What do you bring home from your travels?

Recently I read this great blog post from Fizzy Peaches - How to buy souvenirs on your travels that aren't tacky - and as a frequent traveller it made me think about the souvenirs and mementos that I bring back home to remind me of our holidays.

We aren't really big ones for buying things on holiday. A good thing when it comes to not having a house filled with tat, but I do sometimes see other people's houses with reminders of the places that they've visited on display and wish we had a little more.

As a child I didn't hold back though, and over the years travelling with my family plenty of tat came back with me. Not much of it remains now, but I do have a few things that I like to keep around. The little decorative plate in particular I vividly remember buying after visiting some caves in France, I've no idea why as I've never had any others like it before or since, but something about it must have appealed to me at the time. I think that the little cat must also have come from France due to the beret and I can't remember the origin of the shell mouse but he's very sweet!

I also bought these pottery candlesticks years ago on a family holiday somewhere hot and sunny. They don't match the decor anywhere in our house so I don't keep them out on display, but I bring them out when we have special meals and put them on the table. I love them!

When Ram and I first started holidaying together I decided that I would start to collect magnets, trying to find the most hideous and brightly coloured ones that I could. In our old house they were stuck to the front of the fridge, although unfortunate close proximity to the recycling box and a toddler meant that a few went missing over time. Our new house has an integral fridge with non magnetic door which is probably a good thing, so instead my remaining magnets are stuck to the magnetic backing on my desk holding up some favourite postcards.

More recently, when we go on holidays that involve a beach, I've been looking for sea glass (I hit the jackpot in Barcelona!) and interesting shells and pebbles. I have a big box full and no idea which individual beaches they all came from, but I like seeing them all jumbled together.

Finally the thing that I collect the most from holidays is paper - leaflets, guidebooks, pamphlets, postcards, tickets, maps...I have two boxes in the top of my wardrobe stuffed with paper souvenirs from all our trips. It's handy to have maps in case we intend to visit somewhere again (although in the days of Google maps they are pretty well redundant) and I love going back through the boxes and reminiscing.

What do you bring back from your travels?