Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Travel Collectibles

It's easy to come home (or if you're lucky enough, have them shipped to you - thanks again, Mike & Nadia!), with a box full of wonderful, free and almost free items to incorporate into your travel journal.  Family and friends also eagerly join in the collection process if you let them know that you're gathering these items.

Free Items

I was amazed at how many items we were able to obtain from owners and employees at some of the establishments we visited - simply by asking!  CA Daughter was a professional at obtaining some of these items.  I have paper hats from In-N-Out Burger and Krispy Kreme that she asked for.  Keith scored a clean sandwich wrapper for me from Fatburger, and I was able to salvage a paper bag and and sandwich bags from our meals, too.  By the way, we don't have these yummy food places near us here in OH.  That's definitely both a curse and a blessing!

TIP:  Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Goodies!

 Don't forget to save items that you might otherwise toss into the garbage.  These protective hot beverage sleeves and ice cream bar stick will add texture and depth.

Local attractions and historical sites always have pamphlets, booklets and handouts.  Don't forget to snatch them up.  Grab 2 of each if you can, that way you can cut one apart and still have one intact.

Remember to save those little paper bags from your purchases.  They make great envelopes for your journal or if you have one that is printed with images from the place you've visited, you can incorporate that image on a page.  Even if you don't use them in your travel journal, I'm sure they'll come in handy in your daily journaling!

TIP:  Go Where The Locals Go!

I think every community has an assortment of free papers and magazines.  Be sure to check out the local stores and look for the racks of these items.  These papers and entertainment magazines came from a Chinese shopping plaza in Irvine, CA.

Look or ask for take-out menus!  It will help you remember where and what you ate during your travels.  When I asked for a take-out menu at R.T. Weiler's in St.Charles, MO, one of the owners insisted I take one of her laminated table menus when she discovered she was out of the take-out menus!

TIP: If you don't have time for daily journaling, stick a couple items into the appropriate day's pages!

Save those boarding passes, luggage tags and receipts from your travels!  It's another great way to trigger your memory of what you did and where you went on a particular day.

TIP:  Shop Where the Locals Shop!

I bought all of these wonderful Joos papers for under $10.00 at a Chinese grocery store in Irvine, CA.  The most expensive pack was $2.99.  They'll last me for years and I have plenty to share in giveaways (hint, hint)

If you stay at a hotel that uses key cards and you feel weird about keeping it on check-out, just ask at the front desk.  CA Daughter asked for key cards when we checked out of our Grand Canyon hotel, and the clerk gave her not one, but three different cards!

ALMOST FREE

I admit it - I'm a card and postcard junkie!  I think they're a great deal for the price, and the postcards usually have information listed on the back that I would otherwise forget.  I bought the greeting card at the Sawdust Festival at Laguna Beach, CA, from a husband and wife team.  She is a mixed media artist and he is an amazing potter.  They had my favorite booth.  I couldn't afford original pieces, but I have a personally signed card from her and the memory of really great conversation with 2 fellow artists.

 Since I decided to do separate journals for our surprise trips to Catalina Island and The Grand Canyon, I kept my eyes open for other journals.  I found this wonderful journal on Catalina Island.  It's really nicely made and I thought it was a steal at $14.99.  Was it made on Catalina?  Not hardly!  According to the package sticker it was "Made in Indonesia" with a "Beachcombers, Fort Myers, FL" sticker.  Alrighty then!  That will make it much easier for me to alter the cover a little.

The pages are designed to hold 40, 4" x 6" photos and have protective sheets bound between each page.  You do know there will be major altering, right?  I don't have a journal for our Grand Canyon adventure yet.  I didn't really look for one there, after all, I was at The Canyon!

MISCELLANEOUS 

Here are a few other free and not so free items I collected.  I grabbed a couple sugar packets along the way (one had the business name on it, the other packet has both "sugar' and azucar" written on it) I found a losing CA Lottery ticket, an acorn from the Grand Canyon as well as a piece of glass and a tiny piece of the canyon (compliments of Keith), as well as a magnet and charm from San Juan Capistrano in CA.  I also saved the clothing tags from my Grand Canyon tee. Keith also found a hoop earring near the San Clemente pier, and I found a snail shell on our walk at Oso Viejo Park.  

TIP: Don't forget to look down!

Of course, not all of these items will make it into my travel journal.  Some will be used in other art projects and journaling pages.  Some will be tucked away into other mementos from our trip, and I've decided I'm going to have to create a special travel box for some of my goodies.

I hope you find these tips helpful for your travels.  Remember, you can use these tips for daily journaling and mini outings that you have in your own area.

I'm off to continue working on my first travel journal pages.  I've spent a lot of time tweaking photos, printing photos, typing up our trip itinerary so I can plan pages and sequence the days correctly, and deciding which items will go into my journal.

I'll have the first pages posted in a day or two, so until then.................

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Monday's Musings

"Tell All Tuesdays" with Jennibellie

One of my favorite artists and journalers, Jenny at Jennibellie Studio, asked me to do an interview for her blog.  I'm honored to have been asked, and I was her featured interview last Tuesday.  To see my interview, go HERE.  If you haven't seen Jennibellie's blog before, it's an absolute MUST.  You're going to love her bright and cheerful posts and all of the amazing tips she shares!

Thank you, Jenny, for asking me to be part of your wonderful interview series!

Vacation, Traveling and Journaling

PHOTO:  Nadia 

I spent last week in "recovery mode".  Honestly, I was so depressed I could barely function.  Living day after day exploring new places and having exciting new adventures had every one of my creative muses dancing with delight.  Returning here to the mundane, mid-west life was a shock to my system.  It's taken me a few days to get back into the groove of things, and I can say that this is the first time EVER I wasn't ready to return home.

I also discovered how much I hate airports.  Did you get that?  I HATE them.  I laugh when I look at this photo that CA daughter took of our arrival at LAX.  I've never been anywhere so poorly marked.  I didn't think we would ever find them.  I was really TICKED OFF by the time we found them.  I was hot.  I was tired.

We had to catch the shuttle from our hotel in St. Louis at 3:30 am, fly into Houston, and then catch our plane to Lax.  The St. Louis airport wasn't too bad to navigate, but TSA didn't arrive until 4:00am so we had to stand around for 20 minutes waiting for them.  The Houston airport was well marked and it was relatively easy for us to find the appropriate boarding gate.

I had my luggage searched two out of the three times we had to go through security.  That will be a post in itself.  Beware of killer bars of soap when you travel.  Yes, SOAP.

All in all, I can't tell you how happy I was on this vacation.  It was wonderful to be with our family members that we love and miss so much.  It was exhilarating to visit so many exciting and breathtaking places, and it was invigorating to escape our everyday life.

I spent Saturday working on my travel journal.  I brought back LOTS of goodies and even more memories.  We did so much running around that there was no "down time" to work in my journal during vacation.  At least all the backgrounds are done!  I'm slowly organizing, printing photos, and gathering my thoughts.  I took over 900 photos in two weeks time.  Does that make you feel panicky? LOL  I promise you won't have to look at them all - maybe. <insert evil laughter here>

That's it for today's post.  I have LOTS and LOTS to catch up on.  I'm still answering your wonderful and much appreciated comments on my posts, visiting your blogs to see what you've been up to, working in my travel journal, and preparing to work on some new pages for the upcoming "Fairies Tea Party" this Sunday.

Come back tomorrow for "Tuesday Tips and Techniques", and I'll show you some of the great FREE and not quite free finds from my adventures.  I've got some great ideas for collecting memorabilia from your travels!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE 

Home Again!

We arrived back home on Sunday night after our whirlwind, two week vacation to Missouri and California.  (I know - I didn't actually tell you when I was leaving, did I? )  We visited Columbia, St. Louis, and St. Charles in Missouri, and Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, and Los Angeles in California.  We were also gifted with two surprise, overnight stays at Catalina Island and The Grand Canyon in Arizona.  Needless to say, I am inspired, exhausted and adapting to normal life after our extraordinary adventure!

Clouds over California.  Photo:  Keith Thompson

Beyond the first couple days of vacation, there was virtually NO time to spend working in my travel journal, but I was able to keep all of my memorabilia (somewhat) organized so that I can complete it here at home.  I took close to a thousand photos - I promise I won't make you view all of them!

I wasn't able to respond to all of the wonderful comments you've left on my blog, but I did read each and every one and promise to respond to all of them in the next few days.  I also have lots of reading to catch up on from all of your wonderful blog posts.

Now I'm trying to get back into the swing of "normal" life.  I have errands to run, major grocery shopping to do, and lots of art to create.  I'll be back with another "Weekend Journal" post on Saturday.  I've got some great stuff to share with you!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Dollar Store Buys

SHOP YOUR LOCAL DOLLAR STORE NOW!

If you haven't done so already, head to your favorite local dollar store and check out all the back-to-school goodies!  Here are a couple things I picked up, and I'm lamenting a couple things I left behind.  (Like the giant erasers that would be perfect for carving a border.  I'm definitely going to have to go back!)

Hurry while supplies last!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE

Monday's Musings

Never Give Up on Your Dreams

Ever since I was about four years old, I wanted to play piano.  I never uttered that desire to my parents that I recall.  When I was in the 4th grade, I really wanted to play piano badly and spent lots of time day dreaming about it.  Still, I never uttered a word to my parents - mostly because 1.  I was sure we didn't have the money for a piano, and 2. I couldn't see any possible place in the house to put a piano.

I instead settled on playing clarinet.  I was thrilled to be making music, but I was bored out of my mind in our once-a week band practice at school.  Playing the clarinet came quite easily for me, and I was playing my part without sheet music after a few weeks.  (I still remember the music - some type of march by Tchaikovsky.)   The other students struggled endlessly to play their parts and it seemed like forever before we played as a group.   I remember the excitement when we all played our instruments together for the first time.  It was awesome to have all those parts finally come together.  But one year was enough of that, and still, I longed to play piano.

Enter high school and the fringes of the hippie movement.  I still hadn't asked to learn piano but I still had the yearning.  Luckily, one of my girlfriends had a piano in her basement and I remember the two of us playing Heart and Soul together.  The piano was badly out of tune but it was enough to quench our thirst for making music.  

I asked for a guitar the Christmas of my senior year in high school, and much to my delight I received a beautiful, classical guitar.  I still have that guitar and 3 others that have been gifted to me over the years.  I have enjoyed playing all of them.  Still, the dream of playing piano haunted me.

Enter May 2011.  I dug out a little keyboard that Keith had given to me early on in our marriage.  I pulled tutorials from YouTube and I began to teach myself.  My sister discovered my new keyboard infatuation and gave me a larger keyboard she had tucked away with no desire to play.  I played every day without fail.  By November, I had run out of keys and my sweet hubby gifted me with a great electronic piano with all 88 keys.  Ironically,  this young lady is playing the first song that I taught myself, Clubbed to Death (Theme from the Matrix) by Rob Dougan, and she's playing it on the keyboard that I now have.

WIP - "A tribute to Beethoven" journal page

I've since moved on to Beethoven and his most beloved sonata.  I play it horribly, but I know almost all of it 

by heart after just beginning to learn it 3 months ago.  I could go on and on about how I came to learn this piece and everything that it's come to mean to me, but perhaps that's another post.

What I really want to tell you is to HOLD ON TO YOUR DREAMS.  As long as you keep desire alive and have breath left in your body, your dreams can happen.  Never give up on them!

CELEBRATE * LOVE * CREATE