"New Year's Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."
~Mark Twain~
2006 was the first year that I’ve ever maintained a journal (on paper) for each day of the entire year. I don’t recall what spurred me to do this last year, except perhaps the purchase of beautiful journal the cover of which was covered in iridescent green sequins. I started off at one page per day, and covered each page with papers, stamped images, varying fonts and alphabets for the day and date, paints, and paper artifacts from each day. These included all the detritus of traveling – boarding passes, luggage tags, itineraries, hotel bills, and bits and pieces from each place I stayed throughout the year – along with other odd items that accumulate each day in pockets and pocketbooks, sun visors and countertops. The more three-dimensional morsels that won’t lie flat are attached by ribbons and cords and ties and hang outside the books. Every journal entry here on JournalScape is printed in an assortment of colors and fonts, against variegated backgrounds.

I experimented with various designs and used what I learned in other collages and cards. The journal has grown to eight volumes which line one of the bookshelves in my craft room/library. I looked back at a few of the entries and realized how much slips away each year – each day and week and month, really – and how little I would remember of the texture of my life if I didn’t document it in some way. I had forgotten that there was a sudden thunderstorm on New Year’s Eve 2005 which struck a clap so loudly that it woke both children and the dogs. I didn’t realize that the price of gas on January 1, 2005 was identical to the price I paid today. I didn’t recall how much traveling I had done in the first half of the year and how little in the last six months.

Sometime in the last couple of months, I started including a quote for each day. Sometimes it related to this journal entry, other times it was completely random, drawn from a recent book or song or movie. My plan this year is to continue those quotes and include them here each day as well.

Mark Twain and paving the road to hell seemed a particularly good place to start the new year.