Been a long time! I'm ready to get scrapping!

Wow, it has been a long time since I've blogged here and even longer since I've done any scrapbooking - paper or digital.

I am about to begin working on a "baby book" for my baby boy, who is now 18 months old and looking less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy. He is a joy to me and I want to remember all of these days that we have together before my mind has completely turned to mush!

The other day I went to Michael's and bought a few photo boxes with the hope - and plan - to organize my boxes and boxes of photos into some kind of chronological order. I received photos from my parents' house that other people took -- most are those my Grandpa had printed from holiday parties and such that he gave prints to my mom and then my dad. Sometimes it really is a guessing game to figure out which year things are from.

I used to be sooooo good about writing the date on the back of the pictures when I received them back from the developer. Now, I have to go through and decide which photos I want printed and start a weekly regiment of ordering photos of my VAST collection of digital pics. I'm never going to get them scrapped if I don't get them printed. I have so much STUFF in my son's bedroom closet that is just sitting there, not being used, when inside my soul is a scrapbooker ready to scrap again.

If you have ideas about what the best place to get pics printed is, let me know. I plan on making a trip to Costco to get pics developed, but I am thinking the .99 shipping of Winkflash may get me addicted to them. Not going to Costco, not being enticed to pick up "a few other things" while I'm picking up pictures would be a very good thing! ;-)

I have to confess, I have been scouting eBay for a Cricut Expression die-cutting machine. I don't want to spend so much money, but with my carpal tunnel, and my need for speed to scrap, I see the machine as being a big time saver for making cute scrapbook pages. You can also use it for cutting vinyl and I am always salivating over the cute home decor using vinyl lettering. There is a big stretched canvas painting in my front room that I have wanted to repurpose for YEARS. Some acrylic paint and vinyl lettering could turn it into the art piece I really want. I foresee a travel or genealogy theme to it -- Families are Forever, that sort of thing. It's huge - 3.5 ft by 5 feet, or maybe its a 4 x 5 feet. It's in need of fixing! ;-)

So, you may wonder what got me back to scrapping mode.
1) My son sleeps through the night, takes a good nap, and is a sweet little toddler. This means I am more likely to feel like doing SOMETHING instead of sleep.
2) I got "stuck" with doing crafts for my daughter's school fall festival (I usually bake things for the country store). I started making hair flowers and greeting cards and now I'm longing to break out my cardstock and Hermafix and get to work!
3) My family history is of utmost importance to me and I desperately want to save the memories of my parents for my children. Dominic needs to be able to open up books and see his Grammie and Papa, to read about the fun (and not so fun) things we did, to know that even if they are not here to hold him and cuddle him now, they loved me, they loved their family, they worked hard and had faith. The same for my grandparents and generations further back. If I don't keep the history, who will?

Well, my little one is grouchy right now, so I better go back to taking care of him. I can't wait for nap time to get some creative time in! :)

Dece