This is not the girl you’re looking for

Tucked in the blankets of last year and this year is a new girl.  Birthed out of frustration of what she has been and hope that she could possibly be more, she lays there not quite awake or asleep.

I moved back to my hometown three years ago yesterday. It’s been an experience. The shadows of the talented yet troubled girl I was in High School have followed me as I have tried to resettle. I laugh when people come up to me & say, “Hey, I remember you”. The Nerd in me wants to waive a highlighter infront of their face and say, “This is not the girl you’re looking for”.

I left my hometown one month after High School graduation to live on a college campus. I never came home after that.  That was 17 years ago.

I look a lot like that girl, but I’m not her. I’ve aged, both physically & emotionally.

I am making a goal this year to come to terms with who I was and who I am becoming, all the while emerging from the solace I have hidden in these last 3 years.

Nope, I’m not that girl. I’m this woman, – & that’s okay.

Change=Early Frustration

I have a dark secret. Only a handful close to me suspect that something is perhaps ary. I love photos. Not just puppy love, but rather a I-have-6-boxes-full-of-photos-plus-several-albums type of love. 

Through the outlet of Pinterest, I came upon a concept that at first seemed to be a bit unrealistic: Project Life (http://beckyhiggins.com/about-project-life). I was drawn to the idea of documenting things in an easy-to-share format, but was hesitant to jump on board due to two factors: (1) Cost (2) Size of the Albums

I had to weigh cost a bit. I have been doing traditional scrapbooking for 13 years. I have had my frays of buying tons or not buying at all. I even tried to quit scrapbooking altogether. Quitting didn’t work. I am, unavoidably, a creative woman. 

A Bit of a blessing in the cost department happened during a trip in October to Huntsville, Alabama. While visiting my FAVORITE store, Unclaimed Baggage (http://unclaimedbaggage.com/), I found on a shelf an opened Clementine Edition of the Project life core kit for half-price. For those of you who are not familiar with Unclaimed Baggage, half-price here does not mean half the usual $40.00 cost that you would typically pay for project life core kit. Half-Price there means half of what Unclaimed was selling it for. I left, paying about a 1/4 of the cost of the price.

There was still the concern of the size of the Albums. The Typical Project Life Album is 12×12. I realize that I am a middle class American, but I do not have shelves that hold 12×12 albums. I also do not currently have a coffee table on which to lay such a table. 12×12 was Not going to work in my house hold.

I began to research other possible albums. PL mini albums were prebound, so additional pages could not be added. I wanted the flexibility of a binder album. A Christmas week trip to Hobby Lobby would introduce me to Snap.

Snap (http://simplestories.typepad.com/simple_stories/2012/07/hell.html) albums are 6×8 binder style albums. The sizes are similar to PL, but have a very variances. The larger draw was cost (less than 1/2 that of the PL albums) and simple but cute design. I grabbed a small pack of 6×8 refill pages and was ready to start 2014 as a Hybrid Snap/PL Scrapbooker. 

Problem #1

Today marks 1 full week in PL for me. And I have found my first obstacle. 

Seeing as I live in a RURAL town, my local drugstore or super center does not offer photo sizes smaller than 4×6. I’m going to try to use some photo editing software tonight to see if I am able to print other sizes by creating collages so they could be cut apart. 

I already love being able to pick up my newborn Album & seeing the progression. And I know my Hubbie will be a fan as I work my way back to previous years & finally do something with all these pictures. 

❤ to all.