Saturday, November 6, 2010

memory short books



I used to do a lot of scrapbooking. Most major events from 8th grade through moving into my college, plus a half finished book of the first year or so of Will and I's relationship are documented. They are, without a doubt, one of my most important possessions. As my picture taking turned digital and my motivation to have prints made declined, I got out of keeping my books updated. I'm now years behind, and the thought of putting all of those years onto pages is overwhelming. Overwhelming enough to keep me satisfied enough with my month and year albums on flickr.


Part of why I love taking pictures so much is because I have this huge desire to document things. Having pictures of the people, places, and experiences in my life is super important to me (which is probably one reason I started a blog, and have kept a more private journal online since I was 15).

Since I've gotten out of paper scrapbooking, I started working on a digital scrapbook over the summer on snapfish.com. I had the idea to do a yearly album that way, but with the amount of pictures I take, the book could easily get huge, and expensive. I was also hesitant to put all of the work of creating the book, plus the investment of the price required for a full year book without actually knowing what the quality of the pages and the pictures would be once it was printed. So the idea of a yearly book fizzled out.

I was totally just inspired by a post on a new blog I've been reading (she also made the paper lanterns I posted about yesterday) though. She makes little books by hand, with pictures and momentos, and they all have various themes. Some of them are with a time frame (month, season, etc.) but others are more specific. The idea I loved was one documenting her and her husbands first apartment together. I obviously love Will and I's apartment, have tons of pictures of it, and putting these together in a book would be a really neat thing to look back on. It got me thinking about other "theme" short books I could create. That way I wouldn't be so bogged down creating a giant book, but I would still get some of my favorite pictures out of the computer.



Short book ideas:
  • Will and I's apartment
  • Places I lived prior to now (two different dorms, two apartments, back home to student teach)
  • Mango's first year
  • Different vacations I've taken throughout the past few years ( visiting my cousin Dan and the SLP department at FSU, taking youth group kids to Colorado, going to Orlando with Will)
  • A collection of the Day in the life photo projects I've done

So I'll keep you updated on this book creating process, and hopefully share the results of at least one book by next month!

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