diy postcard calendar

Remember that baby book that you wrote in for a grand total of three weeks, the baby’s first year calendar with stickers that you decided was way too 1980’s for you, the piles of journals, and everything else you have to record beautiful moments of your life?   Well, here’s something you need that you might actually do.

I saw this diy vintage postcard journal on design*sponge and then all over pinterest.

What a perfect way to remember what you did for Valentines Day 2009 or when little Huckleberry lost his first tooth or how many times you watched You’ve Got Mail, without having to pour through seventeen journals.   {PS. I love the name Huckleberry and I’m not even making fun of it. You shouldn’t either.}

This weekend, I was feeding the baby, the remote was on the other side of the room and the television was muted, this movie came on and I started to read the dialogue (closed captions).  I had no idea what it was, but I got really into it, which is weird, because I have to know what a movie is called, I must know or else everything is crazy and the sky is falling, anyway… I kept watching, put the girl baby in her bed, and started working on my own calendar journal.  Well, the movie was Jungle Fever, circa 1991 and it was all kinds of terrible, I guess, but it was kind of good, in a bad way.  Whatever, I just wanted to set the scene for what I was doing while I was hand-writing the date of 365 index cards, because I don’t have a cool stamp like the picture above. Which brings me to my next point, I need that stamp.

I’m on the hunt for the perfect little container, perhaps a mini wooden crate,  but for now I used this case.  And I didn’t cut the cards in half, because that didn’t sound like fun, also I am  inherently incapable of cutting straight lines,  It’s one of my least favorite things to do ever….plus it gives me more room to write.

I took a little trip down memory lane and printed 12 photos that were either special memories or favorites. I changed them all to B&W because I like that and added text so that we’d always know when or where that photo was taken.  For example…

One of my favorites of the H’s. || Our trip to Alaska in October 2009

Our Wedding in Bell Buckle, TN 2007  || Our first date in San Marino, CA 2006

The only time Matt and H got to visit my grandpa’s house in Northern MN, Memorial day 2010  (Don’t worry, he just moved, he’s still alive.)  || Our first apartment in TN, 2007.

I also included a few recent family photos and one of each of the kids when they were born, with the date and city on it.

Everyday you just write the year and one line about what you did that day. Just imagine what memories it will hold after five years, recording everyday pieces that would soon be forgotten.

While I was choosing the photos I thought of a dozen ideas of what you could use to separate the months…

• Postcards, of course. Vintage or from your travels.
• Collect images of places you wish you visit and when you do, write down the date of when it happened.
• If you are into scenery, select your favorite photos from your adventures, be sure to include the place and date.
• If you are all scrap-book-y, you could create 12 little pages.
• Photos of all the front doors where you have lived. (OR houses or whatever)
• Favorite quotes printed on card stock
• Cutouts of vintage calendar pages
• Little notes that you have written to each other.
• Write little messages to you & your family in the future, be sure to sign and date.
• Dreams, wishes, goals you have for your family.  How great would it be to look back on them years down the road?
• Favorite Scriptures
• Copies of your favorite album covers, movie posters, etc.
• A random collection of photos of meaningful heirlooms or keepsakes
• You could use envelopes and store little treasures that you wish to save or pass down.
• A yearly photo of your kids, which you’d add throughout the years.

This might make a darling shower gift. Include a list of ideas for the recipient and insert fun little cards or paper in between the months, then they can choose whatever they want to do.

I keep it on the shelf next to my bed and every night right I just jot down one thing.

Yesterday, I wrote, 100 degrees, built a ford inside with H.

 

Would you do something like this?  How would you make it uniquely yours?