There are times I find my passion for photo taking and story telling overwhelming and exhausting.
It is tremendously important for me to share with my kids memories of their growing up and share with them my views on things. Scrapbooking and blogging have really aided me in my quest to keep them included, informed and intrigued.
The problem is things become a bit scattered - here, there, everywhere. Layouts for one class, sketches for another, this challenge and that challenge without much time or method for "this is our life, now". Snippets, lovely little bits, without flow or context. I suppose that is why I embrace the "Week in the Life" challenge lead by Ali Edwards; Project 365, Month in Review, December Daily and the monthly 12 of 12 challenge so readily.
In my heart I am a chronological scrapper who simply does not have time or fortitude to be "caught up". I do not scrapbook chronologically because of the inevitability of falling behind. There is this myth called "caught up". I've heard about it but never experienced it. Have you?
I need order. I thrive in order. I crave order. Order gives me a sense of peace. It is easy to understand. Order requires little or no explanation.
Perfect. Or as close to perfect as this control-freak perfectionist can find.
To those of you who do not scrapbook or blog or memory keep, this might sound freakishly ridiculous to torment myself over something some might consider trivial. After all, I take pictures, I keep a blog, I make thoughtful and sometimes entertaining scrapbook pages, right? What more could I want or do?
Plenty. It's still not right. It just doesn't feel right. Or complete. I need context. I need flow. I need order.
And then the angels sang.
Yes, literally, sang. Accompanied with the obligatory blinding light, overwhelming sense of well-being and comfort of blissful peace.
Then my mind spun out of control with ideas and the energy that comes with possibility. You know those times you happen upon something you know you've been looking for but didn't know you were until you actually found it?
As she so often does, the brilliant, talented, funny, thoughtful and brilliant (she rates 2 brilliants) Cathy Zielske has come to my creative rescue.
I can now blend together my:
- obsessive need for chronology
- my monthly review posts (will have a place to be stored and read off the computer)
- my Project 365 photos (will no longer be stuck in iPhoto or the blog)
- and find a place for those important bits and bobs of ephemera that come into the house in backpacks and zippy bags
I will continue with my monthly 12 of 12 and my every-18-month-visit to A Week in the Life, and maybe even start and finish my December Daily now that the rest makes sense. There is a home for it all. Not only that, but I've found a way to do it. I purchased my very first digital set from Designer Digitals. I took advantage of their 30% off sale and bought a ton of digi paper - it was all so delicious! Call it a belated Mother's Day gift - thanks Claire, Cole, Chloe & Caden :)
For the designer set, I went with the 8.5"x11" format to spice things up a bit :) Though hybrid is my preferred way to create, I thought digi would prove itself the most efficient way to go with this. After all, I can always turn it into a hybrid project, right?
I can still participate in challenges, sketch classes, and attempt page submissions but now I won't have to try to combine everything together in order to be-all-things-to-all-challenges-submissions-personal pages all the time.
What do you think? How do you scrapbook? Would this make your project keeping easier?
