Problem: you don't want to end up with a bunch of cheap, plastic crap that will just sit in storage, but you want something to commemorate your adventures. Solution: come up with your own creative ways to incorporate mementos that you'll actually want to display in your home.
When we took a mini-vacay to Leavenworth during spring break, we picked up a vintage bottle. The great thing was that it had a lid that easily came on and off. That gave me idears... We were headed to Ocean Shores with my fam bam towards the end of the week, and I thought it would be fun to fill the bottle up with sand.
I don't know if I'll ever forget the process of filling that little bottle up. The siblings and I decided to make a trek out to the ocean even though there was practically a monsoon going on out there. My husband basically risked life and limb. He and my brother valiantly stayed out on the beach with wind blowing rain into their eyes and causing them to stumble across the sand. The opening in the bottle was small so it took much perseverance to get sand all the way to the top. I didn't have the heart to tell them I would've been satisfied with the bottle even half full.
The other day, Mom gave me some maps that a teacher friend was getting rid of, since she knows I like to use them for projects. I cut a heart out of a section of the map where our trip to the Ocean was. I punched a hole in it and tied it to the bottle with a bit of twine. Voila! I think it's cuter than just a little tag that says "Ocean Shores," and yet it still serves the purpose of labeling where the sand came from. This is a great memory from our trip, and I can display it without shame.
I got these colones, Costa Rican currency, on my mission trip. Yep, a trip to Costa Rica will cost you an arm and a colon harhar. For some reason, I've been carrying them around in my wallet ever since. It was time to give these guys a proper home. I grabbed a little picture frame from our wedding and put a small piece of craft paper behind them. I think it'd be pretty in a bigger frame, especially with lots of coins from other places. We have a lot of travel-themed decor (suitcases, maps, photos) so this fits in nicely.
We also buy mugs everywhere we go. We think it's fun and quirky to drink out of our hodge podge of mismatched mugs. Admittedly, they might be on the tacky-side, but we use them all the time. My main goal is not to spend money on something that just sits and collects dust. Plus, when you're apartment dwellers, you just don't have the space for extra junk. I'm trying to live by this motto with the things we own:
"Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful" --William Morris
Aaaaaand just for fun here's the whole set-up plus what I wore today.
How do you preserve your memories without becoming a hoarder?
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