Friday fave - and I'M GIVING IT AWAY!! (cue the confetti cannon).

Oh, you read right, kids.
YMFT's very first giveaway!

It will be fun to see how badly I can screw this up.

I don't really do product reviews on this blog, unless you count my favorites lists on Fridays, but I'm not sure singing the praises of chocolate covered pomegranate seeds or Brownie Brittle really counts.

But last week I stumbled upon an Etsy shop that sells tiny handmade journals that I've absolutely fallen in love with.  And before I continue (and gush), you should know that I am not a 'journaly' type of person.  Oh, sure, I've either bought or been gifted many lovely blank journals through the years (although I'm actually partial to the good old composition notebook), and have - every time - had grand plans to write at the very least a sentence or two in them daily.  But other than keeping a wedding planning journal and a few pages of funny things the Things said and did when they were toddlers, I didn't.  And it kills me that I didn't follow through. Maybe it's because a journal full of 200 blank pages is intimidating.  Maybe it's because it seemed like work.  Maybe it's because you don't think you're really gonna get older (you will) or you'll never forget the details of the perfect winter day you built a 10' tall snowman with your 3 year old (ditto).

So when I found Katie's Etsy shop and then her website and spent an hour exploring all the darling, tiny handmade journals, I felt like she was making them for me.  And I immediately ordered one.


They're small - only 4"x5.5"- and filled with pages of what I like to call 'story starters' or cheats (which I'm thinking will make for some pretty organic blog post topics).  And they are precious.

I bought the personal journal, which comes in 2 different styles with many cover color choices.

There is a definite vintage feel to the journals.  

I'm going to use the library card to list my favorite books...or books I want to read...

And they come in a sweet little package -

The motto behind the journals.
Love.

She also has these little journal gems for wedding planning and babies and for cooks and for romance and new homes and travel and teeny tiny gratitude journals (my next purchase) and even has little doodly journals for kids.  

I've had mine for 4 days and have yet to write more than my name in it, but I'm waiting for a cold and cloudy morning to sit with a cup of coffee and start filling in some of the spaces.  

Or it will join the other blank journals in my nightstand drawer.  

But it will definitely be the cutest one in there.

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And now (drum roll please).....what you probably scrolled all the way down here without reading for....the giveaway!

Katie is nice enough to give away a gratitude journal to one lucky winner!

But that's not all! She's also giving all my readers a 10% discount off their order this week!

Make sure to check out Katie's website, www.gadanke.com, where you can see all the journals, and enter 10STORY for the discount on your order!

Also, stop by her blog, www.makingthishome.com, where she's chronicling the renovation of an airplane hangar into a beautiful and eco-friendly home...as well as giving lovely journaling ideas and tips.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll announce the winner next week in my Friday favorites post ~ good luck!