I can never decide how I want to preserve my memories. There are so many different outlets to document and display your memories and every time I see a new idea, or at least new to me, I think “aha! That’s it!”. Then I either don’t follow through or maybe I try to start, but never really get anywhere. Basically, all of my memories are on my laptop’s hard drive in the form of jpegs. I don’t even have an external hard drive to back up all of these photos! I keep meaning to buy one, especially since I got a fancy pants new camera over the summer and now I take photos with a much larger filesize and I’ve started learning how to use Lightroom and heaven forbid something happens to my hard drive and I can’t recover all those edited photos. Why haven’t I bought a back up drive yet?????? That will be on my 2012 To-Do List.
Anyway, back to my memories….so my mom started scrapbooking sometime when I was in college. She and her friends are all into it and one of her friends sells supplies through Creative Memories and holds scrapbooking get-togethers, which are a great way for all of them to hunker down and get their scrapbooks finished and to socialize and, I imagine, also give each other inspiration and feedback. When I was home during holiday and summer breaks my mom tried to encourage me to get into scrapbooking. I really enjoyed it at first and made some page layouts that I’m pretty proud of. But, I honestly have no idea where they are right now. When I graduated college I started making a small scrapbook, I think 8×8 or 7×7, and made some pages of trips P and I took. But……the scrapbook has been sitting untouched on our bookshelf for years.
Scrapbooking paper I bought years ago...I have no idea where they are now
My mom also told me about digital scrapbooking, but I never understood the concept. You create layouts digitally and then just keep the layouts on your computer? Or do you print them out?? Huh??
Then I started following Elise Blaha’s blog and was inspired by her mini books, but, OF COURSE, I never actually started one. Also, I’m not really good at journaling in scrapbooks, which is what Elise does really well. In addition to not knowing how to phrase stuff I also fuss over how my writing looks and in the end it’s just an OCD hot mess. I also loved the books she made of her engagment and wedding and thought it would be a fabulous project that I could easily finish. I even bought the exact same photo paper that she recommended and I ALMOST bought the binders too. But, several years later and I still haven’t even opened the photo paper! Maybe it’s because I loved my wedding photo album that I ordered through my wedding photographer, Chelsea Elizabeth, or maybe it’s because I’m super lazy, but the mini-book and three-ring binder books never got made.
Then I started seeing more and more people creating photo books. But where should I order it from? How many photos should I include? Should I create one for an entire year or just one trip or how about several trips? Now, I’m beginning to think these DIY projects are DOA because I over think the details before even starting. It’s becoming apparent as I write this that I’m interfering with my own progress!
I really like the idea of creating an annual photo book, like Chenin Boutwell does for her family to give as gifts to the grandparents (mental note has been made for when I have kids!), and I really liked a friend’s photo book of a safari trip. So when P and I returned from our recent trip to Paris, I knew I immediately had to start creating a photo book so (a) I wouldn’t forget what we did each day and (b) I could get it done before I got too lazy. Well, more than a month later and I am 1 or 2 layouts from being finished. I got stuck on one page layout and couldn’t figure out which photos to include and how the layout should look and I put it off for one day, then two, then a week went by, then the holidays came, but now they’re gone, and somehow I just haven’t finished it. I recently received emails from Blurb with reminders about a discount on photobooks. The discount code expires at the end of the month, so finishing and ordering a photo book of our trip is #1 on my January To-Do List.
This past week I discovered yet another type of scrapbook: Project Life. “I have to have it!” I immediately thought. Just look at those page dividers! I love the pockets! Thankfully before I made an impulse buy, I thought about what I would actually put in those pockets…….I have no freaking clue.
So I’m sorta back to square one…what should I do? I think I need to pick one project and just do it. Then after it’s done, evaluate it to see if it was worth the time and whether it’s something I think I’ll appreciate years later. So first up will be the photo book of our most recent trip. I’m really curious to see how the photos turn out in a Blurb book. Then, I’ll try out the semi-fancy photo paper I bought years ago and print some engagement and wedding photos. I think those two project will keep me busy for the next couple months. Once those are done, then maybe I’ll try out a scrapbook type of format. I think I’m just one of those people who want the photos to do the talking, but I still think I could pull off a scrapbook with minimal writing. What do other people do? Are there any other projects I’m missing that I could bring into the mix and stall me from completing these projects? oh geez, as if I need more distractions…
Calmez-Vous! 