Visit friends for a wedding reception in New Hampshire. Included in the photo are 2DG bloggers Kitty, Jeff Wagg, kochanski, and myself.
Whether you travel in the car around your state, or have a chance to do international travel to popular or exotic places, chances are you may come home with a few souvenirs. I know people who collect shot glasses, spoons, or t-shirts from the Hard Rock Cafe. My own preference follows the dictum of William Morris, who said “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” I add to that “or interesting and unusual.” Also, I’d rather my item be made in the country I bought it in. An item bought in France and made in China just seems…tacky. (My mother-in-law once bought me a large wooden cowbell. Made in India. While she was in San Francisco.)
I know people who have furnished their house with antiques and fixtures that they acquired abroad. That’s out of my budget. . Here’s how I have collected and displayed some of my trip memories. They need to fit in my carry-on!
Most of my souvenirs are my photos. As I have upgraded my cameras over the years, and get better quality photos, I’ve used many of them to display memories. After sorting and discarding the ones that are blurry or boring, I store them all on SmugMug.com (I tried out several sites before picking this one, and I’ve used it for several years.) Almost every piece of artwork in my house is either a photo I’ve taken, or that friends have supplied, family portraits, and inexpensive artwork I’ve picked up from street artists or museum gift shops. Below are a few of the photo collections I have:
Travel photos printed in sepia tones. Arranged over my bathtub (hanger system from Pottery Barn)
Detail of Bacchus urn in Garden of Versailles, enlarged and printed on canvas 30″ x 40″. Printed by SmugMug.com
Photo prints from travels. Hanger system from Pottery Barn.
If you look at the second photo above in the lower right-hand corner, you might be able to tell that it’s a picture of a corner sidewalk cafe, taken in Paris by my son Richard. My other son Travis and I were sitting at the table have a mid-day snack. A couple of years ago, I received this watercolor, painted by Richard and framed by Travis. Sorry for the bit of glare from the glass, but I didn’t want to remove to photograph.
Family at Cafe, in Paris. Painted by Richard Orbeck, acrylic on canvas. I’m in the middle in blue, and Travis is to the right of me.
The photo below is from a fish vendor in Paris. Kitty took this picture, and when I saw it, it reminded me very much of buying scallops at a market in Montmartre, before I knew Kitty! I asked to buy a copy, but she graciously let me use it free of charge. It’s hanging in my kitchen.
Fresh market scallops in Paris. Photo by kitty lapin agile.
My next post will be about some of the other items I have collected from my trips. How do you display your souvenirs?
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Categories: Travel
Two Different Girls 
That’s really nice Naomi. I used to scrap book all my travel photos and discovered that I was the only person looking at the books. 😦 So much time wasted. I take thousands of photos each year and am attached to most of them. Now I use them as screen savers on my computer so I can see them all the time. I sometimes will print them out and use them in misc frames around the house, but even still I can’t keep up.
I love the idea you had with the Pottery Barn frames, very pretty.
I have to pick and choose what to display, since my house has more windows and open spaces than walls! Next week I’m posting about how I handle things other than photos.
the Pottery Barn frames are great. You can fill a large space, with affordable sized photos.