In case you haven't noticed, each blog entry this year will focus around a journal prompt. Use them as jumping-off points for your own journals or simply think about them. :D

One of the changes I wanted to make in regards to my journaling was to "journal the everyday." Go past the complicated backgrounds or nostalgic collages and think like an archeologist discovering my work a hundred years from now. What would it say? What would the people of the future learn about the past from my colorful books? How about my children, grandchildren? I discovered I didn't want them to discover I could paint or make these backgrounds, or even put together scraps of paper that made the people of today sit up and notice -- I want them to truly learn about me.

What did I do every day? Where did I work? Where did I live?

Did I visit with friends?

Like peanut butter?

Drive a nice car or a shabby oldie (the latter, of course!)?

I believe this is the reason I journal -- to put my life down on paper in order to show others what life was like at the turn of the millennium. I've always been captivated by the journals of peoples who came before -- paging through their delicate books with white-gloved hands, hoping to gleme a clue as to what life was like for them.

I've done research through journals (discovering lighthouses on Nantucket),

curled up with journals to find strength from someone with similar experiences (Frida Kahlo and her chronic pain, like mine),

marveled at journals (Danny Gregory's everyday pages).

I want my journals to speak less of artistic talent and more of who I am as a woman in this modern age.

And as such, I want to share these experiances with you so that you may do the same. Your reasons may be different than mine, but I believe, at the core, we are all spirits looking to make our marks on this Earth, and this is a way we can do just that.

This flowing explanation is the only sane one as to why I did the following page. And since I am sitting at work on my day off, I felt it only fitting to make daily coffee drinks the focus of today's blog entry.

Spend one day taking peoples' drinks at a coffee shop, and you learn a lot about them. If they're on a diet. If they like organic. Are they a sweets person, or like the bitter taste of black coffee? There are so many things you can discover about them just by learning their drink!

I had this dark page in my journal and decided to play around with swirls. Then I found this drink sticker in my purse (I use a reusable tumbler for hot drinks at work) and thought -- WOW! I can do an entire entry about this!

Want a sticker of your own? Ask your barista! We have them for when customers bring in their own cups...and since not many do, we have stacks! Simply ask next time you get a drink for it to be written on a removable sticker. Then put it in your journal and write down your favorite drink. It might seem silly, but a hundred years from now, when they discover mounds of composting Starbucks cups, this might give them a clue as to what was going on!

And if you don't know the "code" for your drink, tell me what it is and I'll write it out for you. Yep, those little boxes are there for a reason!!

And so, I leave you with my view from the drive thru. Chicago's been hit with a lot of snow, and on Saturday, it was a Winter Wonderland. Here's the view from the "other side." Now, I'm going to sip my soy iced green tea latte and spend a few hours in the bookstore....

(Ps. my internet is DOWN. which means i only get about 20 minutes online a day. please bear with me - it should be back this weekend.)