Scrapbooking

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Being a scrapbooker in Britain is no easy thing. Most people haven't heard of scrapbooking ("It's like making fancy photo albums" I tell them), never mind being a kindred spirit. Getting supplies is nigh impossible (though things are improving, slowly) and my nearest crop is a two-hour three-train journey away. But I'm glad I stumbled upon scrapbooking, for the way it's changed my life.

In the years B.S. (Before Scrapbooking - nothing rude meant by the letters) I would struggle to say what my hobbies were. My dh had his sport (watching and playing it) and his strategic war games (not exactly my thing) and the book he's writing (not a "hobby" but you get the idea) and I had...well, nothing really. Reading perhaps. Intermittent visits to the gym (membership now frozen for the 7th month in a row!). But since last February I have scrapbooking.

It has changed my life in a number of ways:

Firstly, I now know how I'm going to organize my boxes of photos. Having read various Picture Talk threads when I started out I knew that magnetic albums were BAD things and I took the one I'd just bought back to the store. I doubt that I'll ever be caught up with my photos but at least I now have a plan.

Secondly, I know a lot more American ladies! It immediately became apparent that all the scrapbooking supplies and most of the scrapbooking people were the other side of the Atlantic. I chatted with a number of people on-line and some were instrumental in helping me get my first scrapbook supplies - even going to their local lss to pick up and mail the items I knew I'd need (from reading "What Every New Scrapbooker Should Have" threads). I'd phone my credit card details to the store, adding a bit extra to the total amount to be debited to cover postage costs for my on-line friend.

Thirdly, scrapbooking has changed my life by affecting my vacation choices! I haven't gone as far as booking a week-long scrapbook cruise but this Fall, when my dh is going to Oregon to golf with some on-line friends, I'm going to California to scrapbook with some on-line friends!

Admittedly scrapbooking has changed my life in what might be thought not-so-good ways (e.g. the amount of time I spend on the internet each day) but overall scrapbooking has added new lustre to my life and I look forward to seeing where it goes from here.


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Scrapbooking, by Jeanette Wisnoski