Seattle and Portland Travel Journal

When I went on holiday this summer to Seattle and Portland I took a travel journal with me like I did for my trip to Nashville and New York. Again, it was made from parts of old Paperchase planners. 

I stuck in things we'd collected during the day, like bus tickets and shop receipts, and then wrote about the day around them. I made sure to write about each day on the day, or the next morning at the latest, so I didn't forget anything.  

I found ways to include other things we picked up, like this leaflet for Huber's restaurant; Portland's oldest restaurant. That was a dining experience I don't want to forget! I threaded cotton through two holes I made in the leaflet and tied it around the center spiral.

Once we got home I ordered some prints online of our holiday snaps that I could cut up, punch holes in and add to the book. I love being able to illustrate the stories we'd written about with pictures.

The Memory Book

This is my last holiday post. I promise.

This was our travel journal.

Or as I like to call it; the memory book.

My Mum gets an academic planner from Paperchase every year and there's always blank pages left over so I put them all together to make this journal. There was lined paper, squared paper and I added some sketchbook paper too.

The mix of papers just makes things more interesting.

I'd collect things throughout the day - leaflets, receipts - and once we got back to our apartment or hotel room in the evening I'd get everything out and armed with my trusty Pritt stick I'd put together a couple of pages about the day.

I made sure to write about a day on that same day because I'm sure I'd forget things if I waited.

For example, I definitely wanted to remember what we heard a girl say on the bus back from the Grand Ole Opry:

(In a southern accent) "Miss! Can you go easy on the bumps? I need to go to the bathroom!"

Hilarious.

I liked finding interesting things to write on, like this comment sheet from Mood, the fabric store.

When I got home I altered some plastic wallets so they'd fit in the book so that I could slot in leaflets from the different places we'd been.

Do you like my colouring-in? In the Country Music Hall of Fame they had a table where you could design your own outfit for a country star. Joss and I did one each while we were there, but I also took a colouring sheet with me to do later.

I coloured it in whilst watching Country Music's Night to Rock which was on tv on the Monday night. So good!

Photo book

When I saw this handkerchief journal on A Beautiful Mess I knew that I just needed an excuse so that I could make one myself.

A friend's birthday is the perfect excuse

Instead of using a handkerchief, which I didn't have, I just sewed the cover out of a piece of fabric.

I put some thick card into the front and back so the the cover wasn't floppy.

This was my first time using the zig-zag setting on the sewing machine. It was very exciting.

I feel like a whole new world has opened up to me.

For the pages I did like the original tutorial did and used pages from an old book.

Now some people have a big issue about destroying old books. I don't.

Sorry!

I have one old book that I bought for £1 and whenever I want to use book pages, which isn't all that often to be honest, I use them from that one book.

I used 12 book pages as that's the maximum amount that the sewing machine needle would comfortably go through.

I used this book as a photo memory book for my friend Stef.

 

I put one photo per page and added some coloured paper for added interest.

I also wrote the date and occasion because as we get older it's going to be harder to remember this stuff.

I mean, Stef's 23 now! That's almost ancient!