It’s Friday. Fun Day. Which means we’re going to take a fun approach to our meaningful journaling.
Remember on Tuesday when I said using meaningful and authentic journaling in your layouts doesn’t mean completely sad, somber and heartwrenching layouts? Today we’re going to look at those layouts that incorporate meaningful journaling in a fun and quirky way. I love documenting all those fun moments in our family, and definitely love documenting those personality traits that in a few years may be gone or hidden under the mask of teenager-dom. It's those little things that will be forgotten a month, a year or a few years down the road and I definitely want to remember them.
One thing I want to emphasis as my week ends is the importance of jotting down memories, phrases, funny quotes and journaling ideas. I have notebooks all over the place and use my iPhone all the time to jot things down as well. That way when I'm trying to remember one of the multiple quotes from my girls or an idea I can go to the notebook and start from there.
A Journaling Twist on an Event
You might think a layout about a daughter getting her ears pierced are a dime a dozen. They are. I’ve looked. I wanted to go beyond that though with this event. My daughter decided she wanted her ears pierced at age 7 and knowing I had to tell her the truth, I was honest when she asked if it would hurt. It didn’t deter her from getting it done, even though I thought she would chicken out at the mere mention of pain. Am I mean for taking that photo on the right in mid scream with the leftover Christmas candy cane in her hand? You bet. After looking at these photos though it came to me what we as women go through for beauty – the waxing, the shaving, the plucking, the piercing, etc. So this layout was a play on words and the first of many things she will do for beauty that hurt!
Document Those Quirks
My youngest daughter has a weird obsession with gum and you bet that after a few months of this obsession I wrote it in my handy book of scrapbook topics to document. The October Afternoon bubble gum sticker took it to a new level and I quickly (well, with those circles not so quickly) made this layout about her obsession. Will I remember in 10 years about this phase she had? Highly doubtful, but I want to remember it because right now at age 6 it’s part of who she is. That picture? It has absolutely nothing to do with gum and she wasn’t chewing gum either, but it’s funny and goes well with this colorful, quirky layout!
You may or may not remember this from the August 2011 gallery-No Photos. My older daughter has a quirk as well, although I'm pretty sure hers will stay with her forever. She's literal. Very, very literal. And she says things and writes things that to her are very serious and common sense, but to us they are quite funny! We certainly don't laugh at her, but we do explain why we might chuckle a bit at things like the above 100th day of school assignment from last year! I had to document this and it hung on the refrigerator until it went onto this layout because I loved looking at it every morning. Although I think she will stay literal, coming from 2 very sarcastic parents we are rubbing off on her a bit and I don't want to forget this!
Don't Forget Yourself
Scrappers talk about this all the time and I'm going to reiterate it here again. Your family, and especially your kids, not only want to see pages and stories about themselves, but they also want to see pages about you. You are important and your quirks are important too. They don't want to see you just popping up on vacation and holiday photos and layouts, but they want to know the personality you, the funny you, the thoughtful you.
This photo was taken at my daughter's birthday party in August when we did photobooth pictures for all the girls. Never one to shy away from being silly, I donned them myself and my youngest budding photographer took my picture. What I journaled about is another play on words. The girls hear me say "Seriously" all.the.time. and are quite frankly sick of it I'm sure! But it's who I am and what I do. What I actually journaled about is my take on life in general: never take yourself too seriously. I'm sarcastic and will always lean towards humorous over serious in my daily life whenever I can!
What makes your family tick? What are some of those idiosyncrocies that make you a family, but also make you individuals? I'll be honest and say this was made for a magazine call about family personalities. It didn't get picked up, but I can say it is one of my favorite layouts over the last several months and I'm beyond glad I made it! We each had our own square where I described our personalities and what we're into at the time. I'm thinking this might be a yearly layout to update with photos and little tidbits of information!
Sharing
A few ladies linked me up to some of their photos and layouts about meaningful journaling that I want to share with you as well.
Diane Payne shared her layout about her daughter's zest for life in an older photo from childhood.
Linda shared her memories and thoughts about a day we all remember - September 11th and a bittersweet memory for her daughter.
Aliza shared her layout about the impact of saying sorry as a parent.
Thank You
I can't thank you all enough for reading and responding this week. I have to say I was very nervous to fill 4 days of content, but this is where my heart is with scrapbooking and I have loved putting it all together! You all made my week easy!
