Many years of date stamp journaling fun! BEFORE:
2019 DIY mechanical date stamp with rotating dial a date of months, days and years. Almost 10 years of date stamping fun! Available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
Here is the note I received:
Date stamp arrived within a week of ordering. The package arrived happy mail style including a hand written note and black ink stamp pad. I'll be using this date stamp in my journals for years to come.
Of course, I wish I could take a peek of her journal to see how she uses the date stamp! Hopefully next time! So I decided I will take the plunge and start my own journal using the date stamp myself! However, I am not very good at keeping daily journals and if I do, I don't use the date stamp, I just write in the date!
AFTER:
Below is most likely the best way of journaling for me. I do like to keep track of minor and major events in my life and often use them as point references for other events, but most often can't pin point the correct or exact date. And if I keep them in a book journal I'll have difficulties finding
This probably more my style of journaling with a date stamp
For instance, I'd like to keep better track of gifts I've given through the years to relatives and friends, especially for birthdays and what we ate for different holidays, birthdays and other events we celebrated with food!
Over here we find all kinds of reasons to celebrate and we mainly celebrate with food and friends and most likely we'll have our own pre and post celebration to go along with the main event!
I make sure each one has the year 2019 and some go into the future as far as 2028 and some go into the past with 2017, but I don't check each one for the future end year and the starting past year, so safe to say your date stamp may end at 2026 or 2027, but more likely 2027 or 2028.
Available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
This simple stamp is small but mighty. To make sure you don't accidentally stamp the date upside down, it has a simple way to help you. The above photo shows the rounded end of the stamp handle and if you use it that way facing you, it will stamp upside down. The other side is flat and your thumb will feel more comfortable holding it and it will stamp right side up.
This is much neater than my daily journal, but if I used a date stamp daily, I'd wish it looks like this one! Most of the time, my writing looks like scribbles in mine and I just use a Composition Book for my daily journal that usually just keeps my ideas and to do lists.
Photo via google
Here is a photo of the flat side of the handle, as long as the flat side is against my thumb, I know I'm stamping correctly. This date stamp stamps the numeral day first and the abbreviated month is in the middle and the year is last, which is how I've written my dates since college.
Available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
My purge pile is still in the corner of the living room by the front door and I've decided to let it go to a donation station and see how I feel about it. I'll still be listing my "old" hoard because I still have plenty of it, but the things that don't find forever homes will be donated from now on.
Saying Goodbye: I've been using date stamps like this one for over 30 years now. I originally used them in the classroom because my third graders at the beginning of the year weren't used to writing their name and date on papers, especially in their journals, so this came in handy as a reminder for them the first several months and students thought it was fun and you can have a date stamp monitor in charge of it all!
It works for all ages! Great for pre school and kinder who can only express themselves with drawing, until they learn the alphabet! Photo via google, but you can check out her blog too!
2019 date stamp available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
What I Learned:
1. Who knew some of my hoard would become our best sellers. There was a time when I was teaching when the year ran out and I could not find a replacement stamp that didn't fit in my teacher budget, so when I found them again at a reasonable price, I kinda "hoarded" them!
They really come in handy in the classroom, I kept one at my desk, for multiple letters home, field trip slips and most other anecdotal notes. I kept one in the filing cabinet, in case the date monitors lost theirs. I kept one at home for grading papers. I had one at the art center for students to add a creative industrial touch. They also make great teacher gifts, especially for first year teachers.
2. I think I found my new next adventure! and it allows me to hoard, guilt free! I'm only buying what I love and even though I love a lot, at least this time around, I'm asking myself....would I rather have this or that other one... or how can I use this particular piece for the project I have in mind. It at least slows my buying down!
In the old days, I'd just allow myself to buy both of the items I loved. Back then, I didn't necessarily have to love or have a purpose for my hoarded items, I just bought them because they were on sale, or because they were a total bargain, as in practically free or better yet, if there were free I'd get my favorites of the pile. I even bought things just because I loved the packaging. I still do buy items when the packaging tugs at my heart strings. I don't know how to get over things that ooh and ahhh me.
3. So I'm so excited about my new projects! I'm keeping the ideas inside me to build up for even more excitement and energy, plus I don't want to jinx myself by letting it out and actually putting it on paper just yet because a lot of the supplies are still on their way to me and I want to give myself a lot of time to experiment with them all!
Not only does this journal show how my date stamp actually stamps with the numeral day first, then month and year, but what she wrote makes so much sense to me, but I don't do social media or really look at other people's images or updates on them. I do occasionally use it for inspiration, when I google something and the image looks like I might see more similar on their social media. However, I would wake up and get stuck in Etsy land, doing the mindless this and that to my shops because it was such an easy task or chore, but now I too, start my day easing into "inward" routines to heal my mind, spirit and body. Photo via google from the blog of Jen Morris, here.
4. I'm so crazed about my new projects that some days I can't even get to sleep! My life is so much happier and energized thinking about my new adventure and I'm so thankful I've found something I love. HINT: It takes my love of mending and hoarding old discarded things that I love that are wrecked and giving them new life. It also involves a lot of washing and ironing, which is at the bottom of my cleaning house list, along with vacuuming, but since I love the rest, it doesn't matter.
I don't even know if my new adventure will sell well on Etsy, but that isn't keeping me either because I love it all so much!
I've even been thinking about branding, which I don't think I'll need because it takes me so long just to finish something, but neither don't matter to me and I've started practicing on my own stuff first and I know I'm going in the right direction because I need less sleep and food. Overall I'm happier and more peaceful and I don't feel a single stitch in time! One minute it'll be the morning and the next it'll be past dinner time!
5. I started this post at the second week of January, but it took me a couple of more weeks to remember to take photos of the 2019 date stamp because we hadn't updated our date stamp photo since 2013. Better late then never!
I'm even using this date stamp in my new adventure, which means I'm practicing being more disciplined with my record keeping! 2019 date stamp available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
Thank you Etsy buyer from JunkDrawerAndMore for sharing your story and adding to the excitement to my new projects with giving me an idea for record keeping journal style! I wish I could see the part of your journal using the date stamp but I'm thankful to have found other examples.
I think Jen Morris uses the same date stamp I do. I wonder if she ordered it from us. We've sold hundreds of these on several of the shops and I'd rather spend the time on my new projects than to search each shop and see if she did, lol. I never thought I'd find a love that would take over other priorities that easily! 2019 date stamp available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
Sales for January 2019 have been up and down, but are keeping up with last year's overall weekly to monthly average so far. I've changed almost all items to free shipping, which is a lot easier on me, since I don't have to think about it or calculate postal zones for any items, but and this is a big BUT..... USPS is raising their rates by a lot!
Domestic First class by 3.9% on average because they have been raised prices by zones, which can get complicated and Domestic Priority by 6.3%, effective today. We've been busy changing all our prices at all 4 shops to reflect, not only the USPS rate increase, but also Etsy rates, which increased by 5% per items total sale, plus 5% increase on credit card use and another 5% for shipping since July of 2018. I haven't had the time to see if free shipping is more economical overall or not, but it's been on my to do list since July to figure out!
I'm still working hard daily and with little baby steps to change my thinking about abundance and scarcity and all my new thinking towards Etsy and life in general and I feel as though it's starting to work! Mainly because doing what I love now over throws whether or not it will sell on Etsy! Did I just say that?
Click on the shop names to visit new hoard listed weekly: HoarderRehab with 174 items, The Destiny of Things- 171 items, VintageToGoEasy - 176 items and JunkDrawerAndMore - 174 items.
Maybe you'll find something and give it new life and a new home! Thanks for looking!
This is as far as I've gotten with my new journaling daily, but at least it's a start! I used to tell my students that if they didn't know what to write in their journal to write that they didn't know what to write over and over until they did and if they got tired of writing, "I don't know what to write" to draw or even doodle and scribble and see where it takes them. 2019 date stamp available here. Photo via JunkDrawerAndMore
I ordered the date stamp to use at a 110 anniversary event to be held for the public library where I am a librarian. I think it will add some fun pizzazz
ReplyDelete110 years! What a milestone event! Thank you for letting me know and of course, I'm so curious to see all the fun pizzazz!
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