What’s Inside My Tiny Notebooks?

I try to keep a small notebook with me whenever I’m traveling. I also bring along a tiny water brush, a small collection of Micron pens, and my watercolor palette of choice (usually a portable Winsor & Newton Cotman Water Colours Sketchers’ Pocket Box that I got from one of Alessa‘s workshops).

I also love taking photos (either with my point-and-shoot or trusty phone cam), but there’s something about sitting down, taking out my art materials, and painting or doodling snippets of my trip. I particularly love drawing everything I eat, which is what I usually end up doing the most whenever I travel. Haha!

What I’ll do is take a photo of my food and draw them on my tiny notebook once I have downtime. I painted this Singapore FooDiary page in PS Cafe, while my friend P and I were sharing a massive order of truffle fries.

I also have another tiny notebook, which I bring on beach trips. I call it the Things We See By The Sea journal (you can see the stitched cover in the photo on the very top of this post) and I try to paint something to remind me of that beach trip. I’m excited to bring this one with me next month when I visit a new place for the first time!

Sometimes, I’ll make a hodgepodge of highlights from a specific season like this farewell to summer I painted. So many fun memories from 2016: getting the chance to bake cupcakes for Hailee Steinfeld’s rider when she was in Manila (I was told by a very reliable source that she, in fact, ate one lol); worked on two books (those were The ABCs of Journaling and Letters to My Children); bought myself my first hickory holder for calligraphy.

Whether I do it while on a trip or after, I feel like memory keeping is such an important part of travel for me. It helps me remember all the little things I loved about the place and the people I was with. What are your travel journaling habits? Do you have any favorite art materials to bring with you on trips, too?