further PL endeavors

I’m catching up! the guilt (at least in the photo/memory department) is dwindling! my work on this year’s project life album got me itching to take care of the years of backlogged photos that have been haunting me from the depths of my external hard drive and enormous black box on the shelf of my closet.

back in march, I plowed through 2010, followed quickly by 2009. what a relief! 2 years of of our family’s life, via photos and their stories, safely stashed in albums where they can be enjoyed!

but then I had a problem.

I was out of albums! the two albums I’d used for ‘09 and ‘10 were creative memories albums I had on hand, but with those used, what next?

I weighed my options. no, seriously, I scoured websites, writing down prices, adding things up, trying to figure out what would be the most cost-effective way to accomplish what I needed to accomplish. I had at least 4 more years’ worth of pictures to deal with. I’m not real heavy on the embellishments, but I did want some nice papers, journaling boxes or cards, and the like.

I really, really wanted to remain loyal to creative memories, and I liked what I saw, as far as some of their lines of papers went. but OMG, to do what I needed to do, would have cost me upwards of $100 and that was BEFORE printing my pictures!  eek! I no way could I do that 4 times over!

so I priced stuff at craft stores like ben franklin and joann’s. albums were definitely cheaper there, but I ran into the same problem I always do, shopping scrapbooking supplies at places like that. it’s overwhelming! I get dizzy wandering through all the displays of papers and stickers (which I never use, anyway), and other such stuff that I don’t even know what I would do with. I am not a ‘fancy’ scrapbooker. I look at magazines and websites devoted to ideas and layouts and I don’t like ANY of them. I am not trying to make a work of art out of one page. I am not going to put one picture on a 12x12 page, fill the rest in with fancy papers, designs, words that are not my own to start with, and other such fanciness. if that’s your kind of scrapbooking, please don’t take offense, it’s just not my thing. to me, that’s a waste of space in an expensive book! I want at least 3, maybe 4 pictures on that page, enough color/design to make it look not boring, and the words I write to document what is going on in the picture or possibly the story behind it. that’s it. there’s no room in my book, my budget (or my patience) for other stuff.

then, I checked out all the digital photobook sites, like shutterfly, picaboo, and snapfish. those are spendy too, and without having a clear idea of how many pages I would need to do, it was hard to gauge how much it was going to cost.

and so I looked at project life. all in all, that was EASILY going to be the cheapest way to do it. but I had qualms there, too. the biggest one was that the slots in the photo sleeves are oriented horizontally. I keep that in mind now, and make sure that I take most of my pictures horizontally, especially if I’m having in mind that it might be a POTD. but I never used to do that. and I really couldn’t handle it if a bunch of the pictures were displayed sideways. seriously, couldn’t. (don’t worry, I know I need help!) I was also concerned because, in my head, PL was to be done in a picture a day format, laid out by weeks. this was very rigid in my head, and I obviously didn’t have a picture for every day in years past. my picture taking was very sporadic, and there were some months that I had only 4 or 5 pictures for the whole month.

it was all very confusing.

I kind of put the whole idea on hold for awhile, without having come to any conclusions.

I thought about it a little more, here and there, and explored some ‘different’ ideas about PL that becky higgins had posted on her blog. I kind of broadened my ideas about how I could use it and make it work for my needs. in the back of my mind, I was pretty sure that was what I wanted to do. AND, since I was using the 2010 edition of the kit for my current 2011 album, I could use the 2011 editions (or at least the amber, which I was in love with from the first time I saw it) for back years. I had also done a little bit of math, and figured out that I could easily fit 2 years’ worth of pictures in one album. WOW! that would rock and be totally economical! I was sold, but not figuring it was an emergency and I’d order them when I had some spare money laying around (you know, cuz that happens all the time).

and then I got a text from mary. becky higgins had announced on facebook that the turquoise edition was selling out. there were only 10 left and they weren’t going to be making more. there were more of the amber, but not a ton. after those were gone, PL would be unavailable until the new year’s kits were put on sale. EEK!

I IM’d dave and announced that I NEEDED to spend $106 right away!!!

thankfully, I have a husband that understands ‘scrabooking emergencies’. I ordered one of each of the kits and spent the rest of the afternoon hoping that I had got my order in in time, because about an hour after the announcement went out, the turquoise was listed as unavailable.

so, to sum up: I got both albums. I love them. I figured out that if I take my vertical photos, and collage them in picassa with another vertical photo, I can cut them in half and they’ll fit in the smaller slots. phew! that saves SO much of my sanity (and we all know that it’s a precious commodity). I decided to start with the turquoise album (you know, save my fave for last – not that I don’t like the turquoise). I got all of 2007’s pictures organized and printed right away, and I’m working through the journaling. I just picked up 2008’s pictures from costco yesterday, and I’m going to get them in the book today. then journaling, and on to 2005 and 2006!

and then, at some point, I’ll finish my kids’ baby albums and figure out what to do with all the pre-digital pictures I have in 2004 and prior…

and my wedding album…

but that’s a whole other issue that I don’t want to talk about.

it might require therapy.