We have been covering travel and escapes all month, sharing ways to decorate with travel posters, talking about working travel collections into home decor, even promoting the joys of decorating with globes. So many of you have shared stories of your own travels and the ways they have enhanced your home decor that we just had to ask about your favorite travel momento.
I am lucky enough to have a job that takes me around the world, and offers me lots of opportunities to collect wonderful reminders of my travels. Though I love all of my travel momentos, I must confess that I do have some favorites. The Turkish lamps my sister and I picked up from an enthusiastic seller in a back alley of the Grand Bazaar, the kimono my husband and I purchased at a dinky secondhand store outside Hiroshima, the Bohemian glass brandy snifters I bought in Prague from an old couple at an Easter festival- all these pieces have a treasured place in my home.
By far my favorites though are the Persian and Afghan carpets I collected in my time in Kuwait. Each purchase was marked by long conversations with "the rug guys" Hussein and Ali who served cup after cup of hot tea while they slowly but surely created more educated customers. Each rug I bought adds to the beauty of my home, or to the homes of my family and friends, but despite how much I love the way they look, it is the memories that they call up the make them truly my favorites.
You might pick your favorite momento because of the ways it looks in your home, or because of the story behind it, or because the trip in question was the best (or maybe worst) you ever took- whatever the reason this travel momento is so special, we want to hear all about it. Feel free to post a link to a picture if you can.
(Image: Colleen Quinn- Hussein and Ali's in Kuwait City)
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Comments (13)
Hey, guys ... it's "memento," not "momento"!
And my favorite is probably the handmade blue pottery clock I brought back from Rockland, Maine, that graces my kitchen.
www.janerubinsky.wordpress.com
My favorite is the life-sized pot belly pig, made of black terra cotta, that my Dad found in a Mexican market and carried on the plane back to NYC just for me!
My favorites have to be the two prints from a local artist I got during a trip to Venezuela a few years ago. It was a memorably relaxed, bright and sunny day. Every time I look at them I automatically visualize the bright sunshine and the activity of the market. I am transported for a moment - which I suppose is the purpose of a memento or even the most tchotchke of souvenirs.
http://blog.17thandriggs.com/
My husband and I bought a stone chess set on our first trip to Ireland. We liked it so much that we decided to look for unique chess sets on all of our travels. We have since added an olivewood chess set from a shop in the Greek port of Katakolon. I'd like to find a nice glass one in Venice this fall but I suspect it will be beyond my budget.
Stainless Steel candlesticks from Georg Jensen in Copenhagen.
(I had no idea the exchange rate - I just knew I wanted them, so I bought them...
...and they ended up being far less expensive than I feared!)
Handmade tablerunner from a market outside the Quiriuga Ruins in Guatemala (I didn't bother bartering with the old lady - it was so cheap anyway)
Various herbs & spices from the spice market on Grenada - the little old lady who sold them to me remembered my friend from years before when she was there with her Mother, now deceased.
Carved coconut wood & shell necklaces from the ladies who walk along the beach to sell things on St Maartin.
Cowboy Boots from the original Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas.
A handmade Alpaca rug that a friend brought back from South America for me - I use it as a drape over the back of my leather sofa.
A chunk of wood (!) from the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show in Ketchikan, Alaska - the last cruise w/ my previous BF before he died.
Brass Filigree Christmas Ornaments from the The White Pass & Yukon Railroad - Yukon Territory, Canada.
Commemorative blue & white Delft Tiles, Inaugural plates and postcards from various cruises aboard Holland America Line.
...and souveneir magnets from all over, covering the front of my refrigerator.
I purchased a full set of hand-painted dinnerware from Deruta while in Italy. Around that time, I was traveling a lot for work and not having much of a social life. It seemed like I was constantly buying place-settings for other people's weddings and it was never going to be my turn.
I'd seen an article about Italian majolica and it really appealed to me. A full service for 8 is not cheap, but fortunately for me, Italy was still on the lira at that time, so the exchange rate worked out in my favor.
The saleswoman encouraged me to pick different patterns so that I could mix and match. Everything was created just for me and arrived in enormous crates abut 4 months later.
While I am no longer single, I still use the plates everyday because they remind me of both a wonderful vacation and a time when I decided to purchase something important for myself.
A giant antique lacquer pot in the shape of an owl that I hauled from Burma. An Asprey clock from London. An antique chest of drawers I had shipped from Bangkok. An opium bed bought in Shanghai.
My husband, found in a bar in Hong Kong, and our daughter, born in Shanghai, now all brought safely home.
I've loved and used my two hand-made Turkish carpets in several different homes I've lived in over the years and the chandelier I purchased from a craftsman and owner of a shop in Sicily is residing in my bedroom in a second house, since carrying it home to the U.S.
A National Washboard model number 510 which I bought in Hope, NJ. and a kaleidescope made by Barbara Pollard from NY.
oops Barbara Poland.
A huge door knocker from Venice. Too imposing and baroque for my bungalow, but sits on my desk.
Interestingly my Prague city view magnet and my "oldies Prague" detailed mug.
We always pick up a Christmas tree ornament wherever we go.
They are cheap, easy to take home, readily available (even if no nice ornaments are available you can fashion one out of almost anything), and come in many interesting varieties.