…Scrapbooks, meet blog.
Blogging has turned out to be the best thing for my scrapbooking since the paper trimmer and eyelet hammer.
I started scrapbooking probably 10 or 15 years ago. A friend invited me to a Creative Memories party and I was hooked…big time! A couple of my girlfriends at work were getting into it too, so on Fridays, we’d haul all our stuff up to work and spend our lunch hour working on scrapbook pages. Once a month or so we’d go to late night crops at local scrapbook stores and scrap to our hearts’ content.
That’s when it became a full-fledged obsession. I subscribed to magazines, scoured the web for new techniques, and started accumulating the stash of paper, letter stickers, and embellishments that now rivals a small scrapbook store.
Back then I was all about chronological albums and worked hard to try to keep my scrapbooks up-to-date. I documented every birthday, holiday, and vacation with page appropriate accoutrement and proudly displayed them to anyone who’d have a look.
But then I kinda lost my mojo and my scrapbooks started to dwindle.
I think part of it was that we got busy. At first, a few months of photos didn’t seem like that much to catch up on, but then it turned into a few years worth and it became clear that I would never get around to those chronological albums. But I think mostly it was because, after a few rounds of the ups and downs that life threw at us, my perspective changed. Instead of documenting where Kelsey had her latest birthday party, it became more important to document my feelings about her and all the other special people in my life. I wanted to scrapbook all the things that make our family unique and special to me. I wanted to scrapbook all the funny stories and regular stuff in life that makes me smile. Consequently, with that kind of intention and my perfectionist tendencies (ahem), it takes me a bit longer to put a page like that together – I have a hard time slapping together some pretty paper and a few stickers and calling it good.
So I continued to scrapbook, but only in spurts with mini-albums. A vacation mini-album here, a few birthday mini-albums there…It was the perfect way for me to get my “fix” and to really focus on a particular theme or sentiment.
Then I discovered blogs. (insert choir of angels here!)
Here’s a place where I can document everything – pictures, stories, sentiments…And it’s all preserved! I can just blather on about our pets or pour my heart out about my only child – then hit save. Plus (angelic music again!) THERE’S NO MESS!!!
(Well maybe except for the “Pictures” folder on my laptop but that’s a whole other can of worms.)
The coolest, most awesomest thing is that I can make the kind of scrapbooks I want with the time I have completely stress free knowing that all the important stuff is documented and preserved in my blog.
For a sentimental, nostalgia junkie like me, it’s match made in heaven!
Peace, Kelly
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