Scrapbooking Update

After much delay and procrastination, I have actually finished my albums from January 1998 to September 2007!  Feeling proud right now to finally have that part of the task complete and my albums are looking very organized right now.  (see above)

Just as a little reminder, I had skipped portions from almost every scrapbook album I had created in order to "keep up", which didn't happen either.  So I had to back track through every album to finish those skipped pages.  Some of the albums had over half the pages incomplete but luckily, the last few were only short a few pages.  In fact, the last one I did, my chocolate 2007 album, there were only four skipped pages and I really have no idea why I just didn't finish them at the time.  Now they all have page protecters and everything!

Summary:
9  - 45 page albums for me complete
7 - 45 page albums for my son PLUS his high school album current to Fall 2014
6 - 45 page albums for my daughter PLUS her high school album ready to add Fall 2014

Since it's Pi day (3-14-15) that makes 990 double sided pages completed!!

Scrapbooking Journey

So my journey into scrapbook started in 1994, the year I got married.  I wanted to do something different with my wedding album so I signed up for a class through community education.  The instructor was part of Creative Memories and that is how I started out.  Yes, I even had a crop at my apartment for friends and family, managing to get a few of them hooked as well!

The next four years went by with me doing a few albums for those years and actually finishing the wedding album.  Then I had kid number one.  And that was okay.  Still managed to work on my albums and start another one for him.  Then bam - kid number two comes along 18 months later and everything falls apart, at least in terms of scrapbooking!  I did manage to work on some of it but over all was so busy that I fell behind.

In 2003 I decided it was time to really work at the albums. I spent time cropping outside the house with my mom and sister.  But what I decided to do at that point was to start fresh from that year and keep up from there.  So I dropped the missed years and just worked on current stuff since it was better to be doing some rather then none.  I actually did really well through most of 2007.  But 2008 is the start of all digital pictures and also when I decided it was time to go back and take care of those old pictures before I started printing the digital prints.  They were printed already and just sitting in a box gathering dust.  This is also about the time that the scrapbook store we cropped at decided to scale back and moved to a smaller space.

A couple years ago, the company I used for my albums and page protecters decided to redo their business and everything was being discontinued.  I had to figure out, as best I could, what I needed to finish the albums I already had.  The albums start before 1998 and I was missing large sections of a few years!  So I guesstimated and bought supplies and hoped for the best.  I'm still waiting to see how that all turned out.

So now it is finally 2014.  My space is more organized and I have put a lot of time & effort into finishing the incomplete years between 2000 - 2003.  I also had to start at the beginning of each kids albums and finish some of the pages I just didn't get around to completing.  And progress was made, finally!

I have finished all my KIDS albums from 1998-2007.  They have page protectors and finished pages!  They are done!  Now I need to go through my own albums for those years to finish the pages I skipped, for what ever reason.  I also have the added pressure that my son is a junior (where did the time go!) and I should have something to show for his high school years, which I don't!

Progress and Pressure :)

Scrapbook Organization Project

I might need to change this to the Getting Organized blog instead!  I haven't scrapbooked in about a year, except very small here and there stuff.  Part of the problem is that my desk downstairs is a dumping ground for every piece of paper in the house!  Well, it feels like it at least.  So my desk is always covered with stuff that needs to be put away before I can work.  Part of the issue is the heritage pictures I still need to scan.  I had them stacked on the desk but they kept creeping over to take up more space.  Then the cat would use it for a jumping off point to get to the window and knock things unto the floor.  So looking at my space, I realized that I needed to use the farthest away portion of the desk for scrapbooking, since that takes up the most space.  So all the pictures had to be moved and I needed to move a large file cabinet from under the desk as well.

Fast forward to that being accomplished.  Next I knew I needed a better way to organized the stuff I had since I really hated having my stickers in the portable container that worked great when I actually scrapped at other locations.  I came across the Scraprack which sits on the desk and this also comes with a whole new way to organize ALL your stuff together!  Just what I needed.  Used my Christmas money and bought a kit and have been busy organizing ever since!

Hobbies: Do you have one?

I find it interesting when people say they don't have hobbies.  I actually seem to have to many since I tend to skip around from one to another; Jack of All Trades, Master of None.  So I'm going to list my hobbies alphabetically and what I have been done recently (or not recently) with them.

1. Crochet: This is the most recent one to learn and I want to make a striped scarf - just didn't start it yet!
2. Cross Stitch:  This is a LONG neglected hobby that I recently took up again.  I had a lovely tree skirt started with the 12 days and I have recently finished most of the it!  Yeah!  I am looking forward to using it this next December.
3. Genealogy: Most recently (December 2013) I requested Death records for Great-Grandparents but I need to get back to my picture scanning very very soon.
4. Knitting: I LOVE making washcloths!  During the winter especially, I make a few a month since this can be done while watching TV.
5. Reading: Seriously, I never really stop doing this one - I read all the time: regular books, ebooks, audiobooks, most have books!
6. Scrapbooking: This is a very neglected hobby.  I really need to finish the books I started.  I bought albums from CM (before they changed everything last year), I just really need to finish off the books I currently own.  But not working on this hasn't stopped me from purchasing stuff since it is very hard to resist supplies!  But I have recently undertaken a large organization project so I will have room to work!
7. Sewing: This is barely a hobby since I don't really do it much.  I know how to sew basic stuff and I have had my own sewing machine since about 1995.