using gorgeous notebooks, 'because they're too nice' (and I will 'spoil' them with my ramblings). For some reason, despite the Bomo being glorious, I haven't had those reservations. I think it's the quirky cover, with the vintage wrapping paper feel to it. It's a beautiful book (with oodles of pages of super paper) but manages not to be a 'scarily good book' (that ends up never being used).
So far, I've written in it in pencil, fountain pen, and gel pen, and the paper has been fabulous for all. One very wet fountain pen showed through a smidgen too much for me, but mostly they have been fine. As the pages are blank, it would also work well if you wanted to paste things in and use it as a scrapbook type journal. I may yet do that.
All in all, it's made an excellent journal and I'm hoping that in 2022 I'll manage to write in it much more than I have the last few months.
