Travel Tips and Tricks

July 6, 2018July 5, 20181 Comment

Hello! I hope everyone had a good and safe 4th of July! I know mom and dad’s furry kids were good with the fireworks, and my cats were a little scared but nothing too bad.

With summer in full swing, people everywhere are taking road trips. Now, I wish that I could travel more than I do now, but it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. So to curb my hunger for adventure, here are some travel tips and tricks for you on your next road trip. Enjoy!

I haven’t been on too many flights but I can say that it is hard to pack a carry on bag. Arzo Travels lays out an awesome list of everything that you should pack in your carry on bag for your next flight.

Who doesn’t like snacks? Especially for a long trip you definitely need to have something to eat on the road. Live Laugh Rowe gives her list of snacks that she likes to pack for a road trip.

We all love our pets and we love them so much so that sometimes we want to take them with us on our adventure. The Every Girl complies a list of things to pack and look at when wanting your furry friend to go on an adventure too!

If you are traveling somewhere by car and not by plane, it can be hard to figure out how to pack your car. Stuffed Suitcase shows us how she packs her car for long road trips, which is very helpful!

If you are going on a trip soon, you may need to pack a lot of small items for your adventure. Polka Dot Chair gives us some ideas on things to pack to make traveling just a little bit easier.

Sometimes when you are taking a road trip, you are taking the whole family with you! Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, Dylan Too gives us some great ideas of things to bring when traveling with kids.

Did you know that there is a “proper” way to pack a suitcase? Business Insider gives us this awesome diagram on how to properly pack for your next trip.

With everyone using technology for everything nowadays, wouldn’t it be nice if you could have a plethora of apps that were reliable for travel? Carry On or Bust compiles a list of apps that they use when traveling that make your life much easier.

This is a HUGE thing! Obviously you want to be safe while traveling and it would be terrible if things got stolen from you. Wise Bread gives a good list of things to take into consideration when you are traveling.

Finally, it’s not really travel tips and tricks, but my trip to Washington last summer. I had so much fun and even give you a small itinerary for my week long trip. Click here to check it out!

Not All Who Wander Are Lost

August 25, 2017August 24, 20172 Comments

Hello! Welcome back to the blog! I hope that have all had a wonderful week and have awesome plans for the weekend?

This project was a lot of fun for me to work on. Even though it is very simple, it was a still a blast to work on.

As you may have seen the gallery wall that I am working on in my living room. You know, the one with all of the maps. Anyway, I wanted something to add to the wall that didn’t scream MAPS!

So while meandering through Michaels one day I came across a bunch of letters. They were in the spring clearance, but I didn’t have enough letters to make any great words. So, I went to the wood section and found all the letters that I wanted for my wall. I then made my way to scrapbooking where I picked out my paper.

So here are my supplies! I decided to go with the word Wander because it has to do with adventures and traveling, but it’s not 100% travel. And the paper is so cute! I love the wood with the little bit of pink in it. So all you need is the paper you like, letters, glue, a pencil, and a pair of scissors.

First, you need to trace you letters. If you are tracing on the backside of the paper, remember to lay your letters down backwards to the print is correct! After you do that, it’s time to cut.

I double checked to make sure the paper fits correctly on the letters. And then the gluing started. I put the glue down and used a paintbrush to make the glue even across the letter. I then laid the paper down and smoothed it out so there were no bubbles.

I then took the paper with the hearts (that had maps in them mind you) and cut out some of the hearts that had a lot of pink on them. They were placed on the letters and glued down to add extra flair on the letters.

And then it was done!

Now, I only have the letters sitting on top of my middle map until I can enough command strips, but I love it! I really like the look of the letters and I think that it fits really well with the travel/adventure theme. I also really like the small hearts on each letter; it adds a bit of femininity.

I can’t wait to actually mount these letters on the wall and keep the gallery wall going!

How to Use an Old Atlas for New Decor

August 11, 2017August 9, 20175 Comments

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a wonderful week so far and are ready for the weekend. Anyone have any awesome plans?

Well this weeks project was originally seen when I was in Seattle on my trip. I saw this and knew that I could make it myself. So with a small bit of help from my mom for the main supply, I am bringing you a wonderful DIY.

Supplies You Will Need

An old atlas or maps (mom found hers at a thrift store)

Glue

Paperclips

A pencil

A frame

Chip letters

Step 1

Decide how big you want your pieces. There was actually a pre-cut piece in the atlas that I used as my sizer. I would paperclip my sizer to the atlas and cut around it until I had the two pieces. I tried to use pages with a lot of blue so I ended up using a log of pages with the ocean or lakes as my pieces.

Step 2

Roll you pieces. I would put a small line of glue on the edge of the paper before I rolled it around the pencil. And at the end I would put more glue to secure the edge. I would then use two paperclips to hold it down to try to dry. That way the roll didn’t lose its shape and the glue could dry.

Step 3

Measure out your frame. I bought a 5×7 frame from Dollar Tree and took the glass out of the front of it. I turned the paper over so it was white and laid the atlas rolls out in a pattern. I found a few spaces that needed to be filled in with smaller rolls. After using some Elmer’s glue, I was able to move on to the final step.

Step 4

Attach your chip letters. Since I used atlases, I decided to make the word travel. And I felt like it was fitting since I saw this while I was traveling. So after a lot of gluing and drying, here is the finished product!

I love how it turned out. And I definitely plan on hanging this on my map gallery wall in my living room when I finally get around to it. I hope this you enjoyed this DIY and if you have any questions please let me know!

Lauren’s Seattle Trip

June 16, 2017June 15, 20175 Comments

Hello everyone! I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while. I’ve been just slightly busy…sorry…

So I was in Seattle for a week! It was so much fun! My roommate and I went for a roadtrip, which was absolutely amazing! Here is recap of our trip!

Day 1: Leaving town and headed to Medford Oregon.

We stopped at a small rest-stop about 2 hours outside of Sacramento and took pictures. It was absolutely gorgeous! And obviously, we had to pull over to see the Oregon sign.

Day 2: Left Medford, drove to Florence Oregon, through Salem and Portland, made our way to Seattle.

Aren’t these pictures gorgeous? Both of these were taken in Oregon and I cannot get over how beautiful the scenery was. It is so green!

Day 3: Seattle! Space Needle, Chihuly Glass Museum and Pikes Place Market

These pictures are by far some of my favorites. The Space Needle is always a beautiful landmark and I love taking pictures of it. The Chihuly Glass Museum was Amber’s favorite thing, and the pieces were just amazing! We also walked the 1.5 miles to Pikes Place Market where we got to look around for the first time. Finally, we were able to go back to the Space Needle to watch the sunset.

Day 4: Zoo, Aquarium, Underground Tour

Lots of animals! We had tons of fun walking around the zoo and the aquarium. I loved the peacock for Haley and flamingos for mom. We then went to the aquarium and I loved the weird feather looking thing and the clown fish. It was fun to walk around and see what they had to offer. We then finished the night going on an underground tour. If you are ever in Seattle, I highly suggest doing the underground tour. It is a lot of fun and perfect for a family!

Day 5: Harbor Cruise and Whidbey Island

The harbor cruise was about an hour long and a perfect time to relax. We got some pictures of the skyline and lots of random pictures as well. We also went to Whidbey Island, which was a bit of a disappointment because everything closed early on a Sunday. Boo Hoo!

Day 6: Canada and Kerry Park

What an amazing day! We decided to try to go to Canada since we were so close anyway. We actually found a park called Peace Park where we could cross the border without a passport. If we wanted to go any further, we had to have a passport. But we did it!!! We also headed to Kerry Park, which is supposed to be the best spot to get a skyline picture of Seattle. Honestly, it was a good view, but not our favorite.

Day 7: Leaving Seattle to Grants Pass Oregon

Before leaving Seattle, we stopped at Gas Works Park. We weren’t sure if it was going to be any good, but it was absolutely awesome! It was probably our favorite place and we wished we would’ve been able to spend more time there. Both Amber and I thought that this was a better view of Seattle than Kerry Park. We then drove home and stopped in Salem Oregon to see the capitol. It was beautiful!

Day 8: Sundial Bridge and home!

If you have never been to Sundial Bridge in Redding California, you should definitely go! It is so pretty and not many people stop there. We took lots of pictures, but I won’t show too much.

Now, I know I showed you a lot, but now it’s time for the best pictures! I took a small stuffed elephant by the name of Tantor. And I took pictures of him all along the trip! So enjoy lot of pictures of Tantor!

Yeah…we took a lot of pictures of him…

And finally, we recorded ourselves in vlog fashion to keep a memory of the trip. If you want to watch the 8 videos of our trip click Seattle Roadtrip YouTube. Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks for going through our adventure through Washington. It was a lot of fun and we cannot wait to go on another adventure!