Keeping Warm with Memories

Down here in Australia we are preparing for winter, which in Canberra actually feels like winter especially when there is snow on the mountains! The kids are already planning a ski trip. So forgive me if I forget that summer is bearing down on the northern hemisphere. I forget that school is out up there and vacation plans are simmering. And of course that means the digi kits that are coming out are full of travel themes!

Australians are known for their love of travel, so these kits are always welcome and useful for us. Seems we like to get off the Island as much as possible for as long as possible. After all, no journey is easy when an ocean has to be crossed!

So, I have been playing with various kits and have an eclectic selection of travel layouts to share this week. I will begin with this Canadian layout (above) using my mother's photos and journal notes. I love to travel vicariously and this was an event that captured my imagination as she shared it with me then - and I still enjoy the story now, 19 years later. Mom would have been 77 last week, so this is my tribute to her and her love of travelling roads of discovery.

This second layout makes me laugh. Looking at the photo of a Houston freeway spagetti bowl always makes me glad to be somewhere else and grateful that I survived so many years of driving there! The photo immediately sprang to mind as a perfect "sail away" page and the colours worked so well with the pelican on a quiet, bleak grey day down at a wharf on the other side of the world. I know where I would rather be!

Janet Carr's kit, "Where I Long to Be: Serenity of the Cape," like all her kits, gave me plenty to play with to make both of these layouts. Check it out at For the Luv of Art.

Our trip to Europe last year was a Dream Vacation for me. I never ever thought I would get to travel there in the flesh and walk the streets and feel the sun and soak in the light and ambiance for myself. Each day was filled with wonder as we spent six weeks moving from London to Paris to Rome to Salzburg. A couple of days in Venice provided me with many photo opportunities and these gondolas were begging to be captured as the sun was setting. Macy Goode's kit, "Vacation" is available from her etsy shop. I particularly love this background paper!

We stayed in a little apartment at a ski resort in Austria during its off season. The place was full, however, with geriatric tourists seeking health remedies from the thermal springs in the area. The guys got tired of the s-l-o-w pace and opted to rent out bikes for some exploring down in the valley below. Of course they had to ride back up, too! These gorgeous kits from Deena Rutter, "Hotel California" at Design House Digital and Nicole Young, "Steampunk" at Digital Scrapbook Place, worked surprisingly well together to tell some of their cycling adventure story.

Good memories do make for warm blankets as winter sets in!