I'm Going on a Trip...

Random LOLcats included in this post because I have no other photos to share at the moment.

...and I'm taking with me...some scrapbooking supplies!

Yup, that's right. I'm once again scheduled to board an airplane and jet off to exotic...Boston. Okay, so it's definitely not Aruba and it's a work trip, but I'm going to make the most of my company-financed dinners out (Legal Seafood, anyone?) and the cozy little hotel suite I have booked for two weeks, starting this Sunday.

I'll likely have lots of time to myself in the evenings (unless I get stuck working late in the lab...ugh!) and over the one weekend I'll be there, so I plan on taking some scrapbooking projects with me to work on in my downtime.

What projects could I possibly pack to take on an airplane, you ask? Good question!! I certainly can't take my whole scrap room with me, so the seat-of-my-pants method of choosing supplies for layouts isn't going to cut it here. I need to carefully plan what I want to work on and then make sure I pack everything I'll need for those projects.

Speaking of projects, I use a handy iPhone app called Round To It to keep track of all the pieces of my unfinished (and sometimes unstarted) projects. The app is basically a fancy to-do list (I love it because it also allows multiple sub-lists), but I use it as a way to remind myself what steps are still left in a project rather than in an "oh-my-look-how-much-I-have-left-to-do" manner. Seriously, it's great for getting all of those little to-dos out of my head and into something easier to reference than my sometimes frazzled lump of grey matter. You should try it sometime, even if you just make a list in a Google Document or on a plain old piece of scrap paper. Lists are therapeutic. Or am I just weird like that? (You don't have to answer that question...)

Upon referencing my handy brain-substitute app, I discovered that there are many projects that are candidates for taking on this trip:

• Pages for Creative Retreat at Big Picture Classes (this will require me to have photos printed and make new page kits before I go, but it's a priority since it's a currently ongoing class that I'd like to continue participating in while I'm away)
• Project 12 layout for January 2011 (this is also a priority)
• My Bahamas cruise album (this album has already been planned, printed, and kitted, so all I'd need to do is choose a few embellishments to bring along)
• Choose from my existing stack of page kits (I have tons of page kits already made and could just throw a box of them into my suitcase)
• Summer 2010 mini album or State Fair 2010 mini album (both of these albums are in kits that are easily packed)
• Digital scrapbooking (I've been meaning to try this for a while, and it wouldn't require any extra supplies since I will already be taking my laptop along)
• Celebration V photo book (this is a sub-project of digital scrapbooking- I've been wanting to use the Curated album kit from Kitschy Digitals and Paislee Press to make a photo book of my trip to Star Wars Celebration V)
• Make a new blog banner (not scrapbooking related per se, but it's been on my to-do list for a while)
• Update the labels on all my old blog posts, plus finally finish up linking all my blog buttons to actual categories
• Edit my Aruba photos and blog them
• Start planning my Aruba album and getting photos ready to print (or get photos for any other layouts ready to print, for that matter)
• Finally start watching the presentations and working on the Yesterday and Today class that I've made zero progress on since signing up
• Organize all the inspiration pieces that I've been saving from web sites and magazines into my digital idea file 
• Organize (keyword tag) my growing collection of digital scrapbooking supplies

Wow, that's a lot!! Certainly a lot more than I will have time for, but just in case I'll be packing as many related supplies as I can given the space and weight allowance for my checked bag (I'd rather take too much than risk running out of stuff to do while I'm away). I'll report back when I'm finished packing and let you know which physical projects made the cut (the digital ones all live on the MacBook anyway and will be packed by default).

The challenge for me is going to be trying to share pages while I'm away. I've gotten spoiled by my layout photography setup (which is certainly not packable), so I'll have to see if I can come up with something usable in the hotel room. If not, I'll have lots of projects to share when I return (and will need to find something else to blog about in the meantime).

Here's to looking forward to evenings of streaming Netflix, eating food I didn't have to cook, and happily crafting away!