❧ Filled Notes: 2017-2024 ❧
Here are the Field Notes notebooks that I've filled up, from my very first one that started in 2017 and took 5 years to fill, through the end of 2024, when my Field Notes habit was firmly established and I was filling notebooks in less than a month.
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!
Plain Kraft: Custom for pulp.aadl.org
Start to End: September 21st, 2017-November 3rd, 2022
Use: Library Event Stats
Notes: This was my first Field Notes notebook, a prize in AADL’s annual Summer Game. I recorded attendance stats for 73 library events in this book, mostly from 2017 to late February 2020, with a few in 2022 after we came back to in-person events. It spent a lot of time in my back pocket and has more patina than my other notebooks. It brings back a lot of memories from the events that I hosted.
Black Ice
Start to End: March 5th–April 21st, 2023
Use: Strength Training Log
Notes: I’ve only filled this one halfway and I don’t think it will get filled completely. I got this notebook for free at random from an Ebay seller. It was a very nice gesture, but I quickly realized that a memo notebook was not big enough for actually logging my workouts. Additionally, a perfect bound pocket notebook is just not my cup of tea. I don’t have an issue with the quality of the binding, it’s just the format. For a book that’s 3.5” wide, the gutter it creates is just too large.
United States of Letterpress: Ben Blount
Start to End: June, 23rd 2023–March 10, 2024
Use: Union Notes
Notes: I started using this after I became treasurer of my union at work and continued after I became co-president. I have used it mostly to take notes at meetings and trainings, just things that I want to have a record of.
United States of Letterpress: Springtide Press
Start to End: October 7–December 4, 2023
Use: Bullet Journal
Notes: This was my first start-to-finish Field Notes notebook that I used for a pocket journal. It’s what converted me wholeheartedly not only to the Field Notes brand, but to carrying a pocket notebook in general.
United States of Letterpress: Brad Vetter Design
Start to End: September 19–December 29, 2023; March 20th–
Use: The Noticing Book; Bullet Journal
Notes: This one will have two phases. I used a quarter of the pages on a project I called The Noticing Book. However, I didn’t get far with that project and when it came time for me to carry The 2024 Book, I opted to stop filling this one for the time being. I will probably fill the rest of the book with journaling when the time comes.
Underland, right side
Start to End: December 4–December 30, 2023
Use: Bullet Journal
Notes: I bought this pack from a men’s retailer, one of the very last places on the internet to have them available for retail price. The unexpected effect is that it arrived smelling like cologne! This was my first Field Notes in the lined format after Black Ice. In this incarnation I liked it much more than I expected and filled it more quickly than a graph or dot grid notebook. I traded the right side of this set, so I will not have a complete set, which I’m OK with.
Kraft Plus, Amber
Start to End: December 30, 2023–
Use: The 2024 Book
Notes: This book is a year long project to keep track of several things and also keep important words and ideas close to me: my intentions for the year, my values, the things that matter to me in life. I’m tracking exercise, books read, craft projects and the like in a very spare and minimal way, as well as noting any memorable events in a few words.
National Parks: Olympic National Park
Start to End: December 31, 2023–February 7, 2024
Use: Bullet Journal
Notes: One of the most beautiful Field Notes covers I have ever seen, I selected this one to start 2024. While filling it out, I got a couple of rolls of washi tape stickers, which make an appearance inside and outside the book.
Wilco: Pat Sansone
Start to End: February 7th–March 20th, 2024
Use: Bullet Journal
Notes: I only have 4/6 of the Wilco set left. One I traded, the other I got two designs of, so I gave one away. This design is one of my favorites and I wanted a bright notebook for the winter months.
Original Kraft
Start to End: February 26th, 2024–
Use: Observations about Pet Springtails
Notes: My friend got me a small terrarium with springtails in February 2024 and I wanted a notebook that I could keep close to the terrarium to keep track of when I fed them and any interesting changes in behavior or environment.
Kraft Plus, Aqua
Start to End: March 10, 2024–
Use: Union Notes
Notes: My second notebook of meeting notes and ideas for my labor union.
Aspen, Tammie Lane
Start to End: April 14th-May 24th, 2024
Use: Journal
Notes: Shifting away from a bullet journal style in this one and just using it as a journal. I love these Aspen editions.
Flora, B (lined)
Start to End: April 17th–July 6th, 2024
Use: Retreat Notes/Journal
Notes: I started using this one to take notes on a Cheri Huber book, but will finish it up as a journal.
MxLxBxD
Start to End: May 24th–June 26th, 2024
Use: Journal
Notes: I was kind of apprehensive about this one having 50# paper, but it ended up being fine. Filled this one faster than any other journal with grid pages.
County Fair: Michigan (Yellow)
Start to End: April 23rd-September 19, 2024
Use: Poetry and Journal
Notes: I started this one to write poetry in, but only used it for that for a few weeks. I decided that I'm not great at the different-notebooks-for-everything approach, so I began to gobble up partially used notebooks as journals. This served as my journal from August 17-Sept 19. I got the "Angelic Thoughts" sticker in a random mixed lot. (If you can't see it clearly, it's a kitten with its butt in the air facing the viewer, a pink bow at the base of its tail right above its butthole, and the words "angelic thoughts" in pink cursive script.) The more I think about this sticker, the less sense it makes. Pretty funny for the front of a notebook. This was also the first grid notebook where I gave up writing on every grid line and switched to every other line.
Third Man Records (Circles)
Start to End: September 22nd-October 21st, 2024
Use: Journal
Notes: I got this one in a trade and it was already had a bit of a patina on it, which added to the charm for me. I know nothing about Third Man Records and I'm not too hot on the other designs in this set, but I love this cover design.
Autumn Trilogy: Aspen
Start to End: October 22nd-November 21, 2024
Use: Journal
Vignette (Marble Insert)
Start to End: November 22nd-December 8th, 2024
Use: Journal
Notes: This one was still available on the Field Notes website for most of 2024 (it's a quarterly edition from 2020.) I hemmed and hawed for a long time about getting it, but threw it in with one purchase or another. I did not expect to like Vignette so much. The cover material is great, and I liked the marbled insert that came with it so much I ended up using it instead of something of my own. This was the first graph book I used after deciding to write on every other line in graph notebooks. Holy crap did I chew these things up quickly once I started that practice.
National Parks: Yosemite
Start to End: December 10th-26th, 2024
Use: Journal
Notes: I had expected Vignette to be my last notebook of 2024 and I saw the circle on the cover as a sort of portal to the new year. But I finished it much earlier than expected and chose this one to put the year to bed.