My new hobby

I've found a new hobby, and since starting a week or so ago, I've become totally addicted to it: scrapbooking! I sort of fell into it out of necessity. I needed a place to keep my son's mall photo with Santa, which is too big to fit in our photo albums, yet worthy of better attention than it would get being stuffed in a box and shoved under a bed somewhere. I thought of scrapbooking, and I soon realized that I have a lot of other mementos that I'd like to keep, like cards and newspaper clippings, that a scrapbook would be perfect for. And so it began! I've completed 3 pages so far, and have already collected quite a supply of scrapbook gear - stickers, archival pages, markers, double-sided tape, etc. I'm really surprised at how much fun I'm having with it.

I find the process of organizing and creating each page really satisfying. And even though I'll be the first to admit that I find scrapbooking to be kind of a dorky pastime, I'm so into it that I really don't care. I'm constantly thinking about the next step and looking forward to whatever free time I can finagle to tinker away at it. Suddenly, all cards and wrapping paper have new potential! I'm so disappointed now when I think of all the lovely notes that came my way that have ended up in recycling, simply because I didn't know what to do with them. I hate the idea of becoming a pack-rat, so I've been pretty cut-throat when it comes to tossing birthday and Christmas cards. Because really, who keeps a boring Christmas card from a distant Uncle you see once a year? But now, such cards will find new life in my scrapbooks, whether by cutting them all up to steal the images for embellishments, or to actually preserve the sentiments written inside, I like the idea that these gifts will go on in some way.

I really wanted to find some this weekend to work on a few pages, but since I'm feeling under the weather I'm not sure if I'll get a chance. It's one thing that you can't really do while in bed, and I'm shocked to find that not scrapbooking is the thing that's got me the most frustrated about being sick! *sigh* I feel like admitting that makes me a die-hard scrapbooker... are you judging me for it? ;)