Or maybe a puppy chasing her tail. I don’t know – but I feel like I will never catch up! If it’s not one thing, it’s another. I’ve been WAY behind on my scrapbooking, so the last few days I’ve done everything in my (minimal) power to orchestrate both kids napping at the same time, or at least overlapping a bit. Then I’ve used the quiet time to scrap. Result? I finished my 2007 album* and I’m all excited about my photos again and I’m dying to get started on 2008.
Side effect of that result? My house is a disaster zone. There’s a wall of (clean) laundry on the couch. There’s a minefield of toys scattered down the hall. The bathroom is clean, and the kitchen is serviceable, but the bedroom is messy messy messy.
So today I’m doing housework, with visions of layouts and cropping dancing in my head. If I get “caught up” with the laundry, the dishes, and dinner…. odds are good that I’ll fall behind somewhere else (oh right, I need to work on lesson plans!). And that means it will probably be awhile until I pick up those 2008 pics and my papers again. {sigh} Maybe I’ll finish that one by 2010!
*basically. I need another package of Spargo pages and page protectors, but I have to wait to place a CM order (because I’m trying to behave nicely with the budget). So the layouts are done and when I get around to purchasing the pages, I’ll just add a little adhesive, slip the protectors on, and voila! – OFFICIALLY done.
4 thoughts on “Like a hamster in a wheel”
Yeah – I haven’t even finished Zion’s baby book, and he is nearly 4. I have tons of great stuff. Lots of paper, stickers, a few albums even, and a decent amount of pictures printed… but just no where to do it. Do you put it all out, then pick it all up every single time? Or do you have a place you can leave it out?
I am jealous that you have gotten anything done. I would LOVE to! Congrats!
I have an AMAZING storage solution – I don’t know if Creative Memories is still selling it, but it’s a big heavy-dute tote – I wish I could remember the exact name of it.
One side has double zippers and the side of the bag folds down and opens up; the square photo storage box (which holds like 1000 pics) fits in the bottom, along with several little mesh bags that I keep my shape templates in. I also keep my Personal Trimmer, pens, adhesives in that side.
The other side has a single zipper and pockets stitched in to hold the 12-inch trimmers. A big pocket on the other side holds my self-healing mat, my Titletopia stuff, and my Tearing Tool. The space in between the pockets holds the album I’m currently working on, and I usually have already sorted through the papers and stickers I will be using and tuck those in that space as well.
Then, when I think I’ll have an hour or so, I just have to pull out that one tote bag – I open it up and spread it out on my bed or the dining room table, and I can get 4-6 layouts done along with having time to get everything packed back in, if I have an hour or so to work.
When I finished my 2007 album, I took about 2 hours to “reset” the tote – 2008 photos in my box, new papers and themed stickers in the pockets. One other thing I did this time (we’ll see how it works) is that I went through the whole year’s worth of pics and tried to decide if each set would be a single layout or a double-page spread. I tend to scrapbook chronologically, but this time I have a few things that I think will work better combined (like a single pic of preschool stuff from September… and a couple pics of preschool in January; and I’m going to group most of my “belly pics” of the pregnancy into one layout). So I went ahead and pre-planned all of that – bonus is that it helped me figure out exactly how many pages I need!
Okay, just checked — they don’t sell the one I have anymore. But it’s very similar to the “Daisy Weekender” (which has a new pattern, mine’s solid black; and has different pockets to hold the new Rotary Trimmer instead of their old 12-in trimmers).
Oh, and the photo box I mentioned? It actually holds 600 prints, not 1000. It’s the Power Sort Mini Box — and I highly endorse it, it’s totally worth the $. I also have the full-size Power Sort Box (which holds 2400 prints), LOVE that thing. All my photos that are not in albums are in once place in that box, organized by year, easily labeled in case I need one. I also use it to store old negatives and CD backups of digital pictures, and memorabilia (napkins from our wedding reception, newspaper clippings, etc).