A World Full of Friends

By:Lisa Rainford

A few years ago, I was a middle-aged woman without a lot of friends. Oh sure, I had some aquaintances at work, and other parents from my kids sports teams would say Hi!, but I really didn't have anyone to talk to when I had a problem or share a special joy with.

I became involved with scrapbooking while working with my son on a High School Physiology project. He had to do something to show how a doll he had carried around for a week had grown like a real baby for a year. We decided to do a baby book for the doll and I found some scrapbooking supplies at Hallmark. Well, I was hooked. I decided if I could do it for a doll I could do it for my family. It was about a month before my 24th wedding anniversary. I decided that I would scrap the whole 25 years of our marriage before our Silver wedding anniversary. Well, you can tell I was a newbie and had no idea what this all entailed. I had boxes and boxes of pictures and albums. I worked frantically, sometimes 16 hours a day while I was on vacation!

During the time I was involved with my scrapbook marathon, my then 23 year old daughter said she would never do this, it is dumb, what a waste of time! Over the next few months, she watched, and then AH HA! Another hooked scrapbooker. She is more comuter savvy than I, and she found this great website on her computer. DMARIE! When I got a computer last May she encouraged me to "Check it out".

The rest is history. I have become a dMarie junkie! A day can not go by without signing on. The ladies here have become my best friends. I will come home and find a little package from a friend half-way across the world, just because she cares and I said a few days ago that I was having a bad time with something. I will see something in a store and think of another dMarie'r who was mentioning wanting it and pick it up and send it off. I have shared, marriages, divorces, new babies, deaths, miscarriages, published pages and rotten PTA meetings. These are my true friends. They don't care if I am fat or thin, tall or short, black, white or hispanic. They love me for being me, and I for them.

Thank you for creating this site. If scrapbooking had not led me here, I would be a sadder and more lonely person. Now I can share my family history with the whole world, and learn about the customs and history of others thruout the world.


Tomorrow at dMarie Daily: Scrapbooking is a Bridge, by Mickey