Cornflower Blue: DIY Adventure Book (memory keeping for people who don't scrapbook)

A few months ago I read The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and I found some great ideas in it. One of them was to do a quick tidy-up of your living space before going to sleep each night (which is great and I now do it religiously) and another was to "be a storehouse of happy memories." I have not been a person to display photos, organize albums or keep a journal, but recently I thought of some small steps to improve in this area. The first step was to make a casual display of photos from fun trips and visits with family members (which you can see in this post), then I made some paw print keepsakes for our pets. My next baby-step to memory keeping was to make this Adventure Book. It's as close to a scrapbook as I'll ever get! I purchased a 3-pack of extra large Moleskine notebooks, then rounded up a few supplies from around the house (clear tape, decorative printed tape, heart stickers, and a cute bookplate for our names). Nothing fancy because this is a low-stress project, quick to complete, and it is not allowed to be too fancy : )

Next, I pulled out The Shoe Box. The Shoe Box is the place I dump all of our travel postcards, maps, ticket stubs, etc. I don't take tons of photos when we travel, but I love to collect postcards (especially because we visit tons of museums). I have stuff in the box from the last six or seven years! I often think about specific items in the box, but it's buried in the back of my closet and I never want to dig it out - the Adventure Book has solved this problem because now I can easily look through it whenever I want.

The Adventure Book is different from a scrapbook in that it doesn't include photos, just memorabilia from trips or memorable events (because I rarely print any photos and don't see myself doing it anytime soon - this is a "here and now" kind of project). I was pleasantly surprised that choosing not to include photos didn't effect the quality of the book - with postcards, maps, tickets, brochures, and programs I had more than enough material to capture the essence of each event and bring back so many happy memories.

I simply organized my memorabilia into little piles so I could see what went together, then started taping it into the notebook. I added a few stickers or pieces of printed tape here and there, along with a few words about which city we were in or what a particular building was called. I also added a little title, "Our Adventures," to the front of the book.

I am SO pleased with this project! My husband loved looking through it, too. This is a great way to organize memories without all the fuss of a trip-down-the-scrapbooking-aisle project. Now that I have it started, it will be quick and easy to add new memorabilia along the way.