« Indian McDonalds | Home | NC arboretum »
Chronicling travels
By Carrie | July 2, 2008
(Scrapbooking nerd alert. Proceed with caution.)
I was reading this entry on Ali Edwards’ blog about 3 essential scrapbooking tools to travel with - a small notebook, a gluestick, and precision scissors. The idea of mixing in “ephemera” (what scrappy chicas call ticket stubs, brochure pieces, etc.) with your daily notes for each day of for some reason, had not occurred to me. For the last several years, I’ve been filling up little journals full of notes about our travels - sometimes more detailed than others, but always handy to refer back to if we visit the destination again and doubly handy when I create scrapbook pages about the trip.
Then, I thought about the very first travel journals that I made. I’m pretty sure that making a journal of this sort was my mom’s idea (thanks mom!) as something to keep me occupied while our family was traveling. Most of the entries are about weekend camping trips, but I do get very excited to write in there when we made trips to Florida and Myrtle Beach. My very first travel journal entry dates back to May 1989 (holy moly, that’s 19 years ago!). I wrote about our riveting weekend at Dream Lake Campground in Warsaw, NY. My entry reads:
May 1989 camping at Dream Lake with Uncle Tim + Aunt Lynda Jessica + Heather+Timmy. I made two crafts I made a god’s eye and a catepillar. And I saw a movie called Old Yeller. We roasted bananas and apples and made S’mores. I caught two fish. (Mom and dad too!)
Apparently it was an oversight that my parents were also camping with us. Though, I am pretty sure it was an assumption on my part. As you can see, my “ephemera” is a lovely Dream Lake Patch and car sticker. And reading this actually brings back a few pretty vivid memories: making that god’s eye (I remember remaking it like 6 times) and crying when Old Yeller died. Things I’m pretty sure I never would have thought of again otherwise.
It’s also kind of amusing to read further in the book as I approach my pre-teen years and become more and more snarky. Apparently one weekend I was jealous that my cousin had made some friends at the campsite playground and didn’t invite me to join them in whatever they were playing. How dare she! (Jessica, don’t worry I forgive you!! hahahaa)
I’m thinking of moving back to this sort of journal for my travels when I finish up my current notebook (I’m about halfway through). My dilemma is though, how do you merge together scrapbooks and journals? Rip pages out of the journal and put them in the scrapbook? Copy the journaling over? Or just carry on with using the journal as a reference? The information architect nerd in me (blame work for this one) wants everything to be linked together logically so that on the off chance that one of my descendants wants to match up my scrapbook and travel journal, they’ll be able to. Why can’t you create hyperlinks or tag clouds on paper? Huh?
Time to summon the scrappy chicas for help on this one!
Speaking of travel, we’re going on a weekend trip to Savannah, Georgia for July 4th. What are your holiday plans?
Topics: scrapbooking, travel |
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Hahahaha! That’s so cute! And then you get dorky. Okay… so here’s my totally random suggestion. Since you already have the glue stick and scissors, what about having some pieces of cardstock to put the journaling on. Then you can just glue on your journaling and your ticketing. If you wanted to transfer it, then you can rip the page out and cut what you need out (or pull off). Also, unlined journals probably look better…. Just gotta remember that if you want to reuse, you can’t write on both sides…
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 am
Warsaw! What an outing lol.
I didn’t even know there was a lake in Warsaw. Combining the scrapbooks and journals is quite the dilemna. I don’t think copying over is the answer - half the fun of this dream lake entry is how cute your handwriting is and the spelling mistakes you crossed out. Belinda’s idea of tearing out and pasting might be the best solution. Though I feel the process of ripping pages out of a treasured journal is a bit sacriligous. (Plus, if you ever go back to read what’s left of your journal it’ll be all chewed up and 1/2 empty. Left with only the memories that weren’t good enough to make it into a scrapbook). *sob*
Maybe you could put a heavy duty rubberband around the journals and scrapbooks that go together with a big warning note “DO NOT SEPARATE; TO BE EXPERIENCED TOGETHER!!”
Or digitalize everything. Which sort of cancels the whole point of making your memories on paper in the first place. But scanning it all and reassembling it in webspace would allow you to make all the connections you need without ruining the journals. Plus you get to reminisce while making the digital version of your life, and perhaps add comments, notes and memories that you didn’t write the first time around and don’t have room for in the old journal.
In any case, it sounds like you’ve got your work cut out for you. Hope you have a bottle of Kahlua on hand! ,-)
P.S. What’s a god’s eye?
July 3rd, 2008 at 8:57 am
Good ideas, ladies! Now I only have to decide which path to take. I like the rubber band idea because it requires the least amount of work on my part. haha. Though, doing the journaling blocks to reuse later is a tip I’ve heard before that seems like it would work well. You could even use that temporary Tombo adhesive to put it in your travel book. Though if you go look at Ali’s book (she links to the PDF), it’s so cute. I wouldn’t want to tear it apart! haha.
Maybe the trick is to make a small journal for each trip that is thin enough to be slipped in one of the pages the larger scrapbook, maybe under the title page or in a pocket. That’s the best of both worlds. I think I’ll try that out for our next big trip.
Here’s a link to how to make a god’s eye: God’s eyes. I don’t think mine was as hot as these ones though. lol.
Mm, Kahlua. Too bad it’s only 10 am and a work day.
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:31 am
Well, I was thoroughly amused at this posting and I was proud to think that I had possibly started you way back when into something that you actually enjoyed. By the way..I recall those fun times in warsaw too so I am sure I must have been there!! lol I am not sure what would be the best way to intersect the old and the new. Both girls ideas are very good. I did like the suggestion of adding experiences you remember now that didn’t get logged the first time around is an awesome addition. Maybe your father and I will get a few additional comments along the line so that your future family will realize you didn’t do this all alone..lol..just kidding. Gods eyes rock. I think we need to do this as a random craft sometime, don’t you?? hehe
I also agree kahlua sounds good and I am not at work but I also have people pounding on my roof,dogs freaking out and none in the house. sigh
July 11th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
It looks like Carolyn Cook is having another moment of noo quiet time. I really loved the fact that in your post you had a family vibe that families need to spend lots of time with one another. Unfortunately in five weeks I won’t be seeing much of my family as I move up to Chapel Hill. It’s also great to see Carrie all your travels. You’ve been to some amazing places!!
July 13th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Hey Carrie,
Here is the link to the house we’re staying at in OBX. I would love if you guys could swing coming for a long weekend on either end of the week.(Or anytime that works for you!) We have an extra bedroom and would love to see you. We are there from Aug.23rd to the 30th.
http://www.surforsound.com/properties/property/367
Heidi