Inside my holiday journal kit

What I'm packing for my two week holiday

On not leaving the house without a journal

One of my greatest joys is sitting down at the end of the day to scrawl in one of my journals. I have a few. It’s not the most portable hobby, it can be quite messy and I like to surround myself with all sorts of art supplies and bits of ephemera. Once I’m done there’s a large amount of little bits of paper everywhere that makes my husband sigh.

Anyway, the hobby doesn’t lend itself to portability, but I’m about to head off on holiday for two weeks with my husband and two boys aged 5 and 3. We’re going to the Netherlands for a week then heading home via Germany (to visit some friends) and France (to drink wine and eat cheese)

It’ll be busy, but I’m determined to pack my supplies to enrich my holiday and also ensure that I carve out a bit of time to myself on this action-packed trip.

The journal itself

Of course, I’ll be packing my daily journal. Each day is dated, I write down what we’ve done each day. I’ve done this for years, it’s essential to me and I love keeping my memories in one place so I can return to them in years to come. It’s so sacred to me to have little snapshots of my kids because they change so quickly.

I use a Hobonichi Techo, which I love. It’s dinky, easy to fill a page each day, and lends itself to portability so I’ve got no problem getting this packed up and ready.

The junk journal(s!) I made specifically for the trip

A couple of days I was doing my usual “mum is a headless chicken” act, manically trying to find the passports, EU plug adapters and those weird little stickers that go on the car headlights when I just stopped and sacked it all off for a bit and decided to make myself a little junk journal to take on the trip.

I’d had a few little Nyoto boxes put aside for a special project for ages and knew they’d be perfect. Et voila!

The first book in the video was my original junk journal. The plan is to use it as a glue book. I’ll gather little bits of ephemera as I go through the days and stick them in here. I might add text about what we do too.

I sat with this tiny journal for a while then decided it was maybe a bit toooo tiny…. so I made another one! I figured, it’s better to have too many pages to fill than too little. Plus we’re visiting three countries. So I can pop the Netherlands bits in the first tiny journal, then add Germany and France to the bigger one, which has two signatures (paper sections)

I used any old bit of paper that were kicking about, but I think the painted pages and maps in particular ended up looking very pleasing! Eeeeee!

The essential stationary

So the things I knew I’d need for the trip got shoved in my pouch: plenty of pens, scissors, glue, a few washi tapes, stickers and bits of paper ephemera. I know I can always pick up extra pens etc whilst I’m away so I’m not too precious about it.

On keeping it small and simple and contained!

I’ve got an embroidered pouch that my daily journal lives in. The stationary fits easily in here and then I’ve popped the junk journals inside an envelope and tucked them inside too. There’s something wonderfully satisfying about packing up all these treasures and fitting them in the pouch.

Okay so I still haven’t packed.. but I will. And making sure my journal supplies are prioritised has actually helped me feel more excited about the holiday. I also feel like I’ve done a bit of self care. Packing for holidays is hectic, but I’ve prioritised making sure something for myself has been sorted. As a mum of littles I quite often feel like I’m bottom of the pile but if mum is happy, it makes for a more happy holiday.

I can’t wait to share my travel journaling adventures with you!