I have a full woodworking shop and can make all sorts of moulding style frames, but it is still a bit of work. You can buy frame stock but it is expensive and you still need a good mitersaw or better yet a miter trimmer. Then you have the mat(s)- matboard can be pretty pricey and if you measure incorrectly, slip or aren't careful making the cuts (a special bevel cutter and guide system is really required) you can easily ruin the matboard. At one time I was going to go that route. Now I just upload selected photos to a website that prints them on canvas, mounts them, and ships them back, all for less than the cost of a frame. We rarely buy artwork that needs framing. The last items we had framed were hand woven mats with African animals that we got at the Spinners and Weavers in Nanyuki on K&T.
These are a few of the things we have purchased on our travels. The first is a picture purchased near Uluru and is of a blue-tongued lizard man named Lungkata. Like Travel Maven, we saw these being painted but unfortunately, the artist for the picture I chose was not on site. The next picture was also purchased in Australia, but in Melbourne. When we were in Iceland, I became very interested in the story of the Yule Lads - they bring gifts to children at Christmas. The third picture is one of the Yule Lads who is named Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote-Clod). I purchased him from an Icelandic store that I found online after returning home. The last two pictures were not purchased on Tauck travels but they are pieces I like so am including them. One is amber purchased in Gdansk, Poland. The final picture is pottery from South Korea. Our sons were adopted from Korea and our oldest son's wife is a South Korean citizen. They were married in South Korea - the pottery were one of the treasures we brought back with us.
Here's a silk carpet we picked up during our China tour in 2001. It's been placed in a lot of different locations in our house throughout those years. It currently resides in the entryway.
Ooh, I love silk rugs. Hubby bought a bunch of rugs during a 2 month stint in Bahrain. Mostly wool but a 4x6' silk one is in our home gym. I use it to lay on for floor exercises. Very posh mat.
I wanted to revive this topic on a miserable wet Sunday.
This is an embroidery we bought on the Yangzi Explorer during the river cruise part of our tour of China last Oct/November. The fish depict good fortune I believe. Another couple wanted to buy it, so I let them, but later I found out there was another, this one, that was the framed one on the wall there. The sales assistant took it out of the frame for me and I had it framed as soon as I got home and it hangs in our bedroom. The cherry mat matches the cherry colored blossoms in the center of the fish. Every time I look at it, I realize how lucky we were to visit China and Hong Kong just last year, before the world changed forever.
Cathy - I know you've been there, but being from Seattle, I was looking for your souvenir from Seattle and or Washingtion. Based on your shelf/cabinet organization I would expect it on one of the shelves in the picture below, but I couldn't spot anything (it might be there and I just don't see it).
I rarely buy anything when travelling, unless it's something unique that can't easily be found elsewhere.
Here are a couple of trinkets I've bought (the troll on the Scandinavia trip and the menorah on the Israel/Jordan trip):
I saw this table in the window of a store a couple of blocks from our hotel in Oslo (also on the Scandinavia trip). It was designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti. She did the Musee D'Orsay redesign. Being into biking as I am, it was hard to pass up. However, after converting the price from NOK into USD, the price still had too many zeros in it. When I got home, I did some research online and found a furniture store in Sicily with a very good web site and based on my extensive due diligence, was a legitimate and reliable site. The price was about half what it was in Oslo.
Cathy, you hands down beat me on your souvenirs! I guess it takes you longer to do dusting than it does me and that’s a long time for me. I think the biggest collection of one item I have besides specific antique china is my Kokeshi dolls from Japan, I must have about 100, I or I should say, we, can’t resist them. My husband bought me one home I guess about 35 years ago the first time he went to Japan and never came home without at least one each time. I said stop! But that did not last long. And they were fairly inexpensive. I found some in San Francisco years ago in Japantown, I have a few antique ones I found and then we met a delightful couple at the recently Covid caused defunct Sugarloaf craft fair, who make incredible ones from unusual pieces of wood. They are expensive, but we have bought several of them over the past few years. They have been featured in the Woodworker magazine. So anyway, lots of stuff for our children to throw in the trash when we are gone! I do so hope there is a slim chance our September 2021 Japan tour goes ahead.
Cathy - Here's a thought. As you continue to travel and sometimes revisit places you continue to up the cost of your souvenirs, then by the time you're done they will consist of Israeli and Indian diamonds, African tanzanite, Australian opals, etc. Then your heirs can really duke it out.
British, you beat me with the kokeshi dolls. I only have three. I do have lots of other asian stuff - sets of dishes, wood block prints, carved wool rugs, a huge painted folding screen and chest, a brass noodle cart, and lots of little stuff. Also several pieces of hand made pottery from the Mashiko area north of Tokyo. On the base I was stationed at they used to have MWR bus trips up there for shopping. Since I was TDY alot I kept missing it and on the way back to the base from being up north decided to go find it on my own. Imagine a small vintage Honda stickshift, an atlas, lots of winding roads and turns, and signs in Kanji only. If ever I needed a navigator or GPS it was then. But somehow I found it, had the place mostly to myself instead of a bus load and bought several beautiful pieces.
BKMD: I love the table, so very unique and if you are into biking (as you are) I can understand the love for the table.
Cathy: I love all your travel souvenirs. I had collected many trinkets from travels over the years, however, I no longer liked the clutter and got rid of most of them the last time I moved having donated them to a thrift shop where perhaps they might entertain someone. I hung onto a couple of my favorites that mean something to me or are unique. My favorite souvenirs are also my photos and original scrapbooks with printed pictures and all the scraps collected on a trip like dinner menus, postcards, currency and stamps. I not only enjoy working on the scrap books but I love pulling them out on dreary days and reminisce, especially with not having the ability to travel these days. They make me happy. I am sure, after I am gone, they will all end up in the trash but it doesn't matter as I create the albums for my enjoyment and that is the most important thing.
In the military some folks had something similar- a room or den with photos, souvenirs, command parting gifts, etc. from around the world. Others had a narrower focus- one one wall covered in unit plaques, insignia, unit, ship, aircraft photos, and framed certificates for promotions, military awards for special achievement, etc.- it was termed an "I love me wall."
Also called a "me wall". I visit mine 3 days a week minimum because it's also our home gym. Two military careers 20+ yrs each with all the command plaques that go with them, 2 shadow boxes with ribbons, insignia and flags, plus a collection of logo coffee mugs and glasses. Quite happy to have the more decorative momentos for the rest of the house.
I am still amazed how big American homes can be compared to pretty much anywhere else. The nearest rival were the huge walled homes in the fancy parts of Johannesburg of all places. The appeal of a big home was one of the factors that made me feel positive about our move. How exciting to have A/C, a garage door opener and a mailbox to put your mail in at the end of your driveway. It took me a while to get used to the open plan of the home, especially the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to tell our firemen friends in England what a death trap the open homes must be in a fire. And yes, homes are made of wood and plastic and the roofs have shingles that you would only put on your shed in England. The living room we don’t use, yes looks lovely with all our decorations but we never sit there. The dining room, yes, also gorgeous but hardly used. Two extra bathrooms, rarely used since the children left home. Bedrooms yes, can’t even have the grandchildren stay over during the Pandemic. Yep have to hire a painter because my walls are too high. Yep, miss the letters coming through the letter box n the front door. Yep, cleaning takes much long, yep, love my home!
I've watched most of the seasons of Midsomer Murders (currently on season 18) and it seems like a lot of those English homes (at least the ones they use in the TV series) you are longing for are about 1200 square feet, with 7 foot high ceilings and about 6.5 foot high doors. Unless you live in a manor house (aka Downton Abbey) then you better be prepared to duck when you go through most doors. I guess the people were much shorter way back when, but the ordinary people's homes they show on the TV series are far from desirable. Perhaps they exaggerate w/r to housing on the TV show like they do w/r to the characters on the show. If the shows characters reflected the actual English population then I think England consists of about 20% murderers, 40% lunatics, 20% prim and propers, and 20% what I'd deem normal. They certainly make the series enjoyable to watch.
We had been watching the more recent series of Midsomer Murders on PBS until our local station started Summer(?) re-runs. We are now watching the older series on Amazon Prime/Accorn. We started with the pilot and series 1 and are now up to series 6 (6 - 8 episodes per series). We have a long way to go to catch up- there are a total of 21 series so are obviously not binge watching.
We've done a few souvenirs over the years (pottery from our Canyonlands Tauck trip, small paintings from Italy & France from our Tauck trips there) but the majority of our souvenirs are our photos. We usually take anywhere from 600-1,000 pics per trip then agonize over which to print, what goes in the scrapbook & which go on the wall. We call our den "the Travel Room" & it's where all our framed pics & photo albums are. I save every bit of paper from our trips-itineraries, restaurant business cards, cardboard drink coasters, etc & they all go in the albums. So not only am I missing a vacation this year I'm missing making my photo album.....
Big fan of Midsummer Murders. Those quaint villages with the bodies piling up.
I love watching House Hunters International and the folks that say "oh I want a place with character" then get faced with the low ceilings, closed off rooms, washing machine in the kitchen, toilet separated from the wash room, etc then they're all "oh no I don't want that".
We had a big house in Tampa with a living room and dining room never used, more bathrooms than I wanted to clean, etc. Don't miss them but do miss our pool. Now we have a modest size fixer upper with a view. Been fixing it up for 18 years. The "gym" was a room added above the garage so we could combine a small guest room with our bedroom downstairs. Otherwise I'd be sharing a closet and sink with my husband. Nooooooooooo!
Comments
Sam - that's better than Jackson Pollock.
I have a full woodworking shop and can make all sorts of moulding style frames, but it is still a bit of work. You can buy frame stock but it is expensive and you still need a good mitersaw or better yet a miter trimmer. Then you have the mat(s)- matboard can be pretty pricey and if you measure incorrectly, slip or aren't careful making the cuts (a special bevel cutter and guide system is really required) you can easily ruin the matboard. At one time I was going to go that route. Now I just upload selected photos to a website that prints them on canvas, mounts them, and ships them back, all for less than the cost of a frame. We rarely buy artwork that needs framing. The last items we had framed were hand woven mats with African animals that we got at the Spinners and Weavers in Nanyuki on K&T.
These are a few of the things we have purchased on our travels. The first is a picture purchased near Uluru and is of a blue-tongued lizard man named Lungkata. Like Travel Maven, we saw these being painted but unfortunately, the artist for the picture I chose was not on site. The next picture was also purchased in Australia, but in Melbourne. When we were in Iceland, I became very interested in the story of the Yule Lads - they bring gifts to children at Christmas. The third picture is one of the Yule Lads who is named Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote-Clod). I purchased him from an Icelandic store that I found online after returning home. The last two pictures were not purchased on Tauck travels but they are pieces I like so am including them. One is amber purchased in Gdansk, Poland. The final picture is pottery from South Korea. Our sons were adopted from Korea and our oldest son's wife is a South Korean citizen. They were married in South Korea - the pottery were one of the treasures we brought back with us.
Here's a silk carpet we picked up during our China tour in 2001. It's been placed in a lot of different locations in our house throughout those years. It currently resides in the entryway.
Ooh, I love silk rugs. Hubby bought a bunch of rugs during a 2 month stint in Bahrain. Mostly wool but a 4x6' silk one is in our home gym. I use it to lay on for floor exercises. Very posh mat.
I liked the "Persian" prayer rugs with AK-47's, attack helicopters, etc. woven into the motif.
I wanted to revive this topic on a miserable wet Sunday.
This is an embroidery we bought on the Yangzi Explorer during the river cruise part of our tour of China last Oct/November. The fish depict good fortune I believe. Another couple wanted to buy it, so I let them, but later I found out there was another, this one, that was the framed one on the wall there. The sales assistant took it out of the frame for me and I had it framed as soon as I got home and it hangs in our bedroom. The cherry mat matches the cherry colored blossoms in the center of the fish. Every time I look at it, I realize how lucky we were to visit China and Hong Kong just last year, before the world changed forever.
Cathy - I know you've been there, but being from Seattle, I was looking for your souvenir from Seattle and or Washingtion. Based on your shelf/cabinet organization I would expect it on one of the shelves in the picture below, but I couldn't spot anything (it might be there and I just don't see it).
I rarely buy anything when travelling, unless it's something unique that can't easily be found elsewhere.
Here are a couple of trinkets I've bought (the troll on the Scandinavia trip and the menorah on the Israel/Jordan trip):
I saw this table in the window of a store a couple of blocks from our hotel in Oslo (also on the Scandinavia trip). It was designed by Italian architect Gae Aulenti. She did the Musee D'Orsay redesign. Being into biking as I am, it was hard to pass up. However, after converting the price from NOK into USD, the price still had too many zeros in it. When I got home, I did some research online and found a furniture store in Sicily with a very good web site and based on my extensive due diligence, was a legitimate and reliable site. The price was about half what it was in Oslo.
Refrigerator magnets and that's about it for us!
Wouldn't work for me. Non-magnetic, stainless steel frig
Cathy, you hands down beat me on your souvenirs! I guess it takes you longer to do dusting than it does me and that’s a long time for me. I think the biggest collection of one item I have besides specific antique china is my Kokeshi dolls from Japan, I must have about 100, I or I should say, we, can’t resist them. My husband bought me one home I guess about 35 years ago the first time he went to Japan and never came home without at least one each time. I said stop! But that did not last long. And they were fairly inexpensive. I found some in San Francisco years ago in Japantown, I have a few antique ones I found and then we met a delightful couple at the recently Covid caused defunct Sugarloaf craft fair, who make incredible ones from unusual pieces of wood. They are expensive, but we have bought several of them over the past few years. They have been featured in the Woodworker magazine. So anyway, lots of stuff for our children to throw in the trash when we are gone! I do so hope there is a slim chance our September 2021 Japan tour goes ahead.
Cathy - Here's a thought. As you continue to travel and sometimes revisit places you continue to up the cost of your souvenirs, then by the time you're done they will consist of Israeli and Indian diamonds, African tanzanite, Australian opals, etc. Then your heirs can really duke it out.
British, you beat me with the kokeshi dolls. I only have three. I do have lots of other asian stuff - sets of dishes, wood block prints, carved wool rugs, a huge painted folding screen and chest, a brass noodle cart, and lots of little stuff. Also several pieces of hand made pottery from the Mashiko area north of Tokyo. On the base I was stationed at they used to have MWR bus trips up there for shopping. Since I was TDY alot I kept missing it and on the way back to the base from being up north decided to go find it on my own. Imagine a small vintage Honda stickshift, an atlas, lots of winding roads and turns, and signs in Kanji only. If ever I needed a navigator or GPS it was then. But somehow I found it, had the place mostly to myself instead of a bus load and bought several beautiful pieces.
BKMD: I love the table, so very unique and if you are into biking (as you are) I can understand the love for the table.
Cathy: I love all your travel souvenirs. I had collected many trinkets from travels over the years, however, I no longer liked the clutter and got rid of most of them the last time I moved having donated them to a thrift shop where perhaps they might entertain someone. I hung onto a couple of my favorites that mean something to me or are unique. My favorite souvenirs are also my photos and original scrapbooks with printed pictures and all the scraps collected on a trip like dinner menus, postcards, currency and stamps. I not only enjoy working on the scrap books but I love pulling them out on dreary days and reminisce, especially with not having the ability to travel these days. They make me happy. I am sure, after I am gone, they will all end up in the trash but it doesn't matter as I create the albums for my enjoyment and that is the most important thing.
Cathy - that room would fit in as a sitting room at any old European hotel...
Cathy - whether intended or not your comment
made me LOL. A shrine within your house - Nice!
A "been there" room?
In the military some folks had something similar- a room or den with photos, souvenirs, command parting gifts, etc. from around the world. Others had a narrower focus- one one wall covered in unit plaques, insignia, unit, ship, aircraft photos, and framed certificates for promotions, military awards for special achievement, etc.- it was termed an "I love me wall."
AlanS - Did the people with the "I love me walls" visit them every day?
I don't know, I didn't have one.
Also called a "me wall". I visit mine 3 days a week minimum because it's also our home gym. Two military careers 20+ yrs each with all the command plaques that go with them, 2 shadow boxes with ribbons, insignia and flags, plus a collection of logo coffee mugs and glasses. Quite happy to have the more decorative momentos for the rest of the house.
I am still amazed how big American homes can be compared to pretty much anywhere else. The nearest rival were the huge walled homes in the fancy parts of Johannesburg of all places. The appeal of a big home was one of the factors that made me feel positive about our move. How exciting to have A/C, a garage door opener and a mailbox to put your mail in at the end of your driveway. It took me a while to get used to the open plan of the home, especially the kitchen. I couldn’t wait to tell our firemen friends in England what a death trap the open homes must be in a fire. And yes, homes are made of wood and plastic and the roofs have shingles that you would only put on your shed in England. The living room we don’t use, yes looks lovely with all our decorations but we never sit there. The dining room, yes, also gorgeous but hardly used. Two extra bathrooms, rarely used since the children left home. Bedrooms yes, can’t even have the grandchildren stay over during the Pandemic. Yep have to hire a painter because my walls are too high. Yep, miss the letters coming through the letter box n the front door. Yep, cleaning takes much long, yep, love my home!
British - Sounds like deja vu.
I've watched most of the seasons of Midsomer Murders (currently on season 18) and it seems like a lot of those English homes (at least the ones they use in the TV series) you are longing for are about 1200 square feet, with 7 foot high ceilings and about 6.5 foot high doors. Unless you live in a manor house (aka Downton Abbey) then you better be prepared to duck when you go through most doors. I guess the people were much shorter way back when, but the ordinary people's homes they show on the TV series are far from desirable. Perhaps they exaggerate w/r to housing on the TV show like they do w/r to the characters on the show. If the shows characters reflected the actual English population then I think England consists of about 20% murderers, 40% lunatics, 20% prim and propers, and 20% what I'd deem normal. They certainly make the series enjoyable to watch.
We had been watching the more recent series of Midsomer Murders on PBS until our local station started Summer(?) re-runs. We are now watching the older series on Amazon Prime/Accorn. We started with the pilot and series 1 and are now up to series 6 (6 - 8 episodes per series). We have a long way to go to catch up- there are a total of 21 series
so are obviously not binge watching. 
We've done a few souvenirs over the years (pottery from our Canyonlands Tauck trip, small paintings from Italy & France from our Tauck trips there) but the majority of our souvenirs are our photos. We usually take anywhere from 600-1,000 pics per trip then agonize over which to print, what goes in the scrapbook & which go on the wall. We call our den "the Travel Room" & it's where all our framed pics & photo albums are. I save every bit of paper from our trips-itineraries, restaurant business cards, cardboard drink coasters, etc & they all go in the albums. So not only am I missing a vacation this year I'm missing making my photo album.....
Big fan of Midsummer Murders. Those quaint villages with the bodies piling up.
I love watching House Hunters International and the folks that say "oh I want a place with character" then get faced with the low ceilings, closed off rooms, washing machine in the kitchen, toilet separated from the wash room, etc then they're all "oh no I don't want that".
We had a big house in Tampa with a living room and dining room never used, more bathrooms than I wanted to clean, etc. Don't miss them but do miss our pool. Now we have a modest size fixer upper with a view. Been fixing it up for 18 years. The "gym" was a room added above the garage so we could combine a small guest room with our bedroom downstairs. Otherwise I'd be sharing a closet and sink with my husband. Nooooooooooo!