Year One

Today Travelcraft Journal turns one! I pubished the first post one year ago today. I was excited about finding and sharing ways to be creative and explore the world around us – even in the midst of real life busyness and constraints. I didn’t know where this little blog project would go, but I felt optimistic. A year later, I am thrilled and grateful at where the journey has already taken me and still excited about what’s next.

Over the past year, I gave you some tips on packing, booking flights, and airfare refunds. I shared some of my adventures with you, like Colorado road tripping, introducing our Chinese friends to camping, a whirlwind(y) tour of Chicago, sneaking into Arcosanti – despite tales of angry naked hippies – and living to return for breakfast another day.

Closer to home, we explored the Phoenix area – taking side streets, checking out a travel expo, hiking South Mountain and looking for the last spring wildflowers, reluctantly enjoying brunch, seeing festive lights and maybe wolves at Glendale Glitters, getting lost in a museum full of Arts & Flowers, and, of course, the time we started out on a new hike and I ended the evening exiting the restroom to roaring applause. (Just one of many proud moments this year.)

I also shared some things I made – a paper bag journal, upcycled gift tags, flowers pressed while traveling, super sangria, a desk fort, Peruvian bean chili, and mini envelopes. I presented on DIY gift bags at Craft Hack and travel journals at Southwest Maker Fest. But I always encouraged you to stop the DIY guilt. Make what makes you happy and don’t let anyone tell you to do more or less than that.

Only a few weeks after starting the site, I decided to go to Chicago for the BlogHer Annual Conference. I learned a ton about blogging and book publishing and met so many amazing people, including randomly bumping into one of the founders – twice. In between those two meetings, I had the idea that a session on blog design might be helpful to a lot of people, so I suggested it to her. That topic idea morphed into a mobile design talk at BlogHer Pro that fall. I’ll be speaking again when I return to the annual conference this July.

In the meantime, I talked to a friend about my idea for writing travel books and realized I needed to hone my voice and idea before pursuing it. But it’s still something I plan to do.

After seeing a panel at BlogHer that included the founder of Brit + Co., I started following the creative living site on Twitter. When they tweeted that they were looking for freelance contributors, I submitted an application and began this process that ended up stretching out about two months. Finally, I was accepted as part of the contributor team, and I continue to write for them on food, tech, and DIY topics.

Recently, I launched a newsletter with Travelcraft Journal highlights and free goodies. We were granted our first media pass for Phoenix Comicon. (I know I acted in my last post like it wasn’t a big deal. But I’m actually really proud of it.)

And now here were are, celebrating Year One! Wanna join the party? Enjoy a favorite treat in a favorite place and post a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #tcjturns1. (Or post it elsewhere and link to it in the comments.) If you message me your address, I’ll send you a nifty Travelcraft Journal sticker. Consider it a party favor and a thank you for being part of this community, because, really, you guys rock!