Travel

September 14, 2013September 14, 2013

5 tips to make trip packing easier

If you’re not a hardcore traveler with the packing precision of George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air, then getting ready for a trip can be a challenge.

Here are a few hints that I’ve found make it easier for us infrequent flyers.

1. Pack early. Instead of staying up late packing the night before a trip (which I used to always do), I schedule time to start packing 2-3 days ahead of time. This leaves less to do at the last minute, and, hopefully, gives you a little more rest. If you find you’re missing something, you have a chance to run to the store . (Or not – see #5.) Some people pack even earlier, but this is what works for me.

2. When in doubt, try it on. Make sure everything fits and matches as well as you remember and that you have all the accessories you need.

3. If you think of it, act on it. As soon as something crosses your mind that you have to remember to bring or to do before you leave, do it immediately or jot it down. Put the item in or on top of your suitcase or in the purse/wallet you’ll be taking with you if you don’t want to leave without it. The thought may not surface again in your memory until you’re on the road.

4. Stay packed. If there are things you always pack and have extras of, why not keep them packed? I keep travel-sized toiletries, some Q-tips, moleskin (not the journal – the stuff that prevents blisters), sanitary supplies, bobby pins, a compact mirror, and an extra hair band or two in my travel bag all the time. That’s stuff I don’t have to worry about remembering, and it gives me a head start on packing.

5. Don’t overthink it. When I was taking too long to get packed for family road trips as a teenager, my dad would say “There are stores everywhere.” If you forget it, chances are you can buy it (or borrow it) somewhere along the way.

What packing tips work for you?

August 28, 2013October 30, 2020

How to press flowers while traveling

Pressing wildflowers is a great way to remember the landscape you’ve traveled. You create a simple souvenir, a keepsake with more dimension than a photo.

Before you go/materials list:

1. Find a book you don’t mind destroying. You can use an outdated catalog or phone book, but just make sure it’s not too bulky to pack! This will be your portable flower press.

2. Find a rubber band that will fit around the book to keep it shut or several clips (or clothespins) that can hold a group of pages together.

On the road:

3. Look for leaves or “flatter” flowers with fewer layers (think daisies over roses) along the road, trails, or other places you visit. Pick a one or two or a few. Note where you found it/them or take a photo of the spot, so you can remember later. You may want to pick a flower for each day of your trip. After you pick one, I’d recommend doing a quick check for bugs. And, of course, don’t go picking on plants where it’s prohibited, like National Parks or people’s gardens.

4. Set the flower on top of one of your book pages. (If you’re picking one each day, you can press the first day’s flower in Chapter One, the second day’s in Chapter Two, etc. Or just make a note on whichever page you press the flower on.) Carefully close the book over the flower, so it’s positioned the way you want it to be pressed. You can put a few flowers on a page, but don’t put them on adjacent pages.

5. Band the book or clip a handful of pages around the flower to keep anything from falling out. Stick the book under your luggage, in between large items in your pack, or wherever you can put the most pressure on it.

6. If you add more flowers, place them in a different part of the book, so you aren’t moving the first one and are allowing additional pressure/weight between them. (Again, starting near the front and working your way back might be helpful.) Also, you want plenty of pages in between to absorb any moisture the flowers release while drying.

7. Give them a few weeks. When ready, flowers will be thin, dry and papery. If you get home before they’re ready, stick the book at the bottom of a stack of books or some heavy object that you won’t be moving around. Just don’t forget about them!

8. Pressed flowers and leaves would be a beautiful addition to your trip scrapbook or framed with your travel photos! They’ll be pretty fragile, so you may want to put behind glass, slip into plastic sleeves, or cover with contact paper.

August 24, 2013August 24, 2013

Colorado and back again

It was a crazy week between recovering from BlogHer and getting ready for our Colorado Road Trip and squeezing in everything that needed to happen in between.

But we finally made it out the door. I thought I might be able to blog from the road, but time and wifi access turned out to be too scarce.

I did manage to journal about each day on my paper bag scrapbook, which I’m excited to tell you more about. In fact, I have lots to tell you about, so I’ll be mixing it up and sprinkling posts from our Colorado Road Trip (which I’ll tag Colorado Road Trip 2013) in with other ones that have been rolling around in my head.

For now, here’s the overview of our trip: We drove from Phoenix to Santa Fe the first day. The next morning, we did a little sightseeing before heading north to the Denver area. We stayed with my aunt and uncle in the Rockies for a few days, taking in mountain views, and catching up with family. On the other side of Denver, we spent a couple days visiting friends in Aurora and saw downtown Denver and the Botanic Gardens. Our route home took us through the mountains, detouring through Crested Butte, where Phillip had spent a summer in college, and stopping over near Ouray.

I wish I could have spent more time with everyone we saw. But I’m glad we went, even for a short time. And it was good to come home. (Wish I could’ve brought the people and weather back with me though.)

This time, I had my suitcase unpacked within 24 hours. Are you impressed? If not, you should probably go read my Unpacking post. That’s a new record for me!

And when I stood in my kitchen pouring hot water for morning tea into our new souvenir mug, I felt like everything had come around.

August 16, 2013August 16, 2013

Seeing the Denver Botanic Gardens

We really enjoyed visiting the Denver Botanic Gardens earlier this week! I would recommend it, if you’re in the Denver, Colorado area.

It was a beautiful Monday morning, and the gardens felt peaceful and uncrowded until about noon.

The main location is Denver Botanic Gardens at York Street. It’s made up of 42 individual gardens that you wind your way through. (“Make your own path!” the volunteer at the entrance said.) For most of our visit, we didn’t follow the map too closely. It was fun to be surprised at what we’d find around the next corner.

Currently, sculptures by Colorado artists are on display throughout the gardens, as part of the Catalyst exhibition.

There are lots of great little spots to sit and relax or take a picnic, as well as a couple of cafes. We ate at the Monet Deck Cafe, which overlooks a pool of water lilies. (And, yes, the food was delicious!)

There is also a children’s garden across the street (actually, it’s on top of the parking garage), which we didn’t visit but is included in the admission price. We spent about 3 hours in the York Street gardens, and you could easily spend 4-5 hours there – or more if you really take your time.

I wouldn’t mind spending a day there next time I’m in town.

August 5, 2013

Unpacking from BlogHer

I am back home and back to some sort of routine. I am listening to the news and heating water on the stove for morning cups of herbal tea while I pour cereal into a bowl. There is still a suitcase in the corner of my bedroom that clothing and swag and all these ziploc bags I used for packing are slowly seeping out of.

I have a bad habit of taking a long time to unpack. Sometimes a really long time. I promised Phillip I wouldn’t take so long this time, and then I remembered I couldn’t. I’ll be repacking that suitcase soon for our Colorado trip.

But it is taking longer than I thought for everything I brought back from the conference to find its place here at home. It will. For now, I’m still figuring out where it all goes. I’ll find a way to make it work and get ready for my next trip.

Even though it’s causing a bit of a time crunch, I’m so glad I went to the conference. It gave me exactly the answers I was looking for.

The night before I bought my last-minute ticket from my friend Mona, when I was still considering whether to say yes, I wrote a note for Phillip. He was already asleep, and I wanted to talk it all over with him. I knew I couldn’t count on my night-owl self to have a single coherent thought in the morning, so I wrote it all down.

Maybe instead of waiting to figure out what I’m doing, I should see if this blog to book thing could work for me.

So I went. I took a lot of notes (and a few photos), met a lot of wonderful people, listened.

I came back with answers, including another big yes.

Instead of thinking that I maybe want to write a book, I now plan to write a book. Maybe a series. (Yikes.) I have other ideas for this blog and for writing and traveling and crafting too.

I’m still trying to figure out where exactly this fits with the rest of my life. I know I’ll find a place for it all. I’ll find a way to make it work and get ready for what’s next.