Blogs are easier than Scrapbooks

I had a scrapbook as a kid, and initially enjoyed taping-in things like everyone’s school pictures and my perfect attendance certificates from the grade school. The thrill wore off in time, and my one volume still has blank pages. As you can see from the lower shelf below, Kim pursed the hobby past the early years.



Like photo albums, unless there are words to explain a given picture, a scrapbook will be a story untold to all but the creator.

Nowadays, there are companies set up to help people effectively scrapbook/make photo albums. My wife picked up on that a few years ago, and started doing a great job of cropping & documenting memorable photos/remembrances with meaningful words & graphics.

As someone who realizes that a certain amount of tools & supplies are necessary for any given project, I never gave much thought to all the gear that was accumulating in Kim’s Room which is necessary to support this hobby (we have a “spending over $100 at once requires discussion” limit that we both know how to skirt).

One scrapbooking benefit for Kim, that I have no problem with, is that she and all her girlfriends escape for a weekend every so often on a Creative Memories’ sponsored event to the next county over, and work on nothing but their scrapbooks. To my male-oriented surprise, there is no alcohol involved. One of those retreats is scheduled for this weekend.

Normally, in anticipation of the retreat, Kim rounds up all the computer’s digital pictures and has them printed at a locally owned shop.

The other morning, I got up to find the window seat in Tom's room covered in prints drying after being printed on the color printer we got, but have not used, a few months ago.

On my normal patrol during the early morning hours, I also found the scrapbooking table in her room similarly covered.

This marathon printing activity was repeated the next night. Come to find out, the printing house was having trouble with their machine, and could not guarantee that Kim’s pictures would be ready when she needed them. So, Kim just printed a huge stack of pictures at home to make sure she would have something to crop for the weekend. I would ask how much all that photo-paper & ink cost, but since we never discussed that hammer-drill I recently bought for one of my projects, I opt to leave well-enough alone.

While blogging is easier (dare I say "cheaper"), I do appreciate the results of what she is doing.