I talked about this subject when I hosted back in the fall. And well, since it's something I feel strongly about, I'm going to talk about it again. I look at it this way (and this is just my personal opinion and I am in no way saying that the holidays and such are not important): When I look at Christmas photos, or Easter or Halloween, I will know what they are. I want to scrapbook the pictures whose stories I might forget and might not be obvious at first glance. I want to record the stories that really tell who we are, what we care about and make us say, "Oh yeah! I remember that!" Therefore, I stink at holidays, but am great at sleeping habits, favorite activities and funny things my kids have said.
Last month I participated in Ali Edwards Week in the Life project. Loved it. I took pictures of things I might otherwise have ignored. Of course, I still haven't put my album together, although I did post my pictures daily on my blog. In looking back over the pictures, I keep thinking of pages I want to do. While I'm not going to scrapbook a bunch of layouts based on that week, since (at some point) I'll have my Week in the Life album, there are a couple topics I am going to focus on.
I plan on doing one about our bedtime rituals. It's not one I'm doing right now, as I need to take some pictures to support it, but I do plan on completing it soon. I also will be doing one about our church. It's something I've yet to scrapbook, and with the pictures I took for this project, I have just what I need to document this important part of our lives.
Taking all the pictures for that album inspired me to take photograph the morning of our ultrasound earlier this month. I snapped pictures on the way there and in the waiting room, and even took a video before we left. When I did the layouts of my daughters' ultrasounds, I only used ultrasound pictures. This time I have pictures that support the whole story of finding out we're having a boy, and I love it.
(Again, I swear this page is not crooked!)
You know how when you go to Bob Evans they have those books for sale about the year you were born? I love to look at those. Which leads me to the next layout on my to-do list: the grocery store.
I've been saving my receipts for the last month to record the prices, as well as the items that we're purchasing. I'm going to take pictures of the outside of the store, of Emma in the Eagle's Nest and Mackenzie in the cart with me. And of course, my mismatched reusable bags.
When Mackenzie learned to climb out of her crib back in the fall, I knew that was a story I wanted to scrapbook. I took of video of her climbing out, then in Picasa I captured images as the video played. I printed those out to form a storyboard of sorts, and made this page:
Last summer, all my girls talked about was going on a picnic. We finally did it the Saturday before my husband went back to teaching and they loved it. This is one of those things that while if I were to look back on just the pictures, I'd know we were at the park eating lunch, I wouldn't have the story behind it.
It's always good to scrapbook those stories that make you laugh. Like this one. While I highly doubt I will ever forget this, I am so happy to have the entire story on paper, complete with conversations. I won't forget that I didn't recognize Lisa running by, but I know without this, I'd never remember what we said about it afterward.
How about you? How and what do you scrap? Events only? Not at all or a combination? What is your favorite subject to scrap? I challenge you to scrapbook something you might otherwise not have, maybe a slice of your daily life or a story you don't want to forget. Post your pages in the Flickr gallery, I'd love to check them out.
