Fire and Ice

I know many scrappers do it because of the artistry and craftmanship of it all, but I would guess that most do it because of the memory keeping. I am definitely one of the latter ones (but of course enjoy the artistic side too!) and have recently been thinking about WHAT memories I'm saving for posterity. My little boy is covered in awful spots at the moment, from his chickenpox. I can't bear to touch him for fear of hurting him and taking his clothes off for a diaper change almost brings tears to my eyes as he is so swollen and red. I have taken a couple of photos and will most likely scrap them in some lighthearted way because I don't think I need a trigger to help me remember how truly heartbreaking it is to see him as he looks right now. (For the record, he doesn't seem to care! He is quite happy and doesn't seem to be in any pain.) So this means I'm "editing" my memories somehow - turning what is painful into something a bit more crowd pleasing. C...

How did I start scrapbooking? Well, the story of that is really the story of my journals... I’ve kept a journal ever since I was in fourth grade – it started out as an exercise for English class. The teacher wanted us to write something, anything, every day but of course she would check it so it would need to be something not too personal. I soon forgot that and wrote about my life, my day, my hopes and my dreams. But I didn’t just write with blue pen on a plain journal: oh no! I used all the colors of the rainbow to write and covered my journal in fabric swatches, which I then covered in clear plastic for protection. I really enjoyed the process so I kept going and when I completed one journal I would carry on with another. I wrote nearly every day, pages and pages, using all the colors I could lay my hands on and decorated the margins with a rainbow of doodling. Fast forward a few years and now I’m in College. I’m still keeping my journal but not writing every day but still using all...