Today I am opening up yet another journal. (The outside looks the same though. I use these 3.5×5.5” sketchbooks by Talen’s. All of my watercolor paints are from Case for Making.) This one I started on January 1, 2025 and my goal was to fill it with tiny paintings of everything I bought and made throughout the year.

Why did I decide to do this? First, as we have discussed at length over the past two decades, I love a little project. Second, I wanted something specific to paint. And third, I wanted to pay more attention to the things that I buy. In 2024 I kept a list of all the stuff I purchased (aside from consumables like food, hand-soap, etc.) It was enlightening! I wanted to try the same in 2025 but with a bit more…effort. (Also, of course, I am not the first person to paint the things they buy. Artist Kate Bingham-Burt has been sketching her purchases for years.)

It started out really fun. (Like most things you decide to do for fun.) I created a “key” at the front of the journal to keep track of what came from where. The categories (homemade, online small biz, local secondhand, local small biz, local big box store, online big box store, online secondhand and travel souvenir) were are designated by separate paint colors.

Then each page was devoted to one purchase (if I bought three things at the same place they all went on one page). I stamped the date in the corner and underlined it in the category paint color. Then I painted my items and wrote the store it came plus a little description of the item. That was it! So simple!

I am going to share a healthy sampling of the pages so you can see how things went.