scrapbook my life

I am taking on one serious endeavor at this point. I am outlining my life via Xcel. The x axis of my chart is broken into the seasons and the y axis is separated by the year. This is a great way to remember exactly when I took that obscure trip or other little fun facts.

I think I am becoming more and more consumed with these endeavors because my grandparents are going to be leaving this world soon and their memories are scattered, faded, and obscure. I know they led amazing lives and I think it is a disservice to lose that. I want my family to know how amazing my life has been because I want to inspire others to live it up as well. (Besides, it will help when I start losing my memory even though I am only 25:)

what im gonna do:

pictures, quotes, essays, letters – anything :D

buy a scrapbook
cut out anything that relates to me

stick it in :D

It is just amazing how long my life seems to be and how much more I have to go. it is incredible. I just hope I can catch up with the scrapbooks before life catches up with me. What a tragedy that would be.

I’m going to work myself gently into this one, by scrapbooking this year’s family holiday to California or maybe even the whole summer if I’m feeling brave.

The next stage will be scrapbooking my childhood up to 18y. Hopefully I can do it well enough to inspire me later on:]

I found a journal at a book store with a red covering. Inside, I found that every other page was completely blank. I bought it.

Half of this book is covered in collages- the blank pages. On those with lines, I wrote about each collage of pictures/scraps/little memories. I have pages dedicated to various concerts, events, and other life changes. This book is dedicated to my life during college.

A few days ago, I found a similar book… one with a blue cover. After a few days of deliberation, I have decided that this book will follow my life after college- through loss and gain, growth and stagnation. I don’t know what it will contain, exactly, but I hope to chronicle a life of excitement and faith… in case anyone ever cares to read about it.

I have been making scrapbooks for other people as gifts and now it’s time to make a scrapbook of my life. I will use www.family-tales.com. The owners came to dine at the restaurant I work at on Valentine’s Day and showed me a “brag book” that she had in her purse. It was such an awesome digital scrapbook! I am excited to make my very own book!

Wow.

Phew.

So, today I finally finished EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING.

My entire life, as captured on film, is now safely scrapbooked away, on archival quality paper. Going from my ancestors – photos of my Great-Grandfather Don as a TODDLER – up to my appearance in the New York Times last summer. =D

It’s amazing and awesome, and in truth, I never really thought I would finish it.

Many of my relatives have passed away in the past few years, and as the relatively rock-stable on in my family, I sort of became the dumping ground for all the photos. Those were by far the most exhausting to go through – so many I didn’t know much about who was in them or what the event was, etc. Also, it was painful to look at my dead relatives, but good to relive the memories of good times as well.

Also, neither one of my parents were very good at keeping photos organized and safe, so I wound up doing ALL my childhood – as in from birth on! – myself!! This was also difficult, as it was boring and I felt totally self-centered. Also I didn’t have a lot of frame of reference for the many pictures from before I entered school.

Anyway, there is no way I could have achieved this in such a short time span if I had a full time job, ha. Thank you, substitute teaching!!

When I first started this goal, I was the ONLY person who listed it. No one had ever done it before. Now, a pathetic two years and a few months later, I’ve finally finished and 95 other people want to do it and some 40 or so have finished ahead of me. 43T is amazing and awesome and cool! :)

I’m so excited. Now, when my husband and I do stuff, I can go and scrapbook it RIGHT AWAY without feeling guilty because I “should” be doing the back log. Hehe. Well, actually, I need to get prints of our July trip to Crater Lake… but I’m waiting on a relative for that so it’s not my fault. As soon as I get them, I’m scrapping them! Hehe.

This was something that I felt was really important to have done before we have a baby too, so hurray for getting it done! :) Now when we start our family I can give my child’s pictures the care and love that my childhood photos never got, awww.

Ok, I’m done being all sappy. I can relax until it’s time for next month’s 43T challenge – to get a tattoo! YIKES!

Holy cow. I forgot how much I get done once I get rolling on this. I’m NEARLY finished! The end is in sight, holy cow! :)

I have three small piles of photos (about an inch each) left to do tomorrow – vintage-y ancestor photos, pictures with me and my Mom & her family, and pictures of me younger than 5 with my Dad’s family.

After that, the photo storage box will be EMPTY!! HOLY COW!

I have one other random pile of crap in the closet that I haven’t touched yet. Don’t know exactly what’s in it – it’s been accumulating since I graduated PSU for my B.S. Probably graduation-y stuff. I’ll tackle that next weekend.

Last but not least, I need to print digital photos from the last year that I’ve got gathered on iPhoto.

The end is very, very near. I’m anxious to complete this project. It will feel AMAZING to be done with it and not have boxes of random photos following me around for the rest of my life.

I’ll do it as a self-present for my 20th birthday, next October. I have a few ideas.

Yesterday I pulled out a lot of old pictures from college, when I lived in Costa Rica, trips that I have taken, etc. I spent some time organizing them and then scrapbooked about 5 pages. I also went and bought two more albums so that I can organize everything appropriately.