Going Post - card - al

Julie Kirk has been hosting a series of blog posts called Going Postal.  And she also talked about a travel journal here.  And I made a comment that Julie's post-themed journal had given me an idea:

This has given me a great idea. I am going to New England for a holiday soon. I always buy postcards when I'm away despite the 1000s of photos I take. I often put postcards into my travel journal but I think this time I will send myself a postcard every day to record our holiday. When I get back I shall have an almost ready made journal.

I didn't send the postcards to myself but I did buy them and write on them each day to record our trip.

Here are the postcards that I use plus a few spares!

Now that I'm home after 3 days in Boston and 1580 mile drive through Massachussets, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine I have put together my journal.

Whilst we were away I picked up any free maps that were available.

I cut up some cardstock into 6x4" pieces to stick the maps onto.

I cut out a piece of 6x4" acetate from a piece of packaging so that I could place it on the map to see which bits I was going to cut out.

I trimmed down the postcard that I had bought to be the cover so it is 7x5" and cut a piece of chipboard the same size to make the back cover.

I put the postcards into the right order and then went through them adding the appropriate maps.

I put some autumnal paper on one side of the back cover and stuck a postcard on.  I didn't see this sign but we did go through Mexico and I went to Peru on my last New England visit.

I printed out a map of New England from Google maps and stuck it on the inside of the back cover.

Here's a short video of how the book looks.  I filmed before I bound it together as I thought it would be easier to turn the pages for the filming.

I punched the holes in each page and put the book rings through.  I didn't like how it looked with ribbons attached to the rings but it looks slightly unfinished.  Will have to give it some thought.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Blessings

Christians often get a bad press about asking God for things like parking spaces.  Actually Christians often get bad press!  That aside, I don't often share the things that God does for me but during this last holiday some amazing blessings came our way.
I haven't been praying much lately - and certainly not for parking spaces - but I did occasionally just  say 'well God, it would be really great if ....'

And I know that there were people praying God's blessing for us whilst we were away.

Blessing #1
We arrived at our hotel in Boston to  be greeted with "Welcome.  We have upgraded you to a suite".  We walked in and there was a short corridor with the bathroom at the end. Turned right into the lounge and then right again into the bedroom.

Blessing #2
We hoped to visit the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston but when we got there it was $25 each to get in. We only had a couple of hours and really thought it was way too expensive so we walked away.  As we walked along the street there was a man, a woman and a young man admiring a sports car and out of the blue they spoke to us about it. We started talking and said how expensive the museum was and how we were going to give it a miss. The woman said to go with her. She turned out not to be with the other people and was on her way to work in the visitor information department of the museum. She gave us free tickets and so we went in and looked at American art and furniture from 1400 to the present.

Blessing #3
We hadn't booked anywhere to stay as we toured around New England.   Some evenings we looked at where we thought we might get to and booked something on the internet with varying results of quality.  However we hadn't booked anywhere on the Maine coast for the Wednesday night.  We drew up outside a beautiful looking Inn and Roger went in to enquire.  The receptionist asked him what sort of rate he wanted to pay!!!  He said a low rate would be good.  She said would $89 be okay so he said yes.  We were given yet another suite and when we looked it up on the internet it should have cost us $150.

And this was the view when we sat in the garden for breakfast the next day.

We continued our travels but after nearly having to sleep in the car on the Thursday night decided we should book ahead for Friday and Saturday.

Blessing #4
When we arrived at the hotel on Friday where we had booked a standard room, we walked in and the noise was terrible and the floor vibrated.  One of the hotel staff came to investigate which of course was when it stopped.  He went off to find out what it was and in the meantime the phone went and the receptionist said that we would be moving rooms with a free upgrade, and that the valet was on his way to move our luggage!

And the upgrade was to a - you've guessed it - a suite!

With this view from the balcony.

What amazing blessings.  Thank you God.  And thank you those who were praying.

Sometimes things didn't work out - for example I was badly bitten by mosquitoes and the last night was in a smoking room instead of a non-smoking because I didn't read the booking website properly.

At the Airport on Sunday I was chatting to God and said it would be really great to have an upgrade but if not, Roger and I having the 3 seats just for us would be great.

We got on the plane and found ourselves sat next to a very tall guy.  However shortly before takeoff the flight attendant asked him if he would like to move to another row where he would have more room - so we got our 3 seats.   Isn't God good?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

MLD Meme

Carolyn has a weekly meme on Thursdays called Messy Little Details.  Find out about it here.  Why don't you join in?

Having finished a series of Munich holiday photos, I am now going to share photos from my New England holiday.  We got back on Monday this week.   I took over 800 photos so it's going to be hard to choose.

As we walked round Boston we found several pianos where people could just sit down and play.  Most of them were upright pianos but outside the Museum of Fine Arts there was a grand piano.

The piano was set up to be a replica artists studio and here is the top of the piano.

Such a great idea.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice