In love with my new travel journal! Isn’t it cool!

For as long as I can remember, I have always been drawn to notebooks and journals.  When I go into a bookstore or any specialty store, I always find myself in the aisle with the journals and notebooks, thumbing through the various designs and thinking of ways I can use each particular one.  Then I shake myself out of that dreamy state and realize I have more than enough journals and notebooks at home and I need to use those first!

What I didn’t have was a good travel journal…at least until now!  My husband and I are taking a 30th anniversary trip in August and I wanted something special to take with me and record our trip.  Sure, I could have used something I already have but I was browsing in that aisle again – in Target this time – and I landed on the perfect one.

It’s funny how journaling and decorating journals has become such a big industry these days.  The options are endless!  Back in the early 1980’s, I would eagerly await the new Hallmark calendar and get it ready for the year – adding birthdays, appointments and other special events.  Then I would use the daily page to journal about my day and feelings, and then add things like ticket stubs, photos, receipts, invitations and other items that I wanted to remember.  By the end of the year, the calendar would be 3 times its original size from all the things I was saving!  The book pictured on the left is the one I diligently kept the year before I got married so when I found it in the attic recently and opened it up – so many memories flooded back to me.  Reading a few pages immediately took me back to that particular time and how I was feeling.  It’s amazing the power of your own voice…

Finding these old journals has made me all the more excited about keeping a travel journal.  I have to say, the cover of the journal got my attention first.  It’s full of passport type stamps.  It’s also made of a burlap type fabric.  As I opened it, I noticed there were stickers to use and pockets to store things.  Another cool feature is that it contains several pull out pages that show the map of the world.  I can definitely see myself marking that map with some of the stickers included as I check places to go off my bucket list.  There is also space for photos which is always a hard one for me since I take so many!  I generally like to pick out a few postcards when we travel and tuck those away “with” my photos.

One of the fold out maps in my new travel journal!

In addition to the journal, I found the coolest pack of sticky notes at World Market a few weeks ago.  I actually bought this before I found the travel journal but they go together perfectly!  They’re called Bon Voyage sticky notes and you know why they got my attention, right?  The map of the world on the cover, of course!  The love of maps seems to be a Zuniga gene thing – at least that’s what my sister Kanista seems to think.  I think she may be right!

Travel sticky notes from World Market – nice companion piece for my travel journal.

As far as journaling and photographing our trip…I’m ready for that!  When it comes to packing clothes…not so much…but I still have some time to get that underway.

NOTE:  I’ll post about the trip in September so stay tuned!