WHERE have you been?

I love the idea that Leslie (aka JHawks482) has done for tracking her travels! Here is her blog post for her framed cork board/map:

Oh, the places we go!

Before Cameron was born, Jon and I traveled quite a bit, most of the time by taking long road trips. I’m one of those peeps who enjoys the journey as much as the destination, and I don’t mind a 24-hour car ride, taking in the beautiful scenery across the U.S.

I’ve always wanted a place where we could document places we’ve been, and to search for places we still want to go. When I first met Jon, he had a big laminated map hanging (crooked) in his office. It worked for the “bachelor pad-ified” (is that a word?) space he had back then, but a wife entered who likes to make things look pretty. I thought it would be a great idea to put little pins in the cities we’ve been to, so I went and bought a new (un-laminated) map, and decided to do just that. I also wanted to make it look like wall art (our office is actually a corner in our downstairs living room)- not just a map tacked to the wall, so I set out to find a nice frame to put it in. Turns out, 50 x 32 inch frames don’t exist. And the cheapest quote to have one custom made was about $200 dollars. Enter a wife who likes to do things herself, and you have a custom-made framed map (with cork board behind the map!) for just $26. That’s right. I spent just $26 on trim, backing, a cork roll, and picture hanging wire.

I won’t lie- making a frame that’s over 4 feet tall was not exactly easy, and was a little time-consuming. But I am so pleased with the results, and even happier I didn’t fork out 200 bones to have someone else do it. The map also serves a functional purpose in Jon’s office; when he gets calls from people who want to move out of state, he has a nice, visual reference to estimate mileage and see where he might be going. It’s exactly what I was looking for!

Great job, Leslie! I’d love to do this as a gift for my husband. We enjoy vacationing every year and I think it’s a memorable way to track our adventures, not to mention – it’s a beautiful idea for large (inexpensive) wall art. Thanks so much for showing it off!

What do you guys think? Leave a comment – let Leslie know and tell us what you’re vacation plans are/were this year.