Zzzzz's

Well i didn't manage to get a load of scrapping done last night after all, by the time i'd got the kiddies to bed which last night was quite difficult, had a long phone conversation with the fanatbulous Tracie Hudson and had a good old natter on the forums.....i was propping my eyes open with matchsticks. I think it was about 2am i got to bed. I did manage to get my weekly challenge done for UKS though.

I couldn't quite get my teeth into it so i did use a lot of stuff i'd bought before i knew what i was doing! Funny how when you get started you think you need this, that and the other, spend a fortune and then turn your nose up at it only 6 months later! This 6 months of scrapping has been one almighty steep learning curve. You think it's one thing and it's another entirely. I hear people talk about so-and-so's style etc but i think only 6 months down the line i still have so much experimenting ahead of me, it's so confusing as you think you don't like something (in my case it was flowers) then you really give it a go, begrudgingly at first and they turn into an obsession! At least for a while....!

You see there are so many things to try and so many 'way's to scrap.....do you start with a photo, a memory, a quote, the papers, a certain flower that you're just 'dying' to use? Does getting published mean you often neglect to leave a bit of your soul off the layout? The reason i started scrapping was because i love photos....loved them even more when i got my first camera and didn't have to worry any more about the cost of my poor David Bailey impressions. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a photographer....i'm a mother. I would love to know how to take decent pics, i can appreciate a beautiful photograph but i have no idea what all the buttons on my camera do and probably never will do. A lot of my photos are out of focus, unbalanced, too much background stuff, i don't THINK when i take a picture, I just DO. It's something that i want to learn but if i go into it too deeply will i then start thinking TOO much and miss that one moment, which once gone, can't be created again.

I don't really want to knock out layouts for the sake of it, i want to take time over them, make them feel right to ME, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I have some beautiful papers, gorgeous flowers, fantastic embellishments.......but will you even know what those papers are or even care 20 years down the line......when you look at the Layout then, it's the photographs and the journalling that ignite the memories ........ i think sometimes i'm guilty of losing site of that.... Note to self: must try harder! Right, rambled on enough, must now go get ready to pick ickles up from nursery.