It Comes Down To Common Sense

Hello and welcome to my corner of the blogosphere! I'm glad you stopped by and hope you'll visit again when you can.  

I've been thinking a lot about scrapbooking and what first attracted me to it. It gave me goosebumps. I just loved seeing photos and journaling placed on archival paper and adorned with cool embellishments. It amazed me because of the cohesive way it works together to tell the story of something personal --- a lost tooth, a new baby, a birthday, or a fun trip someone had taken.  

There's also the part of me who likes the artistic aspect of memory keeping. It can be thrilling to get published or work on a design team, knowing that one's work may inspire others. Taking part in challenges offered on various blogs and online communities can really stretch us a scrapbookers. It also gave me a way to connect with others who shared my interest in this hobby. 

A few years before we adopted our children, I became more involved with the latter: being on design teams for online stores, doing challenges, trying to get published, and so on. I have had a small degree of success in each area. The difficulty I ran into was that I got to the point where I was scrapping too much for other people, and not enough for me and my family. It became less about telling our stories and more about trying to use the materials from the latest kit I got in the mail. I got a little burned out with all of it. 

Then, fast forward to summer 2006, when practically overnight, I became a mom to four young kids. I had one tiny baby and three active toddlers. There were three in diapers, and I was overwhelmed. How in the world would any scrapbooking at all get done with four so little? Should I even worry about trying to get published or take part in challenges? At first, I didn't think so. 

In the past three years, though, I've learned that it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. I've come to adopt a common sense approach to scrapbooking. Our stories need to be told. I need to scrapbook because it's an important form of self-expression. I hope to find work as a designer once more. I want to show artistry in my pages, but I need to strike a balance between all these things. At the end of the day, there is still laundry to be done, the kids have to get to school, and meals need to be put on the table. I still want to try new techniques on my pages and remember a cute phase my kids went through, but it has to be something I can squeeze in between laundry and fixing up owies. It also means using the stash I've been stockpiling in current ways.

Here's a page I created with this philosophy in mind.  I love the story behind this and how cute my boy is being at this point and time:

So, with that in mind, I started this blog. Here's to using common sense to document the important events and moments of life, while still creating pages we can be proud of. I hope also to touch on some things I see happening in the industry that are helping out scrappers similar to my situation, as well as some practical, helpful ideas that enable us to do more in less time and with less hassle. 

I welcome constructive comments, so give me a holler if you like.