Scrapbook vs. Photo Album

You know, sometimes I just don't know where the time goes. For example, what have I been doing in the last two days? Well I work for the most part and then I cleaned up 3 desk drawers, shoveled the driveway several times, played with the dogs, knitted on my socks, worked on some valentines presents, spoke to friends and family on the phone, cooked dinner last night and we went out the night before, and yesterday I worked on my scrapbook.

And speaking of scrapbooking, that's one hobby that I just can't wholly buy into. Yes, there are certainly gorgeous books; some people are very talented. But many of them have only 1 or 2 photos per page - what is the point of that? I suppose I would be fine with that if there was a big story to go with the photo, but often there isn't - just fancy paper with a title and purchase stuff stuck to the page. The books and magazines show you amazing pages with all sorts of little accessories, but they want you to buy every single little part. I treat my scrapbook more like a photo album, sometimes getting 5 or 6 pictures on the page. I have some stickers and fancy papers, but I don't have all the do-dads and die cuts, frames and brads. I don't have kids and so as I am working on it I ask myself "who will read this?". I'm not leaving a legacy. Maybe, one day, JPs son will be interested in our album, but otherwise the scrapbook is for me, my enjoyment (I have to force him to look at it). I don't think too many other people are really ever going to care enough to look at it, except maybe a family member every decade or so. So I take the time to sort the photos and add interesting pieces such as receipts and ticket stubs when I can. But I am not going to waste time and money buying every theme page and packages and packages of stickers to spruce things up.

I also found that my life doesn't seem to match many of the sticker selections. My vacations don't include Europe, back to school is irrelevant, there are no baby photos and there is never any use for sports stickers. So what does that leave me? Dogs, flowers and cocktails. Is that how my life is defined?

But I have a couple of separate albums- like one for our wedding (which I am just starting now - 7 months later). And I created one for JPs son; presently the kid doesn't care, but I hope that as he gets older he will want to see all his own photos, he does occasionally like to see his baby photos. When I was a kid, my mum gave each of us our own album which we kept in our rooms. I loved having my own book which I could add to and review whenever I wanted. JP's mum kept all the photos to herself and many of his childhood memories are locked away in her basement and on slides. Although couple months ago, his sister managed to convince thier mom to give up some photos and he received a bag of old report cards and photos. It was quite a moment to finally see what he looked like as a kid, find out how he did in school and to have some photo memories. It was for that reason that I created one for his son. I don't know if the kid's mum has made anything for him - I suspect she hasn't and so one day he will be able to take the scrapbook I've made for him to enjoy and the most important thing for him will the photos and the comments and not the other crap I glued on.

What's in your scrapbook?