Albums and Organization...and my place in the world.

I have a small confession to make.
I've had help scrapbooking lately.
From my...






...husband.

I'll give you time to
a) stop laughing
b) pick yourself up off the floor or
c) groan.

It's OK. I was quite shocked myself.

Here's the thing.
I don't scrapbook chronologically.
Never have.
Can't.
The pressure of having to work on "what comes next" shuts me down creatively, so for many years now, I've been scrapbooking whatever speaks to me, in whatever order feels appropriate.

Much to the chagrin of my organization-lovin' honey.

My pages are in albums although in a somewhat haphazard, random order...definately not chronologically arranged. The idea of having them arranged chronologically is appealing to me but not something I want to tackle at this late date in the game. I find the thought completely overwhelming. This "state of album disarray" has bothered J for a while so finally, not too long ago, I asked if he would like to arrange my pages in order. (I knew he would like to see it done, but I wasn't sure he would actually want to do it himself.) Much to my surprise...he said yes. Maybe he knows me well enough to know that doing it himself is probably the only way it would ever actually get done.

So, onward and upward...he tackled my mess.
I tried not to twitch too much.

It was a large process that took several hours over the course of three different evenings. I've been scrapbooking for ten years, afterall. I have albums in 2 sizes (12x12 and 8.5x11) for the most part but there are a few odd-sized projects here and there. What he has organized amounts to about 200-300 pages. (Not bad for ten years, right.) His process was to removing all pages from all albums and sort them by year. Then, of course, he put them back into albums, in order. Now I wish all my albums matched...but that's another days work.

It's been interesting having J in my space and in my hobby. In a few cases where pages were missing journaling, he went so far as to add the journaling (done on the computer) himself...with almost no direction.

Scary?
You can bet your eyelets it was.

At one point, I told him if he didn't stop making me look bad by turning out several pages in one evening I was going to take up writing songs. He stopped.

It's funny. We have such diverse life approaches and nowhere is that more obvious than when you look at our different scrapbook pages. He's all about getting it done. Minimal embellishment...tell the story, mat the photo, be done. Only once did I have to say "honey, put down the deco scissors." I'm all about ribbon, a little patterned paper, detailed journaling, a rip here or there, some ink, a stamp or three...and plenty of time to congeal. I'm all about the process.

I don't think I have to worry about him taking up the scrapbook cause with any serious intentions. My place as the family historian and paper arts piddler is still firmly in tact, I think, although he was quite impressed with the MM Instant Hole Punch and Eyelet Setter. And he did spend more than three minutes choosing a font--once. Julian demonstrated the Quickutz for his father and was happy to do so.

It means a great deal to me that he cares about my albums (even if he doesn't do things exactly the way I would) and that he is willing to help me when I need it. It's nice to share a little bit of my hobby with him in this way...and of course, to see my albums in chronological order. That's an accomplishment in itself. (Thanks babe.)

My only real problem with scrapper-man is that he seems to have no problem discarding extra photos. Stab me in the heart, why don't ya? I had to go thru the trash before it went out and perform some rescue operations.

"Why not?" he asked.

Because honey, we don't throw pictures in the trash. Ever. No. Not even the extras from layouts that have already been finished. I might need those for something else.

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

"But..."

"Do you ever throw leftover verses of songs away?"

"No."

"Well, why not?"

"OK."

Eventually, we come to an understanding. Try to throw away any more photos and I'll hide the trimmer blades.

Oh, and no, you can't join 2Peas. (snort)

:)

Happy Sunday!