A new version of scrapbooking
I used to scrapbook. I had a file box full of scissors, tape, paper, stencils, and pictures. My scrapbook projects were not as elaborate as many that I have seen. I know women who will spend hours crafting a single page. Mostly I just cut the pictures to remove ugly or distracting elements. Then I stuck the pictures onto paper in a fairly attractive arrangement and filled the white spaces with writing. I stopped scrapbooking in 2004 when money was so tight that I couldn’t afford to buy prints from my digital pictures. When I finally had money again, I had no time because we’d started creating and shipping Schlock books. I enjoyed scrapbooking, but I don’t miss it all that much. What I miss is having the book to hand to my kids so that they can read and remember the things our family has done. I miss having our family’s history in a book.
Today I realized that I am more able than ever to put together a book of family history. I have professional quality layout tools. I have my livejournal entries. I have piles of digital photos. I have skill and experience in layout work. I have everything I need to put it all together and print a book through lulu. It is not a small project. Part of me looks at the hours of effort necessary to put a Tayler family book together and I quail at the thought. All that time could be spent on a project that would earn money or recognition. But I think this is a worthy project. The worth of an effort can not always be measured by the amount of money or recognition it garners. This project is a gift to my future self. It is a gift to my children and my grandchildren. They will be glad to have it.
The thing that I need to be careful is to not let this project take over. My priorities are out of order if I neglect my kids in order to put together a scrapbook of things that they have done in the past. Similarly bad is if I neglect the work which pays our bills to work on a chronicle project. So I think this becomes my Sunday afternoon project. On Sundays I can spend an hour or two putting together this book. Over a year’s worth of Sunday afternoons, surely I can compile the previous year’s pictures and blog entries.
I started work on the project today. I’m starting with 2007. I can work my way backward in time from there.