Back to Basics

Dear readers: You should all know by now that I love doing all things crafty. When I was young I was all about cross stitch. In fact I made the man of the house an awesome dragon and framed it for his Christmas gift. It even survived a fire. But that's a story for another day.

I started scrapbooking sometime around the time we got married. That would be 10 years, give or take. I did the wedding album, reception album, and a few things in between. Then it fell by the wayside. Then life happened. My dad died, my mom had a bad go with cancer, we moved, we had a kid, I started college…again. Life. And I still wasn't scrapping or even documenting what was happening. I didn't even take that many pictures of my son's first year of life. Mostly because I had a not-so-spectacular camera. I regret that to this day.

I realized all of life's important events that I was missing. So I dusted off the supplies, got a decent camera, accumulated a ridiculous amount of supplies, and started scrapping again. And then I hit a wall. I love my son and all but sometimes I need to work on something else. And that's where the cards come in. I love making cards. I love the smaller canvas. I love that I can whip something up in just a few minutes. Sometimes a few minutes is all I have. Sometimes those few minutes is enough for me to stop, create, and save my sanity.

So I became a card maker and not so much of a scrapper. Then I opened my etsy store. Then I started blogging. I still love making things, selling things, and blogging. Except now my scrapbooks have fallen by the wayside. I still haven't scrapped my son's baby pictures for goodness sake!

I guess what I'm saying is that I need to get my scrapping mojo back. I've been watching youtube videos of an awesome scrapbooker. She gets it. And I think she's inspired me to create more for me and not for others. This doesn't mean I still won't make cards. But it means I'll put myself first a little more. And it means you may get more stories about the why and how and things that inspire me and not just "here's a picture of what I made". 

I'd like to journal more. Not only in my layouts but just to journal the every day. Be more observant of what's going on. I might even start a Project Life book next year. Baby steps.

I'd like to take pictures of things other than the kid. I love the kid to death but I'd like to experiment more with taking more than "people" pictures. On the flip side, I'd love to take a picture every week (if not every day) of the kid just to see how much he's growing. It still amazes me the things he says, things he does, stories he tells, etc. I want to document those things for various reasons. He will be starting school next year and I realize he's not going to be my baby much longer.

Like I said, it will all be baby steps. And I hope you stick around to go on this adventure with me.

Click here to see the video that inspired me. Inspired this post. Inspired me to change some things.