❧ Filled Notes: 2025 ❧
My 2025 has proven interesting and my use of Field Notes has accelerated.
Why do these images look strange and low-res? That's on purpose. They've been dithered so that they load more quickly and have a smaller carbon footprint. Plus it looks cool. Thank you to Dither Me This for the dithering!
Underland (Center Panel)
Start to End: December 26th, 2024-January 26th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: I really like to end and begin the new year with portal-themed books, apparently. (See the first and last notebooks of 2024 for example.) This was one that I had in my "treasure box," so glad I got to use it.
Kraft, Left-Handed, Modded with Draplin stamps, signed by Aaron Draplin
Start to End: January 26th–March 3rd, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: This one is of course special to me. It's my first left-handed Field Notes, which is an experience I can take or leave. I'm so used to using stuff made for right-handed people that stuff made for left-handed people feels weird to me much of the time. I ordered the Thick Lines set of Cinderella stamps off Aaron Draplin's site when I purchase Turquoise Tribute in December 2024. These two earthier ones seemed like good candidates for a kraft book. When Aaron visited Ann Arbor in February, I got to spend much of the day with him and it was a total delight. The last two things he signed for me that night were two of my notebooks. He didn't say anything, no doubt because he was totally exhausted, but I like to think that I noticed him pause for a second before signing it, taking in my tasteful stamp placement. :P
Deadest Print, "Pretty Much Everything" cut, heavy foil
Start to End: March 3rd–March 29th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: Pretty straightforward journal usage.
Vignette, Green, featuring Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Start to End: March 30th-April 19th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: I chose this Vignette because it was like the bright green of very early spring that emerged on the trees right as I finished this book up. I didn't have an idea of what I wanted to feature on the cover and so looked through my stack of old postcards. This portrait of Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a postcard that I think I picked up at the National Portrait Gallery in London almost a decade ago. It really was just the image that looked the best inside the hole, but I was pleased to be carrying STC around for a few weeks. The image on the back is a picture of the 10 of Swords I took with my phone and printed out with my Polaroid Hi-Print photo printer. The card looks dire, but to me the 10 of Swords always means: "Stop overthinking things." A reflection of some emotional struggles and breakthroughs I had while filling up this book.
Birch Bark, Lisa Congdon mod
Start to End: April 19th-May 16th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: I got this Birch Bark notebook in a trade. When I was first starting out with Field Notes, I didn't really see the value of plain notebooks like this, but now I see the potential in being able to draw and paint on the covers or modify them in other ways. After putting some of these Cinderella stamps by Lisa Congdon on it, I posted a picture of this notebook to the Field Nuts group and the crowd went wild. I did end up putting a little glue under the stamps, as the gum on the back was not enough to keep them well stuck, but they held up through the notebook's use.
Aspen, Emily Chaplin
Start to End: May 17th-June 14th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: My favorite of the three Aspen books.
Bon Iver, fABLE
Start to End: June 14th-24th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: These sold out pretty quickly, I'm assuming partly driven by Bon Iver fans but also by the nice graphic design. (The latter was my draw.) As always, I had to go ahead and use it so my chances of having a collector's item are (intentionally) ruined. So far this is the notebook I have filled the fastest. It's the one in which I started using stickers regularly. I also took a family vacation and had some pictures to print and include in it as well.
Birds & Trees of North America: Baltimore Oriole
Start to End: June 25th-July 6th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: I loved these so much I bought all nine, although I imagine I'll trade a few away. I don't get Baltimore Orioles around my yard much, but I did see a couple this year, so it seemed like a good enough excuse. Continued with my use of stickers so I filled this one very quickly as well.
XOXO 2024
Start to End: January 19th-July 9th, 2025
Use: Therapy book
Notes: This was my first notebook dedicated solely to taking notes during therapy sessions and keeping notes about what I want to talk about between sessions. I ended it with 4 blank pages (something I don't usually do) because I had a new issue that I was about to start on in therapy and wanted a fresh notebook for it.
Harvest A: Rainbow Chard
Start to End: July 6th-July 20th, 2025
Use: Journal
Notes: The Harvest edition came along a couple of years before I got into Field Notes, so I was happy to acquire a couple of these in a trade. They're really lovely. The ledger was interesting to work with and for the most part I just ignored the ledger line and treated it like a lined notebook. Paper quality for both the cover and innards is wonderful.