Hardcover personal journal, 2024-2025
“She ended up drawing a beautiful flower that I would flip to first every time I wrote an entry for the rest of this journal.”
About This Item
Creation Date: ca. 2015
Keeper’s Description: A completed journal from January 2024-September 2025, featuring mixed media entries including handwritten text, stickers, taped post-its, parking tickets, business cards, and sketches. The journal is a Life Stationery Noble Notebook (A5 size) with a black hardcover and 96 unruled, unlined pages. Pages are used on both sides. A notable entry is a flower drawing created by the keeper's sister during a car ride, and a handwritten note from the keeper's grandmother in the back. The journal demonstrates active use and creative experimentation throughout.
Keeper’s Discovery: I bought this journal for my birthday in December 2023 at a local stationery shop.
The Keeper of Wonder: Julie B.
The Keeper’s Story
Memory (a special moment): I remember it was spring. I was in the passenger seat, writing about how the day was going. It was a long ride. I had skipped a page because the other side had taped parking tickets and business cards from a fair I'd been to. I turned around to face my sister and asked if she would draw something on the bumpy side. I remember her laughing and saying it was impossible - because of the page, because of the road - but she set to work. She ended up drawing a beautiful flower that I would flip to first every time I wrote an entry for the rest of this journal.
Meaning (why it’s kept): I keep the journal because it's a memory of me. It's one of the first journals I ever completed all pages in, but it's also shared, I have entries from my grandmother and sister, and that feels special. Now, it brings me satisfaction and memory. It's a gratitude journal, a commonplace book, a junk journal, a sketch journal and everything in between.I finished it because I allowed myself to do whatever in it, I even started a vocab list.
Legacy (tell the future): I hope it inspires people to invite someone else to write, draw, or document in their own journal, and to forget about what it's supposed to look like. Let it be messy some days, neat other days. Add documentation of your day, of moments lived. .
More Details
Curator’s Note: This journal is included in the Evidence of Wonder collection as a contemporary record that includes items that show active use, annotation, and lived experience in the present. Unlike materials with historical distance, this piece demonstrates how wonder and memory are being actively created and documented. The collaborative nature of the journal, with contributions from family members, and the accumulation of everyday ephemera turns it into an archive of connection and creativity. The keeper's pride in completing this journal, combined with the shared authorship, supports the collection's focus on joy, connection, and the records of adult wonder.
Collection: Evidence of Wonder: A Living Archive
Contributor: Julie B., 2025
Source: Digital file contributed by Julie to the Evidence of Wonder Collection, 2025
Subjects (keeper identified): Grateful, Content, Proud
Rights / Access: This digital image is contributed with permission for display on The Lost Shelf website and is available for viewing for personal, creative, and research purposes only. All other use, including reproduction or distribution, requires written permission from the contributor and The Lost Shelf.
