December 26, 2013

D.I.Y. Travel Savings Jars


I've always kept a tour fund jar where I drop in extra cash and save up for travel expenses. I've put it to great use, and over the last few years have managed to see much of the lovely country I call home. Lately I've had an overwhelming urge to travel even further. Europe. Australia. Somewhere--anywhere--new and foreign and full of potential. I know such a goal will probably take a few years to accomplish, and that in the meantime, I'm not willing to give up my usual domestic trips. What I need (in addition to more disposable income) is a separate place to stash my international fund so I don't blow it all on immediate gratification.

I took to the internet for inspiration and was met with this adorable yet simple design:  


You can check out a full D.I.Y. tutorial over at evermine blog.

Somehow surrounded with an abundance of Christmas wrapping materials and an errant thought that the bows looked more like hairbows than bow ties, I came up with this. The Mr. & Mrs. Jar couple. (The Masons, yes?)
















They're probably perfect for some crafty young couple wanting to save for different things, but I'm single, and they're both for me.

The Mrs. Jar is domestic (ha. get it? sexism.) and the Mr. Jar is international,  my long-term savings goal. Maybe in the future they'll have a long-distance relationship with one headed to Chicago and one headed to Rome. They can change attire when the goals change, maybe don tacky tourist florals for a beach trip, tiny scarves if I ever make it to Alaska, or be topped with an Irish flag; the possibilities are endless. I look forward to dressing them, filling them, and ultimately emptying them and starting over.

(Disclaimer: I don't fully trust Mr. Jar to safely handle enough money for an international trip, so we'll probably transfer his contents into Mrs. Bank Account from time to time.)


December 2, 2013

My Anti-Bucket List: 2013 Edition.

Back in early 2012, I wrote a blog post proposing the concept of an "anti-bucket list." The idea is to identify a list of things you have already accomplished instead of setting a list of unattainable goals for the future. Besides, sometimes I find the experiences I never dared to dream up and write down on a list to be more fulfilling than those I've been anticipating. Spontaneity can trump years of plans if you let it.

Since revisiting my original Anti-Bucket List, I thought of all the new things I've done in the last 19 months and decided maybe it's time for an upgrade. Then I took it a step further. What if instead of tallying up all the fun things I've ever done into one big trophy of a graphic, I held myself to a single year. 2013. Could I accomplish enough in one year to warrant a new list? Would such a list be disappointingly barren, or surprisingly full? It's a challenge I may take on yearly from now on--not to fulfill a set of predetermined requirements, or to make myself feel useless if I can't come up with anything--but to take the time to identify the fun, unexpected things I have accomplished this year. It serves as a fun evaluation at the end of the year as well as motivation to keep going in 2014.

So here it is, my Anti-Bucket List for 2013: the traveling fan edition. What's on yours? (think outside of the box; it doesn't have to be travel-based). What else can you add in the next month?
Photo: Negril, Jamaica 2013

Want to make one of your own? Try www.picmonkey.com. It's free and simple to use.