Hmm, what is my scrap philosophy? I think this image (found here) sums it up:

 

 

I started scrapping to make a wedding album, and then an album of my husband’s trip to Australia and New Zealand. I got the photos into albums, with the dates, names and places. That’s enough, right? Sure, it can be. After more time scrapping, I started to realize that it isn’t the trips, the vacations, the holidays that I need to remember the most. It’s the little moments that make me smile.

Positivity and happiness are not my default, they don’t come easy to me; I have to seek them out, grab ’em and hang on tight. Recording the silly things my kids do, the words they say improperly that make me laugh or the games they play with each other remind me that life is amazing. It is short, it can be bittersweet, it can be frustrating, but it is awesome.

I am learning to be honest, even brutally so, in my scrapbooks. I tell the good everyday stories and the bad everyday stories because our stories matter. (Brené Brown taught me that.) My story matters because I matter. I am present in our family albums; layouts about my triumphs, struggles, fears and dreams sit beside layouts about my son’s first day of school. Layouts about my daughter’s love of wearing two skirts or tutus sit beside the regular birthday and Christmas pages. I won’t always remember how she used to use her little legs to push me side to side when I rocked her to sleep or how my arms would go numb sitting sideways with my son because of the awkward way he liked to rock. But because those layouts exist, those stories will live on.

I don’t always journal enough (Brande reminds me to) but I am working on that. I guess the bottom line for me is that I have given up on ever “catching up” and I scrap the photos that move me right now. I keep notes of stories that I want to scrap tucked away in a journal, so that when I feel nostalgic and want to work on older photos, I can. I just chose not to feel like I can’t scrap a photo from yesterday because a certain birthday isn’t finished.

I scrapbook because I love it. I love ink, I love paper, I love pictures, I love creativity. I just need it in my life.

Thanks for “listening”!

~ C