ciao bella

Check out these gorgeous handmade journals I bought on etsy. Aren't they absolutely divine? I am lucky enough to be traveling to Italy in the spring with my mother... so excited!! A very generous friend of hers is renting a house in Cortona, Tuscany for 3 months and invited us to come stay. A girls trip to Rome, Cortona, Florence... lots of memories to be made for sure.

I decided an experience like this needs to be documented. What better way than with high quality handbound journals depicting the trip destination?

This beauty came from the very talented kissandtellcards. She also creates extremely well designed wedding invitations.

Just what I wanted to capture all my musings and adventures. Can't wait to put pen to paper!

Why two journals? Well, this one is for my mom. This was crafted by Beetlelady Books. She specializes in handbound journals and does beautiful work. Although I ordered the book with straight stitching, she coptic stitches all sorts of neat designs like zig zags.

I ordered them both with heavy blank paper so they can not only be written journals of our adventures, but visual as well. Sort of a scrapbook on the go is what I'm envisioning.

I surprised my mom with it so she can start to record her excitement for the trip as well. She loved it! Thanks again to both of these very talented crafters for creating these amazing pieces of art that will be much loved in and out of Italy.