I have been chatting with a fellow blogger who requested to see some pictures of pottery and artwork that we had been talking about. As many of you already know, I recently moved into a new apartment and have been spending the last few weeks decorating and trying to mesh two apartments into one. My favorite things in our apartment are the things we have brought back with us on our trips.
So this is our kitchen. I apologize for it being really messy! I have all my study materials on the table as I had been taking finals, etc. We took the photos really quick for a trip home to see my family two weeks ago. I wanted to show my grandma pictures of the apartment, so my boyfriend was nice enough to take some photos for us to bring. I love the high top table. I really think its great for the small space and makes the room feel bigger. Most of my favorite “travel treasures” are in the kitchen. On the wall above the kitchen table are three tiles from Mexico.
The two black ones are from Puerto Vallarta and I got them 2 different years. I had to backtrack to the marketplace to find the little shop that sold them! I originally wanted to just buy the stand as I forgot to buy one the previous year, and I ended up buying another tile and 2 stands! The one on the bottom is a little white tile from Cabo San Lucas that the boyfriend bought one one of his trips. The three pieces of pottery in the window on to the left of the kitchen table are my favorite. I just love them and think they are so cute. The two on the right I bought together in Puerto Vallarta on my first trip there. I picked up the bigger pitcher on my second trip at the same pottery dealer. I should mention that I was in Puerto Vallarta because my entire family (10 of us! mom, dad, brother, grandma, aunt, uncle and 3 cousins) took two trips to Mexico together for the holidays in 2006 and 2008. It was a lot of fun and I hope we do it again soon!
My final favorite piece in the kitchen is my cork board. It is quite literally a “cork” board as I made it with corks I have saved from wine bottles. It didn’t take me too long to collect as we do have wine with dinner a few days a week! It also helps that our friends love wine too, so they come to visit and help us drink all of it. I am also in the habit of always asking the sommelier if I can have the cork after he opens the bottle at dinner! I keep saving corks because I think they would make a really good gift for anyone who loves wine as much as we do at my apartment! A lot of the corks used for the board came from my trip to Spain. Two weeks in Barcelona with my parents made for a whole bag of corks to bring back home! So in a sense, even though I made the board at home, many of the corks came from my travels! Not to mention that the other corks come from wine from all over the world! 
And as you can tell from the pictures, I love cava (Spanish sparking wine) and champagne just as much as wine as I lined the outer edge with champagne corks! I think what I am going to start looking for at some thrift stores are those old-school champagne glasses. We have some champagne flutes, however, I think it would be really chic to drink out of a champagne coupe!
So now that you’ve seen most of my favorite “travel treasures” what are all of yours?
I love the pottery … do you use the pitchers and bowl or are they just for display?
What a great idea for the corks, as well. I love reusing items that have sentimental value for other purposes.
When my dh and I travel we usually pick one item to bring home to remember our visit. For instance, we have a metal, wall hanging in a fleur de lis shape with a red glass center from New Orleans.
Thanks for sharing!
My favorite things to “pick up” when I travel is an actual piece of that places Earth…a piece of basalt from the Giants’ Causeway, lava rock from Hawaii, sea shell off the beach. I don’t know why, but an actual piece of the land is so meaningful to me. I also tend to splurge on books of local folklore and hauntings as well as homemade soaps, honey and jams if available.
Kristi- I haven’t used the pitchers for anything but decoration. I’m not sure if the paint has lead in it or not. I did use the blue pitcher as a vase for some daffodils earlier this spring–I love that blue/yellow color combination!
Eurochic- I actually have a jar with sand and lava rocks from Hawaii! Its at my parents house in CT since I didn’t want it to break while I was moving my larger items. We also used to go to Florida a lot and my favorite take home was sharks teeth we would find on the beach.