Chicago-Scrapbook Essentials

Hiya from Chicago! We're safe & sound tucked up in our hotel room for the night. We're both pretty beat from the travel, but most probably because of the delicious burger we had for dinner.

But tonight, I wanted to share the little scrapbook kit I put together this morning in preparation for this mini vacay.

There's two blank moleskines in there bc I wasn't sure what size I wanted to use. 

Two tags of washi for color & hold. 

A tiny pair of scissors. 

My smash pen (ink on one side, glue stick on another).

Amy Tan date stamp with a mini ink pad. 

And a smattering of fun paper clips. 

All of its nicely contained in a cute zipper pouch that fits so neatly in my Amy Tangerine purse. 

I'm about to get working on today's pages. Can't wait to share!

cheers & besos,

Chicago-Wardrobe Selections

I'm off to Chicago tomorrow. It was time. I go for a few months without getting on a plane and the twitching starts. I can't help it. I'm now programmed to travel!

I'm so excited for this mini trip. It's me and my Mama, off for a long girls weekend in a new city. Neither of us has been before, so we don't really know what to expect. But as long as it's the two of us together, I'm not at all worried. She's a friggin blast (and adorable to boot)!!

But in preparation for our visit, wardrobe packing has been highly discussed. I'm all for packing light and picking up new goodies in the places I visit. She's more for being prepared for any scenario (the lady is packing two hoodies bc one won't be enough!)

Here's what I'm planning to pack:

1-Dress
1-Pair of pants
1-Sweater
2-Tops
2-Tanks
1-Pair of walking shoes
1-Pair of flip flops
1-Pair of wedges

I'll probably end up throwing an extra pair of shorts in for good measure. Plus of course the whole gamete of undergarments, make up & hair utensils. I'll post my packed bag in the morning. But really wanted to show off how versatile just those few items can be. Lots of mixing and matching, and the shoes let me dress everything either up or down.

More stuffs coming at you tomorrow. I'll also post about the scrapbook/photography items I'll be taking along for the ride. Until then...

cheers & besos,

Saturday in Edinburgh

Come back mojo, come back! 

I think I'm too tired to function properly right now. I haven't really had a chance to just relax this month. More than a day to just sit around, do nothing, read, nap. I think once I do that, it'll come back to me.

But I've been trying! I mad a quick simple page using a few of the Bright Ideas prompts. I love these things by the way. I just wish I had time & energy to play some more!

A few weeks back, I spent a lovely Saturday wandering around Edinburgh, Scotland. I loved walking the ancient streets and spent most of my day exploring.

This was my second visit to Scotland and it definitely went better than my first. For starters I didn't slip in a business meeting in front of a brand new contact. Nor was I too ill to get on a train. This time I got to see more than the inside of my hotel!

Which btw, if you're ever visiting Edinburgh and are looking for a good place to stay, I'd totally recommend Grassmarket Hotel. It's centrally located and very modern and cool. I enjoyed it. It's also steps around the corner from an awesome little coffee/sandwich/juice place, Hula. Which, I've just learned, was voted the best cafe in Edinburgh this year!

Once you've slept in a bed for a sleepy head (Grassmarket Hotel tag line), had a bevie at Hula and now fancy a walk. The Castle is right behind you, not even 6 minutes away on foot. 

As far as castles go, this one is more of a fortress. Not at all romantic and still a working military facility. But it was a nice thing to go and see and I'm glad I did it. 

Hands down, best value for money, is a City of the Dead nighttime ghost tour. Seriously, so creepy! They take you down into the underground tunnels, where the poorest of Edinburgh's poor lived up until the 1900's. They also take you in a graveyard, directly into one of the tombs! I was dully freaked out. 

But not only do they tell you about the history of the city and also creepy stories about how people died and such. What really makes it scary is when they share all of the encounters people taking the tour have had! 

Not even kidding, if you make it to Edinburgh, I completely recommend you take the tour. So worth it, so fun!

For this page, I used a really old sheet of House of Three (I think Pink Paislee) patterned paper for the background. Love the gray polka on white.

The Bright Ideas class came with some fun Silhouette cuts so I cut out a map of Scotland and used it as a mask. It didn't look complete until I outlined it with a thicker black pen.

Then to finish the page, I stamped with a few Kelly Purkey stamps, dropped some mist splatters and hand wrote my journaling. Viola!

Ok loves, it might be 8:00pm but I'm beat. Off to bed I go!

cheers & besos,

Travel Tips: Trips with Boys

'ello loves! Today I'm blogging my monthly travel tip/scrapbook page. 

Lately, I've been trying to think of common themes for my photos. And somewhere along the way, I started thinking about all of the trips I've taken with just the boys. All of China, 5 days in Prague & Budapest, a weekend in Norway, plus our J3 day trips. My experiences traveling are always colored by the people I'm with, and believe me these boys have some color.

But guys are super different to travel with than girls. I wrote in my journaling:

"I’ve been a lot of places with a lot of people & I have to say, my trips with the boys have been some of my favorites. In general, dudes are more “go with the flow” & low key, a LOT less drama. But they have their moments. A few things to remember about traveling with boys: they will prefer outdoorsy adventures, they sometimes walk around with their shirts off, hanging out in a pub is a perfectly acceptable way to spend a day in a foreign city & sometimes they get into random wrestling matches. It’s all in good fun & I recognize how lucky I am to have such a great group of guy friends. What can I say? I’m a bro at heart."

It also has to be said that I've never felt safer when I travel than when I'm with the guys. There was a hairy moment in Budapest, one of the few moments I've experienced of that kind, that had me so thankful to be with a group of boys.

I'll also never forget that one hard sleeper train we took in China. Where the only minutes of sleep I got were on James' shoulder.

I will forever cherish the crazy video Jon and Kevin made me, as they left the girls they were with to bring back the camera I thought I'd lost. I don't think they were very happy with me. But they left them all the same just to make sure I wasn't upset about my not-really-at-all-lost camera. Which they then ironically used to verbally berate me....

I guess this is less travel tips and more a gush fest on my part, for these wonderful boys that I love.

Oh, and last thing about traveling with boys. They're always hungry!!

cheers & besos,

Travel Tips: Foot Equity

I consider myself an expert in only one thing, traveling. I've been doing it for so long; logged so many hours of foot travel, train travel, plane travel; seen so many places. It's one thing I'm really really good at. And obviously something I love to do and then scrapbook about later!

So I've decided to start a monthly Travel Tips post here on the blog.

I've been pushing myself to get creative and synthesize some of the commonalities across my trips and that's where the idea for this layout came from.

So much of my traveling has been done on foot. I started thinking about this idea of foot equity. How we can only take so many steps in a day until we're too tired or sore to take another one and it still be enjoyable. As you're traveling, you have to be choosy about what you see and also more practically which shoes to wear.

Personally, I'd opt not to walk around a museum. I'd rather walk around the city I'm visiting, see the sights & the local architecture and of course people watch. You only have so many steps in you before you reach the point when your feet (and back!) are all you're thinking about. And the experience ceases to be enjoyable. I've hit that point many times. And that's the signal to find the nearest bar or restaurant and relax for awhile.

For this page, I used the Studio Calico's Style Guide Central High add-on. (Pssst...it's still available so you might want to check it out!) I love the bright colors and the great mix of patterns. 

I wanted to create an angle and do something with triangles, since the kit came with some great stamps. I've seen a few pages lately, that have this kind of put together pattern, so I took a stab at it.

The September Layout a Week (LOAW) was also a jumping off point for the page. I used Prompt #2 and included some metal and heat embossed the triangles and the pink hexagon.

I went looking for pictures of my feet to feature on this page about foot equity. I don't take them often or on every trip. But I'm happy I've taken these few.

The top photo is of me and the boys in Prague. I loved that grate. It was so perfectly Czech I had to snap the shot.

The middle is of my and Kori's hiking shoes. Yeah, we were completely underdressed. Those are the shoes we wore on a hike in the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

The bottom is a recent one I took with Sarah & Andy at Enoshima in Japan. I loved the bright yellow paint!

Journaling Reads: "The most important thing I can tell you about traveling, is that you must wear comfortable shoes. Believe me, I have suffered the consequences. Nearly all of my traveling has been done on foot, exploring the nooks and crannies of various cities across the world. Your back will hurt, your feet may ache and any seat will be a haven. Despite all that, I can promise you this. Every step in the wrong direction will become an adventure. Every blister, soon forgotten. Worthy is the explorer, who's feet bear the marks of travel."

cheers & besos,