Monday 18 October 2010

Why Do I Scrapbook? {Something different for today...}

I have just a half an hour to whip up a post here as my daughter finishes early every day this week as it is her last week at school {sob, sob...a very difficult time for both of us!}.  These last 10 days have been HECTIC.  The pace has been relentless.  DH has been away in China/Hong Kong & I have been holding the fort here.  Between my computer work, free taxi-services to & from A - B for 4 not-so-little ones at 3 different schools & cooking-washing up-drying up & putting away only to start the cycle over again in a few hours {at least 3 times a day!} I have somehow managed to fit in my artistic ventures & blog maintenance too.  Phew....

Well DH arrived back last night, new lens & flash diffuser in hand {loves xxx} so hopefully he will be relieving me of some of the cooking duties this week at least {hint, hint...he reads my blog you see!}  Anyhoo...as I can hardly find my desk today & my studio is in seriaaaaaaaaaaas need of a clean up I decided to take my cue from Diana, aka The Lonely Scrapbooker, & begin my Scrapbooking Questions & Answers series,  which I will save under one of my top tabs, for any new blog followers I may be fortunate to acquire along my journey!  This really should be a post/series of posts all of us scrapbookers have in an easy to find spot on our blogs & one that is updated annually, which I hope to do.

I know I owe a lot of you some love & hopefully later today/this evening I will be able to pop in & leave you some!

1.  Why do you scrapbook?

1.  It's an efficient & artistic way to display one's photographs as opposed to the more common route of storing jpegs on a computer, where they are hardly viewed and, worse still, could get lost, & the old-fashioned but slightly preferable {perhaps} alternative of keeping one's photos in shoeboxes in the attic/basement/under the bed!

2.  I originally began scrapbooking for the sheer love of it - not really knowing which direction it would take - but simply because I am a creative person & stumbled upon scrapbooking quite by chance & was completely & instantly captivated.  Having tried most crafts no-one was surprised that I was onto another one, but I knew, immediately, that scrapbooking would be my forever craft.

3.  As a way of recalling precious moments & retelling stories that I know I {& those concerned} would otherwise eventually forget, and because I believe that my children, and hopefully their children, will be grateful that their childhood years have been so well-documented in an easily storeable format.  I have VERY little that was saved for me from my childhood & my husband has nothing & it really does make one feel rootless.

4.  I scrapbook {& stick with it} because I have lived through a scenario where I was forced to leave the country of my birth {Zimbabwe}, after 40 years, & the house we had had built & garden I had landscaped, leaving behind so much of my time/effort/artistic love, in the mosaics concreted into our walls & floors, the flowerbeds, rock-features etc.  That took a lot of getting over so I vowed {although I am recovering & starting now - 5 years later - to invest time/energy/artistic love into our new home now that we finally own one again} that I would restrict my artistic ventures to within the confines of my scrapbook albums so that, whatever happened in South Africa in the future {oh me of little faith - and vast experience - of 3rd world countries} I would be able to pack up & leave & TAKE all my creative outpourings WITH me next time!

5.  Lastly, because I am a fashion designer/merchandiser by profession I am attuned to trend-spotting & love putting lines together.  As I was unable to work here until I naturalised {5 years} I really missed the trend-research/spotting that my job required & the merchandising of fabrics/trims & ultimately garments into cohesive lines.  Scrapbooking is identical to the fashion world with the paper replacing the fabric & the embellishments replacing the trims.  I love online shopping & putting together my stash box every few months, following the CHA releases, etc & it makes me feel that I still have my finger on the fashion pulse.

6.  I get a serious buzz from all things scrapbooking - a natural high - and I just LOVE to do it...and also NEED to do it, I can't really go a week without scrapbooking without feeling like I really need to get back into my studio.  I'm a very introverted, reflective person & need my scrapbooking time to get my balance back on track.  In othe words, it nourishes me. {& is calorie free!  Win/Win!!}

7.  While it definitely has nothing to do with WHY I scrapbook, I LOVE being involved online, with the internet/blogging community & it certainly enhances the whole scrapbooking experience aplenty.

Wow, who knew there were so many reasons why I scrapbook!?  Not even I did!!  So there you have it...now it's your turn...if you take up the challenge let me know & I will come over & have a read & compare notes ;-D  I am certainly going to look forward to coming back to these posts every year & seeing if anything has changed, although as far as the reasons for my scrapbooking go, I think these will probably always remain the same...

10 comments:

Susanne said...

Great blog post; thanks for sharing your motivations. I'll have to give some thought to doing my own. I did copycat Diana's blog post on tools though. Monday's perfect for these types of posts, don't you agree?

Ella Swan said...

Hi again S, sure Mondays are good 'cos we need some time to get our scraprooms sorted ;-D

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

That's interesting!!!

Diana said...

Loved reading this. I think for non-scrapbookers they would shake their heads at the very profound reasons why we addicts love this hobby so much.
Lee Currie also had a nice version of this Q&A on her blog; I think you might like reading it too.
Feeling chuffed that I've inspired so many to do their own versions! Plus I'm enjoying reading everyone else's.

topkatnz said...

So do you think you may try and re-enter the workforce now you can?

Ella Swan said...

Doubt it Heidi - only if we need the money real bad lol! I help out DH a bit & the rest of my days are full, full, full ;-D

Jessy Christopher said...

Wow, you really put alot of thoughtful-interesting thoughts on why you scrapbook and it is really fun to read your reasons!!

Lynette Jacobs said...

So were you relieved of your cooking duties? Those are all great reasons to scrap...and you do it so well.

Ella Swan said...

Hmmmph...no! That's a touchy subject Lynette & I try not to moan on my blog but I can tell you that if someone doesn't pull their weight we are going to be eating take-aways all of next week when he leaves again because I am starting to hate the sight of the oven & the sink!!!

Pearl said...

wow I dont think I've read such an indepth answer to that simple question , hun !!! WTG !!!
& yeah ! I am with you on the ove n& sink bit . I really do have more time to scrap & fuss with the kidlets now that I barely cook ! takeaways are rather convenient/economical on our side of the pond.