Blog - at home with Ashley

How to do a Monthly Growth Photo for your Baby

Hello!!! And welcome to the last day of Photo Week. You guys, my baby just turned 8 months old. Where has the time gone?! I can’t be too sad because he is so fun! And into everything. He loves nothing more than to explore. His favorites? The dog food and water bowl and doors. So exciting! Haha! When Don was born, I decided to take a monthly photo of him so I could see his growth at the end of the year. So every month, I set up a little photo shoot area and take a million pictures of my monkey.

Here are some tips so you can do the same:

How to Do a Monthly Growth Photo for your Baby-

Gather inspiration. Pinterest has so many great ideas! Below are the two inspiration photos that I used to create mine

2. Choose the elements you will have in every shot. I use a rocking elephant (from Pottery Barn kids), chalkboard, and furry rug from Ikea. Using the same elements each time will really highlight your baby’s growth

3. Choose the location. I take the picture in Don’s nursery against his wallpapered wall. Pick somewhere with a background you like and can consistently use for a year

4. Choose the clothes. I am dressing my baby up in all white. I have seen people just put their baby in a white onesie or diaper or they switch it up each month

5. Choose a way to document their age. The most common ways I have seen are with a chalkboard (like what I am doing) or with a onesie with a number on the front. Or you can edit each photo to add their age. Just do something or you will forget and it will be just another cute photo of your baby.

6. Be consistent with the filter. I wish I would have used the same filter on all of my images and may go back and edit them all at once so at the end of the year they are the same. You just want to make it as easy as possible to compare how they have changed from month to month.

There you have it! It’s pretty easy to do and I think my baby will love looking back on them one day. I figure he will never change physically so much in a year as this one! And yes, I did stare at these too long and got sad at how big he is- haha #sillymom

p.s. I complied lots of inspiration photos for these monthly growth photos on my Pinterest board:

Follow At Home with Ashley’s board Pictures to Take on Pinterest.

How to Store your Photo Memories

Hi Guys! Photo week continues with a how to store your photo memories. With pictures gone digital it is SO hard to get them off your camera/phone and create something you can hold on to. On Monday I gave my tips for printing Instagram photos. But what about documenting the rest of your adventures? I am a huge memory keeper. I was always the Historian in clubs in high school and loved taking pictures and putting them in scrap books. I have a craft closet and one shelf is dedicated to my old, bulky, beautiful scrapbooks. But they are SO expensive to create! Seriously! Just printing out 100 pictures is about $15 plus shipping and then add fancy paper, stickers, glue it gets pricey and time consuming. So what I do is create a yearly book through blurb.com.

How to Store your Photo Memories

This is NOT a sponsored post and zero affiliate were used, I just really, really love my Blurb books! I have made a yearly book with them for 8 years (yes! EIGHT) and I cherish these books. Like I would grab them in a fire (after my baby and dogs) cherish them. Here’s why-

They are beautiful! The hard cover image-wrapped cover looks so professional and then the nice paper inside is heavy. They are gorgeous and feel expensive
They are 100% customizable. All you have to do is download blurb’s free software to design your book and then you can customize it however you like.
They are affordable. You know I like a good deal. These are $75-$100 for a book, but you can usually find a coupon. Even without one, I think $100 is a good price for a whole year’s worth of photos. If you were to print the 2000 photos that were in my book, that would be around $300, plus the price of a few albums.
They are compact. Way smaller than printing out 2000 photos and putting them in an album or scrapbook!

Here’s how to make a photo book of you year:

Journal your activities and narrow down your pictures throughout the year. I personally have a private, free blog on blogger.com and blog every two weeks the previous weeks activities. (If you don’t have a blog, I would suggest journaling in a word document and keeping a file of your favorite photos that accompany that activity). The beauty of Blurb is their software uploads your blog and all of the pictures. It makes it SO easy!
As you journal, add to the book. So if you wrote about your child’s birthday party, next put it in the book. That way, at the end of the year you don’t have hours and hours of editing on your hands
Determine how long your book will be for. My book is a year long and goes from my anniversary in September to the next September which is confusing sometimes! I would suggest starting with January and going through December to keep it simple. Some people create books for trips or big events (wedding, new baby).
Use the same style and be consistent. There are so many ways to customize these books, but I think consistently using the same style through your books will keep them looking uniform and are easier for you to edit

I can’t tell you how many times I have grabbed one of my books to see what we were doing in years past. My husband and I love to look through old ones and see our travels and the fun things we did with our friends. And I am sure that Don will love looking through them too!

My suggestion for printing photos (besides display ones) is to not do it! I just really think that making a yearly book is cheaper and more beautiful. Let me know if you create a book and how you like it! My latest one just came in the mail and it was like Christmas to get it! I loved flipping through it and see my stomach get huge and read my baby’s birth story. I am SO happy that I have taken the time to document our lives.

DIY Instagram Wall Hanging

Hi Friends! This week I am in Idaho for work- I have pre-scheduled posts for this week since I will be working my fanny off. I decided it would be fun to do a photo week! To kick it off, we are starting with how to make a DIY Instagram Wall Hanging.

Hanging in my hall, I have a framed DIY Instagram wall hanging. It is one of my favorite things, so I thought I’d share how to put it together and up keep it.

Note: Affiliate links may be used. See my disclosure for details

This is the inspiration photo for my project. Found here. I love Instagram (who doesn’t, right?!), but I also love seeing my photos printed out (check back on Wednesday for my other solutions for printing your photos on a budget and beautifully). For this DIY you need three things:

A Picture Frame (the bigger the better! Mine is ——- I can fit —– photos on it). I always get my large frames from the thrift store and then paint them. This is the most cost effective way to buy a frame- they are usually about $5. Don’t pay attention to color- focus on size and the details. Even if it has something ugly framed, don’t worry, you can just throw that out.
An Insert. You can tape your pictures right to the wall, but I didn’t want to deal with the potential mess and like the idea that I can move my wall hanging. I had the lightest piece of wood I could find at Home Depot cut to the size of the picture frame. I then painted my wood insert a mint color and assembled my frame.
Pictures. To print pictures, I go to Walmart and use their HP photo printing machines. All you need to do is plug in your phone or jump drive and select the Instagram photos you want to print. I print them the 4″x6″ size. Make SURE to select the “do not crop” button and your photos will print perfectly- just with two white strips on the sides. You will need to trim the white edges off (they end up being 4″x4″), but this is by far the cheapest way I have found to print my Instagram photos $0.29 per photo! Another option is to take a screen shot of your Instagram photos and then you can send them anywhere to be printed without worrying about them being zoomed in and turning out weird (this distortion is what usually happens when you send a square Instagram photo in to be printed). For a visual, here is a great post on this. Again, you will just need to cut off the excess. This is the cheapest option as you can get 4×6 photos for as cheap as $0.09 if you order ahead. You can also get your Instagrams printed for $0.50 each at Social Print Studio, but you will have to pay for shipping and they require you to print 24 at a time.
Adhesive- I like to use these square stickers to adhere the photos to the wood (the link is for Amazon or you can get them at Michael’s). They stay put, but don’t damage the wood when I take old photos off. I also use washi tape (the black and white striped tape is from Target) to tape up my Instax photos.

To upkeep, I like to print pictures every few months. I make an album in my phone of my favorites and print about 10-15 photos from that album every 2-3 months. When I have new photos, I just take my least favorite old photos off the wood and put in a photo album or throw them away. It is a bit of a pain to have to print out pictures every few months, but it is fun to see the new photos up and enjoy them with my family. Worth it 🙂

How to Install Chair Molding

Good Morning! I gave you a sneek peek last Friday of my chair molding- didn’t it turn out great?! Here us the post on how to install chair molding. Last Monday I decided was the day to buy the materials and put it up. So I headed to Lowe’s with my baby and bought all of the materials I needed. He was way off schedule from Day Light Saving time, so we were there bright and early. We looked ridiculous because I put him in a carrier and was pushing a big cart loaded with everything we needed, but I did it!

Side note, I found pre-made picture molding for sale at Lowes in case that is helpful to anyone. There were a bunch of styles for $10-$13 each. This would be such a fast and simple way to customize your house! I am too picky on my sizes for this to work for me, but I wanted to pass it on:

I got home, put my baby down for a nap and was scared and overwhelmed to start. I didn’t really know what I was doing! But I got going anyway and gathered all of my tools.

Tools for Install Chair Molding:

Chair Molding (I bought 5 of the 8′ size)
Level
Blue Painter’s Tape
Hammer
Finish Nails
Miter Block
Tape Measure
Caulk
Liquid Nails
Caulking Gun
Wood Filler
Sand Paper
Paint Brush
Paint
Paint Stirrer
Drill
Drill Bits
Hack Saw
Drop Cloth
Plans
Nail Setter (not shown)
Wet rag (not shown)

First step was using the level and going around and drawing a line with pencil where the top of the chair molding will be (read this post on planning for installing chair molding for how I decided to put the top of the molding 37″ off the ground). This was the only time I used the level for this project. Thank goodness I didn’t try to use it when I was installing the trim- with two people it would have worked, but by myself it would have been too much to do.

Next was cutting the first piece of molding. I used my picture from my plans to decide what angle to cut it on. I measured twice and cut. At first I used a clamp to hold the trim in place, but it was hard to keep perfect this way, so I eventually ditched it. One thing I had to be careful with was making sure I was measuring correctly on the piece of wood. So if you are cutting on an angle, you need to measure from the highest point on where the saw hits the wood. I would cut a piece of molding, install it, and then repeat to make sure I was cutting accurately.

After that, I prepped for putting up the boards. First I ripped off pieces of blue painter’s tape and put them on the wall. Later, these will hold your boards in place while the glue dries.

Next, I pre-drilled holes into the wood in three spots so I could nail up the trim. I laid out a drop cloth under where I was working and put nails and a hammer on the ground so I could easily grab them. This step was a life save for me! It saved the trim from splitting and made it fast and easy to hammer up the board later.

The last prep I did was apply Liquid Nails to the back of the board to be installed

Now it was time to put my board on the wall. This was hard to do alone! But I came up with some steps that made it easier for me as I worked:

Put in a nail to the center of your board in the hole you just drilled. Start in the middle so you have the most leverage. Get your board in place and then nail in your center nail.
Now you can start at an end, nail the end of your board in and then start adding in the blue tape and working your way to the other end where you will hammer in your last nail and finish installing the blue tape
Use your wet rag and wipe off any excess Liquid Nails

Isn’t that corner pretty?! Haha! I was rather proud of my self that it was working!!

As the nails were getting installed, I would use a nail setter and hammer in the nails so they were below the trim’s surface. This makes it so you can putty the hole and won’t be able to see nail holes after you paint. #professional

Lastly, I put in the wood filler in where two boards meet and where any nail holes and sanded off any extra after it dries. After a few hours of having the blue tape up, I took it down. So, and you can tell I didn’t paint or caulk the trim. I am still going to add in picture molding (as discussed here), so I will paint and caulk after everything is up.

When I was done with my project, I still had a bunch of Liquid Nails and didn’t know how to keep it from drying out so I can use it again. I Googled it and found out that you can put a big screw in the opening and that should keep it fresh!

Since I will be installing the picture molding next weekend, but I don’t want to live in a construction zone (especially with a crawling baby), I put all of the tools I will need again in a hamper in a closet. I used this method when I was painting two weekends in a row. I have a clean house, but when I am ready to work on my project again, I can just pull out a basket and have all of the tools ready for me! So convenient!

Are you ready for more progress photos?! Before:

So there you have it, one step closer to my inspiration:

Chair Railing Sneak Peek and Epiphany

Hi Guys! Guess what, putting up the chair molding went great! Here is a sneak peek:

Chair Railing Sneak Peek and Epiphany

I also have a full post on the process with lots and lots of photos, but I just don’t have time to put it up now. I am crazy busy with work opening up a store so I have been pre-writing blog posts for while I am out of town with that. I ran out of time to get this post up :(.

I wanted to share an epiphany that I had. I always tell my husband that when I am rich I will always have fresh flowers in my house. But I got thinking about it and I AM rich. I technically don’t have a ton of money, but I do have a rich life. I have an amazing family- I fall more in love with my baby every day and it sure is magical watching my husband do the same. I have a job I love. I am having so much fun with this blog and being creative at home! So I put flowers on my grocery store list. When I went to the store I saw a bin of clearance flowers and the exact ones I wanted were in there for $1.25. It felt magical! So you don’t have to be rich to have flowers in your life, maybe you just have to know what you want and be brave enough to go for it.

Happy weekend! I have a really fun week of posts lined up for you next week- please check back 🙂

Planning for Installing Chair Railing

Hi Friends! I have convinced myself that I am handy enough to install my own chair railing and picture molding. Even though I have never done it before, I am going to attempt it and hope it looks beautiful. When we first bought our condo I sat in the living room and pictured how amazing picture molding would look and have been wanting to do it since then. So I’m taking the plunge and starting with chair molding! Here is how I am planning for installing chair railing:

-First off, I went price shopping. I went to Lowes and took pictures of all of the Chair molding. This was super helpful because now I have prices and know that they come in 8′ and 12′ lengths. I am not to picky on the profile, price is a bigger deal for me so I’ll probably go with the cheapest option ($7.46 for an 8′ length and $11.64 for a 12′ length)

-Next I measured my space. Measuring for chair molding is super easy as you just have to measure how long your walls are. I have 32′-6″ of wall to cover.

-Third, I read tutorials. Since I am a novice at this, I figured I better read some directions. These helped me with the technical parts- like you cut a 45 degree angle to put two pieces together or to join pieces at a corner. This tutorial was very helpful too!

– I needed to decide where to mount the chair molding. It is supposed to be 1/3 up the wall so somewhere between 32-36″ depending on your ceiling height. I actually had a chair leave a dent in my wall, so I found the patch and measured where that was- it ended up being exactly 36″ from the floor. I’ll probably mount the chair molding 37″ from the floor so it covers where a chair would hit my wall.

-I thought it would be helpful to draw myself a diagram for the cuts I would make. It helped me think through my plan and I figured it would be a good reference for the angle to cut. I obviously won’t use it for measurements.

-After that, I figured out how much chair molding to buy. I calculated that I can buy 3 of the 12′ lengths for $34.92 (which will give me 3′ excess for mistakes) or I can buy 5 of the 8′ lengths for $38.80 (which will give me 7′ of excess). Right now I am leaning towards buying the 8′ lengths, because although it’ll be more cuts, it’ll also be easier to maneuver by myself

-Last I made a shopping list based on the tutorials I read. I still need to go over this list with my husband to make sure I’m not buying anything he already has. Then tomorrow morning I am off to go shopping! Check back Friday for a sneak peek at the progress!

How to Plan for the Perfect Christmas

How to Plan the Perfect Christmas

Now that Halloween is done, it is time for the holidays! Doesn’t the year just seem to speed up right around now? Sigh, but it is such a fun time of year! A few years ago I decided to spend November preparing for Christmas so that December can be spent enjoying it.

So my goal is to have all Christmas gifts bought and wrapped by November 30th. If you are a procrastinator about Christmas, this might sound crazy, but it is SO nice to have it all done so you can go to parties/activities without stress. Here is how I am going to prep so I can have the best Christmas ever:

-Set the budget-

When I went on my strict budget, one thing I learned is that “Christmas is not an emergency.” Aka, you know it’s coming so you can prepare all year for it. I used to be broke all November and December so I could buy presents, but there is a better way! Make a list of all of the things you buy, who you buy gifts for, total it, divide it by 12, and than save that amount monthly. You’ll be surprised that most years you buy gifts for the exact same people so it’s pretty easy to plan for. Here is what I budget for:

Gifts for my husband
Gifts for myself
Gifts for baby Don
Gifts for my husband’s family
Gifts for my family
Gifts for friends
Gifts for coworkers
Gifts for dogs (I know, I’m crazy but I buy them a gift every year so I budget for it)
Christmas Cards
Wrapping paper, ribbon, tags
Christmas Decor
Christmas Activities

I put $85 a month in a savings account called “Christmas.” It is so easy! My bank is awesome about letting you open as many savings accounts as you want and then I just use an app on my phone to transfer money. Whenever I buy a gift I just transfer the money over.

I keep a list with totals and I am very strict about staying on budget. If you don’t save for Christmas yet, I am challenging you to start next year. It’s actually easiest right after the holidays because then you remember all of the things you spent money on and who you bought gifts for.

-Choose a Christmas theme-

This one isn’t for everyone, but I like to choose a theme that will carry from how I wrap my presents, to my Christmas card, to my decor. This year I was flipping through my Pottery Barn catalog and decided on the theme: Let it Glow.

-Order Christmas cards-

I am sometimes the worst at this and wait until December to take pictures and then have to pay a TON of money to rush the cards. This year I am being better and ordering them in November! I like to order from Minted. I keep a list of people who I send cards to- they are saved on Minted’s site and are super quick to update each year. This is the card I choose this year.

-Plan out my decor-

I used to have a bunch of red decor, but have slowly been taking it away and going more neutral. This year I will be using my theme- Let it Glow and creating some fun items. I can’t wait to show you!

-Make a wish list-

I create a wish list on Amazon and have my husband, his mom, and my mom buy off of it. I also create a wish list for my baby and have my husband create one for himself too. Throughout the year when I decide I want something, I can easily add it to the list and not forget about it. Here are a few items on my list- you know practical things like pretty books, LPs, and pink camera covers 🙂 (note, affiliate links used):
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-Use a Trello Board for all of your organizing-

This is not an advertisement, but I have recently started using Trello.com to organize my to do lists for home, the blog, and work. I LOVE it! Plus, its free! You can easily organize your to do list and move items around based on priorities. They are pretty too!

At work, it has helped me be so much more productive and organized. I used to lose my to do lists that were written on sticky notes. But with this, you don’t lose the paper, plus there is an app so you can access it anywhere. I’ve heard the best function is when you are working on a project with a group because you can add comments and easily see where you are on the project.

So what I am saying is this is great for any area of your life that could use organizing. I created a board for Christmas and will be using it to keep track of my budget (my husband can access it too)- if you click each “card” it has the budget amount so if my hubby buys our baby a gift, he can update the total. I am so excited to test this out this year!

So now I am feeling all prepared for Christmas! I hope some of these ideas inspired you so that you can prep and really enjoy the holidays.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

All inspiration photos are from my Holiday board on Pinterest
Follow At Home with Ashley’s board Holiday on Pinterest.

Happy Halloween!

Hello!!! Since Halloween is tomorrow, I thought I would post our Halloween costumes and the pumpkins we decorated. First up- our Halloween pumpkins. This year, since I have a little one, I thought it would be fun if he helped decorate his own pumpkin. I didn’t want it to be a mess though (mostly because I didn’t want him to eat paint or hurt himself). Let’s face it, there is only so much a 7 month old can do. So I put some paint in a bin and a small pumpkin and let him shake and push the bin around, with some help :). It turned out cute-ish. Mostly I like it because I am his mom and this was his first art project.

Note: Affiliate links have been usedFor Halloween costumes, I have a philosophy where I like them to be cute and a combination of bought (preferably from a thrift or vintage shop) and hand made. To me, this makes them unique and more expensive looking while technically being cheaper. I just really hate the plastic-y costumes that you buy straight from the store. Last Halloween when I was pregnant I found a Pottery Barn Kids lion costume on sale for $7.50 plus 30% off- sold! It was from Down East Home. I headed to Pinterest and started thinking of all of the themes my family could be. It was a tie between Wizard of Oz and Circus. Circus won out.

Moccasins from Ebay (no longer available). Pottery Barn Costume from DownEast Home (no longer available).

My husband doesn’t like dressing up for Halloween, so I don’t make him. The rest of our family is dressing up as: Ring Leader (me), Lion (Don), Clown (Lucy the Dog), and Strong Man (Derek the dog- I didn’t get a good picture of him, he was too excited). My exception to the hand-made part is dogs. I just buy their costumes. This year I got them off eBay and saved SO much money! My tip with buying dog costumes is to search early if you have a specific idea. I’ve had a few years where I didn’t get what I wanted because I waited til the last minute and everything was sold out. Guys, dressing everyone up is the BEST for me! It makes me so happy and laugh so hard. I put the clown costume on my girl dog and she was ticked, but adorable. She just sat in one spot and glared at me- haha!

This isn’t the best picture of my jacket, but it is so cool! I bought the red jacket at a thrift store for $6. I got the best fitting one I could find. I then went to Joann’s and bought $10 worth of trim and hot glued it on. I followed this tutorial and am thrilled with how it turned out! The little top hat is also from Joann’s

I hope you have a Happy Halloween! I am SO excited to take Don trick or treating for the first time ever. Be safe and eat too much candy 🙂

Living Room updates

Hi Friends! I am focusing on updating my living room right now. You can look forward to weekly updates as I work my heart out on the weekends. I personally LOVE reading blogs with weekly progress on the same room so I am hoping that this is fun for you too. Let’s get right to it! Some living room updates:

note, affiliate links are used

I got new pillows! Well, I guess that I should say I got new pillow covers. I have decided that I will buy pillow covers and so when I get sick of pink (or want to change it up seasonally), I can switch it out without much storage. So the inserts are from Joann’s and the pillow covers are from Etsy from this seller. I got the 18″x 18″ single sided option for $15.99 each. Ok, so let’s be transparent, these pillows are a knock-off of the Caitlin Wilson City Maze pillow (although a lighter pink that works better for my house). I am always looking for the look for less (her version comes in a 20″x20″ pillow cover for $60 EACH) and I just couldn’t stomach paying SO much even though it is beautiful. Craziness! The pillow covers I got are actually great quality and nice and thick. They took 3 weeks to arrive.

A new lamp. I have mentioned that the corner by my sofa is super dark. One day I was at Target buying items for a work photo shoot and saw this lamp. It was perfect for my work project, but I got thinking- “this is perfect for my living room!” So $30 later, I bought it for myself :). It is really nice to have now that the days are shorter and it gets dark so early. When you get to the top of the stairs, the only light switch goes to this lamp. Before you would have to walk across the dark room to get to the main light switch.

The walls are now a beautiful white!!! I spent two weekends painting my living room the wrong white and then the right white (which I chronicle here). It is so much lighter and brighter in here, I love it!!! Painting is a pain (especially with a baby- I only work on the blog during naps. It’s tiring!), but it feels updated and one step closer to my vision. Hip hip hooray!!!

I have some more design direction! So one of the unexpected things with having this blog is that I have really be focusing on my house- how it works, how it doesn’t, how it can improve. I’ve learned a lot! I see photos on Instagram and Pinterest and I think- I should do that! So let’s get into specifics… Since I posted my Living Room Dreams and Plans, I have added some things to that list (and taken some off). First off, I think having a small home office in the corner of our living room would be adorable! And functional. Right now half of the baby’s closet is filled with a filing cabinet and printer. It’s super inconvenient, plus, the space where I would put a small desk and shelves in the living room is dead space (currently occupied with a baby jungle gym :)). I would also really like to add some molding. I am thinking chair molding and then picture molding above and below the chair molding. That is next weekend’s plan (!!!). I would also like to add some vertical decorations, specifically a faux deer head above my console. I am also considering re-upholstering my side chair cushions with some black and white stripe fabric I have. It is outdoor material and cleans SO easily and the linen that it currently has is starting to look scary. Some inspiration photos for your viewing pleasure:
All images can be found on my Pinterest Board:
Follow At Home with Ashley’s board Living Room Ideas on Pinterest.

Let’s finish this post with a before and progress shot (I have so much to add to call it an after shot! But we’re getting there!)

What did you work on last weekend? Any new design direction for your house?

How to make a World Travel Map

When I was a newlywed, my husband worked for the airlines and we traveled for free. The pay was awful and the hours were worse, but we traveled so much, I wouldn’t change a thing. I wanted a way to keep track of our travels, so I created this world travel map that is now the main piece of art in my baby’s room.

Here’s what I love about it:

It documents your travels
It is statement art for cheap
It helps you dream of our next travel destination

Here’s easy instructions on how to make a world travel map (please note, affiliate links are used):

Gather Supplies. You will need a frame- I got mine from the thrift store and painted it black. I LOVE getting big frames from the thrift store because they are so affordable this way (usually around $5). You will also need a world map (I got mine from Amazon), foam core, spray adhesive, and map pins. The supplies for this will be about $30 or less if you have any of them hand before or not. (p.s. if you aren’t into DIY, I found a seller on Etsy who will make you an assembled world travel map for $99).
Use the spray adhesive to adhere your map to the foam core
Assemble the frame
Use the map pins to mark what you want. These three categories work for us- where we’ve lived, where we’ve traveled, and where we want to travel.

My husband and I have really beautiful memories of standing in front of the map and talking about where in the world we want to go next :). We can’t wait till we have some money saved up and can bring baby boy somewhere. Maybe we’ll have to get a new color of pin for travels with him.