Weekend Journal

My First Travel Journal Pages

It's been a lot more time intensive than I could foresee, but finally I've got a few completed pages to share with you.  I began by typing up our itinerary.  It's fortunate that all of my photos are dated and time stamped and uploaded to the computer in order.  When one does so many different things in such a short amount of time, it's difficult to piece it all back together after the fact!

Once I typed and printed the itinerary for Missouri, I cut it apart and and put it on the left side index page (I used a combination of red double stick tape, Mod Podge, and Gel Medium as adhesives) along with some Mizzou imagery.  Columbia, MO is a college town, and they're crazy about their Tigers.

DAY 1

My first pages were dedicated to the whole airport and flight experience.  I think I could start a new blog on that subject!

I like the vivid green of the luggage tags against the blue background.  I completed a vacation themed word search on the flight to St. Louis, so I tore the page out of my book and applied it to the background.

After we took our luggage out of the back of the car in Cleveland, I gave Madison a daughter a hug and bent down to retrieve my bags.  This embroidered heart patch was laying next to my bags - a good luck charm!

I tri-folded my boarding pass and adhered only the first section of it to my page, and wrote some blog- censored thoughts about going through security.

I've used Tim Holtz vacation stickers throughout my journal to record the day's date.  I've used a variety of other stickers for the day and/or month.

Here's the 2nd spread for our first day.  Remember how I told you whatever background color you choose seems to work?  That still amazes me as I work in this journal.

First stop - Denny's for breakfast.  Hey, a girl's gotta eat!  It's about a 2 hour trip from St. Louis airport to Columbia, and it was a nice break.  This is a Denny's magnet.  There were only two left on the table - one for me.  One for sis.  The other Denny's item is an empty sugar pack.

I started out hand writing all my little descriptive labels and using double stick tape.  I found that to be a huge pain, so I typed and printed out my thoughts and cut them out.  I applied Mod Podge to the page to adhere the labels.  Way easier.  Much more legible!   I didn't have a photo of La Siesta restaurant, so I just printed one off the Net.  I cut apart one of their business cards to make it fit on the page the way I liked.

Columbia is also a big ART town!  Also being a college town, there are boards up everywhere where posters and other advertisements are posted.  These posters for a local tattoo shop were everywhere so I'm sure they didn't miss a couple.

DAY 2
Aside from meals, Sunday was pretty much a "hang around the house and catch up" kind of day.  I loved it.
We went to Ernie's for breakfast (FABULOUS place!).  It's also a very popular place so there was quite a line to get in when we arrived.  No instant seating?  NO problem with an art gallery 2 doors down.  Most of the items on these pages are post cards, business cards and photos from Artlandish Gallery.

This is a photo I took of one of the beautiful, hand-felted, stuffed moons at the gallery.  I knew I was going to the Sawdust Festival in CA, so I refrained from buying any art in MO.  As it turns out, I only bought two greeting cards at the festival.  Hindsight....

We were hungry by the time breakfast reached the table, and when I saw those luscious pancakes I forgot I even had a camera with me.  I did manage to take a picture of Ernie's neon sign behind the counter before breakfast arrived.

 DAY 3
After a quick to Michael's so I could pick up some Mod Podge and craft paint, we took a 20 minute road trip to Boonville. (I just discovered I've been spellling it with an "e" as in Boone!)  The words that come to mind to describe Boonville are "quaint", "nostalgic", and "historic".

The highlight of our Boonville trip (besides eating lunch at the Riverside Cafe across the street from the Missouri river), was our visit to the recently restored Hotel Fredrick.  I bought this postcard in the lobby and picked up a few pamphlet freebies as well.

Since it was Monday, most of the cute galleries and artsy shops were closed.  Major BUMMER.  This store looked marvelous, and I've got it paper clipped to the little booklet between the 2 pages of this spread.

I hope this store is still there on our next visit (hopefully next year).  It's definitely on my "to do list" for MO.  I think I'll be using paper clips a lot in this journal.  I can't believe how many items I have.  Well, hoarder experienced, professional collector that I am, I guess I can believe it!

And what would a vacation be without a margarita at day's end?  Harpo's provided today's tasty beverage, and the food was pretty good too!

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my first 3 days of vacation.  I'll post Day 4 on Tuesday as it's filled with tips and techniques.  That was my play date with the lovely Barb Owen.

VACATION PHOTOS

It was magical to awaken on Sunday morning to look out the kitchen window and see Suzie's morning glories in full bloom and spreading across the yard and into the trees.  I think I saw a fairy there.

Inside Ernie's

THE FAIRIES' TEA & GIVEAWAY

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for The Fairies' Tea.  It's going to be great fun, and I hear there's going to be a giveaway!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE