Travel Journal: St Augustine Florida

So here’s the cover of my travel journal. My apologies for the glare
in the photographs, Next time, I will find another location to shoot rather than right under the attic skylight.  
My travel companions joked about renting a red convertible. The car rental place didn’t have any available and I’m not sure if we would have actually rented one if they had.  On Cynthia’s birthday, we came outside and voila! there was a red convertible parked right in front of our house. It was like a wink from the Universe.

  
Despite discussing how we intended to do Slow Travel days, our list of things to do each day managed to keep growing. We crammed in a lot of sightseeing, eating and shopping. 
On Cynthia’s birthday, she talked us into getting an Old-
Timey photograph done (the photograph in the upper left). I chose to get in touch with my inner cowgirl and had fun wearing that cowboy hat and waving that handgun around. Diane and Cynthia hammed it up as saloon girls. The photographer made the shoot so much fun and obviously enjoyed her job.
 
The house we rented was spacious and nicely decorated with a mix of modern and traditional touches – in the page on the right, above.
I like the shot above of Diane and Cynthia. It was a night shot with the lights giving their heads golden halos . On the right is a wine display from the local grocery store. (No we didn’t buy either the Cheap Red or the Cheap White Wine.)
 
The pages above feature photographs and postcards from some of the historical houses within walking distance of our rental.  
The layouts above highlight receipts and cards from a day of shopping in a pretty area that featured antique stores and boutiques.

 
Below – pages showing postcards and photographs taken at Flagler College. I printed the photos on my little Pogo printer. Such a handy tool to use when travelling.

A very pretty church below with beautiful blue walls and ceilings.
Ruby Tuesday – yum!

 
I had a lot of fun laying out the pages above. I could use that stripey tape on everything! The playing cards are from a reproduction set from the 1800’s.
 
Above – some beach shots; sand, wind and waves!

This is one of my favourite layouts. The colours and the numeric tape from Cavellini just make me happy!

There are many more pages in the journal, but you get the idea – we had a great time!

Recent Journal

I loved this journal from Little Beach Designs so much that I had to make a similar one for myself. It isn’t that close in design but it has the mood I was after and I am happy with the way it turned out. Here are a couple of shots of the inside pages. I had some old ledger pages
that I used. They are very brittle but I don’t plan to use the book for journaling, I just like to look at it.
I want to make more like this to use up some of the neat vintage papers I have collected on my trips to antique markets. But my next post will be a more modern journal featuring my recent trip to St Augustine, Florida.

A Blessed New Year to All!

A quick post to wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year
and
sharing a photograph here from my recent trip to
St Augustine, Florida.
xxo

More About My SoulCollage® Cards

 
In a recent post, I mentioned that I had started making a deck of SoulCollage® cards.  I’m showing some of the cards I’ve made here. The process is easy, fun and fascinating.

I made these cards in an intuitive way without giving thought to what the content might mean. I just went with what pleased me to put together.
The next step is for me to ‘read’ the cards, a process which I haven’t done yet but which I’m looking forward to.

 
I was even inspired to make a fabric pouch to hold my cards. For me to dig out my sewing machine proves how much I value these cards because as much as I like the idea of sewing, it just isn’t something I enjoy doing.

The only projects I will undertake to sew are things where measuring, cutting, straight stitched lines and perfection don’t matter all that much! If I make a mistake, I just keep going.

This site has a good explanation of what SoulCollage® is, if you would like to learn more.  If you already do SoulCollage®, I’d love to hear from you.

A Walk in the Autumn Sunshine

Well, it was sunny when I started out. Then the dark clouds took over the sky.But I walked and took some photographs regardless because I just didn’t feel like going to the gym and getting on the treadmill.

 

Instead of walking to the park, I drove. I shot this photograph through the windshield of my car.

 

This friendly kitty cat greeted me when I parked the car at the park entrance.

I like the way the autumn leafs left on the trees are mirrored in the water.

 

Herea are some feathery stalks blowing in the breeze.

I’m happy that I decided to skip the gym and walk instead. And I have some photographs to show for it.

Hobbies and travel …

One of the hobbies from a few years ago that I had put aside is family history research. Recently, a distant cousin came out of the woodwork and filled in a branch of our family tree that was blank.  It is very satisfying to connect with new family members. 

Another hobby of mine is photography. I’ve been studying up lately on how to make the leap from automatic to manual shooting with my point and shoot camera.

Lately, I’m using heavy plastic bags to hold my files instead of manila folders. I like being able to see what is inside.  The font on the files is 1942 Typewriter – love it.

See the heading in the photo that says Florida?  That’s a huge hint that I’m making a trip there in November. This trip will be one year to the day that I went on my European trip last year to the German Christmas Markets. More about the trip as it nears!

Time to Catch Up !

 
FOR TODAY
Above is a photograph I am sharing. It’s a photograph I shot in Vancouver when I visited there a couple of years ago.

Outside my window...
another beautiful Fall day with streams of golden sunlight and crispy leaves swirling all around.

I am thinking...
of how much I enjoy this season of changing colours and tart Fall apples from the Farmer’s Market.

I am thankful...
for this  template from The Simple Woman’s Day Book that is making it easier for me to give you an update on what is going on with me recently.

In the kitchen...
bubbling bowls of homemade chicken rice soup for dinner.

I am wearing...
a rust coloured cotton shirt and jeans.

I am creating.
..SoulCollage cards that I discovered here.

I am going...
to make tons of these cards!

I am wondering..
.where this will lead me.

I am reading...
a book about Japan – the name escapes me.

I am hoping...
to blog on a more regular basis!

I am looking forward to...
making more SoulCollage cards this evening.

I am hearing
.electric drills and hammering as they build a deck on the house next door.

Around the house...
I am revamping books shelves, letting some books go and reshelving titles into groups by subject.

I am pondering...
whether to sign up for an online photography class.

One of my favorite things...you guessed it - SoulCollage cards.

A few plans for the rest of the week: gettting my hair cut and finalizing what I’ll wear to the wedding we’re going to next weekend.

I’ve got some SoulCollage cards to show you soon!