Zine as Scrapbook

a quickie way to remember + a field trip

Y’all

You might remember over the summer, when we made timelines of our day with the option of turning it into a 1-page zine.

Today, I want to encourage you to make a mini-zine of a mini vacation.

This is a quick way to make a little scrapbook/journal to archive a great day. It is also forgiving and can be sloppy. This is a container for YOU to process and record the day, not something to show your neighbor or put on your coffee table.

This week was a fun one (after Cheetah time). I went to NYC with my daughter to sticker/stationery/journal shop. And our family took a short road trip to a destination nursery for my son’s birthday.

These are the kind of days that feel like a vacation, but are not as monumentous as packing a bag and leaving the state, so they are sometimes forgotten.

For each trip, I made a quick zine the next day as a way to organize the memory, record the places we stopped, and note simple impressions.

I used to do this on Instagram. But the desire for privacy, less time online, and hands-on crafting make this method restful and reflective. I think many people are feeling the same impulse.

Must see in NYC:

1. Greenwich Letterpress

2. niconeco zakkaya

3. Goods for the Study

4. Yamadaya Japanese Grocery

5. Evolution

6. Crystals Garden

So, New York is one thing, but what about excursions closer to home?

Our nursery field trip was bookended with stops at cool coffee shops, a seed store, a local brewery, and a vegetarian sandwich shop. These little stops, along with the lengthy drive, made the day feel like we had really done something and gone somewhere.

Connecticut treasures:

1. Heirloom Market (cafe and Bakers Creek Seeds) in Old Wethersfield

2. Logees over 130 years old, nursery and greenhouses filled with tropical and unique plant specimens in Danielson

3. Heirloom Food Company is right up the road from Logees, a perfect place for a little sandwich or smoothie

4. Sik City Coffee

5. Urban Lodge Brewing brew pub and small retail to take away

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Tools I like:

• A toy camera that prints on receipt paper. These are around 30 dollars, and so much fun. The prints are dirt cheap and of very poor quality (in a good way). These align with the zine aesthetic and low-fi vibe perfectly.

  

• Canon Ivy mini wireless printer - this prints out higher quality pictures and is light enough to be brought on vacations. The photopaper is reasonable, especially if you buy in bulk, and it makes a nice companion to the cheaper toy camera above. You can use the app to add borders, text, and change the filters.

  

• A little zippered pouch to hold passport-sized notebooks, collect cards, and ephemera from the trip.

  

  

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