So This is Scrapbooking: Barbara

It's Wednesday, so it must be So This is Scrapbooking: taking a look at what scrapbooking has brought to the lives of cutters, stickers, bloggers, business owners and the rest around the world. Read on for our guest and to find out who won the A Sprinkle of Imagination giveaway.

Today I have a wonderfully entertaining guest. Barbara's blog is always fun to read! She has energy, she has verve and she has a clutch of children and grandchildren she writes about with love. I'll let her tell you more...

A great, big heartfelt thanks to Sian for allowing me the opportunity to share my story. And I must tell you, to me, it’s all about the story!

Barbara's Story

In January of 1996 my husband and I planned a cruise with friends to celebrate our upcoming 25^th anniversary. We “girls” made a little “deal” that we would start saving all of our change. That was to be our money to buy jewelry in the Caribbean. It became quite a funny competition. It wasn’t long before we were asking for change rather than dollars, then we just went ahead and started saving dollar bills too.

In May, we went to St. Louis to visit family. My nieces, showed me their scrapbooks and I thought, “my daughters would love this”---I have three. My nieces took me to visit their “dealer”---where I spent over $600. To justify the cost, I told myself that I would use my jewelry money. I mean, how much jewelry can you wear anyway?

When I finally had to break the “no money for jewelry” news to my friends, I knew it was going to be hard. One of these friends had spent $75.00 at a craft fair a couple years prior buying scrapbook supplies to make a book for her daughter. I gave her a hard time saying (imagine a sarcastic tone), “well, that was a stupid waste of money. You are never going to make a book.” And she hadn’t. Now it was their turn to scoff at me.

After our cruise in July (where I did not buy any jewelry), I had my two nieces come down to Nashville, to “teach” my girls how to scrapbook. I planned to work with them to just make two little books for my friends to commemorate our trip. That’s it---I was completely hooked. It was such a surprise to me. I didn’t expect to love it. Like everybody, I had (have) a busy life---certainly no time for scrapbooking. But I had this thought, “how  many things do we do that keep our teenage daughters engaged with us for long periods of time?” To this day, my nieces, daughters and I all meet for a scrapbook weekend together. Everyone lives far apart, so it has become a very important tradition for us.

The rest, as they say is “history.” I got tired of cleaning out closets and files, so I retired from my organization business in 2000---although I still do craft/scrapbook rooms for clients. I focused my organizational talents on developing classes to organize rooms, supplies, preparing to make pages, and packing for crops/retreats. It was natural to then start on organizing photos and the memories that go along with them. I developed Making the Most of My Memories Workshop---a series of three classes. To prove that my system works, I launched A Year of Memories---now in it’s fourth year, focusing on the stories and the every day.

When I spent all that money on scrapbook supplies for my girls, little did I know that my scrapbooks would become my most precious jewels!! (A little schmaltzy, I know, but hey, that’s me!!)

Here are a few of my layouts from this past year

Again, thanks Sian, for such a thought provoking trip down memory lane!!

And thank you Barbara for sharing your story today.

Barbara Eads lives with her husband Butch in Brentwood Tennessee. When she isn't travelling the world, she  blogs at Living Happily Ever After and A Year of Memories. Pay her a visit - I guarantee she'll get you smiling.

And finally today - the winner of last week's giveaway from Vicki of A Sprinkle of Imagination is....Sheena. Sheena, please drop me an email and I'll pass your details on. Congratulations!