CONFESSIONS OF A CHRONIC SCRAPAHOLIC

Ever since the rise of Creative Memories, I have been a scrapbooker. (This should come as no surprise to those of you who read this blog regularly-- I've often described our many Scrapbook Retreats.)

I love arts and crafts.
I love photography.
And I'm a wee bit nostalgic. (Although, for a great argument AGAINST nostalgia, see Woody Allen's new film MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. If the nostalgia keeps you from fully engaging in the present, then, yes, out with the old!)

So. Combine 16 years and 3 sons and 4 brothers & sisters who come complete with families, that's a lot of scrapbooks! (I estimate 2500 pages, all told.)

And those are just the family albums.

Okay, so, all great and wonderful. Until those tornadoes whipped through Alabama two months ago.

It got me thinking: what if?

What if that happened to my house, me, my scrapbooks??

So I decided I needed to make a digital record.

I decided to remove the plastic covers and photograph each page of each scrapbook.
Here's my stack for today:

It requires natural light. No shadows. So I set up shop in my bathroom. And I try to make myself available for the window of time when the light is just right.

So far I've gotten through all the family albums. Today I hope to finish with the vacation albums. Then there are the kids' baby books, which will be labor intensive, as they contain documents I'll want to remove and photograph as well.

Here's a double page spread I'll photograph (as singles) later today, from our 2002 trip to Wyoming:

And that's pretty much the end of my scrapbooking days. At least of the cut and paste variety. For 2011, I'm going all-digital. It just makes sense, you know?

Except these crafty hands MUST. HAVE. A. PROJECT.

Suggestions, anyone?