How many great ideas have you had that never came to fruition? I think it all started in college when a friend of mine, Max, and I started to write down different business ideas. It was a little competition on who could come up with the best new business idea. Then as I became social chair of our fraternity, I started to write down new party ideas. That became how can I create a comfortable atmosphere that will promote social interaction between the sorority girls and my fraternity brothers. It was just a notepad in which I did my thinking and problem solving on.

Hmm, let me go back even further. Maybe it began with my Mom and her daily writing down of the "To Do List". I then started to write down and organize each and every day on a small notepad. Through the years, my note taking, thought process, "To Do List", and writing has progressed. Now I keep everything in a notebook journal of sorts.

I came to this new journal method via a friend and mentor named Jane. Upon her leaving a job and handing the reigns to me, she gifted a Moleskine notebook. I didn't know the company or notebooks history at the time, but having used them for the past 4 years, it's been great. They are almost like my diary but encompass so much more. I write quotes in them, business plans, travel logs, notes on life, topics for my blog, things to do, and is also a form of mental therapy. Most of all, it's where I write down my ideas. I wish I had kept more of my past notebooks, especially the ones from college. I only begun keeping my journal notebooks these last couple years.

I highly recommend you go out, purchase and keep a notebook yourself. It might not be for everyone, but it really has helped me in my life. It wasn't until a month ago that I noticed a little pocket in the back cover. Inside the sleeve was the history of these notebooks and who else they've helped organize. Here's the description:

THE HISTORY OF THE LEGENDARY NOTEBOOK //

Moleskine is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin. This trusty, pocket-sized travel companion held sketches, notes, stories and ideas before they were turned into famous images or pages of beloved books.

Originally produced by small French bookbinders who supplied the Parisian stationary shops frequented by the international avant-garde, by the end of the twentieth century the Moleskine notebook was no longer available. In 1986, the last manufacturer of Moleskine, a family operation in Tours, closed its shutters forever. "Le vrai Moleskine n'est plus" were the lapidary words of the owner of the stationery shop in Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie where Chatwin stocked up on the notebooks. The English writer had ordered a hundred of them before leaving for Australia: he bought up all the Moleskine that he could find, but they were not enough.

In 1998, a small Milanese publisher brought Moleskine back again. As the self-effacing keeper of an extraordinary tradition, Moleskine once again began to travel the globe. To capture reality on the move, pin down details, impress upon paper unique aspects of experience: Moleskine is a reservoir of ideas and feelings, a battery that stores discoveries and perceptions, and whose energy can be tapped over time.

The legendary black notebook is once again being passed from one pocket to the next; with its various different page styles it accompanies the creative professions and the imagination of our time. The adventure of Moleskine continues, and it's still-blank pages will tell the rest.

Come on, does that copy not inspire you to go out and get your own? If you are in Seattle, you can find them sold at Paperhaus on 1st Avenue. For more information, check out the website at: www.modoemodo.com.

Below are a couple shots off of the their website of famous notebook pages: