The month of March has ended.
With it closing the first quarter of the scrapbooking Back to Basics challenge. My goal was 25 pages/layouts, and I made it with the total at 40.
The Tammy and Chrissy Scrapbooking Crop in mid-March was a huge boost as I continued to work on the boys’ Florida 2022 albums with 22 pages total completed between Jonathan and Oliver’s albums.
I was looking forward to the crop for weeks. I brought everything in the facility, put all my tools, paper and photos on the table in the usual spot. Then, I was just scrap-blocked. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know where to start. I didn’t mentally prepare a plan of action. The focus had been having enough adhesive, getting there and having money for raffles.
So, I went through paper and took out all the dinosaur themed ones I had. Then, I got out the photos from Jurassic Park and organized it into pages. With everything organized and my Sony Walkman MP3 going, it was easier to be focused.
The crop was great – pages done, time with my sister and
I also bought a lot of raffle tickets and took my chance on at least 20-25 prizes ranging from scrapbook paper and supplies (like I need more) to stuff for the boys. I won four raffle prizes. No stuffed animals this round, but I did win a gift card to a scrapbook store (support those small businesses) and a free crop – well worth the gambling.
The next Tammy and Chrissy Scrapbook Crop is November 1 – theme is slumber party.
The night before the scrapbook crop I was scrolling through pictures from previous crops. Jonathan saw the photo of when I won DJ the Dino, a giant, green dinosaur I won at the March 2021 crop when Keri and I both won prizes. He also saw one of the pictures I took of one of the layouts – his first visit to In-N-Out and I had cut out at least 25 strips of yellow paper to make it into french fries.
He began to ask questions, always enjoy when my children are curious.
JD: When did we go to California?
Me: 2018
JD: So you didn’t work on the album until 2021, three years later? Why did it take so long?
Hmmm… the boys don’t need to be curious.
Me: It just took some time.
The long answer, which I didn’t tell him was the process to get there – printing the photos, organizing the photos, finding paper and embellishments for the album plus finishing other projects to work on his personal California 2018 album. Plus, I came to a point I decided crops are great for big projects focused on one thing like a vacation. I can prep better and just grab what 12×12 containers I need, which are organized by theme.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that he is nine-years-old and only his first year album and California 2018 album are done.
So back to the goal of 100 pages/layouts for this year. I hope to make it over the goal. The goal is to continue to work on Oliver’s first year album at home. Then, move on to albums for JD and Oliver’s albums past the first year, and remind myself I do not have to scrapbook every photo. I do not.
March is Reading Month has also finished, and the boys turned in their reading minutes to their teachers before spring break. I had probably one of the best months for reading since the COVID shutdown in 2020. I started and finished three books and in different forms of media – physical book, electronic book and audio book. I also multi-tasked by reading or listening to them all at once. Such is the way.
Now I am in the limbo stage – beginning a new book and getting into it. Picking the next audiobook to try out on Hoopla. In the meantime, I began re-reading a Kindle book during the weekend. Just a quick, fun story to cleanse the palette.