November is traditionally a time for reflection, assessment, and gratitude; and I shifted my focus to scrapbooking. You could live your whole life without cataloguing and categorising your memories into a library of scrapbooks that chronicle you and your family's life, but there is much to be gained from looking back, remembering where you were and where you are now. Times have been though lately and yet there is so much to be thankful for. When I look back through my books and photos I am reminded of so many good moments that I would not otherwise easily remember without the visual clues of the photos I took. This month I finished a mini book about the Halloween costumes my kids have worn for the last 11 years, and I'm almost finished a book about my oldest son's first trip to Disney World (back in 1997)
I had a crappy camera, no photography skills, so the photos are pretty bad, but to me the memories are priceless.
Another cool project I started was Family Gratitude Spinner, a class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. It's an interesting twist on the scrapbook format. The class calls for the 4x6 photo carousel from 7 gypsies, but since I had the smaller ATC spinner, I adapted the project to the smaller size. The neat thing about this project is that you can add or subtract photos anytime. Still a work in progress, lots of photos still to add..