We are back from Seattle, and I am busy catching up on things around here. Rather than writing a post about how great our trip was, I figured I’d share a couple of scrapbook pages I finished. (You can click on the image for a larger view.) Traveling with a baby was SO much easier than I had expected. It was fun!
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I was quite the scrapbooker years ago. I have one MASSIVE scrapbook that encompasses my four amazing years spent at a women’s college, and I have a great book that details my summer study abroad in 2001. I still look at them from time to time and love reliving those moments as I turn the pages. I can remember spending Saturdays or lazy afternoons hunched over a table with mounds of scraps and paper, and I think it was time well spent. They are books that still make me feel happy when I peruse the ticket stubs and photos that I matted and glued to patterned paper, and I know I’ll keep these albums for a long, long time.
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The problem now, however, is that I obviously don’t have the time I used to when it comes to crafty projects. Aside from that, scrapping in the traditional sense creates a HUGE mess. I don’t have the space or the patience to have glue, scissors, cut outs, and piles of paper in my house right now. I discovered digital scrapbooking a couple of months ago, and I decided to invest in some software and give it a try. Y’all this is addictive and so incredibly easy! There’s no mess because it’s all held on your computer, and if you mess up or decide you don’t like it, just start again. I love it. As I said before, completing part of this book is on my enormous summer to-do list. This weekend, I thought I’d get started with a page or two and I made 26 pages in one night! In ways, it’s not as sentimental as traditional scrapbooking because you can’t store things like the first lock of hair or a hospital bracelet, but I intend to place those somewhere else less artful, and use this for presentation of my photos. I’m approaching mine as a sort of letter to Jude to give him on his first birthday because that feels most natural for me, but you could do whatever works for you.
Here are a few pages I’ve finished, and I’m not exaggerating that they take minutes. I use Memory Mixer software, and it’s really simple, but I know there are a number of programs out there that are easy and affordable. When the whole book is complete, you can order a hardcover, bound version on Shutterfly or Snapfish, or whatever site you choose.
It’s been a busy morning around here. Actually, I lied. It totally hasn’t. The pace has been slow and leisurely, and we enjoyed some playtime on the porch this morning. After last week’s soaking in all the gratitude for this new SAHM gig, I feel like I need to get busy and establish a routine for myself. But, oh! These are the days. Sometimes I want to do nothing but play with this happy boy.
Memorial Day is sort of the unofficial beginning to summer around here, and Labor Day is the unofficial end to sweaty pool days and beginning to autumn. As a teacher, I would begin each summer with absolute laziness and then panic some time around the Fourth of July when I realized that I had a to-do list a mile long and I had accomplished none of it. While I don’t have the start of the academic year looming ahead this time, I do feel the need to get some A LOT of things done in the next 3 months. Inspired by my friend Amanda’s list, I decided to write down my goals here so that I have to achieve them or else be shamed by my laziness. So here they are. Some big, some small. I’ve tried to categorize them, but in that process I’ve realized that some of them are quite random.
Whew. It looks like so much when I write it all down. Public acocuntability works for me though. What’s on your list this summer?
Mama the Reader 