So often in my shop do I hear how my clients don't like journaling. And they hate their own handwriting.
More than 5 years ago, my husband died in an aeroplane crash. Now I cherish stiffy disks (remember those?) that say 'windows 98 recovery disk', and business cards that say 'Piet 08**etc', because they are almost the only samples of his handwriting that I have. And his handwriting was really awful! At least my family will have notes and journaling in my handwriting to cherish. Think of the special people in your life that have passed on. What have you saved with their handwriting on? Do you want to do that to your loved ones? Or would you prefer they have personal notes from you?
At the convention Wilna and Donna really emphasized this. Wilna suggested that if you don't know what to write, you start with 'dear ...' and write it as a note to them. She also told us that living far away from her mom, nothing beats the joy of getting a handwritten letter (remember those too?) in the mail from her. Think of journaling as a handwritten letter to your children.
I just finished doing Wilna's page last night. The tags all have notes on them to that person. I really enjoyed that. Thank you Wilna, for creating such a special layout.
I once read somewhere that if someone looks through your album and still asks questions, then you haven't done enough journaling.
My clients are also very bad at scrapping themselves. I also battle with this. I hate to be reminded of what I look like. I am, after all, somewhat large.. Yet, if my scrapbooks are the story of my life, then surely the main character - ME, should feature sometimes. Someone once told me that when her husband plays with the kids, it's such a special occasion, that she gets out the camera and takes pics, and scraps them. One day her kids will think that he played with them all the time, and she seldom did. While it actually was the other way around.
Come on, overcome that negativity, and scrap yourself at least sometimes! With my digital camera I work on the theory that if I take 100 photos, at least one of them will come out ok. The rest I delete. And since I am the boss of the camera, I have control of what is deleted, and what stays. And what gets scrapped. So give the camera to your hubby or you kids, and let them photograph you. Or contact Annette and book a photoshoot. AND SCRAP YOURSELF!!
I am busy (have been for weeks, it's somewhat torturous) with a layout using all those crappy photos of myself through the years. Those that survived being torn up. A few days ago, Donna also showed us her bad birthday pics on her blog, and promised she was going to scrap them. You don't have to go that far, though.
I hope I have given you something to think about. Leave me a comment and tell me how you have applied this.
And now I'm getting off my soapbox.
love, Jacki
