On our last trip to Tassie to visit my sister I just sketched. We have been there so many times that we didn’t do any sightseeing this time and just hung around her property relaxing. It was nice sitting there on her deck and relaxing with a glass of wine, pencil in hand and my sketchbook ready to sketch the surrounding views. In just under 4 weeks, we are off on a family holiday to Queenstown, New Zealand. We are going with my son, his wife and our 2 grandchildren. This will be the grandkids first time in the snow, so we are really looking forward to it. It will be my first time in New Zealand so that is also exciting. New Zealand is such a beautiful place I just know I will be taking hundreds of photos. I also am really looking forward to sketching my own interpretation of these scenes.  Unlike most other people, over the last couple of months I haven’t been planning what clothes to take or what must see tourist attractions to visit …. I have been planning and creating my travel journal and deciding what supplies to take. At this point in time, I have my journal and supplies all packed and ready to go. But I haven’t got one item of clothing organised. LOL I have spent weeks “auditioning” which of my watercolour paints to take. (At one point my hubby asked me if there was a prize for the supplies that won because I had literally spent hours swatching out colours and deciding which best suited the “theme” of our destination – cheeky bugger.) I didn’t want to take my entire range of watercolours as that only adds to the procrastination of creating art – do I use ultramarine blue or cobalt blue…. which shade of green should this be…. should I use burnt umber or burnt sienna? If you have limited supplies, you make do with what you have and just go for it. Well, that is what I have found over the years anyway. I have hand-made my travel journal using my favourite size format for creating on the go. It has a mixture of scrapbooking papers (for photos) and good quality watercolour paper for creating art. I will go into more detail on creating my travel journal and the final selection of supplies to take in my next post. But for now, here is a picture of the first page of my travel journal and some of the “winning” supplies. It’s nice to not have a completely blank journal to dive into when travelling. My next job is to pack all these so they are as portable as possible… Ensure that you register on my website or follow me on Facebook to stay updated on the real-time creation of my travel journal. This way, you won't miss out on any of my ongoing activities and adventures. FB: https://www.facebook.com/eaglereachstudio Website: https://eaglereachstudio.com.au