We love sharing little household traditions with you guys. There are just so many cheap and easy ways to commemorate special dates and display unique items in your home that can make it feel more personal and meaningful. For example, we whipped up these vacation jars a while back…
… and also explained that we love sending a postcard to ourselves to help remember all the details of every vacation that we spend together (they look great tossed in a large glass vase):
We also shared how we framed old keys to commemorate all the places we lived before moving into this “forever home” of ours (as seen to the left of the postcards in a vase above).
And how I snagged a vintage map on ebay, mounted it on cork, and framed it for a simple pinboard that helps us chart all the places we’ve traveled together (we’ve since added a bunch of pins thanks to our big Texas road trip):
And how we love to pose for some cheap-o photostrips on big days like anniversaries and other momentous occasions (like the day we found out I had a bun in the oven):
But enough looking back, let’s get back to 2010 shall we? Speaking of the brandspankingnew year, John and I actually have a strange little New Year’s Eve tradition: a nice romantic sushi dinner. It actually became a tradition after we were together a few years and realized that we had subconsciously gone out to a sushi dinner on Dec 31st ever since we began dating. So after accidentally enjoying a nice little Japanese feast together in 2005 and 2006, of course when the end of ’07, ’08, and ’09 rolled around we kept the tradition alive. And somewhere along the line John suggested that we save a pair of chopsticks from each restaurant (unused ones of course) and label them with the date, the occasion, and the place where we dined. It’s such a cheap (well, free actually) way to keep tabs on our year-ending whereabouts- and it’s fun when they’re displayed en masse atop a lacquered box, stashed in a cup on my desk, or even stuck in this Ikea vase:
We love that we can glance at them and remember evenings spent celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another- and it’s great to see that we actually kept the tradition alive no matter where we were traveling at the time (from Georgia to Delaware and of course on the home front in Richmond, VA).
Oh and not to worry guys, this year it was only cooked fish and veggie sushi for me since the bean is “on board.” But it was still just as delicious and memorable. So that’s our odd little sushi inspired tradition. What about you? Do you have any “momentos” that you collect or even label to help you remember special events or milestones? Matchbooks? Bottle caps? Sea shells? Wine corks? Snow globes? Menus? Shot glasses? Tattoos? Do tell.
LauraC says
My husband’s and my goal is to visit every National Park. We’ve done pretty well: about 25% so far. So we make sure to get and keep the park map they give you. We should have 55 when we’re through!
Live a Colorful Life says
I love the idea of rocks and writing pertinent information. And I also wanted to comment that I noticed the Shopaholic book and thought it was a great addition to your post. (LOVE anything by Sophie Kinsella). The chopsticks idea is awesome. We save the fortunes from fortune cookies (not all of them, just the inspiring ones) and put them in a jar labeled “feeling fortunate.”
Kristi W @ Life With the Whitmans says
That vacation jar idea is brilliant. When we go on trips, we usually collect a small Southerner that also serves as a home decor item. Like I have a bowl of rocks that I collected from the north shore of Lake Superior on our honeymoon, and a wooden bowl that I picked up in San Francisco. It really does add meaning to the items.
Bria M says
I love the vacation jars, too. I save sand from any beach I travel too and store it in a jar that reminds me of the place (jam jar in France, italian pear juice in Florence)
I also nab one of those tacky pressed pennies anytime I see one. Now I have a nice collection from all over the city, state, and world! Using your framed keys as inspiration, I plan on framing a few of my favorites…
Jane @ the Borrowed Abode says
How bizarre – I just popped over to share my idea, only to see that Yezenia does the EXACT same thing! So much for thinking I’m original :)
I’ve always had a habit of collecting tons of rocks and shells and sticks when I travel – as I enjoy spending time outside, and love bringing a bit of nature home – so when my dad and I climbed Old Rag this fall, I came up with the Sharpie marker idea on the climb. I’ve only gotten two rocks with dates/places so far, but intend to display them decoratively in glass jars or vases. I’ll do the same with shells.
Lynn says
You make me wish I could go back and relive everything and take care of proper mementos this time! :-)
I take pictures, though, including Polaroids (which always have a very “souvenir” feeling about them)…oh, and there are fridge magnets and cookbooks from just about everywhere we’ve travelled. That postcard idea is a total gem, though!
jennifer says
I love to travel all over the world. Whenever I go, I like to try to pick up something that isn’t really tourist-y…no cheap t-shirts I’ll never wear or junk to clutter up my cabinets.
I really love collecting fine work of art, though. I’ve bought canvas paintings abroad, wall-hangings, even beautiful painted easter eggs from Ukraine, all which I display proudly. They may not have the destination where I got them stamped all over them, but I know where I got them and that’s what matters to me. I also have been known to frame my postcards and hang them up as well. In poland I bought some papercuttings made my a local artisan and framed those as well. My walls are full!!!
oh, I also like to buy guidebooks and museum books whenever I travel, and I keep those together on a shelf as well.
Amy says
Thanks for all these great ideas- I love them. I’m going to start the map, the photo strips (which I’ve always wanted to do), the framed keys, and maybe even vacation jars. I love that they’re fun ways to display memories without spending much money.
Julie says
You all are so cute…I can’t stand it…can’t wait to see how you capture the amazing memories that the ‘bean’ will bring! Happy New Year!
Amanda in Boston says
Great idea for the travel jars…I will be digging out my trip momentos thrown about in drawers at home!
I collect seaglass I mostly find it here in MA at the beaches of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. We have a boat and take it to secret sea glass beaches and find the best colors like blue! I have been collecting since I was about 4 and I have a huge collection, it is very pretty to display in large jars around the house.
Dinah says
ahh i loveee the chopstick idea! i’m asian so i go to asian restaurants all the time with friends so this would be a great and fun activity for us. thanks for the ideas!
Amy says
We too have a tradition of eating sushi on new years eve! To remember places we have traveled together we always pick up a Christmas ornament and date it. When it’s time to decorate the tree each year it’s so much fun to talk that walk down memory lane!
Jennifer S. says
My husband and I save the corks from the bottles of wine we drink. We have amassed quite a collection after drinking 3-4 bottles a week for 16 years of marriage, but recently faux corks were introduced and I didn’t want to save those (purist…). Anyway, I’m trying to figure out what to do with these things. I thought about cutting them in half and glueing them to a board to make a cork board. Some of them are in a glass vase with a white pillar candle a la Young House Love.
Meryl Rose says
My boyfriend went on a 3 month roadtrip across the US (and a bit of Canada) in the summer of ’06 to visit all the major league baseball stadiums (http://www.aptpupil.org/Trips/BB%20Trip,%20a.htm we’re both BIG sports fans) and I kept a US map with me during all of our driving so that I could mark where we traveled. Now we have the map hung up in our office and it’s fun to talk about all the memeories with each other and friends and family who come by.
Recently we started collecting ornaments from our travels and jaunts for our Christmas tree, that way each year we can reminisce about all the fun adventures we’ve had!
Kristy says
I keep little pieces of paper like receipts, unused paper napkins, labels off of soda bottles, etc during my travels. I have hotel laundry receipts from my trips to China, an empty gummy bear package from Germany, etc.
Thanks for sharing your special treasures with us.
Em says
I’ve collected ornaments from all of my travels and then every year when I decorate the tree(s) I can be reminded of the special places I’ve been.
I also collect at least once postcard from each trip. I like the idea of sending it to myself. Who doesn’t love a little mail?
Staci says
that’s crazy! I am very near there and have family there as well. Good ole Iowa :)!!
Abby says
My fiance and I have started collecting Magnets of all the shows we go see. So far we have 2…haha. But i won’t let this one die. And we make ourselves do the cute 4 square pictures or photobooths anywhere we see them! Other than that we save the wine corks, but I will admit that we don’t drink that much wine so I stole some from my mom’s collection to supplement ours!
I love the postcard idea! That’s awesome! I’m totally stealing it.
amy says
I see you’ve also visited The Dirty D! (Detroit, MI). I grew up in Metro Detroit.
Jenny says
All of these ideas are so very cute, I love it! Since we’ve been in Hawaii, we try to pick up something with our son every time we hit the beach ~ we’ve gotten some pretty cool sea rocks/coral, big enough to put on the coffee table! We’ve got them scattered throughout the house, and now when I look at them I can say, “hey that one was from the beach where Noah freaked out about the crab!” or “that’s the one we found while we were waiting for the man with the metal detector to find my wedding ring in the sand.” Yeah, that was NOT a good day ;)
I too want to “borrow” your map idea ~ with all of our travels, I’d love to make something like this for my wonderful hubby ~ we’d need a world map though for all his destinations! Thanks again for the inspirations :)
Jenifer says
I collect rocks from the beaches my husband and I go to. I always right the name on the bottom. Since we moved into our house (about a year ago, now), we’ve had a shelf in our “tropical” bathroom above the whirlpool tub that holds all of the rocks we’ve collected. Above the shelf are framed pictures from our trip. At some point, my husband would like me to paint a palm tree on one of the walls so we can enjoy it while taking a bath.
I’ve also collected ticket stubs for every movie we’ve gone to since our first date as well as various small things that can fit in a shoe box. I’ve used some of those things to put in shadow boxes that are hanging in our bedroom. One of the shadow boxes is dedicated to our wedding day, so I was careful to collect a lot of things throughout our special day.
Sara says
I like to bring home a magnet of every place we go on vacation or visit. I have one from Florida, The Bronx Zoo, and Las Vegas so far. lol
Now I realize, it makes the frig look a little too cluttered, so I think I’ll start doing something else instead. Now I have all the magnets on the side of the frig where you can’t see them. I always have such great ideas haha
Rebekah @ Shell says
we collect business cards from restaurants where we have a fabulous meal (and if they have a paper menu, we take that, too). we keep saying we’re going to start pasting them in a notebook and write down what our meal was, but we haven’t gotten there yet!
Letty says
I’m interrupting this regularly-scheduled post to remind those of you who haven’t yet voted to go over to Apartment Therapy and vote for YHL for THE HOMIES award!! It’s sooo close!!
And now back to regular posting….
YoungHouseLove says
Haha Letty- thanks! It’s definitely a nail-biter but we’re just happy to be nominated. Really!
xo,
s (& j)
Keeley says
I love your NYE tradition! We collect wine corks and we’re looking for creative ways to use them… we have hundreds. Oh, and thanks for the shout out to Delaware. Looks like you’ve been to Rehoboth Beach! We Delawareans seldom get any love… some people don’t even realize DE is a state!
Teri says
It’s not a collection you can leave out anywhere, but when my husband and I go on special vacations we try to visit a restroom with one of those condom machines…. dated and location noted, they are stashed away in our own private little “memory box”. Long story of how it got started… but amazing memories ;-) Guess we’ll shock the kids when they clean out the house upon our deaths!
Shannah says
My family has always saved jewelry – pins, clips, little medals that you’re awarded for service and the like. Years ago my grandmother put all of those bits and bobs into a special Christmas jewelry tree.
I’ve been saving my own collection, supplemented by pieces that I’ve inherited over the years. In the next couple of years I should have enough to make my own jewelry tree.
Here’s a tutorial I posted on how to make your own (along with a photo of the finished result!):
http://shannahhayley.blogspot.com/2010/01/neat-holiday-idea-2.html
Laura says
Oh no! There’s no Alaska on your map- where are the pins for your honeymoon?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, so true! We like to joke that the pins around the edge of the map represent our Alaskan honeymoon! But at least we have a glass jar full of Alaska momentos and a few postcards that we sent ourselves from there. Whew.
xo,
s
Shannah says
Forgot to mention!!! We also collect ornaments (and cute things that can be turned *into* ornaments) from our vacations and time spent living overseas.
http://shannahhayley.blogspot.com/2009/12/trimming-tree.html
Dana says
Okay, this is something I really need to get better at… commemorating dates/events. When I first met my husband, he would save bottle caps from dates/parties we went to and write on the inside of them with a marker – the date and where we were. We still have them!
We have a ton of matchboxes from our wedding day too. I really wanted sparklers (it was an evening wedding) instead of tossing rice or flowers or blowing bubbles. BUT, it rained so no one stayed long enough to light ’em up. :( The good news is, we display our wedding matchboxes in a decorative bowl and get to see them every day!
Alaina @ LiveCreatingYourself says
Um first off – I love you guys. And second, now while I am desperately trying to think up something creative of my own to start, I think I’m just going to steal all your ideas instead. So thanks in advance! : )
Cheers,
Alaina
Rena says
Well, we have way too many collections. Postcards, Christmas ornaments, matchbooks, sand, magnets and cookbooks. Over 30 years later we have run out of room to display and store them. So now I am ready to simplify but how do you toss out memories? I could pour all the sand into a bucket for our grandchildren. The movers wouldn’t take the matches so I tore them out and just have the jacket part. My refrigerator is stainless so the magnets don’t work. And I really don’t cook as much as I use to. I guess that leaves the postcards – simple and small – and the ornaments – atleast once a year we can remember the memories. Any other ideas?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Rena,
There are ideas galore here thanks to our readers: over 80 comments-worth! Feel free to scroll back through them to see what other people are collecting and how they plan to edit, display, and make the most of their treasures! Hope it helps.
xo,
s
Meg says
While we love traveling, we don’t like spending money on things we don’t need. So, while out and about, my fiance and I like to buy something for the house (ANYthing so that we aren’t hindered by “must be an ornament, must be a shot glass”). While in Boston, we found a great deal on modern-yet-vintage juice glasses. In Vermont, a moose Christmas ornament.
However, every time we see a Broadway show, we try to get a magnet to remember it by. Being community theater buffs, we even keep an eye out for magnets for the shows that we’ve been in. I find visitors spending more time checking out our fridge more than they do the rest of the house!
Beth says
Since we started dating, my husband and I collect the business cards from the restaurants, and write what we had on the back. We have them all in a binder, and it is a great resource when friends are travelling to different places we have been because we can give them recommendations. Also,we write on the corks of wine and champagne bottles to mark special occassions. Love your ideas. I have been trying to figure out a good way to do something similar with a map and the places we have travel. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas!
Roseanna says
The Vacation Jars are PERFECT for small souveneirs/keepsakes that are too big to scrapbook… I will be starting this project… just as soon as I finish my old window/chalkboard conversion, new caulk around the tub, new paint in the kitchen and new lighting in the bedroom.
Whew… I love you guys but MAN am I over-inspired, hahaha.
Magchunk says
I always love your momento ideas. We’ve been meaning to do the map thing in our new place but need to figure out the corking behind it. I love the wine corks too but have run into the same problem as an earlier commenter and those plasticy faux corks! Blegh.
I’ve been saving little paper bits from our relationship, mostly ticket stubs (to lots of concerts). Haven’t figured out what I’ll do with them. I’ll probably scan them to have a digital copy and then frame some of the best in a shadow box.
Katy says
My husband and I have traveled internationally and have collected coins and bills from countries we’ve visited. Thanks to your key idea, I’ve been inspired to create a shadowbox to display the foreign currency as mementos of our travels. All my foreign coinage has been sitting in a piggy bank just waiting for inspiration to strike. Thanks guys!
Janet says
Love all of your memory keepsake ideas. I love mailing postcards to ourselves as well!
Btw, might I suggest that next NYE, you guys try sushi at Umi’s in the West End? My mom works there part time so she usually takes us there when we’re in town visiting. I have to say I was skeptical that Richmond might actually have decent sushi, but was really surprised. The owner really takes pride in his food and they were just named one of the best restaurants by Richmond Mag. (They also have some really good cooked dishes–like the calamari–in case you guys decide to check it out before the birth of baby bean :)
YoungHouseLove says
Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation!
xo,
s
Amy says
We actually have started the photo booth pictures after reading your blog- love it!
but, one of your sticks say new years eve 2010… isnt that 12/31/10?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Amy,
Good point! I guess that’s technically true but we read it as “the eve of 2010, which in fact is the last day of 2009”- does that make sense?
xo,
s
ErinEvelyn says
The only really special tradition our family has is to take a snapshot of ourselves at midnight on New Years Eve. We can usually make out the background, but good closeups are fun to look at in a timeline (eyeglasses change, hairstyles change/hairline recedes, etc.) I have a few years of me with my fiancé, then he became my husband, then – voilà! – the next year we’re squeezing in the faces of our infant twin boys. Since then, we’ve taken the annual photo at the boys’ bedtime, but it’s SUCH an easy tradition to remember. This year, we took the photo with our boys at the front door, as they left for an overnight at their grandparents. Coats on and everything! I’m envisioning a slideshow at their high school graduation party to commemorate them “leaving the nest”. :)
adhocmom says
On the anniversary of our engagement, we go back to the scene of the crime for champagne, and make someone take a dorky picture. The place where we got engaged just closed! So we’re going to have to figure out what to do for engagement anniversary number six. . .
x,
Paula
http://www.adhocmom.com
Dawn says
Now I’m sad…. I realized I don’t collect anything! Oh… maybe travel journals, I write in a little notebook on every vacation, camping trip, etc. and save those for memories :)
LOOOOVE the chopstick idea, very unique!
Lindsay says
Love the Chopstick idea! I do something similar with wine corks! I take a wine cork, date it, and have my guests sign it so that I have a record of when the bottle was shared, with whom, and the day. It’s fun! And decorative, too!
Lindsay
Melissa Falendysz says
On our honeymoon in Cabo San Lucas, my husband and I each got tattoos:)I got one of the famous rock arch (El Arco) on my foot and my husband (being a saltwater fish lover) got one of a King Angel on his back. Everytime I look at it, it reminds me of all the great adventures we went on in Mexico<3
Ann says
We go overboard on photography. Our kids love looking at photos, it is a great reminder of things we’ve done together. I don’t want a ton of photos hanging on my walls though, I like them in albums.
ps. I love those hanging photo frames you had in Sarah’s mood board. Delish.
Jenn A. says
We do ornaments. Then as we put up our tree every year we can reminisce about the places we’ve been. Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, Biloxie, MS for his Air Force Training, the past bases we’ve been at, a shell one from our honeymoon, when we went to visit the arch in St. Louis. We never have a ‘themed’ tree (like your beautiful citrus one this year), it’s more a hodgepodge of memories!
Traci says
I’m an artist, so everything is potential art to me. We collect wine corks and send postcards to ourselves,too. I keep every bottlecap I find, ’cause I’m gonna make something when I get enough of them. ;-) I also keep fortunes from fortune cookies, and display them in a dish on the coffee table…. guests like picking them up to read them, before I use them for art or jewelry. I love your photo strip idea, and your chopsticks, too.
One other thing we like to “collect” are photos taken on an observation tower at a local vineyard here in Arkansas. It was one of the prettiest photos we have ever had taken of us as a couple…. and now, we take pictures of other couples we know in the same spot.
Natalie says
We’ve been collecting wine corks since almost our first date – we saved some from our special family dinners, our engagement, wedding and honeymoon, special trips we have taken and Sunday night at home eating pizza :-) We have a tall vase in the kitchen that we drop them in and there are over 400 of them now!!!
hunter says
About two years before The Boy and I married, we (or it may have been just me) suffered from a bout of hysteria and decided it would be ‘fun’ to have 9 of our closest relatives over for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Now this might actually have been fun if the insanity hadn’t set it. I think now that I wanted desperately to seem like a ‘real’ grownup, and two things crystallized in my mind as to how I could do that.
The first was the apartment. It had to be spotless. We cleaned for a week. We bought furniture. We used touch-up paint. We hired maids to come scrub the baseboards and windows. Now it was all clean, but the apartment building was old and ill maintained. No amount of scrubbing in this world will make up for 80 years of poor treatment. You cannot scrub a crack out of a window nor a dent out of a floor nor are you going to successfully polish the 18 coats of paint on a rusty radiator to a glossy shine. You can have very very clean baseboards, but the lumps of dust they painted over 10 years ago are still going to be lumps. I realize this now (I have a 90 year old house, it was realize this or go insane), but it was a challenging concept at first.
The second was the food. We made a feast. The kind with 3 types of stuffing and 4 pies and a dozen side dishes and a bird the size of a small asteroid. But the apartment thwarted us here too. The kitchen was tiny. Imagine a strip of floor 2 feet wide and 5 feet long with cabinets and appliances on the long sides, and a window and doorway on the short sides. You could stand in the middle, reach out your arms, and touch either pair of walls without moving your feet. The refrigerator only opened partway because the door bumped into the stove. Most of the food lived in a cabinet in the hallway because there was no pantry, and most of the dishes lived in a cabinet in the dining room because there were almost no cabinets. Of course, there was no dishwasher.
Now we did it, and we survived. We fed everyone tasty food, off of good china, at one table, in a spotless apartment. There were decorations and music and wine and a good time was had by all. But after everyone went home, as we surveyed the wreckage and mentally totted up the time and money we’d spent putting it together, we turned to each other and said, “next year we’re getting pizza.” Thus the tradition was born.
We’ve gotten pizza on Thanksgiving every year since (this year was the sixth). We’ve made our own, we’ve had it delivered, we’ve driven out in a blinding snowstorm to fetch it. Sometimes we’ve been out of the country and had the fun of tracking down something resembling pizza wherever we were. It’s a tradition, we must follow it.
Mary Moerlins says
I am thrilled with the vacation jar idea! We have boxes of mementos from our trips, and scatterings of photos. Even though I am otherwise a DIY and craft enthused person scrap booking just offends some part of me. Best solution ever!