So many stitchers use the Book of Days to document their cross stitching. I’ve used it for several years and I loved it but found there was more info that I wanted to include than what was easy to write there. Many stitchers decorates their books with stickers and that’s fun and makes it pretty and I love doing that but the stickers limit the writing space even more.
I want to document things like:
- WIPS
- New Starts
- Finishes
- Chart Purchases
- Chart Wish List
- Progress on each WIP
Sheri at Colorado Cross Stitcher takes her Book of Days to the print shop, has them add blank pages and gets it spiral bound and that allows her to add lots more info, photographs, and whatever else cross stitch related info that she wants to add. I purchased the 2023 Book of Days and ever since it arrived, I had planned to take it to the print shop and have pages added and have it spiral bound but I never did it. I kept thinking there was something else I wanted to do.
For the last couple of years, I’ve kept my personal journal in a Happy Planner. A month or so ago, I decided to use a Happy Planner for meal planning. It’s so easy to add pages, dividers .. most anything . . to Happy Planner books. I was in bed on New Year’s Eve thinking . . I still don’t have my Book of Days ready for the new year. Then it hit me . . I could use a Happy Planner for documenting my cross stitching.
I like the Big (8.5″ x 11″ pages) book, with the vertical format for my journal so I ordered that for the cross stitch journal. I’m trying the coloring book format for the cooking/menu journal. They have several formats and, as usual, I stick to the format I started with and am comfortable with but I’m looking forward to a different format for the cooking journal.
I ordered several cross stitching planner pages/sets from Naptime Stitcher on Etsy.
Above are a couple of the pages from Naptime Stitcher’s package I purchased. Once I get the book set up, I’ll show you more.
I think this is going to be a great way to stay organized with the stitching and document what I’m doing and what I’ve done, as well as what I want to stitch.
Cindy F says
Sounds like a great solution for you! I was pondering the space dilemma in the Book of Days last night. This is the first year I ordered one as last year I waited too long. I finished Only One Rose last night and I was looking for an area to keep all my finishes for the year. I just wrote it down on the left hand side of the calendar but am thinking about adding a couple of pages as you mentioned or keep a separate log of finishes.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I’ll post as I go and you can see how mine goes this year with the Happy Planner.
Cindy F says
Thanks! 🙂
Toni says
As I started reading this, I was going to recommend Naptime Stitcher’s planning pages…but then I saw you already knew! Haha!! Caveat: I took mine to Staples to have printed as I only have a B&W printer and I wanted them in color and on better quality paper. It ended up being a little pricey. If I had it to do over, I would probably only get 3 months printed to make sure I like it and they work for me.
judy.blog@gmail.com says
I did end up buying a medium weight paper for mine. All I had was regular copy paper and super heavy card stock. Hopefully you will love them. So far, I do and I’ve done a good job of keeping up with new starts, WIPS, etc.