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.

This Summer I...

I've been rather quiet online over the summer because I've been really busy offline. But now summer is over and I'm ready to tell you all about it.

At the start of August I went to Seattle! My boyfriend's best friend was getting married there so we flew over for the wedding, and did lots of touristy things at the same time.

The wedding was lovely; the venue was really pretty, it was catered by Chipotle, and it gave me a chance to show off all my best dance moves.

We used Air BnB and stayed in an apartment which was about a 10 minutes walk from Green Lake, which was near the wedding venue.

We saw fish being thrown at Pike Place, went on the monorail, went to the Science Center, had a barbeque in the woods near the lake, saw the first Starbucks, watched a Say Yes to the Dress Marathon on the morning of the wedding...

And we went to see a baseball game which, between you and me, was pretty boring. But at least there were chicken fingers!

Stay tuned to find out where I went next!

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!

New York!

So here's what I got up to in New York

After flying from Nashville to New York, in a tiny little plane, Joss and I were reunited with our other sister Lucy who wasn't too bothered about Nashville so she just joined us for the NY part of the trip.

For lunch one day we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner.

All the waitstaff are singers and take it in turns to perform around the diner.

This is our waiter Rufus singing Folsom Prison Blues (Of course! Can't escape country) complete with tambourine.

Also that day we went to the Broadway flea market which benefits the Broadway Cares charity.

It was pretty much the reason why Lucy decided we should go to New York at the that time.

On another day we explored the lower half of Central Park which included eating a delicious lunch from Whole Foods on some bleachers. Yes I did pretend I was in Grease.

And speaking of lunch I had some of the best sandwiches in New York, actually in America generally.

My favourite was a honey maple turkey and bacon from The Bread Factory. So good!

And speaking of bacon my sister got interviewed in Times Square about the bacon shortage that might happen! Check out the footage here. Oh, and did I mention the interviewer was a Muppet? So good!

We walked the High Line, which is a public park built on an old elevated rail road.

You know I love miniatures so it was cool to come across this little guy.

We went on some bus and boat tours including a night tour where I got photos like this one.

We also went on a bus tour round Brooklyn and as we went over the Manhattan bridge the tour guide got out his phone, put it to the microphone and started playing 'Empire State of Mind'. It was awesome. 

Of course we couldn't go to New York without hitting the shops.

Though my favourites were the toy stores (also the chocolate stores for the free samples). We went to FAO Schwartz looking for the walk-on piano like in the movie Big, but we ended up finding the place you can get your very own Muppet made! My sister was willing to hand over the $99 to do so and that's her Muppet on the left.

So that was my holiday.

Have any of you been to New York? What's your favourite thing about it?

Nashville!

I'm back from my holiday!

Did you miss me?

Now, I don't know how interesting people find other people's holiday photos, but I'm going to share just a few of mine anyway and give you a little recap of what I got up to.

Today I'll show you Nashville.

It's fair to say I was pretty excited to be in Nashville.

My first impression was that it was so warm! Even at 6 o'clock in the evening when we arrived.

My second impression was that everyone was so friendly! Mainly the bus drivers, who were super helpful. We used buses the whole time we were there, not one taxi, and I'm very proud of myself for figuring out the public transport system.

Downtown Nashville is awesome!

There was live music coming out of every bar as you walked along the streets.

And it was country music. And I knew the songs. That doesn't happen in England.

It was great not to be the minority when it comes to being a country music fan.

(Note how I'm not wearing tights or a cardigan even though I packed plenty. It was like a proper summer!!)

That's me with Taylor Swift's actual laptop!

Boy oh boy, exciting stuff.

That was at the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum which had an exhibition of all of Taylor's costumes and props from her Speak Now tour.

That's my sister Joss and I on stage at the Grand Ole Opry!

We took the backstage tour which was very informative and I especially liked the video pieces by Blake Shelton.

You see the circle of stage we're standing on that's different to the rest?

That's a piece of stage taken from the original home of the Opry, the Ryman Auditorium, so that everyone who performs there gets to stand on the same stage as the greats.

That evening we saw the show at the Opry which was amazing.

The performers were Lori Morgan, Riders in the Sky (they wrote the 'Woody's Roundup' song from Toy Story!), Jimmy Wayne, Connie Smith, Bill Anderson, Kellie Picker (pictured), and Dierks Bentley. So good!

The highlights for me were Kellie Pickler singing 'I Wonder' and Dierks Bentley singing 'Home'. I love those songs.

On one of the days we walked round Hillsboro Village which is full of lovely little shops.

It's also where the Pancake Pantry is.

So good!

Go on their website and listen to their theme song. It is hella catchy.

One evening we were walking round our neighbourhood, which was basically Music Row, and I noticed the building which houses Big Machine Records. That's the label Taylor is on.

I'm not a stalker, I just recognised it from google maps....again, not a stalker.

We were also walking around hoping to catch a glimpse of filming for the new tv show Nashville (which I watched the pilot episode of on the flight over). They were setting up equipment at the top of our road but we didn't manage to see any of the actors. Still very exciting!

On our last full day in Nashville we saw the Kings of Leon!

They were being awarded a star of the Music City Walk of Fame.

We only found out about the event the day before.

Check it out; it's Caleb!

In the evening my sister and I watched to local news to see the coverage of the event and to our surprise there was a shot of us!!

Check out this clip and see if you can spot us.

(Here's a clue - we're both wearing hats!)

So that means we're pretty much famous now.

And then it was on to New York, but I'll leave that for another day

The most magical place on earth

Hey everyone. How was your weekend? Get up to much?

What did I do?

I went to Disneyland!!!

Sneaky little 4 day trip with my best friends in France when I should have been working on my degree show piece.

Shhh, don't tell my tutors.

For me, Disneyland is mostly about trying on all the hats...

Doing a lot of posing...

And tracking down the characters.

(Baloo pretty much attacked us with a group bear hug right after this photo. Scary stuff)

My friend Lizzi high-fiving Minnie Mouse.

A great moment.

Have any of you been to Disneyland/Disneyworld?

Whats your favourite thing?

Does anyone else spend their first hour in the park just running around pointing at things? Just me?