Travelling Plans

You may or may not know, I cant remember if I've told you before. But, my mums sister (so my auntie) lives in America, with her American husband and my 2 cousins. I absolutely love love love love love going to visit them and have been 3 times since i was about 12. My eldest cousin has a little girl who is now 1!! and is pregnant with her second baba, I'm yet to meet the Adorable Kathryn, and the soon-ish (February) to be arriving Caroline, and I'm SO desperate to meet them both, and see all my family again, and to just generally be in America. I LOVE it over there.

my plan when i finished uni, was always to go over for a few months to stay with my family and just travel round a few states, and work a bit. I've always said it, but not actually done anything about it. But now I've decided, I'm never going to get there if i don't start saving even a teeny tiny bit.

At the moment, I'm trying to pay off the overdraft on my student account, but hopefully if all goes to plan that should be paid off by Christmas or late January. Then once that's paid off i can start seriously saving. Until then though, i thought every little helps so in TK Maxx the other day i spotted these beauties...

The box, is a cute little square box, the top looks like an old school air mail envelope, and around the sides has all different kinds of stamps and post marks.

I found it on clearance for about £2, I'm going to use it to save 20p's in. My mum saves every 20pence piece she gets and her piggy bank is always over flowing. So i thought until I've got my overdraft paid off this will be the way forward. 20p's in a box, so far i have about £3!! It may take a while to save up enough 20ps to travel America, but as i mentioned before every little helps.

The little note book or 'Travel Journal' is the coolest thing, and  if i had any friends about to go travelling i would have bought all 3 that they had on the shelf, i think this was about £4.99, which i think is about average for a notebook in TK Maxx (if you haven't checked out TK Maxx for notebooks YOU MUST, they have the most unusual and prettiest notebooks you've ever seen!)

I couldn't not buy this one, even though my travelling days are a long way off yet, I'm going to keep it safe until the day i leave.

This is why i love it so....

 I love the vintage looking front cover and the elastic closure making sure everythings kept super secure.

This is the inside cover, on the left, there is a 'air mail envelope' with one of those old fashioned tie closures, handy for keeping ticket stubs, postcards, photos etc in of all the places you've visited on your travels. Cute right?

I didn't photograph it, but on the first page of the notebook section, there are a couple of printed luggage tags for you to write your name address etc on, so if you were to lose it hopefully somebody nice would return it to you.

The first section is a 'Things to do before i go' check list, This is AMAZING. I'm an avid list maker, and literally can't do anything or go anyway without making a list. I also think its handy, so that you don't forget anything important, if you're going away for a long time there are lots of things to remember, like cancelling phone bills or any subscriptions you have. The check boxes next to the lines are a great idea so you can tick things off as you do them.

A special packing list section! all the pages are made to look old/ vintage. There are quite a few pages in each section so you could probably use them for multiple trips. I imagine when i go to stay with my family, I'll be doing little mini excursions to other places and a packing list for each one would probably come in handy!

Then there are the actual diary pages, in the the top left corner it always has a space to write, where you are, the date and the weather. the pages differ through the book, some pages just have a nice illustration on whereas others have a little mock sellotaped note on them, the page i photographed says "where i am now looks like: " so you can write a description of where you are right at that moment. Some of the other 'notes' say things like, "As i write i can see..." or "Save something near you right now to keep as a memento. If it's too large or heavy, perhaps you can take a photo or buy a postcard" I think these are super cute!! they make each day slightly different. Some of the pages have really nice quotes on them, about travelling, one of my favourites is this one "Not all who wander are lost." J. R. R. Tolkien.

There are loads of diary pages as well, which is really good.

The next part is probably one of my favourites and i must of completely skipped this part when i was looking in the shop, as i didn't notice it till i got home.

This is the favourites section, there's areas for restaurants, bars, shops,cafes and hotels. On the little note cards, you can write the name of the place you went, what you ate/drank/bought, things to recommend to people and your general thoughts on the place you can always give it a star rating. A great page to use as reference when you get home and you're telling people about all the amazing places you ate/drank/slept.

And lastly is the 'Address book' pages, with spaces to write addresses, emails, telephone number. So you have no excuse not to send a postcard. Or handy if you make any new friends while travelling, so you can keep in contact with them.

The last couple of pages, just have weight/length convertions and list of currency if different countries etc.

So all in all a pretty handy little book, its really light and handbag sized so great for carrying around with you.

I think this would make a great present for anyone who might be going travelling soon, i love little sentimental things like this, that you can keep forever and look back on from time to time. Something to show your grandchildren as my Nienie would say.

What do you think?

Lots of Love

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