Of trains and tattoos

Hello hello!

I am still thinking about traveling because, well, I am always thinking about traveling. I have added another city to my travel goals: San Francisco. Okay, I didn't really just add it. I have wanted to go here for a while, but now I have decided that I want to take the train there.

I have never been on an Amtrak train before and, even though the trip will be super long, I want to try it out. I was looking at ticket prices and just general Amtrak information and it takes over thirty-four hours to get from Denver to San Francisco. I still want to do it. It'll be a good time. I am thinking I want to make this a winter trip.

This might actually end up being the next trip I go on.

And on to tattoos. I have one on my ankle and before I graduated college I was thinking about getting another one. I actually chose what I wanted and almost made the appointment, but I wasn't sure of what I chose. So I stopped looking and then I didn't have money so the tattoo plans went away for a couple of years.

Now that I have a job again I want to get another one. And everyone at work seems to be getting tattoos and that just makes me want to get one more. I know where I want to get it (behind my ear), but I am not sure what I want.  I am leaning towards a key of some sort, but I don't want a plain boring key. So I am looking into keyblades from Kingdom Hearts. Some of those designs are actually really cool and I did consider this before, but I am not sure that is what I want. And then there is the size. If this tattoo is going to be behind my ear, I don't want it to be really big and if I choose a keyblade it might be too small to get all the detail.

I don't know. I need to start a tattoo fund and maybe when I have saved up enough I will know what I want.

Getting Crafty with Maps

So after all of the talk about traveling I decided to try out some craft ideas using maps. I love maps almost as much as I love traveling and since I have some lying around I thought it would be fun to do something with them. I found a website with a few different crafts that could be done with maps. One of them was to use marbles and mod podge to make your own magnets. I thought the finished product looked really neat so I chose that for my craft project. 

This is what I started out with. The wood words were a different craft project, but I had today off so it became a general craft day.

I'm sad to say that I do not have very many maps lying around and the ones that I do have are not very colorful. Generally, I like those kind of maps, but they do not stand out very well as magnets. So I used the internet to download a few maps. I found some historic maps that were pretty cool, but since they were downloaded they are not the best quality. I decided that they worked fine and made a couple magnets out of them. Then I thought I would have fun and bring out my nerdy side and I found a map of Middle Earth. I think those turned out to be my favorite magnets. Here is the finished magnets. It was hard to get a good picture of them so you get the less detailed picture.

After I finished the magnets I moved on to the words. All I wanted to do with them was paint them. Nothing too exciting there. Someday I might actually hang them up, but I don't really have a good place for them at the moment, so they will just lay around my room. 

Those are the results of my crafty day. Next I will work on my dragon and wizard cross stitch.

Traveling

I have been inspired to write my own blog by some other people and their blogs. My life is not particularly exciting, but that is not going to stop me.

A while back Samara and I were talking about what I could do with my life--since I still have no idea on that front--and she mentioned that I could get a job, any job, and travel. I would love that. I have always wanted to travel the world, but so far I have been unable to do so.

Now that I have a job I am going to try and travel. I do not make enough to go with out saving up for quite a while, but I am going to try. I found a website that has travel packages, to Europe mostly, for people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six. It is pretty much perfect for me. It is called EF College Break, and I suggest anyone interested in traveling through Europe to check it out.

At first I was a little worried that this website was not legit, but after some research I am sure that it is good. You can follow them on facebook and everything. I want to go next summer, but I am not entirely sure I will be able to save up enough, but I am willing to do everything I can to go. 2013 trips are not available yet, but when they are I will be able to get a better idea of what I can do.

I think it would be a great experience and it makes me feel better about traveling to Europe by myself. They keep showing pictures on facebook of previous trips and it just makes me want to go more. Hopefully it will all work out.