January Sketch Challenge from Let’s Get Sketchy

Happy New Year everyone! I’m so excited to start this new year off with a new website! Ta-dahhh! I hope you’re liking the upgraded look!

Ok enough! Here’s our sketch for the month! I hope you’ll play along with us at Let’s Get Sketchy. In my opinion, winter is always the best time for scrapbooking! 😉

Here’s my take on the sketch! I love spending time with my family during the 4th of July!

Thanks so much for swinging by my blog this month! Feel free to leave a comment below and tell me what your thoughts are!

December Double Page Layout from Stick It Down

Hey there! It’s me again!

Amidst all the busy-ness of the season I hope you find a little quiet time to spend scrapbooking and enjoying yourself with a hot cup of tea or coffee! 

Here’s our fun sketch from Stick It Down this month:

Here’s my take on it!

We seem to always have a blast with our family at Christmas! Here in Minnesota, we snowmobile, build snowmen, play ice hockey and ski! So many fun things to do!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and as always thanks for swinging by my blog! I love to hear your comments below!

That Travelin’ Itch

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” -Augustine of Hippo

I have the itch. You know what I’m talking about right? That burning desire to go and explore somewhere new. Sometimes it can be satisfied with merely exploring a new restaurant or part of the city. But, sometimes it cannot. 

This itch hits me especially hard in the middle of winter. I often spend my snowdays and free time aimlessly roaming on Orbitz, Skyscanner or Kayak trying to find a good deal so I can convince my husband to go on yet another adventure come summer. Sometimes I’m successful, other times I’m not. However this year I got the nod. The “ok I think you can start planning this” after I’ve made my 30 min pitch on all the wonderful things we will see. 


Boy, I sure do love my husband. 😉


Here’s the crazy plan that I came up with:

Crazy right? Yea, I’ve heard that all summer BUT I’m calling this our “Sampling” trip. Meaning that we’ll go back to a place, if we decide that it’s worthy of a return trip.

I’ve already done the London, Paris, Rome excursions, so I wanted to create a trip that was half on the main tourist trail, and half off the beaten path. Here are the cities that we are stopping at:

  • Frankfurt, Germany
  • Lucerne, Switzerland
  • Interlaken, Switzerland
  • Milan, Italy
  • Verona, Italy
  • Venice, Italy
  • Postojana, Slovenia
  • Ljubjana, Slovenia
  • Zagreb, Croatia
  • Budapest, Hungary
  • Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Salzburg, Austria
  • Munich, Germany
  • Dachau, Germany

We decided to purchase a 15 Day Global Eurail Pass that will cover us in every country. We also decided to do this trip as cheap as possible and focused our efforts on booking hostels and cheaper (but decent!) hotels. 

I’m excited to see historic sites, eat various ethnic foods and meet other amazing people around the world! Ahhh…is there anything as exciting in the world as traveling?


Feel free to follow along with me for updates on this great and glorious adventure! And check out my other pages on places we’ve visited in past years!

5 Must-Haves When Backpacking Through Europe!

Sooo, are you heading out on a trip like me? If so, then I’m sure you’re thinking of the million things to pack AND hoping that you’re not missing something. I figured I should write a quick post on what I packed for my 17 day Europe trip.

#1 Packing Cubes: In planning this trip, I decided to purchase some packing cubes to help us organize our backpacks a little more efficiently. Boy am I glad I did! They helped immensely! It helped me whenever I had pull out specific items, instead of having to dig through my whole suitcase. Here’s the set that we went with.


#2 Portable Phone Charger Battery Pack: I know you’re thinking, why do I need another one of these bad boys…welllll not all of the trains had charging ports AND when you’re running around a new city, the last thing you want to be worried about is running out of juice when in a perfect Instagrammable spot! Do yourself a favor and just buy one of these bad boys!

#3 Good Camera: The first time I went to Europe (wayyy back in 2006), I only had a small extremely pixelated camera. Then 2010 was the same story and in 2013 I went only with my iPhone! I know right? What was I thinking? If you’re spending the money to go on this trip, spend the extra dough to get yourself a good DSLR camera. That way you can clearly relive your memories forever.

#4 Extra Camera Battery and Memory Card: Another piece of camera advice, I always buy a spare camera battery and good sized memory card. I’m not a professional photographer by any means, but running out of space or battery can really kill your sight-seeing!

#5 Camel Back or Hydration Backpack: If you’re going to Europe in the summer, like I’ve done, chances are you’re going to be battling some heat. I’ve heard one too many tourist stories involving heat stroke and dehydration, so make sure you’re prepared to brave the elements.  On this trip I actually took my Camel Back’s “bladder” (yes that is what they call it) out of my small 8 oz pack and inserted it in my thinnest backpack pocket, even though it technically wasn’t for that purpose. Then I was able to have water whenever I felt the need arise.

Well, there you have it! 5 extra tips that will help make your trip much more enjoyable! If you have questions or thoughts about any of these items, feel free to leave me a response in the comments!