Keepsake & Memory Journals

These are not notebooks. A keepsake journal has the questions already written in it, which is the whole point: most people mean to record the year their child started school or the way their grandmother made a particular dish, and never do, because a blank page asks too much. A prompt on a page asks for one sentence.

The range covers the obvious milestones and some less obvious ones. Pregnancy and first year books, childhood and school memories, grandparent and family history journals for the stories that otherwise leave with a generation, travel records, and recipe books meant to be handed on rather than filed.

Most are linen bound and several arrive in a keepsake box, which is what makes them turn up so reliably at showers and milestone birthdays. Everyday notebooks and diaries sit in Planners + Journals.

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What is the difference between a keepsake journal and a notebook?
A keepsake journal is prompted. The questions and sections are printed, so filling it in is a matter of answering rather than deciding what to write, which is why they get finished and blank notebooks often do not.

Do I have to start at the beginning?
No. Nearly all of them leave space to go back and fill in earlier pages later, and most people do exactly that once they are a few entries in.

Which one suits a baby shower?
A pregnancy or first year journal, ideally one of the boxed linen ones. They present well without wrapping and are the sort of thing parents rarely buy for themselves beforehand.

Are they only for new parents?
Not at all. The grandparent, family history and school memory books are given to older relatives and to children, and the recipe journals are a common wedding or housewarming gift.