Me, My Scrapbook and I

So, I had a thought to branch out on here as although this blog is place for me to share my adoption journey I also want to share something of who I am. I know that this journey has the capacity to take over my life but I don’t want to ‘loose’ the bit of me that makes me ‘me’ in the process. I did this when were trying to conceive and going though all the infertility treatments and it was no fun plus it took me a long time to feel like myself again.

One of my new past times is scrapbooking. I have always enjoyed making cards – cross stitch cards were the start and then I moved onto paper crafts and decoupage as well other paper elements. After my miscarriage it was mainly as a response to my need to be busy all the time. I desperately wanted to keep my mind off how devastated I was and creating something was something positive I could cling to. From there I have had to move onwards as I have boxes of cards made up and not enough excuses to use them and whilst some I am really proud of others show that I am an amateur at it.

Which led me to a scrapbook. I decided about 8 months ago to do a book for 2011 and I bought myself a spiral bound book from Paperchase and set about printing photos and making a piece of art of it. I was so please with the result that I decided my 2012 book would be a proper 12 x 12 album with page protectors and everything. So far I am really proud of it – I have spent lots of time and effort into making it into something I can enjoy looking at for years to come. I really wanted a record of the good things, the postive memories and the people and places that mean a lot to me.

What has amazed me since I started this element of crafting was the sheer amount of materials, tools and other gadgets it is possible to collect. I have papers (of different shapes, sizes, colours and types), embellishments, stickers, rub ons, peel offs, ribbons, ink stamps, heat embossing powders – the list feels endless and I know I have barely scratched the surface.

My next idea, as I am working on my 2012 book is a book in which I can detail the lives that Andrew and I have had. I want to include baby photos, memories of us as children and then adults before we met but then I want to include how our lives met and moved forwards and I want to leave at least three quarters empty to include our futures. I don’t even plan to record in it with any regularity just on those important events – our children become ours, starting school all those things that parents like to record.