Welcome to your mindful bookbinding course!

If you missed the post introducing this you can find it here. This is the first of eight seasonal workbooks & tutorials which will be released according to the Celtic wheel of the year. We’re here to begin the year-long process of making and creating journal pages and learning how to hand sew them into a keepsake book.

Your 2024 beautifully wrapped up in cotton to remember always.

This process is specially created as a thank you to my paid subscribers. Each of the posts will include a workbook, filled with journal prompts and activities and also a video tutorial to guide you through making your own book. You can manage your subscription and support my writing here, as well as all of the free-to-access support we provide at The Women’s Health Hub via this button:

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You are also so welcome to try out this first workshop and decide if it’s for you with a 30 day free via the button below.

30 days free

Before we begin, I want to set out some guidelines, some suggestions to make this as enjoyable and beneficial to you as possible. Because you are magic and wonderful and you can’t do any of this wrong.

The first suggestion is to let go of expectation. To set realistic goals around how much time you can dedicate to this and to breathe into it. Because something I do not want is for this to turn into another thing you ‘have to do’ or that you can fall behind in.

The second is to lean into imperfection.

These pages we will create here, this book, is not another thing that needs to look just so, that needs to be Instagram ready, a particular kind of beautiful.

We learn by doing it wrong. We learn by trying things and making a mess and trying again and the true beauty is always in the process. I encourage you to lean into that here. I encourage you to comfort your inner perfectionist, take a big breath and see what happens.

We’re beginning this process with celebrating Imbolc. For 2024, Imbolc is the first turn of the Celtic Wheel of the Year and it is the first of four fire festivals which celebrate the movement of the sun in the sky outside of your window. It is the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and is widely celebrated as the first official day of spring, with the Goddess Brigid defeating the Cailleach to bring the return of the sun.

The spring bulbs are bravely popping their heads out of the soil, the days are lengthening and you can always return to the feel of the still cold air as you breathe in, deeply, knowing that one day soon, the air will feel warmer.

You can find more information about all of the above, and access your seasonal journal prompts & activities in your first workbook. Click the button below to access it - feel free to print this, to cut it up and stick it in your journal pages, whatever you need to make it accessible to you. I do hope it serves you well.

Workbook One Here

I have added my very favourite lemon & nettle cake recipe - the nettles are just beginning to pop up where I am here, in the North East of England, but for you, you might like to save it for a few weeks or months time? Perhaps it can be a nice practice to search them out and see when and how they grow in your area. The cake is delicious. The nettle stings, not so much.

Below you can find your first video tutorial*. It outlines how to make your signatures and get started on your bookbinding journey. I’d suggest you watch this first before you begin journaling and then answering the prompts directly into your signatures.

I am so excited for us all to begin ❤.

*This video was hard for me to record - speaking and verbally explaining myself is not my preferred way of communicating and I find it hard to regulate my volume and tone, I also do not have the best equipment or set up and am rather clueless. It still works and achieves its purpose though and so I am here sharing it with you - practicing what I preach and showing up in all my wonderful imperfection.

Things you might like to invest in:

• A cutting mat - you want a self healing one like this

• A bonefolder like this one

• Paper - any type that you want, even random bits of scrap will do. I love the paper from The Small Print Company

• A box or some sort of folder to hold all of your journal pieces and foraged things in

• Something to mark make with - again, anything you want here - paints, crayons, pen, even smooshing the green out of some leaves will do

If you are completely new to journaling, you may also like to check out this journaling guide I created for my Creative Journaling for Motherhood workshop. You can access the PDF to print here.

Some activities you might like to do, to celebrate Imbolc:

• This post by Green Parent outlines some wonderful activities

• This YouTube video takes you through how to make a Brigid doll

• This lovely article outlines the family feast that would occur and shows you how to make a Brigid cross to pray to her for blessing and protection for the year to come.

I’d love to know how you find today’s invitations - what resonated, what you enjoyed, how your signatures & pages for the season turn out. Why not share them in the comments or over on our private Imbolc thread just for paid subscribers?

And if you have any questions at all, please do email me over at [email protected]

Sending love for the season ahead,