Of Healing Legs and Scrapbooking

The pile in the right corner is my yet-to-do pile

Been home for a bit now. What with being laid up somewhat - the Aircast allows for some walking but at such a slow pace it takes a VERY long time to get anywhere - I've decided to get right to putting everything in the scrapbook I'd bought before I left.

Let's face it: I'm nothing if not organized. While we often use the need to straighten, file, tidy up as a procrastination tool, the reality is, we think better when the space around us has some semblance of order to it. To that end, I bought two scrapbooks before we left - big ones with lots and lots of pages. I'd learned from putting together the books from our Alaska trip. That was thirteen days and had two parts: land and sea. This trip to Italy and Ireland had the same two components: Italy by sea and Ireland by land. But the Alaska trip took three regular-sized two-inch notebooks and not everything fit even then.

So big scrapbooks for me this time. I bought some Italy and Irish stickers from Michael's (my daughter works there, so I've been supporting her!) and set up my to-go folders for the trip before we left.

That's our itinerary in the left pocket; maps are behind it

To-go folders? I tried this for Alaska and it worked so well, I did it again. Take a pocket folder with the three fold-down clasps in the middle. Put in as many acid-free plastic sleeves as you have days of vacation (and an extra for other stuff). I used a red folder for Italy and a green one for Ireland. Inside the pockets I put maps, embassy information taped to the pocket, a copy of our passports and our pre-purchased tickets and reservation numbers. I also slid a copy of our itinerary into each folder.

Then, as we had fun and explored and played, the folder for that country became our bible. Each day had it's own sleeve for receipts, handouts, ticket stubs - anything we collected along the way. By the end of the week, Italy's folder was stuffed full, all of it already sorted by day.

For scrapbooking, this means everything is already organized! I printed out the first three days worth of pictures and put them with their respective sleeves. Now I can just take a day at a time and it's all set to go. No muss, no fuss. I will never travel without those folders again.

Vesuvio - such a handsome dragon!

My leg is doing well, although it gets sore now and then (okay more now than then). Doc's got me on ibuprophen and it works well enough. I like that it doesn't make me groggy and I can still (mostly) think. Still wearing the Aircast; have an appointment this Wednesday to see if I can get it off and go to a brace or if I have to wear it a while longer. At least I don't have to use Vesuvio anymore.

Who is Vesuvio? My cane, of course! The one Steven bought me in Pompeii. He's been, quite literally, my walking stick, my right hand, my helper and hasn't left my side for the past two weeks. Only yesterday did I put him with the other canes we've collected over the years. Independence worked well and I'll let him live in the corner now.

At Michael's, my daughter is in charge of all the Scrap-ins and Crop Nights they hold. Not many people have attended of late but I go to every one of them. Why not? A chance to spread out on really big tables and spend time being (somewhat) creative? What's not to like? The store makes out, too, because I've always forgotten something or need one more page of this or one more sticker of that...I'm always running our of photo splits or glue sticks and always losing the acid free thin-line marker I like for writing on the pages. Today she's holding a 6-hr long Scrap-In - and I'll be there! Will post some pictures of what I do on Facebook at the end of the day. You'll see why, in this area at least, I'm only (somewhat) creative. :)

Play safe!
Diana