I’m a self-described magazine junkie. My subscriptions are usually in flux, but I always have at least one on cooking, another on crafting, and a third for movie news. ReadyMade is far and away my favorite magazine. It’s a DIY smorgasbord filled with instructions on fun and hip projects. I’ve yet to actually complete a ReadyMade project, but I like to see what kind of stuff the cool kids make. I also enjoy Cooking Light, Real Simple, Entertainment Weekly, Premiere, Sunset, Budget Living and Creating Keepsakes.

In the last few months, I’ve discovered two new magazines that are each awesome in their own right. The first, Notebook, is an Austrailian women’s magazine. It’s been out for over a year, but I picked up the January issue last week. This isn’t like Glamour or Vogue, but more like Martha Stewart’s or Oprah’s magazines. It’s bright and colorful with sections on food, home and garden, and lifestyle. The most interesting part to me is the calendar section. In it there is a page for each day of the month with either a thought, quote, or action for the day. It might say go for a hike and then list out some cool places to go hiking or it might give a recipe to try for dinner. If the day is a holiday, say Chinese New Year, that day’s entry will be about celebrating the holiday. I haven’t seen a section like this in any other magazine and I’m hoping it will become more popular.

Notebook is also fairly interactive with areas for jotting notes or keeping an exercise schedule. It also has fold out dividers, so you can flip to any section in the magazine without paging through. The editors of this magazine mean for you to carry it around with you all month, like a planner or a calendar. I won’t be using it for that, but I can see how it could easily become a good tool for organization.

Since the seasons in Australia are opposite from ours, the one I picked up is about Summer. It’s great reading articles about growing tomatoes and going on road trips this time of year, because it gave me something to look forward too. I probably won’t pick this up every month, but it is a good escape.

I’ve already subscribed to the second magazine I recently discovered, Scrapbook Answers. It has been out for about four months now and is, as the name points out, solely about scrapbooking and paper-crafting. What makes this magazine different from other scrapbooking magazines I’ve read is its focus on techniques. Each issue comes with a cd that has short instructional videos that teach new techniques. The cd also includes a smattering of fonts, printable images, and image software.

Another good thing about Scrabook Answers is its product reviews. They writers aren’t afraid to give negative reviews and the magazine doesn’t have the rah-rah cheerleaderesque quality of the other scrapbook magazines. I’m hoping the magazine will up its page count soon, as the issues are a bit slim.

Those are the two magazines I’ve been interested in lately, but if you know of any great or fun ones I’m missing, drop a comment. I’m always looking for new ones to read.