Our Journey: 02/01/2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Decorative {Documenting Your Travels} Map

This is one of my favorite "decorative documentation" projects in our house. This project can be done with a World Map, Country Map, or State Map to fit your personal travel journeys!

We are fortunate and blessed to be living in an area where European travel is easy and quite affordable. If you look over to my sidebar under "Our Destinations", you'll see we've done quite a bit of traveling in the last 2 years. Traveling around Europe when you live in Europe is near the equivalent of simply exploring your "home-state" in the U.S. We're talking ... Paris is only a 4-hour drive, Rome is a $30 plane ticket, the Netherlands is a 4-hour drive, Austria is 4-hours away ... you get my drift. So as I said, most of our destinations are just a simple drive or a cheap plane ticket away.

We wanted a simple yet decorative way to document our travels as a family. This Travel Map is by no means my original idea ... in fact, as a pilot, my husband's flying unit usually has one of these hanging in their building ... just not as "pretty"! At a semi-recent spouses' meeting, the host had a decorative version in her home and as I wiped the drool off my chin, I said ... "this is it"! That night I hopped on Amazon and found a 36" x 40" antique-style, laminated world map and ordered it immediately. Shortly after it arrived we took it to get framed and adhered to foam poster board (a good DIY project) and then found the perfect spot for it in our home. I would have loved to do this as a full-blown DIY project but we have a hard time finding the right supplies here.

Now, I have to admit ... the hubby was not really on board with this little project until he pushed-in the first map tack ... then he was quite excited to step back and see the beauty of the project! This is a great conversation piece when you have guests over and also great for the kids .. and to be honest, Al and I have spent a lot of time just looking and reminiscing about the places we've been has a family.

Decorative {Documenting Your Travels} Map

Supplies

World Map or U.S. Map
Map Tacks
Foam Board
Custom Frame

We used 1/16th map tacks to mark the cities we've lived in and the cities we've explored as a family. We decided not to mark the places we've traveled individually; just our family travel.

We didn't realize how much time we've spent on the East coast! It's time to venture "out West" when we move back to the states.

Taking a step back to get an idea of size and scale.

Thanks to my awesome husband for just "trusting me on this one"!

I'm linking this to ...

Monday, February 14, 2011

I am ...

Megan from the Brassy Apple (a GREAT crafting blog I follow) recently started a new blog called "I AM".

Here is a snippet from her blog where she shares what I AM is all about ...

"We are more than just............women, mothers, teachers, stay at home moms, working moms, single, divorced, married, tall, short, blonde, brunette.........."I AM" will let you declare through a photo bits of yourself and your daily life to share with other women."

I encourage you to take a moment and check it out and participate! She accepts photo submissions! Today she has shared a photo I sent of Al and Kelty during one of our Sunday afternoon walks ... I'm so touched that she posted it on Valentine's Day since her theme this month was "love". Now go take a peek at her blog ...

Thursday, February 3, 2011

DIY Jewelry Tree

On my most recent trip back to the "states", Mom and I hit JoAnn Fabrics (whoop!). The hardest part about living overseas and having an addiction to DIY projects is the ability to find the supplies you need. I usually end up ordering on-line and waiting .... waiting ... waiting for the delivery ... or I make a list of projects and supplies then wait until I travel back to the U.S. and make a GIGANTIC purchase! Either method requires waiting ... and I don't like waiting!

Anyway ... I found this Valentine Tree at JoAnn's for $4.99 plus 40% off ... yippee! When I saw it I immediately thought "jewelry organizer". My only regret is that I didn't buy more! A few coats of black paint and the transformation from Valentine Tree to Jewelry Tree was complete ....

Supplies

Valentine Tree (JoAnn Fabrics is having 70% their Valentine decorations ... so go! go! go!)
Black Paint (I used spray paint)

Jewelry Tree