I know it's Fourth of July week and everyone is on vacation but around the blog this is going to be scrapbooking (or are we calling it "memory keeping" now?) week.
Pink Ronnie is a blog I follow and enjoy. I especially enjoy her scrapbooking memory keeping posts but they're a bit overwhelming. She has systems. And systems within systems. Impressive but a lot to maintain (she has four sons under 5 and separate scrapbooking projects for each plus the family book and one for her and her husband as a couple). Anyway, despite the intimidation factor I like how she thinks about scrapbooking and it forced me to think about how I want to approach (or not aproach) scrapbooking.
Have I posted about this before?
For someone who is not a worrier by nature I seem to spend an inordinate amount of brainpower worrying about keeping up with the kids' scrapbooks and the fact that Oscar has less than one year of scrapbook while Biscuit has two solid years then a big gap then kindergarten. I feel bad not having books for them but will they even care? I read something someone wrote online (not Ronnie. Maybe Swistle?) about how they record kid memories/photos not for the kids but for their own elder years to look back on and enjoy. That had honestly never occurred to me. Strange, right? I only thought about doing books for them but why not for me? It makes much more sense to scrapbook for ones own enjoyment than for the potential enjoyment of your future adult children. My mom was/is a scrapbooker extraordinaire long before it was a thing that involved fancy supplies and acid free paper and there are shelves of lovely books and millions of photos (my dad is an avid photographer) catalouging the lives of my sister and I. And there are slides. And it is fun to go through the books/slides with my parents. Perhaps they also enjoy picking them up when I'm not around. And I know my mom likes to show the old photos to Biscuit. So, really, who cares why my mom scrapbooked or where the books will end up (I cannot get over how sad it seems to see lovingly created scrapbooks in the trash but really, barring house fire, that is where they'll end up at some point, right? The great grandkids will pull a few select photos for historic purposes and trash the rest). And as I write that, it doesn't sound so bad. If I like taking photos (yes) and putting together scrapbooks (usually, yes) and looking through them now and then (yes) then why should I worry about the ultimate fate of the books?
Gosh, writing that was sort of cathartic. Now I want to scrapbook even more.
So, back to the "system" I've been thinking about after reading Ronnie's post. As of today, this is my "system" and as obnoxious as it is to have a scrapbooking "system" I actually find it a helpful way to think about the various projects I undertake and enjoy.
A week in the life. This is an annual scrapbooking project that I first learned about from Ali Edwards. I just did it in early June for 2013 and that was year 4. One week is the perfect length for me. I love the snapshot-in-time aspect of the project and seeing all the books lined up on the shelf. Even if I abandon all other scrapbooking I'd like to keep going on this. I'll post photos from my 2013 book this week.
Instagram book. The photos in this post are from my Instagram book started on a whim in early 2012. I bought these odd shaped but super high quality scrapbooks at Pottery Barn ages ago. Like 10 years ago. They were on super sale ($1.99 each!) and I have hoarded them ever since (I have three). I finally decided to USE one. I am a rather inconsister user of Instagram but periodially (ie whenever I feel like it) I use Postagram to print all my Instagram photos. They come in the mail and then I paste them in this book. I go back through my Instagram feed to add the captions in handwriting. I kind of love this book/project. It's totally low stress. Plus, the iPhone/Instagram is such a great way to capture the randomness of life. But I do have to remind myself to not do 100% pictures of the kids. Looking back I like the mix of scenery/food/house/action photos.
Kids' scrapbooks. My goal for this June was to catch up on these. Fail. I did make good progress on Oscar's but I'm still behind. I think I'm okay with that and will just do what I can. For Oscar I'm trying to finish his first year baby book and for Biscuit I'm trying to put together a binder with her school days stuff (class photo, some home work and art, photos etc). Not sure how/if the school binder will include things like pictures from her birthday party but I suspect I'll just dump it all in.
Travel scrapbooks. I've decided I love getting the digital printed books for vacations and trips. They're so inexpensive, small to store, and easy to do right when you get back from a trip and the memories are fresh and folks still care to see vacation photos at all. I use Costco and l like the quality and not having to pay for shipping. I just finished the book for our road trip and will post about it soon.
Travel scrapbooks part 2. Last year I loved doing our scrapbook on the road from our roadtrip (again, an idea from Ali Edwards). This year I made another book and it wasn't quite as fun/cool as last year (Biscuit wasn't very into it) but it still kept me amused and gave me a place to record little memories. Looking through last year's book to plan this year's book was a lot of fun and this project is really more about process than result. I still want to add some photos to this year's book but I'll post photos shortly.
Finally, I'm keeping up pretty well on my photo-a-day challenge for 2013. Not perfect but close. I think I may print a book of those as I did in 2011 but that seems like more of a side project.
Ok, now that I have finally typed all that, I'm actually doing a lot of scrapbooking (with the exception of the kids books). I feel better already. And now I'd better go to bed. All of the sudden it's past midnight.
More scrapbooking tomorrow ;)
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