Memory Keeping

I used to be a hoarder.  I now have a five-year-old, and all the detritus that brings along with it, so by necessity I'm not so bad at hoarding as I used to be ("get this out of the house now!" being more my mantra these days).  I do, of course, have a few boxes of letters, mementos, special bits and bobs from my past and, now, my son's past - I will never not have space for his tiny yellow baby jeans!

I started to be able to move past my slightly-irrationally-sentimental stage when I read a tip in a magazine: "Instead of keeping an object you don't use or need, take a photo, and keep the photo.  Photos take up much less space".  Eureka.

It's probably for this reason that I loooove scrapbooking.  Scrapbooking is my "me time" crafting - creating layouts of photos to make sure the memories are kept safe and special.  I now have four Memories & More binders, and I'm sure there will be more to follow!

One of my binders is dedicated to "old" photos - ie, pre-Badger Cub, but goes right back.  There are really bad photos I took in my childhood, school days and school holiday layouts (oh, that hair!), and even some true "vintage" shots, like this one of my Granny and Grandad's wedding - they're at the end of the line, behind all her brothers, their wives, and my great-grandparents.  I love this shot!

 

Something else about to go into the "vintage" binder is this page.  I found the photo lurking and thought it deserved its own spread, and what better to use than the mountains from the Waterfront set?  I showed it to my dad today (thirty years on from when this was taken), and he was a little confused that it wasn't a book, but hey!  As an aside, I'm very proud of those "eyelets" - it's amazing what you can do with the new Blends™.

And finally, a little shout out to my bravery...  I have a problem with white/blank space, and have trouble leaving well alone, so I had a go at... putting nothing on the page except the pictures (eek!).  No captions, embellishment, layers... I think I need a lie down!

Hope you've enjoyed looking at my pics.  Why not hop along and follow the blog hop for some more crafty inspiration around memories?