Why I scrapbook
I’m sharing with you a great post by the Close To My Heart Blog. This is a great read on taking pictures.
At Convention, Chari presented this to us and it was great! As she’s the owner of Persnicky Prints for printing your photos, it’s logical to discuss the need or why of printing photos. It’s about how a picture has more meaning and value as a printed picture than as jpeg. Our pictures are in danger of being in the abyss of black hole of a hard drive. As we go through our busy lives, we take pictures all the time. And they get compiled on a hard drive somewhere, IF we are that organized. Not printed. Just out there. In the black abyss of jpegs.
Someone may or may not discover them. The stories are untold. In our busy, picture-taking world, it’s very important that we stop and print our pictures for this reason.. That we give them meaning, a voice, and celebrate the “why”. Put them on our walls. Scrapbook them some how. It’s so very important because who else can tell your story but you? And how else tells your family’s story, but you?
I’m so reminded of the importance of this with the passing of my friend, Michelle Barrett. When I was new to the area, a mutual friend of ours, Lisa Smith, coordinated a monthly scrapbooking group. For a several years, I taught classes to them and then joined them to scrap afterwards when I could. I watched Michelle’s kids grow up. Their first steps. Watched the Disney trips. The pool project. Baseball. All through the pages of her scrapbooks. Michelle had a wonderful smile, quick wit, and an infectious laugh. She’d also tell you how it was.
This group of ladies celebrated many milestones together in this little room, once a month, for years. They shocked me with the most awesome baby shower a girl could hope for with things you actually need, not what you think you need, LOL. Especially when you are in the military and your entire family is on the West Coast. They were there to answer the questions I had and to help me out. I met other friends through them who played different roles in my life. In the process of scrapbooking our lives, we supported each other. We did life together.
In her passing, I’m reminisce on these memories. She’s my age. We have kids that still need to grow up. These facts alone are hard to grapple with. The possibility or reality of leaving your family before you see them grown brings tears to my eyes as I type this. I think of how grateful I am that I got to spend the time I did with Michelle. How grateful her family will be in the years to come for the time, hard work, money invested in those scrapbooks. How they will have those books to look through when they miss her so much. How they will have those wonderful family vacations to remember. How much their Mom/Wife loved them. Michelle leaves us too soon. Her scrapbooks are here forever to tell her story.
I look at the volumes of scrapbooks we have. I look at all of SG’s scrapbooks from ZooTastic. I started scrapbooking because we found pictures in my Grandmother’s house, after she passed, with not a lot of information available. They are a box. My Dad passed away a few years ago. That same box and more are there with even less information. Jeff and I, our lives are preserved in many albums for SG. SG loves to look them. Jeff takes his Tiger Album to different places to share (okay, to show off his tiger training days). We love to laugh, remember, and sometimes, cry, over moments in our lives. I know when I’m gone, they will have these books that tell all of our stories.
This is why I scrapbook. So print those pictures. You are valuable. Find the best way you to tell your story. There are so many options. If you need help, I’m here to help you. If you want company, I work at my house on Tuesday and Thursdays and one weekend a month. You can join me to crop. I don’t charge for the space. I love company. Just tell your story with another person creates more memories. All of this is priceless.
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