SYW231 – Documenting Unique Travel Experiences

[00:01:25] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking.

This is episode 231.In this episode I'm joined by Naomi Goldstein to explore the details of scrapbooking travel beyond the tourist hot spots. Our conversation includes advice on choosing products for unique destinations and how to capture the history of a place.

[00:02:00] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Naomi. Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:02:03] Naomi Goldstein: Thank you for inviting me.

[00:02:06] Jennifer Wilson: I am looking forward to our conversation today. Can you start by sharing a little bit about yourself?

[00:02:12] Naomi Goldstein: Sure. My name's Naomi Goldstein. I live currently in Toronto with my two and a half year old dog. I have been retired for five years and before that I worked, uh, for the Canadian government as a lawyer for 33 years. I have a 29 year old son. And I tend to spend my time walking my dog, doing cross stitch, a lot of traveling. Uh, love to cook, and of course I do a lot of scrapbooking.

[00:02:43] Jennifer Wilson: Sounds fun. So I would love to hear what is exciting you right now. And this year we're asking our guests to share both a non scrapbooking thing as well as something inside of our hobbies.

[00:02:56] Naomi Goldstein: Well, as a traveler, the thing I'm most excited about is that the travel world has mostly re-opened after the pandemic. Um, I was lucky enough to go back to Japan in January. Um, after the, that country had been closed for a couple years. So that's what's excited me in the non scrapbooking world. In the scrapbooking world, I'm really enjoying using some of the newer foreign paper collections. Um, if I can name the names,

[00:03:28] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, go ahead.

[00:03:30] Naomi Goldstein: From Poland, everyone knows about Mintay but Craft O Clock is a fabulous company. I've used quite a few of their collections. 13 Cuts is also, excuse me, 13 Arts is also a Polish company. And from New Zealand, my new favorite is something called Three Quarter Designs.

[00:03:52] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, fun. We'll have to link to all those. Did you discover these when you were traveling or just in internet searching from home?

[00:04:00] Naomi Goldstein: Mostly at craft shows in Canada and a couple in craft shows in the United States.

[00:04:06] Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Okay. So Naomi, is there a story on your bucket list that you feel like still needs to be told? So this is tends to be a really significant story that for one reason or another you haven't documented yet.

[00:04:23] Naomi Goldstein: I've been listening to this podcast for about two years, and I started thinking about my answer to that question the first time I heard it. And every time I think of the answer, I go back to this one photo I have of me as a teenager. And I had some health problems as a teenager in this particular photograph, encapsulates all of those health problems. It was a bit of painful, uh, time in my life. And I have scrapbook all of my children's albums and all my teenage and for two years I could not scrapbook this photo and I wasn't sure why. And then I started looking at it and thinking, what is the, why can't I scrapbook it? And it got me thinking, why exactly am I scrapbooking? Um, and I realized it's it for me it's not to leave a legacy. I don't wanna tell a whole story. I, I don't feel a need to articulate bad memories. Rather, I like to scrapbook because I, I really enjoy the creative process and I love looking back at my albums and all the layouts and evoking good memories. And I realized that scrapbooking this particular photograph would, would not accomplish either of those two objectives. So after two years, I finally said, I don't have to scrapbook this, picture. And I put it in the back of my album I checked off album done. And I've never had any regrets about not scrapbooking that particular photograph or telling that particular story.

[00:06:12] Jennifer Wilson: Thank you for sharing this because I think that's a perspective that I don't often hear, um, in, in my conversations with our guests. And it's really important to really connect back to your meaning, um, in this hobby and sometimes that guides us one direction and sometimes that guides us into another. So I think that's, yeah, it's important with every decision that you make.

[00:06:37] Naomi Goldstein: Yes.

[00:06:38] Jennifer Wilson: So I'm excited to chat with you today about your travel experiences. Um, I wanna start with like a little quick fire, just so we can get a lay of the land of, of some of the places you've been. So, which is, what is your favorite place?

[00:06:54] Naomi Goldstein: That's the most difficult question to answer because I, I say I love every place that I've been to. Um, Antarctica, Timbuktu, the Galapagos Islands, African Safaris, and I keep returning to London, England. So those are just a couple of my favorite places.

[00:07:16] Jennifer Wilson: What about your least favorite place?

[00:07:22] Naomi Goldstein: I really don't have one. If, if I look back at the places I didn't like, it's because I tended to have negative interactions with people. Um, I, I, I was in Laos in 2006 and unfortunately kept meeting up with people who I considered dishonest. And, um, just trying to get as much money from me as possible, and I would've said I, I really didn't like Laos, but I returned there this year and had wonderful experience. And so that is no longer on my most hated list. I, I really enjoyed it there.

[00:08:01] Jennifer Wilson: So you kind of have like a never say never perspective, and even if you know it's a place in the moment where you feel like you'd never go back to you probably would still give it a second chance.

[00:08:13] Naomi Goldstein: Absolutely.

[00:08:15] Jennifer Wilson: So what's been the most unusual or surprising experience you've had and, and maybe you've had more than one of them.

[00:08:24] Naomi Goldstein: I've had a lot of interesting and unusual experiences, but, uh, the one that people seem to find most interesting is when I visited Chernobyl in, in, uh, the Ukraine in 2019. Uh, Chernobyl is the site of the world's worst nuclear accident and one of the big attractions there is to see the old nuclear reactor. So I found the science behind what happened in the explosion interesting. But also right beside Chernobyl is a city called Pripyat, which used to house about 50,000 people. All of those who were working at the reactor, and it was considered to be a model Soviet City at the time. But it had to be abandoned on about three hours notice. So you return there now, and I think it's been abandoned for 45 years, but it's like a, a, a snapshot in time of what the ideal Soviet life would look like in, I think in 1979. Uh, books are strewn all over the place. There are newspapers. You go into the schools there's a merry-go-round, a swimming pool, and it's just fascinating. And the other really interesting thing about Chernobyl is because people weren't allowed, uh, in the area for 40 years, uh, animal life and fauna have taken over and completely befuddled scientists who thought this was going to be a nuclear, um, wasteland. And in fact, the animals and the, the wildlife have been thriving there and adapting. And so to learn about all of that I found fascinating.

[00:10:12] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, for sure. I know there've been a number of articles about various aspects of that, um, since the war in Ukraine as well, and so just sharing some of the history and photos. Um, so I'll try to link one of those in the show notes for this episode so others can take a peek as well.

[00:10:31] Naomi Goldstein: Yeah, and it's obviously quite sad that you can't visit there since, uh, the Russian invasion. So I, I feel very lucky that I was there when, when I could go.

[00:10:42] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm. I'm sure. I'm sure. So what's the place you're most excited to go next?

[00:10:48] Naomi Goldstein: Well, in October I had booked a trip to Somalia and to Sudan, and I was very excited to see both of those countries, especially Sudan, which has more pyramids than Egypt. Sadly, uh, a war in both countries has intervened, so I had to cancel that trip. Um, but my consolation prize is, is a month in Italy and Malta, so I'm looking forward to visiting those countries.

[00:11:17] Jennifer Wilson: Mm, yes, for sure. Now, are you typically traveling alone, with a tour group, with family? Um, I'm, I just have a lot of curiosity cuz I've only done kind of the, uh, typical touristy things, if you say, in terms of traveling outside of the US.

[00:11:36] Naomi Goldstein: I I've done it all. Um, I think about 15 years ago I took my then 13 year old son and we traveled the world for a year. Uh, I travelled after I retired, mostly solo two years, but then if I feel like I, I wanna be with people, or if I'm going to an area of the world that, uh, makes traveling difficult, then I'll, I'll go with a tour company.

[00:12:01] Jennifer Wilson: So so interesting to think about kind of some of the considerations there, and also to show that you can do it any way that you want for sure.

[00:12:10] Naomi Goldstein: Mm-hmm.

[00:12:11] Jennifer Wilson: So it's. Uh, for someone who maybe is so on the go throughout the year, it's like interesting to also think about you as a scrapbooker. And before we got started, I saw some of your supplies in the background. You definitely have a stash as well. Um, can you share more broadly about your approach to documenting your travels?

[00:12:31] Naomi Goldstein: Um, well, I, I am retired and I spend most of my time when I, when I'm not traveling, scrapbooking. I'll, uh, if I'm lucky, I can do two or three hours every day and get through 30 or 40 layouts. And when I'm traveling now, I, I do think that I am gonna scrapbook my photos. Um, and I actually am, I'm pretty good about doing most of the journaling and identifying the layouts as I'm traveling. So I don't have this big project when I get back of trying to figure out what to scrapbook and remembering this or that. When I do my scrapbooking now, and it has evolved a bit, I tend to, uh, do it by country. And I have a, a separate scrapbook for each country. And I always start with a title page, uh, obviously with the country and the date. And if I've just been there once or twice, I pick up the reason why I went to that particular country. And then I always like to have just one single photograph on my front cover that tries to encapsulate a particular memory from that country. So when I was in Bulgaria, I didn't know it's the rose capital of the world. So my cover page of Bulgaria has a picture of a beautiful rose from there. And then throughout the scrapbook, I, I do both single and double pages and, have titles, a lot of journaling and photographs, good and bad photos. And then an end page where I put things in that, uh, didn't fit on a page. I try to adhere some brochures or cuttings from brochures and my tickets. On the appropriate scrapbook page, and my scrapbooks tend to be chronological, uh, from the time I arrived until the time I departed. And I think the last thing I try and do is instead of saying, you know, on day one I did this, on day two I did this, I always have some pages that say, here are some of my favorite meals, or, this was the worst experience I had in that country, or here was my favorite thing. Here are the hotels I stayed at. So it's not just a, as I said, a day one, we did this. Day two, we did that.

[00:15:00] Jennifer Wilson: So what's your process for kind of outlining what you're going to scrapbook both when you are on the trip, as well as when you get home?

[00:15:11] Naomi Goldstein: Well, before I go to most places now, I do a, a, a wishlist or a to-do list of experience I'm hoping to have and, uh, places that I want to see. And I go with that list and, um, I I follow it. Obviously, I add and I subtract from it. But I take quite a few photographs and I, as I, pick up brochures when I can. I keep the tickets. And I try every single night, or sometimes when I'm waiting, I'm on buses, sitting on planes. I will go through and identify the photographs that I want printed. And I put them on a to print folder on my phone. I identify the potential layouts and I keep a list of those with, along with my to-do list. And then, as I mentioned, I do try and journal as I'm going. So at the end of my trip, on a good trip, I'll arrive home and all I have to do is send my to print file to, the, uh, developer and, I print out all my journaling and everything is there ready to be scrapbooked.

[00:16:26] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, that's really cool. So you're basically kind of doing hybrid journaling, you printing it as, you know, blocks or something like that, or are using the Project Life app. Um, what does that look like in terms of your printed journaling?

[00:16:42] Naomi Goldstein: I'm not very good on computers, so it, it's pretty, um, basic. I, I print everything in two columns on Word.

[00:16:51] Jennifer Wilson: Okay. Okay.

[00:16:51] Naomi Goldstein: Then I, I cut the column and I, um, uh, cut the appropriate journaling block. And that's, that's it.

[00:17:01] Jennifer Wilson: I love it. I love it. It's, I think there's a, um, oh, maybe it's a myth about hybrid scrapbooking or using your computer or your whatever device to to supplement your scrapbooking and include even more words on your page or to document more on the go, and it doesn't have to be complicated. So there's lots of options today for sure.

[00:17:25] Naomi Goldstein: Yes.

[00:17:27] Jennifer Wilson: Do you um, I'm curious, so for any like memorabilia that doesn't fit in the album, do you still keep it? Do you discard things, photograph them?

[00:17:38] Naomi Goldstein: it depends how big they are. at the end of every scrapbook I have, I call it a pocket page. It's just a place to put memorabilia that doesn't fit on a page. But if it's too bulky or if it's repetitive, then I do tend to throw them out.

[00:17:55] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I think that's a fair strategy and I think some of us tend to do that if we feel like we've done the project and we've captured what we needed to capture. We don't have to save everything. Um, sometimes that's an important reminder to to hear as well. So the further that you adventure beyond the most popular tourist destinations, the more likely there's not gonna be specific supplies related to the place. Um, we could probably also complain too many travel collections have Eiffel Towers, even if, you know, you're not, you're not going to Paris. Um, how do you approach scrapbooking about, um, and these are some of your examples that you shared with me, A visit to an Ethiopian church or a Tibetan palace or places where it's unlikely that you're gonna find supplies that really fit that.

[00:18:45] Naomi Goldstein: Oh, you've hit the nail on the head. I mean, someti there. There generally are not a lot of supplies, so I have a number of different strategies. Um, some things are easily adaptable from existing, uh, collections. For example, beaches are great for coastlines. Uh, all the winter collections I can use for Antarctica. In other situations, I have to play on some words. For example, I was at a place in Lithuania called Witches Hill, which had nothing to do with witches and no witches there. But nonetheless, I, I dug into an old Halloween collection and found some witches. For things like architecture, which I like to look at. There, there's good collections of houses, and for castles, i, I go to lots of them and, um, some, some collections, they all look like sleeping beauty castles. But at other times, I can go on to the Silhouette Design Store. And they have a reasonably good collection of castles that I'll print out. But I, I generally assume I'm not gonna find a ready-made embellishment. So, as I mentioned, I tend to use tickets a lot and I'm, I'm, you know, very sad that now we get those e tickets and I don't get a hard copy ticket. Because in some countries and China comes to mind, they have the most beautifully colored, uh, tickets. But I suspect that those will disappear. I, I do keep brochures and sometimes I will cut out a picture or some information from, uh, the brochures, or I'll use a map as a background. And I have been known to download pictures from the internet, if need be.

[00:20:33] Jennifer Wilson: Sure. Yeah.

[00:20:35] Naomi Goldstein: Yeah. And then I do an awful lot of pages where there are no embellishments. I can't figure anything out. And so in those situations, I, I, my creativity comes with doing the backgrounds. And, and I'll use, um, a lot of, I call it non themed pattern paper. And maybe I'll, I'll, I'll use six different non pattern pieces of paper to make a background, to make it interesting. Um, so I think for the Tibetan palace, the Patala Palace, I used, I, I think it was either four or six, uh, patterned papers, all from the same collection, all in a brown and white, but with different, uh, uh, designs on each one. And then I cut out tons of circles and made a, a mat around the mainframe of circles. Um, so I, I find using shapes, hexagon circles, rectangles, to give some interest and then non themed embellishments, like tags or, or ribbons to give it some interest. And I'm currently enjoying using some of the, the mixed media background, with, again, with their non thematic embellishments like doilies or tabs, bows, to create interesting backgrounds. But on all of them I have my title, I have my journaling and then the photos. but the embellishments and embellishment clusters are, are very difficult. I remember I did one, I was taking a class and I, I did a, a layout from a sketch of hippopotamuses and. It, i, the pattern paper in the background is wonderful, but this, the sketch called for two embellishment clusters in either corner. So I, I couldn't think of anything. So I used flowers, and it's a beautiful layout, great colors, well-balanced, et cetera. But every time I look at the layout, I go, what on earth do flowers have to do with hippopotamus? I've yet to figure out that answer, but I've learned from it that if, if I can't, you know, I don't need to embellish just for the sake of embellishing. And if something needs an embellishment, use a shape.

[00:22:57] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think there are, are both so many non thematic supplies these day. You mentioned, you know, the Silhouette Store. Like all the different online options to be able to get something, to make something yourself, to print it out yourself or even try to make it three dimensional. Um, and then just so many, such a variety of collections as well. with, with patterns that you can use. I'm curious if there's any kind of manufacturers that you gravitate to towards more often than others.

[00:23:27] Naomi Goldstein: Well, I indicated, I really do enjoy the 49, or sorry, the, the mixed media background. So I find 49 and Market with their newer mixed media backgrounds. And some, some of their embellishments I would as non thematic. Um, so I, I'm going towards them a lot. Um, and there are some collections which are good for, um, particular countries. Uh, Ciao Bella, is that the name of it, does a beautiful Senora one for Mexican landscapes, and there's a couple of collections, uh, from I think Graphic 49, which does safaris.

[00:24:11] Jennifer Wilson: Mm. Cool.

[00:24:12] Naomi Goldstein: An an old Bo Bunny for Asian for Japanese themes. So if I can find one of those collections and I know I've got a country that is appropriate to, I, I grab it.

[00:24:27] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, I bet. I bet.

[00:24:28] Naomi Goldstein: But, uh, I still haven't found anything for Ethiopia, so I'll keep looking.

[00:24:36] Jennifer Wilson: I am curious how. You organize your supplies in terms of if you know they're destined for a particular place, how are, are they, are, they stored in any reference to that place, um, or are they, stored, you know, just by color or pattern or manufacturer?

[00:24:59] Naomi Goldstein: I, I, I store where I have.

[00:25:02] Jennifer Wilson: And it's okay if you don't have a perfect solution either. So,

[00:25:04] Naomi Goldstein: No, you know what? It's a good question because I actually did come up with a solution. I used to store everything I'd have by manufacturer, by theme. So I know Antarctica, I'd go to the winter, with, when I went to Cuba, I went to my Paradise Beach theme. But I always used to think, oh, I'll remember this, I'll remember that. And of course, a year later, I never did. So I got one of those plastic paper holders. And any time that I think I've got either a paper, an embellishment or memorabilia that's specific to either a place or a layout, I put it in there. And then I have a running list on the outside. So it's Italy or Vietnam or Antarctica. So now before I start any project, I go and I look at that list and if that country is on there, I know to rifle through that plastic box to see what I put in there for that particular country.

[00:26:02] Jennifer Wilson: Perfect. Yeah, cuz we always think we're gonna remember cuz it stands out so vividly in our minds in the moment. But then, uh, we don't, so I get that for sure.

[00:26:12] Naomi Goldstein: Very guilty of that.

[00:26:15] Jennifer Wilson: So, I mean, as you mentioned with Chernobyl travel can involve more difficult places that have more somber memories. Maybe there are fewer photographs because they may be restricted or just, uh, you may feel this sense of respect that's needed. Um, in visiting those places, how do you handle documenting those kinds of places?

[00:26:36] Naomi Goldstein: Um, first of all, I, I do go to those difficult places. I mean, I want to get a sense of a country and if it's had a a difficult past, I want to see it if it's appropriate. So I've been to, uh, the killing Fields in Cambodia and the Genocide Memorial in Rwanda. Um, and I do think it's important as a traveler for me to go and learn and to pay my respects to those that were killed there. Um, I respect any photographic restrictions, but, um, I find that there are not that many in, in, uh, those places. They want people to remember. Um, but I, I do have my own and these are just my rules. Um, I rarely take a picture of me at any of those, uh, types of places and, uh, I try to get photographs that do not have people in them.

[00:27:31] Naomi Goldstein: Uh, I also, yeah. Um, I also, if I can, I'll take the, the big picture that shows the entire monument, but I will try and get a picture if, if it is possible of a little detail there. So often at memorials they'll have, uh, wreaths, uh, at the ground. So I'll try and take a picture of that, knowing that I'm going to use that something of an embellishment later on in a scrapbook. And then when I go to scrapbook them, um, I don't tend to use any embellishments except as I suggested, um, the, uh, a little photograph of it. I tend to just a single large photo with a big title and a lot of journaling. Um, and while that may sound a little boring, I try and get creative in my backgrounds. Which, generally are very dark. I want them to be somber. And so I was recently, uh, I just finished, uh, three pages of a visit that I did to Auschwitz in Poland, which is a, a concentration camp run by the Nazis during World War II where millions of, uh, Jews, Poles, Roma, disabled, uh, homosexuals were, were gassed to death. It's a horrible place. Um, and, and I have some pictures. I wanted to scrapbook them. So I thought, well, if I'm, uh, you know, I, I want this also to be a creative process, so I thought my creativity has to focus on the background. So of the three layouts I did, one, I decided I'm gonna try a mixed media background, and I'm only going to use black and gray. And I, so I used black and gray acrylic, you know, with, uh, splatters and packaging. And then I stamped rather abstract, uh, stamps in blacks and dark browns, and it's an appropriate background. And it was, it's also, I'm still learning mixed media, so it gave me an opportunity to experiment with mixed media, and I think it took me three pages before I liked it. Um, so

[00:29:54] Jennifer Wilson: That happens sure. Yeah.

[00:29:57] Naomi Goldstein: But it was, it was fun and part of the process. But when the, the page was finished it was respectful of, of the place in the moment. And then another page that I did again, Auschwitz, I took like half a dozen black and gray, uh, scraps of paper and cut them all into one inch long strips and paper pieced, uh, a beautiful design on the background. Uh, so again, it's a dark background, but it, it's still got enough interest. And the third page that I did, I just challenged myself to pick eight scraps of black or gray with design paper and use those only as the background. And some were distressed and some were ripped. Um, and some I did border, uh, I used border stamps. But, um, it created a, an interesting background, but it wa it still reflected the dark mood of the place. So that's how I tend to approach places like that.

[00:31:10] Jennifer Wilson: And could you talk a little bit about your journaling when it comes to places like that? Do you, uh, talk mostly about the facts of your visit? Do you include history? Do you talk about your feelings? I'm just kind of curious how that unfolds for you. It's, it's very personal, obviously in terms of how everyone handles it, but.

[00:31:32] Naomi Goldstein: Definitely, but ideally I'd like to talk about all three. Especially if, if I don't know the history, and I learn about the history. But certainly to me the most important aspect is to talk about how I remember feeling at that place and if, I can ever think of something positive, I try and include that. So, um, one of my memories at Auschwitz was that, there were a lot of groups of school kids being brought through, with the idea that they should learn about their past and so they wouldn't repeat it. And, and so that was a positive memory that I thought important for me to journal.

[00:32:11] Jennifer Wilson: I like that perspective. Um, I can tell that you just, you, you are very thoughtful when it comes to how you're approaching the, the travel itself as well as the memory keeping afterwards. So I, we mentioned this earlier a little bit, but I'm curious how you feel about the current market for travel related scrapbook supplies. What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of? I mean, I'm, I'm a big fan of non thematic supplies in general, and I'm glad that we see more and more of those. But then also sometimes you want something that's a little bit more specific.

[00:32:49] Naomi Goldstein: Yeah, I, you know, I'm so jealous of the people, you know, documenting a Disneyland trip for, or my first plane ride because I, I do feel that there is a lack of certain supplies, but I recognize, I mean, there's not gonna be much of a market for Ethiopian churches or, uh, who visited Timbuktu last year. Uh, but I think I would like to see certain, uh, types of collections, which do have a theme that I think are, um, underrepresented.

[00:33:24] Naomi Goldstein: Uh, I have a lot of trouble finding desert landscapes. For some reason I end up having to go to Halloween collections if it's, it's one of those burnt orange, kinda the Utah colors. So I'd love to see more desert landscapes. I'd like to see more, I, I, more markets. I go to food markets, I go to food tours. And while I can always find strawberries or or ice cream, I'd love to be able to find, I dunno, um, pasta or uh, uh, green peppers or tho those kind of markets represented. Um, and the other thing I have trouble with is museums. Um, art museums and other museums. Um, there's not a lot of good paper in my opinion, uh, that focus on that. Um, the only ones I found Mintay does a lot of picture frames on some of their, uh.

[00:34:27] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:34:28] Naomi Goldstein: Yeah, the, their collection. So I end up, I take a picture of the outside of the museum, and then I, I cut out those picture frames and I, I, uh, put in little pictures of the art inside. So I'd like to see a few more museum collections too.

[00:34:43] Jennifer Wilson: I think there's also like this need to, um, I don't know, just reflect the diversity of places across the globe. Cuz that some of that could even be in one collection of double-sided papers could just be a, a beautiful selection of patterns that kind of reflect a variety of cultures. And then, you know, even if you're only choosing one special paper from that it gives you a place to start, um, for a particular trip. It just seems like there's, there's opportunity there without being, narrowing it down to one specific thing that maybe is, is not a, a more popular travel location.

[00:35:21] Naomi Goldstein: Oh, I agree completely. Um, one of the examples I, I might be able to offer is, um, I, I love, uh, Orthodox churches with the big bulbs. If you think of, uh, BA St. Basil's in Russia and there's a lot, lots of wonderful, uh, collections with churches, but they're sort of American and western churches. And wouldn't it be nice to have a collection which would offer a few Orthodox churches?

[00:35:50] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, for sure. Yeah, that'd be really cool. What about kind of motifs or patterns or something you'd like to see less of when it comes to maybe a collection that is, is specifically travel oriented?

[00:36:09] Naomi Goldstein: Other than Disney, I'm, it seems to be everywhere. I get disappointed when I buy a travel collection and the pages are, you know, first airplane ride and you've got 50 different little airplanes or first train ride and here's a hundred different trains.

[00:36:30] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:36:32] Naomi Goldstein: But I think that's about all I can think of.

[00:36:36] Jennifer Wilson: I think sometimes they're, and maybe, uh, it's just what I'm noticing, they are skewed sometimes more towards outdoorsy things versus kind of city visits. And, and there's certainly some of both, but, I guess I've seen more kind of like, you know, uh, enjoying the wild or whatever. And that's certainly applicable to some places, but not others.

[00:36:59] Naomi Goldstein: No, I agree completely. You're right.

[00:37:01] Jennifer Wilson: So Naomi, what other advice would you have for those wanting to scrapbook their travels in a new way, or maybe even getting started with, um, documenting trips they've taken, but for some reason they've even felt intimidated to begin?

[00:37:21] Naomi Goldstein: Well, I, I think if you're a scrapbooker you should start thinking about it before you embark on your trip. And I always say, I'm scrapbooking my memories, not just my photographs. So sometimes I put my camera down and I just, I feel, I smell, I listen, and if I can, I'll take a picture of something that will evoke a smell or, or a feeling, and I'll remember to journal about that, not just about my photographs. I think the craziest one that comes to mind is I, I'm lucky, I've been to India a few times. And in India, uh, they use cow dung. Um, and they, they, um, make them into patties. And the cow dung is used to, uh, uh, fuel fires all over the country. And at night, the smell of cow dung just permeates the air. And I didn't know how to capture that. And then I, I saw a picture of like, it was a half dozen cow dung patties on a wall, and I took a picture of it and I, I scrapbook about the smell of the cow dung um, because that was a big memory of mine, of India.

[00:38:44] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. So many different, uh, tips just in that one statement there in terms of photographing the, the, the sounds, the smells, the feelings, um, as well as journaling them in the moment too, so that you can incorporate that into your scrapbook later. So thank you so much for spending time with me. I'm inspired. I'm working on a travel album myself. I have a 49 and Market collection because it felt like the least thematic, yet most appropriate. Uh, just felt pretty, I guess, um, to go along with my photos. So, um, yeah, I think our listeners will be excited as well.

[00:39:23] Naomi Goldstein: Are you encountering any problems in in documenting your travels or?

[00:39:29] Jennifer Wilson: Um, I would say that in general I have shied away of doing bigger travel projects. Um, this is one of, I've done typically photo books in the past, which have no embellishment. I don't even try to, I just use, you know, grid layouts with lots of journaling. Um, that has worked really well for me. Um, this one, you know, I, it's a trip to Sweden from March, 2020.

[00:39:58] Jennifer Wilson: So there's the whole aspect of the timing of that. Um, and the collection is, blue and brown with a lot of, uh, I don't know, just natural elements as the 49 and Market collections have. So it just feels like it'll be just a nice subtle backdrop to the photos and the stories. So there's not gonna be a ton of, um, embellishments beyond just nature things that are supporting the, the stories. Cuz there was a lot of out, you know, more outdoor adventuring than, than indoor.

[00:40:35] Naomi Goldstein: Wow. Well, good luck in finishing it.

[00:40:38] Jennifer Wilson: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, definitely reach out if, if there's any, uh, roadblocks for sure. And I'm sure if there's any listeners that have any roadblocks, they can, you know, leave a comment on this episode and, uh, I can share it with you if you wanna tackle their challenges. So I really appreciate your perspective. Is there a place where we can find you online, uh, where our listeners could see some your work?

[00:41:04] Naomi Goldstein: Uh, unfortunately I don't post any of my scrapbooks online. The only online presence I have is a blog about my travels, and it uh, https://travelsnearlyeverywhere.com/.

[00:41:19] Jennifer Wilson: Nice. We'll definitely include that link.

[00:41:22] Naomi Goldstein: Sure.

[00:41:23] Jennifer Wilson: And so you said you, um, you had to cancel your trip and you've rescheduled to, to go somewhere else fun. What else do you have planned, um, the rest of this year?

[00:41:37] Naomi Goldstein: Uh, well, I have South America coming up in January and Mexico in March, and in between that, I, I, my goal is to do about 200 layouts.

[00:41:52] Jennifer Wilson: Wow.

[00:41:54] Naomi Goldstein: Yeah.

[00:41:55] Jennifer Wilson: Good luck with that. That sounds really fun, though. It feels like you're very kind of focused and goal-oriented, so you always know what to focus on and, and have deadlines. You wanna, I'm sure you wanna finish one before you, uh, take your next trip.

[00:42:08] Naomi Goldstein: Oh no. Doesn't matter to me at all. There's no deadlines here. Once you retire.

[00:42:15] Jennifer Wilson: Very true, very true. Again, this has been so delightful, and to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.