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"I love to see you at my table, Nick. You remind me of a-of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn't he?" - The phrase "an absolute rose" is a famously whimsical compliment from F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby.

From my desk to yours, the character of Daisy and this particular snippet taken from one of my most beloved reads inspired me to make this vintage ephemera notebook. I hand-decorated a good-quality, blank Kraft A5 journal, using late-Victorian collage as my reference point to create a romantic, swoon-worthy design. I used vintage decoupage cut-outs from an old set I found, along with an assortment of papers, hand-stamping, and stickers. The quotation on the front cover reads 'an absolute rose'.

The inside covers are also decorated, but the pages themselves are left blank, offering a flexible space for writing, sketching, or collecting literary thoughts and fragments.

This journal will be carefully packed and sent to you with a matching bookmark and a keepsake note from myself detailing a little of the history and heritage around women's journalling. If you're fond of junk journalling, scrapbooking, or diary-keeping, I do hope that you will enjoy having this in your collection. It also makes an ideal gift to slip into the post for a friend or loved one who shares these interests.

The heritage of note-making, writing, and correspondence is one where there's room for sentimentality, which is why I love using assemblage, collage and handicraft techniques to make one-of-a-kind journals like this one here.

Roses feature throughout the literary world, with other apt quotations including:

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." - William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet)

"If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness." - Therese of Lisieux

"A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world." - Leo Buscaglia

Perhaps these will inspired what you put together within this pretty, nostalgic notebook.