Newlywed Map

One of Andrew's Christmas gifts from me was a framed map.  Not very exciting on its own but what we're using it as is a travel map or a "newlywed map". The idea for it was partly inspired by a post from Beantown Baker on her created from scratch (of sorts) Newlywed Map and a map that Andrew's Granddad and Mimi (his late Grandmother) used to track their world travels.  It's used to mark all the locations you've visited in the world together.















As you can see, the US is decently (although not completely) covered.  And I'm happy to report that all the pins in Europe and Africa are completely from our honeymoon cruise (to date). And I'm pretty much solely responsible for most of the pins in Asia, although Andrew shares some of the Japan pins due to our trip last year.

The map I selected (for convenience's sake) came framed and customized with our family name.  It also offers five different colored pins to signify categories such as dream destinations, planned destinations, locations of loved ones and family, genealogical roots and of course, places visited.

For the time-being, Andrew and I just chose to focus on places we have visited on our own and visited together. To be honest, I don't think we'll track any of the other categories that were mentioned above because we think the most important thing for us is to be able to see a visual representation of where we have been.  However, I think we might play with different colored pins to differentiate places we've visited together from what was done seperately.

Not only is it a cool thing to for a couple or family (or anyone, for that matter) to have as a memento, it also serves as a great piece of artwork to hang on your walls and to spark conversation. 

We have found the perfect place to hang our map on the wall in our dining room and it looks great hanging over our latest furniture addition - a sideboard that matches our dining room table, also purchased at the Restoration Hardware outlet for a fraction of its original price!