uniform | travel essentials guide
I’ve cycled the streets of Eck en Wiel & past the thick green carpet of an algae covered pond and thought I cannot be unhappy here. I have woken up hung-over and disoriented in Bruges with a train to catch and thought I cannot be unhappy here. I have hidden beneath a pier with a British sailor in a Spanish port town and thought I cannot be unhappy here. Up all night in Hania, ouzo soaked. I cannot be unhappy here. Through a hundred terminals and terminals and buses and trains throughout my life. I cannot be unhappy here. Happiness in and of itself, the peripatetic life for me.
I’m a homebody with wanderlust, and the ideas of traveling even when you’re home, of finding the exotic in the everyday influence my work & life just as much as the idea of nesting even when you’re abroad, of making a home wherever you go. I am always wandering; I am always home. Speaking of home… my new kitchen (remodeled by the wizardly duo the Jersey Ice Cream Co. was featured on Remodelista this week. If you’re curious where I cook & shoot, there you go.)
It’s no surprise to me that I travel for work a lot these days. I always intended it; I had to. Hence the birth of Local Milk Retreats. If you’d like to, perhaps, travel to one of our workshop-retreats in the coming year, give the new site a visit and join the mailing list. There are talks of every where from Japan to Australia to Portugal to France as well as a handful here at home in the U.S. … we have so much in the works for you. The retreats are weekends away that combine the intimacy of small gatherings, the creative inspiration of travel & local foods, and hands-on practicums teaching both creative skills like photography & styling as well as down-to-earth skills like weaving, baking, and florals. They’re ultimately about slow living, relationships, local foods, inspiration, and creativity.
I am, on some fundamental level, an air plant. Tillandsia. Roots in the earth aren’t for me. I possess the deep love of home characteristic of a Cancerian, but to a certain extent I carry that home on my back. And that’s what you’re looking at. My little home away from home. My light on my feet. My creature comforts. My nesting abroad. And this really is my uniform. I’m awfully boring. Just ask anyone who’s seen me in the past month. All linen, all the time.
The laundry is spinning the next room over. My music is loud, my bag laid out on the bed. A cold glass of maté is close at hand with a dose of ginkgo tincture in it for good measure. It’s 10pm. I leave in the morning, 6:30am. And I am light, light. It’s nothing really, a 4 day jaunt up north to the Boston area for work. But to go is to go, no matter how near or far or short or long. And as soon as I set foot in that world between all worlds, the airport, I think I cannot be unhappy here.
These are the essentials I don’t leave home without these days.
Travel Essentials Guide
1. For longer trips, this is truly my home away from home. Rolling Check-In bag by Filson.
2. Not one but two Blockshop Textiles scarves. I wear them as head wraps, scarves, shawls, and generally lay them around to be pretty and make me happy. You can find my head scarf tutorial on the app I’m obsessed with, Steller.
3. The best travel shoes, say what you will. Easy to kick on and off & comfy as all get out. Birkenstocks in Iron. And yes, I wear them with socks if I wanna. Planes get cold, and it’s my life.
4. The ultimate travel get up, a linen coat & dress because linen looks even better when it’s wrinkled. Natural dress by Fog Linen from Mr. Kitly. Linen coat by Stitch & Taylor from Orn Hansen
5. My carry-on & make-up bag are cut from the same cloth as my dress. I like to keep my palette monochrome & neutral when I travel. It makes fewer pieces go further. Linen bag & checked zippered pouch by Fog Linen.
6. My leather notebook case by Pear Tree Leather Co. is the BEST. It is the perfect size for a Field Notes notebook, my passport, credit & cash, and ID.
7. My Wild Unknown deck. Because you never know when you’ll need to know.
8. My medicine pouch from High Garden Tea in Nashville. It’s contents are personal but include citrine, obsidian, and a shark’s tooth. I wear it everyday for strength & protection.
9. My mini iPad. No, this isn’t an apple commercial. That thing is my BRAIN. Evernote for the win. And creating stories on Steller is my favorite flight past time these days. Well that and Cookie Jam.
10. P.F. Candle Co. travel candle. I always travel with a candle, a touch of home. Love this one in Eucalyptus & Neroli.
11. A jar of homemade sleepy tea & a tea strainer from Bellocq. Yes, I brew loose leaf tea on flights. And at night when I’m away. Helps adjust jet-lag and is just a creature comfort. It feels normal. My blend features hops, valerian, chamomile, lavender, and damiana.
12. Martine sunnies from American Apparel. I am a sunglasses hoarder. I try to only travel with one pair, a relatively cheap one at that. Round all the way.
13. My travelling apothecary: facial tonic for refreshing after flights by Marble & Milkweed; Clary Sage & Lavender hair powder by Lulu Organics because travel hair; a small bottle of Thayer’s Rose Petal & Witch Hazel facial toner. Because it smells great & makes me feel clean.
No one paid me or asked me to write about this stuff. I just like it all. F to the YI.
Want to travel together? Again…join the mailing list at Local Milk Retreats and let’s have some crazy adventures & create beautiful stuff together!
photos of me taken by Amanda Nolan Booker.
