Studio Friday: TRAVELS!

Suggested by Hanne—

"Travelling is a wonderful possibility to open for new inspiration and ideas. I´ll say it's actually one of the greatest advantages to travelling!

A lot of new impressions and probably also new materials to bring home for future artwork. Maybe new friends - who knows? Anyway, I thought it could be very interesting to know where other bloggers travel. And if you don't travel right now because of limited economy or other restrictions - I think we always travell in our mind: dreaming of somewhere in the countryside - or maybe a big city loaded with museums, galleries and flea markets for new "input" for our studios and art."


I kind of stopped traveling a few years ago—right around the time I bought my house. If you have one, you know that there's nothing quite like a house for sucking up any spare cash you might have. The same could be said for having a small business—LOL!

Not that I don't go on trips. I drive all the time to places within a couple of hours to visit flea markets and antique shows. And I sometimes have meetings with clients for my graphic design business. But the "take a plane, go somewhere exotic or foreign" kind of travel is something I haven't done for a while. But I have my list of places I'd love to go—a travel wish list if you will.

• Italy. Because of writers like Barbara Grizzuti Harrison and Frances Mayes who made the country come alive in their writings about living and traveling there. And because of movies like Under the Tuscan Sun and Room With a View and even The Godfather. The food would be heaven. The art, too.

• United Kingdom. Because my ancestors are from Ireland and Scotland and I'd love to see some of the places they lived. And I'd love to meet up with some of my online friends like Camilla and Joanna for crazy crafting, flea marketing (or whatever you call it across the pond), and hanging out in pubs. Not necessarily in that order.

• Japan. Because it's crazy busy and exciting and I love sushi. And Japanese crafts. I'd need an extra suitcase (or two) to haul all the cool stuff home.

In the US I'd love to get back to Sanibel-Captiva in Florida. If you love beaches and shelling and hanging out rather than nightlife this is the place to do it. And I highly recommend the grouper sandwich at the Lazy Flamingo. I haven't been back since the hurricane almost destroyed the islands a few years ago so it would be interesting to see how much it's changed.

I'd also love to head west to the coast and meet up with some of my California, Seattle, and Portland friends. Doesn't it seem like an awful lot of cool people live out there? I have invites for treasure hunting from Selena and Carrie and for surfing (!) from Stephanie and maybe someday I'll actually get to do it. Well, maybe not the surfing :)

So, while most of my travels take place in my imagination these days, I hope to get back to it for real soon. Because Hanne's right—it is inspiring. Both the people you meet and the things you see.

More adventure here.