It's gettin' kinda...

I spent the summer doing a lot of things that I hadn't gotten a chance to do during the busy school year. One of the best things I did is purchase some "scrapbooking furniture" to organize the heap of crap that had been in the corner of the dining room. I'm pleased by this.

However, just because things are in drawers and out of the bags they were purchased in doesn't mean I'm organized yet. It's getting annoying, to put it mildly.

I straddle a lot of things when I scrapbook. Part of me wants to work on recent photos, but part of me wants to work from birth-o-Claire and move forward. I scrapbook photos from pre-baby, which are 8.5" x 11", but then I do those post baby, which are 12" x 12". I also occasionally do mini-books, which can be 6" x 6", like the ones I did for two friends who are moving this summer. Throw into the mix that I'm trying to learn how to digitally scrapbook, which is very fulfilling and exciting, and you understand the lack of focus and balance I have with this hobby that normally brings me so much joy and release.

This is simply because - I'm not up to date in my scrapbooking. I never will be.

I'm currently working on the second project in my digital scrapbooking "textbook" (as my husband calls it), which is an 8.5" x 11" book with a title page, dedication page, table of contents, and a few filler pages - all page schemes into which you can import your own photos, paper, and other designed embellishments.

I did the title and dedication pages, which are here. But now I realize, with these pages being 8.5" x 11", which is the size in which I scrapbook pre-baby photos, that I could do all my photos from that first trip to Big Sur in 2003. Great, right? No.

In going through the photos and deciding which to put in the scrapbook, I realized that there are other non-digital photos floating around the house somewhere. Yup. Thanks to this photo (aren't I smart to take it with my new first-ever digital camera?), I know there's an envelope from either a disposable camera or an old APS roll with photos from the trip. And I refuse to do the whole trip without knowing all the photos I'm working with.

A little controlling? Yes. Normal for a scrapbooker? Absolutely. So now I'm stuck until Claire wakes from her nap and I can get into the closet where the photos are stored and dig through for a roll that I hope will be labeled with something that will indicate Big Sur 2003. Or, will contain pictures that I recognize as Big Sur 2003 (which is truly unlikely).

Even then, if I find the photos, I'm going to kick myself if I put it off/wasted my time because I waited (I can't scrapbook this while she napping until I get into the closet, and once she wakes, I can't scrapbook because I need to be involved with her playtime) and there are no interesting photos in the bunch. AND, if I find the photos, it will create more work for me because I'll have to crop them to the basic mat in the scheme or get them digital so I can zoom and crop and reprint.