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Day 3 of the Chicago notebook.

Finished the inside front cover this afternoon. I wasn’t sure at first if I liked the busy colors and lines after the more muted pencil work from yesterday’s photo, but I think it works.

Above the large Chicago is the city’s flag, which covers up the “reward if found” lines which grace the inside cover of every Moleskine. I figure contact info can end up somewhere else inside the book.

I was almost tempted to draw a little Loch Ness-style monster swimming in the depths of Lake Michigan, but I’m not sure if there have been any sightings of any such creature in any of the Great Lakes. Any residents of the Midwest out there who can help clue me in?

Now on to the organization and tabbing of pages, and then the scribbled info: itinerary, restaurant listings, museum hours, etc. Fun times, fun times.

Not much creating going on today…but I did make some piles of snow along the driveway even bigger than they already were. It snowed most of the day, and it was a wet, sticky snow, so I had my work cut out for me. Yuck.

I’m flying to Chicago at the end of March to see the Boredoms with my good friend Skiv. As you can imagine, I’m already getting stoked out on planning the trip.

Inspired by a few different city notebooks, I decided to use a spare Moleskine sketchbook as a trip planner/journal. I plan to include street and transit maps for the neighborhoods we’re going to check out, info for restaurants/shopping/touristy destinations, journal/sketch pages, and many other sections. It’ll basically be a customized compendium of the coolest places/events I can find in all the guidebooks I’ve been reading.

Today’s Thing A Day is the initial planning process for the notebook. This photo shows my kitchen table workspace this evening, with one of many index cards with brainstorming ideas scrawled on them, my sketchbook toolkit (colored pencils, glue sticks, pencils, erasers, etc.), the notebook in question, and of course my trusty work laptop in the background.

If you have any ideas for cool things to do in Chicago, leave a comment. We’re already planning to check out Quimby’s bookstore, maybe Critical Mass, some recommended vegetarian restaurants, and some hangout spots in Wicker Park, of course.