The WANDER Book-My New Travel Photo Book is Here!! Grab Your Discounted Copy Now!

Hello Beautiful Friends,

I am so excited to announce that my new book is here! 

WANDER, the New 7 Wonders, a Photographic Journey 

The Wander Book!

Description: This book is an inviting photo journal celebrating the New 7 Wonders of the World. It aims to share inspiring travel experiences through breathtaking photography and practical, easy-to-follow tips for each incredible destination.

As you know, if you follow me here or on social media, my husband and I travel a lot. We began a quest to visit all of the New 7 wonders several years ago. With my love of photography, this book became a fitting culmination of our journey and a way to share these special places with everyone.

This book has been years in the making - it took us 6 years to finish our travels to discover all New 7 Wonders of the World. (In case you're wondering, we hit India and Brazil in the same year - yay frequent flyer points!)

We discovered some helpful travel tips that I share in the book, along with images of the stunning destinations taken at each site. 

FYI, the images will NEVER do justice to experiencing these places in person. 

For those who are wondering, the book is image heavy and text light. I fancy myself a photographer and copywriter, but novelist is not yet on my resumé. 

Discounted launch pricing is available in the Lulu Bookstore beginning March 1 through March 31, 2026. I'd love for you to take advantage of early pricing.

I hope you find this book inspiring and will consider leaving a review on Lulu. Every review gives me the opportunity to get my book in front of more eyes. More than that, I hope this book inspires you to pick a destination somewhere in this world and WANDER! 

If you have traveled to any of the New 7 Wonders, I would love to hear about your experience! Leave me a comment and share.Its small size makes this book a great pocket sized reference while traveling and a photo souvenir, in case you weren't able to take your own images.

Peace, Love, and Creativity, 

Jodi

Let's Color! Oil Pastel Creative Play

Hello Beautiful Friends! 

Let's talk Oil Pastels!

If you loved coloring with crayons as a child, you will love creating with oil pastels. They are the artist's crayon!

Oil pastels are similar in size to crayons, usually wrapped in paper, and available in many colors.

They are smoother and creamier than those wax based crayons and they layer better.

They are a lot less messy than their sister, the chalk pastel.

I was playing recently with a set I picked up at Hobby Lobby. They are the Master's Touch brand. They were reasonably priced, and most of the colors are nicely pigmented. I used black, hot press watercolor paper, which has a smoother paper finish .

As you can see from the study above, pastels give you the option to smooth and blend the colors together or simply leave the raw layering to give a really nice expressive technique.

I find it helpful when using any kind of pastel, whether oil, or chalk (soft or hard), to have a tub of baby wipes or handy wipes available, especially if you like to blend with your fingers. They actually work well over your fingers to help blend your pastels.

I'll post a deeper dive about pastels in a future post. 

But for now, let me know if you try oil pastels. I'd love you to tag me in an IG post or leave me a comment here on this post. 

Have fun creating!

 Peace, Love, and Creativity, 

Jodi