Get Messy: Love Notes

This started as a love note to my boyfriend and turned into a love note to my mom. The journaling says it all:

In the past couple years, I've gotten into the habit of hiding a note for Austin somewhere in the house – in the fridge or in a drawer – before I leave on a trip, or in his suitcase when he's the one traveling. And he does the same. Sometimes they're beautiful letterpress cards but more often they're post-its with a stamp. I love that I can remind him I’m thinking of him when one of us is away. It's one of my favorite traditions – and I just realized I get it from my mom. When I was a kid, she would leave us little notes and gifts in our bags to discover when we went away, like on a camping trip with my dad. Pretty cool that I learned to express love in some of the same ways she does.

A few years ago, I remember one of my aunts saying that my grandmother had taught her how to love. I was so touched by that and I had it in the back of my mind while working on this. And it's true, isn't it, that our parents pass on their own love languages to us.

As you can probably imagine, this was so easy to pull together and I love the modern, graphic look. (Alternate title for this post was "not your mother's art journaling.") I thought of hiding a secret note to my boyfriend under the post-its but jettisoned that when I switched gears with the journaling. All of the stamps are from Elise Joy (currently available as digital downloads from her shop) except for one (I think you can figure out which) from Lydia & Pugs.