This past October, I was blessed to be able to go on yet another week-long adventure with my CP friends. This time, we met up at two students’ home outside St. Louis, IL. There were dear friends from the the VA gathering in April and several new faces as well. The time I spent in IL was chock-full of memories. And the reason it was never blogged about is because when I got home, instead of saving the memories to my hard drive, I recorded them on paper. You see, I’ve been wanting to make a travel journal/scrapbook for some time and never quite knew how to go about it. But when I found Xenia’s Alaska Travel Album and I knew I had to make one. And the gathering gave me the perfect opportunity.
Now that it’s done and I’ve (finally!) taken pictures of it, I’m ready to share it with you!
the adventure begins
My mother was very glad when it was done. I had taken over her table and covered it in paper scraps for weeks.(Yes, weeks. 😛 I’m very detailed oriented and I am very happy when surrounded by creative chaos. See below.)
creative chaos
One of my favorite things about this project was that I had a good excuse to dig through all the little scraps, embellishments, and quotes I had collected and saved for unknown future projects. And while on the trip, I made sure to save the tangible evidence of the good times. Things like paper scraps from games, a map my dad had made, ticket stubs, and doodles drawn on the drive were tucked in an envelope and brought home. Combined with what I already had, there was plenty to stash, glue, and tape into the book.
Like Xenia’s journal, the days were divided up with tabs. And at the beginning of each day’s section, I’ wrote out the day’s schedule and activities.
I ended up using some postcards from the St. Louis City Museum as pages in the journal. A few photos from our day spent there decorated the blank backs.
A word on the St. Louis City Museum: coolest museum ever. 😎 It’s almost more of a giant playground and jungle gym for anyone and everyone willing to run, crawl, squeeze, slide, and be a kid for the day. Oh, and there’s a 10 story slide, a ferris wheel on the roof, and a school bus hanging off the side of the building.
The week not only filled with memories, but with lots of music. From Titanium parodies to music wars in the van, the soundtrack for the week was eclectic but oh so fun. 😉
music wars
I ended the journal with hand-lettered lyrics from The Time of our Lives by Tyrone Wells and a quote from the ever-wise Pooh bear — the perfect way to end my travel journal chronicling a simply fabulous week. 😀
the time of our lives
Becoming Emily... 
I love it, Emily! It’s beautiful and I want to see it in person one of these days 😀
Catherine showed me ‘Time of Our Lives’ a few weeks ago and it’s ever so quickly become a favorite… Such a perfect song to remember the precious days and weeks we get to spend together 😎
~Megan
😀 Thanks Megan! I had a blast making it. And yes, hopefully you’ll be able to see it soon. (angel)
Yep, good song. (nod) You should also check out Time of My Life by David Cook.
I loved this!!! I especially loved seeing your “creative chaos” station. 😀
One, I’m now adding those two song suggestions to my playlist. And two, I absolutely LOVE that travel journal! I’ve always wanted to make one, and may have to after my next trip/gathering. Thanks for sharing, Emily!