I can remember my mother with boxes of negatives. I remember her painstakingly running to Bi-mart to make 2 copies of this photo, 1 copy of this one, 3 copies of this one....and then one day.....the boxes became stacks and stacks all over our dining room table.
There were stacks of photo albums. Not just ANY photo albums; the very newest and best albums on the market for this labor of love. There were THREE very distinct patterns of albums, each of us children were to have our OWN set of family photo albums, in our OWN pattern. There were stacks of photos sorted by person, year, month. In the end, I was given 12 albums of photos that chronicled my life from birth through graduation. Amazing.
I began with the idea of doing the same for my children. By the time I had 5 young un's under the age of 8, I realized I didn't have the TIME or the DOLLARS to keep x amount of copies for each photo...at this point I would need 10 children albums and 1 family album... it isn't happening.
I decided to keep a family album. It was ALWAYS up to date. Photos came home and immediately went into the current album, complete with quite a bit of writing (which is now called journaling). I was current. A favorite family past time was to sit around and look through all our albums....until, as I've previously shared SCRAPBOOKING took over our albums. Please know that this is not true across the board - but for ME - scrapbooking became an evil. It took away from a great family pleasure. No longer do we have albums that are fun to look through on family night. I'm now over 5 years behind. I can't possibly put photos in an album without coordinating paper, stickers, cropping etc. Oh, I've played around with various styles. I've tried various systems. It comes back to the fact that I don't have time for keeping our family history as a craft outlet for me. I need to get the photos and stories in an album. Others have told me to go for it - that later in life I can "do it right". ::snort:: I've not been able to bring myself to open those beautiful 12 x 12 Creative Memory albums and simply put photos on the page and write.....but I plan to do just that. It will be a terrible shock to those looking at my album. From plain - to works of art - back to plain! But so be it. I want to have fun with our photos again and not feel like it is a constant undone huge project hanging over my head. DON'T TAKE ANY MORE PHOTOS - DON'T YOU KNOW I'M FIVE YEARS BEHIND - OH 5 1/2 NOW!!!!
I planned to simply make myself stick photos from 2002 on a page and write - regardless of stickers, mats, shapes etc. That was the plan for TOMORROW night.....somehow all the photos from 2002 - 2003 have gone missing.
I needed to come up with another plan....back to my Mother's Early Labor of Love. Since learning about acid free albums and such, I've been meaning to do something with those lovely albums. Some have suggested I could do them in classic albums, vellum and eyelets (since evidently I'm an ANTIQUE)....and I thought of it. I couldn't bring myself to take those albums apart. I remember the hours it took mom to create this keepsake. My older girls loved looking over these albums...BUT the pages are yellowing, the magnetic stuff is coming loose...some photos fall out and some are stuck. I don't want the younger ones looking at them because they may ruin a photo. I need to do something. I don't want to change what Mom did. I decided I'd scan her words into the computer, use much the same layout as she did and matt her words on the page..... I'll begin that tomorrow. This should help me save my mom's Labor of Love, and get over my fear of going simple!!!
I scanned - the words don't show up. I now need to decide if I will simply copy the words in my handwriting....or cut out the part of the page with words and somehow matt those onto the pages. What would you all do?
And yes...this is all an exercise in ginning up the courage for me to follow through with my plan - get the photos in the album so that my family can begin enjoying them again. Oh - and on top of the 13 albums Mom gave me....I added 21 HUGE 3 ring magnetic albums of our early family years. I need to get THOSE into safe albums too.....and then I'll hit those 3 years of masterpieces...a craft I began when I wasn't teaching Bible Studies, when I had young women at home who worked on them with me.....and then I'll be back to simple.....and my family will not care. My children and Mike will be thrilled to be able to thumb through the albums again and remember family fun!
There were stacks of photo albums. Not just ANY photo albums; the very newest and best albums on the market for this labor of love. There were THREE very distinct patterns of albums, each of us children were to have our OWN set of family photo albums, in our OWN pattern. There were stacks of photos sorted by person, year, month. In the end, I was given 12 albums of photos that chronicled my life from birth through graduation. Amazing.
I began with the idea of doing the same for my children. By the time I had 5 young un's under the age of 8, I realized I didn't have the TIME or the DOLLARS to keep x amount of copies for each photo...at this point I would need 10 children albums and 1 family album... it isn't happening.
I decided to keep a family album. It was ALWAYS up to date. Photos came home and immediately went into the current album, complete with quite a bit of writing (which is now called journaling). I was current. A favorite family past time was to sit around and look through all our albums....until, as I've previously shared SCRAPBOOKING took over our albums. Please know that this is not true across the board - but for ME - scrapbooking became an evil. It took away from a great family pleasure. No longer do we have albums that are fun to look through on family night. I'm now over 5 years behind. I can't possibly put photos in an album without coordinating paper, stickers, cropping etc. Oh, I've played around with various styles. I've tried various systems. It comes back to the fact that I don't have time for keeping our family history as a craft outlet for me. I need to get the photos and stories in an album. Others have told me to go for it - that later in life I can "do it right". ::snort:: I've not been able to bring myself to open those beautiful 12 x 12 Creative Memory albums and simply put photos on the page and write.....but I plan to do just that. It will be a terrible shock to those looking at my album. From plain - to works of art - back to plain! But so be it. I want to have fun with our photos again and not feel like it is a constant undone huge project hanging over my head. DON'T TAKE ANY MORE PHOTOS - DON'T YOU KNOW I'M FIVE YEARS BEHIND - OH 5 1/2 NOW!!!!
I planned to simply make myself stick photos from 2002 on a page and write - regardless of stickers, mats, shapes etc. That was the plan for TOMORROW night.....somehow all the photos from 2002 - 2003 have gone missing.
I needed to come up with another plan....back to my Mother's Early Labor of Love. Since learning about acid free albums and such, I've been meaning to do something with those lovely albums. Some have suggested I could do them in classic albums, vellum and eyelets (since evidently I'm an ANTIQUE)....and I thought of it. I couldn't bring myself to take those albums apart. I remember the hours it took mom to create this keepsake. My older girls loved looking over these albums...BUT the pages are yellowing, the magnetic stuff is coming loose...some photos fall out and some are stuck. I don't want the younger ones looking at them because they may ruin a photo. I need to do something. I don't want to change what Mom did. I decided I'd scan her words into the computer, use much the same layout as she did and matt her words on the page..... I'll begin that tomorrow. This should help me save my mom's Labor of Love, and get over my fear of going simple!!!
I scanned - the words don't show up. I now need to decide if I will simply copy the words in my handwriting....or cut out the part of the page with words and somehow matt those onto the pages. What would you all do?
And yes...this is all an exercise in ginning up the courage for me to follow through with my plan - get the photos in the album so that my family can begin enjoying them again. Oh - and on top of the 13 albums Mom gave me....I added 21 HUGE 3 ring magnetic albums of our early family years. I need to get THOSE into safe albums too.....and then I'll hit those 3 years of masterpieces...a craft I began when I wasn't teaching Bible Studies, when I had young women at home who worked on them with me.....and then I'll be back to simple.....and my family will not care. My children and Mike will be thrilled to be able to thumb through the albums again and remember family fun!
Mom and Dad
Me at 16 weeks (cone head @ 4 hours yikes!)
Me at 18 months - if Stacia had hair I think we'd look alike! ::snort::
...and one day - I CAN do them "right" - though I'm not sure who should define right. ::snort:: Now I only need to figure out what to do with oodles and oodles of supplies...more supplies than a person should ever have as I sold for one of the makers of such things. LOL
16 comments:
De'Etta, if I were to take it on, I'd probably cut out your mom's writing & put it in the new album. That way you're still preserving something special she did for you. My mom's handwritten recipes are some of my favorites--if only for the fact that they are written in her hand, kwim?
What size are your moms pages? If it were me I would probably try to make a color copy of the entire page and save it as is. What type of scanner did you use? I just bought a new scanner this week because I've started down the road of scanning dds "old" photos into digital format so I can make her graduation CD. Anyway.. my point to that is my new scanner has quite a few correction features and maybe one of those types of scanners would read the writing better?
Those pictures are great, you do look like Stacia!
Michelle, I'm really leaning towards doing just what you suggest for the very reasons you mention.
Cindy - The photos there are scanned pages - they are 8x11.
I really don't have the $ for a new scanner....and the photos are here and in good shape - I'd rather have the original photo than a scanned copy...those are a few of my thoughts...but they may change when it comes time to actually remove the photos. LOL
Um Jodi - STACIA looks like ME....if she would grow a bit more hair that is. LOL We didn't realize how thin her hair was until we were putting Cy's slide show together and saw the photos of Krista, Cy, Jared, Arielle at that age...all blondies but quite a bit more hair. LOL
I have two ideas! About your extra supplies- I accept donations :) hehe and more seriously, Valerie who sells CM and I think moved to San Antonio right after I moved away had a local client who does photo & journalism preservation for a living, and I saw some albums that she had redone for her father- albums of his childhood. They were awesome, and I think they incorporated lots of photos, her own writing, and some of her grandmother's notes. Anyway, she goes to the CM crop night out there pretty regularly (I just can't remember her name) if you'd like to ask her for ideas.
Well, D, you know I'm in the same boat, although I was never caught up, so getting into scrapbooking wasn't as big a loss as it has been for you. I agree, having the pictures out there to enjoy is better than having a beautiful layout.
This company has great albums with simple photo pages. I'm getting ready to place an order and start putting all those years of photos in albums.
http://www.centuryphoto.com
Interesting to watch your thought process, De'Etta. Will you continue with the blog as another journal? Do you still write a journal that is more private (for your girls)? Do you print any of the digital pictures that you take? I can't remember the last time we printed out pictures. Of course, if my old pics were in albums, maybe I could think about moving forward. For now we have thousands of photos circulating on computers throughout the house. Ha!
Those packs look nice, Debbie.
I think I need to simply use up some of the stock I have. I must have 10 12x12 albums, stacks of pages and page protectors....I also have lots of stickers, papers, die cuts etc....but honestly....while *I* enjoyed the look of all the fripperies my husband and children really don't care. Bre's the only one who really LIKES the scrapbook look - the others just want the photos. LOL I agree wholeheartedly with the original concept of say Creative Memory (capture the family history - photos and journal) but I think that it's become very stressful to try to create works of art for the normal mom....::snort:: SOME LOVE IT - go for it. If we don't love it - the big thing is still saving the memories. It saddens me to see that we no longer have nights where the albums are spread all over the floor. LOL
Kathy - the blog is here to stay as long as I have children, parents and friends who are far away. {G}
Yes, I write a more personal journal and that will be available some day for my children. I have photos interspersed with that journal - done in Word.
The photo albums - I want to be photo albums with enough info for the kids to be able to remember what happened and find more detailed journal entries if they want to read more.
We went digital about 4 years ago. NONE of those photos have been printed out because I had a BOX of photos to put in albums before I printed any more out. Of course, now THAT box and negatives are lost. Yes, we click through the computer files to see photos....but I'd like to get THOSE printed and in albums too! LOL
I agree with you about putting the photos into a new album. Do any of your children need typing practice? They could types what your mom has written, and in the same format (using a column format, etc.) and of course could have fun with the font style and color, and then place them in the album in the same layout that your mom had them, cut the print and paste it in. They learn family history, get word processing/typing practice in, and you don't spend as much time with it. Just a thought.
Sis:
Thanks. You ought to see the foto's I have sorted, rubber banded together and in the coffin box my Dad made for my Mom as a trunk at the foot of their bed.......... it is more than 1/2 way filled with stuff I need to put in albums.
If you are missing foto's from the years we were in the PI's... remember that you use to send us copies of your pictures.... Most of them are waiting for me to put into albums..... You could have some of them if you need. Next time we see you we will be sure to show you what we have etc.
I keep thinking when I am no longer working I will catch up. last time I sorted foto's I had our table with all three leaves (how do you spell that) in and also used the counter.
Seems like we are all in the same boat. :) :(
l/p
DeEtta,
You inspired me. I had over 300 photos waiting to go in albums. I have them all on disc and online (with captions) but now they are all in albums (although un-captioned)
ACK Renee, I inspired you more than I inspired myself. LOL Actually, I am making a start...and telling myself "simple and in is better than planned". I have a notebook with photos, pages, stickers and die cuts etc...but it's best to have my photos IN an album than in that sort of massive planning stage that never results in a finished page. ::snort::
De'Etta,
I feel your pain. :-) I've been an avid scrapbooker since my oldest (who is now almost 11) was 18 months old. Some days I'm more inspired than others. I'm horribly behind & that bugs me.
I will say that scrapbooking stuff sells very well on ebay. LOL Especially anything CM - especially if you've had it for a bit & they no longer are making it.
All that aside, I've "stored" my photos in various ways. My favorite are pocket albums where I can slip photos in & it has room on the edge to journal. That way I can still enjoy it until I can get at them.
I would also suggest that you store them like you used to. Then allow your daughter who LIKES the scrapbooks to make her own one day with all the nicely organized photos you can give her. :-)
As for your Mom's album...can you change the settings at all? Increase dpi? Something? I think that would be by far the easiest way to do it IF you can get it to work. Otherwise I would retype a bunch to print it out but also cut out some too.
HTH!
Lisa in ME
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